Board of Education Meeting @ Henry Barnard School 2025

001good evening everyone my name is Aden Brooks I'm the vice president of the Board of Education I'd like to call this meeting to order Madam clerk would you please call the role Mr Miss baros Brooks here Miss Lewis here miss calano Mina here miss Clayton Fernandez here Miss Ross Mr single Mr Vega here Miss Williams a Corum is present thank you colleagues can I have a motion and a second to go immediately into executive session to meet with District Council and discuss the employment history of particular persons which may lead to the employment of a particular person so move Vega and Lou all in favor I post motion carries all right we will hope to be back at 7 o'clock for the Open Session thanks everyone e e e good evening everyone may I have

002a motion in a second to reconvene the public session of this meeting please so moved castano second Ross all in favor I opposed motion carries colleagues will you join me in standing for the Pledge of Allegiance colleagues can I have a motion in a second to accept the minutes of the Board of Education regular meeting held on February 4th 2025 as submitted to the clerk and Secretary of the board of education so to move Clayton fernandz seconda all in favor opposed motion carries colleagues can I have a motion in a second to accept the minutes of the Board of Education Committee of the whole held on February 11 20125 as submitted by the clerk and secretary to the board of education so Ross all in favor opposed motion carries and finally can I have a

003motion in a second to accept the minutes of the Board of Education special meeting held on February 25th 2025 as submitted by the clerk and Secretary of the Board of Education second Ross all in favor I opposed motion carries colleagues do you have any announcements no announcements but I I'll go early this time and say that I got a chance to um witness our students talk about their amazing activities with the green um committee uh last week and so I just want to say congratulations again to all the hard work they're doing it's impacting all of our schools thank you to our facilities director um to make it possible any other announcements uh congratulations to all of the students who competed in the tri States debate competition hosted by Nell's High School this Saturday um

004and a special shout out to Albert Leonard's team who absolutely crushed it it was wonderful to see students using the power of their voice their research skills their argumentative skills Future Leaders are absolutely present in our neurer shell schools congrats any other announcements it's a little early but I'd like to announce that um the high school will be performing Pippen March 20th to 22nd and tickets are on sale if you're into musicals as I am I recommend getting tickets early these tend to sell out and with that I will now turn it over to the superintendent for the superintendent update Dr Reynolds thank you very much vice president barel Brooks good evening to our board members to our community uh who was here uh in person to to our community who might be watching from

005home and for those of you who will be watching at a later date um with all of the accolades already given in relation to our um our debate winners at Albert lonard Middle School we'll talk about that at a future date um we also had some winners from Newall High School uh this weekend at our robotics Club who uh were able to defeat many foes with their Mighty Robots um I wanted to shift gears a little bit and talk a little bit about our our Athletics I'd like to congratulate our boys and girls uh our girls and our boys varsity basketball teams our girls varsity basketball team made it to the class AAA quarterfinals last week where unfortunately let's give them a round of applause thank you unfortunately we were defeated by a strong albertis

006Magnus uh Team on fire uh our our young ladies have a lot to be proud of their coaches have a lot to be proud of parents have a lot to be proud of supporters have a lot to be proud of so congratulations to all of you on a fantastic season our boys varsity basketball team has advanced to the class triaa semifinals which will take place tomorrow at the Westchester County Center at 4:45 p.m. let's give them a round of applause they will battle against the basketball team from Scarsdale um if they're Victorious they will move on to the class AAA championships which will be held on Sunday at 2:30 pm. at the County Center so let's congratulate our hugenots basketball teams together for their second year in a row of advancing into um postseason play

007let's give them a round of applause we welcome everyone to the month of March or more importantly to women's history month now yeah let's a round of applause now somebody asked if we stage certain things right so a couple weeks ago I was asked if we stage a specific question or an answer as it relates to the budget I said no so now that we're in women's history I'm sure somebody's going to ask do we stage how many of our trustees represented tonight are of the female persuasion and I am surrounded by greatness so let's thank our Trustees for being here and representing the Board of Education uh in their glory in these days and times it's imperative that the contributions women have made to society and culture are recognized ized and celebrated before they're

008lost March also recognizes Irish American heritage month so to all of our Irish American community members I say Erin gabra please also be REM please also be reminded that elementary schools will have a half day of school on Monday March 17 not because of Irish American heritage month but they'll have a half day of school for parent teacher conferences all schools will be closed on Tuesday March 18th for superintendent conference day and all offices and schools will be closed on Monday March 31st in celebration of Eid alaer the Muslim holiday that recognizes the end of the season of Ramadan and with that Madame vice president I relinquish the microphone thank you so much we are now going to turn to our discussion items and Dr Reynolds throw it back to you but I will say

009that not only is it an honor to be on the deis with my women colleagues but also to be at a school with two women leaders so I feel like this is an very appropriate way to kick off women's history month so I'm going to ask my board members if uh you would join us down are we supposed to come down yes so if you would join us down in uh the front rows of the auditorium as we prepare pleas please bring your mics please bring your microphones with you and any documents you may need um as we transition down I would like to start off our um presentations this evening tonight we are going to learn a little bit about the magic that happens here at Barnard school or at Henry Barnard school um

010many of you might know that during my tenure as an assistant principal I had the privilege of working in An Early Childhood Program I was the assistant principal of uh firstly a kindergarten first grade and then a pre kindergarten and kindergarten school as a teacher I worked in the kindergarten First Grade School uh so the Early Childhood Program uh in in that type of iteration feels very familiar to me I feel like I'm at home when I'm here at Barnard but not just because of the design of the program more importantly because of the bodies that are here firstly it is refreshing if you've never had an opportunity to have uh uh never had an opportunity to witness Joy Through The Eyes of a very young child as they travel through the hollowed Halls of

011a school and they show their expertise in who they are and what they know this is the place to come to see it um they are actually LED by individuals who help them to navigate through uh the learning the learning pathway uh because as teachers in an early Elementary setting you're never really the adult in the building you're just a facilitator you help them learn who they are right and that is the joy of early Elementary education well we are led by two individuals in this building uh who do that with nothing but heart and I'm going to turn the microphone over to our principal of the Henry Barnard School Michelle Owens and her partner assistant principal Malik eiel okay you also learn how to figure it out on the move and on the Fly

012Right are we all set okay where did Dr Reynolds go okay board president azi we're you're here with us in spirit vice president sparos Brooks and vice president Lewis superintendent Reynolds board trustees nurish Shell community and all friends and family to Barnard welcome home welcome home before I get started I want to take a moment to just acknowledge the building's leadership team I am at the top of the list but I am literally a part of a team I want to stop and acknowledge the reason why this building goes every day my voice cracks but I want to make sure that she has her flowers this building runs because Miss Eiffel runs faster than the building runs so thank you Miss eiel for every single thing you do from the minute we met from the

013moment we met we decided we were a team and that 1 o of sunlight was coming between us and I made it clear she is me and I am her and we never never gone from that okay and that's how we Empower each other and that's how we empower the staff and that's how we have empowered the children it has all started with us so thank you thank you thank you part of the team that we expanded well we expanded the leadership team also because we needed more voices at the table so we invited miss pusi the title only is on to the leadership table we invited M shofer our technology facilitator to the table and we've always had Miss Silverman our instructional coach at the table so all voices were heard all women not

014a coincidence it's not a running theme I just want you to know the goal has been to expand to get voices at the table and to make sure the voices are word okay throughout the presentation you'll hear me say Katie's name um Katie is our instructional Tech our our technology facilitator and sometimes I call her the instructional technology facilitator because her work undergirds the instruction that goes on she watches and she looks at the standards to see where in uh technology can support instruction so there are times I make that mistake but she's back there she needs flowers too so thank you okay and she's sick okay I also want to take a moment to say thank you to every teacher that's here every teacher that's watching every teacher that comes in and is dedicated

015to the children every single day to the taas the lunch monitors to our spe special education aids to the custodians to the everyone everyone that comes into this building every single day comes with the desire to make this building the best it can for the children not for me and not for mle but for the children so I take a moment now to say thank you to everyone that Parks their car at 129 Barner Road for the children all the way down to the occupational therapist so thank you okay okay we here at barard nurture the whole child we want children to leave seeing themselves as Learners that are important members of the community and the world their accomplishments can span lifetimes we also think a lot about the vision we have here and we

016understand that early Learners deserve instruction that is responsive and respectful of their learning Journeys Barnard is committed to our mission and vision statements structures and systems were established to provide a more proactive approach to instruction flexibility has been Paramount and has been a shift for for many but the word responsive is defined as reacting quickly positively and appropriately it's not just academic but socially emotionally and culturally so we believe in these children not as just babies oh they're just babies over there no they are children that are getting ready to be productive members of society and it is for us to start building that bridge for them tonight we're going to spend a little time talking about who we are as Barnard bats I'll mention a little bit about the Strategic road map and how

017it ties into principle two of the cultur responsive and sustaining education work we're doing I'll talk a little bit about cohesion I'll take you on a little journey a journey that the children have gone through with technology I want to also then take a moment to talk about and celebrate Amy greenhouse and then end with my superb staff in the back they are literally getting flowers tonight for tenure okay Barnard is a unique school not because I'm biased because I am but because we not only are we at prek school all of the children other than children placed through the special education department they come in because of either the magnet lottery or through the or through the upk lottery we do not have we are not a neighborhood school and because of that we

018do not control our demographics but we love them who they are what they bring to us and how we're going to send them out so we notice that many of the children are just what do we call them Perfectly Imperfect people right they are a variety of of uh races different genders I don't even think they know right they don't even realize um but each day we see them and we think about how we can deepen their love of themselves and their learning and this charge is given to us us by our mission and vision statement the district strategic road map also gives us Direction in four service buckets student learning superb staff safe supportive staff and connected schools as well as Resource Management each bucket requires its own work but it's interconnected the student

019outcomes arrive when we provide superb staff with support and resources needed to be successful we also think about the culturally responsive and sustaining education that we are providing and that we've adopted from New York state with our welcoming and affirming environment our high expectations and rigorous instruction inclusive uh curriculum and assessments as well as ongoing professional learning today's work will focus on principle two high expectations and rigorous instruction through high expectations we'll offer we offer and engage children in high quality work that helps them set goals for themselves as Learners and sets their mindset in a yet way yet I haven't done it yet I'm going to it's coming we want children to leave with a sense of agency Independence and belonging and it all starts here this you'll every time I stand up here

020you're going to see this slide I'm going to tell you that now this is my favorite slide because it has guided my work everywhere I've gone I believe wholeheartedly in the notion of cohesion intentional and focused Improvement moving away from many things doing many things a little bit at a time but focusing on the things that we have to focus on and really diving in really owning them and then moving things forward because this is a guided guiding principle of mine I also then realize that that growth is happens in smaller increments but it does happen because it is focused and intentional we're not running a race we want children to have a journey of learning we also have to go through a journey of learning but that Journey has to have a direction okay

021tonight we're going to talk about technology before I go into all of this with you I want you to stop and think about your yourselves don't don't acknowledge this but think about whether or not you grew up with a cell phone think about how technology has impacted you in your lifetime did you have a cell phone when you were in prek did your family had to have a phone did you have a DVR did you have a CD player did you have technology in your class in your home and as technology evolved how did you live with it are you able to program your [Music] DVR have you given up these children do not know the days of without a cell phone they don't have a clue and what we are charged with doing is

022giving children opportunities and exposure to technology not even knowing what it's going to look like when they get to the their adult lives the kids now the children now like I'm thinking about my friend in the back there he's got his iPad he doesn't know life without his iPad but do you remember raising your children with iPads okay our journey today with technology will go we we we will share a little bit about technology in prek I'll share a little bit about technology and and physical education I'll move into the educational apps we've been using combined with Legos coding and Robotics and then we're going to talk a little bit about how all of this is fed through professional learning then we'll stop and say thank you to Mrs conell okay before before before I

023even go into even more of this I want you to think about these five things these are the educational design and Technology standards opportunities for accessible and inclusive learning developing fundamental skills because again these are prek through 2 grade children exploring a variety of tools and resources expanding and extending on previously taught Concepts in multiple covert Giller areas continuing to build strong communication and acquiring an appropriately utilizing problem solving skills those are the technology standards that I want you to think about as I share these things with you okay we are an iPad prek school children in prek have access to iPads in their classrooms this allows them to use gray level appropriate instructional support and access and access activities like uh Starfall and other websites they're able to use Mayan which is an online

024library full of fiction and non-fiction text we I say this to you not to say that children are swiping because kids are great at swiping but they see the iPad as an instructional tool and not just a swiping thing that they plug in and they unplug to use when Mommy is busy they see it as a resource we've also experienced some learning professional learning in that but I'll share that later on we also have given children opportunities to use keyos this next level experience is Hands-On and it's a robot that the children use where they scan barcodes and this this machine this coded machine follows the barcodes children learn in Pre the notion of turning left turning right positions left forward sequencing all of these the foundational skills start as they build themselves in perspective

025with these robots so again this happens in 3K we also have ozobots ozobots are we have shared class sets of them they are small robots that are programmed to follow with black blue red and green lines the ozobot scan over lines and read colors so now here we are with prek fan children that are learning colors and they're actually programming ozobots to Mo okay so I'm going to stop there because I've talked a lot Miss Eiffel has some ozobots for you to try so take a moment all you have to do is program an ozobot with a marker the directions are there you can try it out decide where you want your ozobot to go using a green a black a red or a blue marker once you decide on where your ozobot is going

026turn it on and see if it will follow your direction for everyone else in the room they're trying it out if you'd like to try it out come and hang out with us and we'll share with you so you have to decide on where your ozobot is going I don't think you can have any gaps you have to decide this so as children are are deciding on where their ozobot is going they have to think about how wide a line they need to build uh make they have to think about a a grid the trustees are using a grid and they're deciding on where the ozobots are going based on this grid as you can see in the picture there the children make the decisions they think about right left how many boxes forward how

027many boxes and then make a write how many boxes all of these foundational skills are happening in prek K and there's nothing like an a robot that will do everything you ask it to do did you get it you got it now imagine being forign doing [Laughter] that so this is happening in prek right I'm going to keep going where's Mark there's mark okay when we think about resources and spaces that provide opportunities for enriched learning the gym has become another great space we purchased a Smartboard for use in the gym thinking about how it could not only provide the ability for us to have faculty meetings but could actually support Mr Cohen's instruction we did not want a Smartboard that would just be a projection system but one that could help with showing and

028modeling exercises so that Mr Cohen could support the children think of think of being in a step class this is the best thing I can think of you know how the the woman's in the front she's doing all the stuff you know and everyone's trying to follow her but the teacher never goes out and supports the child the student or the person doing the step class with feedback maybe if you do it this way or if you do it that way the teacher stay stays in one spot and just kind of yells out to everyone and the students just kind of follow along and after maybe 900 times they'll get it but maybe it would be 899 times as opposed to 900 times if the teacher could go over to the the student and say

029try it this way that tool in the gym has actually supported the physical education instruction because Mr Cohen can look at can teach Fitness Concepts the children can see them in action and as they're working he can literally support them in the moment so it's not just a watch a movie and let's call it a day this example that's coming up that I'll share is just that and he's used it for uh even bike safety Goa e thank you Mark also thank you Katie because Katie and Mark have had coaching moments through the Smartboard it was a beautiful opportunity for a professional inquiry Mark jumped on it Katie was there to support him and it I never said Mark go and do it Mark Mark was ready and when Mark was ready Katie was there

030for Mark and it just grew so thank you for the professionalism and the openness to try okay we also use our Chromebooks for research in the upper grades the children use have excuse me excuse me we use apps like Pebble go we use world book branica and Gail to collect facts and information and then we actually do create representations of our learning through canva through PowerPoint and anything that will give us the opportunity to show what we know this was a fish and then one of the kids put a speech bubble and I can't see what it says but again I think that's Miss Bailey's class there I think Miss ba did I see Miss Bailey here's Miss Bailey hi Miss Bailey so this is an opportunity for research hanva is another tool we've embraced

031during our November professional learning uh our professional learning day in uh November again Katie provided professional learning on canva and the opportunities it provides to CH to students and to the teachers what came out of it was this beautiful and I don't say it because I'm biased but I am this this notion of creating avatars the children were concerned and we were concerned about privacy and but we wanted the children to be able to share their learning so the children created avatars has anyone created an avatar okay those avatars became the reporters as the children shared what they knew again in Miss Bailey's class so roll it I like to swim the the news one can round of a FL of Applause for Travis thanks Travis every year he's like super man e e e

032expain she was explaining fairly new pits to meet the needs of our preaching through second grade students throughout the school year from build my emotion providing students the means to show how they're feeling to story tales a set that allows students to create the backdrop and characters of their story to steam Park where the where early Learners have a chance to build with gears and motion measurement and can solve problems together they have access to building and growing and making things with their imaginations and with structures here are some some other examples of making things move we've been able to introduce our students to Computer Sciences through coding and Robotics we've used code.org and use the Legos to support this endeavor students in second grade are using it and they will bring that learning to

033their new schools I think my colleague Michael mentioned this um during his board presentation about the through line of technology that starts here and moves forward it is a complete coincidence that we have all highlighted or many of us have highlighted technology but it is a true acknowledgement of the fact that we are moving into a an era where we have to understand the devices that we have their capabilities and also be able to discern that the what information it gives back to us and how we can really use it um to make smart decisions so I have it's it's it's been completely coincidental but I also ask that you take I ask that you take from this this notion of the through line of technology and how it really has started at Barnard with

034foundational work and again here are those opportunities that I mentioned the developing of the fundamental skills the tools um the communication and all of those things but I have to say that it only comes because we've spent time with professional learning here you see teachers with their hands on with the Legos and they I believe they had the the ferris wheel was moving Miss Eiffel was in there with them Eiffel and on the right the teachers in prek were unboxing their new iPads and learning about how they can teach the children how to look in their environments and see a simple thing and look at it so if I look at the wall I see shapes I can take a picture of this wall and I can find 10 squares so something as basic and

035foundational to us is a big deal to everyone else it's kind of like yeah they're kind of young but to us it is the beginning of their learning and we are exploring all of those things with them and as we grow we provide more opportunities for the children a special opportunity that the children have had in I'm going to Pivot for a moment has been the greenhouse and I want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone in who has really worked really hard on the greenhouse since its Inception um Amy odari was family to Barnard through grace through Geraldine Miss Davey and when she passed when when Amy perished in 911 it really became um a a passion for all of us in the community to support that loss and we have

036really worked with the greenhouse throughout the years and we are going to take the time now to really push that work into the green team work and really Mel meld where we need to go with where we've been honoring Amy's memory but also moving into the future with the greenhouse so you'll see new things coming from there so I want to take a moment now to say thank you to Millie and to Kathleen to Geraldine to every everyone who has had any input whatsoever with the greenhouse from purchasing a brick to supporting through donations a book or anything I say thank you and there's more to come finally This is the part when I think about my work here I think about how again superb staff makes this building go right whether I'm here or

037not whether Mel is here or not the superb staff is what keeps this building running the superb staff we're honoring tonight I believe the RO U mazang isn't here with us and Mrs Rogan isn't but I'd like to take a moment to just you know a couple of sentences about the three ladies that are here and then ask them to come up because they deserve their flowers too so I'll start with Miss lce at the top right Miss lce is our one of our enl teachers I'm glad she's here I know I made a mistake with a date I was oops made a mistake I'm glad she's here miss lce cares so much about the children and her care she supports the enl Learners not just with acquiring language but also with their skills she

038thinks about what they needs and she advocates for them in Reading settings in Lear learning settings she'll touch base with teachers to see what else can be done to support the Learners and she also works with the instructional support office to make sure that everything that the children need is provided to them so thank you Mrs lce come on up ma'am it's time for your acknowledgement for tenure thank you for all you do I'm going to go into the middle now Mrs defabio where are you ma'am Mrs defabio is a woman of few words but many actions Mrs defabio received the a sepa Award with Mrs Bailey last year for all of her wonderful work and all she said was thank you but that shows you that shows you who she is right she is

039a woman of Great Character a woman who cares deeply from making sure our harness is on properly even though that's one of the worst things we have to think about to making sure that every child in her care is safe from the minute they walk in um we have a new learner that came in who who is now with us and I'll get him out of the car and I'll I'm talking to her about how independent and he is and how he just marches in in the beginning he wasn't marching in now he's Marching In and happy why because he's going to miss the fabos room that there are no words for that thank you for that I am honored to give you to celebrate your tenure with you tonight come on over ma'am you

040don't have to say anything you just need your flowers finally Miss Mrs travo School social worker I can't tell you what she did before she got here or before I got here but I can tell you what she does every day team here I come to work with superb staff you you you have it's like it's a marriage right there are days when you're like oh and there are days where that ring is really tight on your finger and you're just like oh my goodness through the hard and through the easy Mrs travaso has remained steadfast right when children are having moments on the floor and we're waiting for them to come out of those moments she's waiting too and what will she say and I've heard her say it you we love you so

041through it all she's validating their feelings and when things are hard and when children are telling her that they are having a hard time her first response to them and not in a fake way in a truly authentic way is we love you thank you Mrs TR so come on up and there's something to running towards the crisis right when you hear team you know someone needs some support and you're running to the crisis there's a special art to that so thank you Mrs Z couldn't be with us tonight but I do want to acknowledge her the artwork that she produces with the children is topnotch and we always watch to see what display is coming out and we learn a lot from from all of the work that she displays with all of the

042work she displays and I want to take a moment now to say I don't know if she's watching thank you Mrs zong for every marker cap that you popped back on thank you for every colored pencil that you Sharp thank you for cutting out every hand overhand cutting that you've done for any child who needed their turkey cut out the right way thank you for every moment that you've given every child so that they could sharpen their occupational skills and their hand motor simply with by spending time with you with learning and growing so thank you Mrs Z and finally Mrs bro works in the cpsc office thank you for all you do Mrs Brogan she chairs the cpsc and the csse meetings Miss Fred is there thank you for having hard conversations helping families

043uh move in the in the directions they need to go in and doing it with such Grace and care so thank you Mrs Brogan I'm not sure if you're watching but if you are flowers to you too thank you thank you very much that's it I'm here for pictures questions and thank you thank you thank you questions thank you Miss Owens thank you to the team for a wonderful presentation and congratulations to the folks who just were honored for receiving kenure that I'd love to turn it over to my colleagues for questions say um again congratulations and thank you for sharing all the ti that you did um I particularly enjoy the the bike riding safety lesson um I myself were taught on the sidewalk of and man F tree so I could have used

044your class so I think just small things learning how to even plant a garden you have to be patient right you have to wait for the flower to bloom you have to learn how to water it it's overwat I have a bit of AUM really appreciate that part so just thank you for sharing really tangible examples um I think for our little ones we forget that the small things are big so um and this like my favorite right now it's it's it's a toy to us but to them it is something they can control and it's tangible it's interesting even our perspective so yes you're right thank you hi I just wanted to say that you know when you think back to your Early Education um these are the years you remember until you're well

045until your until you can't remember anymore these are the in that are lasting and I think in a unique environment where all the children are seen heard um active loved um it's invaluable it's Timeless and it's absolutely precious so I say you know to the teachers who receed their tenure and the parents that are here and your staff all of you are just it's it's your goal thank you for being that kind kind of Li to the community and very briefly I just wanted to comment on the art and literacy throughout every inch of this building even right when you walk in you see it immediately and you see students have written their own affirmations on the walls and it's so powerful you know one that really stood out to me it says I'm handsome

046yes you are and you're smart right and we want our students and our staff and their families to feel that sense of self and even being in the library the book choices a reflection of our students and of the rich cultures in our community and it's just such a warm welcoming safe and loving family and so thank you for welcoming us to your home and that truly is how it feels and those values and that love are my wish for every grade even high school and Beyond every student deserves to feel that love and connection thank you for your leadership sometimes I don't know what they'll learn I don't know what they'll learn from me but I know how I want they I I know how I want them to feel about how I've made

047them feel so I don't know if they've learned everything I've wanted them to learn but I want them to remember that they are valued and loved and we remind them about that every single day and that's why that affirmation will remain up there every day you are here we love you we are happy you are here you are beautiful you are handsome and you are important to us your voice matters thank you thank thank you all so much and it's been a pleasure to be here and I think with that we're done with our questions so I would like to formally thank um Miss Owens Miss Eiffel to the faculty and staff to the parents of Henry barard school um to all of the adults [Music] who add to the life of the students and

048the children who are here um when you think about you know the word kindergarten it's about growing children you know the word Garden is the the German word for garden literally um that is what the Early Childhood Center is all about and uh there's a saying and I'm probably going to butcher it but it says something along the lines of you know a person may never remember what you said to them or what you did for them but they will remember how you made them feel um when you walk into this building the reason why I opened up with the word heart is because you feel the heart in education in this building and more importantly something that would share tonight that I'm going to hold on to is that perfect imperfection when I talked

049about the adults in this building not really being the teachers as we see um or if we think about in an early child Hood setting of being the facilitators because I said that because our children are learning a pathway to becoming becoming what we don't know and often times we learn from children more than they learn from us on this great level so I want to thank all of you for setting that path creating that environment allowing our students to grow and to be nourished and to flourish because it is this basis that creates the pathway and the picture of who they will become in the future so thank you very much for that and for sharing about your building with us tonight thank you so usually this is where we lose people the presentation

050is over for Barnard school when we are now going to turn our attention uh to the next step steps in our discovery about our budget for the district um this evening I wanted to begin our presentation by reading a statement and last week you may have seen thank you the interplay of me working with my colleagues assistant superintendent for business Mr Carlos Leal and business administrator Miss Joy Mike this evening I'm going to begin by reading a statement to help to reiterate exactly where we are in our budget Discovery and also to give some additional information based on some questions we received last week and between the time of our last meeting and this evening um it is important that you continue to communicate with us um through the different avenues that we will list

051at the end of this presentation um because we want the community to know that we incorporate the responses to your questions into our presentation so we're able to answer your questions in a whole group setting to the community so tonight's budget update is a continuation of our presentation at last week's meeting last week I delivered a dire presentation unfortunately our reality has not changed we continue to advocate for adding funding but we are planning for what where we are now and what we now know we continue to Advocate with our state lawmakers and asked them to Advocate on our behalf in Albany last year when we were creating the budget for this school year we recognize that our financial and fiscal constraints would affect us for several years to come however the fiscal cliff arrived

052sooner and more severely than we anticipated the corrective actions we take now must be long-term and not band aid fixes we are faced with a 20.2 million hole in our budget to fill you may wonder how we got here well we delayed a district-wide programmatic review and adjustment during the covid pandemic in order to support the mental and emotional needs of our students which rose to an unprecedented level during the pandemic we hired approximately 20 additional clinicians counselors and social workers and added them to our general budget once the grant funds fully expired our history of not taking the maximum allowable amount of tax levies in past years years has us now asking the board to adopt a 3.95% tax levy increase which exceeds the tax cap and will require a 60% major majority approval

053vote for the budget to pass our plan to save on Transportation costs was not implemented last year exacerbating our current financial situation skyrocketing transportation and health insurance premiums and increased retireyourrisk million our recent year-to-year overall increased state 8 amounts have ranged from almost $3 million to more than $16 million even with the proposed $1.3 million hold harmless money this year the amount of state aid the district will net will be just under $378,000 in addition we must also plan for the possibility of losing students to a new new charter school this fall our plan for the future in order to talk about our future we must start with what we've done in the past as a first step in address in addressing the anticipated fiscal cliff last year we implemented a districtwide 20% reduction in

054discretionary spending that reduction is also maintained this year our operating goal in budget in building this budget to the best of our abilities is to attempt not to touch those instructional and programmatic offerings that are front facing to our students and in particular maintain our core instructional programming despite a decrease of approximately 1,000 students over the past 10 years the need for more robust student support has only grown in response by leveraging available GR opportunities we increased our team of mental health professionals as stated before these positions are now funded through our general budget ensuring ongoing support for our students however the decrease in student population has resulted in varying classroom sizes across our district that is why we will rebalance our class sizes some classrooms may see a slight increase in the number of

055students students but we attest will remain within our optimal student teacher ratios this would will enable us to reduce our Workforce but while maintaining Equitable access to resources and a familiar learning experience for students across the district special education classrooms must be noted are mandated by law and will remain unchanged our Transportation plan that would have saved at least $2.5 million annually now must be implemented in addition to seeking a 3.95% tax levy increase the same percentage voters approved last year we will alter the elementary school bell schedule so our contracted buses can complete two runs daily and reduce the number of buses bus drivers and monitors by up to have we are in a conversation with our before and after school service providers regarding the viability of having their programs shift with our new

056schedule to support our families we will also reduce the contracted Services we use and re-evaluate our districtwide overtime cost for additional saving opportunities effective immediately we are freezing all hiring and certification areas and positions that that are targeted for Workforce reduction we will continue to hire for vacated positions that require Replacements unfortunately we will need to reduce our Workforce by as many as 200 positions these reductions will be across the district and across professions including administrators teachers clinicians custodians Civil Service trade workers monitors and security staff we value our people and regret that this will affect their livelihoods and Futures we vow to notify impacted colleagues as early as possible and to support them as they transition to new employment these are our colleagues these are our friends and we will all be greatly affected

057we don't speak lightly about eliminating positions but it is our unfortunate reality it must be noted that should the district be in a position to restore any of those position uh reduced positions in the future any employee who may be laid off next year has first legal rights to be reinstated to those positions for up to seven years our human resources department is tasked with maintaining a preferred eligibility list of employees who will be reinstated to a vacancy in an appropriate position in the order of the original appointments I want to be clear the 200 positions is a middle number the 200 positions is a middle number even if we received additional State funding we would still have to ask voters to approve a 3.95% tax Lev increase in order to minimize the cuts the

058best case scenario is that additional State funding on top of a 3.9% tax cap Levy increase would decrease the amount of positions that we will have to eliminate in our estimation in all of our scenarios and if in all of our um forecasting there is no scenario under which we do not reduce positions any Restorations will be prioritized by those most front-facing to our students should our budget not pass it will equate to an additional reduction of positions and after that if that budget should not pass we will go to contingency budget there potentially adding an additional $10 million to the $20 million de deficit last week we were asked what percentage would be needed to maintain this year's programming for our students with no changes or reductions in force the answer is that we

059would have to ask the community for an astronomical 12.53% tax levy increase and we know that is untenable that is why we must reduce the workforce to better balance the budget we're going to walk down Discovery some of it may sound familiar if you were with us last week for a presentation others part other parts of it will introduce some more clarity to the numbers in certain functions as it relates to our budget being led by um our assistant superintendent Carlos leel and our business administrator Miss Joy Mike we will be introduced to those numbers in those scenarios in this presentation and we will then follow up with questions and answers so I'll turn it over now to Carlos uh thank you Dr Reynolds good evening if I may I'll just jump right in um

060the first few slides will just be a repeat of the conversations we've had um and you'll notice here that we're now focusing specifically on the budget snapshot so we've given the overview but we'll continue to do that this evening and then we're going to pause to kind of start to unpack by function code uh the budget snapshot on the operational side so again all that we are doing and have done are in service to our vision mission and Equity Vision aligned to our strategic road map in areas focusing on student learning understanding the impact of our staff trying to maintain a safe supportive and connected school and the best utilization of our resources available the key factors that were shared previously um and that also highlights our current scenario is that we moving forward need

061to focus on on a different Transportation model which is staggering the elementary school schedule and then keeping in mind that we do have some Capital priorities that we want to move forward with uh more specifically um ensuring that the focus on health and safety improvements continue and then the proposed purchase of property adjacent to the high school for that $ one doll from the city of New R show and then all in all the prioritizing realigning restructuring and the reassigning of resources to meet the district needs and we'll highlight that throughout this presentation as discussed previously our current scenario uh the proposed is a tax levy increase of 3.95% um and I need to make note there that that does require a 60% voter approval as it is an override and the balance expenditure and

062the revenue number has to equal and so that in total is 359,000 000 reduction in force and realignment of instructional programming um are part of the formula in which to provide to you a balanced budget that would close the budget of 20, 216,303 from 2020 to 2024 and I'll reiterate that over the covid-19 um resulted in a delay of our district-wide programming review so in looking back at all of the expenditures there was a time when our community needed to have a conversation which was going to force that conversation in 1920 but covid happened and so because of that we didn't get to engage in that dialogue regarding our programming as a community so here we are Co has now come and gone and we find ourselves back in that same place um so this

063is a discussion that needed to happen and here we are the expanded Grant funds over that time which include the Esser dollars gear dollars uh 611 carryover Monies equated to about 25.8 million over the multiple years they're choosing not to seek the maximum tax increase um is $7.8 million of Revenue that we did not receive nor can we go back and request also the increased Transportation cost which we all know about um around 9.9 million unrealized opportunities for transportation savings that Dr Reynolds just mentioned about $2.5 million annually which is why we are asking to do that this year or moving forward or need to should I say the reuse the use of Reserve funds and then the use of appropriated fund balance to bridge the budget gap which is 17.5 million and 9 million

064of that 17.5 was in 1819 which was the year before we needed to have that deep Community conversation in 1920 that we didn't get to have because of covid and then of course health insurance premium have increased around $9.8 million in addition to um or more context regarding how we got here our current additional Financial constraints though budgeted for students who are attending this charter school that will be coming into our community we need to set aside $ 1.9 million do for that endeavor the increase of pilot Revenue the payments in Lee of taxes and then the executive budget State or the proposed increase via the executive budget um is only $377,000 for this particular school year and if you look back the increase was 16 million the year before that and 8 million the

065year before that and I believe I've shared the astonishment when we received our number that it was not even close to what we have had received in the past and then we're bringing this back uh from I believe our first and second presentation which is some of the variables uh for all of us to keep in mind which are that the New York State teacher retirement sister rate uh has decreased 11 uh percent the New York State local retirement system rate what has an increase of 1.3% and then the anticipated health insurance plan rates have also increased so it's 7.5 to 10% for active employees and 0.5% to 10% for those um retirees liability and other insurance rates continue to increase we've had that conversation as well for some time utilities contines to fluctuate and

066increase and then we have obligations for our collective bargaining agreements and then again Transportation other contract will know increases which is usually this the Consumer Price index dollar amount that is added onto that previous contract so the CPI all that being said again we are required to provide you a balanced budget and so hence the the balance here of revenues and expenditure so I'll just quickly review what we've shared um in the previous presentations again the state summary Foundation Aid in the previous year and um I highlight we highlighted in the yellow um was 7 7 million roughly $7 million to 2526 which is on the far right uh at $1.3 million then the expense based Aid if you follow along on the second row the blue line and under the category of actual 2425

067state aid which was 22 million there's a decrease for us this coming school year instructional material Aid again underneath the heading of actual 2425 state aid is 1, 52768 and there was a slight increase of 6,99 then overall overall operating um Aid no change and then the total expenditures so the actual state aid that we received for 2425 was 9, 53974 one if you look across to the 2526 uh dollar increase it is only we only net 377,000 which is significant so you add that to the original OMG how do we get here um it just compounds previously I did mention in the how we got here where the tax levy dollars that we did not collect and so just to kind of highlight those again um that is $7.8 million again that we cannot

068go back and ask for so that brings us to the tax um cap calculation which Joy has done a fantastic job of of highlighting and explaining which is what a lot of folks in the community were asking for so I'll just briefly reiterate those so the tax cap calculations somebody the property tax cap before exclusions um and then the prior year tax levy tax-based growth factor is then considered and multiply the prior year Pilots so if you notice here someone did ask a question about how much did our Pilots changing so you can see the difference between uh 2025 and 2026 allowable Capital exclusions from the previous year then the allowable Levy growth factor of CPI or the 2% which is the the cap that most people hear and um assume then that the tax

069levy has to be that the allowable carry over for 2024 there was U none and then the total tax limit of before exclusions so that equates 220 m657 48 and then you have to then move to the exclusions so the capital tax levy for the current school year and joy I know I'm doing the best I can here this is your expertise um the maximum allowable tax levy was 232 milon 356 332 and then the maximum uh percent increase um through via the calculation would be 33% that would not net us enough to operationalize um and so the actual tax levy of 240 m741 19929 um and so we are proposing the actual proposed percentage increase of a tax levy increase of 3.95% proposed this the revenue summary I'll provide you the revenue summary as

070well um and in this case if we were to Pro moving forward with the board's approval with the tax Lev increase of 3.95% the real property tax if you follow that uh row across um under the percent change the increase and I'm working myself backwards so under the title The 25 2026 draft budget would we would be able to receive a revenue of 24, 129 the pilots again I want to highlight that because again that was a question is what is the difference in Pilot from year to year so that is around a $2 million increase in the pilot but the revenue for 2526 would be 6, 9,276 or a change of 47 uh. 24% non-property tax items of 5,400,000 charges for services 4,300,000 miscellaneous 1, 365,000 and then our state aid for 2526 would

071be 9, 9698 um a slight increase and then other state aid you'll begin to see some negative numbers there and the inter fund transfer from reserves and so that would bring us to a budget draft of a budget of 39,46 a597 which is an increase of 11, 98098 and the percent change would be 34 3.45% the 3.45% is the change it is not the tax levy increase okay just want to be clear that so in our proposed actions which we mentioned last week they include again our request for a tax Ley increase 3.95% reduce contracted Services which is for um multiple things that we are doing that we believe we can do inhouse because we have the expertise in which to do so evaluate and reduce overtime expenses Stager their bell schedule balance the class

072size ratios districtwide as Dr Reynolds mentioned and then reduce district-wide Workforce up to 200 positions again this slide was presented last week this is the um bell schedule with having Davis Ward and Trinity uh start their day at 8:00 a. and then end at 3M Webster Barnard Columbus and Jefferson starting their day at 8:45 a. and ending at 3:45 p.m. so you've seen these two slides and what we've added here um are the Thematic questions that have come in via the emails um or calls to the office and so the first is why were Davis Trinity and Wards selected as the early schools and I'll this so determining which schools were chosen as the first run schools was based on the number of buses needed for each tier the number of buses to transport students

073to Davis Trinity and Ward requires more than the number of buses used to transport to Webster Columbus Jefferson Barnard and some of our other District routes combined had the choice of schools for tiering been reversed the plan would not accommodate two pickups and drop offs while resulting in increased cost it really is just that um why do some buses look empty when observed um on their runs all buses are currently maximized once a seat has been allocated to a student that seat must be maintained for the extent of the Year while the student is enrolled in school and the transportation to and from the same address even if the student elects not to ride the bus this includes specialized transportation for for students who have unique needs when a bus is observed by a Community

074member most likely that very few students may be on the bus toward the start or of in the run or in the morning or toward the end of the run in the afternoon and why do some buses with students pass um a school on their way to another school was something that was asked of us well due to the programming placement of students in Kaleidoscope magnets special education Lincoln Zone um attendance Zone um students schools selection some students do not attend their neighborhood schools and so you that's why you may see some buses passing to school with um other students headed to another campus class size ranges for elementary also shared this with the community last week um on the far left you have the grades the center column is the 2425 uh averages currently

075and then in 2526 the ranges by which we will be working keeping in mind that we mentioned that our goal is to work at the lower end of that range at the secondary level you'll see the courses on your leftand side um in 2425 the current ranges that are in are current seats now and then for 25 26 what the goal is in terms of the highend of that class size and so here we also receive some questions and so here are two uh that were also thematic in nature will all classes automatically be maxed no what is being presented shows a range of minimum and maximum numbers of students in a particular class for the purposes of budgeting not all classes across the district are currently projected to operate next year at the higher

076end of the range and I'll give you an example Below in 2425 grade five classrooms currently have about 20 students in them that is the current average in fifth grade in 2025 2026 grade five will have a range of 22 to 26 students um in them so what is happening in this class size in this case for the purposes of budgeting the district will be using the higher end of the range which in this case is 26 for programmatic purposes the lower end of the range will be used currently for 2526 the current projections is 22 students per in every fifth grade across the system that is currently the projected number so again the range the lower end is the operational what we planning to work at um keeping in mind that for budgeting purposes

077we're using the the higher end of the range okay um and then we share the 200 positions but to start to talk about uh those and please keep in mind we are not sharing specific titles um because we do not want to identify individuals because things could change we could receive a windfall tomorrow um and we do not want to create undo R but that being said if you look at these categorically these position reductions with a snapshot here on the left is the position category which were shared previously the 2425 positions the total number of of FTE or a full-time equivalent when I say FTE um number in that category the proposed reduction for 2526 and then what the percent reduction would be in the first category of building instructional staff which includes teachers

078teacher assistants counselors and clinicians we currently have 1,168 FTE proposing a reduction of 111 or a 99.5% reduction the second is building administrators principles assistant principles house principles Deans and Department chairs currently we have 39 in that category and proposing a reduction of two or 5.1% building operations and support which include clerical support custodians Food Service staff lunch monitors registered nurses teachers AIDS and security we currently have 491 FTE and we are proposing a reduction of 48 or 99.8% District administrators these are non-b building based administrators assistant superintendent executive directors assistant directors supervisors coordinators and Consultants currently have 42 and proposing a reduction of seven or 16.7% reduction in that category and then District Operational Support clerical support finance and HR Support labors technology and trade workers we currently have 152 FTE in this category

079with a proposed reduction of 25 or 16.4% the total is 1,892 um positions with propos redu proposed reduction of 194 of those positions which equates to 10.2% I did I not say 183 I apologize 193 uh with a reduction of 10.2% so at this point I'll pass this uh to Joy so she can provide the snapshot um on the administrative side of the function notes thank you good evening okay so this evening I will provide a snapshot of a couple of functional areas within the district we will review Administration facilities sorry need to actually see it I can't read that Administration facilities technology transportation and security and so the first slide um is for administration specifically every area of our or district is organized into a function area that aligns with New York State accounting

080standards for school districts and So within each of these function areas they will include salaries overtime supplies Contra Contract Services or and Bose services so when you look at a function area it will include all of those categories so beginning with the Board of Education District Clerk and District meeting Chief School administrator the business administration auditing Treasurer purchasing Fiscal Agent fees Legal Services Personnel Public Information Services unallocated Insurance School association dues judgments and claims assessments on school property refund on property taxes FES administrative costs and capital costs all uh combined for administration so in the first the far left column you'll see the function code I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this but I'll try uh then the description that I've just sort of listed that First Column of numbers

081is the 2526 proposed budget the column to the immediate right of that is the 2425 adopted budget that is our current year budget and then the far two right columns the first is the dollar change and then the percent change so again just to reiterate these areas will include salary overtime supplies contractual services and bosy services as part of the function So within uh Administration there is an overall increase of 5.45% going from 12, 26,000 to 12,719 th000 so Within These numbers there is a reallocation of Bose's expenses for an election management system there's an overall decrease in our hourly Staffing and overtime allocations there's also a decrease of one District administrator there's an increase for fiscal advisor fees and borrowing fees there's an additional increase for schoolfront software an employee assistance program that is

082utilized within the district that was recoded from the benefits line where it was coded in previous years into the Personnel line there's also an increase for an improved communication software uh increase for liability and other insurance costs which has been um the trend for the past couple of years and also the salary increases embedded within each function area do align to existing collective bargaining agreements so again overall Administration for the function codes shown is a 5.45% increase the next half of of what we will discuss tonight is the snapshat of facilities security technology and transportation it's the same format as um in the previous slide this will include um all of our staff for operations within the district so beginning with operations of plan and maintenance of plant both of those are within our facilities

083Department then you have security of plant which Security Central Printing and mailing and Central data processing you have computer assisted instruction District transportation contract transportation and public carrier transportation from bosis students that are enrolled in one of those campuses is and then transfer to Capital so again the First Column is the function code then description first set of numbers is the proposed budget for 2526 next to the adopted budget for our current year you'll note that the current adopted budget is 57.7 million and the proposed budget for 2526 is 64 million uh 69,000 the dollar change of 6.2 million in an overall percent increase of 10.87% within this function area there is an increase for goaly services for data processing and also for um administrative oh that was in the previous slide sorry uh there

084is a decrease for hourly Staffing allocation across these function areas there's a decrease of one District administrator and there's a reduction of 22 operations and support positions those position s include clerical finance and Human Resources laborers Technology support and trades workers there's an increase for contractual Transportation expenses as Mr leel mentioned that contract is tied to Consumer Price Index there's also a decrease for public carrier trans uh Transportation expenses which is basically the beline and that's based on actual writers ship and then there is a shift of our 2526 facilities Capital expenses from the capital reserve if you recall the budget process last year we utilize the capital reserve for districtwide projects as well as to allocate money towards um the repair of the pool and then lastly again the salary increases are aligned to

085existing collective bargaining agreements the next slide really details as we did last year as well projects that were requested districtwide in every school building and um as well as City Hall uh the focus really being on uh Safety and Security of our students and staff and um so there are a number of projects that were submitted through the budget development process and um that has been reviewed multiple times to sort of come up with a list of projects that we believe are feasible to complete next year um for the benefit of our our students and staff and so you can see the list there beginning with Albert Leonard and Athletics and ending with Ward and City Hall in addition there will be a proposition put before the voters for the purchase of property around Nell

086high school that does require voter approval um there is an existing plan in place to purchase that property from what for $1 from the city of Nelle um so that will be proposition number two going forward and with that I am going to turn this back over to Mr Leo to discuss the summary so the proposed tax levy summary that continue um and start to kind of summarize all that we discussed this evening the proposed tax levy increases 3.95% which equates to 240 m741 n29 so the tax levy increase would be 9,1 147,50 per. the projected tax rate per 1,000 assessed value um is projected at $914 or an increase of $342 the average new relle home assessed at 16,000 and we received this from the city accessor office assessor office excuse me would have

087an annual increase of of $548 eight or a monthly increase of $456 again moving forward this would require 60% voter approval and this is for illustration purposes because we do recognize that um the assess value does change in additional in addition um moving forward uh just summarize we've already shared these but again we want to just make sure that uh we reiterate that the pro the proposed actions on our part are to request the same tax levy increase reduce contractual Services wherever possible evaluate and reduce overtime expenses districtwide stagger the bell schedule for elementary schools balance class size ratios districtwide and reduce the workforce by up to 200 positions and then looking Beyond this budget realign our practices and potentially shift the timelines of the Strategic road map as we as we adjust commit to

088long range Financial forecasting so that we don't find ourselves here or if if this is our scenario we know way in advance and so we are not caught off guard as a community and then programmatic review of districtwide in terms of the budget vote details if the proposed budget passes on May 20th um by 60% majority the enacted budget is effective on July 1 2025 if the proposed budget is defeated we may resubmit the defeated budget allowing enough time for legal notices so basically we resubmit our budget or submit a revised budget allowing enough time for legal notices and conduct a revote on June 17 2025 or adopt a contingency budget if the revised budget is defeated the Boe must adopt a contingency budget the contingency budget limits the school district to the amount of

089the previous tax year Levy amount of 231 million 67 pleasee note that the K budget limits the school district to the amount of the previous year as as I just mentioned and additional budgeting expenses anticipated ated in June 2025 need to be taken into account what we added onto the budget activities just so uh to highlight a note because someone did ask for some clarity on the location of future meetings we we are committed to ongoing communication and thank you for those who have already sent questions and comments via email um or have called uh we're we continue that dialogue we are again the transportation planning uh finding as many as efficiencies as possible construction renovation planning um is moving forward and then looking ahead our next Gathering would be March 11th um at City

090Hall um at the next board meeting the budget will be adopted um or hopefully we can continue to move forward um on March 20th and that would be at Davis Elementary School the budget hearing is on May 6 2025 at the new at new Rell High school and that location may change but it will be at the high school um and in the budget vote um on May 20th to the community districtwide holding locations um some of the U emails many of them actually that came through were asking how can uh we Advocate and so our response was to go to our budget page and on the budget page itself is a link um where you could find how to contact our legislators um in support of additional funding so uh we did redirect quite

091a few folks there and of course we continue to ask for input and feedback again you can speak at a board meeting send the email to the budget questions at nred learn.org and of course attend any meeting watch the meetings the streams the streaming of them um and continue in U in our community dialogue some people may wonder why it is that we take the approach of presenting the same information multiple times in our presentation we want you to start to internalize what it is that we're sharing with you we want the community to be able to have indepth and accurate conversations among yourselves as you Ponder whether you're going to support or not support whatever the adopted budget is also I you know being an early Elementary educator I like to speak through allegories

092um and stories um and you may wonder you know this really doesn't make sense how did we get here all of a sudden and the best way for me to try to explain it to you is think about how much money you spent annually on eggs last year if you budgeted that same amount to purchase purchase eggs this year you would be in a heap of trouble that's as plainly as I can explain why we are where we are I acknowledge that the burden of the responsibility in budget is falling on our citizens and taxpayers we do not take that for granted and we do not take that lightly in addition it must be noted that our Workforce which also includes residents of Our Fair City will be greatly affected by up by our upcoming

093budget it is my our Collective responsibility to present a balanced budget that is fiscally sound while maintaining programs and offerings to meet the needs of our students we remain focused on our mission vision and core values and beliefs we know these decisions are difficult to make and will have long-term effects on our student staff and Community our vision is fiscal responsibility to our taxpayers and high quality education to our for our students we will emerge stronger as a school district and remain dedicated to helping every student develop their fullest potential your input is essential as we navigate this challenging time as always you have the opportunity to share your feedback on the proposed School District budget you're always welcome to attend a Board of Education meeting or submit feedback via email at budget questions no

094space budget questions at nred learn.org bless you from our team that is presenting to you this evening for my colleagues on the cabinet we thank you for your continued partnership and and support and we will keep you informed as we move forward together with that I open this up to any questions from our board trustees thank you team board colleagues Miss Ross thank you again uh for your continued uh work on this uh budget and and continuing to to uh explain all of the different facets of the budget if we could go back uh a few slides and my iPad is dead so I don't remember what number it is but it's where you had the different budget codes yes those two right so if you add these up this is roughly like 7080 million

095uh our budget is higher than that so like are you is it going to be in the next presentation that we'll see see sort of how those other budget codes operate as well yes so please keep in mind uh in same form and fashion that we presented last year we want to ensure that we break down our presentations to very specific areas of our budget so we do have additional budget codes that will be uh shared with you next next week so we'll have a pretty similar presentation with different slides for the budget um and line items that we'll be discussing in the weeks coming great and then um here and I guess it's maybe more in the other is the uh it is there is an increase I think in the other one that's

096more significant uh which is driven it's really Transportation right that's driving that along with what is this transfer of capital what is that about transfer capital is the expenses utilized for district y projects that need to happen most of which were on I think two slides from there um there's some sidewalk repairs some door Replacements cameras a number of different projects been depending on what was requested through the budget process from the buildings and departments and then how do that sorry hold on one second if I may add the reason why that's an increase this year um is because we we went for a bond last year so the bond precluded us from having to request to transfer that I'm sorry I'm sorry sorry last year we uh had the voters approve utilization of our

097capital reserve fund and so we used two million of that capital reserve fund for districtwide projects and the balance of that was going towards the renovation of the pool I don't I just don't want to the taxpayers to think that we were borrowing for it last year got it and then just actually related to the bond so how does the bond uh how is that separate then sort of the transfer of capital right the bond is primarily bigger projects whereas these sort of transfer of capital are more smaller projects that are facilit oriented So when you say Bond that's when we're borrowing we were not proposing borrowing last year last year we proposed using our capital reserve to allocate towards two things one was the pool and the other was distri projects so how is

098that different capital reserve can only be used for Capital purposes it's like a savings account so we needed voter approval to use it this year the the same need we have we have ongoing Capital needs across our 11 plus buildings and so every year we have to sort of chip away at some of those projects so that our buildings stay in in good condition and so that's what that is and so we're shifting it from using that Reserve to using our budget to make sure that those projects continue to happen got it because we fully utilized the reserve uh last year when we had the voters approve it and the reserve that we created has not been fully funded obviously we just created it at the end of last budget season then um uh there

099was one other item so the I think it's maintenance of plant just increased is that just due to General increases in maintenance uh yes so that's uh so again all of our contractors are increasing C you know by at least CPI in some cases um and the work is still required to be done uh so when you look at um the uh the the sorry the delivery of the materials as well when we're looking at the cost increase all of that equates to what we have represented I would also add that all of our utility costs are in there as well and any leases that we have so for um hugenot and for our uh City Hall all of our lease expenses go into that function code as well so it's increasing because those expenses

100are in as well and then sorry last question is I know one of the things we talked about going up this year with the increases in uh health and retirement I'm assuming that when we see next next week's presentation we'll see those SC that's correct thank you thank you very much J any other colleagues questions comments can you bring back up the slide that shows the staff proposed cuts and it has a breakdown of the numbers as well as the percentages I just wanted to note that I think it's important to note that while not one cut or proposed reduction is what we want I think it's important to notice the percentages here um and I heard you say in the beginning that we would prioritize front-facing roles to students and ensuring that uh we're

101in compliance as well special education multilingual learner support prioritizing the ratios of classroom teachers to students and I think it's actually interesting that the highest percentage here is District administrators and I um I appreciate that there are it's not just one position category that is being overly impacted I think it's important to note that throughout everyone even the Board of Ed too you saw 200 I think $200,000 in a difference so everyone is going to be impacted by this but we're going to be sharing the burden and continue to hope that we do get additional funding to help cushion some of these reductions um trusty I want to thank you for highlighting in that I can't under I can't overstate um the approach that this team has taken to ensure that the burden of our

102current fiscal constraints um are equally spread across the entire Community again hearing back to my statement of um realizing and um making sure that it's clearly stated that I understand we are asking a lot of our community members and taxpayers um the the task of making sure that there is some Equity but more importantly student centered decision- making as we um go through this difficult um challenge of of um getting closer to the financial um situation that we need to be in is going to be felt by all members in our professional Community thank you Jesse just a quick uh reminder just to reiterate what you said before that this is um not the worst case scenario it can get worse if the budget does not pass um there is a window that if the

103budget fails we go to 30 mil if I remember that correctly um so when you're thinking about the questions that you want to submit uh in that last slide um and once you're having those conversations with your other members of your community uh please do remember that U the numbers that you see today are what we're trying to hold on to to keep our programming um afloat thank you um to reemphasize yes this uh scenario that we're currently presenting is at the cost of piercing our tax cap at 3.95% again if uh for many reasons the community chooses to uh vote down this budget we have an opportunity to present it again at the same 3.95% hoping for a different outcome um we could possibly lower the um requested tax cap Levy increase or we

104could just present um the the actual budget of3 3% which is what our actual tax cap Levy increase is if that is voted well if we get to that point um we are at the $30 million deficit if that is voted down and we have to go to contingency there are additional cuts that will be necessary and in addition what many people don't know in the public there are New York state laws that go with a contingency budget which include nonuse of our schools and Fields in the evening and on the weekends so for all of our community organizations that utilize our Fields if we go to contingency we are no longer allowed to offer that to the community in addition to other um other aspects of use of our district that we are used

105to as a community so a contingency budget is definitely not something that we want it's even cuts and not just cuts but cuts to our everyday life even on the weekend thank you trusty sorry I just had two other questions one was um uh was the question can you remind me what our taxs were for this for this past year ta the amount that we budgeted for it um that I I don't know that we have that right now but we can provide that to you and we will definitely provide it as um an answer for our next question our next meeting as well yeah no problem and then just I know that we've that we've asked the question but I'll ask it again is are there any have we just made sure that when

106we think about all the reimbursements that we might get from the state have we just accounted for all of that within kind of thinking through what what we're getting from our from the state state aid Foundation a made all of those different L items that we've looked at and you probably looked at it more than once but um yes we so we've looked at every scenario what we would love to have um again we don't foresee being in a position where we're getting a full 12.53% um amount of money from any Source or any combination of sources um but yes we have looked at what it is that the state could do and again the goal is not to get a gift of a windfall because quite honestly if we were to get just money

107let's just say in a gift it's great yes it would save off some um some need to reduce the workforce but you're basically rolling it over another year we might be in that position where we would have to reduce the workforce next year what we are really asking for and advocating for is correcting the changes that were made to our our formula so that they are perpetuated and we whatever money we would receive in the changing of the formula would actually um be counted for years in the future so that's really what the goal is what we're advocating for is really fixing the formula and the changes that were made to us that adversely affected us and please know that you know there are always options and and something maybe I shouldn't even say this

108out loud but we're here um you know the state could present to us providing us kind of a loan I'm not interested in in accepting a loan to plug again a portion of our deficit which we will have to be paying back in some form or fashion for 30 years I cannot set up however many superintendant come after me um in a position where they're getting less funding for years um at at the hands of a decision that we are making to fix one year that just is not feasible in my mind again we're looking at all options but in looking at those options I want us to be realistic is in terms of what it would mean for us in future Years thank you I have a request and a question uh the request

109is as we are moving forward and sharing the building uh the the slides that have the various codes going forward and going digging into other parts of our budget it would be great and you you alluded to this this mike um when it's when the changes are because of a recoding as opposed to an actual change in cost in either direction to be honest to somehow note that for us so you know when I looked at the slides earlier today I was like oh that's a big change there there and it was great to hear well actually it's not that we're spending so much more it's that that came from a different line but it would be great to be able to match those up kind of easily so when people see big changes um

110they can quickly understand that that's whether it is actually an a change and increase in costs like Transportation or something else or just money that now doesn't exist somewhere else in the budget because it got recoded so that would be great um and that could be a note somehow or just noted on the slides or what have you would be awesome and then my second is and I think I know the answer but maybe for the public to explain a little bit more about the position and you know when we buy something for a dollar like is it really really a dollar and what are the benefits that we see Etc I think it would just be great since I think we've been really rightly focused on the big implications of the other pieces of

111the budget but I don't want people to not understand the purpose of that proposition thank you for that question and I wish you didn't ask it um so to be very honest uh the property that we currently utilize for part if I can go back to that slide might be helpful the if you um would you mind being my van white for a second so the area that's kind of outlined in the red around our property we currently use that for parking that property is not owned by the district it is owned by the city of newelle so we're using it with their permission you know we're not breaking the law we're using it with their permission but we don't have the opportunity to maintain that property the way that we would like to so

112we would have to call out to the city to get them to come and do what we need to do um basically because the city owns our property they're um liable for whatever happens on that property we would like to be able to maintain it better for our students students our staff and our visitors uh so by purchasing the property from the city for a dollar it allows us to maintain it so you're absolutely right the purchase price and again proposition two because the budget itself is Proposition one then this ask to use a dollar literally a dollar to purchase a property is Proposition two so by us owning it we'll be able to maintain it better yes we will assume the responsibility and the financial cost to maintaining it but we're able to put

113it on a schedule so that we're able to just make it um safer to meet our needs as we see fit yes okay any other questions from our board members any other questions from our board members actually I have my a different yes um what do we anticipate that we would make any changes to the property uh we do over time it will be on um a planning purpose uh you know uh Keith Watkins is here in the audience with us so um if we are allowed to use a dollar to purchase that property we would sit with our city manager um um and make sure that whatever plans they had in place we're made aware of taking a look at what the cost out factor is and things of that nature and we will

114incorporate that into our planning of M maintenance of that U property it would be great to understand the long-term cost of Maintenance of that property thank you so much thank you no further questions colleagues thank you very much team thank you very much we appreciate the opportunity and with that I think we will return to the day e colleagues this evening we have two first readings and one second reading from our policy committee and I'm gonna ask one of our policy committee members to walk us through what we're seeing here this evening Miss Lewis sure thanks for turning over the mic um so very quickly for the audience um do know that there are changes that are made that are suggestions from New York State uh so when the policy committee meets we are taking

115the suggestions that are coming to us from the state to make sure that we are um up to code with all of our policies and so the changes that we're making there are to make sure that we're aligned um with state with State policy uh the one that we'll be sun sunsetting tonight is on our seating arrangements as you've seen before we typically s tend to sit in the same spaces um that was a policy of the board and now we are sunsetting that today um just so that we can sit in different positions that is it um the other two was just the first reading and then we're going to move forward in future meeting with the second and third reading colleagues do you have any questions about policy 010 the non-discrimination and equal

116opportunity policy or policy number 5605 voter registration for students or the sunsetting of the uh member seating policy which is 9135 I would just note that I was really happy to see see the voter registration for students changes um allowing for pre-registration for students that are not yet 18 but will be by the next election I think that might really improve a voter registration of our young students so I'm excited to support that policy when we come comes to a vote so thank you for that moving on liaison reports seeing none we are now going to move to public comment ladies and gentlemen we are about to convene into the public comment period of the meeting the Board of Education adopted policy 12:30 in April 22 to ensure all members of the public had the

117opportunity to speak at both of our board meetings each month we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues having said that please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly understand the board will not respond to your concerns and questions tonight we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be we will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time I also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws we are unable to entertain we are unable to entertain any comments or questions

118about school personnel and students please know however that we take Personnel concerns very seriously on these matters we would ask you to go through the appropriate administrative channels finally we recognize that right now our nation and our community are polarized on a number of issues that said we want our Schoolboard members meetings to serve as an example to our students that members of our school board and members of our community can deal with controversial issues in a civil Manner and demonstrate mutual respect for one another in that Spirit we will insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain Civility and respect for any Divergent views that others possess we ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience in the unlikely event the meeting becomes unruly the

119board will board will recess the meeting and return once order has been restored finally I want to remind everyone that you may submit written comments to the board in Le of speaking during the public comment period if you so choose tonight we have set aside 45 minutes for public comment or each speaker who has signed up before 3:30 today has three minutes to speak if a person requests to speak after 3:30 speakers May sign up in person at the meeting the clerk and will be afforded the opportunity to speak for two minutes during the public comment period if time permits first the night is Miss otia Tanner good evening and good evening thank you for the details with the uh budget and the budget response and the budget report but I am a little disappointed

120as we all probably are but as a taxpayer and the person that works for the district I am a little concerned how and how we're spending some of our money fiscal restraints for example um transportation costs go up 20% or so every year additionally we have our attorneys for the district I don't see any decrease in their contract also I am concerned about the over represented in underpaid folks of color young people in particular that are working civil service jobs who may Le lose their jobs so you can't ask that we go beyond the tax cap as well as lose our jobs at the same time that doesn't make any sense so I am curious how many people in central office actually live in new relle so when we're talking about losing jobs and we

121live here and going beyond the tax cap that's not possible to do the same you can't have the same that those two issues in the same sentence it's in particular how are your young people going to rebound after this so teaching assistants Civil Service employees must live in Nell not teaching assistants but the young people that are the custodians the lunch monitors the hourly people I am concerned about those folks so I would suggest that we negotiate the law firm that we use that we look at this carefully and when you start looking at cutting jobs just give us some consideration we live here and we have to support the district so we can't do both we can't pay our taxes live here support the district and lose our jobs at the same time but

122thank you thank you and our next speaker is Mr mfano Alo hello good evening it's not a very good evening unfortunately um lady just talked about Transportation a 25% increase 20 million to 25 how much of the busing expenditure is mandatory by state law not discretionary by the but a district I like to hear that at the next budget session okay we're talking about mandatory versus discretionary spending that might be an area to look at a couple of things I contacted all of our legislators uh Shelley mayor Fernandez Otis pauland all of them and invited them to come tonight to talk and maybe give us a little hope because as you know this is the executive budget as you were talking about the governor's ridiculous proposal but maybe one of them is going to get

123up tonight and say well the legislature is thinking of redoing something let's hope uh the tax levy I don't like paying taxes but I think in some years past we went to 6% 7% let's consider it you're going to get you're going to get this passed don't worry about it got mobilize the people like you do it'll work don't worry about it nobody votes but I was a union delegate down New York City with the teachers and we went through a financial crisis and we helped each other as a union we forego our raises as a union parents are suffering kids are going to suffer all kinds of people are paying a price I would not feel comfortable working in this District making 125g a year to say the teachers Aid in my class get

124laid off I'm hoping you're in negotiation with your bargaining agents your bargaining uh uh folks and say hey guys are you willing to help and step up is the union willing to consider foregoing increases not cancelling them but foregoing defer them like we did in New York City to save our colleagues jobs we can get through this together but we got to stick together this is the time for Union power to mean something it isn't I got my job you don't because I got seniority that's not how it should work I hope you guys are talking to these folks about it now we're 20 million in the hole if you double the tax to 7% maybe that's not maybe now you're on a whole 11 million now I don't know if it's good politics but

125we got to put some heat on each state legislators so everybody out there tonight you call Shelly mayor she's the head of the damn education committee for the Senate tell her to get on of stick Steve Otis Amy Poland and Senator Fernandez let's show up thank you Mr mfano next up Mr Keith Singletary good evening everyone I just want to say thank you for addressing some of the questions asked last week um I actually have a a number of them uh today um My overall theme is you mentioned you know Mission and core values focusing on being fiscally responsible and high quality I would like to like these words to focus on high quality as well as accountability um for high quality you know some things it's relating to high quality of Education I moved

126here and a lot of my neighbors moved here because of the high quality education and as you as you factor um these Cuts I think we need to make sure that we maintain a high quality of education for that reason as you factor certain Cuts particularly how you maintain quality of Education with class sizes increasing secondly have you factored how you going to provide more training to teachers to basically teach a high utilization with more students in the classroom um relating to you know cutting reducing overtime expenses how exact exactly is that going to impact actual programming you know is that going to have an impact on after school programs is that going to have an impact on Sports um relating to process of your budget Improvement every week but one thing that I think

127we could continue on is as you have large variances providing a deeper explanation provided an explanation relating to the reserve transfer but something relating to Security on a plant I think could be explained a little bit better another thing is relating to hypotheticals as I stated a number of people move the neuro shell for the quality education if they become aware of higher uh student to teer uh ratios you're probably going to have more people choose to go private and have you factored the impact associate that will that have an impact on your budget going forward most of all Brandon how are you with these cuts goingon to maintain neuro shell to be an employer of choice for young teachers for young Talent young administrators I'm G to say personally I see an improvement within

128the superintendent's office I look at some of these facts upon us and say hey someone could have t tighten a belt further we could have been more efficient on our spending and with that being said even as you look at as you talk about uh on slide 18 this is relating to executive executive budget state aid proposal increases and there's constantly been a narrative like hey the amount of increases have gone down on my job I don't always get an increase so I think we have to understand that in in in many of our jobs we don't always get an increase so we got to be more efficient thank you thank you Madame clerk are there any other speakers signed up great oh hi Miss hi all right guys um first Barn art school I

129just looked at some of your numbers and demographics and things looked a little weird I noticed that you know in um prek you have 63% Hispanics 13 and a half% blacks um and then it jumps in kindergarten you have 73% Hispanic 9.61% blacks I'm just looking at this and seeing that these don't really match the demographics of the population so I just they hit me funny um same with the the white and you know male female I did the percentages real quick while you were talking but that to me um resonated a little funny especially knowing that this one little girl who had come here and the mother talked about how she loved being here in prek and then they transferred her to Davis and she would have loved to stayed here at Barnard but

130somehow she didn't even know about re-entering a lottery and stuff so I think we have some opportunities here that's what I wanted to say with that so the budget budget is it is so unacceptable that we are at this position um there is there is no reason for it because financially we got a windfall of money during covid so financially covid was pretty good to us right so we knew the money wasn't going to be forever and we said right from the beginning let's spend this wisely because it's not something that we're going to continue unfortunately we did exactly what we said don't do do not hire people permanently on funding that you only have temporarily we went right ahead rolled off the cliff and hired permanent people so this is not an accident that

131we're here this is to me Reckless right you talk about we got $25 million and then we didn't get $8 million okay so then take off the $8 million that means we still got 17 I mean sorry $18 million 25 minus 7 rather I'm sorry that means we still have $18 million ahead of things so we shouldn't be behind right so those are those are some of the numbers that I think you could use we should have been we should have been working from that basis right we couldn't charge because we said okay we'll give them less then we shouldn't have started from 25 million we should have started from the 18 million the transportation thing again you got to look at some other things there's a reason why you have more buses going to

132Davis and and Ward we know all we all know what it is you're busing kids out of their home districts into another District so why aren't we looking at changing that because that's what's costing us a lot of money it's going to take more time but we had since last year and we did nothing against it so those are some of the things don't give us a budget that we that is flawed and then tell us it's our fault if we have go to a contingent plan so make sure you take your time figure out this budget and present us with thank you Mr M [Music] Ste thank you Miss theim are there any other speakers this evening public comment seeing no takers we're going to move to our Sorry Miss Carl it's good to

133see you Carl 43 Belmont Avenue um I have a question about code 1060 district meeting you've gone up 132% what does that cost for you know should we have our meetings at City Hall is it coming to every school is that why you more money you need more money Miss Carl yeah thank you for the question um I do not want to establish protocol that is going to be expected moving forward generally we do not answer um questions from the public in the moment I'm going to ask Carlos Le to come up and express again that's the only reason why we're doing this is because it was shared during the um during the presentation can you give a fuller understanding of what that budget line is solely and that will be the only question that

134will be answered okay so the response is that um this has been regard to move into the electric Carlos can you go to the closer to the mic so that the translator can hear you thank you Miss Carl if you step to the side then Carlos can get to the mic and here as well all right thank you um so this particular line item um that's been uh 10 1060 right here the district meetings um that is in response where the the cost associated with the electronic voting um expenses are on that particular line so it's yeah so it's an increase to those services for that particular purpose am I please keep in mind that that is not a District control costs those increases are coming from the vendors and that increase to Services is

135what's represented in that budget line thank you for breaking with protocol thank you um also I want to speak about transportation and the inconvenience or maybe even hardship for some parents with this please Recon consider and if you have special cases how are you going to handle it and also what does this mean to children that are uh busted out of the district if they live in a district that the the school that they should be going to starts at 8:30 but they their school that they're being bused to because they don't want to attend our school starts at 8 o' are they going to be given special consideration and also I think it's time to go back to the developers of nurisha the taxpayers have been paying dearly for all this development and our

136schools are losing so please maybe you should invite them to one of the meetings at City Hall so they could understand what we're going through thank you thank you Miss Carl is there anyone else seeing no takers I'm going to now move to the consent agenda colleagues can I have a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda for personnel resolutions number 25- 289 1-1 number 25- 290 1-3 number 25- 291 1-9 and number 25- 292 1-13 according to the recommended action for each item so moved costano Mina second Ross all in favor opposed motion carries colleagues can I have a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda for General resolutions 25- 293 through 25-35 according to the recommended action for each item so moved Ross all in favor I all opposed

137motion carried colleagues our next meeting is next Tuesday March 11th at 6: p.m in the central administration offices at City Hall this evening we are adjourning in memory of Norton Roman a retired teacher at Mayflower school who passed away on December 20th 20124 and Eileen Burke a retired librarian at Davis School who passed away on January 18th 2025 I want to give a shout out to our colleagues who I know who are not here this evening um who are watching from home from their workplace including Mr uh single Mr Vega and um Mr ianuzi and Miss Williams and with that I would love a motion to adjourn the the meeting so moved costanoa all in favor I opposed motion carries have a good night everyone