LCSD Budget, Meet the Candidates, & BOE Meeting

001statement on the public comments. Lancing board of education is committed to hearing from the community during community input. Please note that the board will not permit in public session any discussion involving individual district personnel or students. Persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual district personnel or students should present their comments and or concerns to the superintendent or board vice president or board president during regular business hours. This is to protect privacy of our staff, students, and to keep the district from legal implications. We expect our speakers to observe and observers to conduct themselves in a civil mannerity language. This is why Aziz asked me to read it. Defamatory statements, threats of violence, statements advocating racial, religious or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated. Thank you for acting in accordance with the district code

002of conduct and board policies which is polic 12 and 1400. This is This is the annual meeting, but I will say will be open from 7 9 p.m. purpose of adopting a school budget for the 2016 school year purchasing of Central School May Thank you. Thank you for joining us this evening. Finance of the budget. really appreciate question at the end. I do community. Tuesday, we'd be happy to do so. Just reach out to Debbie Todd in the district office. Just a little review of what the budget process looks like. We do start building in December. We start looking at our expense projections based on current programming and current staffing and looking at our demographics and needs. We do the same with our revenue projections. What is our projected state? Govern use of savings reserves

003fund balance we might be comfortable looking at. And throughout this whole process, we're also reviewing our department requests, projected enrollments, what we might see next year based on what we have this year and then looking at our staff based And then we look to see where the gap is. Do we have less revenue coming in potentially the next year versus what our expected are we starting our potential reductions will be what the tax levy should be at under or over the cap and our use of reserves. And then finally in April we present a final balance budget for over the last month or so had a number of questions and comments on budgeting. So, I just thought I'd kind of review what that is. That is where you build the budget from zero every single

004year. There are some pros and cons to that. It does encourage careful review of spending. It helps identify some inefficiencies, but it is difficult in the school environment when we have a number of fixed costs. If we're changing staffing significantly from year to year, it does have an impact on staff morale and it does have the risk of short-term decision making. So, knowing that we have replacement costs and certain expenditures that we might have year to year. We make shortsighted decisions based on a one-year trend that can have future implications as well. What we utilize is a hybrid approach. Uh staffing our salaries and benefits are the bulk of our budget about 68%. So we can't just change what those salary increases are. Those are contractually obligated. So we're looking at reducing those expenses. Our

005debt service is a fixed cost. We can't choose to not pay that. And we have utilities that we have to pay. We do look at replacement cycles for our equipment. So we're not looking to have a number of large purchases in one year and then no equipment purchases. So we have cion. And then we do review our services annually. Do we have Particularly if we're looking at our services through are students still utilizing those services our staff still utilizing those services and then our materials and supplies are zerobased. We ask our all of our departments and our staff to uh submit what they need for the following year each and every year. We don't just roll those purchases over every year. As I mentioned our significant budget expense drivers would be salaries and benefits. Those

006are contractually obligated. We do negotiate with each of our unions every four years. So, we know what those costs will be. Um, we look at what the cost would be if we maintained our our current staffing levels. And then we start talking about whether those current staffing levels are needed for the next year. Do we need to increase staffing? Do we need to decrease staffing? And that is based on enrollment and demographics. Benefits is a significant increase uh due to our cost of health care. Typically, we see a 6 to 7% increase in our premiums. For next year, we're looking at a 9.75% increase. That is higher than we've seen in recent years. Although, because we're part of a consortium with other school districts in the TST region, uh we are seeing less of an

007increase than some of uh our other neighboring districts that don't participate in that consortium. And then contractual and supplies, we have utility costs. Um I'm sure you're seeing this in your own homes. The electric rates and the cost of electricity is significantly higher than it's been in years and we're seeing that trend continue and so we are planning for that and then we do utilize Boseies for a number of student uh programming opportunities and so we've seen the participation in those programs change in recent years as well based on what the most appropriate educational placement is for any given student and then we do have debt service uh we have building capital projects we're seeing an increase in the principle and interest new debt as a result of the most recent capital projects which is

008partially offset by the building aid increase on the revenue side. Looking at revenue drivers, we have our local levy is 63% of our budget and state aid is about 32% of our budget on the revenues. Uh state aid uh we get what they give us essentially. So our foundation aid is looking at a 1% increase or about 67,000. Foundation aid is the basic aid that every school district gets based on a formula that's based on needs. The what the state determines our needs are and what the capacity for the local taxpayer is to contribute to the budget. Our building aid is increasing as I mentioned as a result of that debt service increasing. So that is going up by about 11.8% to offset that uh cost of debt. And then we do receive what's called

009electric cessation mitigation funding. When the power plant closed a number of years ago, the state has some funding to help uh mitigate that impact on the local taxpayer that reduces each and every year over the span of 10 years. We are heading into year eight of that program. And so we're seeing a reduction there. And then we look at the use of reserves and fund balance which are essentially a district savings to mitigate the impact to the taxpayer as well. Just a quick look at what the tax cap formula is. This is dictated by the state that we've had this for a number of years now. There's a very specific formula that we follow. And once we input all of those pieces, we get our maximum allowable tax levy. For us this year, our maximum

010allowable increase is just over 740,000 or 2.977% increase. As we have our discussions about going over or under at the cap, we're always keeping in mind what the long-term implications are. Each year, we start with the previous year's tax levy. So, if we go out over, that means we can garner more the next year, but if we go out significantly under, it does limit how much we can collect the next year as well. So, we're obviously we need to have a balanced budget. Our expenses and revenues must equal. Our original gap as we were looking at the 2627 year was approximately 2.2 million. Uh how did we balance that? We did reduce expenses by 1.28 million and we also increased our revenues by uh increasing appropriations or using our savings to help uh offset that.

011One of the questions we received is you know how do we evaluate potential reductions? We do that through a number of ways. First, we look at who we know is leaving staffing wise, whether we have retirements or resignations. We look at those positions and determine whether we need to fill those. Sorry. >> Okay. >> We look at the impact on students and staff as we're as reductions might be uh discussed. We're looking for lowcost high value versus high cost low value. So that the things that have the most impact on students, we try to stay away from as much as possible. And then we look at the efficiency and effectiveness of every program that we have to determine whether it's truly negated or if we can shift it and make it more efficient and more

012effective. >> I just wanted to make note and thank our faculty, staff, and administration. In February, we had uh instituted a spending for only absolute necessities and our faculty and staff taking that seriously and really reduce spending as of February of this year to help with that savings for next year. So, these are the final reductions that we've proposed. I say proposed because it it is May now. um things may change before September. An example I'll use of if we get a significantly higher number of kindergarten students than come in than what we project, we might have to shift where these reductions are. But right now, we're looking at reducing two K6 teachers, high school English and high school social studies, two special education teachers, a school counselor at the elementary school, and the high

013school dean of students. We are lucky in that most of these reductions for staffing we're able to do through attrition or staff movement within the district. So while we're impacting a position, we're not necessarily impacting people. When we look at pool instruction, we are still having pool instruction for our K through six students. We are just shifting what that deliberately model looks like and reducing a teaching assistant and a lifeguard associated with that. At this time, we're also looking administrative position and the director of curriculum. We're doing that through attrition. And then we have two support staff positions that we're reducing. One is the library clerk and the other as a micro computer specialist. That micro computer specialist position uh the individual in that role left as of June of last year and we did

014not fill that for this year and so we're uh reducing that for next year as well. And then the non-staffing pieces we looked at are field trips, curriculum writing, conferences, professional development, the equipment purchases for our replacement cycle, and materials and supplies and software. Now, we're not eliminating any of those things. We're just reducing the amount we're spending in those areas. >> I did send out a fact sheet today. Uh we'll be sending fact sheets throughout the next uh two weeks to really just update uh in small doses what we're looking at. Last week we sent out full instruction to clarify what that meant. That reduction actually meant as far as program and today if you went through you could see uh under the reduction the rationale and then uh how we're still meeting program.

015The only time there's an actual reduction is really if if it's uh due to complete enrollment and the person was leaving to retirement and uh there's not a need for the the program. >> As we talk about enrollment, I do have some enrollment numbers here to share. I'm going back from 201920 all the way to what we're projecting for next year. Uh the one point I'll make on elementary school is that number might shift. One depending on how many kindergarten students come in. We do have a projection based on the birth rate and also there's still some questions about how much UPK funding we'll get and so we might be able to add another UPK classroom depending on where that lands. But projecting the two UPK classrooms that we have and with the birth rate

016um overall we're estimating our enrollment will remain relatively stable next year. um with a reduction of one student overall. As I mentioned, we're reducing a number of well two K6 teachers. So, just looking at the average K6 classes and the class sizes. I have those numbers here to share just to, you know, offer reassurances that we're not looking at significantly increasing class sizes. We're able to do those reductions in those areas because of the enrollment shifting in students um leaving different uh grade levels and going into other grade levels. We do have one of where it says largest class size of 21. That is a significant increase and that is impactful. We will be really looking at the demographic of those classes, the needs, the availability of support and assistance. That's one that's still something

017that's going to be continued to be evaluated. >> Yeah. And as we're looking at K6, that largest class size is a is a um sixth grade class. And so that structure looks a little bit different. elementary model as those students are moving throughout the day, but is definitely something we're we're monitoring. And then I just have uh the class size versus student achievement. It might be a little hard to see from the back, but just showing really how class size impacts how our students perform when it comes to state testing and and what those impacts can be year-over-year. You see that sharp decline for 1920. That year we had no testing due to COVID. So that's why there's that sort of anomaly right there. I have gone through most of the impact of the reductions,

018but uh the one thing I wanted to note that's on the slide is some of the ways we're looking at mitigating the reductions that are non-staffreated. So for field trips, we'll look to bring in experiences to campus rather than transporting students off campus. We'll look at virtual field trips. Uh we're looking at grant funding opportunities uh for field trips as well as for some professional development opportunities. We're also looking at in-house specialists for for professional development and looking at shared uh PD with with our Boseis regional school districts. The duties of the director of curriculum certainly aren't disappearing just because she's retiring. Um but those responsibilities will ship to the superintendent with support from the principles and I do have you know have the things listed here. Not that the superintendent wasn't involved in those

019things, but she wasn't leading them in the way that she will be moving forward. So at the tax cap looking at our budget, salaries, equipment, contractual supplies, principal, interest, and benefits, you can see that salaries line is a decrease of 3% year-over-year or decre of about $500,000. That is through the reductions that we're proposing for next year. The benefits which is associated with that salary line is a slight increase of 1.58% but obviously much lower than the 9.75 health benefits increase that we're seeing. The other area of reduction is equipment which I spoke about earlier and then you could see that increase in principle and interest as a result of the oncoming debt service and I'll have a little more detail on that later on as well. For contractual and supplies, I had talked about

020the shift in Boseies placements and the opportunities our students are having there. That large increase of contractual and supplies is one due to Boseies and two due to the utility costs increasing. So overall our budget year-to-year is increasing by 2.93%. And these are the different areas within our budget. So general support is essentially uh the district office, the business office, facilities, uh legal costs, auditing, all sort of the behind the scenes work. Instruction is all this all the work that happens within the buildings on a day-to-day basis. Then pupil transportation. Uh undistributed is health benefits, employee benefits, and that debt service. One of the things that we need to do is kind of break down our budget into the various components per the state. So we have the administrative component which includes some of the

021things I just talked about for general support. Um and then there's a portion of employee benefits that are within that. So overall we're seeing an increase in the administrative component. The capital component is the facilities and debt service and the employee board benefits associated with the staff within that plant maintenance and operations which is facilities. You can see that is increasing as well. Then the program component is all the work that happens by our teachers and our faculty working with students because of the reductions we're making based on enrollment. That component is decreasing yeartoear. Shifting to the revenue side, I have sort of some more detailed here. Uh just so I really wanted to show the real property tax items. That is the tax levy, which is what that tax cap plays into. So we

022are right at the cap 740,000 at a 2.9% increase year-over-year. The state aid line is where you'll see another significant increase and again that's due to that building aid increasing to offset the debt service. Use of money and property is really related to our interest earnings. So we've done a lot of work to try to maximize uh the benefits of having our our money in various banking accounts and trying to get the best interest we can. So we are seeing the benefits of that and project more interest next year than we did this year despite the interest rates being relatively flat. Just kind of combine you know breaking that down in a little less detail just the overall the local share includes that tax levy pilots the interest earnings. So that component is increasing by

0232.94%. We have the state component at 2.91% and then we are seeing increase in appropriations yeartoear. So one of the other questions we received uh from the community survey is how we determine how much of our savings to use. Why don't we just use all of it to offset the overall increase? The piece about these uh various reserves and fund balance is that what we spend once we spend them they're gone. So we're always trying to maintain the financial stability of those knowing that if we just use all of it, we'll still have that loss the next year. So we'll be making it up just a year later without any of those savings and reserves to to fall back on. So we're trying to balance the impact to the taxpayer and also making sure these

024are healthy reserves and a healthy fund balance. By state law, we cannot have more than 4% in our unappropriated fund balance and that is of the next year's budget. Um, as of July 1st of last year, we were at 3.7% with the use that we have recommended of reserves. We'll be at 2.8% as of July 1st, 2026. So, as I mentioned, we're going out at the tax cap. I had previously estimated what that impact on our tax rate would be. Uh however, on May 5th, we got a memo from the Tomkins County Department of Assessment. Um typically when we're uh estimating our tax rate, we are at 100% valuation in Tomkins County or we have been until recently with the halt on assessments and only assessing for changes to properties or to new construction. uh

025the level of assessment the equalization rate is now 95% which will impact that tax rate and what the impact on the the average tax for a home will be. So we'll be waiting on final assessment numbers to get those from the county and we won't have those until July 1st. So what happens if the budget fails? Uh all school districts go out for the vote on May 19th. If a budget fails, a school district can go back out with the same budget on June 16th. They can go out with a revised budget or we can go immediately to contingent budget. And a contingent budget uh has to go into place if that second vote fails. A contingency budget means we cannot raise taxes any more than what we collected in the current year. So that

026real property tax item line would remain zero% or zero dollar increase. Those other items, state aid, would still increase as projected. Same with use of money and property. And then we could make a choice on whether to increase appropriations to offset that loss. But essentially, we would be looking for that 740,000 that we're proposing to increase the tax levy if we were to go to contingency budget. a contingency budget. There are rules on what you can use your budget money for. So, it restricts certain spending. Um, community use facilities, equipment, non-essential maintenance, all field trips, student supplies, and athletic uniforms. So, those are things we absolutely cannot purchase in a contingent budget. If we were to have to go to contingent budget, those items alone would not make up that 740,00. So, we'd have to

027start looking at other uh options to reduce um so additional instructional positions, certain non-mandated transportation, athletics, extracurricular, and I just have these listed as examples of things that would be starting to look at. Um so, really having more of an impact on program in the student experience. I do want to note like we are still required for all contractual increases. So, any contracts we have in place for staff, we we We still have to honor those. We still have to offer the benefits that are required for those contracts and we still have to pay our debt service obligations. So the budget I just presented essentially is Proposition one on the ballot. Um and that is do the voters authorize the budget amount of $40.8 million. Proposition two, it's a lot of words to ask if

028we can borrow money for our buses. We are on a replacement schedule. Uh we have a 10-year cycle, so every year we're looking to buy two about two buses and maybe a van depending on the year that we're in. So we we'll be replacing two buses next year and one of our student transport vehicles in the formative SUV. What we're not purchasing yet is electric buses. So, those are diesel buses that we're proposing. Um, so I did get some questions about this. I do think there's some confusion. There is a zero emission bus mandate. Uh, right now the only zero emission bus that's offered is an electric bus. Right now, the mandate says that we have to purchase zero emission buses by 2027. So, after 2027, we cannot purchase a diesel bus. There is a

029two-year waiver available. Um, but as of right now, by 2035, all of our buses have to be zero emission buses. There is a bill at the state level right now looking to push that off another five years. That hasn't gone through yet. U, but there is a lot of advoc advocacy happening to try to slow that mandate down knowing that the logistics for school districts uh are pretty challenging at this time. One, the buses are a lot more expensive, the buses themselves. the charging infrastructure, our infrastructure, ensuring that the grid can support the the need that we have here. Um, what we have done, we have not purchased a bus, but we have done a fleet electrification plan. We've looked at what it would take for Lancing to start making that shift, and we've started

030to prepare what does our facility need. So, we're trying to put the pieces in place to make sure that we have a plan if this goes through and we do have to start purchasing by 2027. The third proposition on the ballot is related to a capital reserve. So when we have a capital reserve put in place, it cannot be in place for more than 10 years. Our current reserve is expiring this year. So we're looking to replace that reserve with a maximum of up to $10 million. And the reason that reserve is important is it helps with debt service and the cost of capital projects in the future. So if we have a $10 million project, but we have a million dollar in a capital reserve, we only have to borrow 9 million because we

031can use that 1 million to help with the cost. So it's really about planning for the future and mitigating um any impact on the taxpayer when we do have to do um significant maintenance to our facilities. I have here uh just the debt that our actuals and then our budgeted for this year are budgeted for next year and then projected out. We do take out bond anticipation notes when we initially borrow. So those are bands. We'll be bonding fully for that last project this year. So once we have that full bond, those projected numbers uh will be more firm. So the increase from 2425 to the current year 2526 was about 35,000. What we're projecting for next year is another $320,000 increase for that local share. So I have the total debt, the building aid

032that's related to that debt, and then the local share. We do did have some questions on the status of the capital project. So we did have two capital projects that took place recently. The Bobcat project for 16.8 8 million and then the NPA or the non-pipeline alternative project for 3.1 million. So a total of $19.9 million worth of work that took place over the last two years. And I have the different um items that were we put the work into and what the uh scope cost was for each of those items. We do have a a heating mandate from the state where classroom temperatures cannot be more than 88 degrees in the middle of the room, six feet off the floor at any given moment. Um, so our middle school is building that we're in

033right now. It's pretty old. It's pretty hot. Uh, those classrooms on the second floor would be a little toasty. I think we have some middle school teachers in the room that can attest to that. Um, so we did focus on the middle school to try to start rolling out uh the air conditioning to offset that heating mandate because we'd have to remove students from classrooms if it gets hotter than that and move them elsewhere to, you know, a less hot place within the district. Um, mostly it would be in here because this was the only room in the middle school that really was air conditioned that could hold students. So that was a large amount of that project. It was a part of the NPA project where you placed every unit ventilator in every classroom

034within the building. With the NPA project, NAERTA uh offered us $700,000 to help with the cost of that. And then with the Bobcat project, we used 1.8 million of our capital reserve to offset that cost as well. >> The temperature mandate came into effect this school year. So we did have to mandate u implement things to make that happen. So, we had a mass uh input of air conditioners throughout the district to u meet student needs. Obviously, that's not something that we want to uh move forward with. We will continue that until we're able to have our our second phase of the HVAC which are all capable for that AC and hopefully that will be able to happen soon. One of the other things that is a little up in the air right now is

035universal prek. It is currently state grant funded. We get $5,400 per student with a max of 54 students. There are a lot of pieces in place. Has to be a full day program. They have to be four by December 1st. It's lottery based. So all the names go in a virtual hat and get drawn. And it must be resident students to generate funding. at the state. The governor has proposed and I do believe it has a lot of support increasing that amount per student and removing the maximum. There's no change to the four-year-old program. What will still probably be in place is a lotterybased system. Um even though the number of students that we can fund has no max, it's about our space. So, do we have how many how many students do we have

036interested? How much room do we have in our building to hold those students? And if I have, we can only have a max of 18 students in a classroom. If I have 19 students, that $10,000 for that one student isn't enough to pay for a second classroom. So, we're balancing what the funding is versus the cost of an additional classroom as well. We did get some questions about enrollment versus administrators. I have that information here uh for each building. And then for our onamp campus totals, you could see the difference from 1718 all the way to 2627. Um there were a number I'll do elementary school first. So for example, in 2021, those numbers significantly shift. We had a dean of students who's essentially a teacher in place for um behavioral supports for the elementary

037school. We transitioned that to an admin assist assistant principal, but there is no financial impact for that change. It's the same cost. The biggest difference is a dean of students cannot assist with evaluating teaching staff where an assistant principal can. That change happened also at the high school. Uh we went from a full-time dean of students in 2122 to a part-time assistant principal um ad. Again, no financial impact. These are the number of administrators we have. Um, and we're looking out for 2627. So, districtwide, there are three district-wide administrators. The superintendent, myself, and the director of special services. At the elementary school, which is prek through four now, is a principal and an assistant principal. At the middle school, there is a principal and then the athletic director for grades seven and eight athletics. There's

038also a dean of students at the middle school right now, which is a a teacher on special assignment, and he does a lot of support with behavioral, but also a lot of work with students on a day-to-day basis. And then at the high school, we have the principal and the assistant principal director. >> A list of job duties was u asked to be included. We'd be here for a while if we went over all the job duties of an principal, assistant principal, and athletic director. So, we will create links for the for overall what a uh the administrators do on a daily basis so you get a good understanding. They're very flexible and versatile in their roles. And then another question we had was enrollment versus faculty. So, I have again that 10-year trend um

039The one piece that I think it's important to note and I'll I'll kind of talk a little bit this about this more later, but throughout 2021 to 2324, we received a significant amount of stimulus funding. And the whole purpose of that or one of the purposes of that was really to assist with um mitigating what the state termed learning loss for when students weren't in school every day and didn't have the same access to their education. So, we increased the number of teachers we had uh in the lowered the number of students in the classroom to kind of mitigate that. And that was shortterm. It wasn't long term, but it does change those numbers a little bit um because that wasn't all out of the general fund budget that the voters vote on. A lot

040of that was grant funding. And I just have here listed what faculty includes. Um it's not just classroom teachers or core content teachers. It includes our encore teachers for music, art, PE. We do have career and tech um and technology classes, our special education teachers that support our students, teaching assistants, and then all the student support and related services from school counselors to occupational therapists. All of those um faculty work with our students on a day-to-day basis even though they might not be teaching in the classroom English, for example. So, in the next few slides, I'll just be kind of touching on some of the things that came up in the community questionnaire. Um, one of the questions was or one of the concerns was we shouldn't be uh purchasing breakfast and lunch for all

041of our students. That does not come out of this budget. This we receive state and federal funding that supports that. So, it is not paid for out of the budget that goes to the voters. That was expanded to all students in November of 2023. uh prior to that a student had to qualify individually um and if our total percentage of population hit 40% then we could offer it buildingwide. That threshold was lowered to 25% and then we met that threshold for the state to provide and the federal government to provide funding for all of our students. We do have a number of grants um title one, title two and title four which are all related to teacher improvement and offering opportunities for students. and then IDA 611 and 619 which are related specifically to special

042education. We are the host of the teacher center grant with uh Grten School District. So, we receive that funding and then we do receive a number of local grants uh via the park foundation, the triad foundation which support uh some of the programs that we have for students in the summer trying to get them into um either academic programs or uh recreation programs through lancing recreation department helping with transportation for those things. Uh we had a grant at one point for a maker space for our students. So, we do utilize um the really generous support of the uh area businesses that help us with those things. One of the questions that we also received was why don't we apply for more grants? Um a lot of grants are typically based on income within the district

043and unfortunately we just don't qualify for those at this time. But we do look at every grant we can um and try to to find a way that we can fit into that and and get some of that support. I kind of touched on this a little bit, but one of the questions was about stimulus funding and are those programs still in place. So that we had that funding from 2021 to 2024. Here are a number of things that we used that funding for. As of next year, all of those pieces will have been reduced. So like our reading, math, and social emotional learning programs. Those were one-time large purchases that we so we use that funding to initiate different programs. We had targeted additional instructional staff as I talked about with additional teachers and

044academic supports. Uh we did have an 811 classroom at the middle school for a few years and that was an in-house special class and that was really for transition purposes for our students. Um, we had some TA support at the elementary school for special education and then behavioral and mental health supports for our students coming out of CO. So, one of the questions we received is why do some faculty and staff make more than counterparts in other districts? There are a number of things that play into that. It could be overall experience in their role um throughout their career. It could be the time in the district. Again, increases are based on uh contracts and it could be the job market at the time of hire. So, as if we have two applicants and they

045both have offers from seven other places, we're competing with other districts and with other companies to try to get uh the staff, the quality staff that we want for our students. How confident is the district that only resident students attend? There is a process for that. that um all new registration paperwork is vetted through the district office. There is documentation that is required. I have it listed here. Um if there's any question, we run that through legal and we go through that whole process to ensure that uh the students who are here live here. So, one of the comments that we saw was about our STEM programming and how Lancing doesn't really offer any STEM and we need to. So I have listed here some of the programs that we do offer. Um the Boseies

046programs are there on the side uh through new visions, health and medical sciences, exercise and health sciences, life sciences, engineering. We do have engineering drafting and architectural classes in house that are provided by um our staff uh including project lead the way. We have a number of college mathematics courses, web design, astronomy, forensics. So, we do have a number of of classes that we offer in those areas. And then the other comment that sort of related to that was that our students don't have the opportunity to earn college credits u the way that other districts do. Uh we do have nine advanced placement courses and 20 dual credit courses that are offered via uh through TC3. The dual credits our teachers are teaching, but they get credit through TC3 through them. And our class of

0472025 had a total cumulative amount of 17 earn 32 college credits when they graduated. So, our students are getting those same opportunities that other districts are offering. >> Starting next school year, we'll be offering financial literacy uh districtwide in various ways. This new mandate nice and the planning has already started and well on its way for our district. >> Kristen, how many more slides do we have? It's 650 now. Um so, what do you want to do? Do you want suspend now so we can transition? >> Let's finish. >> Okay. So, we just had a lot of questions and comments about athletics. So, I just have this here forformational purposes. The budget is just shy of $575,000 for athletics. It includes uh modified varsity programs, grades 7 through 12. There are a total of 41

048teams. And this current year, we had 695 student participants overall in each of the fall, spring, and winter sports. Extracurricular clubs. Uh we do have a number of clubs at all three buildings. Uh we had 450 approximately student participants for this year. I have two more slides. This is um couple questions on transportation. Why do we offer transportation when so many parents drive? It is a legal requirement. Um we must offer transportation to all students outside of a two-m radius. for high school students. Our local policy, because of where we're located and uh the traffic that is on the main road, we offer transportation to all our students. Some buses are empty while others are full. It really depends on where the bus is going. If a bus is headed to the Triphammer area, Triphammer

049Road area, that bus is full. There are a number of houses that they pick up. if they're headed out to North Lights and School Road out on the edge of the county. Uh because of the distance that bus has to travel and the time that bus won't be as full is a a closer bus. And has the district considered a common start time with one bus trip? Yes, we did take a look at this that this year. The concerns would be the length of the bus trip and then the number of drivers needed. So, you know, right now if we have students on the bus for an hour, trying to get prek through 12 on one bus run, that bus length ride would be significantly longer, putting students potentially on the bus for three hours

050a day, an hour and a half in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon. And then we would need more drivers than we currently have. Um, and every district is fighting over bus drivers right now. We we just don't have the drivers to make that happen. uh voter information. Uh these are the qualifications on how to be qualified to vote. If you have any questions, contact Debbie Todd in the district office. Then the vote is on May 19th, 7 a.m. to 900 p.m. >> Do we have any questions? If you have not turned mine off, there's a mic up here right in front of Debbie. She can wave her hand and you can come up and ask a question and we will do our best to to answer it. >> Do

051we have any questions from the audience? >> And if something comes up between now and budget vote, please feel free to call us or send us an email and we will be sure to uh get back to you. >> And we will have another committee input session for open meeting later after meet the candidates. So all right, I went to recess so we can go and to meet the candidates. I just like to say um thank you to our student board members who are also part of the SEO who will be moderating tonight's event. So they'll introduce themselves. I was supposed to read the candidates names. Sorry about that. So we have Kristen Enough, Andrew Gross, Matthew Bogamill, Alec McCull, Monroe Macowski, Robert Case, and Matthew Lindy. All right, can I ask you guys to

052come up so we can go into candidates just to be able to see the Good evening and welcome to the Lancing Central School District Board of Education candidate forum. My name is Ty Shadwell. Sorry, let me start again. Good evening and welcome to the Lancing School Central School District Board of Education candidate format a forum. My name is Ty Shadwald. This is >> Mary Kay Quen. >> The other two members of our committee are not currently here. They have a track meet, but their names are Giovana Clark and Kendall Hawthorne. Uh we are honored to serve as your student moderators this evening. Tonight's forum is an open uh as an opportunity for our community to hear directly from the candidates running for the Lancing Central School District Board of Education. We thank all of the

053candidates for their willingness to serve our school community. Before we begin, we'd like to review the format for tonight's forum. Each candidate will have two minutes for opening remarks. We will then move into seven Q&A rounds that have been collected from our community prior to tonight's event. We won't be taking any audience questions. Candidates will have up to two minutes to respond to each question. The speaking order will rotate with each question, so every candidate has a chance to go first. We will use notification cards. When you have 30 seconds left, you'll see a green card. And when you have exceeded your two minutes, you'll see a red card. After 10 seconds or so, we will have to cut you off. Um, at the conclusion of the forum, each candidate will have one minute for

054closing remarks. We respectfully ask that the audience members remain courteous and allow all candidates the opportunity to speak without interruption. Thank you again for joining this event. All right. >> The following candidates will participate in tonight's forum. Incumbent Matthew Bogamile, Robert Casease, Kristen Enav, Andrew Gross, Matthew Lizenby, Monroe Macowski, and Alec Cully. Each candidate will have two minutes for opening remarks. So, I'm gonna start with Matt down there. Um, tell us who you >> Good. Okay. Tell us who you are and why you're running for the board of education. We're gonna go down the line. Yeah. >> Uh so my name is Matt Bogamill. Um you may have seen some signs around town as you've seen a lot of our signs around town. Uh little about myself. I'm a Lancing resident for 10 years, an

055upstate New York resident for 40 years. Like to say I'm a a follower of Jesus, father, husband, Cornell wrestler, proud American. um why I'm running. It's it's quite the paradox because, you know, as a lone incumbent, I ran four years ago on a one-year term, and there were three people running for three seats, which was like, "All right, great. Slam dunk. I'm in." Um, and then in that, you know, my my big thing that year was like I was, like many people get, I was angry about something. Um, and I didn't really know where to turn my anger. I I never turned it inward, first of all, but two, I never really knew. So, I'm like, I'm going right to the board. And turns out it had nothing to do with anything with the board.

056Um, and I remember going to my first board meeting prior to being on the board and thinking like, where is everybody? Like, where are the troops? You know, I was the only troop. And so I I the reason I'm running is I wanted more community involvement. Now this was 2021. Um COVID was still very much active and things were not normal in terms of what we think is normal. And I want to get this part in. But uh in a meeting where we had a lot of community people um a lot of people were upset and wanted to be heard and I locked eyes with Laura. sitting right there. And she said, she reminded me, she goes, "Hey, you wanted this." And she's right. And so, while I'm excited to run again, I'm equally as

057excited that we have seven people running. Uh because if it were only two people running, that would not be good. Very happy to be here today. >> All right, we're just going down the line this time. >> Uh hi everybody. My name is Bob Casease. Um, I've actually been thinking about running for the board for a couple years. Uh, and then I felt really compelled to run this year. Um, so the two big reasons why I wanted to run this year, the first one was, um, next year I'll have a kid in each of the schools. So I'll have a senior, an eighth grader, and a kindergartener. Uh, so we're going to have a really busy moving up day. Uh and um you know having a kid in each of the schools um will have

058a a really unique perspective on the full K through 12 experience. So if you have a kid in one of the schools, I'm going to be paying attention right along with you. Um, the second reason that I wanted to run was, um, my daughter plays sports, my middle son plays sports, the coaches coaching, uh, and I watch and I watch what the coaches are doing and how they interact with the kids. And I don't really I haven't contributed or given back to the community in the way that I see the coaches doing it. And I am trying to figure out where I fit and I think the board of education is it. So that's why I'm running. Thank you. I'll do a sound check. Is that all working fine? Name is Kirsten. >> Sound check

059now. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um, I'm running because the window is closing on my youngest child's participation in Lancing. But as an involved parent, my time is not done. I've been a parent volunteer. There we go. I'm not technically savvy, so if that's a requirement of a good board member, I'm probably not your your vote. Um, but I've been an involved parent and I've been a parent volunteer and my work is not done. And the next step for me is the board of education because I am optimistic about our district's success without being naive to the challenges and barriers to that success. And I want to be an effective member of a functioning, productive board that's prepared to steward the public education. Um, I lost my place there. Uh, and I'm prepared to

060guide the district's policy and governance, fiscal responsibility, curriculum and academic standards, accountability, and community represent representation. I'd like to see every member of this community represented in our students curriculum, in the resources, and in the books that are available to those students. Um, and I want to be able to support student success and each student's individual path to success as they define it. And that path begins here in Lancing in cooperation with the larger Lancing community. And I've been very happy with the education that my children have received here um without being naive to the challenges other children have received. And I want that for all of our children. So, thank thank you all for being here tonight. >> Good evening. I'm Andrew Gross. I'm interested in being on our school board because my whole

061career has been surrounded around education. Um, I have a lot of influence from my family. My wife is currently a teacher here in at Lancing. My stepmom's a New York State certified teacher. My mo my mother taught at Graten and Southern Cuga over her career. And then my dad taught in Africa, Micronesia, and then finally at Southern Cuga for over 30 years, fifth grade. So my whole career I've been I've had a heavy influence on education. And then myself, I substitute taught every day for many years at Southern Cuga and Union Springs School Districts while coaching three varsity sports each year and then moving on to Wells College women's tennis and teaching fizz there. And I am just always thinking about being an advocate for our student body and really putting the students first and

062preparing them for the future, not just in the classroom, but also for our culturally culturally diver diverse um environments and just trying to make them better global citizens overall. And even today when I was teaching uh tennis privately, just it was nice to work with college students that are coming back having graduated locally and now I'm learning more about them on their college endeavors. But I'd like to be more involved in seeing more about um our school district and how we can be even more positive for the coming years. >> Thanks, Andrew. Uh thank you, Ty and Mary Kay, for being here. We appreciate you uh doing this. Hello everybody. Good evening. My name is Matthew Lismbby. A little bit about me, I'm new to Lancing. The last two years, uh, Cornell brought me this

063way. I'm pursuing a PhD at the business school here. The last 20 years, I've been in the business world. I've been in tech. I've been in retail, and spent a lot of time in international business. I've lived in six different countries and several different states. So, I've been exposed to a lot of different school districts, the classrooms, a lot of different styles that I think hopefully I could contribute to a unique perspective and and offering and adding to the value that we already have here in Lancing. What an incredible community this is. Immediately, we've noticed a very big difference here compared to what we're used to. And many people told us when we were looking at moving in, where should we move? And everybody said, go to Lancing. And uh we're so thankful to be

064here. I'm a family man. I have four children, three of which are here at the school. Two in the middle school, one in the elementary, and we got a little guy at the end who's not quite ready for school, but will be soon. Um, I care so much about the family. And outside of the home, where do our kids spend their time? It's at school. It's with our teachers. It's with uh the administrators and educators. And so what happens in this school uh and in this district is deeply interesting and of concern for us uh and for me as a parent and how they learn and what they're learning and that they're being stretched and when they're not getting the help they need that they get the help they need and uh I feel grateful

065to be here and I hope to contribute to the amazing things that are really already happening. Thanks. >> Hi, I'm Monroe Mowski. Um, my daughter is a junior here. She's got one year left and I feel like I need to stay connected to the school because you guys have done so much for my kid. We came here from the other side of the country. Uh, my wife is from here. I've been coming here since around 1988 or so, and I love the area. Took a little bit of convincing to get my wife to come back, but she finally agreed. Um, we looked at lots of schools in the area and Lancing really was the standout. Um, just for the educational end of it, the academic case of it. Uh, but the farther she got into

066it, the more we felt like she was supported in ways that we didn't expect. Um, we're theater and television family and I was hoping my kid would, you know, be able to do some stuff on stage, but I didn't expect it to really happen. The theater program here, the music program here, the coral programs, the art programs are absolutely topnotch, and I don't want to see those go away. I'm a little concerned that, you know, we're being threatened here and there, the sports programs, the all the extra, you know, extracurriculars. I really kind of want to make sure that those stick around. I I really think I can poke at the state and try to get some more money out of them. I'm not really sure how. I have no educational experience whatsoever, but I'm

067willing to learn and try. Can you hear me? Uh my name is Alec McCaulay. Uh, I have three young daughters, a second grader, an incoming kindergartener, and a third that'll start kindergarten in a couple of years. Uh, like many families, when we were deciding where to live around here, we chose Lancing. Um, in large part because of the schools, the teachers, and the community that supports them. We've been here for nine years now. Uh, this campaign's personal to me because I care deeply about the kind of education and environment that our children will grow up in. Uh, profess professionally, I'm a physician, but I come from a family of educators. Uh both my parents were teachers and my only siblings a teacher. Uh I see firsthand how the dedication, patience and hard work that great

068teachers bring to their profession every single day. Uh this has given me a tremendous amount of respect for the public education system and the people who make it possible. Uh I've decided to run for the board of education because I believe that Lancing is at an important moment. We're facing real challenges uh financial pressures, rising costs, and increasing complexity in education. But I also believe that Lancing has tremendous strengths to build upon. We have talented teachers and staff, engaged families, motivated students, and a community that truly values education. My approach is simple and grounded in what I believe matters most for our kids in our community. First, strong academics must remain the core mission of the district. Every student should leave Lancing prepared for whatever path comes next, whether that's college, a career, technical training,

069military service, or another meaningful future. Second, we need to continue supporting and trusting great teachers. Strong schools are built by strong educators, and recruiting and retaining excellent teachers must remain a priority. Third, we need fiscal responsibility and transparency. The community deserves thoughtful stewardship of taxpayer dollars, clear communication about challenges and decisions, and leadership that focuses on long-term sustainability while protecting what makes Lancing special. And finally, I believe the board of education should model professionalism, collaboration, and respect. At the end of the day, we may not always agree on every issue, but we should be able to work together constructively and keep students at the center of every decision. Our schools function best when we focus on practical solutions that help students succeed. I'm running because I care about Lancing. I care about public education. >>

070Thank you for your statement. Your time has allotted to keep things equal. We have to move on to the question and answer uh section now. So, moving on to the Q&A. Each candidate will have up to two minutes to answer each question. The response order will rotate each round. However, we're going to start with the same rotation as the opening statements. So, starting with Matthew Bogle, the question is, what do you believe the role of board the board of education is, and how would you contribute effectively and serve in that role? That's a great question. Um, you know, it's one I've actually thought about quite a bit. uh when you're on camera and and every meeting's recorded there's there's really nothing that's I mean there's executive session but everything is forward facing all the every

071document we have it's all there um and so really it's a position of leadership um I believe leaders are held to a to a higher standard uh in everything they do you know even when I'm having personal conversations with community members It's, hey, I'm going to be straight down the middle every single time. Um, you know, I'll have my opinions, but if someone's coming to me with an issue, it's I want to hear them out and not inject my own, you know, potential biases first. So yeah, I really it's a it's centered around leadership and um you know, one one thing I've been thinking about without going into it too much is there's a lot of how we act versus how we say um or what we say we're going to do. It's um been

072on this whole kick of just uh forgiveness. And I'm I'm rambling a little bit there, but what I'm I guess what I'm trying to say is acting in the way that you talk. So, it's not all right. Well, you know what? We got to tone everything down. End of statement. It's not tone everything down unless this happens, then I got to fire back. Uh and so I I've tried my best to do that. I know it's not always easy. Um and I hope moving forward we can all do that to some extent a little bit more than uh not obviously I'm the only incumbent here but um just in our everyday actions um when I was thinking about running for the board I was like what does the board actually do because I wasn't sure.

073Uh and so I started reading and coming to meetings and uh for the ones that I couldn't come to I watched the whole past year of um the board meetings on YouTube to get a sense of what is the board actually responsible for. Um, and it's truly just it's it's governance, fiscal responsibility, and making sure that our school district is on the right path and set and helping to set the direction of what the district needs to make sure that every kid that comes through here is getting what they need to launch once they're done. That's it. I mean, it it feels very simple to me what the role is. And I think that we need to make sure that we ask questions and that we're in in that role, we are a support structure

074to make sure that the teachers and the administration have all the things they need to make sure that every kid, no matter where they live in the district or what they need, they're getting what they need so that when they're done here, we've done a really good job and they're able to go on to that next phase. whatever it is. And that's what I see the role. I'll do better this time. Um, I see the role of the board as being a steward for that public education and each member of the board being willing to do the work towards that governance, serving on the committees that they're assigned to, reporting back to the board and the community about that. having healthy dialogue, healthy debate where we seek out alternative perspectives from the community so that

075we're making the best possible decisions for the most amount of students and that where the more silent voices are sought out so that we get those perspectives when reading through the complexity of the educational policies that are ahead of us. Um there is an element of excitement and spirit that can go with education, but education is also difficult at times. And one of the things that all of our children are learning and we have to lead by example is how to save and hold space for people whose points of view are different from our own. And remembering that in Lancing there's room for all of those points of view. But we've got to coordinate together and the board's got to um disagree in amenable ways um so that 1 + 1 equals 3. And I

076know that's very funky math um so that we come at better solutions for all of us. Thank you. I think that the board of education is first and foremost a representation for the full student body but also as a a strong liaison between the taxpayers, the students, the faculty and staff and our administration so that there can be clear communication between everybody and I think that board of education members should have a strong character, should have integrity, should also O show that they are genuine and that they are honest and really portraying exactly who they are and just being a strong communicative voice for everyone. >> Well, we've heard quite a few good uh fantastic definitions. So adding to that, I think uh without repeating kind of the book definition of governments and and setting

077that strategic direction and working with the superintendent and uh really closely and helping guide the school and and the staff, I would say really that we it's a sacred duty to represent your community and to use tax dollars in a way that is most effective. you know really that that is really a special opportunity and responsibility that we would have as board members and I take that very seriously and I think it's it's also our responsibility to be one team and to recognize that the goal is to help our students and help them have the best experience and the best outcomes help them be challenged and pushed and help them reach some of their goals and uh prepare them for what they're going in the face when they leave uh this school district that they're

078ready. Um so saying that, how can I contribute? I would say I've owned my own business. I've worked with uh large companies. I've consulted um I've had different leadership experience. So hopefully I could add to something there. And um really to seek to understand. I think good information leads to good decision- making. And so I think really understanding what is important to our community, what is important to parents, what is happening in the classroom, get the teachers opinions and and thoughts and suggestions on their challenges and what's going well and what's not working well and working with the the staff and superintendent and and the the principles and really gathering that information and especially the students and great putting that together to, you know, provide direction that will most be most sustainable and most effective

079for our community, but especially for our students. >> I'm voting for Matt. Um I all of these things. Yes. Um yeah, we're the connection between the taxpayer and the superintendent. I'd like to think that we can listen to teachers requests. I'd like to think that we can make everything that everybody wants happen. I realize that that's I I want it to be more likely than it is. I feel like we need more money. I feel like we can't tap on the taxpayers anymore for it. I think I would like to be creative in finding some more money. I don't know that the board is necessarily that role, but I'd like to try to make it a piece of that at least. That's it. I think as far as you know the rest of it sounds

080like these guys have it. >> Uh yeah. Yeah. So, I I see the role of the board um as guidance and oversight of the school system and the administration, making sure that um the priorities that we feel as a community are important um have a voice and that we're meeting those priorities and we're meeting those goals and the ships being steered in the right direction. I think it's accountability as well. I think um accountability to our students, that we're setting them up for success in life, regardless of what that looks like for them. Um that we're giving them a good education, but also giving them a well-rounded education so that they can succeed in all different paths. Uh I think it's accountability in good stewardship of our local resources. I mean, resources aren't infinite, obviously.

081We just had an hourlong meeting about that. um and making sure that we're doing the best we can to meet all the goals that we have with the resources that we have. Um you know, I also think another important role of the board is being good listeners. Um, we are the conduit to the school for the community in many ways and making sure we're listening to the community, making sure we're listening to the stakeholders in the school system and and and making this work as best as we can uh so that we have a good community uh good school system for our students. >> All right. So, question two. The district's mission emphasizes joy, belonging, equity, and empathy. Where do you believe the district is demonstrating them well, particularly in areas of equity and inclusion,

082and where is there room for growth? So, for this round, we're going to start with Robert Casease. Um, go to Kirsten, so on so on, so on, and then Matthew Mo will go last there. Um, you know, I see this the most in sports because it's the place where I get to observe my kids. You know, I don't get to see them in the classroom. I hear the stories that they bring home from school um about um you know, our daughter has shared some stories about inclusivity. Um, so I know that it's a it's a value of the school district and I hear the stories, but really where I get to see it um is either on the court or on the field with our kids. Um, I think the thing that I I really

083like the most is that um I know that it's really embedded in the um the core values because like we'll hear stories of kids having some challenges at school and the kids will come home and and they'll talk about it and they'll have feelings about it and we'll talk about it. Um, and I know some of that is because we have shared those values at home and they're things that we strongly believe in and teach at home. Um, but I know they're being reinforced by the teachers and the staff and the administration. Um, and I think it's it's really real. It's really important. Um, I think my wife and I have done a really good job with what we've done to raise our kids, but a big part of who they have become and who

084they are becoming is a it's a a lot to do with what they see and feel and are impacted by in the school every day with their friends and the teachers um and the the modeling that's done here. So, um, I'm very grateful for the school district for that. I think we see that spirit loud and proud during all of the musicals and the plays and the music program. That's where it's the most obvious to me. And my children don't participate in the musicals. They may be in band and symphony, but they weren't in the musicals. And I'm more excited about those because of the spirit that I see on display. Completely unbiased. Um, it shows up on the athletic fields as well in the ways that Bob was describing. Um, but I also see

085it in the quieter moments. The way that they reach out to one another during really difficult personal times. Um, the way during the pandemic teachers showed up at the end of everyone's driveways to check in on how individual kids were doing. Um, and to be able to show some kind of FaceTime. Um, and when the kids are walking the talk of kindness, not just spouting the slogans and the memes that they see and that we see in the flyers, but really demonstrating it with one another. Um, and cheering each other on through hardships. Um, and there is a fierceness in how they protect one another. if they think a child has been wronged or disrespected by a teacher, we've heard about it very very quickly and it's always through the lens of whatever that age

086group is. And when we've looked into it, we've discovered there's always much more to that story. Um, and so I've really appreciated the parent teacher um, and parent administrator partnership that we get to have at Lancing. Thank you for that question. I think that there's a strong um enthusiasm for our our community and for the students for all the events here whether it's the orchestra, the coral performances, the band, there's always strong attendance and same with the athletics is that the school support really shows at those times when the families are coming together. And I think that um you know in the elementary school it's a good day to be a Bobcat. We emphasize that um and that we the kids really feel that when they see it and they hear it and I feel

087like the the students are proud to be here at the Lansancy School District that they do feel like family. Joy stands out to me as part of our mission statement. >> I hope that it's appropriate that I share this, but one example that comes to my mind about this slogan was with my daughter Venice who's in sixth grade. And you know, she was new last year. This is her second year. She's had to move to way too many schools in in way too many countries over the last five years. And she came to the school and Miss Thompson just wrapped her around with her arms and she would tell us so often she would come home just ecstatic, joyful, saying, "Guess whose office I got to eat eat lunch in today? Mrs. Thompson and then

088she would go off and just talk about how much fun she had and what they talked about. And I feel like she is in a perfect example of what this community represents and what this slogan means at least to my child and to us as parents where our children can come home and they can be excited to share what's happening throughout the day, the interactions with their teachers. you know what the things that they've learned and the ways that they've grown or the challenges that they're working through are making progress. And I think there's more room for us to be like her and to take that spirit that Mrs. Thompson brought and to continue to u show that throughout our, you know, this slogan. So, it's not just words as we've heard, but it's it's

089action and it's real. And I think many of our other teachers, they do that. And I think there's opportunities for me to learn more, well, where might we improve? And I look forward to doing that to really understanding more fully where we can seek that opportunity for improvement. Thanks. Um, I think I've seen it most. Um, she was invited to join the swim team, which kind of bowled me over. Uh, she gets invited every year to join the swim team. She loves it. Uh, I don't know that it's something she's dying to do, but she does it and she's so supported by her friends and her swim team and her coach. The theater did I'm assuming everybody just saw Shrek on stage. That was over a hundred kids on stage. I don't know how many

090of these kids really want to do this for a living later, but it doesn't matter. They they help each other. The support that they have between one another is ridiculous. I don't remember ever feeling that supported through my school years. I just don't. And different time. We're all teaching them at home to be that way. They're teaching them at school to be that way. And it's working. They're supporting each other. Let's keep that going, right? They're happy. They call each other. They stick up for each other. The support is just unreal. just kid to kid with the teachers, with us. It's it's this is what it should be. Let's keep going. Um yeah, I I think that these goals are great and they lead to pride and school spirit and and make this whole experience

091great. You know, a couple of the ones that I think are really important are belonging and equity. And that's kind of the essence of a public school system is a place every kid is welcomed, every kid can belong, every kid can be supported in the way that they need to be supported uh to be successful in whatever success looks like for them. And that's that's the the core function of a public school system. So, I think those are super important. I think empathy is super important. Um, it's a tough time to be a kid, uh, with social media and AI and and all these things coming at them. Um, that ability to interact with others and feel for others and understand where they're coming from and see their viewpoint and understand, you know, why they

092think the way they think and and and and learn how to compromise and meet in the middle and resolve conflict. I mean, these are these are the skills you have to know to to live in the world. And um, so, you know, I think I think that we do a great job with that here. And you can see it in the school spirit that the kids have and going to the plays. I take my daughters to the plays and it's amazing and the this place is packed and everyone's proud and other kids are there and so I I love these goals. I think we're doing a great job, but you know, we just got to keep up the good work. So, I uh as a part of my job, I interact with a lot of

093school districts um all over the state. You know, there's I think there's 640 public school districts and I've probably interact with half of them this year going through what the district went through with memorializing our mission statement. Um how you get there. If anyone's read good to great, they they talk about you marry your mission and sort of date your model like yeah the model can change how you deliver it can change but your mission is your mission. Uh so I see a lot of other districts missions. as I see a lot of other districts implementation. Um, I'll say on on ours, it was a process I was very happy to be a part of and very encouraged to see. You know, those were open meetings for feedback. Uh, the district put out emails, hey,

094we're doing this big survey. We're we're developing our mission. It's going to be set right on the homepage. Let's get feedback. And we got a lot of feedback. So, if I'm grading the district on joy, belonging, equity, inclusion, I'm giving A's on those grades. Uh, also on our mission statement, I just want to, one of my things is, uh, leadership with character and courage. And, you know, every year, even last year, you know, I wasn't on stage last year, but you try and think what questions are going to be asked and you you prepare for it, and you never quite get it. Um, so I wrote a lot of quotes from presidents and and authors and one of them that I wrote down related to our mission is courage. Uh, it's been said many ways,

095but courage is the most important virtue because it is the virtue upon which all others sit. And so I I think we're again a all around the board on this. Uh I hear constant examples from my kids as as all the other uh members up here have said, but all positive stuff right now. >> Thank you everyone. Um we'll now be moving on to question three. In light of ongoing budget challenges, how would you maintain and expand student opportunities while keeping the budget within the tax cap? Uh we'll be starting with Kristen Enov today uh this question and then moving down ending with Mr. Casease. >> Would you repeat the question please? >> Yes. In light of ongoing budget challenges, how would you maintain and expand student opportunities while keeping the budget within the tax

096cap? >> So there isn't a magic wand to make all of that happen easily. Um, I would do that in collaboration with members of the community who have the connections to bring their own skills and talents into the community. Um, to partner with our students. I think a initiative that's being revived is this community day that's coming up next Tuesday and to continue building on the connections that come out of that to increase opportunities for students. The other place where I see opportunity for continued growth is through the civics course that's been taught um and using that curriculum for students to launch farther out into the communities for opportunities that don't cost money um but provide enrichment with community engagement. Um think locally or think globally, act locally would be how I would approach it.

097to keep it fun for the students. I think bringing in new outreach programs, new opportunities um from the Ithaca area that will keep it interesting for them to give them new experiences. also utilizing um to the best that we can current uh supplies and equipment that can be reused and also in our classrooms just being creative with creating new activities um that may feel like that they are going on field trips and to other programs but keeping them here on campus. >> This is a a challenging question. Um, the challenge is finding the right balance, right? None of us want to pay more taxes than we have to, but I think most of us don't want to see any of these important activities go away. And in fact, we want to see an expansion of

098those things. I think we can get creative at least in in the business world. I face different challenges. You know, you always want the next employee. You always need more resources. That's kind of the answer is more, more, more. But often you have these restraints where you can't do that. So what do you do? You got to get creative. And I think I think we could get creative. I think the we we want to maintain and focus on those activities that are most important and focus on everything else that can can we can get rid of. And I think we've talked about some of those things the lowhanging fruit and the uh more negotiable I think activities that don't impact the students in the classroom as much. I think uh in the past experience we've

099done fundraising in the community. I think there's community members that that might be an opportunity. There's businesses to get involved that we've I've seen that in the past where we get sponsorships. If there are certain programs or activities that we really want to fight for, let's fight for them, but let's get creative. Um because the money is out there. It's not often in our taxes, but it's out there in different ways. And we can explore those ways. And it doesn't hurt to ask. I found it doesn't hurt to ask and I think when people find out uh when students are really eager to raise money or to increase or add an activity that people that are able they they're willing to to contribute and that might be something we we think about. >> I absolutely

100wholeheartedly agree with Matt. I think there's more money out there. I think we need to be creative and find some. I think companies have done this forever. Companies that have no money who managed to stay alive by finding it, begging for it, searching for it. Uh our board has changed the K through6 swim program, but not changed it. They've done something to it. They managed to save us, I think, $70,000. Is that right? I'm sorry. I I believe they've adjusted it so that we save 70K. Obviously, there's spots where we can do that. It's not easy. We can try, but I really do think that, like Matt said, being more creative and searching out more dollars is is definitely a way to go. Let's try that. >> Yeah. Um, these are these are tough decisions

101that have to be made. Um, a lot of the challenges we're facing here are not unique to Lancing. I mean, healthcare costs are rising everywhere in this country. Um, electricity costs are rising everywhere in this country and and school districts and municipalities all over the country are dealing with these these same tough decisions. Um, you know, I I I agree with everyone that, you know, trying to look for other options, whether it's, you know, community involvement in helping with education, but at the end of the day, these are going to continue to be tough tough conversations. And I think part of our role in the board is making sure that we're transparent about how these decisions are being made. Um, you know, I think a lot of people when they understand and they and they

102and they see these presentations, it clicks. It makes sense. No one's, you know, trying to, you know, sneak money in. You know, these are these are all going somewhere important for our students. And we have to protect the core academic purpose of our public schools, but we also need to make sure that our kids have opportunities outside of school to grow in other ways, too. And not just learn the basics, but learn all those softer skills that are just as important in the real world. And this is going to continue to be challenging. And, you know, I I don't have a magic bullet. Um, no one does right now, but I, you know, I'm willing to listen and think of other ideas and work with the community and listen to those ideas and see what

103might help. >> And I apologize for not hearing. We have got Matt Hector, Matt B, Matt L. There's always like five Matts in a room I'm in. Um, this question is one, you know, one of the things I wrote down was you will say some unpopular things tonight. Uh this may be one of them. Um I'm sure anyone in here is aware. We we have our our certainly there's been some disagreements in our town. Uh my personal belief is we may have a year or two of some challenging financial times ahead. Obviously there's a big tax thing. We don't don't need to get into that. Um but how do you make up for loss taxes with the power plant going down? We're on year seven of a of a 10-year sort of easement of of

104that coming off the books. And so, yeah, it's not going to be easy. I mean, you really have to get the trust. I mean, no one knows the the schools better than our administrators. Um, that's something the the longer I've been in my seat, the more I've understood is that, you know, things certain things trick go top down. Some go bottom up, too. The teachers know exactly what's going in the classrooms. They report up. that eventually gets up to the superintendent and you know some of those decisions of course the board gives their input. Um but we rely a lot on what the district is telling us too. Uh and one thing I I'll point out I I say this knowing that all seven of us are in full agreement. I'm not saying this for

105brownie points, but when we talk about things that are like what our teachers do, our teachers just go above and beyond all the time. And again, I'm sure everyone here agrees. In uh two board meetings ago, the LFA mentioned that they're making a one concession, financial concession. That's not something that had to be done. But when you talk about one lancing and what we're all doing, like all this little chip in advocacy, I mean, let's not underestimate the advocacy part of it to New York State, but um there's a lot we can do. It's not going to be easy. Um, I feel like the the magic words in that question are within the tax cap. Um, and I think Alex said it that there's no magic bullet. I mean, the question is what do we

106do to maintain and expand opportunities? The budget is before you. Vote for it. Like that is what we are capable of right now. There is no magic solution. And as board members, the only thing that we can do is work together because every school district, I mean, how much of our budget is accounted for is at 80% we operate within the margins of what we can actually do and how much flexibility that we have. So I feel like the the thing that we can do to maintain and expand opportunities is to work together, listen to each other, figure out no matter what differences we have, we need to work together to figure out the best product to put on the table for each kid. And there's so many different needs and there's so many different

107services that we we need to have to be able to meet the needs of each kid. I really feel like working together is the way that we get that done. >> All right, thank you so much. So, going on to our fourth question now, and we'll start with Mr. Gross. Some community members are asking for greater transparency. What does transparency mean to you, and what suggestions do you have for increasing it? Transparency to me is being honest and straightforward. And I think the important um view on that is being transparent through the whole school year all year round. So that it keeps anxiety down for the local residents when times get tough and when then there's time for voting coming up or then there's presentations. But I believe that year-round transparency is crucial uh for

108long-term success and that way there's a sense of feeling of more trust um between all parties. For me, transparency is really communication and understanding. When I moved here, there was a lot of things that I didn't understand and I started coming to the board meetings because I wanted to understand and it's it's really there's so much happening. It can be really difficult to understand some of the details behind the budget, some of the details behind the board decisions and and other decisions. And I think transparency is constant communication to help everybody understand. You know, I didn't understand for for many months the limitations that the state, you know, puts on us as a school district. I thought those might lie with the school district and I didn't understand why certain decisions were being made. Um,

109and I hope that we can have that transparency where we are in constant communication. Uh, we have integrity and honesty in that and in a way that we seek to understand and help others understand the decisions being made because really the decisions we're making or we would make as a board are for all of us. And so all of us, if we're willing to put in that time to understand, we should understand. Um, it's a challenge also because some people don't want to put in that time and they they hear this or that and they make a conclusion. But I think we should do our best um to have that constant communication. We have nothing to hide and we should have nothing to hide because we are here to represent the district and represent you

110as parents and community members and students. Am I working? I think I'm working. >> Wish me luck. All right. Um, transparency. Yeah, it is constant communication so that everybody knows where the dollars are going, how the decisions are being made. And to be completely honest, I find this board to be nothing but transparent. Every piece of information I've ever wanted, I've been able to find or talk to somebody about. I I don't see where we need more transparency. We are as transparent or they are as transparent as they can possibly or as as they they're transparent. That's it. Get online, come to the board meetings. It's all there. Nobody's hiding anything. They're difficult decisions. There's sometimes I feel like the board isn't terribly proud of announcing how they came to where they came to, but

111they'll tell you. Ask them. >> Yeah. Um, I mean, I agree. I think I don't think the issue is necessarily transparency itself. I think all the information is there. I mean, it's online. It's being presented on a weekly basis. I I do think though the district could do a better job in how they present that information to people and meeting people where they're at a little bit better. Um, there's the there's the novel version, you know, the long version which has everything. I mean, that is transparency. But you know sometimes having things in more concise messaging, clear messaging via different modalities can be helpful. I mean people get their information in different ways and um you know having having those options so that these things are more digestible to people I think would help the

112community feel like they understand it better which indirectly would help them feel like it's more transparent even though again I I mean I think the information is all there. um you know Einstein or one of those super smart people once said like the the true sign of intellect is being able to describe something complex simply and if you can do that I mean you really understand it and and I think I think that's where we could improve uh as a board and as a school system is is making this um more manageable for people to understand more easily. That's a great describing something simply where uh I just I actually wrote that down because it is tough. I'm at a point with with a six-year-old and a nine-year-old and I try to explain things to

113my nine-year-old without just just giving the facts. And that's very tough to do at times. Dad, why are these people protesting? Well, he just So, uh that's been like really on my mind. Um, and Monroe, I appreciate your comments on the transparency. I'll say something somewhat adjacent because, um, I I've sat through Chris and Kate's budget thing. I think this is the fifth time. I also listened on the radio on the couple podcasts. um a a way that I operate and this is again adjacent to it is I feel like a lot of times the scientific method has just been abandoned and it is observe insert opinion conclusion and oftent times it it takes out the question of evidence and or or um ignoring evidence sometimes where it's like not that evidence the other evidence

114and So, you know, a lot of times, uh, you probably see me writing at a lot of board meetings. I'm trying to I don't remember a lot, so I always try and write things down. But, um, I like to challenge any idea I have. So, if it's a topic that comes up, um, I'm going to think about it and the first thing I'm going to do is go to, okay, what is the push back on this? And if it's bad, then I know my idea probably wasn't good to start with. But if it's good, then you research hypothesis, pressure test it more, talk one-on-one with people, get other opinions, and then come to a conclusion. So, um, in short, I do think we're doing a good job on transparency. Um, but I would just push

115back on on anyone and say, hey, look at how you came to a conclusion and pressure test your own ideas. Um, I actually really like something that Alex said, you know, I mean, everything is out on the website. You can go out there and I mean, I've done it to prepare for this. I've gone out and spent hours and hours going through just to trying to on-ramp a little bit to so that I didn't, you know, be flat. you know, if I end up on the board, I want to have a pretty good um runway of understanding and um it is all out there. Like everything is out on uh the website, but it's a lot. It is so overwhelming. Um and what is transparent to me isn't necessarily transparent to somebody else. The way

116that I take in information is not the same as everyone. So what I can interpret as completely clear and understandable may not be to somebody else. Um, and I think that's where like, you know, sometimes disagreements come in is because there's a fear of, um, not wanting to ask questions because the information is out there. And if you ask a question about it, does it make you does it make you seem like you don't understand or does it put people not on the same ground and immediately on the defense because there's there's questions and we're seeking to understand better. Um, I feel like, you know, transparency and communication, it's there's a piece of it in there that's being tolerant of each other and not having egos and everyone being able to ask open honest questions

117and get open honest feedback so that we're all making decisions from the same information base whether we can take the whole the whole site in and understand all of it or need um bite-sized cliffnotes version of it. So I think transparency and communication um and tolerance go hand in hand quite a bit. >> I think the other dimension to transparency is revealing the process with how we got there. How did we get to these decisions? Um, almost every time I've had questions about something that didn't sit right with me, there was a piece of information that was missing from my own comprehension. And maybe it was out there, maybe it wasn't. Um, but it doesn't always click at the same time that all the information is downloaded to the rest of the community. So, it's

118it's the honesty that people have brought up. um not being afraid to make difficult decisions that might be unpopular, but explaining how we got there, why we got there, and what the missing pieces of information might be to someone's comprehension. Because so many of these decisions are made with bodies of people or on topics that are not part of everyone's everyday vocabulary. And so there's a learning curve to the issues that are being presented. Um, and so it's the how, the why, and the process is all part of transparency >> and the motivation. >> Thank you everyone. We're now going to move to our fifth question, which is uh, concerns about aging facilities and maintenance have been raised by some students and community members while others feel the district's facilities are adequate. How do you

119feel the How do you view the balance between maintaining current facilities and investing in future ready upgrades and how would you support that work? >> We're going to be starting with Mr. Lizenby this time uh and continuing the order as we have so far. >> Thanks Ty. Do you mind just reading that one more time? >> Yeah, it's a lot. Sorry. Concerns about aging facilities and maintenance have been raised by some students and community members while others feel the district's facilities are adequate. How do you view the balance between maintaining current facilities and investing in future ready upgrades and how would you support that work? >> Yeah, thanks Ty. So maybe the is that referring to the bathrooms in the high school perhaps? Uh that's been a common topic in the board meetings the last

120year which uh seemed that you found a creative solution to that which I'm I'm happy to hear. That's an interesting question. I think again we got to be creative. We we have a limit with the money that we have and we want to use that as wisely and as best as possible and where it makes sense. I think certain things would require to use the budget money uh on this maintenance or facilities as we've discussed. But other things like the bathrooms, we were a little bit tight on that money as uh was presented. So what do we do? We find other creative solutions. And you guys, I believe it was you too actually that came up with that. Was that right? So, um, we have some very bright people, bright students like the both of

121you, other students, other uh, educators and administrative and and staff. I believe that we can find a balance. If there's something that is disruptive or needs attention, if we can't find it in the budget, let's find a solution together, whether it's paying students or other. So there's always a way to find a solution, but it's often not in what we think immediately. Takes a little effort in coming together. Finally, a subject that I'm comfortable with. I've spent the last 25 years in the trades and I can tell you that staying on top of it, knowing what's going wrong before it goes wrong is really kind of key to try to keeping the cost down. I think we do sometimes have a bit of a disconnect between administration and the work that is getting done sometimes.

122Um I feel like I can certainly fill that gap. Um it's expensive. It's not getting cheaper. The buildings are old. We're struggling to stay on top of it, I feel like, sometimes. But maybe what we need to be doing is combing through them annually or monthly to figure out where we're starting to lose ground and try to close that up with the yeah with the help of students with the help of anybody we can get really. I think that we're held to uh I shouldn't get into it. I there's a cost that I think the state insists upon for labor that is a little outrageous, but we can talk about that later. >> Um yeah, facilities and capital expenditure, you know, these are these are big buildings, these are, you know, big projects, athletic fields,

123all these sorts of things. I mean, they're always a tough pill to swallow um because the numbers are always big. You know, I think it's important that these things get diffused out over time. I mean, which is which is largely what I think we're doing. But, you know, if you spread these things out over time and you make the assumption that over time you're going to have to make upgrades as you go along, um, that's a lot easier for budgeting purposes. You know, if you wait till things get in disrepair and you have to make a big capital expenditure to fix it, that that that is a lot harder and makes budgeting yeartoear much more difficult. So, you know, making uh, you know, appropriation funds and things like that that where you can dip into

124them to make uh, improvements on a on an ongoing basis is is definitely the way to do something like this. Um, I want everyone to visualize that was alive then. I don't know if we have any students here, but um, the playground I started in elementary school in kind of looked like the Myers Park one, but it wasn't the like synthetic wood. It was bunch of towers, had a raggedy chain bridge, and that was built by all of our parents. It was at a time, it was built in the mid 90s, and the district, was that main wall? The district bought the lumber and they said, "Hey, who's willing to work?" And like, no joke, all of our parents, and this this was common. It was just an Instagram thing about this I saw. But

125everyone's parents chipped in and did their part and built the thing. And now I bring that up because you can't do that now, unfortunately. I wish we could. I would love to. Um, but there's like with more administrators, there's so much more reporting, so many more things by the book. um capital projects. I think we were on a pace of one every two years and um we've sort of fallen off that a little bit. Obviously, money's tight for everybody right now. Um and so that's pushed a little bit. Those things do have to continue at some point because facilities do age. I bring up the playground just because and I think everyone else mentioned like getting creative. I think it's more of the spirit of how do we put our minds together? Uh it's like

126the next week we've got the high school event where a bunch of parents and community members are going to be in and teaching the kids. I I couldn't be more thrilled for that and I think it's going to be a springboard and it's a lot of work for Pat. So, but it's going to be a springboard to bigger and better things. And I think questions like facilities, you know, this year was, as Matt mentioned, there was a lot from the student input. Uh it's going to be a springboard to more not going to be easy, but um we are moving in the right direction. Yeah, I think a big part of it it really does come down to smart planning. And I mean um I participated in a few of the finance committee meetings leading

127up um to the preparation of the budget. And like every time that I have listened to Kate and Chris um present on the budget, I'm continually amazed by not only how much goes into it, but how much future casting is done. Um, I think one of the things that we'll vote on is the creation of a new reserve fund. And I mean, that's that is an effort to look forward five to 10 years to try to build a reserve for things that come up that are just that have to get done. I mean, upgrading our facilities is like putting a new roof on your house. Like, you have to do it. And these things don't go away. They have to get done. Um, I think of um earlier we were talking about the AC getting

128put in in the middle school. I mean, I'm pretty sure that my elementary school did not have AC when I was a little kid cuz it was hot in there and like you cannot pay attention when it's 90 degrees. Like it is impossible. So like upgrading maintaining but then upgrading the facilities that we have it really impacts the like the core classroom experience and the ability of the kids to sit there and want to come to school and and listen and learn and and all the things. So these things have to happen and I think a big piece of it it does come down to very intentional um forecasting and budgeting and I think we're doing a great job of that. I've lived in the district long enough now to see us through several capital

129projects. um from the wish list that came out of what we wanted for the next round to the implementation when the pool reopened um to the latest Bobcat Pride uh renovations that included building upgrades. So, I know that that future forecasting is happening. Um, and I trust in that and I've been equally impressed with um, how clear the foresight is that Kate and Chris bring to the table in the finance committees. Um, the question as I heard it when it was first put out was um, closing the gap between what's adequate and what we aspire for facil for facilities. The changes that I'd like to see in the next round of capital projects would be to upgrade all of the labs and the science classrooms. That's what I think needs to come next. Um I'm

130sure there are other things that I don't see as readily. Um but that would be what would be on my wish list and to drive um an equal balance between what's happening in the academic facilities and what's happening what's slated next for the fields and the sports. Um, and I'd still like to see a theater like this in the high school someday so that we have one of each. Um, but I can dream big, but I can also squeeze the budget strings very tight and go back to living on rice and beans when we have to. Thank you. >> I've been out of coaching for years, but I can tell you I've been in all the local school districts, class A down to class D over the years, all the local ones. And I honestly

131we have it really good here at Lancing. Uh the overall environment, the level of facilities, um I believe that you know using the reserve fund for moderate uh renovations uh each year will help us stay at the top and um but ma major overdoings I don't feel that we we need at this time because we have had some recent major projects. But um yeah, I think just compliments to our school district is that we are in a really good spot already. >> All right, thank you. So I'm moving on to question number six, which is about cell phones. Um cell phones, screen time, and AI and technology in general are important topics in education today. What are your views on the role of technology in education? And how do you see artificial intelligence impacting teaching,

132learning, and instructional? All right, really fun one. >> I don't see a role for AI in education, at least in, you know, K through 12. I don't know if that makes me popular. I don't know if I care if it makes me popular. I would like to see more technical classes. I sure would like to see kids being taught podcast production since apparently it's a thing. Um, I would love to see kids more involved in the actual building of these things rather than just the use of I think I'm going to stop there. Um, I think there was a few different things mentioned there. So, you know, cell phones, there's good data at this point that kids should not be on cell phones in school. I mean, that that's that's pretty clear-cut. Um, you know,

133some of these other things, uh, like technology and AI, I mean, this is the future. We can't, you know, can't be blind to that. I don't think we should necessarily be using those to learn things. Like, I'm not sure we should be using AI to help us write papers. I'm against all that. But I do think we need to understand them and teach kids about them and think about ways that the education we provide them can fit into a world where these things exist. And that that's tough and this is changing. I mean chat GPT is three years old, four years old. I mean this stuff is changing fast. But the core education should you know should still be done by teachers. Um, I think there are basic things you need to know to be

134a contributing member of society and if we're just relying on technology to tell us those things, we're not going to truly learn them. So, I don't think they should be a core function of how kids learn. Um, but I do think it's important that we realize this is the future and we need to and we need to incorporate that into what we teach kids so that they can be a part of this future. Yeah, I was uh the cell phone thing was going around uh in my time on the board and I remember a lot of opposition statewide to it. Uh and I was with the governor. I mean I I'm not particularly been a big fan of the governor um specifically with the electric bus mandate, but um this was one thing I was

135on board for is you know just because we have this technology doesn't mean you got to go full steam. I feel like it was just sort of launched too quickly. I mean, I was two years in college without a cell phone, two years with, and so I'm in that uh zenial spot where we kind of had the best of both worlds. So, um I I'm fully on board with less screen time, less tablet time, less everything time. Ask my kids, "Daddy, please can we two more minutes?" um as it comes to AI, it is a quick evolving um topic and yeah, you don't want it to be a weakness but you also don't want to rely on it. Um just asking you can still trick it quite easily. Uh, one thing I don't want our

136students to learn and I don't want, you know, my my colleagues, my friends, is too much of a reliance on it. And I say that just because, you know, my favorite political cartoon right now, it's like one picture says, "Hey, look, I took my three bullet points and AI made it into a huge long thing so I look like I'm fancy." And on the other side, it's, "Hey, look, look at this long email. AI took it down to three bullet points so I don't have to read the whole thing." It's like what are you actually using it for? Um I don't ever want to lose my critical thinking. Uh we have people in my company that you know I'll submit a bid and they'll say let's just run it through AI to spellch check. It's

137like absolutely not. How I speak not refined at times but that's who I am. I don't want our students to ever lose their voice because AI is writing something for them. Like the critical thought part has to be at the base of it. And uh that's where I stand. Um AI, I'm going to skip cell phones and screens and just talk about AI. Um we have been very thoughtful with the organization that I work. We have been very thoughtful and methodical in how we have rolled out specifically chat GPT in um in a thoughtful way that is utilized in the best way to complete our work. So I know how we use it at my organization. I have clients that have started like they have their smartphone and they have put the chat GPT app

138on their phone and I have watched this older generation gain so much agency from having a resource like that. So, and I use AI every day. I love AI. I don't know what it's like to be a teacher. I don't know what it's like to try to command the attention of 15 to 21 kids. I think was the highest number that we saw. I have no idea what that's like. I I can imagine and it why I'm not a teacher. I can imagine how difficult that is. However, I think our job as um prospective members of the board is to understand what challenges the teachers and the administration and all of the staff are facing when it comes to AI because it's moving fast. And I don't know what it's like to try to stand

139up there and and help kids learn how to use it, but not to the point where they don't critically think. So, as a board member, I'm kind of at the mercy of listening to the teachers and the administration and hearing the challenges that they're having, educating our kids, and listening and figuring out collectively together how we help them make decisions and policy that helps them teach our kids the best way possible. So AI, that horse is out of the barn and over the state line. Um, and there's no bringing it back. Um, it's a tool, but it's not a replacement for knowledge. And I remember having a parent teacher conference with a teacher that's in this room now, sharing an essay that my child wrote and being very impressed with how well he wrote it.

140And my first reaction, I am ashamed to say, was, "Did he really write it or was it AI?" And she laughed and she said, "No, he really wrote it. Let me show you how I know how he wrote it." So, I know. And circled in green ink, I believe it was. Um, all of the clues that she knew that were his own thinking and not AI. So, there are ways to use it. Kind of like free speech. It's not totally free. its time, place, and manner of how we use it. Um, we've just concluded uh my younger son's college search, which was a number of business schools from all the different tiers, the top tiers to what he considered his safety schools. And the number one thing every business school is talking about is how

141they're using AI and how they're using it as a tool, but how they're also reigning it in in how it's used in the classroom. Um, I think that the cell phone use policy uh that I did participate on that committee for has made a huge difference in the interactions that are happening between students during their study hall time, during their lunches. I see it as having been a big success. I also know college admissions has found it frustrating because they used to be able to get in touch with students during the school day. So, they're going to have to rework how they're doing that through our guidance counselors. So, thank you. >> My wife and I have a blended family of 10 children. That's a lot of devices. I like that there's no cell phones

142in schools. I think it's a healthy break. Um, two of our children are seniors here at Lancing this year and I've taken both over the last couple weeks to their respective uh, college campuses for this coming fall. And one of the colleges, they have a freshman seminar which is AI and the other school has several classes already that are um, integrating that are um, AI focused. So, you know, looking at lancing as a stepping stone to the next level, whatever it may be, AI is there. And if there's open discussions, limits placed between students and teachers or if there's a way, I don't know, at the high school level, if there's a way to integrate that in a class to prepare them for the future, it is at the next um level of education after

143high school, and it would much better prepare them um for that area. This is a topic I feel so passionate about. This is in fact what my research is about. This is why I left my career in the business to come pursue a PhD. I research how AI is shaping our beliefs, our attitudes, our relationships, our cognitive abilities. So I I I like this question. There is so much research already about social media and the impact it's had, the negative impact it's had. I surely hope we don't do the same thing with AI where we just give the kids they're our testing ground and we let them go. That's part of my job and my hope and my desire outside of the school is to help understand what AI is actually doing to us. I

144ran a study this week that proved that it's affecting our relationships, our interactions with the people that are closest to us. Research has shown about social media affects empathy and solitude. We don't know how to be alone and think for ourselves. It affects loneliness. Um it affects our identity and AI is magnifying that a hundred times if not more. So I feel one we cannot avoid AI. We need to learn how to use it. But we have to teach our children and our students, our kids, how to use it safely. This is, I think, the challenge we need to be thinking about. How do we teach our students to use it safely? Because I don't believe we can avoid it. I think we need to find ways just as any other dangerous thing, drugs and

145alcohol. We teach them how to navigate the environment where they're going to face temptations of drugs and alcohol. So if we can do that even from a young age in the elementary and start educating them on the researchbacked science, there's plenty out there. I'm working with a lead researcher in the field here at Cornell. There's already research showing the negative effects it has when we use it for thinking for us for relationships for moral questions and these type of things. So I feel very passionate let's find a way to teach our children how to use it safely starting from a young age and let's be very careful how we navigate and implement it as a district. >> Thank you everyone. Uh we're now going to move on to our final question before the closing statements.

146Uh the question is, what do you believe are the greatest strengths of Lancing Central School District and how would you use your role on the board of education to preserve and build upon them? Starting with Alec, >> I think the greatest strengths of the school district um are that it uh is inclusive of a wide range of of kids and abilities and and goals and passions and interests and it meets them where they're at and helps them develop those things to make them uh you know, productive members of society, however that looks for them. And I think we do a great job of that. I you know I think when you look at the academics when you look at you know the theater which has been brought up tonight sports um arts all these things

147I think we're doing a great job um there's always room for improvement I mean if you're not if you're not moving forward you're moving backwards so there's always room for improvement and we can continue to do that but I think we're we're you know we've got the meat and potatoes right we just you know we need to keep working at all the other stuff. You know, there again, we've we've talked a lot tonight about, you know, the challenges that that we face and, you know, continuing to find a way to support all these different things that we do well with tightening financial issues and and it it's not easy, but we can do it. And uh we can do it as a community, and I want to be a part of that. >> Greatest strength.

148You know, it's uh maybe it's just irony, but we have the lancing lighthouse. Oh, there we go. Better. How about that? There we go. Um, so we've got the Lancing Lighthouse and I I think of Lancing like we are the light on the hill uh to like Lancing, you know, we've got proximity to a a town where we lose half the county loses half the population over the summer uh just with Cornell students and Itha College students and TC3 students. Um, professors, kids are here. Where do people go? kids from lands. They go all over the country, all over the world. Um, we have highly successful people in the arts. We have Ivy grads. We have, uh, I mean, I said this before, but like Kyle Dake's my hero. You know, this kid, Lancing grad,

14910 years younger than me, and it it's someone that learned at this school, no shortcuts, do everything right. And man, I look up to him even though he's younger than me. Um, but to me that's the strength. It's it's our great people, uh, our great teachers all around. How do we continue that? We ch we channel that even more. Uh, and I've already mentioned the thing at the high school next week. I'm very excited about that, Pat, in case you can't tell. Um, I think that can continue. As a board member, I will certainly work my hardest to continue that to make sure opportunities are there for everyone. Uh, and yes, difficult choices will be made here and there. Um, you got to address them as they come up, but there is so much opportunity

150at Lancing. I think it's our greatest strength. >> Um, greatest strength. This was actually the first question that's on the board candidate summary. So if you want to read what we all wrote, you can go read those again. Um I think the greatest strength, it's a little bit about what Matt said. It's the people. It's the collective of the people from the kids to the parents to the educators. All of us, the community members, whether you have kids that are still in the district or not, it is all of us. And I think that um you know I wrote in my candidate summary like uh when you know all the messiness was going on months ago with the board, people showed up, people were interested and I think that you know for for all of

151that that was going on. The fact that people tuned in and were talking about it, you could not ask for something better. It shows that you have an engaged community that cares. That's pretty awesome. Um, I think what um I think what makes the board impactful is when you have uh a board of people who the community feel like if they run into you at T-ball or the grocery store or wherever you are out in the community that the each board member is somebody that can handle the community walking up to them with their opinions and not being judgmental. I think this role needs to set a standard for how we conduct ourselves because our kids are watching and that really matters to me a lot. When my kids look at the board of education,

152I want them to see a professional group of people who are interested in one thing and it's caring about the people that are in this district, the teachers, the kids. So being on this board, I really think that you have to be somebody who is curious because when people come up to you and they have their opinions, they have an opinion for a reason, but it's the collective of the people that really makes the difference. So my opening statement in what I thought the strengths of this community are is the community. Um, and we're unique in this entire region in that it's a community that's rooted in farming and hard work and at the same time we have the recreation of the lake access available to us and we've got a spirit for athletics and

153a spirit for the arts. Um and then we've got the influence of the two colleges and sometimes the other colleges that are in the Portland area. Um and so that makes up it makes it creates a makeup of a community of active learners where we are curious about the strengths everybody brings and the vocations that everyone brings. And I think that is our strength is in the teaching and the learning. Every one of our teachers are also learners and so are every one of our administrators. Um, and I think that's what makes this a great community to work for and to lead with. I think that our our location is huge for the strength of our school district. We have access to so many uh areas locally uh that make it convenient for our families

154and students to attend whether it be the colleges or around the parks or the city of Ithaca. But also this helps us create a well-rounded students and I think one of the strengths especially of our school district is our our music and theater program. I was raised to be a well-rounded student, not just be a one-sided um such as with athletics. And it's just amazing that our students can begin orchestra at such a young age. And to see um the different uh coral ensembles that we have, I just think it's something to be said for the quality of our program here. And a lot of that is um because of the access that we have um with our local communities and city. I love hearing stories from students um that graduate and they go on

155to their to their dream college uh some of the top colleges in the US many of them and I think coming from a smaller community that's a challenge but I feel like Lancing does a pretty good job of setting these students up to pursue their dreams and where they want to be next. So I think, well, why is that? And I have to go down to the foundation. How how was this community built? How was this school district built? What were the values that it was built upon? And from what I've gathered speaking to people who have been here for many, many years, it's values of love and respect, of hard work, uh values of showing up. I love that people show up here. If people say they're going to do something, in my experience,

156they do it. And we hold the community accountable for each other. And when we step in when we need it, and I've seen I've seen students step in when they've needed to to step in. I've seen parents step in in coaching um in other activities when when they've needed. So I hope that we can preserve the values upon which this district has been built and build keep building upon those values to make sure that our foundation stays strong that we don't lose sight of what makes and has made this district great because I think when we start losing sight then that's when we start losing what makes us unique and what makes us strong. I agree that I think it's it's the teachers. It's the teachers and the admin and us. The kids play through

157like they're supposed to and and we are the structure. We're the ones that make sure everybody does end up well-rounded. Everybody does play a sport. Everybody does get on stage. Everybody does know all of the math and all of the science that the state mandates us to push on them. Um yeah, that's it. It's us. All right. So, that is the conclusion of the Q&A portion of our night. We're moving on to closing statements now. Now, these will be one minute. So, that in mind and we're going to start with you, Alec. >> Um, I you know, I think we've we've said a lot tonight and and I think we've covered a lot of ground. Um, you know, I I'm running because I I care deeply about this community. I care deeply about um this

158school system, public education in general. Um, I've got three young kids in this system or entering the system. Um, I see their friends. I see I see what a community this is and I want to make sure that we protect that and we continue to nurture that. uh because I think um I think we do a great job, but I think there's always more we can do and I want to be a part of that and I I view this as a way to be a part of that. So um thank you for all coming out tonight. Again, like everyone said, you know, participation is key. I think it's great that all these people are running. Uh they all seem fantastic. Um and I think it's great that you're all here and people sent in

159questions because the more engaged the community is, the better the school system will be. Okay. And we're we're moving down the opposite way now. We're I decided to go a little crazy. I'm sorry. Had to have fun. Yeah. I'm sorry. >> I think Alex said it best. If we're not moving forward, we're moving back. Um yeah, I think that's it. I think we need to kind of keep pushing forward, whatever that means. And I think all of us can make that happen. Community makes it happen all the time. The board just needs to mirror that. I think they were doing a pretty good job already, but need to keep going. Not sure what I could say to to change anybody's mind or to to let you know anything differently, but I would say the two

160most important things to me are God and family. And family is so important to me. My children are so important to me and I really really am invested in where they're spending their time outside of the home and that is, you know, school. And to bring a little bit of humor into it, if you've seen Napoleon Dynamite, if you vote for me, your wildest dreams will come true. Just kidding. But I hope that if you vote for me, I can help contribute that our students, your wildest dreams, we can help those make, you know, come true and make a reality. Thanks. The past is gone. We're looking ahead to the future. We need to think about a board that is confident, that you're comfortable with, that is honest and straightforward with you, but really board

161members that are approachable, and that you trust in them. And we need to not think about just the immediate feature, but over the course of the next three years, where do you want to see your district at the end of that and then moving forward in case those officials get reelected? So, thank you. I've worked in student services my entire adult life and I love serving students and my enthusiasm and motivation comes from seeing them define their own success and their own path and I'd like to be able to continue doing that. I've been doing the work at the school as a volunteer and as an involved parent and I'd like to continue doing that in this leadership role. So I hope that I've earned your vote tonight. Thank you. >> You know, the thing

162that I have loved the most over the last few months of uh thinking about and running for the school board is that my kids have seen me do it. Um cuz this is super scary. And I don't usually mind scary stuff, but this is like intimidating and scary to come up here and field questions that you don't know are coming. Uh and my kids are watching me do it. And I just think that's awesome. Uh this school district is amazing. We have amazing kids and teachers and administrators and I would be incredibly proud to serve on the board. So, uh, one quote I didn't get to, but it was the one I wrote first, which when you list things, usually the first thing is the most important. So, uh, it's a quote. I'll let someone

163homework assignment to research the full context. It's a Frederick Douglas quote. I would unite with anybody to do right and nobody to do wrong. And you know, that's just one I' I think about a lot because I've really sort of no allegiances and vote issue by issue. Um I've think I've shown that as I've voted against every at least once against every board member I've ever served with the exception of you, Tony, but the night is young. Um, so if if there's anything I've said that resonates with you, um, I I I would ask for your vote on May 19th from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Uh, but I I just want to say as the lone incumbent, it's weird to say you're sort of fighting for your job, but I've never been more encouraged

164for this district than I am right now being on stage with the other uh, six candidates. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you everyone. That concludes the Lancing Central School District Board of Education candidate forum. Uh we send a special thank you to all of our candidates, audience members, district staff, and community members for joining us this evening. We appreciate everyone's participation as an important part of our democratic process and encourage you to vote on May 19th between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in the elementary school cafeteria. Have a wonderful evening and thank you for your supporting Landro Central School District. We'll do a quick All right. I would like to reconvene this meeting um to adopt the agenda to amend the agenda to remove the um student reports and to postpone the the

165strategic plan until next time we meet. >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion? The meeting just ran late, so we want to just do that another night when we're fresher. And we let the students go home because they did such a great job tonight. So, thank you for that. >> All right. All in favor? >> I >> oppose abstain. That passes 700 Z. So, next on the agenda is community input. I have Jeremy Richardson on. Are you still here? >> Just a little. >> Okay. So, this is still on. That's good. Um Jeremy Richardson. I teach tech and engineering at the high school. We we do have STEM in the high school. Um call back to a way earlier comma. But I am here to share some work from a student uh a student of

166mine from last year, Johannes Leap. And uh he was here there was some miscommunication, but I didn't want you to miss out on what he has been working on. So uh there was some talk of a blue food pantry cabinet uh being developed for Lancing High School. And when he heard about this project, he jumped in with both feet and began organizing it and did such a fantastic job. Uh if you could click on ideas mood board, please double click. So uh you can see he had some real vision for this. He did some uh renderings and actually conducted a contest for uh this was a sample mural but he did actually get entrance from I think all three buildings for uh mural designs. So there will be student uh developed artwork uh put directly

167onto the cabinet. And then if we can get to the homepage I think there's in progress uh photographs. Yeah. So this was over the weekend. you scroll down a little bit. Uh with the help of the middle school shop, uh thank you Miss Lambie for uh allowing us to use that space. Uh we were able to cut out all the pieces over the weekend and begin priming. So it's well on its way and you'll be able to see it out front of Lancing High School somewhere very soon. Uh and that will be maintained uh by faculty community. Uh anybody can take part in that. um he is leaning toward the take what you need leave what you can slogan. So uh in that spirit I think it'll be a huge success. So if you see

168Johannes please uh you know extend your congratulations on all the work that he's been doing. He's been doing a really great job. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh I said I will allow time for more questions and answers about the budget presentation. If you didn't sign up, do you have any questions? Do you like to pose at this time? Okay. Again, you can always um email one of the board members, superintendent, or um call Debbie, the district office if you have any more questions or clarifications about the budget. U all right, superintendent report. >> Okay. I just have a general update. First, I I honestly would like to thank all the candidates for joining us tonight and for uh really your responses actually inspired me and um I'm hopeful that regardless of the outcome

169that you uh continue to contribute on committee work and and other ways that you can be involved if not on the board of education. But uh truly it was an inspiring night and I'm really I'm really grateful. So, thank you. I would love to give a big shout out to the PTSO and all they did for employee appreciation week rake, all the volunteers, the donations, um, more family farm and the plantsmen for their donations and just really uh, thankful because I know that our uh, our faculty and staff really and administrators had a lot of gratitude uh, last week and really appreciate all that everybody did to um, provide some some thanks to to Lancing. The it is May is mental health awareness month. Uh the leadership team met with uh Thompson's County suicide prevention,

170the county mental health, uh the NAMI Alliance, which is a national alliance for um mental illness and uh kind of coordinated by Sophie Fund. These are all local groups that really support u mental uh health and wellness in Tomkins County. uh we got to meet with them um during our leadership meeting time and really got to understand some of the ways that they could support us in the uh during m certainly during uh the month of May but throughout the school year in our classrooms and for the community. So hopefully we'll be uh having greater partnership with those uh local organizations. the alibis that uh who done it type of uh drama performance is going to be on May 14th and 15th here in the auditorium at at 6:30. This has been revived after a

171few years of being shut down. We've had it a couple years now and it's really been impressive to see the students and uh I wanted to thank them because we have kicked them out of the auditorium a few times during some critical moments. So uh thanks to the trauma club and everybody there and I encourage you to come out for those performances. Uh, I also want to thank the Thompson family. Every year we have scholarships that go to our graduating seniors and the Thompson family has created a scholarship, an additional scholarship for our students that will be offered this school year. And with that, um, we have a senior baseball game, uh, this Tuesday. I believe it starts at 4:15. The senior recognition starts at 4:15. And we are encouraging everybody to come and support

172our graduating varsity uh seniors, particularly Ryan Thompson. And we're asking everybody to continue to wear the color yellow in honor of his mom, Tanya. Thank you. >> Thank you, Erin. >> Um do you have anything else you want to share? Kate's good. >> RA board reports. Is Linda Pas still here? She's she did email hers update to us, but I know she's here. I don't think she is. Okay. She emailed an update for what she's been doing for us for the SBA stuff. Um for education reports and professional updates. I believe Susan have has an update for us. >> I do. Thank you, Aziza. Uh just building off of that um report that Chris just gave with regard to NAMI. Um I sent you all a link to register for the Central New York School

173Board Association May 14th. They're doing a webinar with um NAMI on student mental health. Um and this is part of a series that they'll be doing over times and this is open to our prospective board members as well. Um, it's CNY SBA. If you click on their April newsletter, you'll see the link there. Or feel free to email me or I'm going to volunteer Debbie in the main office and um she can help you get uh registered for that as well. And again, that's on May 14th. Um, also related to mental health, I wanted to share that our local TST Boseies School Health Systems Program uh was recently recognized with a 2026 what's great in our state award. Um, this is a statewide honor that's presented that was presented as part of New York's Children's

174Mental Health Awareness Week. um an event that was organized by a coalition of state agencies and nonprofit partners including the New York State Office of Mental Health, the Department of Health, and the Office of Children and Family Services, highlighting organizations that have a meaningful impact on the lives of children and families across the street. Um and I wanted to highlight this for you because the TST Bosey's health systems Coser cooperative service agreement which is overseen by medical director Melissa Dandali and director of preventative services uh physicians assistant Jessica Hoff is the first and currently the only such program in New York State and it is being demonstrated as a model for best practice. We're hoping that other Boseies and other schools will pick up the model. Um, you know, as any one of you who

175has had to navigate the mental health system knows, it can feel complicated and disconnected and when you're supporting a child who's in crisis, it can feel impossible. Um, add to that that support can take weeks or sometimes even months to get to a child who needs it. The TST Boseies Health Systems program was really designed to close those gaps. Uh what they do is they bring together providers from the schools, our local pediatricians, mental health professionals, anybody who has a stake in supporting our kids. and they coordinate their care, which seems like a no-brainer to do, but is a big step forward in the lives of families who have children who are struggling with mental health issues. that system as a burden that this program is aimed to relieve and that is by providing a

176real guidepost helping families when they're in crisis. their what we heard earlier today during the the the candidates talking. I think that their work really does demonstrate that thinking outside of old models and putting kids literally in the center of their work is how we forge new and meaningful ways of making a difference. And I personally and I know my fellow board members are proud to support this work and we're excited to see where it goes next. So, congratulations to them and thank you. And I wanted to also let you know that our very own Superintendent Chris Pedigroso has been recognized as a 2026 nominee for the New York State Council of Super of School Superintendent, also known as Niscus. If you get on the board, you have to know all the acronyms and you

177have to know what they stand for. um and the leadership for educational achievement foundation, LEAF, um excellence in leadership award in partnership with discovery education. This again is statewide recognition that honors superintendent who demonstrate exceptional leadership, vision, and an unwavering commitment to their school communities. Chris was nominated alongside an outstanding group of educational leaders from across New York State. I want to read for you what our TST Bosey's superintendent said upon hearing of the nomination. Chris was nominated for her exceptional implementation of cultural responsiveness with a strong focus on creating an environment centered around care, community, and a sense of belonging and supporting student voice. If you've participated in any of the myriad meetings we've had, schoolboard and community conversations, you recognize that because you've witnessed it. You've seen it happen. We are pleased today

178to see this statewide recognition for our superintendent and the work that she does here in Lancing every day for every single Bobcat. I want to emphasize to you all here and to you, Chris, that excellence is not an accident. It requires hard work and constant learning. And it's driven day in and day out by commitment to and genuine love for the kids that we serve. Thank you. We are grateful for your leadership. Congratulations, Chris. Thank you very much, Susan. All right. um consent agenda. Oh, do we have any more board reports? Anybody else? >> Um consent agenda. The consent agenda are routine items that we have um have had um already have prior knowledge of and then we've had questions to sus out already answered and if we want to discuss them further during the

179meeting, we ask them to be removed. So, can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> All in favor? >> I oppose abstain. That passes 700. Have a motion to approve action item 5A, acceptance of a donation. >> Second >> discussion. Chris, can you uh do you have any discussion for this one? >> Oh, it's anonymous donation. Okay. I know we talked about agenda planning, but I didn't see you here. Okay. So, we have an honest donation to accept. Any more questions? All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Abstain. That passes 700. My motion to um from a motion for action item 5B resolution approving easement. discussion. Chris, do you have any Chris or Kate? Do you have any discussion? >> The town is requiring an ement to do some work on the

180water main service. So, this is the resolution that >> Oh, we talked about that too, the last one, I believe. Uh, any more discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Abstain. That passes 700. Have a motion to uh for action item 5C, correct creation of a scholarship fund. Second. >> This is a scholarship that Chris mentioned in her um opening statement um opening report. Any more discussion? >> All in favor? >> Sorry. Go ahead. Yes. >> It's um just to continue for Tot. Um, she loved the community, loved to give, lived to give, and it's just to continue with that and her her thought and her love. >> Thank you, Aaron. All in favor? >> I >> oppose abstain. That passing 700. The motion for action item 5D, discard request, athletic uniforms. >> So moved.

181>> Discussion. Any discussion caterers? This is just typical like you discard them and they go to wreck and go to modified. Correct. Any questions? All in favor? >> I opposed abstain. That passes 700. The motion to approve action item 5E health and welfare agreement. >> So move. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Abstain that passes 700 Z. Have a motion for action item 5F. Approve the second reading of policies. >> Second. >> Now these are I don't have the policy numbers in front of us. >> Yes. Any more questions? Any amendments? All in favor? >> I oppose. Abstain. And that passes 700. A motion to adopt policies. >> So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> oppose. Abstain. That passes 700. The motion for action item 5G. I'm

182sorry, I did already. For action item 5H, resolution cancel May 26 board meeting. So move >> second. >> Our current board members who are um were appointed their last meeting date is May 19th. That gives us um four official members between 19th and the election. Um I already know I am not available in person. So we need to cancel that meeting because we will not have a quorum. And as um we said before um based on the outcome of the election, the person the candidate with the fourth lowest um votes will be im appointed immediately but we have to have a meeting to appoint them. And then the next um three candidates the top three candidates will start they will be appointed June 8th. So, expect to uh either be appointed immediately or June 8th,

183more clarification questions. And I also want to thank Aaron, uh, Brenda, and Tony for standing in and making sure that we were able to have, um, fairly uninterrupted meetings, although we have one that we can't do. So, thank you very much for your service and your time. >> Yes. Thank you. You too can continue on committee work for the district. >> Yes. Thank you. Oh, that's not a resignation. >> All right. All in favor? >> I I >> oppose. Abstain. That passes 700 by motion to approve action item five I memorandum of agreement math position. >> So move second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I I >> oppose. Abstain. That passes 700 Z. A motion to adjurnn. >> Any more discussion? May 19th, um 7 to 9:00 p.m. the elementary school cafeteria, please

184vote. Supporter of school district, vote for four candidates. Um the top three candidates will be appointed June 8th. Um the fourth um lowest will be appointed immediately and serve a one year some change term. >> Any more questions or comments? >> Thank you for joining us. All in favor? >> I >> oppose abstain. >> That passes 610. Thank you. Have a good night.