001evening. Uh, thank you for your patience. Sorry we ran a little bit over. Um, we were in exact session. So, if you could please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. So we are going to start with public comments. Okay. Uh we invite you to come up to the microphone. Uh limit comments to three minutes. No um disparaging remarks. Um, we limit our opening session to 30 minutes in total. >> Good evening. Uh, Greg Roby, Mineral Springs. I am taking advantage of the first comment period so my wife can sneak out of here after the budget presentation. I want to update you. I I I emailed the board. So hopefully you've got that petition through and I'm trying to figure out how to get it in front of you as an individual so
002that there's a legitimacy for having it on the agenda in time. What is it? 23rd. Um I was 8:30 this morning. I was at the town board uh town hall with the town board. I would say they may think about it. Uh this afternoon they called a special session or two hours starting on the 3. Uh, I don't know what it is because I didn't announce what it what what the thing was, but maybe it'll include uh considering those those petitions and resolutions. Um, I stopped by the village, left an inquiry. They did not get back to me, so I don't think that's going anywhere at this point, but if they do it later, that would be cool. and I stopped by the library and um I have kind of the go-ahehead to put on
003the agenda the uh so that somebody on the board may motion and then second to consider the things. So, those are the things that I have done to encourage you to form a third $5 million capital fund that we can voluntarily as a commit community contribute to and and bring us up to a bigger project at no tax increase. So, we'll see what happens. But um on the basis of of that was the recommendation of the public committee that served this district in 2019. No 2019, right? 1999. It has some standing. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, guys. Um, first from Willow Avenue. February may be the shortest month of the year, but there's so much going on at Willow Avenue. Willow welcomed Kang, a therapy dog who visited
004our classes and taught us about his job, how much he helps others, and how important his work is. We love spending time and cuddling with him. Willow hosted the fourth grade PTO winter fest celebration. Fourth graders from all three elementary schools had a great time dancing, getting their pictures taken, playing games, and enjoying arts and crafts. In honor of Black History Month, Willow Avenue starts each day with important facts to honor and share about Black History. Our first graders have learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and are working every day to live by his example. And our second graders have started their fight for a cause unit. Their focus is on civil rights, starting with Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony Jackie Robinson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We are looking forward to learning
005about these famous Americans and seeing their projects displayed soon. Our third graders headed back to Black Rock Forest to set up acorns along with a camera to capture images of the animals that eat the acorns. They observed and identified birds that visit the feeders and also got to tour the Black Rock Lodge and become familiar with it before they their sleepover in June. To continue the focus on kindness, Willow Avenue celebrated World Kindness Week with an awesome spirit and celebrated the 100th day of school with students dressing as a hundred year olds. At Cornwall and Hudson Elementary School on February 6, the PTO hosted its annual ties and tiaras event. Students and their guests arrived dressed to impress and enjoyed an evening of dancing in the beautifully decorated gymnasium. It was a memorable night and
006both children and adults had a fantastic time. Earlier that day, the first grade classes and student council filled two cars to the brim with donations collected during the food and hygiene drive. Then they walked to St. Maryanne's co- parish to deliver the items in support of the church's outreach program. On February 18th, the first and second grade participated in Olympic themed games and challenges. Students participated in friendly competition that encouraged teamwork, cooperation, movement, and fun. CO celebrated random acts of kindness week from February 18th to 20th. Some theme days included team work day where you wear your favorite team's jersey, kind of say or wear something that expresses kind acts and be kind to yourself in exercise day where students and staff wore athletic wear. This year's pick and reading partner program entitled Lasso a
007good book will run from February 23rd through March 29 25th. Students are encouraged to read for at least 15 minutes a day and to keep a log that will be turned into the library each week. Reading incentives and prizes will be given each week. And there is always a buildingwide goal for total minutes read during the PAP event. Looking ahead, please come and support the P uh CO PTO drama production of Into the Woods being held on Friday, March 13th at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, March 14th at 2 p.m. The cast and crew have been really working hard and are looking forward to putting on a great show. Don't miss it. from Lee Road. Although February is a short month, Lee Road has been jam-packed with exciting activities and memorable learning experiences. We are thrilled
008to celebrate the arrival of our brand new book vending machine, generously donated and filled by our incredible PTO. Students can purchase a booknook can purchase Booknook coins using 50 of their hard-earned dragon dollars and select a book of their choice. This this initiative not only reinforces positive behavior expectations, but also continues to foster a love of reading in a fun and meaningful way. Miss Gleason's third graders enjoyed a wonderful winter field experience at Black Rockck Forest. Students began the day participating in Project Feeder Watch, conducting a bird count that will be submitted to a national registry. They also engaged in an ice safety lesson before completing their winter observations during which they collected air, water, and soil temperatures and documented wildlife and vegetation. The day concluded with some well-earned fun as students became penguins sliding
009down the hill together. Lee Road is looking forward to celebrating the 100th day of school, Read Across America Week, and upcoming visit from children's author Nick Brule. There is certainly no winter slowdown here at Lee Road. Okay, good news from Cornell Central Middle School. Eighth grade students and their families had an opportunity to learn about all the opportunities that lie ahead of them at C CCHS at uh 8th grade parent and student night. Many thanks to the high school administration and Mr. Debold for putting together a very informative meeting. CCMS band students participated in district-wide band expo events in early February. This night of beautiful music was coordinated by our band directors across the district. Many thanks to our music department for bringing all of the students together. Our brand new CCMS home and careers
010classroom was open for seme for the second semester. Not only does every seventh grader get to learn about budgeting, careers, cooking, sewing, and design, but our afterchool cooking club gets to work in this room every day. Many thanks to Mr. Moran and the building and grounds crew for helping our ideas become a reality. >> And finally, good news from the high school. An AI committee was started by Mrs. Wilhelm, Mr. Basley, and myself, and we had our first meeting earlier this month where teachers and students were invited to discuss how AI can be used as a tool in the classroom and how to get ahead of it in education. We're looking forward to our second meeting on March 4th during community lunch. All are welcome. Additionally, juniors got their parking spots and a letter about
011junior prom as we get closer to spring. Tuesday, February 10th was the band expo, which was a major success with a huge turnout. Rehearsals for the drama club and pit band are in full swing, and registration for spring sports is now open. And finally, it's been confirmed that weather permitting, the 2026 graduation ceremony will be held at the new Dragon Stadium. >> Thank you. That's going to be very exciting this year. uh superintendent update. >> Thank you. And thank you ladies. She did a great job. We miss seeing you. I feel like because of the weather and everything. It's just been wonky and we haven't seen you. But I did get to see these ladies in action during the first AI committee at the high school and they did a great job. So, thank you
012for your work on that. Um so, let's start talking about the one thing that we all love, weather. Um, so I'm sending a letter out to the community tomorrow to uh further break down the big question of how many more days do we have left for snow days. Um, so we started with five, we used four, so we have one left. Very quick math. Um, but we did get an unprecedented waiver from the commissioner of education for last Monday's snow day. So to use the waiver if we we would first have to exhaust all of our planned snow days and then if we still needed an additional day we could apply for the waiver specific to February 23rd after exhausting all those days then we would need to go remote sorry girls in lie of
013a snow day but no c no COVID shut uh shutters we've been working and planning with our um teaching union and our admin union on just making some you know nice plans for how that could look. So, it would really be like a oneoff remote day. And the way the weather forecast has changed for next week, we might get something on Monday, but it looks like the rest is probably going to be rain. So, hopefully we have warm, sunny days ahead. Um, so that's your meteorologist update. Um, each year I have the privilege of participating in a very special event that takes place at the high school with our 10th grade class, reading part of Ellie Wisel's memoir, Night, which focuses on the time he and his father endured Nazi concentration camps. Um, since International
014Holocaust Remembrance Day this past January 27th, and throughout the past weeks, our English and social studies departments team up to work on Holocaust and World War II units, bringing them together for today's culminating event. Uh, this is always a very powerful day for our students and staff. Um, and they always share their appreciation year after year. So, I wanted to thank uh Mrs. Chila, the English department and social studies department, Mr. for Mike Mallowski from the Jewish Federation of Orange County for always providing such an impactful day for our students. And I'm sure from seeing the nods of the girls, they still feel what that was like throughout that day that they experienced it two years ago as 10th graders. Um, and just lastly, I just want to conclude. Um, our winter sports are almost
015over and I want to recognize our CCHS United Bowling team as they competed in today's varsity championship match. So, I'm waiting anxiously on how they did and as soon as I have that update, I will share it. Um, and we will post some highlights on our Instagram and social feed. So, congratulations to all of them. >> Okay. So, for the president's update, um, Oxbow, which is the Orange County School Board Association, on Tuesday night, they are having a presentation, the use of gener generative AI in education. um it's policy, legal, learning and instructional implications of AI. This is being presented by Dr. Diane Lang and Mr. Forest Adder who are from OUIS. So um we had asked for this topic at the beginning of the year when we started brainstorming what um our meetings could
016be. So this has been greatly anticipated. I plan on attending and I'll bring back whatever information, but if anyone else would like to attend um they did just ask for an RSVP because I think they're anticipating a large turnout. Um also we are moving forward with strategic planning. Um Linda has been um un un what is that un um flapable is that the word like literally every other day you know can you get this can you get that? Can you move this? Can you move that? And so just thank you so much pulling together. It's like hurting cats I think. Um, but we have some really great forums set up with community members and different interest groups as well as um, there's going to be a open forum and there will also be a survey.
017So, I just want to say I know we've asked the community to take surveys since I've been on the board. But I think this might be the third time and I am I am aware of survey fatigue so to speak. But this one I would say is particularly important because this is going to help us set the course for the next 3 to 5 years in terms of what is the strategy of our district. What matters most to us and what do you want the board of education to be focused on and supporting the district in achieving. So I would just ask you when that is live March 2nd to please um you know put aside some time anyone in the community um with kids without kids you know it doesn't matter if you're connected
018directly to the school uh we encourage you and ask you to to take the time to fill that out. And then finally we have some changes to the board. I received a letter from Christian Bernelli resigning from his position as vice president as well as chair um committee chair for policy committee. So I just want to thank him for his service. Um you know we started on the board together so it's our third year and this year you know stepping into these seats was quite different. So I want to thank him for his time with that and um that leaves a vacancy for the rest of this year and um we're going to you know make some uh changes to get those filled up. So um that is my update moving. >> Go ahead. I'd
019like to make a motion if we could. Um, I'd like to accept Jim's resignation and and uh put Jerry Christians. I'm so sorry, Jim. And >> I don't think we have to. Do we >> nominate Jim? So sorry, Jim. Uh, I'd love to nominate Jim back in as the vice president. >> Okay. So, you'd like to um make a motion to add an item to the agenda? >> Okay. Can I have a um a second for that? >> Second that. >> Thank you. Um all in favor of adding an agenda item? I. >> Anyone opposed? Okay. So, the agenda item you'd like to add is >> Jim as vice president >> to to have a vote on vice president. Okay. So, you'd like to nominate Jim for vice president? >> Yes. I'd like to nominate
020Jim. >> I'm just I'm being formal to formalize the minutes. So, okay. So, Carl has made um a motion to nominate Jim to be vice president for the remainder of this year. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor of Oh, discussion. Okay. All in favor of Jim um stepping in and serving as vice president for the rest of the year. >> I >> Any opposed? Okay. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate the support. >> Condolences, Jim. >> And for the record, I think Brendan is going to step in and lead policy, which he's done in the past. So, thank you because that's a heavy lift as well. Uh really appreciate that. Um and then, uh Loftton is the alternate for OXPA. So, if your schedule allows, I know that's out
021that's outside the bounds of our typical meetings, but if your schedule allows, um, I'll I'll set you up with those dates and everything. >> Okay. >> We typically vote on committee chairs. So, just since we're doing it, I'll make a motion to, uh, nominate Brendan for the policy committee chair. Normally, like as a whole. >> Oh, as a whole. You're right. Okay. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh, may I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Carl. So, um, can we please have a vote for Brendan to lead the policy committee? All in favor? >> If you, if you're not, you're going to be the one doing it. >> All opposed. >> Okay. Thank you. So, Brendan, congratulations. I don't I don't think we have to do it for OXA because anyone can go to
022Oxa. Oh, she is already the alternate. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for that. All right. Okay. Procedural things always get me a little bit, you know. All righty. So, now we are going to have our budget presentation. Mr. Frink, thank you. Thank you, Rockstar. Okay. Uh, thank you. Uh, here we are on uh, February 23rd. Just kidding. February 26th. Okay. Thanks for the little shift here. I think it's important that we get the budget. um update in um so mission the Cornwall Central School District is committed to working together with the community to provide a secure nurturing environment of diverse learning opportunities for all students. It is our goal to help students achieve their dreams and aspirations and to prepare them to confidently face challenges while promoting the strength of mind, body and character.
023Um here we are with our budget calendar. Congratulations, one down and after this evening uh two down. Um and again the just kidding it was February 23rd now to February 26th. Uh key date here is that April 21st as we um get closer to our budget adoption and then May 5th is our um annual budget hearing and then the budget vote. So we're going to go through a number of different items here today kind of what are our uh goals and first steps. We have preliminary expenditures and revenues. um our budget summary at this point. Um proposed expenditures, I break them down by uh the major components of the budget. We'll recap that. We have some history um and projections and then we have the budget development process and then what are we going to
024do next um and then I have some slides in here about our capital improvement projects um that that is coming up in the future. So our goal here, maintain all current programs, continue to support and grow instructional and operational programs and stay within the property tax cap and maintain the lowest possible tax levy in order to make those things happen. Uh so first step is this roll over budget. We take everything that is in 2025 and we roll it forward for 2026 with associated costs that go along with that. Um, so not everything is rolled in 2526. So if something is uh not no longer necessary in 2627, then we would remove that. So this is really kind of that apples to apples approach. So let's start us out our expenditure budget. Um on the
025rolled budget it's 97 million 603490 uh as compared to 2526 at 92 986 803. So we're looking at a difference of about $4.6 million. um the special education will always be an ongoing yearly issue is because placements don't take place and we don't make a lot of decisions till later in the budget cycle in the budget process. Um so we have graduating students, pre uh preschool students that move up into the district. Um and then another outlier that you see up there is our current negotiations um that are taking place. We have our CSEA, which is our custodians, buildings, and grounds personnel. Um we're ne uh negotiating with the power professionals who are monitors and TAs and then our cafeteria unit. Um the cafeteria unit lies outside the general fund and is separate but still
026important part of the negotiation process. On the revenue side, uh we projected a revenue of 94 million 067907 for the 2627 school year as compared to projected revenues for 2526 at 90,497199. So difference of about $3.5 million. So assumptions that took place here, our maximum tax cap is 5.36, which gets us about $2.8 million. The assumption that we put into play for this case would be a 3% tax levy increase. That 3% would get us about $1.6 million. Our state aid increase for this year was about $400,000. 409 uh 912. We are going to see some additional building aid kick into our our state aid funds, which is going to be very helpful. $1.3 million. Um, and that's because we're going to be filing our projects for this uh capital project that we're wrapping up.
027What's open, what's what we're still waiting on is the final state aid figures and that UPK funding because we discussed at the last meeting. Um, those state aid figures I'm are supposed to be in by April, the beginning of April. Uh, but optimistically speaking, that hasn't happened uh in the past several years and we end up in with late April or early May. So, as our summary, kind of that balance sheet, 97,603 490. Here's our property tax with a levy of 3% gets us about uh 55 million 55 a.5. State aid is 36,950. Our miscellaneous revenue comes in at 1.5 million. And then you see our total preliminary revenues of 94906, sorry, 94067,907. So then we have a shortfall of $3.5 million. The board has had a history of assigning fund balance year after year,
028which is fairly typical. We did an assumption of an assigned fund balance of 2.5 million, which has been kind of historically accurate over the past couple years, and I'll talk about that uh in a future meeting. So that gives us a current deficit or shortfall of just over a million dollars. How does that break down? So again, here's our major components of the budget. On the left, you'll see salaries, pensions, health care, uh contractual supplies, equipment. There's a big lump in there, out of district tuition, debt, service, transportation, utilities, occupational education, insurance, and transfer to capital. So you'll compare year year to year 97603490 versus 928 uh 986 803. Um we show the biggest increase up there in salaries at $2.3 million. The next biggest increase which we talked about at the last meeting was
029health insurance. We discussed the 7% increase. That 7% uh increase translates to roughly that $1 million. That's that's a lot. We do have some areas where we declined uh in the contractual supply area. And then our debt service, you'll see um 1.3 million increase there. Well, that 1.3 million is directly offset with that additional building aid that we're getting. So, there's essentially a wash and I'll talk about that in just a second. And then some other adjustments along the way. So again, salaries. Salary consists of all of our contractual employees. Stipens, tutorials, homebound instructions, substitutes, overtime hours, you name it. Anything we're paying somebody is in this in these categories. Six collective bargaining units. Okay? You'll see the teachers and nurses, the pair of professionals, custodial, maintenance, that's CSEA, clerical, administrative, food service, and then
030we have individual contracts. That would be the superintendent, the assistant superintendent. We have some other um managerial confidential uh staff members that have individual contracts. And then you see some the numbers there associated with each of the different units and the year of expiration of their contract. I highlighted in red the three units that we are currently negotiating with. Um cafeteria as I mentioned is not reflected in the general fund but separateness aside but they are part of our group. pensions. Um, we got lucky on this one. We're seeing a difference of really about $6,800. Um, and that's simply because you see TRS was lower, 8.25%. Um, where ERS was higher, 17.6. So, they somewhat balanced themselves out. That 17 translated to into nearly 20% increase in the ERS side where TRS helped decrease us.
031And so we start to balance that out from year to year. Um we pay uh TRS and ERS teachers retirement system and New York State um employees retirement uh system as well as our social security administration. They're set by um their respective entities. The district doesn't have any say in how much we pay that percent. Health insurance. Um the district provides health insurance through Orange Olter Boseies. Um as well as NICHIP which is the New York state plan. Um we are self-funded municipal health insurance cooperative comprise comprised of 18 school districts and one BOSIES and uh NICHIP is that statewide plan. Here's our rates up there for OU um health plan that provide what what it would be for single two person family and then uh Medicare ranges in the different uh levels and NICH
032ship what their increases were um for single family and then Medicare. Um so you can see that the U plan is actually um doing better than that nice ship plan but it's still um high costs um and as we discussed at the last meeting healthcare costs are increasing and skyrocketing all over the place. Uh dental and vision is provided through four different providers in in accordance with contract. Um those employees who forego health insurance, we do buyouts um because there is a district savings when we they forego that and that could range from $2,300. Was that me? >> Good question. The percentages here next to um UP and nice ship is that the percent that the member is is paying into the premium or that's the percent of our people that are on that plan.
033So we use a blended rate at that 7%. So that that's how >> Okay. So that's the increase for the Okay. Correct. Thank you. >> Yeah. So when we say 7% there's a blended rate and then the individual pay in particular these broken down rates. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yep. Um active active employees contribute to their annual premiums ranging from 11% to 20%. Okay. And retirees from 0 to 50%. Again, big ticket on the a million dollar increase for 7%. Contractual supplies, equipment, a big lump here of a number of different things. These are our Bosei services that we use, professional, legal, auditing, security, uh equipment, technology, hardware, and software, uh classroom textbooks. We get that as far down as um some rubbish removal in there. Custodial maintenance supplies out of district tuition. Okay. Reflects the
034cost of tuition related services. Um uh OTP speech counseling one age for special needs students. Uh educated facilities out of district. Okay. Annual IEP students reviews are still underway. We continue to monitor those changes. So in February, it's still very early. A lot of them don't uh pan out till a little bit later. So what do we have here? We really are seeing an out of district tuition increase of about $218,000. And these are our breakdowns. So Boseies, we have um three different locations in three counties, 27 students, average cost of about $90,000. um out of district day programs, non-boseies, um 10 locations in five counties, 11 students, about $93,000 per student. And then out of district residential, two students, sorry, two locations, three students, average cost about $109,000. So expensive. Um I talked a
035little bit earlier about debt service, principal, and interest payments. Comparatively, we see that increase of $1.3 million. All right. Principal and interest um due on the district's outstanding borrowings. These are the break these are the breakdowns that kind of um the high school um the term is from uh 2004 to 2029. Um and that's our debt service payment there. our NIPA project um 2016 to 2030 and then our DSNY bond which is the 2023 capital project. We're going to be going out in June to bond that and then we have bond payments which will happen in December and then again June. Can >> I ask a question about the previous slide? What is out of district residential program? >> We have students that go to residential programs at um like overnight. >> Thank you. other
036I going too quick service. Uh transportation probably the best deal in the house. I'll say it again for the second year in a row. Uh we are contracted with West Point Tours. Uh next year will be year four of a 5-year contract. Um we are very lucky to partner with them. They do a lot of work for us in district uh just our regular school runs, our non-public school runs, out of district special education, our vocational programs, athletic team, special programs. So all of that comes down to about 830 um,000 miles per year doing that. Our increase is relatively minimum considering cont uh contracts for um for uh transportation are also increasing similar to health insurance. So we are very grateful for our partnership with them. Just some um stats here. 27 buses on a
037three- tiered system to serve us. Uh vans for in in district special uh needs students. Uh eight late run buses for after school programs, high school and middle school. Out of district uh special education, 16 buses, vans transport 45 students, 19 schools. Um we're all over the place. vocational programs um operates two buses with six trips. So that's kind of like two dedicated uh buses going all day long for 95 students at OU Boseis. And then non-public stu uh schools 10 buses vans uh transport 29 students to 11 non-public schools. Athletics um we know athletics is a big component of our students career here. So 27 varsity teams, 15 JV, 17 modified, one freshman, and then unified sports teams, they get transported as well. Our special programs, lots of Black Rockck, we heard about that
038in the the student update, which was fantastic. Region's testing days, uh, walking wounded, that's the the student that ends up with a twisted ankle, knee, whatever. And we want to provide them with special transportation so they're not going up arduous stairs u all the time. homeless students, that's a McKini Vento Act. Um, child care pickup, drop off, grades K to8, um, those are different locations. Community- based instruction, getting our students out to the different locations. Burlington Coat Factory, Shopright, um, what have you. and co-curricular and extra extracurricular activities, music activities, club programs, career fairs, uh our seniors traveling around the district on their final walkthroughs. Uh utilities, um smaller increase. Um this covers the cost of electricity, natural gas, fuel, oil, propane, water, sewer. um some of our statistics there. The a big jump up
039for us from in 2627 you'll see is that natural gas propane um large increase on that. Um that comes from um a consortium that we deal with. We have a provider that advises us on our lowest rates. Uh and ironically the lowest rate isn't very low. It's still very high. um our water sewer. We actually were able to re-evaluate even though our rates are high on the water end. Uh certainly in the village portion of our district um we reevaluated how much our our utilization is. So we did actually see a savings from year to year. Occupation education um spoke about this just a little bit. Um we uh there's requirement or obligation to offer students a vocational uh program. This is orange olster boseis for the high school students. We have 95 students um
040uh participating this year. We project slightly higher 115. Okay. Um and you're seeing a decrease here. How do you project more and still have a decrease? We actually projected 125 for this current year, the 2526 school year. So, we're not seeing those numbers, but we are still seeing a growth in numbers. And then our insurance, again, also running relatively high. Um, our impact is not as high as one would think, but um we're still seeing increases there, about $78,000. Um, we have um 10 different insurance policies. General liability, we can go through all of them. Machinery, we cover it all. you know, slip and fall if it happens. We have student accident insurance. Um, so you name it. Um, the last part in there is included in there is unemployment insurance which we have to
041pay. Um, on the HR side, transfer to capital. Um, these funds are included in the budget, small capital projects. Um, this current year we're looking at our lockdown panic button um, sitt system. We've done extensive work on that. So, we're about ready to launch and move into the next phase for our panic button lockdown system. Next year, we're looking to do add money for our door hardware project. We had already set aside some money. Um, and when we started that work and did our evaluation, we had a lot more work than we have money to cover. So, we would be looking to do about $300,000 in transfer to capital to add to that. So, year-to-year, no change in that. Whoops. Here we go. So, just to bring it all together in that wrap-up slide, um
042preliminary budgets 97 603490 expenditures at 94067907. Uh we have that 3% tax levy increase. We are figuring in our state aid. We are figuring in our building aid, additional building aid. We have some open items. We have a shortfall of about 3.5. If we assign 2.5 million in fund balance, we're short about a million dollars. Just some budget parameters, variables. Enrollment. You can see here enrollment over the last several years. Um, and you'll notice really the the total enrollment is declining. It has been declining. The projection for next year is to see an increase. Well, I stood here last year and I projected an increase as well. It wasn't me. It is the formula that is used in this projection. So, the formula again is projecting an increase. The likelihood of an increase is not
043likely. I think we would still be on a decrease, but we have to go by what the data is telling me. So, I'm sharing what the data is telling me. We have a budget development process. I reviewed that at the last meeting. It's continue. It's ongoing. We're forever analyzing what we're doing, how we're spending, uh where are potential savings, reallocations. It is cyclical. It is ongoing. And I shared you a slide where we're saying we're a million dollars short. we're still analyzing. So that gets me to kind of the next steps like what are we going to do, John? They're a million dollars short. Okay. Well, re-engage the leadership team. We circle the wagons, right? Request more information. Require feedback. What's the data telling us? Re-evaluate and reconsider proposed expenditures. What are we doing now?
044What do we need to do next year? Redistribute for this year. Reconcile any discrepancies. Where are some of the issues that we we need to look a little harder at? readjust priorities if necessary. We're going to ask for and receive some board of education guidance and in the end realize success. Uh that keep moving forward approach. They can't just give up. On the ballot uh for May 19th, we're looking at our capital improvement project. So over the next couple slides, here's your summary slide. Proposition one is $44.5 million tax neutral. Uh so no additional tax responsibility. Proposition 2 21.1 which is a classroom space. Um in order for class uh Proposition two to pass, Proposition one has to pass. And there's a partial effective tax rate impact. Proposition three at 14.6 is athletic appeals at
045the high school. In order for three to pass, one and two would have to pass and you have a full effective tax rate impact. Um the board has been updated on this. So I will I will cruise through these. Here's your $44.5 million um various improvements and additions districtwide. That's that tax neutral. It talks about what we're doing at CCHS for 7.8 million, at the middle school for 22.9, at CES 4.7, at Willow 4.8, CO 1.8, buildings and grounds 1.5, and the district office. So, uh just like a home run, we touch them all. On Proposition 2, it's 21.1 and that's the additional classroom space at the middle school, CES and CO. Um CMS, uh the middle school impact is 7.3, CES is 11.7 and CO is about $2 million. And then Proposition 3 is
046athletic fields at the high school. Um about $14.6 $6 million and that's a focus on the baseball, softball fields and multisport athletic field. Our budget information is up on the website. This one will be up there tomorrow or Monday at the latest because it is Thursday. Normally we do this the day after. Uh so we'll try and get that up there as soon as possible. That's what I have for now. I know I did go relatively quick. Yes, some questions so I'll stop talking. questions. >> We'll jump in. So, uh, John, you know, once again, thank you. Um, you itemized the next steps, which, you know, I don't want to get ahead of that. Obviously, there's going to be some more uh you're going to confer with the team and come back with a way
047to I guess solutions to if not bridge that million- dollar gap at least start taking some bites out of it. Um can we and if you want to if if this is too early to have this conversation then you know tell me that that's the case but I'm just trying to formulate like what are our options to cover that million. So it seems we could apply more from fund the assigned fund balance. We can increase the tax levy more. You could always cut down on costs in your and programming which I think goes without saying is the absolute last resort. Um which and I hope and don't think that we'll get there. Um we can hope for an increase to our final aid figures which uh optimism is always nice. we could uh we could
048not transfer money to capital which I would say is right after programming as the the least uh favorable of those options. Um and then there's also the question of the UPK funding. So that leads just to a I guess the first question. Um what are we projected to receive from UPK as it stands now? I mean it seems like they would be safe assumptions. We just haven't had those final figures. Right. So, like I told you last time, you can have this because you've got it all figured out now. Um, I want you to have the clicker for a budget presentation because you you've narrowed down really all the different options. Um, and really what's hanging out there. Um, so let's start with UPK. Um, so funding for UPK, it is the governor's proposed budget.
049It does not become the budget until the legislature passes that budget. So, if that were to happen, you're asking me for a dollar value on UPK. Our UPK budget holds about $480,000 in it. Should that UPK program as proposed go through, that would be $480,000 that we could redistribute in our in our budget. That will that is I'm looking at the board directly on this at this point. and you don't have to make the decision right now, but if the board's comfortable making that decision right now, that helps close that gap. But that to me is there's some inherent risk there because we don't know if that UPK funding is going to get altered at all. If that gets altered, we're left with that holding the liability of of funding that. And to be clear,
050that's on the same schedule of all the other state final state figures which might come certainly might come after we have put a a budget together that will appear on the ballot might even come later than that. >> Correct. So the historically speaking it has not made it on time because even though our budget vote arguably this year is May 19th we have a notification period that precedes that. So, our notification has to be out. How are we allocating our funds? And they have not made that timeline for us to make that notification. So, you asked questions I was hoping would be asked. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, as always, John. Um, couple questions. Um, what is the tax levy cap? You assume 3%. I forgive me. I didn't bring my binder. give
051us that. >> What's that? >> 5.38. >> So, we could go we could say as a board 5.38 with a 50% majority as opposed to the 60% supermajority. >> Correct. >> That's a high. Okay. >> That's $2.8 million. >> Um Brendan talked about UPK. I will just say I think for now you should leave it as is. Um to your point it's only in the governor's projected run. Uh we haven't seen I haven't seen I don't think it's come out the first runs from either the house or the senate yet. Um so you know if those runs come out and they both include it then maybe we can feel a little more confident in it. But until, you know, until we see the other people at the table in Albany come on that, I I
052think you you've got to leave it as is. Um, late budgets. Last year, the budget came in late. Um, not telling you anything you don't know. Just kind of reiterating for for the for the public. Um, we had already made our decisions based upon what it looked like coming out of Albany. uh we ended up with refreshment 250 addition >> about yeah 220 240 something like that I think >> um that we couldn't include in the budget because we already voted on the budget and it was my impression that that money was being left to start this year ahead is that included here or is that another pile of money >> that would be projected revenue for this current year so until we get that money in hand correct >> but is that included in
053your rollover budget in the revenue >> that would fall into fund balance if that's how we were to allocate it. So you'd have that money to allocate towards fund balance towards reducing this expenditure. >> So it was not included in Okay. So there's so if you there's a pretty safe argument to say take that money take your fund balance up to that level whether you know so that goes from 2.5 to 2.7 what have you. It gets us closer. It's a nice um it's a nice little piggy bank. Um, the last question I have, and not a fair question to ask you on the spot because you might not know, I always feel like this is the worst meeting because we're like, okay, we've got the hole and we haven't yet started to plug it.
054I feel that we've been in this situation before where we've had a gap. You know what that at this stage in the process what that number has been in past years? I'd have to go back and look at notes that not something I expect you to know off the top of your head. But >> last year was a much smaller gap, but you're talking about a major difference of state funding. We were a million dollars for state aid, >> whereas we have 400,000. So yeah, that's a difference of 600,000 right off the bat, right? >> Um our state aid is only going to be decreasing >> year after year. So again, I was more optimistic that we would get a little bit more than 400,000 on this. Um, so where the legislature takes this, we
055don't know. Um, and I'm just going to flip back to UPK for a second. We still don't have all the parameters of how you this UPK funding component comes together. >> Sure. >> So, there's still a lot of talk about how this is being applied. Again, I've showed all cards here. We have $480,000 sitting there based on where we are with our UPK program right now. Uh thank you. Uh that was going to be my next question is um so this overage is this a projection of what we would have if after meeting the um theoretically was in what the governor said initially meeting the um universal UPK numbers and then we'd still just have extra because she's allocating more per student um and just assuming we don't renegotiate any contracts um with providers. So,
056am I >> So, yeah, I think I can sum up what you're saying. We get a reimbursement rate for UPK at this point, which is about $5,400. >> Okay. What we pay our providers is more than $5,400. So, then we have to cover that money, right? Her proposal is to provide $10,000. So instead of $54,000, $5,400 in reimbursement, it would be $10,000. So if that were to happen, then we would be made whole on our on our total, uh, obligation. So, uh, if this comes through, and I I do believe there's some wholehearted faith that this is there, but this is risking other people's money that I'm not comfortable doing by at this point. >> Would we still be doing the lottery system? um and only doing UPK for parts of our students if we
057took that money then. >> So great question. So getting a little ahead of ourselves. We have 118 seats right now. >> Yes. >> Um we are not looking to change the 118 seats right now. >> Um because that's how we've budgeted. We we had to budget somewhere, >> right? >> If UPK does come through with this money and it basically says you can afford everybody that it's really just a pass through, then we can figure that out. So with um UPK, we issued as I shared with the board um in our our weekly, we did an RFP because if we have expansion of UPK, we can go in that direction. Um but we we have to make some tactical decisions with what we're doing with that. Who are our providers? How many can they who
058are our current providers? How many um seats can they take on because we've been working with these providers? And then who are our new providers? And and what can they offer us? So not through that process yet. um nor do we have an idea if that's even a possibility for us. >> Right. Okay. Just wanted to make sure I understood where we were. Thank you. >> And off also just to piggyback on that just remember too like we don't have all the parameters yet as to what would need to do with that money and you know would we get the same as the next district. We don't know that just yet. So a lot of questions on a lot of money that we could support this as well. >> Right. Okay. Thanks. And just one
059other question on the just the numbers on the UPK. Um to further that discussion, you said we're at 118 right now. There's like a state formula for the max number of aidable seats. I think it's 138 for our district. Is that right? >> I think 137. Yeah. >> 137. >> Yeah. >> So essentially, if this funding proposal comes through, we could add like 19 more seats. >> The difference. Yep. >> Yeah. You can't go up to 180 or 190 seats. >> And that's part I don't think you would get that level of demand anyway, but just whatever that formula is out of Albany. That number is 137 138. >> Yeah. And and that was where the governor is looking to go is to fully fund UPK in I think 2028. So it's all out there.
060Uh John, uh to stay on the the UPK funding, how restricted is that money when it comes to us? Um and what I'm thinking is when if we get that money on June 1st, but our budget is obviously already passed, God willing. Um, would we be able to would we have to use that money in the operating budget or let's say we increased for argument sake our the contribution from the assigned fund balance to close that gap or at least partially. Could we take that 480 and put it back into our assigned fund balance or how long in the budget year uh would we be able to do that if we're able to do that at all? Let me see if I'm trying to >> So, let me let me break it down again. We
061we have a million dollars to close. We say we're going to find 500,000 from somewhere else, but we're going to find the other 500,000 from the the assigned fund balance. So, instead of 2.5, we're going to apply 3 million, right? And then to backfill that because we we're just assuming zero on the UPK money because we we we haven't had it we haven't received it in hand yet. But once we receive that money, we just backfill it into the assigned fund balance. Not possible. >> No, it's it's restricted. Highly restricted. It is budgeted for in what we call transfer um special aid. So use UPK and um special education funding for summer school in that transfer because we budget for what our costs are. >> But then at the end of the year, so it's
062it's in our operating budget. But because we've already filled our operating budget with as much as we need to continue our programs for the next school year, it is reasonable to assume by the end of that year that would not that would still be there. We would not have spent it. So then at the end of that year we could put it so we'd have to wait a year basically. And I wonder, isn't that roughly the position that we would be in? Because there have been times before where we've taken money from the assigned fund, extra money, and the whole logic is you're putting it in and then you'll if you need to, you'll make up for it in the next budget cycle. So essentially, we'd be in the same situation. >> Yes. >> You're
063delaying what you're saying is delay a year on that. And yes, um I would not recommend that approach. I'm just laying out options. >> John, can you speak briefly just on um for people that aren't aware the state aid that was a million and now looks like it's going to be 400,000? Like how do we get from that to such a decrease in a year? >> So the governor came out with her proposed budget at a 1% increase on foundation aid. The 1% increase on foundation aid translated to $247,000 for us. So less than 400,000. There are several different aid categories um under u what we say state aid. Foundation aid is the biggest one for us. $24 million or whatever have you for us or I forget what the number is. And then a
064couple other different transportation aid um textbook aid, technology aid. Those are other some other categories. So when we look at that, we estimate based on the governor's run how much more additional aid we can we can uh rely on comfortably. Um and so that's where we get the additional money. So $247,000 is direct from foundation aid. The remaining balance of that $400,000 is probably a mixture from our transportation aid. It could be um special education aid that we get. So some of those components um and so the difference between a million is generally put right into that foundation aid from year to year. So um her the money in my understanding from the advoc advocacy um standpoint is there was less in foundation aid money for this year because it was placed into the UPK.
065>> They didn't just make more money. >> What's that? They didn't just make more money. They had to take it from somewhere. >> Correct. So, yes, thank you for the UPK money, but we still need the other money money as well because as Brendan's asking, it is designated directly for UPK, not foundation aid where we can distribute as we see fit as the local level, the board of education. Any other questions? John, thank you for an outstanding presentation and helping us understand it as we go through so we can come up with options. Some better than others, but we can at least throw them all out out there and and something we'll we'll figure something out. >> Thank you for the questions. I appreciate >> you. Okay, moving on to consent agenda. We have items
0662, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Would anyone like to pull anything from consent agenda? Good. I see. I just want to give everyone a chance to look through in case they were Okay. May I have a motion? The use of the consent agenda permits the board of education to make more effective use of our time by adopting a single motion to cover those relatively routine matters which are included. Any member of the board who wishes to discuss individually a particular piece of business on the consent agenda may so indicate and that item will be considered and voted on separately, thus preserving the right of all board members. It is recommended that the board of education approve the following consent agenda items as submitted by the superintendent of schools items 2 through eight. May I
067have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Brendan. May I have a second? Carl, thank you. All in favor of approving the consent agenda? I >> opposed. Abstain. The motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. That um brings us to public comments. Number two, I do want to Well, I guess we have closing comments from the board, so I'll save that for closing comments from the board. Who would like to start? Thank you, Jamie. >> I just want to give a shout out to all the parents who are getting through this winter. So, I am one of you. Um, so, thank you. Good luck. >> Uh, thank you, Jim, for stepping up on the VP front. And it's a big responsibility and, uh, somebody's got to do it. And couldn't find a better
068man for the job. And John, thank you for again for the the presentation. Um, I know this as a as a board this has been a uh I don't want to say trying year, but like we've had we've put in a lot of hours. Um, I just got a lot to go. But John, thank you for uh for getting always, you know, presenting the information in a way that uh makes it digestible and it's going to be an interesting couple of months, but I think we're all up to the task. So, thanks. >> I don't really have anything. I just wanted to thank Jim for taking over as the uh vice president. >> Uh yeah, thank you all for your, you know, uh faith in me to uh help Christine and uh continue to move
069this board forward. Did not uh wake up today expecting that we would have a vacancy as the vice president in the board. Didn't didn't come to this meeting thinking that would happen. Found out uh right before. So, thank you all for that. I just want to make a quick comment. Um, we've received a couple notes about um, technology in the schools and specifically like kids being able to bypass filters and everything. And this is not in any way a knock on our IT staff. I think they're very dedicated, do a good job. We all know it's a huge game of whack-a-ole. Um, but I, you know, I just want to draw attention to, you know, to the public, let people know that these are concerns that we take seriously. um our IT staff is working
070diligently on them. Um and I would just say, you know, we might need to think about I don't know if it's on the website or just somewhere to, you know, to make it easy for like, hey parents, you know, kind of the if you see something, say something kind of deal, like if you see a problem, let us know so we can tackle it. um because it's you know um if this techn is out there um and it's on our network and on you know we need to make sure that we're doing everything on that. So um you know I thank the IT staff for their diligent work to constantly be fighting these battles. Um and I thank the parents for bringing those to us and just want everybody to know we take those seriously
071and um we should try and maybe think of a way to make those things easy to report. So, thank you. >> I put a candy in my mouth at the wrong time. Um, I just want to Huh. I know they are so big. Um, they I just wanted to thank um all of my fellow board members. um even the ones that aren't here and um uh just for all of the time we've all been putting in for the past uh particularly uh month the month and a half or so. You know, it's a lot, but I just want everybody who's watching to know like we're really working to do what's best for uh our students and for this community. And I just want to thank everybody else at this table, including our administrative staff. Um,
072just, you know, as you saw with John's presentation, everybody's putting in so much work and so much time. Uh, particularly right now when we're making so many changes uh to move this district forward and because we care about you guys, the students, so much. So, thanks to everybody. Uh, and uh, yeah, let's go home. >> Thank you. Mave, you good? Anything? >> Okay. Um, I guess I just wanted to say um I hope to see you guys next month and it's been a good meeting. >> Yeah. I just I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for uh pivoting for our meeting tonight. I know this was supposed to have been on Monday and you know we're trying to fight against the odds and it didn't work. So we had quite a few things
073on the agenda for this evening that we pushed till the next meeting because not everyone could be here and they were items that were important to some of the members who are absent. So, we at a out of a courtesy to those uh folks, we pushed those to the next meeting. Um I'm sorry if um you know, you're looking for something that was on the agenda that wasn't here tonight, but uh it's going to be a very robust meeting next time. So, and uh I just echo Loftton's um sentiments that, you know, I think it has been um there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and um it's rewarding work. So, it's it there's no um there's no downside to it. I just really want to say thank you because
074I think everyone that sits around this table um willingly and um joyfully isn't the word, but um and I'm not saying that to be sarcastic, but like willingly and like with like a great attitude, you know, like a can do attitude uh steps up to do it. So uh I thank you for that. And uh at with that, I would like to have a motion to adjourn our meeting. >> Thank you, Carl. Second. >> Loftton. Thank you. All in favor of adjourning the meeting. Hi. >> Thank you. Have a great rest of the week.