CCSD Board of Education Business Meeting on Monday, April 7th, 2025 @ 7 00 PM

001All right. Thank you everybody for joining us here uh on our Monday, April 7th, 2025 work session meeting. I invite you all to please join me in standing and reciting the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you everybody for joining us. The first item on our agenda this evening is public comment. uh recognition of visitors for any items on the agenda or for any other concerns. The board of education welcomes comments from the public. Each person wishing to speak is asked to speak into the microphone, identify themselves, and respectively limit their comments to three minutes. Two opportunities to speak are available. One early in the meeting,

002which will be limited to 30 minutes, and one at the end of the meeting. Each speaker may address the board only once at both the opening and closing portions of the agenda. Please remember there will be no cross dialogue between speakers and between members of the board. All speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner. Obscene language, lielist statements, threats of violence, statements advocating racial, religious or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated. Persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual district personnel or students should present their comments and/or concerns to the superintendent during regular business hours. Uh with that, take it away. Hi, I don't think this is working. Hello. Okay. Hi, my name is Cynthia Facilo. I am one of the advocates for the universal pre kindergarten group UPK for Cornwell New

003York. And I just first wanted to come here to thank all of you that are sitting here today for your hard work, dedication, and commitment to our children, our family, and the district. With that being said, I also wanted to say that uh we come here again as a group. There's a couple here behind me that also part of UPK. Uh to again show that we really want to prioritize our children first. We feel that the minimum number for that prioritization to show is at least 20 seats. The reason why is because 20 is the number we've had every year since 2021. And Terry Day can correct me if I'm wrong on that. Since 2021, we've always had that addition of seats. We've always prioritized our children and have expanded like properly. So having 10

004would not be enough. We really would like to see 40. That would be the goal because we want to become truly universal. We've been doing this for so long and I love to see that finally see all our kids in the classrooms. I mean, I saw my own little one go through it and she blossomed from it. And you can see if you're in a kindergarten classroom the differences between kids that have been through UBK versus kids that have not. to talk about the reading for example, we all know the reading scores have dropped and we know that early intervention and early education is directly tied into reading literacy. So I just want to just commend you all to try to continue to prioritize the children. I know Brendon you stood next to me, Terry,

005you sit next to me. We made some commitments and I want to continue up with those commitments every single year and I just want to see what the board has in mind for that and how we're going to continue to live up to that. I also wanted to ask about uh and maybe the superintendent can touch base with me after about some providers were declined uh becoming UPK providers such as Ivy League and I believe the other one was Village Nursery. So maybe we can touch base as to what the reasons were and is something that we can help them move forward with and I'd like to see how we plan on doing that. Thank you all for your time. Uh thank you for your comment. Next. Good evening, Mr. Dade school board members. My

006name is Suzanne Kersner and I'm a lifelong resident of Cornwall and a 2004 graduate of CCHS. And my husband and I have chosen to raise our boys here as well. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight. I would like to talk about UPK specifically in regards to twins. While I understand the lottery system and agree that twins are in separate individuals, I wanted to bring to light an issue. I strongly believe that twins should not be separated for universal prek programs unless parents or guardians determine that it is in the best interest for their children. Research shows that keeping twins together can provide emotional security, reduce anxiety, and support social and academic development. For many young children, the transition into structured school environment is a significant milestone and having a familiar sibling

007can ease this process. Families have the right to decide what is best for their children rather than being subject to arbitrary school replacement policies. In New York State, parents have a right to request that their children be placed in the same classroom if they are in the same grade level. Currently, I was told that if both my twins got spots in the lottery, that they would not be guaranteed to stay together. My one son received a spot while my other son, his twin, is weight listed. My biggest issue with this is that if my son that has been weightlisted does receive a spot, you cannot guarantee me that he would be able to be in the same location as his twin. They are forced to go to two different schools for the first time in

008their lives. Aside from the logistical nightmare that this poses for parents for drop off and pickup at four years old, how do you explain that to them? They have they have never been separated and you have taken that choice from us. I don't think there's a parent here that would argue that they would be okay with splitting their children up, having to do two drop offs at two different schools for children of the same age, especially that young. We need to look no further than our neighbors, excuse me, in Washingtonville. They too have a lottery system and yet twins stay together. If one gets in, they both get in. Not just benefiting the children, but also allowing for parental con convenience. I'm urging you to not just add spots for the UPK program so that

009all of our children can go, but also asking that you revisit your policies regarding twins. Thank you. Thank you very much for that comment. Hi, my name is Michelle Denafhrio. I'm also a member of the UPK for Cornwall group. Um, I'll keep it short since sleeping going on. I just want to tack on one more thing. Um we're also requesting as a group that um we would like monies needed for additional slots to be allocated now so that when the uh board budget is approved by the town that money is already set aside for the UPK program. Um, personally, I believe that the UPK program is very beneficial for kids to start out. Um, my son, he's four. He was put on the wait list for this year. He's already um he's already enrolled through

010CPSC for speech therapy. And I think he would absolutely benefit through being in a program with other kids in a classroom learning. So, that's my stance. Thank you very much for all Thank you for your comment. I wasn't planning on speaking tonight, but after meeting Michelle and just hearing her story, um I just want to it it's a perfect week. Sorry, Katie, if you could just state your name for the record. Thank you. Katie Bryce, sorry, Katie Bryce. Um an educator, lifelong resident of Cornwall. Um this week I plan to with a group of people charter SEPTA for the school district. Um and I hope you join. And I hope all of you join. It's um a way for families to connect and advocacy within the group or within the community, excuse me. All are

011welcome and I hope everyone in here I'm taking advantage. There's a lot of people here tonight. Um I hope everyone is willing to join and I too stand for UPK and 20 more spots. Thank you. Katie, could we give the microphone back to Katie? Could you just share when the SEPTA meeting is? Can you share for those that don't know what SEPTA stands for and when your meeting is this week? Thank you. No, of course. Of course. Um, so SEPTA stands for special education um PTI like PTO within schools, but SEPTA is a whole district-wide initiative. Um, Cornwall used to have one children phased out. They went to they went on to um post high school life and um it's an organization that um can be teachers can be family members both with children and

012um with disabilities or without disabilities and it's just an initiative to try and promote um more inclusive inclusivity excuse me within um the community. Did I answer all those? Oh, and and your meeting is when? I wasn't planning on speaking. Sorry. Uh the meeting is this Thursday. Um it's online. Um I I some uh Megan Argeno did pass out an email a few weeks ago. It's online. It's a Zoom. Um, I don't have all the information to me, but if those of you that are on Facebook, it's been posted in several different um, public groups and I would be more than happy to pass the information along to anyone interested. Anyone else? Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Dana Spano. I've lived in Cornwall for over 20 years now. I'm here tonight in

013support of the universal prek program. As a person who does not have children, who is not planning on having children, it's still very important um for me to be a member of a community that does prioritize our youth and our parents. I think it's very important, as um everyone has listed, the school readiness, socialization, and just a loving educational place for kids to be with their fellow community members. Um and that's it. You've got my blessing. Good luck. I hope it all works out. Thank you. Hi. Um, my name is Victoria Halfpy. I'm actually here as a parent who does not have a child of preschool age. My children actually are in high school, so far removed from preschool. Um, last I looked, this was a to get the additional slots was not a lot

014of money. I know um the budget is exceedingly tight. I know that's what everyone is looking at, but when you look at the investment in adding literally 10 more slots and the cost, I think it's well worth the investment. Um, it draws people to the community. It helps with um it it just it just really really helps um the kids, the community, and our houses, which I know our property values are something that everyone is always top of mind. So, I just wanted to come as a parent and speak tonight as someone who's not directly benefiting um at least their children in terms of being in the UPK program. Thank Thank you very much. Do we have other commenters? Hi, good evening. My name is Amy McGovern and I own the Ivy League preschool. I

015am a New York state licensed educator and I have my permanent teaching certifications. I taught the universal preschool program in the New York City school district before I moved to Cornwall 23 years ago. I built the preschool in 2002 and opened on December 31st. So I come to the board as a taxpaying Cornwallian and a business owner asking for the possible 10 to 20 new UPK seats in the upcoming 2025 2026 school year. I believe that more students could be included if all the UP UPK daycarees charge the same flat rate. Currently, Cornwall taxpayers are paying approximately $4,500 a year per 98 UPK students or $441,000 a year added to taxes. That is in addition to the $5,500 per student or $539,000 that New York State pays per school year for the UPK program. Also,

016these CH centers charge for before and after school care, which on average can run up to $7,000 a year for working parents for each student. After reviewing the cost for the program versus the Cornwall tax pay what the Cornwall taxpayers have to pay, I suggest a flat rate fee that would either add more UPK students or lower Cornwall's tax contribution. Other districts charge a flat fee and you can either choose to accept the fee or not. Newberg pays its outside providers $6,150 per student and and those providers receive from Newberg Central School District and New York State in total regardless of whatever grants Newberg receives. The providers get the exact same amount and the students go to school for 6 and a half hours as opposed to Cornwall's six hours. One of Cornwall's providers takes

017Newberg students at the flat rate fee and Cornwall students. So, it can definitely be done. We just need to demand better for our children. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Anybody else for public comment? Hi, I'm Maria Cavillian. I have two kids, one graduated and one currently in eighth grade in the district. Um, I am also a special ed teacher with the early intervention program. I work with preschoolers as a see it special education itinerant teacher. Um, I see some children at Ivy League preschool. I learned that she is not an approved UPK provider. Um, and I don't know why she has the room. I feel like it's there's no reason why she shouldn't be if she has the room in her building. Um, I can tell you that some parents unfortunately cannot afford

018to send their kids to private preschool. A lot of these parents um are parents of my kids, my clients, I call them my kids. Without UPK, those kids are going to be left behind. They're going to start kindergarten behind schedule. So, that's one reason. Um, another thing I can mention is as a seit, I have fellow seits that I work with who don't provide services at homes. Most of the time seed is done in a daycare center. It can be provided at home, but a lot of seats don't like it just because there isn't a nice routine that you have in a classroom. So, I know that Cornwall is always looking for seats. I know there's kids waiting for se IT services. If these kids are not in school, whether it's daycare or UPK, sometimes

019they won't get the services they need, and that is doing a disservice to them. Thank you for your comment. Uh do we have anybody else who would like to make a public comment to our board? Great. Well, thank you uh all very much for your comments and certainly um the board uh listens to all those. I will repeat myself. We we haven't had a a robust comment session like this in a while. Just to say we do not answer. It can sometimes be a dissatisfying um endeavor. We don't provide immediate answers. Some things need research. Uh we did update our procedures as a board a couple years ago that I could provide an answer to some uh queries at the next meeting um which we will do and certainly we will be discussing uh UPK

020seats uh as part of our budget presentation this evening. So, thank you all for your comments. Uh, next item on our agenda is a music uh, presentation from Mr. Rabinsky. Would you like to say anything, Terry, or just kick it? Take it away, T-Rav. How you guys doing? Uh, we are here to honor our state musicians for the evening. So, we're going to start. Can I bring down, please, as I I'm going to talk about them. Christian and Hunter, can you come on down? So, you can stand here awkwardly with me, too, while we talk about you guys. This is how this rolls. All right, here we go. Um, every year the New York State Band Directors Association puts on a 3D honor 3-day honor band festival in Syracuse. Students from all over the state

021auditioned and our hand selected to perform in either the jazz ensemble or the symphonic band. This year, one of our students from CCHS was selected for the jazz ensemble and he was one of four students representing Orange County in this jazz ensemble. There's only 18 musicians in the jazz ensemble. So, this is this is a huge thing. Christian Green was the first tenor saxophone player in the jazz ensemble, one of only two tenor saxophone players. So, huge, huge accomplishment for him. We are going to continue talking about our state musicians. Uh, each year approximately 6,500 sophomores and juniors prepare a New York State School Music Association solo in hopes for considering be considered for one spot in an all state honors ensemble. This year's Cornwall Central High School is happy to announce that one of

022our students has been selected into this ensemble and one was selected as an alternate. Uh so Cornwall Central High School is incredibly proud of Christian Green as being selected as an all-state alternate for the second year in a row for the jazz on jazz saxophone. And Hunter Olsen was selected for the 2024 all-state wind ensemble. He was one of six trombones in the highest wind ensemble in the state. Hunter performed at the All State concert on Saturday, December 6th in the gorgeous Kodak Hall and Eastman School in Rochester. This concert is a culmination of performance not only the hours spent in rehearsal starting on Thursday, December 5th, but of years in practice and lessons mastering the trombone. These two guys, this is not an easy thing to do and these two guys have been working

023extremely hard and we are so proud of them here at Cornwall for everything they've done. So, congratulations, gentlemen. We got a photo op coming. Smile from the draw and proud dad. There we go. Hey, forgot. And if we don't mind, I'm going to slide into the other hat. Okay. So, that was the high school hat. By the way, Mr. Hoover says sorry he wasn't able to make it. Um, he had to go home for his daughter. He hasn't been home a lot because of the musical. So, he went home for the little one. Um, so here we go. Uh, that So, that was that slide. Uh, oh, wait, maybe we were doing this. Yep, they were doing that. Here we go. Uh, music in our schools month was back in March. Um, and the CCSD

024music department wanted to share some really good news. This is the best part about my job. We get to gloat about our children and all the amazing things that they were doing. So, I'm very excited to be able to do this and thank you for giving me your time. All of our musicians performed great at all their winter concerts this past few months. Thanks to all who came to watch and especially to the parents for continuing to support and encourage our student musicians to strive for excellence. The second graders over at Willow Avenue in CO have worked hard this past fall to compose their own music digitally. The students formalized them uh familiarize themselves with digital audio workstations, DAWs, and musical samples to create an original piece with a title. Our middle school students have

025been practicing their breathing techniques for chorus and playing ukuleles in the middle school ukulele club. The fourth grade band and orchestra students participated in our instrumental recital on March 4th. 87 students performed as soloists or in small groups. The CCMS band was very busy during the holiday season and continued its annual treelighting performance. Along with this, they played the annual Wreaths Across America at St. Thomas of Canterbury. So, February was a very busy month for the CCSD music department. Everyone's like, "There's downtime, right? It's between the two concerts." Nope. We always find time to showcase our students and have them perform. So, February 3rd, uh, the eighth graders, band, and orchestra students visited the high school to learn about the high school program and to help the transition into next year. The CCSD coral students

026came together on February 13th to participate in the coral workshop. All the coral students performed for each other and then they all sang together Shine Like Stars at as the grand finale with over 700 students performing. turning the page. If I wasn't on script, I would talk way too long. So, that's how we're working with this. The CCSD band students had their band extra expo on February 18th. Every band in the district played uh a piece and then they closed the concert with America the Beautiful with just under 300 students performing together. The CCSD orchestra students will have their spring string showcase in May. Last month, the CCH uh the high school had their annual ac capella night which featured our concert choir, treble choir, and ac capella groups. All these groups worked with a

027Vassor College ac capella group the night before to uh polish up their performances for the evening. Uh going down the drama end of things, the theater, the CCHS drama club was honored to be the New York State high school premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child this past fall. This massive undertaking was a challenge and an honor for all involved. We thank the community and drama club alumni for coming out in record numbers to support our efforts. The CCMS drama club recently produced Oliver. They had 130 participants both on stage and off. Rehearsal started back in December and two of their three formal performances were sold out in the auditorium. The CCHS drama club and music department just closed Once Upon a Mattress this past weekend. The musical comedy featured 150 students either on

028stage, backstage, or in the pit. That number just blew my mind this past weekend. 150 kids. We had 75 on stage plus crew and 60 in the pit this year. So, if you think of four grades in the school around 300ish, it's an eighth of the building. So very very proud of that and thrilled that all of those students got that opportunity uh to perform this weekend. Change the slide. Here we go. The elementary PTO drama clubs have also been very busy this year. Back in January, the Cornwall Elementary School PTO produced an amazing production of The Lion King with 127 students. And last month, the CO PTO produced a thrilling performance of Newsies. The Willow AB production of Aristocrats will be coming this Thursday. There's your plug. Here we go. We had many successful

029auditions this past year and many of our students have been accepted into honor ensembles around New York State. These students prepared a challenging audition piece and rose to the top of the section to be in these prestigious ensembles. We have over a 100 students uh and those of you who have the packet, I I put all the names in there. I will not read all the names. Uh but we had one all-state musician with an alternate. We had one New York State Band Director Association musician. We had 11 area allstate zone 9 musicians. We had 30 OCMA high school allcount musicians. We had nine jazz all county musicians. We had 31 um junior high allcount musicians and we had 25 elementary musicians. The junior high and elementary concerts are in April and May and we

030are excited to be participating in those. So, some upcoming things, some of these I've talked about. Uh, obviously we said aristocrats will be headed on Willow A this weekend. Uh, the CO jazz combo will be doing a jazz appreciation concert uh this month up in the library at the high school. Uh, the Cormal Central School District string showcase will be happening in May. The CCMS music department will be headed to Six Flags Great Escape for an adjudication in the beginning of June. And as I mentioned earlier, our junior high and all county festivals. This is in addition to prepping for concerts. So, a lot of stuff is happening and we're really excited. Next year, looking forward, CCHS will be hosting two music festivals coming up next year. We are hosting Orange County's High School All

031County Festival, which we traditionally do in January, but this is the new one. will also be hosting and chairing the New York State School Music Association's Area All State Festival in November, which is a large undertaking for the department um and supporting the state's music association. As always, thanks for your continued support of the arts here at CCSD and noticing the importance that it has for all these young adults as they grow up to make the world a better place. Thank you very much, guys. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Ravinsky. Um I I'll just add um it's great to see this as a board as we're debating the budget today. You know, to you get stuck in the numbers and having discussions and it can be kind of boring and to remember why we're up here

032and and who we're working for is great. So, thank you for your presentation. Uh and congratulations to Hunter and Christian for making All State very very uh prestigious honor for them. So, um next item on our agenda is committee updates. Uh I will go in order of my sheet here. Uh policy committee Brendan. Yeah. Uh next meeting will be our spring uh batch which will also include those policies which we've removed from the last round but typically have that in uh late May, early June. So we're on track for that. Great. And uh I will violate my I'm going to go off my sheet order to stick with you on communication. Sure. Uh we are about ready to dive headlong into the uh budget communication season. So um I talked with Mr. John Frink just

033on Friday about getting the budget newsletter off the ground and uh we're doing that. So working with the committee to get uh p pull together ideas for what that quote unquote you know budget narrative is going to be this year. Um and then we're also going to start the process on uh scheduling the community forums and kind of deciding how exactly we want to handle it this year. Might be uh might go beyond just a uh a forum here in the CES captorium. May do some further outreach, but we will uh keep everyone posted on that. Uh and then also everybody's favorite uh the budget explainer videos will be making its uh their glorious return this year as well. Great. Thank you. Um, next on my item here, I have visitation. Um, Richard, you're here

034with us today. You weren't here last week. Our last time we had committee reports. I understand your committee um sat down and met with Terry. Um, anything to report that we didn't hear at the last um at the last uh report from Carl? So yeah, I would just say that we did have a what I felt a very productive discussion about the things that were brought up uh specifically space utilization observations that we had and I think there's been some brainstorming and I'm hopeful that you know things will look better um in the future. Um the only other thing that I will mention is and I'm not saying this to you know point fingers at anybody but communication was brought up uh by n a few staff members and just the importance of having timely

035responses from you know building administrators etc. Again, I'm not throwing the blame at anybody, but I just think it's important that, you know, we look at that. Great. But thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, next I have facilities. Um, we had a meeting a week ago today. Um, we had uh, you know, I apologize. I meant to we we put up uh, there was a presentation from our architects, Tetratech as well as Palumbo Group. Um, we put that up on the website. I meant to email that out to the board. I will do that. followup for you guys to look at that. I didn't get a chance to do that before our meeting. Um short version is uh Palumbo Group, our construction manager presented. We are um you know on our way to do

036the work that is scheduled this summer. Um highlights of the work this summer are um finishing the high school athletics multisport facility uh complex which is expected to be done uh around mid August. um co getting new windows um throughout the building and a couple new bathrooms, a lot of paving work uh right behind us here at Lee Road. Um those are the major projects that are being undertaken this summer. Um the architects uh came and presented looking at two uh projects that have bubbled to the top for our next um our next uh bond vote that we will take out to the public. Uh, one of those being a um, student drop off area at the middle school. Um, the short version is obviously if you know anybody's tried to drive down main street

037when middle school pickup, it backs around the street. Um, so they presented some plans to actually come in on Lee Road and go around uh, the football field there and back and create a a drop loop in the back of the school, the rear of the building. Um, as well as um, the cafeteria, not the cafeteria, but the k the actual kitchen area in the middle school. There are some structural issues with where that is. Um needs to be shored up underneath. In addition to that, um it's just not laid out. Uh it's not the most effective use of the space for the way that the uh food services program uses that space right now. So, they presented a few concepts for us to reimagine that. So, work will continue on those two projects uh

038to get money behind that. And we are trying to target a um vote to go out to the public. We have $5 million as you know in our capital reserve fund number two. Um so to spend that money with state aid um on capital projects targeting a uh November December timeline next year for a vote on that um subject to change but that's where we're at right now. So um any questions on facilities? I'll I'll I'll email that document out so you can go more in depth. But I think that's the highlights. Okay. Um and then the next two I have our audit which is Christian. And if you just want to roll right into Oxbow, you um attended that meeting last week. There was some timely information which you uh emailed to us if

039you want to just hit some of the highlights and provide context there. Thank you. So audit has finished its work until the next um internal audit uh which should if we are on schedule perhaps in June and we hopefully bring it before the end of this uh this board year. Um onto OXPA. Uh so the Oxbow meeting uh last week um bas the there was a presentation um by David Shaw and one of his colleagues who I name I don't have in front of me from the law firm Shaw um Perilson and Lambert. I'm leaving out a name. Give me one second. Shaw Perilson May and Lambert. and they presented a pres uh presentation on the legal issues uh on a variety of different things that are occurring now including um some of the federal

040like um initiatives regarding DEI um the student representative on the board uh some information on trends in collective bargaining and um that that was the thrust of there were a few other small items but as I shared the PowerPoint with all the other members of the board you can see it there. Um, I would say if I had to summarize the presentation on DEI, I would say the take-home message was New York state law says one thing and binds us to one thing and federal the federal initiative says another thing. And we have taken oath as schoolboard members, speaking generally, not just the people here tonight, but schoolboard members in general in New York State to uphold the constitution of both those entities and that there really is not a clear path forward. um and

041he basically presented it as a hard decision um and a decision that you know will be ahead of us. The collective bargaining I'm not going to discuss here. I think it was basically just showing what trends are and I think you know you have the information and the last one was on the student representative or exeicio representative on the board and one part that came is that we need to have a policy and I think it's generically numbered 2245 on that by July 1st. Um and I think we probably need to accelerate that policy even um outside of the policy committee to hit that date. Um, I have draft language, but it might be something that we might want to do as a committee as a whole, but I'll I'll just put that out there

042and we can discuss whether that's a way to go forward. Um, so that'll be in in um it'll be operational for the upcoming school year. Um, I assume that you checked, I haven't checked that we do not currently have a policy. We do not current we have we do obviously have a representative. We do have to have a policy and that lays out specifically that in a sense enshrines that sure in policy and also the method of selection and also how many uh board members as well as their responsibilities and also that they would have some of the similar responsibilities but also the limitations for example they would not be allowed into executive session and have a vote on certain things but they would be entitled to what other information is provided to board members.

043Yeah. Uh did they my question on this has been we have our student representatives you can see they're not here tonight. We have them come to um our business meetings but not our work sessions. Is there any um guideline on the new state law of how do they have to attend every single meeting or what you know I I think the way it was stated was that they are invited to every meeting. Okay. Um and obviously like sometimes people who adults on the board don't come to every meeting. Sure. um but that they would have that privilege to come to every meeting and speak at every meeting. Um I think I had discussed on my previous when we did committee updates because there was discussion among the Oxbow representatives about this kind of as a

044policy issue because some u districts are doing this for the first time and I think I I won't repeat myself but I think that there's some things that they found worked better um including let's say having two representatives but also staggering it a junior and a senior and making it a two-year term and so anyway the point is I think that's something for our discussion and I think that we probably need to start on it soon to get it done by July 1st. So, um, unless anybody has any objection, I'll say this. If you could, I think, um, just email that policy to the policy committee and if you guys can all agree on a draft, send that to Terry andor myself and we can include that on our next meeting as a first read.

045I don't think we need to call an official meeting just to review, you know, I assume you're just pulling the the draft NISPA policy and possibly polishing it a little bit. But so just one thing just because I think there are some choices to be made. For example, how the delegate is selected. There is a I think a model policy on Nisba's website, but they leave open and that was in the PowerPoint that I circulated that they I think outlined about five to seven different ways that you could select it and all those are legitimate and we could just that. So the only there's a discussion there, but that could be discussion for the board when the policy is presented and we can change the language. So let's let's enshrine what we currently do, which

046is selection by uh high school building administrators. Uh, right. That would not be my preference, but I'm saying just to start, that's what we do. We need a policy by July 1st. So, let's enshrine what we currently do and then we can um what's the best way to have a discussion about this with the communications committee. Uh, put it on a future board agenda for just all of us to discuss. Um, I'm open to suggestions there. I think it depends on what is required by July 1st. If it's just to have a policy, then I agree with what you said. Have some stop gap policy that enshrines what we have and then put it through the policy committee in the spring and your next meeting. Yeah. So, okay. Um, so let's try let's just try

047to fasttrack enshrining what we currently do and then policy committee if you guys want to have a discussion at your next meeting on you know ways to improve uh what we're doing that would be great. Um, wonderful. Anything else uh from Oxbow Christian? there was just some discussion about internal things there uh reorganization meeting for the year. Uh the candidates uh for for the board of Bose uh OU Boseies uh were there and kind of spoke briefly but we we covered that in a previous meeting. I think we've already made an endorsement um or we cast our vote as a school board and then the June meeting which everyone is invited to which is kind of the reorganization meeting where they elect officers for the upcoming year as well as um they recognize school board

048members who are retiring or who are not returning and obviously anyone who would fall under that would be invited to that but I think that we will get emails on that from Karen Meyer. Great. Thank you very much. Um uh so I believe that's all of our committees. Next item is the Go ahead, Bass. Just I want to add quickly I have some uh publications from OU uh Boses. I went to their budget presentation, okay, last week. And they do have a lot of information, good information uh about bosses and uh four documents total. And one of them uh one of them is uh Cornwall uh specific enrollment and numbers and our participation our students in different programs, different schools. uh some good information you can go through it and uh they they're doing uh

049they're doing some great service I mean they uh they had present presentation uh from students working on different programs uh 3D printing and uh some health uh kind of you know uh uh like nursing and uh they did demonstrate what they're doing. I mean, they're they're doing great things for our uh county and alsters as well. Great. Thank you, Bess. Um and we will be voting on that on April 24th here, I'm seeing on our budget calendar. So, on the Bosey's budget. Um next item on our agenda is the consent agenda. Uh, use of the consent agenda permits the board of education to make more effective use of its 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

050particular piece of business on the consent agenda may so indicate and then that item will be considered and voted on separately. Um, so can I have a motion for items two through items two through lucky number 13. And can I have a second? Second. Second from Christine. Uh and then who wants to pull out any uh numbered item here for separate discussion? Christian. Uh number four, approval of 2526 BOE making schedule. Okay. Uh anybody else? Going once, going twice. Um okay. So let's then um vote on items two and three and five through 13. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Great. Uh item number four, uh approval of the 2526 BOE meeting schedule. Christian. Um so two points on the proposed schedule. The first one is on the May 4th date. Um, like

051this year, this would fall outside the window as designated by the state, but I think we have to have that meeting. Um, and therefore, I would suggest moving it now as opposed to moving it later. So, I think the school board school the budget vote is on May 19th. It has to be within two weeks and that would be May 5th would be the opening of that window. And so like we are moving the May meeting to Tuesday. I think we should move that to Tuesday now. So that's the first point. Did I Did I see a head nod there, John? Okay. So May I mean it could be any date, but it has to be after between May 5th May 5th is this first date. It could be. So as opposed to May 4th,

0522026, update that to May 5, 2026 and perhaps make a designation like we usually do that this would be a t differently than a Monday meeting to a Tuesday meeting just for we can absolutely notate that. I was going to actually look at that later knowing that it's 13 months in advance, but why not hit it now rather than later? Yes. So that's a technical change. Great. Um the second one is the November meeting dates and I would like to move those November dates to the 10th and 27th. Um uh the reason is that the um I am a New York State teacher retirement system delegate and that is the date of the convention and I wouldn't ask except that it is a school related thing that's fairly important and there is no alternate and

053there's no proxy vote for that. I I would note that November 27th is Thanksgiving. Yeah, I'm sorry. I think you potentially misspoke on your date. Uh, so you know, I'm sorry, November 24th. I'm I'm moving it 10 days and I meant to move it seven days to move it one week. So the 10th and the 24th um I'm pulling up a calendar here. Yeah, I mean the 24th is the Monday after Thanksgiving. I think we had a meeting Monday before. Is it the Monday before? Excuse me. Um, the money and the 10th, I believe, is the Monday before Veterans Day. Veterans Day. Yeah. Yeah. I would I I guess that why the request to move both, Christian? Um because I think that the reason why we have them at a two week stagger is because

054of the amount of business between those dates and therefore um if we did just move the the first one the third to the 10th then we would have two meetings a week apart and I just think that would be credential. Um I think we've done things in the past when there have been vacations or closures of school spring break that have hit into what would have been a two week stagger between the two meetings per month. Right. But it, you know, if you move the one back to the 24th, then you're you're running into the same issue with December 1st. I So on the back, so I and I understand that we've had one meeting a month in the past. For example, uh de I believe December was only one meeting because of just how

055the the dates felt. Um I explained my reason for wanting it moved. I would also say that we moved the board retreat um that was already scheduled for certain people's uh you know as a courtesy and I would just ask the same courtesy. Yeah, no one's arguing against that. I'm just trying to understand the whole SC calendar and how it fits together. May I ask Christian, what is the date of the conference you're speaking of? Just so I have context on the calendar. So it is the second and the third and it's held um in upstate New York. It is the New York State Teacher Retirement System Convention um which is used to elect the delegate to the board. I I just didn't know if it was all week. I was trying No, it's just

056two days easier and I don't know if there's rules around this, Mr. Frink to shift it to like Wednesday the 5th instead and it keeps us on our cadence but allows for that education conference. I would concur with Christine I was going to suggest the same thing. I'd be opposed to the 10th just being the day of a long a weekend to a holiday, but certainly willing to accommodate. So, um that would also uh I have no problem with that moving that date. I would just note just in case. So, while we're thinking about dates way in the future, that the fourth obviously is election day. And I would also note we have one other thing that's probably going to happen this fall we haven't scheduled yet and this might involve moving meetings which is

057that we have a planned capital project vote sometime in the fall and that's probably going to impact some of these dates and schedules because of of what we would like to do as a presentation or other types of things around that. Um, and I don't know exactly what date people are thinking about, but that's going to fall somewhere in there. Sure. And that would happen regardless. To me, moving it two days feels less cumbersome and and if we need to make bigger changes next year. So, Christine, as often the case when you make a suggestion, you're right. And I I think don't give me that much credit. No, I would say that uh thank you for proposing something better than I could come to myself. And I think that addresses the uh the concern. We

058could go the week before and just go Friday, October 31st, Friday Halloween meeting. Um, um, do you have any objection to Wednesday the 5th? Yeah, I mean, obviously we just try to keep everything on Monday because people just expect it's every other Monday, but as long as it's notified, you know, far in advance, we do certainly have meetings that are not on Monday. Um I'm not seeing anything that's um jumping out here. So let's notate then um November 5th, 2025, Wednesday and May 5th as opposed to November 3rd and May 5th uh Tuesday 2026 as opposed to May 4th. Um any other questions, comments? I guess I just I had a question on it while we've while we've opened it. Terry, you've got the reorganization meeting on Monday, July 14th. Is there a reason to

059not do that? Monday, July 7th. Uh so a fellow parent on the board kind of joined me in my kind of light frustration with that Monday being a prime vacation weekend. Um it's preparation for the board side and the administration side. So we just said if there's if there's wiggle room why why are we doing it right in fourth of July weekend time period where a lot of the uh a lot of Cornwall is on vacation. I assumed as much. So not not that I'm asking you to rearrange anything but just for the record I'm I'm out of town the week of the 14th. That's the tough part is everyone Is there a requirement that it's after July 1? Is that Yes. Yes. Yes. Is there an additional requirement that it has to be within

060a certain time from the beginning of July by the 15th? By the 15th. Yeah. Okay. Do do you think it would be um it would behoove um to do it? So, you're saying the whole week of July 4th plus the following Monday isn't I just tried to move it off of the Okay. I just feel like that's a little bit late for a reorg meeting personally. Um, but I'm certainly open to suggestions or can we move the day instead of a Monday? I was going to say if we're if we're if we're coming off of Mondays, we could do it um Oh, I went too far. Um, right. We could do it Wednesday the 10th or um Thursday. I'm in June. Excuse me. Let's go to July of 2026. Um, we could do uh yeah,

061Wednesday the 8th or Thursday the 9th. Tuesday or Wednesday? It's back to the future here. Excuse me. Tuesday or Wednesday. We are here. I have this problem every year with this format. Could you do me a favor? You put the 2025 meetings at the bottom below 2026. Can you take those three meetings and move them to the top? Because I think this is the third year in a row I've entered them into my calendar wrong. And that's not your fault. That's my fault. Um, so we're discussing July 2025. I will get off my calendar of July 2026. Um, if you're contemplating this so that we're all in attendance, I had my date wrong and I will be here the 14th. I leave I leave on the 15th. I'm just ready to go. Okay. I didn't

062want to. All right. So, we will keep it the 14th then. So, we're just going to vote on this uh with those two changes. November 3rd changing to November 5 and May 4 changing to May 5. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Any abstensions? All right. Thank you very much. Uh that is the end of our consent agenda and I believe that brings us to John and your budget presentation. Take it away, please, June. Thank you very much. Uh, April 7th, here we are. Uh, we've made some nice steady progress for our budget presentation. So, we're going to try and start to wrap up with today's presentation and then there will be one more after this. So, we envision a school district in which every staff member is a source of knowledge and inspiration.

063Every building is a place of safety and support and every leader is a pillar of integrity and every student is a source of pride. Our sources of pride are up there. Mr. Ravinsky also talked about all of our sources of pride. Um so happy to see all these faces up there. Um on our agenda this evening, um a little bit of additions for us. So we're going to talk about the recommended uh budget and the recap. Um, we're going to talk about the needs assessment and the bio uh the board of education's discussion from last um time we met the adjusted budget and the options New York State aid projections. And I will admit right now I lost the bet to Jim Kan friendly bet that the of course the aid did not come out

064on time. So uh tax levy approval rating and history um some contingency budget information and then we'll talk about our capital reserve proposition. So, uh, familiar slide where we've been. So, we've talked about this slide a couple times. So, just a little recap about, um, this presentation. Um, looking at a recommended budget of 92,72136. And then we talked about our revenues and how we meet those revenues. We have a revenue budget of 90,364 425. And that included a 2.5% tax levy increase. And then we used a um assigned fund balance of 2,356,711 to balance that. That gave us a balanced budget revenues matching our expenditures. So that's where we last left off. The board jumped into some discussion um at our last meeting. So based on that March 24th board discussion, we talked about some

065additions to that budget um that recommended budget. So the first one was adding in the district-wide strategic plan at about $45,000. The second addition was two safety monitors specifically at Willow A and the mil uh middle school with a price tag of about $128740. I have a highlighted little area up there about a 1.0 O FTE early intervention support teacher and I'm going to just pause on that for just a second. The board also discussed universal prek adding 10 additional seats. The cost is up there at about 35670. And then we talked about increasing the uncertified uh substitute teacher compensation for about uh $7,000. So total allin about 216,702. So, um, I met with the superintendent. Um, superintendent Dade asked that we insert this line into this budget as a kind of swap, right? If

066there's an administrative recommendation for discussion, it would be to put in that early intervention support teacher and that would be a split between CO and Willow. Um, and that would replace that 128740. um a little less money than what we originally anticipated, but we think we can make it work based on um our our finances. So again, the total cost on the budget addition would be about $216,000. So kind of swap in, swap out for the board to discuss here. This would then result in an adjusted expenditure budget. So 92 million 934122. So then the board also discussed at the March 24th meeting some options that they'd like. So we have option A, option B, and option C. And what are those different options mean? Up here, you'll see the different highlighted areas are drawing

067out that information. So in option A, we left the tax levy the same at at 2.5 and then relied more upon that uh assigned fund balance. we increase the the amount um that we are um increasing the budget by placing that all into the assigned fund balance. For option B, we said uh we'll take uh that additional money and put it on the tax levy. And the tax levy comes out to be a 2.91% increase when we add those additions in. And we left that uh assigned bund uh fund balance the same. That's at $2.3 million. And then option C takes it and just splits it. We split the difference. You get a tax levy of 2.7 and your assigned fund balance is going to be $2.4 million. So again, this will be some of

068the discussion the board can have related to this previous slide, slide five up here with the needs assessment options related to that and then we can um discuss where we want to go from here. Um, as I mentioned earlier about the aid projections, uh, New York State has, uh, let me down again. Uh, April 1st has come and gone and we don't have a a budget. Uh, although I believe they are a little bit closer. Um, they were squabbbling over cell phone use. Uh, which I believe has been agreed upon. So now it's like let's get the dollars going and that flowing so we all can do our budget. So up here you'll see the same slide as last week with scenario one. uh what we can do if we receive more aid than we

069currently project. So you have the option to reduce your tax levy, reduce the amount of s assigned fund balance, a combination of both, uh do nothing and allow that money to go into next year's surplus or expand recommended expenditures. So program programming staff and capital. Or scenario two, if we receive less state aid than we projected, we can increase the tax levy. We can increase the amount of sign balance or a combination of both. Again, so similar to that option A, B, and C. Um, recycling this slide as well. Tax levy and approval rating history. This is really the past 10 years of what our tax levy um our maximum allowable tax levy has been, what our, um, voted on and approved tax levy has been, and what our approval ratings has been. So, you're

070looking at a 10-year average of 1.66. 66 uh adopted levy uh from a 2.62 maximum allowable and a 66% approval rating. We talked last time about contingency budgets, so I won't repeat this myself on this, but we do want to keep in mind and be aware of what are some of our options are should we need to go there. These two slides really spell out the overall look of a contingency budget um with with the restrictions. So, no uh no increase to the uh tax levy. Um maintaining um no purchase of buses or equipment. So, again, uh rules and restrictions, the field trips that would be critical to us here in Cornwall. Uh so, just want to make sure that we're aware of our uh contingency budget needs. On the May 20th ballot, we'll keep

071uh emphasizing this is the establishment of a new capital reserve fund um that we will look to fund with surplus from our expenditure budget or a revenue budget um whichever we have at that time with a maximum value of $5 million. As I said in the beginning, I'll say at the end here, we've made significant progress throughout our calendar. It's April 7th. Uh our next meeting will be Thursday, April 24th, and that will be our budget adoption day. Um so we will need to make sure that we're all buttoned up on that day, before that day. And then the 6th will be our u annual budget hearing. That's Tuesday the 6th. And then the vote is Tuesday, May 25th. So relatively quick today, 12 slides, but I'm sure the discussion will go lengthy. Uh before

072we start discussion, um I've got a couple questions for clarification. Uh April 24th, what if New York State has not agreed to a budget by April 24th? We still have to adopt a budget. So we just take our best guess. Um, okay. Which, you know, look, this year the the uh school funding has not been a great area of dispute uh according to the news reporting as it was last year. So, it seems if anything we should be pre pleasantly surprised because the Senate and the House they're one uh one house budget have each been more than what the governor proposed in her budget. So, That's correct. Yeah. So, I thought we'd be have that's why I thought we'd be done last week. Um, and then another question for clarification, if you can go on

073back to slide five. And I just uh I sidebarred this with Terry, but um so currently today um we have uh a full-time early intervention teacher split between um co Willow and you know in addition to uh somebody full-time in this building at Lero that we're sitting in. It was my impression that in the initial needs assessment um that we were debating adding a second person so C could have a full-time, Willow could have a full-time. Um and I just sidebar Terry, but if you just want to confirm that in the that was one of the positions that was um not backfilled due to a retirement. Yes. So appreciate the uh question. Uh so after last meeting um we had uh questions I believe from Elanora and Christine who were really trying to get at

074this uh Mr. Hines spoke about it at the end um and I had kind of the same um question. So as the board went moved away from the admin recommendation of leaving the needs assessment alone and just sticking with uh attrition and things of that nature. Uh the board started talking about some things from the needs assessment uh which uh we were trying to get at would that still be our priority something on the needs assessment or would we or would we look back at the five positions that were being um subsumed through retirements etc. So I went back uh rallied um teams to just kind of talk through scenarios to see what was happening. Um to Jim's question, uh Willow and Currently have a shared uh kindergarten uh AIS position. the positions that were

075subsumed through um retirements were um pushin teachers that were that we that came about during the um pandemic uh through through federal funds that our board decided to um kind of step down over the years. So both Willow and CO uh had retirements that we um subsume those positions to take care of the 322k. So in our analysis, we said, well, they're both losing a position. So would it benefit the students at CO and Willow to at least add back a shared position that might support students in grades one um that CES might have. Uh so that's why we put it up as a recommendation. Uh the second part that I want to share with the board is I also discussed with um the principal of Willow and CCMS what would happen if your positions

076weren't approved the safety monitors. Uh so this is why I left it as we would like the board's direction on which of the two we would support. Um because we're I'm particularly more confident in the middle school's ability to handle this because they have a greeter uh position. Uh Willow does not. So the function of a greeter at the top landing of CCMS, it's a great let people in, greet them. There's tons of notes including myself dropping things off for ADA. So it's a hop in um area. Um, so, uh, potential sharing of of responsibilities at the middle school. I I believe we would be in a good spot maybe with some additional hours, um, to handle, uh, the middle school. Willow would would bump up against our concern of someone being stationed away from

077that hightra area. Uh would be a loss to Willow with the movement of the security um uh portion uh down on the first floor. So, it's a tough um discussion to have, but we wanted to make sure the board knew kind of where we were. I'm more confident in the middle school, less confident at Willow. Um, but I also feel that there's a a loss at CO and Willow with regards to the reduction of early intervention uh support there. Can can I just ask will both the will the greeter and the security be in that new security office? So at Willow just one would be one and then the other would be positioned at because typically the security is around out at recess, goes out when the kids go out for gym. So then it

078would just be the greeter in that office and the top would be empty. Correct. So if I could get further clarification on the early intervention, what age level is this for? Is this for the kindergarten? You're saying there there is a kindergarten and this is additional for first grade. This would be more targeted towards first grade. Okay. But if this position isn't filled, there still would be that position for kindergarten. Correct. Shared across C and Willow. Correct. Okay. I just want to make sure that we're fully um understanding our our options here. So, is that currently is there one person splitting that first grade duty? And this would I know you just explained it, but I'm trying to track. They're splitting it. And this would be this would give us one in each building or

079this is to maintain splitting it. This is to um lighten the give from CO and Willow. So, uh CO has a full-time early intervention teacher that is now moving potentially into a classroom. Willow has the same 1.0 that would be moving into a classroom. So, between the two buildings, they're down two FTEEs. This would at least give them a 1.0 back to at least share between the two. Thank you. And the um the 2.0 safety monitors that cost is for two people. So if and the concern is at willow that that would be adjusted if we're just talking about one person. Correct. So there would need to be some sharing of responsibilities. Um we would also look at potential increasing hours for some existing personnel like u monitors and things of that nature. So, I

080I want to say confidently we can figure it out. There's not going to be an unsafe situation at Willow like I spoke about last time, we can be creative, but I wanted to be transparent with my conversations with the principles and kind of what they said would have to occur. Uh the concern at Willow would be the the need for someone stationed there all the time because that bell rings all the time. So, you need someone there with the eyes on um the door. um non-stop. So even if the sheriff would move down to relieve um our security uh personnel, it would just need to be a wellthoughtout rotation of of responsibilities. Great. Thank you, Terry. So if I can just, you know, recap here for the public and and for our board, you know,

081at our last meeting, we discussed um several positions and went through and had sort of an up and down vote. Um the administration has come back here with this line in yellow saying perhaps we should consider um uh changing what we did last time and voting in favor of those safety monitors and and flipping that to um an early intervention support teacher. That that would be the administration's um recommendation. So uh I think we need to have a discussion between those two options here as a board and then a discussion on the next page in terms of the funding uh options A, B and C. Tiffany. So, I I I don't want to speak too long and I don't want to belabor a point because I'm going to be discussing it in the next um

082the next agenda item. But for for those of you who are not aware of my background, um I'm a certified police academy instructor and have taught the juvenile instruction course at the uh Orange County Police Academy several times. I'm a former assistant district attorney and the uh a former chief assistant county attorney in charge of family law and juvenile justice. I have personally um prosecuted uh school threat cases which will be in our next agenda item, but I I preface it by not not bolstering myself but for you to understand my background and why safety monitors are so um essential to our student safety. Um it it and not taking anything away from early intervention. I I truly believe that's important as well. Um I have a cousin who was involved in the Parkland shooting

083um was in the school building when it occurred and I'm telling you the trauma, the anxiety, and the the lifelong um impact that that has on your child. Um I I can't even begin to describe it. But just put yourself instead of just reading the line that says safety monitor or early intervention. Again, I I agree that's important. Um, put yourself in the in the god-awful position of your child being um a victim or being a participant in any one of those scenarios. It it it's life altering forever. So, um I don't I'm not trying to be dramatic. I'm simply pointing it out and I I will personally my my sole vote will not waver or move off of the school safety monitors. Can can I ask a question to just clarify something? Um I

084I was at Willow. I know how important that is and especially now not having someone in that main lobby, but can you just clarify what is the difference between our, you know, the police officer that's in there, a safety monitor or regular monitor? So, right now at Willow, we had the officer and then we had the greeter we called her. So, so what exactly is the safe? Would the greeter who's currently there, would she be considered a safety monitor or what what is the difference between those? Sorry. No, we're I think that's an important um um uh description that needs to be explained. So, um the importance of the sheriff that the board at the time and the community at the time uh made was someone armed. So just think of our Orange Orange County

085Sheriff's. That's our armed personnel in each of our schools. Next level um is security. So where Willow has someone uh there that's part of our security personnel. Um safety monitors would be a new position to um uh Cornwall. So we had uh Dr. Harrington and Mr. Pink kind of wrap their heads around if we were to have this position, what's out there? What's civil service? A safety monitor is a civil service position. Correct, Dr. Youngrington? Um, so it would be a new unarmed. Um, the greeter uh is a position specific to the middle school and middle school and high school. Uh, so that's not security. That's really just a greeter. Someone to greet people as they come in, kids, x, y, or z. So those are the different the differences. Willow does not have a

086greeter. uh their security is kind of tied to that area um just because of the logistics of the building. Correct. So the safety monitor would be unarmed. Correct. But trained, I'm assuming, in some form. So it's not like having just a regular monitor coming in. Okay. Right. And if I can um this Oh, I'm sorry, Christian. No, no. I'm I was just giving you the your next point. Oh, the safety monitor because I'm not as familiar with Willow. We have to take a ride over there. Um, we have an armed person on site. The safety monitor would be in place because the armed person switches their position throughout the day based on the need. Uh, so currently at uh Willow uh there's no security vestibule on the first floor. So you walk up the stairs,

087you um are greeted by Mindy who's wearing two hats, kind of like a pseudo greeter, but also more importantly security. Uh so unarmed security is where u Mindy sit uh sits. Armed Orange County uh sheriff I hardly ever see because they're moving they're moving to the hightra areas um etc. Put a security vestibule down on the first floor of Willow. Move Mindy down there. sheriff's moving the highest traffic area at Willow now has no eyes or or eyes in a rotational manner. So that's the difference is current status is here. Move her down here. Sheriff is doing recess and arrival dismissal. So that main landing that first floor area is the concern at Willow. No one gets into that first floor without going past Mindy downstairs. Correct. Okay. Right. Yeah. Once is that um new

088vestibule open at willow? I haven't not yet. Yeah. So when when they open that new vestibule I assume that the current front door will be locked. Yeah. So I mean you it's not like people can just walk in there. You will you will have to go through. So the the security even if this position obviously adding this position will improve security posture but even absent adding this position there will be an improvement over today when that new security office which is taking part of the current nurs's office is built that will increase the security having that dedicated greeting office rather than just a a pedestal out in the hallway. Yeah absolutely correct uh Jim brings up a really good point. think the vest bill by itself enhances security at Willow because the concern at Willow

089with the current state is you could hit the um door and then there is a down staircase when you enter. So that eyes on and up. So there's there's numerous ways that you can go. So this moving the vestibule to a different door having that be the access going right past um through security is is an improvement. Thank you, Christian. And if you don't mind, Terry, just to answer Christine a little, I was in the building and that armed security guard goes out with the students. So, I would take my students out for their snack. He was out there with us. You know, there you were never he was always visible. So, he's not standing in that hallway. He is Yeah. all over. Yeah. Christian, the floor is yours. Well, I know we've been building

090up to this moment, but um I guess three uh three things. Um the first one is uh my initial was for the EL teacher at the high school as in the previous discussion. I moved my uh support behind the two safety monitors, but I would say right now I'm willing to accept the administrative uh recommendation to replace that slot with the early intervention teacher. So I'm just noting that. Secondly, I just have a technical question because I believe the early intervention teacher was at 133 252 and I'm just interested in what changed, you know, since that's also like salary plus benefits. Why are we changing the calculation of that and I just really would like to know the details? And then third, uh, given the public comment tonight, I think we before we go on

091and talking how we're going to pay for it in terms of fund balance versus tax levy, I think we need to talk about the additional uh, 10 UPK seats again. And so I just want to make sure that the discussion happens uh, before we move on to the next uh, the next stage. And I'm not going to comment on that, but I I I think those are three short points. Yes. So, I could answer the question about the uh staffing change for the uh 1.0 FTE. Uh when we originally um gave a a cost estimate for that, it's roughly $133,000. So, this would be a difference of roughly $5,000 at 128. That would just mean the difference of probably a step or two because we try and build in where we can anticipate hiring somebody

092at a step. So, we would have we would further limit oursel on a step uh on the replacement of that individual. So uh just to follow on that I I assumed it was something of that sort. So what is the step we assumed at the 133 252 and what is the step we're assuming now with the 128 um 740? I think we assume about a step eight when we try and do a higher to give ourselves some wiggle room. If we were to look at this we're going to look at probably step five. I had to guess. I'm not positive. And uh the confidence there I debated this with Mr. Frink. This was my uh call. I was like, do we split the difference and go 131? At the end of the day, the closer

093we get to identifying the actual person that would be in the position, the more confident we are with the salary number. So, to Christian's point earlier, when you're talking about an ENL position at the high school, uh, early intervention teacher at the middle school, a counselor, all of those things, you have to come up with an estimate across across the whole district. This we're pretty confident that is going to step down from the 133. to sort of keep things really simple for discussion. It it would be an even swap that we would feel confident that we would be able to hit um our budget uh adopted by the board. We also don't know, you know, health insurance, you know, we assume a family plan, they could take an individual or a twoerson plan, which would

094say be a savings. So we, you know, there's a little bit of wiggle room, not a lot, um for us to be comfortable. Okay. Okay. So, sorry Christian, I just want to revisit. You had three points. UPK, this position, and sorry, what was your third? Uh, I just kind of said, look, I'm willing to accept the administrative suggestion of swapping the safety. So, that was one UPK and UPK that we have that discussion before we move on to the next the how we're funding this. Exactly. And then the third point was I just asked the discussion we just had now about the difference between what was stated before and what the number that's there now. Um so uh I guess here's what exact for as far as UPK I guess I'm look what a little

095more clarity on what you want to discuss. Are you saying that you want to reopen uh the discussion the decision we made last time for 10 seats? Um, I would like to reopen the discussion and to reconsider uh 20 seats and see where the support is. um given that we've heard several members of the public and I have my own numbers on what that would work out to by adding the 20 seats and I think we would still stay within the uh tax levby cap and so um that I would like to have a discussion because obviously that's going to impact the total amount that we're proposing whether we are doing it from fund balance or whether we are doing it from um okay uh from tax lobbying. Understood. Um so let's um unless anybody

096else has any questions, comments, clarification, uh Bass and then Tiffany. Yeah, I my comments are related to this exact uh slide we're looking at. Uh I want to reiterate what my position was uh during our last meeting. uh all the items on the wish list are good items. I mean you can argue for each one of them why it is needed. However, the problem we're facing is the economic situation everybody is living. I'm a constituent. I represent constituents out there. I can tell you that when I renewed my taxes like two weeks a my uh insuranceances two weeks ago, uh we have three cars, we have a house, everything went up 50%. My agent tried to shop around for a better, you know, uh provider insurance company. She couldn't find any. She said, "Bass, that's

097what we have." The last thing I want to do this year is to ask our constituents to pay more on their property taxes. I don't argue I cannot argue that any one of those islands lines is not important. Right? You want to swap them. You want to go back to the wish list and take one or two or three or all five or six. How many are we going? Five. And bring another five lines from the wish list. I remember it was like page full. Uh you can do that and you can still argue for it. My position is this year one no added items from the wish list. Not these five, not the rest of them. I'd like to cap the tax levy increase at 1.9% not 2.0. I don't want to everybody think

098that you know taxes went up by 2%. 1.9 psychologically it's not two it's 1.9. So here we're looking at the next page at 2.5 and 2.9 and 2.7. Let's cap it as just what at just 1.9. And uh obviously if you do that you have to make up that deficit. That deficit would go to the appropriated or assigned whatever you want to call them appropriated or assigned fund balance. Uh that's my position. I'm not going to change it. So, I said that last week, I'm saying it tonight. I'm going to say it in two more meetings to come. Thank you. Thank you, Bass. Tiffany, uh I'm similarly situated as Bass uh Bass, as we look at our um slide um the levy and approval rating history data. Can I just can I ask that we

099tackle this slide and I am it's part part and parcel. Okay. Um, we look at it as 1.66% over a 10-year average. Uh, BAS is proposing we we don't go uh above 1.9 over 10 years. That would still be a quarter of a percent um um higher. It's now being proposed that the minimum, the lowest is 2.5, slightly lower than a full percentage point in your taxes. And if anybody has looked at your um retirements lately, they're not looking too good. Um you're we're we're getting hit very hard economically. How it's related to the particular slide that we were just on. I'm fully in agreement that we the every item on the wish list can be argued as very important, but we need to make hard decisions. Um, one of the hard decisions that I

100chose to vote for last meeting when it was very clearly spelled out exactly how much more it would cost and how we could add an additional 10 seats to UPK because I doubt anybody sitting at this table is opposed to UPK. I would hope not anyway. It's a matter of how we can get the seats, how we can fund it, etc. I too am not going to change my position. I am a hard no on 2.5% and I'm a hard no on any other wish list items other than the additional 10 seats for UPK or the safety monitors. Jim, um just clarification um and this really a question for Mr. Frink. Can you just uh distinguish that the tax levy increase is not a tax rate and the difference between the two that the percentage

101increase is not the increase in your taxes per se. it's increased and how much is levied and how that is then allocated to individual households then distributed amongst the households based on the equalization rates based on your market value of your homes. That's correct. So u you pay different share we have um Cornwall um New Windsor and and uh little piece of Woodbury correct uh in our in our tax. So can I just restate and you can if I'm understanding that it does not mean that everyone's property taxes will go up 2.5%. It will go up I'm saying the point is it might go up that it might not go up that it depends upon as you said the distribution a number of different factors there's there's exemptions that come into play that come and

102go um that that certain exemptions will exist for certain people and certain people will not get exemptions. So yes, there are a number of different factors that that are calculated into that. So when somebody goes and looks at their tax bill, it may not go up by 2 and a half%, it may go up more, it may go up less. It depends on the the factors in that community that the person lives in, equalization rates, things like that. President, thank you. Yeah. Uh just before I feel like we're about to talk about other things. So, um I first about uh to Tiffany and Ambassador's point, I I think we uh we all agree that this is a challenging environment uh to be doing anything in terms of uh you know raising money or raising the

103uh the cost to to taxpayers. I think one certainly I I feel it. I think we all in this room feel it. However, I think it is true and we have to recognize that everything is getting more expensive for everyone, including ourselves. We're not just um spending money, we are or we're not just collecting money, we're spending it. And it's getting more expensive for us to spend it just like it is for anybody else. And in a world where everything is getting more expensive, I'm a little uncomfortable saying that like the buck has to stop at schools or, you know, at at at kids, we don't say, well, you know, I'm going to go without food. Like we or I'm going to go without insurance, for instance. These are things we know we have to

104purchase, so we do and we we pay what people ask. Um, so for us to say, but you know, this is the one area where we're going to try to skimp. I know that I'm not trying to put words in anybody's mouth and and characterize, but I'm I'm if this was just a case of us adding, I would tend to agree with you, but as has been pointed out last meeting and and Terry provided clarity on this, you know, we're losing two positions, replacing it with one. So, we're still coming out less. We're just trying to to meet inflation in the middle, so to speak. Um, now to try to get to some of those uh more palatable positions, I'm going to go go back to the well. If we're going back to the well

105a little bit, I would say uh to the safety monitors, it seems as though the Willow one is is more strategically significant than the middle school. So, I don't want to uh throw too much uh uh uncertainty into like what we've got in front of us, but there is a world where we we add one of those um take the administrative recommendation for the early intervention support teacher and then lose the strategic plan. In which case, we're only $20,000 over what we have in front of us. um which could be absorbed through a small bump to the tax levy, a small bump to the assigned fund balance. But I I mean, if we're looking at a straight up safety monitor versus strategic plan, I know how I would vote on that. Um but I think

106that's another possibility we could entertain as a board. And as far as the the UPK seats go, I would be interested. I mean, for me, the the um the decision to land on 10 was always about uh calculating where our need was going to be. You know, we're always trying to figure out at this point of the budget process, what is uh what's the waiting list going to look like, you know, in a few weeks. And both of those things are are moving at the same time. Um so if my only suggestion for that part of the discussion is if we can get further clarity on um you know would the 20 seats even be used to what level of certainty do we have you know that they would be used and um yeah I

107think that would help us make a more informed decision about that. um much to what Brendan just said, I I just feel I have to speak up as an educator. Um we're we are talking about educating our students here and yes, it is a very difficult economic time right now and and I completely understand that. But when you moved to Cornwall, you also understood that we don't have any big businesses here to offset the taxes to provide for the schools. And I don't think we can shortch change our students for a half of a percent. And as John just said, not everyone's tax rate will go up at the same amount. But the bottom line is that yes, we are, as Bass said, here representing the constituents and trying to keep the taxes down, but

108we are also here for the students. We are here to do what is best for our schools, for our our classrooms, for our teachers. And so we need to keep that in mind when we're making these decisions. Can I just Yes. I I agree with what you said. Yeah. I mean, this is the balance that as a board member I have in mind that I have to keep at all times. I mean, I represent students, I represent teachers, I represent employees and I present the constituents. So, you have to balance these things. Now, the fact that we are still living in the aftermath of four years of economic challenges, right? We're still living in it. What I'm saying is my position is this year is not the time to do this. That's all I'm saying.

109I'm not saying like next year, no, I'm going to keep my opposition to that. I'm saying that this year we don't have the luxury to to to to provide this list. As I said, I mean f I I I see five lines here. Last last meeting we had page that has like 10 or 15. I can argue for every single line of them. Every single line of is very important. But not this year. But every year there will be something. Every year there is going to be a reason not to add something to the budget or the economy. There's always going to be something. We we have to strike a balance here, you know, and the foundation is formed at those early years. So the UPK seats, the early intervention at the early years really

110offsets those later years because you're building a foundation for those students. Thank you. So, yeah, I I think you both have made your points and that, you know, we're not trying to get into a back and forth debate here. I think we all understand these are difficult decisions that we're making right now. Um, and we're going to have some differing opinions, and I'm I'm glad that you both stay to them. Um, Christian, I mean, this is not to go back and relitigate past decisions, but it's also important to understand how we got here. Let's say we made a simple decision not to do the high school AV system through the fund balance and instead we did the tax levy which most certainly would have passed given the support. Let's say we just made that simple

111decision. We would have enough money in this budget to pay for the UPK seats and for the safety monitor. And our failure to do that is why we are in this tough situation today. and our failure to do it now will be the reason why we will not be able to afford something else in the future. And I just bring up the AV system because that was a one-time and as I said last year in the same discussion that that would then fall away because it's a one-time cost. We would have been able to expand our tax levy and had the fiscal space to do something that it seems that we all agree is important. And the reason why the tax levy is going up is in part because of how low the tax levy

112was kept over the last five or six years. And the point about it is costs increase and we voted for drivers whether it's the um our bus contract um our teachers contract the contract given to uh administrators in this district which increased much more than the tax levy. So inevitably that was going to push something else out that was probably closer to where the where the students are. And not saying that anything those things are unimportant or that we shouldn't do that but we have to understand that at some point and I said this last year and for this reason you know this we don't know what the economic situations are going to be in the future. No one knows the future. As Yogi Bara said, prediction is difficult, especially about the future. But the

113point about it is we can put ourselves in a situation where we're better able to handle whatever the future might be. And I do think that uh this is a need that we have now. These four year olds will not have a chance to be in UPK again. And the total cost of those 10 extra seats beyond what we've already authorized is only $35,670. and distributed among every single household in the district. That is not going to change anyone's well I shouldn't say that. Let me not say anyone's budget, but it's probably not going to make a significant change. It's like how many uh as I said last year, it's like the price of like a Starbucks coffee once a month for 12 months. And that's the difference. And I think we can I think

114we have a community that is generous and supports education enough to do that. And um you know I I've given there many people have given the reasons why UPK is good down the road because the other loss is like the loss in learning the loss in the skill development the additional problems we'll have in the upper grades for these students probably and that will be an additional cost even above what we don't have we're not we're spending on that we will have to allocate money or future boards will have to allocate money. So I think for that small difference and I'll just say this. I know that I pay more prop school tax than more than half the people on this board. In fact, I know I pay more school tax than three board members

115combined. And I lived before I had children, I think 23 years where I lived in relatively high property tax jurisdictions for the most part and paid school taxes happily. and after my children uh are no longer in the schools and if I live to my actuarial like you know life expectancy I know that I'm going to be in Cornwall because I've set up my finances to do that and I will happily pay for other people's children um because that's my value you know that's the value I put on education uh and the question is I decide to sacrifice elsewhere and I think a lot of other people because it is not the parents of the students who pay most of their children's um cost of their child's education. I think the average spending per pupil

116in this district is roughly around 23 $24,000. um very few people pay that amount in prop in school tax and I think we need to I think this is worth it and I'm still going to advocate for it and I think uh we should consider whether we still think that 10 or 20 states is the appropriate amount and we can talk about fund balance which would bring the tax levy amount down to a certain amount but if we do that we are then not increasing like our fiscal capacity going forward and I think that would be another lost opportunity. Okay. So, just give me one second here and then we're going to we're going to take some action here. Um, can you just remind me um the fund balance? I'm just want to have some

117context remind me please. If we use a part of that, what will be remaining? Am I not asking that correctly? I'm trying to follow how you're asking it. So the three scenarios, it was some portion of the fund balance would be used. If we use a portion, is it what do we have? Is it 5 million in that? So we're going to be using half of it. I'm just I'm trying to remember. We won't know until later on in the year. But but when you're assigning fund balance, what we talked about in the last meeting, I think in the meeting before as well, is just kind of creating that that hole in your succeeding budgets, okay? Because you're relying on the credit card I think we talked about of our own. You know, it's like

118that Cornwall American Express, right? You got to make sure. I'm not advocating for it. I just want to understand. So you and I know it's an estimate, but we we had some wiggle room, right? You the board has been consistent with about $2.5 million. we were recommending 2.3 to be a little bit lower. You know, these scenarios present kind of around that that range for for the board in order to, you know, work with the levy um off offset the levy um and move forward. So, you know, put this to zero then like that's what I'm just Christine, can I or can I jump in because I think I know from what perspective you're asking translating. So, the the fund balance is basically the amount that we have left over at the end of the

119year. So, if we say we're going to use 2.5 of that, we're making a bet that we're going to have we're going to find the same amount of savings in the following year because we're going to need that money in case needs come up. So, you never want to be at zero. So, that's typically what we find year-over-year more or less. More or less. Yeah. Okay. That's what I want. So, but that's what John's saying like we want to bring it down so that we're not rolling the dice to that. We're not leveraging ourselves that much. It's a risk. I mean it's Yeah, John, tell me if I'm wrong. I think that it's a great it's a great way to look at I struggle every business official struggles with describing fund balance and that's why

120I'm just as ignorant as Christine. I'm just a little bit more experienced so I know how to translate what you're saying. It's it's it's a it's a just a difficult concept for a lot of people to Yeah. trends to predict. Okay. So we're gonna circle back to UPK. We're not I'm going to table that for right now. Here's what I want people to vote right now. I'm going to prevent I'm going to say A, B, and C. So, I'm going to say the A plan. Nope, I'm making my own A, B, and C on the last slide. Could you go back to the last slide? So, my A plan is the Brendan plan. Ditch the strategic plan, one safety monitor at Willow, and yes to the early intervention at Have a seat so I can

121take some notes if you don't mind. So, that's the A plan. Can you repeat it? I'm sorry. Does that still include? Yes. Yes. So, so the A plan, the Brendan plan, uh, no strategic plan, one safety monitor to be placed at Willow, yes to the early intervention, yes to UPK10, yes to substitute teachers. I I all three plans are yes to UPK10, and yes to the certified teacher pay because there's been no debate there. So that's the Brendan plan. That's no choice A. Choice B is um just what's in yellow. So yes to the strategic plan, no to the safety monitors, yes to the early intervention teacher. And then choice C is uh everything in white. So what we agreed to last time again? Yep. So B is um the early inter intervention as opposed

122to the safety monitors and C is the safety monitors as opposed to the early intervention. Jim, if I may, um I would say A is the Brendan plan. Y B is the admin plan, the yellow plan, the their suggestion, and C was board plan from last meeting. From last meeting. Yes. And just so like I think that's the best way to summarize and if that's correct from what you're saying. Yes. Jim, can you do me a favor and give me that A one more time, please? No strategic planning, 1.0 safety monitor at Willow as opposed to 2.0 safety monitors, and yes to the early intervention support teacher, uh the split between SU and and Willow. Um, what's that? How does the administration like Terry had his pick? I'm just curious. The admin plan is that

123change based on our discussion or is that still No, I like all three options. Our our team would fully support. Okay. I just didn't ask so I wanted So Christian, Brendan plan, admin plan or BOE last meeting plan? Uh B B admin plan Richard for now B Carl uh what's the question there buddy? I'm looking at the safety monitors A. So you're looking at uh choice C what we agreed upon at the last meeting. Well, let's be clear. A does have a safety A has one safety monitor. Okay. One safety monitor or two? I mean, basically, if I can rephrase I I've been branded with the the A plan. So, um A versus B is strategic plan or safety monitor. Like that's that's that's the choice. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So, we're going I'm going with

124C. Correct. Safety monitors. Doing good so far. Um the uh administrative recommendation that's the C C B. There we go. B. There we go. And uh the universal prek program. Well, we're coming back. We're coming back. All right. So, what you're picking with is all of this. Just so you understand, it's not like Yeah. You're not. Okay. So, sorry. I'm Yeah. Are you you're reducing the You're getting eliminating B has no safety monitors. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Safety monitors is the first thing I want there. Okay. You want two safety monitors. So, yes. So, you're C. Yes. Will Brendan vote for the Brendan plan? I was confused. I thought B had safety monitors. So, so I'm gonna go with C, which was our original plan. Can we add, but can we add the

125T? Is there one where I can get all of it? Yes. A plan A. I want it. A. All right. So, look. A So, we're going to do a D then. A. No, I think that bust. I feel so bad. Back of the envelope. I think that bust the Okay, so A ditches the district plan, the the strategic plan. you get and leaves the rest of it in place. Except you get one safety monitor at Willow. But I want two. Well, that's what you need. Where's the second one going? At the middle school, right? Didn't Wasn't it middle school and Willow? Okay, then let me I don't care if we get away if we don't go with the strategic plan, but I want the rest of it. So, which one is that? A, B, C,

126or D? The closest is A with one safety monitor. Yes. And then it keeps the teacher the up. Okay, then I'm going to do A. Okay. The Brendan plan. The more you hear about it. You said the Brendon. The more you hear about it, the more you like it. Will Brendon vote for the Brendan? I'm I'm for a I'll call it. Okay. Tiffany Bass. Best plan. None of the above. Okay. Um Christine A. Um so I'm B. I've got three for B, three for A, two for C, two for not spending money. Uh or excuse me, one for not spending. So, um, do any of the B's want to switch to A, which I believe were Christian and I didn't write names down. Christian and Richard and myself, or do any of the A's want

127to switch to B? Can I try to convince someone to switch? Sure. So, I just for the sake, you know, I am a cheerleader for strategic planning. Like, I geek out on it. I love it. But I think when we are looking at what we're what we're willing to give up, I think we could wait a year. We could do our own strategic planning in a in a retreat that will get us through the year and directionally get us closer to a long-term plan and perhaps put that on next year or perhaps if we don't use our surplus budget second half of the year we could find $45,000. But I'm not in favor of keeping that in lie of something else. I heard really I felt pretty confident what I heard was really what the

128need is is one safety monitor and that's from feedback back from the buildings. If that's not true then I I want to be corrected. Um and that the need again from feedback from the buildings is that the early intervention teacher really will make the impact and is seen as a need. And I think that we can by giving up the strategic plan and going to one safety monitor rough math is we're looking at maybe like a $30,000 difference to get that early intervention teacher from our first discussion last week. Vote A. Richard, is is that was that a button press there? I'm willing to go to A, but I'm still interested in the UPK discussion. I want to UPK discussion has not been had yet. Right. Yeah. So A and that discussion. So, you're switching

129officially from B to A. Christine's oratory has persuaded you. She is persuasive. So Jim, if I may, I'm gonna I'm going sorry, Christine. I'm gonna push back on on I'm going to make an argument for B and see if I get any switches. Um, it's in our board goals. Strategic planning is in our board goals for this year. And and not that that we have to necessarily that binds us to anything, but that's what we said we were going to do. And I think that we should be consistent with that because strategic planning the idea here and I you know Jim I think you said it save money in the future and some of the things about strategic planning is thinking about what our revenues need to be over a longer period of time and

130also what our needs are going to be over longer period of time so that we can allocate that whether that is safety whether that is instruction whether that is any of the worthy things that I think people support for all the right reasons. Um so on the same and that's why that I support B and you know the it is also not clear to me why the strategic planning has to be part of the budget process and I think this is also why I don't necessarily understand why sub pay is necessarily part of the budget process. We increased sub pay and it was not part of the budget process earlier this year. Um, and we've done other things of that sort where we've made changes whether for the scoreboard, whether for the survey in previous

131years. So, here's where I kind of look at it and this is maybe support somewhat supporting you, but we are going to pro I mean, look, we don't know, but we are probably likely have some surplus. That's why we created the capital reserve fund, you know, or we put it on to for the the budget vote um for in May. And I think what we need to do is saying, look, if we have money, one of the first things we spend money on is that fund balance and we're going to use it toward the strategic plan before we put it into capital reserve. Now, obviously, this will be a future board. It will not be exactly the same as the nine of us who are around here today. Um, and I'm willing to do I

132I think that might be the way to have it in the sense that you're just essentially using more fund balance because as I understand it, the strategic planning is a one-time cost. Even though there's a part of it that will recurring as maintaining it, but we're paying for the one-time uh consultants, advisers to come in and help us devise that strategic plan and then update. And it's not going to be the same cost every single year going forward. It's not like it's $45,000 every single year, right? It's not like a teacher position. And that's and generally I remember Jim you you and John John Edelyn saying this last year that the fund balances for these small oneoff costs can be um as opposed to recurring costs which you'd rather have in the tax levy because

133the tax levy in a sense keeps that funding there year after year without paying down the fund balance in an unsustainable way. So that's sort of like how I would see this. So like I'm willing to have the strategic plan in. Didn't we already talk about aren't we already talking about using fund balance for the totality of the budget? We're asking could have been right. But I'm saying but the fund balance is the fund balance is the fund balance which essentially carries over year to year whatever the well the next discussion we're going to have is options to spend that. Yeah that's my point. So we're already talking about spending the fund balance. will be a matter of the reason why it's included in the conversation is because it's money that's being spent. But I

134think what he's trying to say is that that once we use that fund balance, it's gone. When you put it in the tax levy, it's money you're getting every year. I hear him. I'm just saying with the teacher, you you don't really want to take that out of a fund balance because that's a yearly expense. Can I give one concrete example just from last year? Sorry. But no, this is just just to give an example of what we did last year. So one of the things that was the need assessment was a point to physical education teacher position which we did not vote for in the budget but we did when money became available we made that position hall I believe in August of this year in a sense because the money was there and

135then we addressed a need kind of let's say in retrospect now we didn't precommit to doing that but that's kind of what we did but that so John you'll correct me if I'm wrong because this is a question that I ask pretty much every summer and I'll probably ask it again this summer is, hey, we've got this leftover money. Let's go spend it right now. And the answer is you can't spend above your budget. You can't take that leftover unassigned fund balance and spend it on a one-time need right then and there. you have to apply it to your capital reserve or your TRS reserve or your tax certiary reserve or you know is that that's my understanding and I'll probably ask you again this summer and you'll tell me the same thing but is

136that that's correct you're going to assign it to your uh reserves and you're appropriating for um the assigned fund balance here well I I would like to understand something just from my learning how how did we pay for the survey that because that wasn't in the budget per se but we found the money just I just want to learn so I I do want to hit that point because uh this is an important budget uh conversation so anything that we know that is a substantial amount of money needs to be budgeted for. So we need to go in eyes wide open. We're talking about a $45,000 strategic plan. Shame on us to say h if it if we find the money we'll we'll do it. It doesn't it doesn't work that way. So, important points

137brought up all across the board that things come up all the time like lawsuits and things of that nature that that we don't plan for. We try to plan for as much as we can to budget accordingly. That's why we need some wiggle room um to plan throughout the year. Um so, for theam for the example of the um the PE teacher or should we have a need for an ENL um needs, those are mandates. you you are going to meet the needs of our kids. To Eleanor's point, that's what we're here for. So, if if we get six kids move in the district and need special education services, we're not going to the board to say we need this approval. We you you obviously approved their position, but we're already planning for a sixth

138period, a point two, things of that nature to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our kids. So, all of that to just say when we know it, we didn't know about the scoreboard. There was no way for us to plan for that last May. That came about as a discussion by the board. You look to us to find the money and and we reallocate things as as needed. But that well that was a different discussion anyway because that was out of a capital spending project. That wasn't part of the annual budget. That was a separate completely agree bucket of money. So same thing with the surveying. We don't make those decisions. The board directs us to say we want to go this direction. Guess what? we have to go back and look at

139um positions that we haven't filled, um supplies that weren't allocated, things of that nature to find the money. But when we know a substantial cost, we're going to put it in the budget to budget accordingly. Okay. Thank you. So, um, as much as I don't like to do this, um, I'm just to break this deadlock, I'm going to switch my vote from B to the Brendan plan, um, because we already have four there. So, um, so just to reiterate, uh, no strategic plan, 1.0 safety monitor to be placed at Willow, uh, early intervention teacher, uh, UPK10 seats, and substitute teacher. So now um we'll talk about UPK 10 versus 20. Uh Terry, there's been some comments about UPK. Uh anything that you would like to add before um we start that discussion? Uh just to

140share what I've shared before that, um there's concerns with the notion of UPK for all. There's a lot that would happen have to occur for that to happen. Again, I just shared the experience last year. Um 132 um applicants. Uh we uh the reason I know it's 132 is because my son was the last ping- pong ball picked. Uh so he's number 132 uh for last year's lottery. Uh and he was eventually reached this year for placement. I chose not so accepted because my child already was in a um UPK provider that we love. So um my caution is the delta for beyond LT would not fill a 20 person classroom last year. More applicants this year by to the tune of 12 more applicants. So again it's just that concern of um how did

141we get to LT's ping pong ball? People moved out of the district. People ultimately declined. We have a registration process where people have to prove residency. some of those didn't work out. So, there's a myriad of reasons why we continue to go down the list. So, that's my only caution I try to update the board on as we as we uh move through the process. It's really early now. Uh so, um right now we've moved about six or seven uh spots on the wait list. Um but it's registration hasn't even closed. Registration closes at in um mid miday uh for UPK. Terry, what happens if hypothetically we say yes to 20 seats but we don't fill them all? What is the the risk back to us? Uh so when this was a really heavy topic

142uh two years ago, we talked about the um promise that we u make to our business owners. So they're making um internal decisions based on their pricing. Um there was a comment made about before and afterare. We don't pay for before and afterare. All of our providers are given a flat fee for 9:00 to 3:00. They charge the reason I know I pay for before and after here um at a provider. So um we make a promise that you're partnering with us for 18 seats at Sportslex, 40 seats at Butter Hill, etc. If we don't fill those seats, we're not fulfilling our uh promise. So, right now it works that a seat becomes available. We go to the wait list and I I send them uh the family an email that you now have a

143spot at X uh provider and we continue to to do that. My concern is if they're making decisions and we get to November and a provider now has three vacant seats that we can't fill. They've made business decisions based on a promise of 20 and now we're only filling 17. So that's the the conversations I've had with providers. That would be my concern if we weren't able to fill all the seats. Tiffany, which is exactly why I had my hand up was to ask a similar question to Christine. If we could No, no, don't apologize. Um, if we could I'm all for uh going to 20 UPK seats, but I'm not willing to pay for them if they're not filled. So if we add a provider from the what you told us you reiterated tonight

144is essentially the same as what you told us at the last meeting that you don't think you could fill 20 seats at this juncture based upon the numbers and your experience from last year. I'm happy to bring on an additional provider. I'm happy to to authorize another 20 seats. I'm not I'm not willing to bring on another provider out of 20 seats, have 11 kids instead of the 10 and pay for 20. That that I'm not willing to do. And from what I'm hearing and what we heard at the last meeting, that's what we're hearing would happen. And I just don't think that that's fiscally prudent. Thank you. Um, so I think really the question is last time we agreed upon UPK10 versus 20. Um, so if we just want to go around and Hey

145Jim, can I just ask one clarifying question too because I think there's um there's some lack of clarity and and you just mentioned uh you know like how late the calendar goes. I think some people assume that uh we should know by now, you know. Um can you just talk about that? Like how long it takes to know and roughly when was the last UPK seat awarded for this current school year that we're in? Because again, I I think there are there are many uh who feel like well there's this weight list right now and if you're still on the wait list that means we don't have enough seats and that's not really the case. Can you just explain that, Terry? Uh, so a few factors. Registration closes um sometime in May. That's an very

146important date because you're proving that you're meeting all the requirements. Age by birth certificate, uh, proof of residency, X, Y, or Z to make sure that everything is legit. There's some people who are who have um a contract on a house, uh, things of that nature, and and when does that, uh, get approved? So those are the moving items. The October date is where I really look at we have a really solid list. The reason I say that is um unfortunately over the summer things happen. People make life choices. That's where we get some movement with move moving out of uh the district. Then to also um really paint the full picture, I I want to be clear that the number 132 is like the on-time uh applicants. In that same May to October, we're

147also having families move in to say, I have a four-year-old. I missed the lottery. Can you add me to the list? And then they go on the end. So there is that growth of the list over time as well. Um, so we we that October time frame is where I feel the most confident. And the reason I say we start to plow through the list is anyone who has young kids know that you're making decisions months ago on what your child is going to be doing for their schooling. If you're getting into into August, I already told LT he's going to this school. He's already played on the playground. He's he's ready to go. he's met the teacher and then I'm going to give him a seat at a different school in September. That's where

148a lot of families are like, "Nope, I'm I'm happy where I am. I don't want to move my child." So, that's where there's a slow march through the wait list and then there's a rapid march to the wait list because people the closer you get to the start of school, the more people are saying, "Thank you, but but no thank you." Elanora, so I just want to clarify because you did mention, you know, the the providers have their business plan, they budget. Are they charging? So, if you tell them you're going to give them 18 seats or 20 seats and you only put in 14, are you being are is the school district being charged for those empty four seats or are they now filling them with outside students? So, um, there's the what we're

149obligated to do and we're obligated to pay for students of ours that are actually in the seats. What I was talking through is the promise that I make to providers that we are confident that you will have 40, you will have 20, you will have 18, and you will have 20. That's the promise that we made. Uh so if push came to shove and the board wanted me to just say if they have 17 you only pay for 17 that's one thing but we've also tried to say we want full Cornwall classes. So we in the early days back in the in the first year we uh second year we decided to add 20 late. So we had the decision of do we split them in providers and things of that nature and we came

150together to say we wanted another full Cornwall uh class. So, you can mix um students in. We could only pay for 17, but the conversations and the partnerships that I've established have been when we say you get 18 at Sportslex, we're going to make sure that you have 18 Cornwall kids in that in that classroom. Okay. It feels like I I feel premature voting because I I would want to I would want to know is there someone out there who would accept 10 students if that's all we have versus 15. I mean, we've heard from the public. We've gotten a lot of correspondents. I feel like we that would be prudent to just understand what the option is because I agree with Tiffany. I don't want to pay for stuff we're not using, but I

151don't think we know right now what the possibilities are. Yeah, I can say based on RFPs uh submitted, we would have providers willing to take 10 or 20 confidently, but not char not charge us if we don't fill the 20. That's what I'm Yeah. And that's where it gets on goodwill. I know, but would they be okay with that knowing that that's the position they're filling? Right. I I don't expect you to know. That's my point is I don't know. It it does kind of feel like, and Terry, correct me if I'm wrong, that if we did have 20, like a lot of the reason that people turn their seat down is because they get accepted later. So that if you had more, it seems to me that they would be potentially accepted earlier. I'm

152I'm really dealing in abstracts right now, but um because there would have just been more uh now I'm like working it through in my head at the same time of like Yeah, Christine, I translated for you before. Can you do the same? Um I guess I'll turn it into a question then than a than a statement. Would it help us get through the list quicker if we had more seats? Yeah. And um you know I run I run the list. Uh so I I'd know this really well. Um we would run through the list quicker because if the board say approved 20 tonight, I would be contacting 20 families tomorrow to say not tomorrow after the vote um saying or um but much faster. I would be contacting 20 parents versus 10 and then adding

153another 10 later would slow down the process. So the sooner I know a number. So um two years ago when the board was in this spot to go from 60 to 80, we added late I believe and I sent families a notification to say pending community vote. Here's your options. Please know that this is contingent on Cornwall saying yes. If not, I'm revoking kind of the thing, but we were still able to notify parents to start to make those decisions. So, yes, more now we would be able to move through the lists faster. Um, I still I think with the increased numbers, I think we still might may be okay. Um, my concern is just again adding to the overall deficit that we started with in this conversation. Um, on this point, I think I'm

154pretty confident that we would fill 20 seats. Now, do I know that? No. And I don't think anyone else knows that because prediction is hard, especially about the future. Um, I know that a few years ago there was a fill projection parameter that was cited in deciding how many seats we could fill. And by that parameter, we would easily fill the 20 seats with a I think the initial weight list was 47 or am I wrong about that? Was that correct when the initial when we first uh I mean the number of people who registered on time and I think given that the vocalenness of people in our community there we've all gotten the communications about people who want these seats. Um as someone like you, Mr. date. I have children of this age and

155I think you know what it's like is that there are very few seats out there and you take whatever you can get because you're the worst thing is to be not having anything and being kind of let's say without a seat at the end and I've been in that situation because my son was because my wife is a civilian at West Point and military uniform military gets priority. We were bumped in the middle of the year and it was impossible to find a seat or not possible. It took a lot of effort going everywhere to find that one seat. And that's why people will take seats if they're sitting on the waiting list because they can wait or they can uh you know say hey I'm going to bite the bullet and pay for something

156because the certainty and I think what we are doing by allocating the extra 10 seats is making it more affordable for 10 children if not 10 families. And I think most likely the ones who are going to take that are the ones who are making the decision whether they're going to have daycare or whether they're going to provide it themselves because they can't afford it at all. And I think that is a worthy thing. I've talked about some of the other advantages in UBK in general in terms of the return on investment in terms of the imp things that we'll probably save on the long term and that's why I've been an advocate for this. So, at the cost of an extra $35,670 and I think there are providers who are willing to step up

157and who seem to want these seats, which means that I think they would happy to have nine more seats than they were going to have before, even if they don't get the full 10. And I'm not a provider, but like my conversations with them would suggest that there's not one but more than one provider in our community that would happily take that offer if we were to offer them and they would not feel that they were um taken advantage of if they only got nine of those seats filled out of 10 or five of those seats 10. Um, and I'm sure they would find a there are bottlenecks. I'm not saying the logistics are easy, but I think what we do as a board is we provide the resources. And I think if we don't

158provide the resources, it's not going to happen. And that's why I am in favor of supporting 20 seats and putting those resources to work. And look, what is, let's say we only fill five of the 10 extra seats at the rate is like $3,500 a seat roughly. um I'm approximating. So let's say we we were short and so roughly about $17,000 isn't spent. I can talk about a lot of things where we allocated that amount of money or made a choice to pay someone more um you know the difference between a teacher with a higher step or not and it was less than that amount of money. And so the point is that those I mean in a large budget I don't think that's a large loss and it's money not spent and eventually it'll

159go back for us from the taxpayer standpoint if it doesn't get spent. Some of it will go back to the state perhaps. I mean we're saying what's going to happen to that if it does those seats aren't there. So I'm not sure who would feel cheated if we didn't fill every single seat. I don't think the providers would necessarily complain. I'm not sure it would be a large sum of money that any taxpayer would notice individually. We're talking about things that are literally in the single dollars per taxpayer for that difference. And so I'm not sure why that's a major reason why we won't do it if we in a sense like the idea of UPK in the abstract which means we think this is a good thing and we would recommend it to any

160child who you know we cared about to say this is an opportunity you should take advantage of. Now, we can't force parents to do that and different parents have make different decisions for their children, but I think that the advantage for our district um is significant and I think that it's worth doing now. Okay, so it's time for action. Christian's down for 20. Uh and just to remind everyone that the Brendan plan has raised um uh an additional 19,370 over top of the 21672 by my math. Just a reminder of that. Uh Christians on board for 20. Richard. Carl 10. Elanora 20. Brendan I'll go 20. that uh just to add to continue your thought that this would add 55,000 over what we see in front of us in total. No, that's that's all included.

161That's all included. Uh Tiffany, I can't do a blanket 20. I need to be assured that we're not paying for seats we're not using. I'm in favor of 20 if we can fill 20. Not in favor of paying for 20 if we can only fill 11. So 10 Not not really. We've had the discussion and we've heard it and Terry is unsure that we can fill asked for made the point of it's a premature vote and that she would like more information to see what the numbers actually come to be and if there are providers who would be willing to say, "Hey, if we can give you 17, can we pay for 17?" But you don't get the numbers until after the budget is approved by us. Terry certainly could have that information from the

162providers though before that and or any potential new providers that just so I'm I'm 20 contingent. Yes. Christine, I'm with Tiffany and I will just say to Christian's point, I know it's not a huge amount of money, but we are looking at every dollar and so there are people who don't think we should spend as much money on this. So, I want to be fair that I only want to pay for what we're using. Um, so I am in favor of 20 if we find a provider who will work with us in terms of um the pay and I I'm not I know we need to know that before we have the final budget vote and I I don't know, Terry, if that's possible to get a feel from from somebody, you know, I don't

163I don't have all the data. I'm sorry. Yeah. I just want to again just provide context to Brendan's question because I'm thinking of it a little bit differently. The lottery is run for parents. They start to know who the providers are back in January. So you they submit a ranked list one, two, three, four. I contact them based on preferences on their list. The uncertainty that I'm going to I have and I will continue to have is everyone remaining on the wait list is going to give be given one provider to choose from. So think of you as a family. If we had one provider in in Cornwall, you're making a decision. Do I want my child to go to that provider or to a provider of my choice? That's what makes this really difficult

164when it's later in the budget conversation. So, to be crystal clear, the reason why the numbers accelerate with decline is all of those families who may have been thinking of the four providers that I that I have on their rank sheet, I'm saying those are filled. I'm presenting to you option number five. Take it or leave it. So that's the uncertainty where you're crunching all those numbers. If you said we had 144, plugging in their one through four or five choices, that looks very different than going back to a list saying Dade family take this provider or not. You start to get many more declines based on just sheer lack of options. How many are on the wait list right now? Uh we are on number one uh 145. 145 total. We've moved seven slots.

165So we're on 107. Uh 37 remaining. Hey Jim, I'd have to support what Tiffany and I believe it was Brendan was saying before. If we're if we have 20 people coming in there, that that's fine. But if we're paying for 20 and we have only 10 in there or 15 in there, I wouldn't support that. But in the meantime, I will change my vote to I will support the 20. Okay. So that is uh the fifth vote for 20. So we will add uh that on there. Um, we will go if John if you could flip us to the next slide. Um, and I don't know if you just want to You already presented it. Oh, it's already up there. Um, I don't know if you've done this math already, John. So, that to Brendan's

166point, we now increased $55,040 above what's on this slide. um on a percentage basis. That's not a full 0.1, is it? That's going to be a 0.05 or something probably. Yeah. Um any questions here? Does everybody understand our option A which is a tax levy increase of 2.5 and a fund balance um using 2.569 of the fund balance. Um option B tax levy of 2.9 uh using a signed fund balance of 2,356. Uh or option C tax levy of 2.7 using an adjust signed fund balance of 2467. Um, I guess for argument sake, um, for option B, we would put, um, I don't know where do we want to put that 55,000, John? Put it to the fund balance for all three. So, we're comparing apples to apples. You you could follow suit with the

167each of the options. You know, you could add the the 55,000 to the fund balance in option A, load it all there. You could add it to the tax levy. You're probably going to change by Yeah. 0.1 something like that. So, you'll be at 2.92 roughly, just speaking out loud. Or if you did the option C and split it, you're the impact will be negligible on either of those. Okay, that's a that's a smart way to do it. Yes. just because I think I did the I've done the calculations and maybe this would be helpful just thinking in tax levy terms assuming full tax levy and then we can decide if we want to reduce that by attributing more fund balance I have what was with 20 seats that would come to 3.0 between 3.01

168and 3.02 02 tax levy with 20 seats minus the strategic plan plus early intervention teacher plus one security and then everything else that was agreed to. So just I mean not to say we're voting for that but just so that's the full in number if we were to go full in tax levy and then I think that might be a good starting point to think about whether we want to reduce a tax levy by allocating more fund balance. So like number so like the full No, I know but was it 3 point what did you say? Uh it's between 3.01 and 3.02 and that how much contribution with the fund? No. So this is basically the entire everything is tax levy. So this if you look at option B it's 2.91 full tax levy. So

169take that 2.91 now it's 3.01 full tax levy. That's still with a 2.3. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So, but you're adding uh you're we're only adding 55,000 to what's on the previous page. You're you're too high at 3.01 balance. No, no, it's more like Yeah, it's definitely that's too high. Yeah, it's it's more like 2.95 off the top of my head. It's not a 3.01 because we're only adding on the previous page 55,000. But Christian's not including the fund balance in his number, I don't think. Well, yes, you have. I mean, if you didn't include any fund balance, it would be like 6 or 7%. Yeah, there's no budget here that includes no fund balance. The two 2.356 711 million, you know, million as that's basically option B with more items in it because of what

170we've talked about. Anyway, so if I'm wrong, I'm not trying to confuse it and we can move on and No, but I I think that's what John presented. I think your math is just a little off. if if we take the extra the additional. So we just agreed to 55,000 and change on top of the last page. So the last page has right here 2165. We agreed to 55,000 on top of that. If you add 55,000 to option B, it's going to take that tax levy. It's like 2.95. 55,000 is about.11 of a tax levy point. 2.91 plus.11 is where you get to 3.02. Think about it. A tax subie point is 524,700 and sorry 524,000 and uh I'm sorry I don't have the full number but that if you want to round it. So

171if you think about that roughly what is a tenth of a percent is about $5,200. And so if you add 55,000 divided by 5200 roughly, it's basically a 0.1% increase from that base and that would get you in the same range. So it's 292. No, no, no. It would be 0.1. So I mean the short hand that I've always used is 500,000 is a full point. Not not a point one, a one.0. So that always changes each year because the it's a percentage of the budget as a whole and as the hole gets bigger the percentages get bigger. But what Christian is saying is is roughly right. I mean if it's if 500,000 is one point then 10% of that is.1 the tax level last year was 52 million and that's where I'm getting the

172524,000 is 1%. So 1% of whatever the tax was last year is a 1%. Yeah. No, I I got you. So that's why I think my number is actually right. Um, it may be I don't have it in front of me. It's getting late. Um, so here's what we'll do. Option A, we will put the 55,000 to fund balance. Option leaving it at 2.5. Option B, we will put the 55,000 to tax levy, raising that. We'll just say 3.0 for argument sake. Um, option C, we'll split the split the difference because option C is to split the difference. So, we'll go to 2.75 and 25,000 other fund balance. Everybody clear? Can I ask John a question before we vote on this? So, the fund balance we have about 5 million in there right now. Not

173right now. I mean, I I don't know what we haven't done the calculation. Okay. So, what is the cap on a fund balance? Like, how much can you have in there? you could have 4% of your your budget allowable to carry over for your unassigned fund balance. So we have five 4% of of our budget right now. Okay. So what would happen if let's say we we end up with eight and a half million dollars in there and that's over. What happens to that? That goes to your reserves. Okay. Thank you. And can just a follow up maybe for that's why we're creating the new capital reserve because we we we have a full more or less full fund balance. We have the 4% we have a full capital reserve. There isn't an obvious place

174to put the money. Like for example last year it was around $2 million that we had we allocated to the capital reserve. So the point is that that's why we're creating the capital reserve because we need a place to be able to put that money. Otherwise, we would be mandated to return it in the following budget, I believe, to to reduce the tax levy in the following year. Is that correct, John? Yeah. You have your four 4% unassigned fund balance and then you you could put your additional money in any of your other reserves. The board chose to put the majority of that into that capital reserve to fully fund that capital reserve. We're opening up a new capital reserve to provide us with another option to put uh additional money in that reserve. We

175can still load any of the other reserves as well. Just a combination of of those reserves. Okay, we'll go opposite way that we went last time. Tiffany, A, B, or C? None. Okay. Bass. None. Christian. Option B. Option what? The B. The B. Okay, thank you. I misheard you. Richard C. Carl C. Elanora A. Brendan C. Christine C. I am also C. So that is five for C. Split the difference. Uh thank you everybody. That completes our budget discussion for the evening and uh lays this out for next. Sorry, I just have one more question for John. So, I'm looking at the calendar and on the we are voting to approve or not approve the budget on the 24th. Correct. The board is so correct. Based on what was just discussed now, that's how the

176budget will be built and uh ready for approval. Okay. So, we have to submit to New York State. So, will would we be getting a more comprehensive like line by line to go through prior to that or do we get it that night cuz that's not enough time to really go through it. We will uh I will design the bud budget presentation to be a little bit more comprehensive. You do end up getting the line by line with the budget hearing on May 6th that will become available. The entire budget packet will be available. So, we're voting on it prior to getting you you have to adopt the the budget uh April 24th. Okay. I mean, more or less you've seen every component up until this point um with just these changes, these swing changes.

177So, you've seen every single major component u broken down. Then you'll get the line by line after that. All right. Thank you everybody. The uh next item is new business. Um one item in new business, discussion of potential support for proposed legislation S6366 and A6597. Um the uh legislation, this is New York State legislation, that's the Senate and the Assembly number. Um it is described as authorizing the imposition of bail for certain offenses involving violent threats against school district staff, school staff, or a student. Uh Tiffany, I will uh take your comments since this is your uh agenda item. Thank you. I asked for this to be added to the agenda um after um we received as a board a letter in support from the Winger Central School District, which I thought was uh very

178good. um offering their support to the New York State Senate and Assembly in support of the proposed legislation, which um part of the justification, you explained what it is, is um I I gave you my background already, and um part of the problem with trying to handle these school threat cases, is that you have to rely upon an outdated law that's a making of a terroristic threat, which doesn't always apply to juveniles. Um, I can give you personal experiences. I can give you another experience where I know um there was a school threat and the school went on lockdown and and and a young girl was uh urinated her pants um because she couldn't get out to use the bathroom because the escort didn't get there in time to escort her to the bathroom. There's

179there's multiple reports of trauma, um anxiety, long-term effects of being involved in a school threat. Um you I'm sure you've heard about them here in Orange County alone. Um this basically would what we're what I'm asking for is for this board to send a letter to Albany supporting um bail for juveniles who do make these school threats upon the school individual serious threats uh individual students uh staff. Um just to it it basically goes to the aggravated harassment law which is already on the books. Um, so we can set bail and the just so you know, the ultimate goal of the juvenile justice system is never punitive like it is for an adult, even though times are changing and it's not really that geared towards being punitive for adults anymore either. Um, it's rehabilitation, but

180it's it gives you the opportunity to um leverage the student into getting the rehabilitation that they actually need. Um, so I would ask that the board support this. it is um available online. Um it the just to reference the Winger School District one more time. Um these school threats, they've caused substantial disruption to teaching and learning in elementary and secondary schools. Um some cases the threats have resulted in delays, early dismissals or school closings. As a result of the threats of violence they've experienced, um Winger School District has spent over $2 million. We just spent the last two hours talking about, you know, $55,000 of over $2 million. One of the reasons why we're talking about increased security and safety in our schools. Um, and it also providing support when there's a school threat and

181somebody experiences trauma or anxiety, you have to bring in additional mental health professionals um for counseling, um, additional local law enforcement, etc. Um, I think we've all familiar with what school threats entail sadly at this juncture in time. So, I would ask the board to support this legislation that's currently in Albany. Okay. So, you want to draft a letter to Albany? Yeah. From our board. Okay. I I mean, I will individually regard. Individually, I plan to regardless, but I think as a school district, it really shows that we support our students. We talked about tonight several times, putting our students first and putting their mental health and physical safety should be paramount at all times. Okay. Um, does anybody else have a comment on this issue or should we just take a little show of

182hands to support uh, you know, subject to reading the final letter? Christian. Yeah, sorry. I'll defer to pass. Okay. Thank you. Uh I think uh we have to debate maybe uh the choices on how to move forward like first of all we can take a vote who's in support and then what do you want to do like what other districts are doing I mean last time there was something kind of similar and uh there were kind of they were signing up to send one letter with all these districts we chose not to do that so let's have this discussion I have not seen a group letter with which to sign off on. Um but if you have seen one and want to share with the board, you're welcome to. But yeah, yeah, I haven't seen

183that in this instance. Yeah. Yeah. On the regionalization issue. Yeah. Um we um drafted a letter um our board drafted our own individual letter on the regionalization. Yeah. So, I have not seen a group letter that's asking for signitories for this um issue, but I think Tiffany's proposing that we draft an individual board letter to go and we've all been provided the ones from the one from Wingers. I would implore you to take a look at it. It would be substantially similar. But, you know, like what's the weight of individual letter compared to collective? I mean like 10 15 districts signing one letter together. I I uh a letter signed on by more probably carries more weight. But again, I haven't seen that as an option. So if you have seen that as an option,

184you know, please share it with us. 15 letters dumped on your desk at once versus one letter with 15 signatures. I mean, yeah, you never know. I'm not making a judgment call. It's a better visual. Christian. Um, so let me just preface this like um, so when this was as a NISB re um, NISBA resolution um, Miss Gillian, you know, I asked you about this because I do respect your experience and your expertise in this matter and uh, it changed my mind and changed my vote as far as the NISBA uh, resolution and NISBA is already advocating for this on our behalf, you know, in the state. So, I think that there is actually they have pushed for this and we've probably gotten the advocacy updates I think in our emails from from NISPA. Um,

185I also just the the legislation itself, the sponsor in the assembly is a Democrat. It's Paula Kay who represents Wallill in Middletown here in Orange County as well as most of a large chunk of Sullivan County. and uh Senator Oparaku is a Republican who I has supported a lot of different bail reform initiatives. Um so I guess from that I would also assume that uh this legislation is likely to pass because it is a bipartisan legislation for our own representatives. I believe although I might be incorrect about this that Senator Scufus has already indicated support for this and he's indicated support for bail reform meaning making changes to make bail reform. I was looking for the social media post and I couldn't find it. So I might not be accurate but I do believe and

186I actually talked to yes just yesterday I talked to um one of Christopher Eekas's staffers and he's what his response on this was that we work well with uh Miss K Paul Kay the sponsor of the bill's office and we anticipate if we're not supporting it we're going to I'm not want to put I don't want to quote them put words in the public but it basically says they will work you know as assembly members who are side by side on that legislation. And so I already think that our letter is not going to move it for the two people that represent us in in Albany. Um so I I just want to say that where uh the letter from Wingers was written by the superintendent. Um he has written as a Wingers employee. Um

187I got that letter earlier than probably most people did. um and he has written similar letters and I think that he has been of the ilk to keep to uh take a position on broader issues beyond the school district. Um I'm concerned about the practice of writing letters as a school board because we talked about activism in the schools but there's also activism by school boards. This is a diverse community. I think there's a range of opinions in this community and it's not clear what that is. So, are we taking this position because this is a bail reform that affects perhaps something that might happen in a school? And I trust the process. I think we're already being advocated for on this issue through our representatives and our organizations. And so, I'm not sure what

188additionally uh so I guess what I'm trying to say in summary is that I'm not opposed to this. I voted for this in terms of the NISBA resolution as I think the majority of this board did just because looking at uh Bass your spreadsheet when you when you voted as our representative at NISBA and I think it's best to let the process work out and I don't know um as someone said I'm not sure what nine people writing a letter who only really represent themselves um is going to change a legislation and I think I would encourage anyone who's supportive of it to write a letter. And then I just want to say one other thing about the advocacy of this legislation in terms of preventing um incidents at school. Um so in my my

189classroom is the bereavement room. So if your child if there's an incident in my building and your child is dead, they're going to be told in my classroom and I have to that is something that how I keep my classroom every single day because I know that is the room that they'll be brought to. So, it is real and I've been in a building where there has been an active shooter. And so, I think I have some experience. I'm not the only one that has that experience. But I also don't think that anyone who would make a threat against a school is going to go through it and say, you know, I was going to do this, but you know, they might put bail on me, so I might not do it. I don't think

190that's ever going to be the calculation because the type of event is not subject, I think, to a rational calculation. And I think the literature on deterrence would suggest that for property crimes, deterrence has some effect and for crimes of violence and passion, it probably has very little effect in terms of acting as a deterrent. So what this is mostly doing, I think, is facilitating what happens after a threat is made. And I would say that I, Miss Galliano, with your experience, you probably understand how that allows you to proceed after something occurs. And I think that's important as well. Okay. Um, so I I'll I'll just make a a comment before we um take a quick show of hands here. I agree with you, Christian, that it's sort of poor form um for us

191to be supporting a bunch of legislation one way or the other. Um where this is different, you know, similar to our efforts with the regionalization. Um is that had a direct impact on our school? you know, this is not um this legislation, as I understand it, is not part of an overall bail reform, but it's specific legislation aimed only at um threats against the school district, school uh staff or students. So, um I agree. I I kind of went through that calculus that you did of, you know, is this gerine? I think because it's legislation specifically tailored for schools, um it's gerine for us to comment on. Um, so with that, I guess if everybody uh if we can just get a show of hands of folks who um would support signing on to this

192letter. I'm seeing eight hands. Okay. Um Tiffany, if you perhaps want to draft it traveling this week, so you did just say signing on to this letter. I think you mean creating our own letter. That is essentially signing onto signing onto a Cornwall board of ed letter. Yes. Distribute it to the board. Yeah. And and it can be tweaked, of course. Um Okay. Thank you everybody. That completes um the board's business uh for this evening. And the final item on our agenda is the recognition of visitors. Uh I believe you're all here at the beginning of our meeting, so I won't read the spiel again. Uh, the floor is yours, public, if you choose to take it. Hello. Sorry. Hi. Again, I'm Amy McGovern from the Ivy League preschool. So, I was going over the

193numbers while you guys were bantering back and forth. And in the papers that I gave you, we were talking about a base rate for UPK. So, that way providers aren't making $17,000 per child per year. So, one classroom that Cornwall is paying for right now between Cornwall and the state is averaging $200,000 before any before care and after care. That's a lot of money. If we put it to a base rate, we could be saving the district, Cornwall, over $300,000. And again, I'm I'm doing rough estimates. I'm closer to 350. Even adding the 20 seats back on, you would still have over $300,000 added back into your budget. So, you wouldn't be arguing these little things back and forth. You would have $300,000. It's been proven that UPK's at a base rate work. Why we're

194paying so much money over what the state gives. The state gives almost $6,000 and Cornwall's paying close to $4,500. It's a lot of money and it would be a lot of money back into your budgets. So, you wouldn't have to be fighting back and forth. You wouldn't have to skimp on a security guard, skimp on a early intervention person. with and adding more providers out there, you're giving people more choice. So, have a good night. Thank you. Hi, I'm Dr. Kate Esazar, author of the recent report. Um, I am not a spokesperson for my institution. It's important that I keep reiterating that over and over again. I'm here as a mom of a three-year-old who is currently benefiting from incredible CPSSE providers in this school district. My husband and I moved here to the school

195district for the schools. My home values depend on the quality of these schools. I am the one who pointed out that if we move to a flat rate because the providers are getting money from us parents, money that we don't know about when we do the rankings, but if we can do a flat rate, we can get more seats as Amy said, and next year we can be one step closer to universal prek here in Cornwall and we can brag about that and increase our home values as that is a bragging feature. On top of that, I wanted to also mention that I wanted to thank the board for their preliminary draft of the budget with the 20 seats. Thank you. It's taken a lot of hard work from other activists who have been here

196a lot longer than me. And as parents of young children, we thank you incredibly much. And it is not an easy time to be in public education. So, thank you for continued support of our schools. Thank you. Good, excuse me. Good evening, everyone. I'm um Dr. Roxani. I'm also a mom of a toddler who will start UPK next year. We're very excited that he got a spot. But um I have a few questions that I want to to bring up and just think through both the implications for this year and for the future. And so the couple points I want to make is we need more transparency. We need more transparency both in terms of what the school pays providers in addition to what the the state pays. And we need transparency ahead of time

197when we are ranking our choices about what before and after school care will cost because it's vastly different across the schools. And to be honest, the spot that my son had got before and after school care is essentially keeping him in daycare full-time. Um, so that is not really what universal prek is about. Um, and then I also want to urge you all to um, you know, of course it's easier to talk than to um, put this into action, but all of these conversations about um, moving forward with the budget and with the 20 seats and I want to thank you so much for approving these 20 seats for the budget vote um, in a couple weeks, but we need to know this ahead of time. This would have changed probably many people's rankings. Um,

198and people might have not said yes or no had they been able to get a spot earlier on for their school of their choice. Thank you. Uh, thank you for your comment. Any other takers? [Music] Um, thank you all very much for attending. uh and lengthy meeting uh but one where we carried out very important business uh on behalf of our district, our students, our teachers, our parents um and our broader community. So, thank you all. With that, can I have a motion to adjurnn? Elanor so moved Christian with a second. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you all. We will see you not in 2 weeks, but in 2 and 1/2 weeks on Thursday, April 24th