001at 606. While I'm still looking up the agenda, >> should we do introductions? >> I think it's most proper. >> Okay, we'll start with you, Johanna. >> So, Johanna Shriveran >> Lynn Powers, Brooklyn School Board. >> Heather Rearen, Brooklyn School Board. Amy Kelner, Co-op School Board. >> Cindy Vanca, co-op school board. >> Holly Derlo Babcock, Co-op School Board. Gina Bergock, superintendent. Lance Famino, business administrator. >> Uh Jonathan Fontaine, Hollis School Board. >> Kate Stole, Co-op School Board. >> Rob Van, Co-op School Board. Rafie Zach, Holla School Board. >> Great. Let's do it again so I can get everyone's name. >> I'm going to go again. >> All right, we are going to go straight into uh our um appointment of an process observer. Don't all jump right in. Let's keep it in order. A process
002observer. Anyone going once, going twice. >> I'm sorry. >> What is that? >> Yes. Can you tell us? >> Process observer basically keeps the chair in check. >> Here comes Tom. >> And basically says how the the overall meeting went. Did we stay on time? Did we, you know, provide enough time for public input? All the little things that make a a board worth going. Oh, and look at that. I see our normal chairman. I'm not >> our abnormal chairman just so I'm going to pass off the rest of the proceedings to uh our duly appointed chairman. >> Where are we now? We are in um appointment of a process. >> I'll do the process observing. I don't have an agenda written, but I can. I got it. >> Oh gosh. I do not have
003nominations, resignations, or correspondence. >> Okay, even better. And with that, >> we will move on to approval of minutes. >> Okay, we have public and nonpublic. Correct. >> Correct. [Applause] >> Just looking to see if there were any uh >> changes. There were none. >> There were none. So, we will be looking at approval of the public minutes for May 2025. And all are welcome to vote on approval. Um, if you were not here and are uncomfortable doing so, you may feel free to abstain, but it is not necessary. I have a motion to approve the minutes uh the public minutes from May 2025 as uh distributed. >> So move >> second those. >> Okay. I just want >> I just wanted to give you enough time to record who >> Oh, I got it.
004>> Yeah. Um, Kelner and Zach were absent. >> Pardon me. >> Amy Kelner and Rapid Zach were not present for the meeting, but to your point, they can choose to vote. >> Thank you. >> Um, all those in favor of approval as as uh motioned, opposed, and abstensions. >> Thank you. And then we have non-public minutes. Motion to approve as written. >> So moved. >> Second >> by Cindy, second by Rob. Um any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions. Thank you. At this point, we open the floor for public input at 610. Way ahead of schedule. Um, seeing no one here, uh, I won't go through all of the details, but in general, we will keep public input open for 30 minutes. Um, actual 35 because of the way the schedule was written, I
005want to allow for the full 30 minutes from the agenda. If someone is interested in coming forth with public input, they are welcome to do so during that period. Um, unless Rich wants to be public. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, next item on the agenda is the organizational chart that was distributed. Is that something you're going to be speaking to, Gina? >> Yes. >> So, there's not much to say. I just uh wanted to make sure that we all had a view of the organizational chart. It's been a little bit and we've made a couple of changes. So, we'll identify the specific changes that have been made. >> Changes since it was distributed. >> No, no, changes um since the last time we had an organizational chart distributed. uh maybe five years ago. So under
006the superintendent, you now see the facilities director and the director of HR. Those positions prior to this year were under the business administrator. Um and so I felt that nobody would take the position of business administrator um with the responsibilities as it was uh before. So I moved those positions um to be directly supervised by me. If you recall a few years ago, director of technology was also under the business administrator and we shifted that to the assistant superintendent because technology and curriculum are so over overlapped. Um and that shift seemed uh to work well and move the position along. So, um, also I felt that I was heavily involved in so much facilities work going on across the three districts that it would make sense for me to supervise that position. But if there
007are any questions, I can answer them. Um, if anyone is unfamiliar with some of the positions. So, it's it's a little bit tricky in that it's an SAU organizational chart, but a lot of these positions are not actually within the SAU. They're within buildings and and districts, but do have a a general question. Sure. >> And it sort of uh is based on conversations that had under other circumstances, but it has to do with the organization of the business office. Mhm. >> Um is the the structure as shown likely to persist and the reason specifically that we talk about this is um the person the director of business operations in its current role also functions very similar well has a subset of functions and um I'm not sure how that whole distribution of responsibilities are
008likely to um uh exist going forward especially where we have a new business administrator and often times the skill sets when a new team comes together uh involve redistributing respons responsibilities. >> Sure. So, I think for this year, we're keeping everything status quo certainly because we have to figure out what, you know, what it looks like this year um with a new business administrator. Um, and then with all of the new positions, I've said, you know, live it and then bring in new ideas and and let's play to your strengths and and let's see areas that potentially you want further support or maybe they're better shifted in another direction. Whenever we have a change in a position, an individual, and we have to post the position, and we we look at the responsibilities of that
009position to make sure it's actually what we're looking for and looking to fill. So long term, I'm not sure the current structure is um makes the most sense for the structure of the business office right now. It's highly functioning. Our audits go well and and you know, I'd like to continue as is. But if we do see change, I think it would it would be in our best interest to really think about the structure and if anything needed change. I'm not going to put Lance on the spot, but he can chime in um if he would like to. Uh we've had brief discussions about that and I I think early on when that came up and Gina and I talked about it. I I thought keeping things status quo to start was important. Uh I
010didn't want to come in and upset the apple cart immediately. Um especially because things were going well and and I have a lot to learn in the position. We have some people in there who are really highly skilled. Um I think moving forward I'll know more what would make sense and what would be appropriate and what would um appropriately you know lighten the load for some people within the business office um and as I can take on more as I become more and more comfortable with the role. Um so I think it's something that Gene and I talked about really briefly um with a plan to revisit uh probably in the spring. >> Okay. Thank you. The other question I have is regarding the um athletic director. >> Is that now is is that Brian?
011>> That is Brian. >> Is that now an SAU wide position? >> No, we don't have athletics in our two elementary um districts. However, it has been 7 through 12 for quite some time and I don't remember it being under the superintendent. So, it was helpful to have this organizational chart so I knew. Um, but apparently when it became 7 through 12, Andy was the direct supervisor of that position. >> So, is athletic? >> It does take up a lot of my time. >> Is athletics exclusively extracurricular athletics as opposed to things that happen such as in the PE environment? >> It's not PE. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And is there any responsibility in the department for um managing fields? >> That is always a good discussion. There is some level of field management. A
012lot of it is lies with facilities and um so we're looking into that specifically. How do we do a better job because sometimes paths get crossed and um communication breaks down. So, >> so for the time being, does does Brian have any input and or oversight to the fields at any of the elementary or facilit? No. >> Would there be any desire to incorporate that? And I'm thinking in part from the standpoint of distribution of use as well. >> It's certainly something we can we can look to. >> Okay. Is it something that might be possible to bring up at the individual elementary boards to see if they would be at all willing because I could see opportunities to >> Absolutely. So there is quite >> um right now some of our community organizations, let's
013say um Hollis Brookline basketball, they're working with Hollis Schools, Brooklyn schools and Brian for the co-op. Um, and as Hollis is looking to expand and potentially add another gym, that's just one other building that they would have to communicate with. Probably makes a lot of sense to have one contact for all of that. Um, >> okay. Just that's it. Anyone else? >> Yeah. How long is this or chart been in effect? >> Since July one. >> That's what I figured. Okay. Just verifying that. Um and I looking at all your reports are basically the the leadership team and do do you meet with them regularly is um >> Weekly. Okay. Thank you. >> Y >> uh a question about the horizontal dash line between the principles and assistant superintendent of curriculum and assessment. Does that
014signify something? >> Yes. So, um, the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and assessment, I was wondering what was missing. Uh, um, and I both do supervision of the principles. So, LA for the past nine years, um, Andy and I shared the, uh, responsibility of supervising the principles and writing evaluations. So, I'd expect that to continue. >> Any other questions? Just to draw another dotted line if you will, the assistant superintendent of student services shares the responsibility of evaluation of the special ed administrators and then the assistant super sorry the assistant principal of student services at the high school. So they kind of combine forces just as assistant superintendent combines forces with me with the principles. >> Okay. Thank you. Yep. Um, next on the agenda is uh the budget updates. I guess first is talking
015about the end of year for fiscal year 2025 and then moving on to first quarter of FY26 and then ultimately we'll we start the 2027 process. Um I just would like since we're a little bit ahead of schedule and I was late and I apologize for that. I just want to take a moment to make a a brief comment. last meeting in May. Um there were some conversations that I think uh got a little um what's the word? Uh confrontational and conflicting. And uh I have I had an opportunity to speak with some board members um afterwards and my impression is that some of that had to do with some communication issues and some some phrasing that took place. Specifically, uh what happens I think at times is that board members such as myself who
016have been around a long time uh say things like well in the past and the way we've done things and uh for people who are relatively new to this this format uh I think those comments those prefaces sometimes get construed as this is how we do it and this is how you should do it. And I would like to clarify at least on my account the reason for saying it and the phrasing that should have probably been used is something more like for historical context. this is what has occurred just to give background and it's not intended to say this is how it should be going forward um because of the disparity among us in our level of familiarity and experience with certain things some of us feel compelled to uh try and do that
017and I ask for a little bit of uh tolerance when that phrase is used that it's not meant to be dictating to people, hey, this is how it works. Get in line. It's much more of a um I think it might be helpful to understand some of the history and here's my two cents. Take it or leave it as you want. And I just I just wanted to point that out so that we can uh feel comfortable that new ideas, new eyes are not only um allowed but welcomed and encouraged because the fact that we've been doing it for so long makes us myopic in many cases. So uh please please take that to heart if you if you don't mind. Um and that's it. Thank you. Uh we shall now jump into the budget
018and I'm wondering who gets the honors. >> I get the honors of FY25. >> Okay. >> And FY26. Okay. So, taking a look at the year-end uh revenue expense report. You can see that we went over in the superintendent line. Um for those of you who um are unaware, when someone departs and they have acred vacation time, um there's we we are required to pay it all out. So there was a large payout for um unused vacation days for our s outgoing superintendent. There's also a large payout for unused vacation days for outgoing business administrator. So those caused both of those lines to be um significantly overrun. Um, in addition, our business office, as we often have, we had a vacancy and so we had temporary services come in and so that's usually higher than
019the than the budgeted amount. Um, and then the benefit of having those vacancies is that um, we have savings in retirement um, contributions and um, enrollment in benefits, etc. We also had insurance enrollment changes that ended up uh, saving us some money. So, all of that was good. We're looking at um 7124, an unassigned balance, unassigned fund balance of 327,852. Um because we overran a few lines given the vacation buyouts primarily, we um have to utilize the fund balance. We have to utilize 24,452. Um and then there's some adjustments that our auditors made. So that leaves our unassigned fund balance at 32,287 which is 12.4% of our adopted budget. And um as we know we like to keep it in the 7 to 10% range. So it's a little bit high but don't you worry
020because we have plans for that. Um, keep in mind that when we've developed the budget, we had planned to utilize about $53,000 of the unassigned fund balance for um certain items that were, you know, single time use and so we only ended up using 24,452. >> Is is there uh anything specific that was anticipated that wasn't done that's noteworthy in that uh amount that wasn't used? No, it was really just due to um benefit enrollment changes. >> All right. So, if we move on to where we stand, >> can I just ask is that 13,000 for the superintendent? Is that all?