Amityville BOE Mtg 5/7/25

001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the annual union free school district for education work session meeting. This date is May 7, 2022 and I'm calling the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. Excuse me. currently present at the meeting myself, President Lisa Johnson, first vice president Carol, second vice president, trustees Caroline Bannon, and Wendy Canestro, Chris Narren is anticipated to be coming. Leslie Cretz will be absent today. Also in attendance at the meeting is Dr. Albert, our superintendent, Mary Stevens, our assistant superintendent for click instruction, Dr. Bridget Wait, our assistant superintendent for human resources, and Mr. Olivia Watsi, our assistant superintendent for finance and operation. At this point in time, can I have a motion to go? Oh, let me just go clarification as a reminder. We will be resuming open at 6:30. At that

002point in time it we will be going in into our audit committee. Um that will go until roughly about 7:30 and then we will resume open session um for our work session and budget hearing. At this point in time at 5:36 p.m. Can I have a motion to enter to executive session for advice from council regarding various legal matters? Move. Second. Okay. Carol Seahhawk is first. Anything against the second. All those in favor? I I motion carries 6. We will see you at 6:30 for our audit committee. The time is 6:35 and we are going we came out of executive session. I'm going to just reopen the meeting and if I'm incorrect and legal, please correct me. Reopen the meeting at 6:35 and then I'm going to have a motion to recess the open meeting

003to go to our audit committee meeting. Everyone understand that? Sure. Sure. So, I'm sorry. What were you saying? Okay. So at 6:35 I am going to recess out of open session to go into our audit committee at this point in time. Can I have a motion to recess out of our open session that we reopen? Motion. Thank you. Second Wendy Kesro is first Ner is second. All those in favor. I. We are now in the audit committee at 6:37. So at this point in time, I will turn the mic over to you. So if you want to come up, you can stand there at at the mic and I can pull. Thank you. Good evening. Nice to see everybody. Thank you for having me. My name is Lauren Gonzo. I am a partner at Naki

004Smith. We were your internal auditors for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. I'm here to kind of close it out with the risk assessment. I think I just gave you guys all the final copy, but you also, I believe, have a corrective action that was prepared as well. So, I'm going to kind of go high level and then I'm going to open it up for questions. Okay. So, um our risk assessment is as of as I said as of June 2024. uh we issued it to district in October 2025. So if you flip to page uh four, that's really our uh executive summary kind of summarizes the next three pages where we risk rate each of the areas. Um we looked at 21 business process areas uh which contain 92 subprocess areas. Uh we

005have our current year rating grid uh to the left here where we have rated five areas as high risk. Uh 21 areas as a moderate risk and one air I'm sorry 65 areas as a low risk and then we had one area that was not applicable in the transportation. Uh in terms of uh changes from uh the prior year, we had two areas go from moderate to high and two areas go from low to high. Um those areas that went from moderate to high uh were in budget development, human resources and uh pupil personnel services. Uh we have 14 current year recommendations. Uh two of them are contained within the payroll area, four are contained within the human resource area and eight within the pupil per person personnel uh area. Um so the detail behind

006all of that is on pages five, six and seven where you can see the the changes from year to year. Uh and then any any questions on the risk ratings at all? Any board members have any questions? No, no, keep going. Okay. All right. So then the pages thereafter are the um observations and recommendations we made. Um, does anyone have any questions on these or would you like me to go through the 14 current year recommendations? Does anyone have any questions at this point in time or do you do you want to just do a quick overview of the the 14 and then Sure. go from there? Sure. Absolutely. Uh, so within the payroll area, we um we noted that there were two instances where we could not uh verify employee salary because it wasn't

007contained within the board resolution. So, we recommended that um the starting salary or hourly payment rate be included within the um within the board resolutions. Um and the second one had to do with um time sheets that didn't contain the approval signatures. Um they so in instances they were missing administrative signatures. Um, and I know the corrective action addresses that these things are going to be um taking place this current year, which um we weren't able to verify because we're not the internal auditors. But um in human resources, we had three areas where an absent request form wasn't uh wasn't submitted by an employee. So our recommendation is to make sure that those forms are requested, I mean are provided and they're submitted and approved timely. Um we also had uh made note that um

008only teachers and teachers uh t um absences are ended into ASOP. So we had make made a recommendation to have all employees attendance entered into ASOP and I think that's something that the district was moving forward in doing this year. Um we also had some instances where where teachers didn't enter their absences and where documentation wasn't maintained. So again, recommendation just to make sure that you have that supporting documentation. I take Jeff as well. Um yeah, I was just going to say that on all of the different ones and then I'll pass it over to um Megan Meman. all of them from the payroll to the HR just so everyone is listening um there have been corrective action steps that have that have occurred for some of them um under payroll it has already been

009corrected the two things that were mentioned um under human resources where there was an absent request they're now required to submit an absent report and for inputting time that's now that's being worked on and it says roll out will begin on July 1st 1st, 2025, all employees will also be required to enter their absences on into the ASAP AES SOP of next year. So, I just want to mention that. Go ahead, N. Thank you. Um, I guess I would just request because the colorized might not be available at all times that it be clarified that the blue is the responses from the district. Um so that's just you know we have the recommendation and then we have our response to maybe indicate it as a response. I I mean I you know you get it

010over reading it but uh just a note that I wrote down initially. Um and I guess in the response for number three I think in our new contracts with the ATA is there a number of days required for to submit absence forms prior to the date requested? Like should that be included in the response too? I thought we had I'm sorry. So it I'm sorry. So it says like all employees are now required to submit absence forms for planned absences prior to the date requested. I thought we also have like you know a number of days ahead of time. That's it a week ahead of time or so uh teachers or employees will submit ahead of time if it's for bereavement if it's for um a conference yeah if they're 12 month and it's vacation

011right otherwise they usually call into ASOP and report their absence through the automated system And so the recommendation here was uh for more than teachers Yeah. to utilize that system. Right. Right. And that's what we're in the process of transitioning to uh being led by our technology department. I Yeah. I saw like linking the systems. Yeah. Right. I just have a question on that. So going into 2526 starting in July, we're going to have all employees do ASOP. Is that correct? it's going to be implemented and and and all staff is being notified of this. All staff uh will be notified. Um we have been this has been quite a journey because the two systems do not marry one another in vision and ASOP. So, we have been transitioning and I believe we're now at

012a point, if I'm correct, Miss Buazatzi, um where we will begin to notify uh staff and train staff on how to utilize the ASAP system prior to the start of next year. I just I'm just Can I jump in again? I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. um the the attendance personnel and the daily sign-in sheets. I guess it jumped out at me as there was two um you know noted issues and seems like not being effective. I guess not effectively um reviewing we had to we reminded our attendance clerks to review and update building signin sheets on an ongoing basis. like is that the most effective way? Do we need I'm sorry, which number are you looking at? Oh, I'm sorry. The the bottom of page 11 um you know, four instances where employees names are not

013listed on their assigned building signin sheets. Okay, thank you. Um, can I jump in because it just seems like between two sets of software and multiple humans being the liaison or the translator from one software to the next, there's a lot of unintentional mistakes happening. Yes. Um, and also potential for exploitation. So, and this was flagged. I I right now I have four copies of this in front of me, so I don't even know which to reference because they don't all have the same page numbers. But um employee attendance was flagged and you might recall um I'm sorry I forget your last name. Lauren Aonzo Aunzo in 2021 as being an issue. So now three years later it's still being flagged as an issue. And I guess I would just hope that it isn't there

014a software or is that what you're saying Dr. Talbert? We're transitioning to the software to take the human error out of it. Um so currently uh attendance is taken via uh paper. Um once teachers call into ASOP, they are recorded by the office staff and submitted to the attendance office. So that portion is going to be removed and it will be automated. But it took some time to to get ASOP and Envision to work in sync because they're not naturally compatible. So we have that in place at this time and we will begin to do automated attendance with more than just the teachers which should reduce uh some of the incidents. Can I just jump in a second? I think the reason for signin sheets is to make sure the teachers are there during the

015periods during the full day. Um, and obviously they should be collected and and you know make sure that everybody's there. So a teacher doesn't or an employee even show up third period if they're supposed to be there first period. I think that's the thing is actually have them and and that's the reason for that. Um I know some districts they also you know have to sign in to get their paychecks and certain things. I mean there's different ways to do it but um I think that's the thing to make sure that everybody's there on time in the morning. I know that I've seen it in the past where the building principles there at the signin sheet when people are there in the morning signing in and it's just an assurance that so to your point

016the ASAP and envision are to record when when there's vacation or sick or bereavement that kind of thing but the daily sheets are to record that people are physically in the building and those things can be used and that's what we did to reconcile one another and that's where we found issues so that's where where the recommendation ation comes comes to. So the this the manual sheets are not the attendance record. It's more that you know it's it's it's to help kind of supplement that so that you could see that they were assigned, they signed in, they were there and that can all be reconciled. That's that's really the point of the signin sheets. Good. Yes. Thank you. Okay. And then and that that's really goes to our recommendation uh number five is to reconcile

017those things so that you can catch where you know some of someone may not have signed in or they put in for a day but they shouldn't have or so on and so forth. So that was recommendation um really five and six. Um so PPS has a lot of recommendations I think. Did you skip over six because I have a question on it. Oh yeah, that was the four instances where the name wasn't wasn't on the assigned building. Yeah. Oh, no. My number six talks about There's no number six for it was the bid. It's number four, right? It's number four. There's no number for that. Yeah. I don't know. The corrective action doesn't the numbers aren't matching. Corrective action doesn't match this report. No. So, right now what she has here, we just we

018just got finished with human resources. Now, we're going to um PPS. Oh, so PPS is now now what she's talking about. Okay. Yeah, but you had a question. What was your question? I had it. It was on bid. So that's later on. Oh. Oh, yeah. What what uh what number was Okay. Well, yeah. Yeah. Let's keep going down. Okay. All right. Because we're um we're going to try to we're going to try to end it. What a committee. Excellent. Um so PPS, like I said, there's a number of recommendations and I think the biggest issue is the reconciliation process. Okay. So you want to make sure and this is a recommendation and observation we had a few years ago. You want to make sure that the services that are being provided to the children are

019mandated by their e IEP. So that reconciliation process has to happen and then it needs to be reconciled to the invoice to make sure that the students are getting the services that they should be getting. They're not getting more because then you can't stack those and you can't receive aid on those. So I think that's one of the most common themes within all of these observations and recommendations. And from what I understand, there's now a process in place to do that. So I would say to you maybe with your new internal auditors, have them look at this again to make sure that this process is happening. Um what was your what was the question? Was it within PPS or it was something different? Oh, it might have been in the the prior year. Yeah. Um

020well um I do have a question on IEP though. I'm sorry. This one that says we noted six instances where the students IEP was not completed properly. The related services entered into the IEP did not agree to the cse meeting notes. So in that case what happened like did the kids not get services they were supposed to and then did? I guess I'm Is that what happened? This is number two. This is 14 on my report, but it might be it's 14 on on my thing too. These are all It's numbered differently. It's all So what is just what what you gave to us and what we had is when she did the corrective action, she lost two numbers in it. Got it. A couple numbers missing. So So it looks like So I guess

021my question is to this. So it's saying it wasn't completed properly. Related services entered into the IEP did not agree to the cse meeting, right? So, but that happened for the whole prior year then like you didn't catch it till the end when you did it right when you reconciled. Right. This is like we we happened to just see this. So, we probably flagged it when we saw they were getting services that weren't on their IEP and then saw that the notes were different than the IEP. Okay. And then you're only doing like a sampling when you're Yeah. Yeah. Um but then that Go ahead. Oh, no. I always jump into a different one. No, I was going to say, but that also then led to us looking more closely at everything. Correct, Dr. Talbert?

022But once we got that one sample and we got the new director in, it led to really um diving deeper into everything to make sure that this was not happening any other place. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead, Megan. So, I um number seven on the corrective action plan We recommend that the district work with vendors to obtain additional information on the invoice itself or in supporting documents that would indicate which sessions are makeup sessions the vendor should bill services based on student rather than teacher. So I don't see like our response doesn't necessarily say that we're taking that recommendations. So are we now asking the consulting services to be based by students so that that comparison with the IEPs is more readily reviewable. That is something that the um special education department we've had a lot

023of conversation with them about that. um it should because you cannot stack it if it's not for the kids. If it's a service that is given to the teachers rather than the student and it's not reflected on the kids, then we can stack it. So those are some of the conversation that we've been going back and forth. It's it's it's with the special education department and these are some of the corrections that they have been doing along the way. Okay. So you're saying in some instances that can be done in others it's it's not going to be for students. It should be related to a kid right actually then we can stack it unless a kid's name because stack forms are for kids. Right. Right. Okay. So, would that should Okay, I guess I didn't

024interpret that from our response in the corrective action plan is what I'm saying. If I could just add to that, that is much of the work that we've been doing and the ongoing meetings that we've had with the vendors around providing services that were not identified on IEPs and comparing them to the invoices. there has been a lot of peeling back the layers to ensure compliance. Um even so that now those CSSE decisions are being brought before the board to bring us further into compliance. Right. And I think that ties right into number nine where the ser the IEP indicates either AMD bill is going to be providing the services or a vendor. Correct. And in a lot of situations, we found that the vendor was providing services instead of the AM bill staff, which

025was not on the IEP. So, um, yeah, go to Caroline. Well, this is not on PPS anymore, but So, I'll just say that I have the next question when we're done with PPS. Okay. One more on PBS. So, you had a recommendation for an evaluation tracking worksheet. Mhm. Is there a a software or platform that could be used? Like I feel like another like element of trying to eliminate like human error. Yeah. Um I don't think there's a software. I think it really needs to just be tracked within PPS. Okay. You know, I'm sure that the system can provide some assistance, but I do think it probably needs to come out of the system. Right. Right. To track to track it. um just to make sure that you know that's it's properly managed and then

026it's not billing errors that kind of thing. So yeah. Okay. Thank you. And to add to that IEP direct is a beginning offers beginning assistance for that. Right. So we're making sure that what's going into IEP direct is accurate. Right. So that when we're getting the output, the spreadsheets are then accurate. All right, you can move along. Any more questions with uh PPS? No. Okay. Um the other ones I mean there's 22 prior year recommendations here. That's why I want to jump in because in this year looking at budget development, you had mentioned well you see on page five we went from low to high. Um, so first of all, I was surprised to see that it was low for 2022 2023 because that was the year we ran up the big three. Yeah. But

027we the risk assessment was as of June 2023. Okay. Right. So that at that point we didn't know yet. But then when then the following year which is in 2024 but 23 like the end of 23 24 after that as we were preparing the budget for the upcoming year you know on top of you know reeling from the 3.5 mil from the previous year now we were started off that budget season with the 4.6 mil deficit that we had to pair down which resulted in a lot of excessing. So I guess that was the year where the budget process was still flagged as low or uh within these three r threeear span the budget process went uh risk is put here as going from low to high so there's a big jump right so I

028was let's think about time period right so the the time period that it was the low was June 2023 right at that point we did not know until after the year end that you were in the deficit. Okay. But when I think of like the budget planning, I don't think of like how you actually executed your budget or stuck within your budget. More like how do you plan it out, right? Um you know, I'm curious to know what you look for when you try to assess risk. So I went through the report. I didn't there wasn't anything listed in the report for um those years. All you have are prior year recommendations like and that's why I want to jump in here. We just finished going through current year recommendations but there's nothing in the

029current year to talk about the budget planning process. So in in this in this report here you're saying yeah it doesn't come until 2024 we get to prior year recommendations but there recommend from the 2023 year it was risk listed as being low but this is the risk assessment that ends in 2024 in 2024. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So there's not a recommendation in here. You're saying is that what you're saying? Yeah. I was wondering what's the what what did you see and what's the recommendation and what could we do? But I didn't see anything in here even though flagged as high. I mean, we didn't really want to add fuel to the fire. I think you had a forensic investigation. You had your external auditors, you know, talked to you about it. So, you had

030a consultant in here. So, I guess, you know, we we flagged it as a high, but we didn't put a specific recommendation in there. Okay. So, when you make this report in June, that was coming only two months after the forensic audit, and you recognized Yeah. So at this point like you kind of worked, you know, with the district all along, you know, with this process. We met with you. We went through a lot of this stuff. So yes, it was it was kind of like you, it was blatantly obvious that there were issues and they were being taken care of. As a matter of fact, we kind of recused ourselves from doing the forensic investigation because we're the internal auditors. We said, "Let somebody independent look at this." And you had that done. So,

031we did not put a recommendation here, but we did flag it as high for that purpose. That makes perfect sense to me. Um, I was not on the board last year, but so I sat was in the audience when the forensic auditor was presenting and for me it was very very informative like understanding the nuts and bolts of what goes on. Yeah. And then I got onto the board and I heard that we have all these auditors, a claims auditor, an external and an internal and I understood the claims, I understood the external. Months go by. I don't know who or what the internal is doing. Um because we didn't see this report that was given in um October until February. Yeah. So that's why we're playing catch-up like we should. Absolutely. And and to

032you know just put a little bit more color to it. We worked very closely with the district once this hit. I mean Olivia just like threw up the red flag and wanted us to to dig in and we knew we knew there was an issue in special ed. you know, we, you know, I think if whoever was on the board a couple years before that, we we found issues where you were um giving services and not being able to to um get aid on those services. So, and it was a big dollar amount, too. So, that's when we said we need to look at this a little bit more deeply. And that really came from um the administration. They knew, but you know, at that point, we didn't know about the budget, but then that

033kind of came along with it. And it and then you started to see there was a lot of different things. Yeah. One of the big recommendations of the forensic audit or observations was that the board was not in in the loop of all that. Right. You know, so now I think I think they were you were getting reports but they were not, you know, it wasn't like raising any red flags. It wasn't very obvious. Um and I think what and I read the report. It's a good report because the recommendation is training for you all, you know, to see. But it happened so quickly, right? If you looked at it at a certain period of time, you you were not in the red and then all of a sudden you were in the red. There

034was all these incumbrances and things that came through that really put you in the red. Yeah. So, catch up to do and trying to get back on even ground and make sure that we all understand it's our job to, you know, read the reports, you know, visit with actually, well, without going off on a tangent, how frequently do um does the internal auditor come to present to the board? Um, when I we were here, we were coming once or twice a year. Okay. you know because you want to what time of year just like because I know that with external it's every the reorg meeting and in November we can count on that. So what's the timing for the internal? So our recommend it depends what the scope of what your internal order is doing.

035When we were here we were doing a lot of work. So we would do we would do the one cycle we do a risk assessment but we also did key controls throughout the year. So we were here on a monthly basis. I don't know what your current internal auditor is doing but I would say as soon as they finish a report they should come with you. Okay. However to the board twice a year is what? Yeah the board audit committee. Yes. Yeah the audit committee. Yeah. That's what my my recommendation is. I mean, you meet your with your external auditors twice a year, correct? So, you know, make that meeting a little longer and get your internal auditor in there. And then, you know what I do is I work around my my district's board

036dates. So, if I know we're going to meet, I make sure that we have our report done before we meet. So, that would be my recommendation. Okay. I think twice a year is good. This, for the record, is the first time in since the forensic audit an internal auditor has presented to the board. Yeah. Yeah. This uh Well, I mean, I don't know if you I know you're you don't have the contract right now. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. We've been told we need to meet with the the auditor more frequently. Um and we haven't yet, but we have districts that meet monthly. We have districts that meet quarterly. Monthly is a lot. Just, you know, I think that's a lot on you. And I think it's a lot to expect to see any progress in a

037month. You know, twice a year seems like a good minimum. It definitely is. And you know, as your internal auditor, you're responsible to inform the board if you find any any issues. You know, like obviously we found issues, but it's it came kind of after the fact, but if we come across something as we're doing our work, our our responsibility and any of your auditor's responsibility is to report directly to the board. Okay. So, um so sorry to to backpedal. No recommendations for this. Oh, yes, you answered that. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. All right. So, um I'm sorry. I keep going off. No, I was just I mean again, does any I know you've had the report, so do you have any questions on on the recommendations or the corrective action? Yeah. On the

038on the prior year. I I think maybe what may be good is maybe um if the board has questions and we do it maybe a section at a time in terms of and and if someone wants it done differently like right now we're at the payroll um section of it if people have questions or comments to to ask them and if not then we can go to the to the next section. I would just say you could see we we put in and and you know when these recommendations were made right so they've been kind of hanging around for a while and a lot of that is due to turnover right we're looking back at from 2019 to current so um a lot of things have been implemented and and completed but focus on the

039things that are not started or if they're in process make sure that that they are completed um so yes so payroll did anyone have any questions in payroll Well, more to the corrective action plan. Um, in payroll, you mean? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Uh, we recommend that the district perform periodic tests and document the results within the this is number two 2018 2019 school year to ensure compliance with policy 6800 payroll procedures. So, you made a recommendation to comply with our policy and the corrective action um is the payroll department is planning to distribute paychecks and stubs prior to the end of the 2024 2025 school year. So, I guess this is really a question for Dr. Talbert. I'm sorry. Where oh, sorry. You okay? I don't think I see 15, but okay. 15. How I'm

040not clear on how that addresses the concern. What how does handing out payubs address that? So the the purpose of that recommendation is so that we can confirm that the persons who are listed on the payroll are actually employees in the district. And so the payroll office goes out to the schools and employees have to show their ID to receive their payub. So that's a checks and balance that's supposed to be happening ongoing and uh we are I believe another one is scheduled for Friday coming. Yes, this Friday coming. Yes. So this is a good recommendation. It's a good policy to have. Um a lot of districts don't have this in their policy, but the reason we cited it here was because you do have it in your policy to do this and it wasn't

041taking place. It's, you know, it's a big undertaking to do this and I think it's good because it is a deterrent if people know that you're looking. You know, we do this a lot. You're not, you usually don't find anything, but it definitely does act as a deterrent to do it. So, I guess when we made this recommendation, it was not, you know, it was more because you have it in your policy, you should do it. So, it's kind of one or the other. And I think it's good to have it in there and then to go ahead and, you know, to have this process take place. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions in the payroll section? No, I had the same question as Caroline. So, can we go to purchasing and related expenditures?

042Yep. Um I know somebody had a question, right? Yeah. My question is I I wanted to know if you could expand on this with the bid. The way I'm reading it, I don't know if it's correct. Which number are you looking? It's number six on page 16 of our corrective action plan. Can you what what is happening here? We're supposed to be going out to bid, but we're not. We're saying it's a sole bidder, but it's not really a sole bidder because we didn't go out to bid. I mean, that's kind of how I'm reading it. I don't know if that's accurate or not. So, this again is from June of 2019. So, it's it's quite a while ago, but what we were saying here that June 18, June 2018, this is from our risk

043assessment or our report back in 2018. So the the issue here was that um a bid or a RFP wasn't done for nine vendors. Um three of the nine uh purchase orders were described as soul source vendors. Um we noted complete documentation couldn't be located for three. So, I guess in this situation and and I'd have to go back to look to see what that was, but generally speaking, what we found was what they said was a soul source was not a soul source and it was required to have a bid. Right. So, we we should have been going out for bid and then they said it's a sole service, but it wasn't because they didn't go out to bid. Correct. Okay. So, um, the corrective action is the business office has begun to store

044all bids and supporting documents digitally, but does that address that we need to go out for bids? I mean, does that one sentence say that? We're saying we're storing it, but shouldn't we be going out for bids? I don't know. Does that address it? Well, that that that addresses the supporting documentation part of it, but going out for the bid is is different. and the only thing you could do is, you know, basically you need to do this, but you also have a claims auditor, too. So, I I believe that this um this is being looked at, right? But I think that um shouldn't we be expanding on this to say that we're going to do the bid process because we only have one sentence saying that we're going to store all bids and supporting

045documents digitally, but we have no commitment that we're going to be going out for bids within the corrective action plan when when it's required. I think a sentence could be added to this to say yes. Right. Yes. Can we do that? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, any other on that same on that same topic, do you know off hands if you only have one response to an RFP, what would be the recommended? Yeah, if you only have one response, then that's you know, yeah, that you could use that one. if as long as as long as you go out and solicit. I mean, I've seen that in many situations where you're only you only get one response. Sometimes you don't get any responses, right? Um my apologies if I should have done this research

046ahead of time, but do we have an RFP policy like and is that relevant to this recommendation? Like could it be? You do. Um I think we were going to review it in the next meeting or so. We were going to look at that, but we do have one for this. What do you know the number? Anyone? I could probably Would that be the purchasing policy? 6700. Okay. Yeah, it may. It's like 674. So, there may I think there's a policy and I think there may be a regulation connected to the policy as well. So, um the regulation is something that's done. So, we can you know we can review those regulation is done by by cabinet. I would like to add that um where it reads um to be aware of what purchases require

047a bid or request for a proposal. There has been a spreadsheet developed in all departments that indicate the start and end date when bids and or proposals are expiring. So we have instituted that as well. May I ask for clarification because we're asking the board's vote on this tonight. Uh when the suggestion was made to add the statement, the business office has begun to store all bids and supporting documents digitally. Could someone state the second sentence? Oh, I was saying that we that we are going to, you know, go out for bid as required. I mean, something like that just to address the fact that we have to go out for bids and we weren't doing that at RFPs. I think that that sentence should be added. something along those lines. Yes. I I think

048what I what I wrote is it's meant to include the fact that we'll go out for bits. Yeah. Thank you. So the language and go ahead. You look like you're saying something to me. And it's policy 6741. Okay. And then go out for bids. That was for for bids. RFPs. Yeah. As required. Okay. Any further questions on the purchasing? No. Anything on the HR? Um HR, we kind of went over capital projects. Uh yeah, capital projects. Um I I flagged this. I have a lot of highlights and I wasn't I guess I don't have like a specific question. Um, but I'm just not sure what are what are we doing? Are what changes have we or are we making? Um, because it seems and we kind of discussed this a little bit last night. Um,

049five-year plan, comprehensive plan, are we in compliance with our facilities use policy? Does the policy need to be updated? Um, I have a bunch of like loose questions, but could do you think you could speak to this a little more like what you observed and what you recommend? You know, again, this came from uh June 2022, but what we noticed was that it's in process. The recommendation obviously was to have a five-year capital uh facilities plan because it was last updated in August 2016. um based on our risk assessment from this year, you did get a cap capital facilities plan in 2023. However, it was missing certain elements that was required within your policy. So, um I think um what they I don't know if it was you or it was um the superintendent who

050said that they were going to propose revisions to the policy. Yes. Because um just speak a little bit more to the mic. Yes. Because the five-year facilities plan is required every five years. District policy 71 is saying that we should do it annually and the annual visual inspection was required previously and then the state got rid of it. So they now require us to do it every 5 years. So there's a disconnect between what we are now required to do by state and what district policy has in 7,100. So I I do I have I pulled it up in front of me. So the state requires every five years. Correct. But in reading this policy, it says a yearly breakdown of the estimated expenses for construction, additions, alterations, major repairs, system replacement and repairs and

051maintenance and energy consumption. I mean I would second part of it and the second part is a district-wide building inventory including the number and type of facilities the age capacity use and size of each building and each building safety ratings energy sources probable use for life major system repairs needed and uh speestous reports. My question is this. Isn't our facilities director in conjunction with the business official have a running list? And shouldn't there just be a checks and balances at the end of each year for an inventory to do that? Like is it so cumbersome not to do that annually? Wouldn't it behoove us to do that? Yes. For an internal control. Yes. Uh in fact that is actually part of the first step in the building and grounds budget process. We have to go

052through it. We have to know what we have. And in fact, if this is something that I started doing with our facilities director before and then you know all is pretty new, but you we have to go through the five-year facilities plan incorporate some of those recommendations that were made by the engineers and architects. true that sometimes you don't have money to do all of that, but you have to be aware of that. But do we do we know what wasn't included because it doesn't really state what wasn't included? We did the plan in 2023, the 5-year plan and so there were some elements that weren't included. What was 2021? 2021. Sorry. 2023. You said no. I thought I thought the 5-year plan was updated in 2023. Did I read 2023? Yeah. So then I

053thought that you said that there was some elements in the policy that weren't implemented in it. What would do you know what those are? I don't know off the top of my head. Is that something you could get back to us with? Absolutely. Yep. If I may add, I know that we have reviewed the latest BCS. Um the building and grounds office would have um I'm not sure if it's the elements that we're missing in this but there is a one-year plan based on what we can do fiscally that has been extracted from the 5-year BCS and then it was also re-evaluated after the budget was adopted because there are still items that we could not address. Mhm. So it is ongoing and an evolving document that we do have in house that we can

054share if you have not received. It looks like that's a good thing to share with the board annually that this is like this is it. This is our Yeah. So I agree with that. I um what jumped out at me too was the response like the district relies on the architect to file the capital project files. So, it's still not clear to me with the blue response um because I don't think we should be relying on the architect because we can change our architect and the architect could change their policies on how long they keep their files. So, so now we're saying we are maintaining all of the historical capital project files. Yes. Um in fact in the um in the 2223 uh school year one of the first thing that we tackled when we

055came here was to digitize all the plans and specs because we had plans and spec going back to 1989 that were all over the place and we had bosses come in and digitize all of those because we are supposed to keep it in perpetuity. So those are some of the things that we have been doing in terms of our plans and specs. Okay. So Okay. So is maybe maybe it wasn't made available to the auditor then because it says like status of June 2024 not started. Yeah. But then you're saying but it was I guess completed but somehow it wasn't made available. I don't think we we we talked about we talked about the five-year plan. No, I'm sorry. Um, plans and specs, building project data, capital project data number nine. I before I just

056want to um question about what was missing from the because I do have my work papers here. Um, so the five-year capital plan included a breakdown of expenses, but the policy also called for building inventory safety ratings on an annual basis. So those are the things that were um were missing from the um from the capital. Did you safety ratings and building assess inventory? Building inventory and safety ratings. Yep. Thank you. I I have a couple of questions. I'm Oh, it it's in the announcements and it's in it's if you scroll down, it has a Zoom link under the announcements on the first page. Yeah. Um, were you completing a thought or can I No. Yeah, you go ahead. Okay. I just thought there was another question, but Okay. So, I have a just a

057couple of questions on number 10. Um, oh, it says all the change orders have been filed. Okay. Wait, that wasn't it. I think it was with state ed signatures. Where was that? State signatures. Number 10 is the the change orders, right? We noticed um talking about the capital project file. Well, I noticed that 11 we don't have any corrective action like Oh, it just said complete. Oh, because it's complete. Okay, so both So 11 and 12 are complete, correct? Okay, got it. Um, so 12 you're talking about under information systems. Yeah, I'm looking at our corrective action plan. Yeah, me too. Me too. I thought I thought that I just read something. I must have missed missed my place on this. Something about New York State Ed that we weren't getting things and like you

058you've oh the district has obtained copies of all change orders and they've been filed digitally but do we have a procedure to obtain the copies? Like how do we know to get them? Like we've obtained them because they flagged it but what are we doing to be proactive? They send it to us. The state will facilities planning will send you copies. They send it approved change orders. Okay, understood. Um, so are we still under information systems, correct? This was capital projects. I don't know if there's any more questions with capital project. Any more questions with capital project? Well, number 14. I have a question. This is about the remote access. Oh, yeah. That's information. Yeah. Go ahead. Fine. I could keep going. Okay. It just says that the district should have overview of this and

059we're we're leaving it to uh you know a vendor a third party with the remote access policy. All right. We're looking at number four. We're looking at 14. Yeah. Which is on recommendation from the June 2020 remote access. So I don't know is that is that really well who is remote accessing? Is it just them? Because I had the same I was kind of like who is remote right remotely accessing our systems is it because we noted that the remote is not routinely monitored by the district instead remote access logs are reviewed by the IT department on require on a request basis we don't remotely accessing is the question too I work from home sometimes oh okay so you can like log in you're saying I see but does so then do we have a

060cyber security policy. Is that where you're going? I'm sorry, Linda. Um, there's a policy, but what we're saying is that the district should have oversight. Yeah. You should you should monitor it to make sure that whoever is accessing it is, you know, is, you know, authorized to access and you look for weird things, you know, 3:00 a.m. access and some weird things just to to make sure that it is being monitored. So my question is with this response maybe Dr. Talbert or Olivia you can tell me how are we reviewing this then we're we're just relying on the third party to do this. No it's not the third party they are inhouse it's it the IT department. Yeah, but an extension of that. The IT, but it's Land Rover. It's a It's a vendor that

061we use. It's not We don't have an employee, an IT employ director. The IT department, I'm sorry, excuse me, does review them on a monthly basis. And when we meet with the directors on a monthly basis, uh those logs are reviewed as needed. In addition, if there is a red alert, um he makes us aware immediately and he also meets on a weekly basis with Mary Stevens as a point of um reference to oversee all of the processes that he carries out under his duties. So, so weekly also he's giving you the report on this the central administration. Is that what he's doing? not necessarily physically every week giving the report but discussing the reports as needed but you can elaborate. Am I missing something because this is a Yeah. So the initial recommendation was

062that the remote access be monitored. Okay. So now that is happening. Yeah. But what's not happening is they're not signing off that they're looking at it. So there's no evidence that it's being looked at. That's what our our status of that recommendation is. And then um I guess the the corrective action is what what um the superintendent was just talking about and they just now have to sign off on Okay. Right. So what so we're not signing off on it? So we are or we're not. Is that something that needs to be updated in this corrective action plan or we not doing that one step? But we'll put that in the corrective action plan that you know we require him to sign off on it when he reviews it. Okay. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

063Okay. Any other questions in the IT section? Nope. I um the disaster recovery plan Is that I mean this is not IT specific, right? This is is this a district-wide disaster recovery plan? We're having again we're having our network engineer develop this plan. Yeah. Um we're number 18. Yes. Um is that by the IT department? Um they they were they wanted to form a consortium through Boseis to get it done but Boseis didn't get enough school district to participate so we are going to do it ourselves. Okay. So is that I'm sorry Dr. Talber you but it's not specific just to it right? I don't think it is. It's just it. Yes. Okay. just it and and the all the systems that you have. Okay. Thank you. Yes. And so we know that Pete has

064been providing us with updates on the disaster recovery plan and we should be done with it by June 30th. It is a work in progress. Okay. Um anything in PPS? It's a lot of similar recommendations. Anyone have anything? Well, on 21, uh, it's the response is that one employee in the business office has been trained to reconcile stack claims. So, you know, I just wrote down like no redundancy, just one employee. Um, she comes in. I think that's exactly what Lauren was talking about that there should be a reconciliation between the services that are provided by the PPS department, the IEP and the billing. So this employee comes in and takes some of the bills that we get from the providers and see whether indeed those services were provided the rate that they promised they

065were going to charge it and whether it's been done accurately and sometimes she reaches out to the vendors. Are you overseeing that as well? Yes. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, I don't there's no more questions any because we're going to just wrap it up. So, well, I guess not not related to this specific report except to ask what comes next because now that we are not in contract with Naki Smith anymore, we're with RS Abrams. What What happens to this corrective action plan? Do they I don't even know who to ask. Is it Dr. Halbert, you know, did they pick this up and run with it? What what have they been working on since September and when do we get to meet with them? So, uh, Naki and Smith has Naki Smith rather has

066concluded their services as our internal auditor. It's incumbent upon the administration to ensure that we're in compliance with all of the recommendations and those are in progress. RS Abrams has been in district and they have begun their work. Would you like to talk a little bit about the initial questionnaire that was presented and what we've been working on? Yes. Um they've been talking they they gave us about 85 questions that we have to respond to and they were here two days last week and they interviewed most of us. In addition to that, when they are doing the audit, they are going to take this report and pick up from there and make sure that whatever Naraki Smith did, they make sure that we complied with those recommendation, we implemented those recommendations. So it will be

067they they duct tail to what Noraki Smith has done. So, have they been doing that since September? Yes, they have been coming here and they've been asking us for reports and they've been asking us for question. In fact, they there was an interview today. They interview personnel today. Okay. Is there a possibility that we can can we find out when will they be able to come to speak to us as as a board? I think one thing is just for them just to maybe meet the board because that'll be number one. And the number two, when will they be able to provide a report to us? Can we find that information out so we can do another order committee? I mean, it sounds like they're doing their risk assessment. Is that right? They are doing

068the Yes, indeed. They are doing their risk assessment. But, you know, if if I were them and I was picking up, this is what I would look at. So, so I I would request suggest, you know, an initial meeting to to meet the board, but then at that meeting to establish what is the annual calendar of meetings going to be. like we know Allan every July and November what is it going to be with RS Abrams so that we can count on it. Yes. And if I may recommend if we take a look at the board uh of ed dates perhaps we can consider dates to insert and we can run it by them to see if their availability for those dates. Sounds good. So, there were a couple of um suggested modifications to these

069responses. So, are we going to be tableabling this and pushing it to next week to clean it up or if I'm correct, I think there were two additional statements. Um if we could incorporate those statements in the approval tonight, then we can get this closed out the state. Yes. It does have to be submitted. Don't we want to see it in front of us then before we approve it or I guess like the numbering is off too. I don't So two things. Is the numbering off in the one that we have or isn't the numbering's off the one that we have but it's correct Yeah. Yeah. I think we just have to clean it up and then we could probably approve it next week on the 14th. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Is there some that don't

070have numbers? Okay. So, I'm going to Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Right. At this point in time, I'm going to close the audit committee at 7:34. So I make can I make a motion to adjurnn the audit committee at 7:34? Second. Wendy can first Chris Ner in a second. All those in favor? I I motion carries 6. Um, and I have a motion to resume our open session at 7:35. So move. Um, Carol Seahhore and Winnie Castro um is second. All those in favor? I I the board's just going to take a quick five minute recess just to use facilities. We'll be right back. Thank you. for your um patrons. Um please note um we have the emergency exit closer to your seating, no smoking on on school grounds. And

071can you please join the board in the pledge of allegiance? At this time, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Dr. Talbert. Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for being here tonight for our annual budget hearing. Once again, we'd like to express our appreciation to the board of education, our leadership team, and the entire Amityville community for your continued dedication to our schools and students. On April 22nd, the board of education adopted the proposed budget for the 2526 school year. And this evening, we are here to share that plan with you ahead of the community vote on Tuesday, May 20th. The proposed budget reflects our commitment to maintaining a high quality educational experience while remaining mindful of our fiscal responsibilities. Despite financial challenges, the budget preserves most of the programs and services

072we offered last year, including vital academic, extracurricular, and student support initiatives. One of the significant developments this year is the continued operation of Northeast Elementary School with our kindergarten classes returning to that building in September. a step that supports early childhood learning in a dedicated space. Proposition one, which represents our general operating budget, totals 120,375,000, an increase of 2.27% over last year. No, no, the PowerPoint is coming. The associated tax levy increase is 1.21% 21% which remains within the tax cap. We are also presenting proposition two which proposes an expansion of transportation eligibility for students in grades 7 through 12 attending private or parochial schools that offer education through the 12th grade. This would increase the maximum transportation distance from 15 to 17 miles and would appropriate an additional 400,000 to support that expansion. If

073approved, the combined budget would be 120,775 with a 1.82% total tax levy increase. Our budget planning has focused on maintaining stability in class sizes, ensuring safe and effective transportation, and making sound financial decisions that support both our short-term needs and long-term goals. At this time, our assistant superintendent for finance and operations, Miss Olivia Buazi, will present an overview of the proposed budget and the two ballot propositions. Thank you again, Dr. Tabet. Um, we are winding down. Tuesday, May 20th is the day. This is the uniform voting date. You would see it at the end of this presentation. Dr. Tet has covered most of the things that I'm going to talk about. What you're going to see here is the numbers that she already spoke about and you would see that it aligns exactly to what

074she said. So the 2526 budget maintains current program and services extracurricular activities like Dr. Talbert spoke about athletics all those programs have been maintained in this budget. The budget again continues to fund operation at the Northeast Elementary School. Kindergarten classes will be moving from Northwest Elementary Schools school to Northeast Elementary School in the 2526 school year. Again, there's a proposition on the ballots. The first proposition is the budget itself. And then we have $400,000 to expand transportation from 15 miles to 17 miles. That will come up later. So like Dr. Tabet said again this is the budget reflected in the component um areas administrative, capital and program. Overall we are seeing a 2.27% 27% increase. This doesn't include the uh transportation proposition. So where was our main budget driver? We've been seeing this throughout this

075budget cycle. It is transportation. Transportation. Transportation. We got our bits back and as expected we are we are seeing a 28% increase in contract transportation cost. The district depends solely on contract transportation. We don't have our own fleet. So this is a very significant part of our budget. And you can see how it spikes all the other services. In fact, some areas went down, but you can see transportation shooting up here. It's all because of what we experienced this year. On the revenue side, we have state aid. We still haven't received the state aid final numbers from the legislature. As of this afternoon, they were still voting. So, I don't know where that will end us. It is likely that latest by the beginning of next week. We've said that a couple of times. So

076I would embank on what I'm saying, but it's very likely that they'll release the final numbers to us early next week. Same number as we have been projecting. Um then we have the New York State Legislative Aid. We are projecting a zero number here because we do not know what will happen. And as a result, we are applying $2.9 million in farm balance this year to reduce the the budget as part of our revenue in the 2526 school year. The tax levy increase as Dr. Tabet mentioned is 1.21%. Uh that doesn't include the transportation proposition. This is the transportation proposition. It is saying proposition 2 is seeking voter approval to expand the district school bus service for resident students in grade 7 through 12 attending secondary schools. offering education through 12th grade. Effective at the

077beginning of the 2526 school year by increasing the maximum distance limit for transportation of up to 15 miles to a new maximum of 17 miles from home to the school they legally attend. and then appropriate $400,000 for such transportation. That is what you're going to see on the ballot. That is the second proposition that we have been talking about. So if you add the second proposition to the first proposition, it comes out to be 120 million775854.89, 89, which is a 2.61% budgettobudget increase. If proposition 2 passes, the district transportation budget will increase by $400,000 and the total budget, as I said before, will increase to $120,75,000. So, how does it affect the tax levy? Without the transportation proposition, we are seeing a 1.21% levytolevy increase. The effect of the second proposition, Proposition 2, is 61

078of 1% on the tax levy, which increases the tax levy from 1.21 to 1.82%. So we're looking if proposition one is defeated and these are the two scenarios but proposition two passes the board will be required to provide transportation to the students in grades 7 through 12 attending private and parochial schools. up to 17 miles. If proposition one is approved by by voters, but Proposition two is defeated, the district would not have to levy the additional $400,000 for the expanded transportation. This is very important. If proposition one is approved by voters but proposition two is defeated, the district will not levy the additional $400,000 for the expanded transportation. The voting location, as we all know, is the Amidville Memorial High School or Northeast Elementary School, depending on where you live, from 700 a.m. to 900

079p.m. on May 20th. Again, the time is from 8 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. May 20th. Thank you so much. I just have a a question. Sure. Um if by chance the um budget did not pass and proposition if proposition one which is the budget did not pass and proposition two which is transportation um did not pass, what will happen from there? we have to come back. Just explain that process. Yes, the board will have to go to a contingent budget, but because in that scenario, because proposition two did not pass, the board would not be required to add the $400,000 under a contingent budget. So, John, no, you have a second opportunity to go for a vote. Yes, you have a second. That was my question. Okay. So, we have it goes out for

080another June. you can bring forward, right? But at that time, we can bring back the same the same budget or amended or or we can do an amended budget. Um, but we're not are we're required to bring back that proposition too. That's my question. All right. So, so if by chance the budget got defeated, proposition two got defeated, then we can the board will have to sit back down again, look at whether or not we're going to present the same budget or if we're going to present a different budget and that will go back out for a vote. Correct. And you can and if it does not if that vote is not successful, then from that point there's it's a contingency budget based on last year's last year's tax levy. But I think what you're

081saying with the proposition, you're not obligated to bring it back, but you could choose to bring it back if you wanted to or not. Yes. Yeah. That that budget is up, that second budget is up to the board, including whether or not to put forward that second proposition or not. Okay. So regardless of the results of proposition of the first round for proposition two. So if if under the first round for proposition two, proposition two passes, then you're obligated to provide the transportation. Yes, that's it. If it if it fails and your budget fails when you go back out in June, you can choose to put out the same budget or a different budget. You can put you can agree to put out the second proposition or not. Okay. Clarification. Thank you. So, just to

082build on that, right? So, if the $400,000 Prop 2 passes, it has an associated 1.82% tax levy increase, which is higher than our Prop One. So if the regular budget fails, it's only point it's only 6161. But the total the total is 1.82. So isn't the 1.82 like is that the top of our tax cap? Yes, it's the top. It's the maximum. So we decided Okay. So I thought we were going to our tax cap with our budget. So instead of going to our tax cap with our district budget, we're only going to the tax cap if we incorporate the prop two. Yes, you had to because you add them together determine whether or not your combined Proposition one and Proposition two are under the levy. Well, we didn't have to because if it didn't

083pass, then we would have had to exhaust our budget, right? You would have had to if you had proposition two exceed the the combination exceed your tax levy both would have been subject to supermajority requirements and you would have had to put on the ballot that that supermajority is required to pass this budget. So we could have done that. You could have you could have ped. Yes. Okay. You could have but no understood. Understood. Okay. Um I have a Okay. Any other questions? Oh I do. Is that okay? Um, okay. Um, a couple of questions. If it's a contingency budget, you're you you still are adding to the budget because it can't be more than last year's, right? Like it's the levy cannot be explain so people understand. It's not zero. We're not getting flat.

084It's no under a contingency budget, you have to use up to a maximum of last year's tax levy. Right. So I want people to understand they still increase. Um the other thing is so what you're saying is that under a contingency budget we cannot exceed this tax levy. Correct. But I'm saying it would still go up. Okay. A couple of things. I know that we had seen saw a draft of the ballot. We haven't seen the final ballot. I would ask that that be shared with us because there were some mistakes on there. I am interested in knowing is proposition two on the back of the ballot. Is one and two on the front of the ballot? Is it on the back of the ballot? Where are these propositions? Um I just have to defer

085to the district clerk. They're they're both on the front. Proposition two is on the front. Proposition one and two are on the front and positions one and in English and one and two on the back in Spanish. Okay. So English is on front like Spanish is on back. But they're both all on the same page. Okay. Thank you. Um and are we meeting our requirement of publishing four times um the budget notice? Yes, that was done by the district clerk's office. Yes. Okay. But it what in the record it was the the record that's the herald now. The herald and the um and the post. Okay. Um I think that's all I have. Thanks. Oh, thank you. I think Chris and then um Caroline and then notice that goes out to the public. Is it

086going to be presented um like you have in the the third to last slide where it shows the different increases? Yeah, that one it is explained in the budget brochure. That same scenario is explained in the budget brochure that will be mailed to residents. Okay. So the public will know that this is the budget. If it passes, this is the budget. If it doesn't pass, yes, it it's it states that um the budget the levy to levy increase is two 1.21%. And if proposition 2 passes, then it increases to 1.81%. 1.82%. Uh, does the administration have any idea what might be cut if this? I didn't think so, but I figured I'd try. I I just have a question about the $400,000. Right. So, we went out for an RFP. We budgeted 31%. It came

087in 29%. So, we actually had the $400,000, right? I know that it has to be separate because it's a proposition, but we do have the $400,000 for this. It it has to be part of the, you know, it has to be part because we cannot exceed the maximum allowed tax levy, right? But what I'm saying is that it we came in under so we have it. I know it's for next year's budget, but we have that money. It's the expenditure is not authorized for next year's budget without passing the proposition. So that the total amount of the budget irregardless of you whether you can find $400,000 within the summary of proposition number one for that transportation. You you're not authorized to expend it for that transportation unless you pass the proposition. Understood. Thank you, Caroline.

088Yeah. Um, so if Olivia, would you wouldn't mind um going back to the line chart breath? Oh, I forget the page. Page four. Um, so after months of being buried in budget numbers, you lose the forest for the trees. And this graph, um, it makes it much cleaner and easier to see. We knew transportation was going to be so high. I was surprised to see such a dip in regular instruction because throughout the process we were, you know, really advocating, striving hard to make sure there wasn't teacher excessing and program accessing. So I and if anything, some of us were advocating for bringing back more teachers and programs and hopeful that maybe that would go up to bring us back to where we were before the fiscal crisis. Should I interpret that dip to be

089like we're losing enrollment? like how does that go down so much for instruction? Um Mary, you want to take it? I think the best thing that I could say is the the larger salaries and dollar amounts make that look like a bigger dip because that's where the bulk of the money that we cut came from. That is the area where we were having to cut the most. I'm I'm trying to remember who we cut this year because I felt like So that does go to destruction. Is this from from retirement of the higher salaries? Yes, there were retirements where we were not replacing. Those were among them. Okay. Retirements not accessing. No. No. Okay. All right. And and so it's also it it's retirement and does that also include positions that were originally in the

090budget that we new positions that are no longer that we removed from the budget just for clarification. So when we look at that dip in in regular instruction, is that just so just for clarification, is that retirement as well as proposed new positions that we were going to put in the budget but we that we removed is that is that reflected in that regular instruction? Yes, that's my question. But well I thought this is a comparison like last year like that zero line is from last year. No, what is marks the zeros? This this is this is This is the baseline. It's just because you said transportation is going up 28% from last year. So I assume zero is last year. Yes. Uh it's this is just showing the areas of the budget where there

091was significant increase. So this is not comparing from last year to next year. So looking at this, you're just saying the 0000 was the baseline. I'm trying to understand as well is the baseline. And then you're just stating that these different areas either they dipped a little bit, went up, but with transportation for the it's comparing it within the increases in this year's budget. But compared to what? I didn't compare it to anything. It's showing where there were significant increases. Okay. In the this year because we had about $2.6 million increase in the budget, right? So that's an increase from this year to next year. You mean Okay. Yeah. So yeah, I mean I have the list of budget cuts and there Megan, hold a second. I think Caroline I'm I'm just I'm still stuck

092on what what is the baseline? Is the baseline last year? Is the baseline the what was it 124 million that we started with in February? Like we the baseline I just see instruction going. I see your point. I see your point. The baseline was the 1170 million last Okay. So, compared to last year, so so going back to regular instruction, it looks like regular instruction is going down by a million. Yes. Yes. I have the budget cuts. So, right here that we've been given and I'm adding it up. It's like I'm already adding up at least 600 700,000. So, it is and that's what that dot is showing. Yes. is what you're looking at the proposed the budget cuts that the positions that were going to be added. No, the list of cuts some TAs.

093No, no, there's kindergarten, there's third grade, there's existing there, but these these were you just provide clar because we we talked about this before. We talked about it before. Go ahead. So there is a combination as we know we had top tier teachers who retired at top s well at higher salaries. In the prior meeting we talked about the enrollment in the high school science class. So the reduction of one high school science and we talked about the reduction of enrollment in third grade. So that was the decrease of one elementary teacher. When we presented the $2 million in cuts, we talked about the non-mandated teaching assistance in grades one and two that would not be returning for the 2526 school year. Those are some of the decreases that are reflective of the difference. They

094part of the instruction. Any other questions on this? So, um I just asked when we were doing the audit committee meeting. What I I'm stuck on is that we have one bid for the transportation and I just read the RFP policy and it doesn't say anything that of you know doing an evaluation a low bidder response evaluation and we have transportation is such a tremendous bulk of our budget and we've have one bid and so you know I feel as though the district should be doing a low bidder response evaluation and justifying why is it appropriate to go forward with this because we're going to be asked on May 14th to just approve that contract and I mean everybody can see uh you know this you can see the increase here but you have in

095the past shown us bar graphs of just transportation being such a tremendous portion of our budget and you know why why are we not doing that due diligence to explain why only one company one entity responded to us. Can you say can you tell us where it went out to? It goes into the two papers, right? Amity post which they don't look at but where else would it have gone? Yes. Uh and we mail it directly to some of the companies that are close by. But transportation bid is unique in itself because you also have to set up some criteria in the RFP itself because you can have a bus depot that is about half an hour away. What happens if a kid is sick? So all those things make it very difficult for other

096companies to bid for the for for the transportation contract. I'm sorry. So, how many did how many did we send it out to? About three. What is the one what does the half hour with what if a kid's sick mean? What does that mean? If a kid is sick during the school day and we have to go and pick the kid and take the kid home or there's an accident, we Excuse me. Excuse me. Go ahead. Um, go ahead. the depot. In the RFP, you have to set criteria the radius from where the um the depot should be. Sometimes those kind of criteria you set in your RFP makes it difficult for other companies to bid for it. Oh, I'm sorry. So, when a child is sick, the parent is called to pick up the

097child. So, I don't understand that. And when you say our RFP require that the depot be a half hour away, did we eliminate the potential for anybody else to respond? And so that's why I think that the district needs to justify how was this done and why is it appropriate to award this contract to this one entity when we only have one response. Can I just ask a question? If if if there was a bus depot that was say 45 minutes away, right? Would that change how much we would be charged in terms of Yes, they the company itself will factor that in in the bit that they give you. Is is is that typically why a a company may not respond to an RFP because of the distance they are away from a school

098district. It is possible. This is this is all speculation though. We didn't we didn't speculation. You're right because there's We cannot we cannot go into why the company did not bid for it, right? We don't know that. We don't know that. But that's I mean so this doesn't happen in the municipal world. You you know Nassau County, Suffach County, you don't accept a contract of this scale from one bidder without understanding why the other biders didn't respond. So we should understand did we have a did we have an element of our RFP that excluded others from responding? We should understand that because again this is driving our budget and we're you know reducing instruction to pay for transportation. So if if we if the criteria was changed that did not have a half hour away.

099If the criteria was changed to 45 minutes or an hour away then potentially we could have gotten more more responses and we could have seen what what the bids were. And it's also likely that we wouldn't have got will have gotten the same response but potentially but I right so it is very difficult to tell you know what the responses will be because uh these are independent contractors and typ and what we have seen is that most of the time when they bid for transportation contract other other school interest rate. What we have heard is that usually there are just one or two companies that right. So can I just ask a question of of the board and I understand the questions that are being posed about the transportation. Um the question that I just

100want to ask, can we can we close out the the budget hearing and then move forward because the transportation um the approval the request to re approve the transportation is going to be on next week's agenda. Correct. So I'm requesting if there's any more questions related to the budget hearing and so it can we finalize the points on this and and just move forward because at at this point in time in terms of the transportation we we we have a a budget that we approved that budget has been sent out. We have the RFP that came back from the one company that's included into this budget. So, I'm just asking if we can close out the budget hearing and then we can go forward with other questions when we when we get to the May

10114th agenda and talking about the RFP for the transportation people. That's just what I'm suggesting. Can we just close out the budget hearing and resume talking about transportation under old business? Um how about if we go through the agenda and then we can go go we can do it at that point in time. Yes. Because even when we go to review the um the May 14th agenda if the transportation is it on that one? Yeah. Yeah. Then we can resume the conversation at that point in time. Okay. Right. So at this point in time I'm going to Thank you, Miss Watsi. Um, I'm going to go to community input regarding board agenda items only. Hi, Margaret Chville. Good evening. Um, quick question on the $400,000 with the bus. Just humor me on this one because

102I had come up to the podium and we were talking when the whole transportation thing came up and I was saying they all talking about mileage and mileage and I said, "Well, why don't you just grandfather the current schools that we bus to today and then but where does the $400,000 come in with the mileage increase?" Because I thought that it didn't matter how many miles the buses went and that what what constitutes this $400,000? It's it's raising it two miles from 15 to 17 that comp that that comprises the 400,000. Dr. T, we're going to give the question. Yes. So, there's transportation regulation from uh NIST that we must adhere to and being able to grandfather schools in is not an acceptable form to present for a vote. So, it's open to any parochial

103or private school that is within the 17 mile radius. And the 400,000 is the cost associated with providing that transportation to and from school. So, you already had the busing. You're adding two miles as a whole as a general parameter and that's costing you $400,000. I just I I I really don't understand how that all came into 400 grand. Dr. Talbert, it's already it's already been done. I understand the busing whole thing has gone up in general, but what constitute this 400,000 because you you're making it sound like adding two miles is making it 400,000. So, am I wrong? So, Dr. Taba, just for clarification, is it also connected to how many people request how many people requested that original? How many people requested transportation to a school that was within the 15 miles? Are

104we now looking at because we're not going to be adding any additional requests because on April 1st on April 1st there were students that people had to submit a request for transportation. So is that amount based on the number of people who submitted the request for transportation? That's my requ That's my question. That amount is based upon providing the transportation to the schools that have been accepted by April 1st. There are if a family moves into the district within 30 days and requests transportation to a school that is within those 17 miles, then they can be granted transportation as well. Right. But you I'm really trying to nail down what's comprised of this $400,000. You're saying that we've done it. We've been there and done that. Nothing's new. There's going to be no new schools.

105You added two miles. Not really sure why. When I don't understand the the principle of you're saying, well, New York State doesn't allow that. You can grandfather like word it that we're we're from now on we're going to bus from here to there and the schools that are listed. the two-mile thing is just I'm losing it on this 400,000 the two two mile addition when in fact we're doing exactly the same thing that we've done before. There's a cost associated with what we're doing and as a district we're not authorized to use any money to provide that transportation. Thus, the voter referendum is in place and a cost had to be associated with the cost of that transportation and that's the cost associated with it. But you were doing it all the all along. Can

106I jump in for a second? I I think you're thinking of it as going from 15 miles to 17 miles. I'm just trying to figure out what 400,000 zero to 17 like it's going from the school. Well, that's Yeah, that part. I understand that part. And it's six hours. It's based on an hourly, right? That you So, it's an hourly route. It's a If the referendum doesn't pass, that bus route doesn't run at all. It's not like it just runs the 15 miles and then that's not what I'm looking for, Mr. Nearing. I'm just saying it's I understand there's a cost associated to it, but it's it's not like we're taking something brand new and associating $400,000 to it. It's really nothing new. Been there and done that. My just just the way that I'm

107understanding it, and maybe I'm wrong. If there was it was I'm understanding that if there was no proposition, right, we would be busing students those 15 miles and would cost us approximately $400,000. But because we have to increase because we're we're proposing increasing from 15 to 17, we have to pull it out to show that that would be the cost that that's so we have just so so what trustee me said is correct, right? You have to calculate the cost for providing that transportation. It's not the increase of the cost. You don't take the cost in 2425 and calculate the increase expected for 2526 in the same transportation. You take the whole cost expected for 2526 and that equals $400,000 because without the proposition you can't provide the transportation at all. So you have to

108we have to even though you've been there done that even though you've been there but done that. Right. We just have we we have to show because you were there and you did that without the authorization. Oh, because there was no there was nothing on the book saying that we can do it this way and everybody and going through the files for years on end trying to find the referendum. I get it. Okay. And the other question was has to do with the RFP. Um so I had come up to the podium asking about the RFP and basically I think the response was we send it out and whoever grasps that you know and and brings it back. So when only one person came back which is it educational right because there aren't they in

109Farmingdale or something like that so proximity is right what other bus transporters are in say Suffach County other than education transportation is one suffic transportation is one another one do you have another one um just speaking to Mike a little bit more offh hand um we have first student which is also inside we have PS we have Dell okay so there's plenty there's plenty okay and only one came back yes my question is if only one was forthcoming is at one point do you contact these people I'm just asking do you contact these people and go yeah hey we put out an RPF like we didn't hear from you is there a reason why or like do is do you contact these people then say you know what I put out a bid I'd really

110like to hear from you if I'm way out of line. Like what method do you use? Just throw it out there and see what sticks. So what else? What challenge have you gone to them and say we really like a number? It could be out outside the box, but at least you got an answer. What steps did you take to reach out to more people? when you typically when you send up an RFP to be fair because you don't want to leave anyone out. So if you are going to follow up it has to be consistent with everyone. So the process is you send it out you call them out and say we send out an RFP. We require you if you are interested in responding, you respond, but beyond that, I cannot force any

111vendor to respond to that RFP. I'll share it with them, but I cannot force them. No one's no one's forcing you anything, but you call up and you say, "Hey, Joe, are you interested?" And they'll say, "No, I'm not interested." Okay, thanks. Bye. Hey, Cindy, are you interested? No, we're not interested. You go down the line of the five that you just mentioned and find out why they didn't respond. Just say, That's what I'm asking. Like what procedure do you do to try to get another answer and just taken one the only one that came in front of your desk? I just don't understand that. That's we sent it out. We followed up. Call and say we issued an RFP. You did follow up. Yes. And say we issued an RFP just like we did.

112That's considering your followup. Did you sending it out as your follow-up? We send it out return and follow it up with a phone call and say we issued an RFP if you want you are interested please respond that's because you have to be very careful you should not appear as if you are working with one person I understand that principle I totally understand that principle m you have to just wrap up your comments thank you any other input on um agenda items Um, I know she asked about transportation and can I ask a budget question or no? Yes. Am I allowed to ask the budget question? Okay. So, on page nine of the handout, we talk about propositions one and two, the two scenarios. So, Proposition one, the budget if it's defeated, but Proposition two

113passes, you're saying the tax levy is going to be 1.82%. What is the tax levy for just Proposition one? Forget about Proposition two. 1.21. 1.21. So the fact that you say if proposition one is defeated, what is the contingent budget levy? The contingent budget levy will be last year's maximum of last year's levy maximum. But what would the contingent be? What would that be? Let tax levy wise, I cannot exceed the 65,767. All right. But what would the percent of the tax? What would that be? Would there be a a zero change? There would be a zero change because it will be flat. So it's not 1.82%. If the budget is if you have here if it's defeated. So if it's defeated, that's zero. No, I said if proposition one is defeated. Is defeated with

114then it's a contingent budget. Pretend they're not putting it up yet. Correct. The levy would be a maximum of zero. Of zero. Yes. Well, a maximum of zero is zero. There's a minimum is going to be zero and a maximum. So zero. So then the tax levy would not be 1.82. It would be 61 because you're only passing prop 2 under the scenario you write in that first paragraph. Correct. It will be actually the point. How could it be 1.82? Yeah, a pass budget and a failed budget. If the budget fails and it's contingent and you're saying the tax levy is 0% because it's a contingent now. Forget about what they may do. So if Proposition 2 passes, that's only a 61% tax levy. So the tax levy would only be 62 61 based on

115your paragraph. I'm not saying that's what should happen, what is going to happen. So that paragraph is incorrect. It's not 1.8. 82. It's 61. Correct. But for correct for that for that moment until we go back until we go back out for another budget. So you're that's not in here. That's what she's telling the public in this document. If Proposition one, the budget fails, it's 0% tax levy. Yes. At that time. Yes. If Proposition 2 passes, it's 61. So adding them together 101 it still comes to 61. It doesn't come to 1.82. It only comes to 1.82 if both pass. Yes. Correct. So this is an incorrect statement again. So incorrect statement to the public confusing to the public. So what would be correct is that if propos proposition one failed proposition which is the

116budget and proposition two pass then proposition 2 is 61 until the board of education that's irrelevant to you can choose not to do it like Miss Mesman said you could choose not to put it up but like Wendy said too right my statement is this is that then it changes once there's another right but let's talk what we what's handed out to the public this needs to and what's handed to the board is incorrect data. Again, misleading, another error that's being given to the board and making them go off on this tangent when the document itself is incorrect. Can can I just make a suggestion? Can we correct this? Are we going to put publish this on the website that that should be corrected and then published? Okay. Yeah, it'll be corrected before it's posted.

117And as far as um I'm sorry, I don't know her name that she came up. The question is what the money was there. The only thing that proposition is doing is letting you spend it for something you never had authorization to spend it for before. It's not like you're taking that money and giving it back to the taxpayer. So she is correct. Nothing has changed other than letting you spend it because if the prop fails, that money is still going to be spent in whatever law feel like it. whatever administration feels like it. So, that's the real issue. And I just like to know this one question. I want to know on what planet a bus company is transporting a sick child home because if that is the case, that is the first time I've

118heard of something like that as a board member, as a parent of a person who's going to turn 40. I myself went through school and I have three grandchildren in school right now. And I want to know if that's what this school district is doing for the public school children. Are they going to now let every private and parochial school know that when their children are sick, their parent don't have to come get them, a bus is going to bring them home? That is such basic busing 101. I am very shocked that our administration said the bus depot's got to be closed cuz they have to take a sick kid home. I don't care if it's a special ed child. We do not transport sick children. We should not be transporting sick children for liability.

119And no bus company would do such a thing. Correct. Am I right? No, you're right. Thank you, Miss. Any other questions? Okay. Okay. Just just give your name, please. Chris Chrisel. Thank you. Okay. Now, I'm holding up this uh chart right here, which has a$1 million almost a $1 million dip in regular instruction. Does that $1 million close to it involve any working teacher layoffs? That was I think already M Miss Mrs. Mesman already um brought out some key points and other things were brought out in regards to the fact that some of it is connected to um individuals that will will be let go, individual positions that were looked at but we pulled out of the budget. So there's some some are and Dr. tell did just explain it in retirees and also um

120in certain monitors that were not required in certain grades they were they were no what you're talking about is attrition what I'm talking about no it was a combination of everything some of them are some are some are individuals in the classroom right now that will not be in the classroom they were monitors some of them are retirees and some of them are new positions so it's a combination of all three I'm just asking a question that was say you have a 25 year old teacher who's doing his or her due diligence. I just want to I'm just at want to make sure that letting go of somebody like that isn't part of this uh almost $1 million dip. That's all I want to know. Thank you. Any other input on on agenda items? I

121have a couple of questions. First one is um about transporting the sick child. Was that in the RFP that you sent out? That was in the R that was in in it that we needed to transport the child. The RFP calls for an emergency. That that was my own example. Okay. So my statement, my only statement to that is that could be a good reason why you didn't get any other bus companies to come back because no one would take the liability of bringing a sick child home on a bus. So that's a big problem. Number one. Second thing is the um distance of increasing the bus transportation. Um how many children does this involve that are beyond the 15 mile distance? I had asked this at the auditing committee, but I got an answer.

122Do you know the number? It's three schools. And I can't give you the number. We did have that information available for CBAC one night. I can't give you the correct number. Well, I mean, is it like below five o over 15? That's a that makes a big difference, I think, to people when they're trying to evaluate if they're going to vote on this or not or say yes or no. You know, does it affect one child? Does it affect 15 children? And I did ask that and I never got the answer. So, I've been wondering this for about two months now. Is that something that we can we can provide to the public? Thank you. Okay. My other question has to do with the April 1st request that the parents had to put in for

123transportation. So logically, if you live greater than 15 miles, you wouldn't have I and this was asked last meeting, but I just want to clarify this. If you knew you live more than 15 miles away from the school that you're sending your child to, obviously you weren't going to put a request in because you're going to be denied. I would think most people think like that. you know, I'm not going to put the request in. They're going to they're going to say no. So, why do it? So, now if this passes and you have 17 miles, the person the family that are 17 miles that didn't put the request in doesn't have the option to put the request in. If I think I heard that at the last meeting. Am I correct about that? That's

124what I Yes, sir. That's okay. So, how do we know now who's getting on those buses? because you have the list of the people who sent their requests in through the 15 miles, but now we don't know the list who was over the 15 miles. So, how can you not ask for those parents to put the request in again so you know who is on the bus? Good. I don't have answer. I mean, Dr. T, but how can we do this? How can we just say, "Oh, if it passes, it's going to start the year 2025 and the request weren't put in." Well, is this is that a legal question or is this done by the school itself? No, Dr. T was going to answer. The April 1st is a state deadline for submission of

125those applications. And if I remember legal advising us last week, uh, we're not authorized to accept those after the April 1st deadline, but we can provide a followup to that if we want to be certain. But I think I think you're also asking if, for example, let's say there were 10 kids that were going to be going to Shamanad. I'm just I'm just throwing another out that way. Right. And but all 10 kids would put in requests to go to Shamanad or was it St. Dominic? I forget the other ones. They put whatever school, right? So they everyone has put in the request for that. But now it would be if there was someone else that was attending a school, let's just say ABC school that was 16 miles, right? That who didn't put their

126request that parent did not put a request in that those individuals would not be getting that transportation this year. It would next year they can put the request in because it's past the 15 miles, but this year they would not get the request. So who's going to control that? Right. Because there's there's no there's there's not a bus. There will not be a bus that's going to that ABC school. If there's a bus that's already going to those schools that people put in transportation, then those those individuals will be getting the transportation. But the ABC school, I'm just making up ABC school. If it's at 16 miles, they did not put in request because the the limit was 15. Right. Next year, they can put in request, but we're not going to create another bus

127for that ABC. The question is, how does that get monitored, John? because there's all there's there's this transportation there's only a bus related to those schools that have already people already put in. So let's say it was school um E, F, and G hypothetically. So for those three schools, those are buses that are only going to those three schools, right? But there's not a bus that's going to the ABC school. You see what I'm saying? So it's not like it's not like the the buses are going to go it's buses are only designated to those schools. It does not pick up other students. I have a question. I have a question for legal. Can I just ask legal? Does the board have any discretion after April 1st because this is going to be changed for

1282526. Does the anchor student apply to this now going into the 2526 year that that if this passes? I think her question is I think your question is not I I want I want to hear what so there is uh a process by re of reviewing late bus requests and determining whether or not uh those requests are reasonable under the circumstance. So that so that's so the the statute doesn't change with respect to the April 1 deadline. The Late bus requests are taken on a case- by case basis, right? So, so we can do that and it's on a case by case basis. There's a basis to review late bus requests. But that's not what was said at this last meeting. Uh what I said the question was does does the law change? No, it

129doesn't change. April 1st deadline is in the statute and it does not change depending on the mileage. Right. The question was, what about the children that the families that didn't put the request in knowing they were past the 15 miles? Question. The question was that does the April 1st deadline change and and we're not required to we're not required to give them transp. So my so my the bottom line is I just want to know how the school district is going to know who is on those buses for St. Dominic, Sacred Heart, Charminard, whatever if the people from 15 to 17 miles never put their request in. That's all I'm saying. Okay, just one more thing. Um proposition is supposed to be in uh it's supposed to be publicized four times, correct? Along with the

130budget. No. Oh, explain that to me please. Oh, somebody explain that to me. No, go ahead. So, the the proposition is is not a type of proposition that is required to be in a legal notice. There are certain propositions that are required to be in a legal notice. This is not one of them. Why? Why? Because it it doesn't say in the statute that is required to be in legal notice. So, if you are expanding the number of board seats, it says it right in the statute. It has to be a legal notice. Oh, so that's upsetting because I thought we like approved the proposition early in the month of April so that we could actually publish it. We had like extensive discussion as a board that we wanted it to be published multiple times.

131But all of a sudden there's like a loophole that we didn't have to do it. No, it was it was actually you had adopted in time to be in the in the propositions in the ballots, but we also was the beginning of April. So we could have posted it four times. I I I we had said we'd missed the first posting, but we'd be included in the subsequent three was was proposition two in the p in the posting and that's published in the paper. No, I look it's not I mean for transparency sake if we have propositions we need to put it out there. I mean to not put it out there almost looks like we're trying to defeat it ourselves. I mean we have to be transparent. You're trying to pass it without you're

132trying to pass it. Either way, the thing is is that this is the voters's decide. The board isn't deciding. The voters are deciding cared when they're walking into that booth. You want an educated voter at the end of the day. You want an informed and voter and not putting it out there. There was there was a specific discussion about the proposition and the fact that the the number was not available at the time of at the discussion in that you had in April. You made the expense the expense. So you need you needed the figure in that proposition and the figure was not available at that time. That's why it had to wait because the figure had to be in the proposition whereas the the figure does not have to be in your the notice

133for your budget, right? You've never put in the amount of the budget in your legal notice because that's determined tonight and and when you adopted the budget, the $400,000 had to be in the proposition for the transportation and it was not available when you were were initially reviewing it in April. It was only available subsequently and it was determined at the time when it was sufficient to have it published in the notice. That's why it was reviewed on that. Um, April 22nd. There are four notices that have to go out, correct? Mhm. Yes. Okay. How many notices have gone out already? Is it num how many of the four Lyn? How many of the four? There was three that could what could have went out. So, we had this figure that could have been published.

134I think it was today. So, we could have did it today. And and of course, like you need direction on this, but it should have been today and it should have been next week too if we had the figure. The conversation we had at the meeting, I don't remember what date it was because there have been so many meetings in the past two months was that we understood we would miss the first publication, but we would hit second, third, and fourth. All right. So it's the the thing the question now is that as we move it has to be it definitely will be done on the next one and we have to do a mechanism to actually make sure people understand that this proposition is there. We can't go back and put something that was

135not there but we have to make sure how can we as a district to really advocate to put this put this forward so people understand what the proposition is. So I think that will be the most important thing as as we move forward and we should have it on the popup you know um you know how we used to have that on the the website where it pops up on the website in the you know we'll have the budget is it in it's in the budget brochure I'm assuming the proposition right but so right so I think what's going to be important that we can't go back to fix what did not happen but we have to move forward to put in place things to make this um very clear what the proposition number two

136is and get it out there any different way that we can. It cannot just be on the website. Um I know we're going to put in the paper. Any way we can think about it, it'll be in the brochure as well. But even if we We thought it was in the paper. They saw even if we have to do additional mailings on or something like that, we have to let people know what the proposition two is. So therefore, they can make an informed decision of what they want to do with proposition number two. Will it be on social media also? on on our social media. Yeah. Proposition 1 and two is included in the school newsletter which will be circulating to the homes in the coming days and it will also be posted on the

137website I think in the morning the school newsletter. Okay. So what about on social media? It will we can we can include it on social media as well like multiple times because we can also do paid advertising which is very affordable. All right. So I'm going to let I'm let I just have one more go for it. Go ahead. One quick question. I just want to clarify if I heard this correctly. If Proposition Two fails, the $400,000 does not get spent, meaning none of the children going to private school within 15 miles is getting transportation. Is that what I just heard earlier? Okay, I just want that clarified. Okay, just clarify that for me, please. The statute would stand the 15 miles, right? Your the maximum that you have now would stand. So then that

138400,000 would not be spent, right? The 15 miles would be in the original amount that was appro that the RFP came in. It's in proposition number one, your current budget. Yes. So that's okay. Whatever he Okay, Miss Erlinger, I would like to just um provide you with the wrership for this year to answer the question that you asked. Current year is 37 students. students. Yes. Yes. The 37 students this year would be going beyond the 15 miles next year. That's the wrership number. 37 students are going to shamanaduh and St. Dom and Luhigh. Yes. Well, they were given something they weren't a voter approved. So the average um first of all the $400,000 for propition two the minute you started talk talking about that proposition you had that number so that was not not a

139secret so you could have put it in the last publication that and there has not been I checked in fact I actually called the Harold and they did not have anything but what I saw and nothing including included a bus proposition. Uh the average cost per seat when you you don't you there's two ways that we we fund buses. You either pay for the whole bus depending on how many kids go to that particular site or you pay per seat. So the average that you come up for the board to vote on. I haven't looked at past budgets. I wasn't going to bother to try to find them in that website. Uh the average cost per seat for any particular high school is about how much per student? Do you know per month? Per month.

140It depends on the school, right? But let's say St. John's. I I haven't I'll look into it and let you know. So St. John's is like the bulk of the students go to St. John's out of this district. And you don't know that? Just guess. I'm not saying you have them going to hold you to it to the dollar. I think it's if about the bulk of the student go to St. John's, I think it's sometimes less expensive. Oh, I know it's less expensive when you buy. That's why I'm asking you a per se price. I know that. So, you're telling me 37 students are going to cost us over a,000 a month per student to go to that school, whatever school they're going to, cuz basically that's what you get to get the 400,000.

141A th000 a month times 10 months is 10,000 per student for transportation times 37 is $370,000. Are you trying to tell this public that you're spending $1,000 a month per student to go to Shamanadan? I find that hard to believe. Is but even though they love to blame everything on transportation, I find that very hard to believe. I would believe 500 is possible, not a thousand. because you could Uber them there cheaper than a bus. So I don't really believe the transportation numbers at all and based after these multiple meetings now there's been substantial errors that are confusing not just the public but the board. They're asking pertinent questions that make no sense because they don't see the history of and just so you know institutional memory is an important thing when it comes to

142budgets. the possible reason why that students might have been going to St. Martins's from this district that well beyond the age is because we pay for the bus to St. Mart because so many Ammonville UFSD student residents use that school. We don't pay per seat, we pay per bus. And what happens if you're going to bus stop a the third grader, the fourth grader, and the fifth grader, the fourth grader and fifth grader don't qualify, but the third grader does. But guess what? It cost you nothing to add that kid. So you're not giving gifts to the public. So that's why sometimes probably I'm only guessing that there are students on there that are outside that range because it cost the district nothing to provide that because there was always an empty seat on the

143bus. That's why when St. Martin's people put in the request late beyond April 1st, they never get denied because there's always room on the bus. Thank you. So, at this point in time, um the community input time has has ended. So, my my question to the board, do we just want to take one more comment? So, we and then move on. So, just take the last person. Sure. Okay. Last person. Getting back to um the uh budget brochure. So are you confirming now that the propositions will be included on the budget brochure? Dr. Talbert, they are included in the budget newsletter. Okay. And when does the budget newsletter get delivered before the election? The budget newsletter is currently at the printer and once it leaves the printer, it will be mailed. So the budget So

144the hold on. So now you're saying so definitely the proposition is at the printer. It's both propositions listed on the budget brochure. The school newsletter is at the printer. Is that the budget brochure? What you're saying the school newsletter? Is are we talking two different things here? Hold on. Hold on. I'm confused what you're tell is the budget edition of the school newsletter. Let's call apples apples. So, the budget brochure is going to include the $400,000 proposition. It's included in the newsletter. Yes. And the text is already written. Everything is it's at the printer. It's ready to go. So, my question was, at what date is that letter received by the community? When will that be mailed out and and in the front of the community? The newsletter. Tomorrow we should have a more affirmative

145date from the printer. They could not provide us with that today. What's customary when you send it to the printer for the newsletter? What's the turnaround time? They're working on it as expeditiously as possible. History as history shows you history and I will not give you a date because I do not know a date. Okay. Because my my plea here is to with this $400,000 proposition. I think it has to be explained that it's like this $400,000 just didn't appear. It has to it has to appear because of the mis the the mistakes of the father here. Like we have to put it down that this is it's been we've been there, done that. We have to put it in this terms for these reasons. It's not new $400,000. It's not over and above because

146people are going to look at it and say, "Oh my god, $400,000 for real school busing or whatever and say, "What? How could that be? There needs to be a real logical explanation why this has to become a proposition, why the number isn't the number it is in in terms that the public will understand because I think if anyone's going to read that who's doesn't sit at these meetings, who don't listen to the meetings are not going to go, "What the hell are they doing? They they're spending $400,000. We're we're in the hole. We're doing this." And now they want to spend $400,000 for Catholic school. No, I'm not doing it. That's that's what that's going to read. And I'm sure that's probably what you want it to read, but I'm just saying that's not

147the way it should read. An explanation has to be coupled with that proposition to say this is why it's happening and this because we didn't do it the right way the first time. The school district publishes facts. So there's no need to infer that we are trying to persuade the public one way or another. That's not our responsibility and we won't do that. You don't have to persuade anybody, but you have to explain your reasoning that this is all of a sudden a proposition when because it was never done right to begin with. Um, can I just wait, can I just ask Dr. Talbert for clarity? I know that you said the proposition is in the newsletter. Can you confirm that it will also be in the budget brochure? That's what I'm asking. The newsletter

148and the budget brochure are two different things. That's what I just asked if it was one or two different things. Yeah. So that will be clarified as well. The corrections that need to be made will be No, I'm just I I don't think I got any. And it is in the budget brochure, Dr. Talbert. The proposition it's Yes, it's in the budget edition of the school newsletter, which is considered to be the budget brochure. Oh, so it's the same thing. It's one and the same. Yes. Okay. That's where the confusion confusion was. Thank you. Yes. Right. It's already right. They're I'm gonna they're going to look make they're going to look into it and see if it can be changed. Has to be changed. It has to be changed. Right. So, and and and the

149other question was again going back to the RFPs. Now, like I said, this M I know you're out of time, but you know what? It's important and we deal with important things. We we talked about the RFP with transportation before, but are you going to put out a new RFP because probably not. No, but let let us let's go let's go on with the agenda and then what we're going to do because you didn't do the right thing the first time. You're screwed again. So, we're moving forward. Um we're going to agenda item 2B 1 through 7. This is the first reading for these different policies. Hopefully, the board has had opportunity to review these policies. If you need to know what the changes are, please let us know. um they should if they're not

150in um they should be a little bolded on what you have received. So do you have any questions on it? There were minor things that we made, things that we added in. Um I have more details here if you want me to go through all the different things that we did. And so that that's the question. I just have a comment on one of them. Um the policy committee has been working hard. We've been doing a good job together. We didn't we didn't have a meeting in in March and I'm trying to get one for May. We don't have one for May yet. But um on the the one thing that I just wanted to add, it's it's policy 5205. We had added this language for eligibility for co-curricular and extracurricular activities. It's the very

151last sentence and we originally included in here, this policy does not apply to any APC or third party organization events. I'm wondering should we add or amend that because now there's talk that there might be a PTA. Should we just add this policy does not apply to any PTA, APC or third party organizations? I I think what we should do for right now is to we we can if we want to we can add it in if we want or we could um leave it and then amend it if it changes over to a PTA we can change. So as the policy committee, if that's the recommendation, we can put it down and we can I believe if we phrase it as a PTO or parent teacher organization, it would cover APC just spell it

152out. Just say parent teacher organization. So maybe we could just amend that. Okay. So what so it's the first reading so we'll amend it and then we'll bring back the second read. Okay, that makes sense. So we don't have to update. The only the only other comment I have about the policy committee is um the governor has said that they're including the cell phone ban at the beginning of the year. So I think it behooves this district to implement a you know to for the policy committee to um get together a cell phone um policy before the end of the school year so that it could be distributed to parents and students by the end of the school year. So I that's something that I would ask for the May policy meeting to be on

153there. All right. And I know that um um NISBA already does have a policy um related to cell phones. Yeah. The only thing is their recommendation has like three different like recommendations or choices. So we'd have to go through it and see what we want for our district. No, but I'm just saying NISB has an example. So I I had a similar I had jotted that down too since I had been asking for a cell phone policy for months. So, I'm just concerned that we're not going to have the first reading, the second reading, and everything in time for the start of the school year, the buyin, the parents to be aware, everyone to know what's happening. So, it really is, you know, timesensitive now that that be the highest priority for your May policy

154meeting. So, there's a couple thing with the um the board does have an opportunity, a policy does not have to go through three readings. It can go through one reading to make it a first and final reading. So we don't have to go through three readings. We can just do one reading. But I'm just so getting a policy. I would think that policy. Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead, Caroline. This this is going to be a policy where a lot of people are going to want to weigh in. Yes. You know, plenty of policies. Fine. Just make sure it's current. But a lot of people have a lot of opinions and I think it's important to give them all the readings. I'm just making a statement. I'm saying that we we don't have to if the

155policy if the board reviews the policy at the first reading and if the board is okay with the first reading then it could be the first and final. If the board is not comfortable with the first reading then you go to the second reading. If they're not comfortable then you go to the third. So I'm just making a statement after public meeting I'm making a statement and I am uncomfortable trying to pass a cell phone policy which is fine reading which is fine. Which is fine. I'm just so I'm just I'm just all I'm just stating I'm not I'm not disagreeing. I'm just saying that that's how it can go and if if we do need to go through three readings then we'll go to three readings. That's all I'm just saying. Um yeah. So

156I would say the same thing that the public has an opportunity to weigh in on policies when they're under review. So I would agree that you know we want input. The other thing is we didn't have a March policy meeting which I really advocated for and it didn't turn out. You know nobody could agree on the day. I have sent multiple emails trying to get a May date for this policy committee and nobody has committed to a date. I've sent I'm the only person initiating these meetings for, you know, trying to get a meeting on the calendar. And I would ask the policy committee right now, can you commit to a date? Can we can we do it on Monday so that maybe we could get a first reading or so? I don't even know

157like but I we have a meeting on the 14th. I think I I think I said to you I know that I said to you for me I was not available for um next week or or the week after the soonest I'll be available would be after um the election. So I I said to you that that was my availability and I also shared and I think Lynn als I mean Eileen also said that what she would appreciate is that if the policy committee could meet after the May 20 20th election but for me personally I know that I'm not available um You only said this week in the email, but I appreciate you telling me you're not available till after the election. I'm not Yeah, I'm not available. This week, next week the following

158week is is May 19th and and May 20th. Okay. So, those in May 19th, I'm not available. And May 20th, um is is we'll be busy, right? So, um the the only other thing is I know that Eileen Becker, who's helping us out, said that, you know, she's inundated with the election. I just want to tell people for the last um policy meeting, I made all the changes myself by 10:00 a.m. the next morning and I had it done. So, if I'm waiting on other people, it's going to take a really long time. I was able to get it done with a full-time busy job by 10:00 a.m. the next day. So, I don't think that that should hold us up if I'm willing to do that and we have a meeting that I'm able

159to turn it around so quickly it's not a burden on anybody else other than uploading it um and, you know, getting it on agenda. Okay. Thank you. I just want to say this. Thank you. I I really hope that the policy committee meets in May because on top of it, we now have an entire state in New York that might be buying cell phone pouches. So, we really need to get on this, make a decision, get the readings out there so that we can purchase whatever it is that we're going to purchase. Uh so, you know, I feel as though we really should have gone ahead of this months ago and had a plan. And I also I've been asking for the AI policy and I think that that's like very that's being looked at.

160Okay. Because I Yeah. Because that's with council. I think council is with council right now. Yeah. Okay. Because I understand that AI use is being rolled out in the high school. And I didn't mention AI policy to like encourage that it get rolled out. I mentioned it so that we would establish a policy so that we would know how to roll it out. So again, I feel like we're like behind the eight ball. All right. Um I just wanted to um make a comment as far as the uh cell phone implementation besides policy reading, policy development, there has also has to be a presentation planned as to how it's going to go down and the implementation. So I would like to see that along with the policy read. Thank you. Um, any other questions regarding

161to the policies? Um, to Carol's point, like maybe if that happens, we have the presentation like it could be advertised well so parents know because that's obviously going to affect them and their kids that there could be a wider um grasp, you know, to the public to get them here. Thank you. Um, can I have a motion for agenda item 2 C one, please? Motion. Motion second. Winnie Kestro is first. Megan Messman is second. Any question regarding this item? No. All those in favor? I I I motion carries 6. For agenda item 2C2, this is an appointment for chairperson for the um budget vote and trustee election. I would like to make an intervening motion to abolish this position. It's a chairperson. Somebody from the board of education is a chairperson. When I asked about

162this last year, they said it was ceremonious. I think it's a conflict of interest to have a current trustee overseeing or walking through a budget vote when there are people that are up for reelection or new trustees. I think it should be neutrality and we shouldn't have it. The the only thing the chairperson I'm not too sure what happens with other chairpersons, but the only thing the chairperson does is they go in, they just make sure that the the machines are up and going, whatever is going to be used and they make sure that it's closed. Other than that, they don't walk around inside the room. They may come back and just say any questions, but other than that, they just come in, make sure the machines are up and going in the beginning and

163in the end. and but that's why we have a a head of elections. That's why we have a district clerk to do that. That's not the purview of the board of education and I don't think it's appropriate. I asked for a motion. I would ask for a second to abolish it. I'd like council to weigh in on this. This is an obligate. This is a position under the education law. It is statutoily required uh to have a chairperson to open and close polls. But it doesn't have to be a board of education member. Has to be a resident. Right. I don't think it should be a board of education member. I I don't see what I I'm sorry. I don't think it's fair. I think it we we've never had any issue with any board

164of education member doing anything inappropriate when it comes to the being being a chairperson. All they do is just open they they come in, they're behind the scenes. They don't overindulge or anything like that. They just make sure things are going right. They behind the scenes they're done. They come back at the end and that's it. So, I am not in I don't I'm There was a motion that was put on the table. Um it was first and second. Um all those in favor of abolishing this position. No, not abolishing the position. I I I would like to amend it to say a motion to have a resident and not a board of education. I don't think it should be a resident. I think it should be a board education trustee. The right and typically

165in the past either it's been Okay. But Lisa, just because it's been done that way before doesn't mean that we've never had an issue with we've never had I would just like to speak without being interrupted. My point is the board of education, we are all elected. We are elected positions, right? So a board could be everybody could be kumbayan, everybody love each other and you know you're overseeing an election. There could be times where you have a split board. It is not in my opinion it is not appropriate for an elected official to be doing this. This is this if if it's a resident, let an independent neutral person do this. But how we know someone's a neutral person? No, you can't say anything, Stephanie. I I I see you. I I see you.

166Well, my motion is to um have a resident be the the chairperson. So, not a board member. So, all those in favor of having a resident, the motion was placed on the table to have a resident to be the chairperson. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? I I'm a No. So Caroline said yes. So that was me. Megan said no. I think Caroline said yes. I I'm in favor of it being a resident board member. What? So many words. I'm sorry. Yeah. It's It's not It's ridiculous. I'm sorry. Wait, what was the vote count so far? Caroline is yes. Um Carol is no. I'm a no. Megan is yes. Wendy is yes. Yes. And Chris No, no. I didn't get a chance to put my point in. We're saying that it needs to

167be neutral. We have no Are we going to have an interview process for a resident to determine if they're neutral or not? Exactly. Like how are we going to determine that? I I wouldn't call something that a trustee puts up as ridiculous. I don't think that's appropriate. I didn't say it's ridiculous. Ridiculous. I think you should follow my question up with that. We have to determine a process to have a resident. It's not worth it. No, you can't. You Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm so I know I appreciate you can't you can't say anything from the audience. Thank you. So hope that fail. So at this point in time now we're back to the the same thing and it may fail again. So it says appoint a person to serve as a chairperson. So either it

168typically it has been in the past either board president, the second either the first or the second. So Leslie was it last year. Leslie wasn't an officer. Okay. Can I just nominate somebody? Go ahead. I really don't care. I nominate Megan Mesman. Second. What is it that I have? I don't even know that she wants to do it. Oh, thank you Chris. Okay. Okay. Sure. Thank you. Second or with him. Sure. Thank you. So all those in favor of Megan being serve as a chairperson for the Azure budget. I I I go for it Megan. Okay. I add it to your list. So it passes 6. Um can I have a motion? Can I do Oh, can I have a motion for agenda item 2C3, please? I would like to make a motion to table

169this. I don't think that we should pick I don't think we should pick a reorganization meeting until the the trustees are elected on May 20th to know their schedule. Um I I think that it won't be printed in the calendar if we don't do that, but we we were going to table anyway because board members needed to look at um this a little bit further. Do I have a motion to table Jen item 2C3, please? Motion. Second. Wendy is first, Megan is second. All those in favor? I motion carries 6. We're going to go to the regular May 14th agenda. I'm going to go down the line. Any um we will get the minutes to the for the April 9th, April 22nd meeting. I have a question with the presentations. I would just like to

170know I know that we've been starting this staff and student of the month recognition. I think that uh we we did it two months in a row. What is is there a consistent criteria or matrix that's used to pick these students that's used in all the grades? Dr. Tell the uh schools determine the criteria at each school. Don't we want consistencize their staff and students? Um I would say one of one of the issues we came into this year was there wasn't a lot of consistency across the district with all the the schools. So wouldn't we want consistency in this? In our discussion with the building administrators um we did not want to impose a criteria upon them. um they wanted the liberty to celebrate staff and students who were going beyond the call of

171duty. Sometimes it may be character, sometimes it may be um kindness, sometimes it may be academics. So there's just a ongoing list of those great attributes that they consider when selecting their well I nominees. I I appreciate that and like I I do like celebrating students but I guess in listening to that it seems it could be arbitrary um you know for each grade and you know for the schools is can you share the criteria for schools with the board of education? Can I share the criteria? Yeah, for each you said each I'm sorry not Yeah, each building. I meant each building, right? You said each building has a different criteria. Yeah. No, my No, my conversation with the building administrators has been that they appreciate having the liberty to not be locked into step

172one 2 3 4 that you have to do the following in order to be celebrated. So they are nominating and selecting. Some are using committees in the building, some are doing teacher feedback. There are several different uh mechanisms that they're using to bring forth those staff and students. Okay, I hear what you're saying. I guess my concern is it does seem arbitrary. Like if we're going to recognize somebody for the month, I I you know, kids are amazing and they do amazing things and it could be from a gamut, whether it's academics or kindness or service. Um, I think to keep the integrity of it, I I would hope that there would be a more structured outline. And so it was important to all of them that all students could be included um and that

173the diversity of what they bring to school every day would be included to make sure no one would be left out. All right. Any other questions on the presentations? So, for agenda item 2A1 and two, um the minutes will be coming to us this week hopefully. Oh, the district-wide safety and emergency plan. Are we going to get that in the Friday memo or how are we going to get? Yes, that should be coming home to the board on Friday. And the presentation is scheduled for the 14th. If it's not on the agenda, it is here. Okay, it is. Yes. Can we get the presentation on the Friday also? Thank you. Um 2A 1 and two I already said um 2B 1 through six. We also have to add in number seven which is the 5205.

174I may have an old one. Um for tenure any for tenure for 3B 1 through 17. Um for the tenure packets if maybe on the 13th when we meet if we can if board members want to review the packets then or if we're available can we come to re review the packets um between now and the 14th. Yes. Okay. on on the summer school. I have just a question. Is is that through grant or it's in the budget like it says ESY? Yeah, that is that a grant or is that just out of the budget? So, Miss Stevens, um the ESY is paid through the general fund and then reimburseable through the stack process. And just say what the ESY is for everyone. ESY is extended school year. Um, so it's students who have a

175fullear program on their IEPs. What about the recubs? Recubs is a grant. Um, it's a matching fund grant. So, we're funding um the programs at Park, I'm sorry, Northwest Park and the middle school and then the matching funds come through the high school program that will be offered. Thank you. And we should have the TBDs by the end of this week. Yes. Um, as far as these appointments for athletic coaches, are the so coaches are appointed annually? Hold on a second before we Does anyone have any other questions? Under um from 3B1 through 3B 91 is the the recog is that comparable to like what you've done with LOT? Like what what's the plan with what's the plan for this summer program? Yeah. What's the plan? Um our grant is for learning loss and that

176includes this summer slide. So we are working on science um and then reading. So we're doing non-fiction reading related to science. Um as we've spoken about the science standards are shifting, right? Um there will be new assessments but really a new way of thinking. So instead of memorizing facts, students are going to be in an inquiry model. And this is an opportunity for us to let them have a little fun, explore science, but shift their mindset into understanding what an inquiry model is and how they can learn differently. Okay. And you said that was Northwest and Park. Northwest Park and Middle School. Okay. Because I had read like the rec learning loss is like I guess COVID recovery still. That is what it came from. Yeah. So, and it doesn't matter that those kids were

177like in kindergarten when there was co. It doesn't matter. But it can also apply to that summer slide. Um, that's learning loss as well. Summer slide, right, that we're providing during summer. Oh, thank you. Right. Are there any questions from 3B 92 to 3B 164 which is I do athletic coaches? So coaches are appointed annually. Why why are we putting this on the agenda? Is this I should first ask is this for the annual appointment for 2526? And and if it is, why aren't we putting this on the reorg meeting and allowing the new board of education to vote on these things? Why Why can't we vote on it now? because you're going to have a new makeup of the board. If anybody doesn't know, I'm not running again. But you're going to have you

178have four people running. They're going to be two people in a seat. The while I'm sure perhaps you can do it. My point is is that a board of education every year at the reorg meeting does their annual appointments. It's their charge under their watch those appointments. Why would we appoint people that are going to be under new people's watches? But are the new people gonna are they going to be conducting any interviews of these people beforehand? But but that's that's consistent what a reorg meeting is. It's annual appointments. But these are not these are not on the reorg agenda. These appointment these is it are these appointments for 2526 or for 2425? They're for 2526. And these um coaches positions are not have not been on the reg or agenda either. we we've done

179them in May or we've done them in June. Okay. But I guess that way the coaches know what their role is going to be um for Paul sports. But but just I I I I'm not a fan of we've always done it this way so we're going to do it this way, right? Like sometimes there can be improvement on things or a different way of seeing things. So there's the the coaching like football starts in August or whatever. Like in July July the first 15 days of July people can be notified that they're going to be coaching, you know. Um, I think that a board of education if they're doing annual appointments should be at the reorg meeting. What's the what's the negative to doing it earlier? Because it's under the board that that 2526

180board of education charge their appointing. It's under their watch. I should tell you who you should appoint for 2526. Why should I do that? I'm not going to be on the board then. It should be the people from the 2526 board of education. But if this is makes it easier for the coaches to then plan their lives further down the line, wouldn't that make more sense than just the formality of whoever replaces you or possibly me to have their name stamped on here? But guess what? I also don't think it makes a big deal to wait till the beginning of July either. The same argument could be made for that. It's under the 2526 board of education. I feel like this has been a very course correcting year. um you know and and perhaps we

181could we could you know do that as well. All right. So thank you. So everyone has voiced their opinion on it and next week we'll vote on to make a decision. Um anything between 3B 165 through 175 in regards to the interim assistant suit for finance operation and HR. Um you you'll give us more updates on that. Dr. Talbet. Do you need to do an executive session or does that need to be Yes. For executive? Yes. As I notified the board, um we'll be bringing candidates on the 14th of May to meet the board for these respective positions. Any other questions regarding 165 to 175? The treasur's report doesn't have a current um No, I'm I'm on I'm on 165 to 175. Oh, sorry. Right. Any other questions on on those items? Okay. Now I'm

182on um 3C 1 through six, the business section. Any questions under that? Yes. Um the middle school renovations. So there is a letter uh from the architect and what I noticed that was excluded from the letter which I would ask that we go back and talk to the architect about expanding is it doesn't show the relativity to of the bids to the construction cost estimates per discipline per um trade. So it just says yeah okay the low bidder is you know has liability insurance whatever and they can bond the project and so you can go with the low bidder and then there's a tremendous spread uh on the general contractor. So I I would ask that the district go back and talk to H2M about expanding the justification to the recommendation. Um, do I is

183that something that I should bring as board action or is that something that we can get agreement to reconsider this? Um, so it's it's we're we are reviewing the agenda for next week. So that that's a recommendation um for this to be looked at and to be added. So um John has a question. Could you just clarify because it is the bids uh as low as responsible bidder uh is uh pretty set forth in the law. Just going to speak a little bit more to the what can be considered as in terms of the lowest responsible bidder. So I I just um if we're providing some guidance to the architect or or if I get a better understanding of what you're looking for. So it looks as though there was a lot of money left

184on the table if I I think I know what the construction cost estimate is as compared to what the low bidder is. So then we're making a recommendation that we're going to do an ad alternate and I want to know how much money could potentially have been left on the table so that I can say whether or not I agree that we should do an ad alternate because then we only have a certain amount of contingency in our construction uh co uh construction pot of money capital funds. Uh so it's it's not crystal clear. It's not I cannot decide based on what H2M has summarized if I agree with uh their recommendations. I'm just asking that they expand it a little bit further. Right. But I'm trying to understand what what difference that makes for

185the approval of the specific um contractor who bid on the project, right? If it's maybe not the approval of the contractor, but maybe the approval or not of the ED alternate. Oh, the ad alternate. Okay. Any question? And alternates are are added onto the onto the contractor's bids by H2M based upon the spread between the estimate and the and the bid. I believe that I believe that that's what's happened, but I can't really extrapolate it from what's been provided. So, okay. Thank you. Any questions regarding 3D1? Um, yeah, we don't have a current appropriation status report. The one that we have in here is from 331. I would ask that you print a current one and send it to the board. Thank you so much. Which you you have which date? Um, it ends 3:31.

186Okay. All right. Yeah. Thanks. Any questions regarding 3E1 A through J or 3E2? Is 32 a mistake? There's no backup or anything in here. That's the the CP SESSE recommendations. I don't anticipate any this month. Okay. So, you just have it the Okay. Okay. It just has to be removed from the agenda. Okay. Thank you. and approval of conferences. Any questions regarding approval of conferences? So, now we're going back to the May 7th agenda. Great. So, the corrective for 2D1 and I have I'm sorry. Um I would like Well, we're still on 2C. No, we're you're we're on Yeah. No, but while we're still on 2C, I would like to make a motion that the board direct the superintendent to send both electronic and hard copies of the RFP for legal services to the following

187legal firms specializing in school law no later than May 9th at 5:00 p.m. I thought they were already sent out. Well, given all the confusion about RFPs as something that this district undertakes, I would like it to be put to public record that this is being done. Do you want to keep reading it? Yes. Wait a second. But we It's already been done. It's already the request that came for the RFPs to be sent to specific firms. Were they sent? Yes. Got a response back from one of just to speak into the mic. Sorry, I already got a response back from one of them saying thank you because we did it both way. We send it by our we send it by email and we send it return re receipt requested. So it's already been

188done. Make sure that they indeed got them the hard copy and electronic. Yes. Okay. So I I guess then that's thank thank you for that. um what we had requested and what was said via email and what I was going to put on the public record. I'll just read them off now. The following law firms Ingramman Smith, Frasier and Feldman, David Spelman Barrett, Bon Shonik and King, Gersio and Garcio, Manurva and Dagustinino, BS and Vigliata, Jespin and Schlesinger. So that is eight firms that I just read read in my story. Give me your list so that I double check it because I knew I sent it to all of them. Well, that's the same list. I I started with six and then two more were added and I just want to let the public know

189that in this case eight firms were contacted and we hope we hope to get um multiple bids in response. Um, I had requested that the board get a copy of the RFP as well. We have not. Can we get a email of that? I'll send it tomorrow. Okay. Thank you. So, is do you need a second? I can I'll second your motion. Well, why we second the motion when it's already done? I guess I will document it in the We can amend the agenda and document and we can put it in the minutes. I understand. Go ahead. Second the motion. Go ahead. Second. Second. All those in favor? document. Is that right? I All those opposed. Wasn't this putting a date on something to be done already? But that's already been done. It's already done.

190All those in favor? I. All those opposed. Let's Let's try this one more time. All those in favor of the motion. I I All those opposed to the motion. I'm opposed to the motion because it's already been done. I'm going to oppose it also because it's already been done. It's we made it. It's a mo motion. And Chris, I think you you you were Yes or Yes. So, it's fine. Okay. All right. So, um I'd like to make another motion. I'd like to make a motion that the board will direct the district clerk to file the superintendent's endofear evaluation for 2022, I'm sorry, 2023, 2024, as well as the mid-year review for 2024, 2025, both electronically and in hard copy no later than May 9th at 5:00 p.m. It's already been done. Great. Can we

191also get an email of that because I can't find them in any of the emails that we've had over the past multiple I did email the board to let them know that they had been filed. Yes. And I just want to make clear to the public that that email was sent to the board. I received it as well. Well, now it's in public audio. So, I'm grateful for that. So, you're just you just want to document it and it be in the minutes, right? So second is that a are you doing as a resolution or just what what do you are you amending the I'm trying to I'm a little confused. Are you amending the agenda to add agenda item 2 C it'll be no it'll be two 2C6 that the um superintendent evaluations and

192been have been filed. So that that was your resolution. Yes. So, we're amending the agenda to add agenda item 2C6. No, because because um actually because 2C5 was the um was RFP for legals. So it's men agenda amending the agenda to add agenda item 2C6 which is a resolution which states that the superintendent 2324 evaluation and midyear evaluation for 2425 be filed I think electronically and hard copy right or right electronically and and hard copy. So that was that's that's the motion to mend the agenda. So can I have a motion to amend that agend agenda? I think she just did the motion, right? So I No, the motion was for for it to be filed. So I have to do it formally. I have to amend the motion. So Wendy Kestro is first. Megan

193Mesman is second. All those in favor of amending the agenda to add the resolution to C6. I I So that carries 6. Now can I have a motion for agenda item 2 C6 which states that the superintendence 2324 evaluation and midyear evaluation a hard copy and electronic copy be filed. Motion second. That's Chris Nearing Caroline Fanning. All those in favor? I I motion carries 6. And I'm just going to note again that they already have been filed and I did send an email to the board of education saying that they have been filed. I'm sorry I I have a motion as well. Um um this is in response to my conversation earlier, but I'm just jotting it down. Be it resolved that the board of education directs the superintendent to provide a low bidder participation

194memo associated with transportation services prior to the May 14th meeting motion. Can you just can you just explain that please? I Yes, I can explain it. Wait a second. Motion is is on the table. So that's the first second. Right. Can you just explain it please? Okay. So the what this would be doing would be reaching out to local transportation firms that received the RFP and having a conversation to understand why they chose not to respond to the RFP. Documenting it so that we can understand going forward if we have limitations built into our RFP that limits participation and competitive pricing. So that's what it would be looking for. So yes. So I'm making So it's once again it's amending the agenda to add agenda item 2 C7. Motion. Wait a second. Which is to

195a resolution for transportation. I'll call it transportation clarification. It's a low low bidder participation memo. No. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, there was low response. So, low response. Just kind of speaking to the mic, right? You're talking about those those who received but didn't participate. Correct. Right. So, it's uh a memo regarding uh those transportation companies that received an RFP but chose not to f to chose not to submit a proposal. That's correct. That's that to understand why. Right. So, I just want to get the language right because right because the non Okay. Because I'm just scribbling. Yeah. Okay. a memo a memo uh regarding those transportation companies that received the RFP but did not file a proposal as to why they did not file on or before May 14th prior to May 14th right so

196you I think you'd need that on or before May um 13. I I mean it's not it's just a couple of phone calls. Okay. So that's just to amend the agenda to add that item 2C2 which I mean 2C7 sorry. So from that language. So all in favor to amend the agenda to add that. I I I I Carol I motion carry 6. Now can I have a motion for agenda item 2C7? Motion second. Miss Narren Winnie Canestro. All those in favor? I I I motion carry 6. All right. Can a motion for agenda item 3B one and two? Motion. Second. Chris Narren, Megan Mess. Any questions on these agenda items? All those in favor? I I motion carries 6. Um, any old business? New business? I have new business. Um, this is a a

197question about the process for high school course selection for eighth graders. How are electives or I I know how I have an eighth grader. Um, can the process include be made to include parents? As I understand it, the kids are given their elective selections and their guidance counselors tell them pick what you like. Don't just pick what your friends like. Um, I as a parent would have liked to be involved in that process. So, how easy is that? Uh, so you should be getting a list of what your child has chosen as they finish up the schedule. So, you would get that and you could have conversation. I do understand your point about moving forward that you be involved in the selection process. Well, actually, it's news to me that I was going to be

198involved at all. I kind of thought it was done because for my now 10th grader, there was never any outreach to me and I I just trusted her to make good decisions. I want more involvement with my son. So I just So this year the schools are sending out um the course selections to the parents. Okay. Both schools. For next year, even for high school for next year. For next year. Yes. Okay. So when when and how do parents expect that? Um, I know high school is working on their letters. I don't have a date for you, but I can get one for you. Okay. Um, and they they're going to be mailed out this year. Um, so we're working on a way that they can go out and parent square to individual parents, but

199it is not ready this year. So, a physical mailer. Okay. Thank you. Um, I have one second. One second. Um, anything else, Caroline? For all the new business? No, that was it. Um, Carol, anything for all the new business? Thank you. Um, go ahead, Wendy. Um, I just wanted an update on the student board of ed members that election. If you could just catch us up to date. Yes, the um the applications were created. They were distributed in the high school. Um, the student government has a plan for selecting based on the applications. So, they are underway as we ask them to be. But, and then there's going to be a vote, right, with the students. Okay, great. Any I'm sorry, Miss Megan. Megan. Oh, no. I'm Are we doing new and old or Okay,

200source subjects. Are we When will we be receiving an update on the process that's being followed to remove the Warrior logo from the from the district? So, if I remember correctly, the board did say they wanted to pause before moving forward with the mascot. And then secondly, we had a few emails that said, let's kind of pause on removal until we kind of see what's happening with some of the neighboring districts and situations. So, we did meet with um building and grounds the athletic director and everyone's just on pause until we say go. Yeah, I think there's been a lot of in the news, right? So, right. So, but basically what when say we do say go just what is the how is it actually happening is with everything being removed and is it just

201the logos being taken off of things? Are we doing cost cutting measures like the banners in the high school gym where it's just the warrior on the bottom triangle of the sign? We just flip that up and save money on replacing a banner for a little while. So if I recall, banners are excluded from removal and they did remove the letters warriors. They save those letters in case they have to go back up. Um so there is a plan and a timeline that we were on in terms of removal. Miss Bati, you have anything you want to add to that? Yes, I know the buildings and grounds department has done um part of the work like you said to save us money. So that was significant also. Um so that's what I wanted to add

202that our own guys are doing part of this job and we are not contracting it out. Can I ask a question? Yeah. uh if it does end up being the case that we still have to be in full compliance with the state mandate by June 30th, but we're on pause now, at what point do we have to come off pause to avoid being late? So, the State Department has not changed their directives to have all indigenous imagery and the name removed by June 30th. The board asked for well members of the board asked for a pause. So, we're pausing, but we're still obligated to have it removed by June 30th. I I understand that. So, how much time do we have to like decide how long can this pause last? Like, can what what's left

203to do if we still have work to do and how much what's the bare minimum of time that's needed? We were operating on a threemonth timeline. And so we were operating on April, May and June to have everything removed and ready to be replaced July 1. So and have to replace, right? We don't have to replace. So for example, like the gym is the gym floor like would we have to decide on what we were going to put back on the gym floor? Initially we were, but we've paused in terms of the mascot and name. So, we understand that we're not going to take up and put down, but we still have to take up by June 30th. There have been some preliminary. Can you clarify what you mean by take up? Remove like the

204wood itself has to be removed. Well, on the bleachers, each bleacher has No, I'm talking about like you were saying the floor. The floor, right? But does the wood have are you saying the wood itself has to be pulled out? No, not the wood. That's That's what I'm trying The imagery. Okay. the imagery. All right. That's that's a big financial difference. Yeah. Yes. We sand down. Sand seal. So, we'll sand and seal without um a new mask up. Just leave an A on there. We're still That's what we were talking about. Leave an A. Yeah, just Yeah, I would just say remove and leave remove and leave the A. And this might be another question for legal. Uh, is the district allowed to have volunteers help remove and dispose? Yeah. I would not recommend Yeah.

205someone who is not an employee or a contractor who's insured, bonded, and has gone through the process. So, any other questions for all the new business? All right. At this point in time, um, community input on non board agenda items. Jacqueline Cruz Stevenson. I'll try to rush since there's so many people here tonight. Um, I just wanted to know an update on the 4410. I think that's what it's called. 4410 application. I haven't asked in a while. So, doesn't tell you have any. So, as it pertains to the 4410, we did receive a conditional approval. We had to submit information to them that they were requesting of us. And to my knowledge, we've not heard back unless there are any other updates I'm not aware of. I did follow up after we submitted that to

206confirm they weren't waiting for anything from us and they said they would let us know. So, I have no update. Okay. And it's been a it's been a few months, hasn't it, since the last update. Okay. Um, my other question was regarding the I think it's 43,000 that we're supposed to be getting for the Colbert project. Have we received that? I think we did, but I'll double check and let you know. Okay. Just curious. And my other question was pertaining to the meeting that you had today at 6:30. I was listening on Zoom, but it was hard to follow because I didn't have the handout. Is that going to be made available to the public? Yes, the corrective action plan from the audit committee will be posted once it's board approved on the website. And

207I guess my last question regarding the retreats that the board of ed goes on, how how often do you go on those retreats? We've had No, we had two. We had two like two per year. it it um there's no requirement for a number of retreats. It's just whatever um the board feels that they that they need. And what typ typically what is the goal of the retreat? It depends on what the board wants. Like for example, if the board wants to do a retreat on um a superintendent evaluation, if board wants to do a retreat on um finances, if the board wants it, it all depends on what the board wants. So there's a list of things that sometimes it's relating with each other on the sometimes it's relating with your superintendent. So whatever

208the board wants um New York State School Board Association can tailor that. So it's not like it has to be a certain type of retreat. It's what each board would like along with the superintendent. And so people know we're not going to the Bahamas. It's like in in house. So, it's something you do along with the superintendent outside of a normal board meeting. Correct. And it's either for like training purposes or just helping the board work together in certain subject areas. Okay. I was just curious to know what the goal was. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Stephan Andrewsville. Sorry. Uh, two things. One, can thank you whoever the lady was that gave me the Zoom link. Can we make it easy for the public to find the Zoom link? You know how many people

209that regularly go on the Zoom, go to these board meetings, and they all didn't know exactly where it was? It should be on virtually every page on that website. It should It's very simple to do. I don't understand why we have to jump through 2020. Link here, link here, link here. Oh, there it is. It's not self-explanatory where everything is. So, that's the first thing. Um, now I I'm a little confused. I got the impression based on what some comments Miss Mesman made about the architect. I I just want to make a general statement kind of quasi question. The board does know that you can talk directly with the architectural firm H2M. You don't have to speak through administration. No different than when you talk to all professional services the lawyers any doctors you hire

210let's say you hire do engineers because I don't think it's advisable to get that information because your information was clearly architectural information that should come directly from the horse's mouth not filtered through some other professional or an administrative piece and not only do I believe the board should be talking directly especially with H2M Since you hired a district architect, uh I believe those conversations should happen out of the presence of administration at times. Clearly, you want administration involved on certain issues. You might have questions how things are being implemented, but there are many times that the board should be advised that they should meet privately with their professional services. Period. No exceptions. Thank you. Thank you Christopher Peel again. Okay, you know I had asked a question earlier and to be fair you guys all

211answered it but there was one second part of the question which I should have asked that doesn't actually pertain to the uh to the agenda. Okay. $900,000 again, you know, uh not in regular instruction. Okay. You're going to you're going to how do you say let you know some spots go, you know, with attrition? Okay. You're let you're letting the teachers go, but what's happening to the classrooms? What's happening to the instruction that is how do you say um that would have been taught by these teachers? What are they what Where is the educ where is the education going to come from that these teachers provided? Okay. So it you're going to have a class you know goes from like 25 to 40 kids or you going to cut something out entirely. Okay. I mean

212that's a question I'm going to leave it for you guys to answer amongst amongst yourselves. But you know if any if any one thing should be going up and this whole thing it's regular instruction. Thank you. So Dr. Talbert just for clarification there's no class sizes that um just just to clarify a couple of things that you said. Go ahead. The third grade position is being reduced by one due to enrollment a decrease in student enrollment. So class sizes will not be inflated. as well as the high school science teacher. There were not there was not enough enrollment for that additional science class. Okay? And that's something that people should know. Maybe not on a uh you know, maybe not on a ballot, but some way that so that they know that their kids aren't

213getting uh beaten up here. Thank you, Stephanie Andrew. Sorry, I didn't follow my instructions to ask this other question. The first reading, the policy readings, it's very interesting that this is the second time it's been on agenda as a quote first reading. Now, when I looked and I saw Miss Can I because I'm just going to stop for one second. What happened was that the reason that it was um back on the agenda as a first reading was because the last time when it was on the agenda for the first reading, it had not been posted for the public to to view. So, we had to put it back on the reading. That's an interesting thing because I've looked at past minutes, not all of them, random, and I see no first readings period. I

214see no policies. I see policy numbers on the agenda list. I see no backup. Has that been the routine to not actually have the document there for the public to see what you're reading? Because we, you know, I don't believe there's a law requiring it, but I know they even as Janette Santos was on the board longer than I was. Uh, didn't we actually even read it? Yes, we did. And we now I know maybe Chris Nearing or somebody said it with or maybe Wendy it's bolded. I don't see the bold changes because I know one thing that was added because I remembered the one comment Chris made. It's not bolded now. Is it just because of the way the paper got printed that everything looks bolded? Cuz you can't tell what you changed added.

215There's no crossouts to saying we're taking this out. Is this the way you normally do it now? I see a lot of policies that basically are preventing the board from being a board. They're basically letting administration run the district from and since 2013 I started looking at many policies. I'm shocked how many policies have basically taken the power from the board under the guise of improvement and given it to the superintendent. In fact, I find it offensive that these are board of ed meetings and the person who does the main talking, starts the meeting, opens the meeting, talk during the meeting and closes the meeting is the superintendent. It's not a superintendent meeting. It's a board of education meeting. superintendent can give her report but that's it. Superintendent's running these meetings which I find that

216very offensive as a taxpayer. So just to add to go back to the first reading, was that a one off that that's not happened before? Cuz I've looked, there's no backups in the minutes in the board docks, whatever you call that particular there. There should be the um the policy. There's a possible they just didn't put it on. Is that it's a possibility, but there should be it should be there. So anytime there's a policy on the agenda, there should have been a backup with that minutes. So, I could send you a list off of everyone that's missing then, right? And yes, go nowhere. And then um also typically um I just list my train of thought. Go ahead. Keep going. And what I just list my train of thought. Keep going. About the minutes,

217but normally there is the backup. So, this was an anomaly that past week when I go, where is the the policy? That's that was an anomaly. Is that what you're saying? That's not the norm. It's not the norm. Okay. It's not the norm. Okay. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Dell Cron and Amity Bill. Uh, just a quick question. How many students are currently registered for Northeast for next year? Dr. in the pre kindergarten program. 85. Okay. And is there an estimated cost to bring over kindergarten into that building? What is that going to cost? The cost is just transferable from one building to the another to the next. Okay. How much is it going to cost? The dollar amount that it's going to cost to move desks, staff, the the paper, what is that going

218to cost? Do we have an idea? That will be inhouse by our custodial department during school hours. During the work hours? Yeah, during work hours. Okay. There'll be no overtime. I can't guarantee there won't be overtime. Okay. Thank you. But it will be planned out. Thank you. To take place during work hours. Thank you, Dr. Ta. It'll be done over the summer months when there's no students, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. I when one clarification from the superintendent said earlier and I just want clarification. You said sorry 37 students were over the 15 miles of the um for the busing for the transport but are there actually how many high school what's the headc count for high school transportation because this is really only involving the high school. So what's the total amount of

219high school? The count that I gave was for the three schools. Three schools that they're all high school. But but the deal is it once there's an anchor student, they all get the bus. So I can't imagine 37 kids are over 15 miles of the of the whole lot. So is it is it one kid one kid once you have the anchor you're you're home free? So you're telling me or out of x amount of high schools and the and the busing that 37 of them are over 15 miles or you're saying there's 37 that you have to clarify that number for me please. There are 37 students being transported more than 15 miles from their home to their school. Seems like a lot. I I And how many how many high schools How many

220kids are total in that number? 37. No, I mean in high in parochial schools all the high schools. How many high schoolers are you transporting? Oh, I don't have the number for that. But so just just for claring out of the 37 students, just for my clarification, how many of them are going to high schools? Is that No, no, no. How many really actually over 15 miles? Because like where's if if you have the anchor student, it doesn't matter. That's the whole pro that's the whole deal. So I'm I'm finding it hard to believe that there's 37 over 15 miles. It's just don't have an we don't have an anchor student. I think didn't last time they figured out that the class was was beyond that right an we don't have an anchor student in

221the past three years which is why the proposition is going to the public right now because they didn't have an anchor student and those are three schools. So 37 and they're all high school students about right over but you're saying 37 three schools over 15. I just found that was very high considering I I would like to know the whole number of all parochial schools. St. John's doesn't even matter. That's the bulk of the students anyway because we all know that they're within. But I just found the I just found that 37 to be very high. Can you can you just I'm sorry. Just clarify the question that that you're asking. Just clarify. Superintendent Talbert said that there were 37 students over the 15 miles that went. So that's why it went to 17 and

222I just found that number to be high because in my mind we were all talking about the anchor student once one has once one got it they all got it. So that's why I thought 37 was a high number. So I think um and if if I'm wrong you can correct me when we were talking about the anchor students that was in an effort not to not not to do the proposition. I know that now. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Hi Dell Cronin again. Uh just want to clarify. Are we still busing prek students to Northeast? Yes. Okay. Any other questions or non-aggenda items? Have a motion to adjourn the meeting. Oh, I'm sorry. Superintendent report. Go ahead. Very quickly, very quickly, just want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate the

223incredible individuals who make our school places uh special. And this week is teacher and staff appreciation week. And we know that one week could never really fully capture the gratitude that we feel and for all that they do. So we want to say thank you for your dedication, your passion for learning, and your unwavering belief in the potential of all of our students. To our support staff, teaching assistants, counselors, custodians, office teams, food service workers, everyone who keep our schools running smoothly. Your efforts may often happen behind the scenes, but they are deeply felt and greatly appreciated. So, on behalf of the board of education and our entire community, thank you for all that you do. Just a few updates to update the board and the community on some initiatives for summer programming. We're excited

224to offer a robust lineup of summer programming this year. We will have engaging opportunities in the areas of science, reading, music, and physical education with a focus on injury prevention. Um, these programs will take place during the summer months at Northwest Park and the high school, but it will serve middle school students. As it pertains to our capital project, renovations will begin soon after school at our middle school. Um, as a part of our ongoing capital improvement projects, we are coordinating with H2M architects to provide an update to the board and community at a meeting soon to share the project details and timelines. Kindergarten transition meetings and plans are underway. Meetings have taken place with the principles of Northeast and Northwest elementary schools to plan the transition of kindergarten classes to Northeast. As a part

225of this process, we are meeting next week with the ATA as a courtesy along with staff members who will be transferring as a part of the realignment scheduling for 2526. Final touches are being made to the 2526 school year schedules for both the middle school and high school. We anticipate completion in the coming weeks and look forward to sharing them once they are finalized and thank you for the outreach to involve parents in the process. We will be more aware and conscientious to do so. Although field trips were not initially included in this year's budget, we have successfully allocated funding to support these valuable experiences and some of the schools have already participated in trips and additional field trips are planned throughout the month of May into June. So, thank you to our board of

226education for advocating for field trips. Enrollment update. Our prek program is currently at full capacity with 85 enrolled students and a waiting list. Kindergarten registration remains underway and we are continuing to enroll students and would like for you to share that information with families. So once again, thank you for your continued support as we work together to provide a wonderful educational experience for our student scholars. Thank you. Thank you. Can I just add a I'm sorry, this might be a legal question, but if field trips were not in our budget, should we have voted to authorize the field trips? It's a reallocation of funds. So were there were there so if you have lines um in terms of contingent expenses I guess in terms of the the the budget that was presented to the voters

227were the were there lines that corresponded to the lines that you utilized to expend the money for the field trips? Yes, there were allocations for field trips in the budget. Um, and that amount has been expanded upon to make it possible. Miss Bati, you have anything to add to that? Does expanded upon means you you transferred money into those lines? What does that mean, expanded upon? That means we will if we need to add more funds to the line. So there was an allocation of $43,000 if you recall already in field trips and it had not been utilized and so in our conversations with the board and the principles um field trips are presently underway. I think there was the field trip transportation was in there. So listen, I'm 100% behind field trips. I brought

228it up a few times. I just want to make sure if we have to formally take action like let's just do it. So we that's really what I'm so it it typically doesn't have a budget line that is just labeled field trips. So transportation is one. The other one is teacher line. So in terms of um it would require a little deeper dive than I have information for right now. I see. Okay. So I can look into it and get back to you. Okay. in case we need to add it. But next week there has to be a board authorization to approve the the field trip or app approve the transfer. Thank you. Thank you. Chris, do you want to say something? Yes. One promotion of a school event. Not this weekend, but next Friday

229and Saturday is the middle school production of The Little Mermaid. Thank you. Will be announced again next week. Well, it needs twice. Okay. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:06, please? Motion. Second. All those in favor? I I Thank you for coming out.