001Yeah. Are they all bed back there? All right. If we could reconvene our meeting to open session. The board has been in executive session since 6:00 to discuss a contractual matter, a legal matter, and uh five personnel matters. Um if we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Introductions. Dave Hen, Robert Thun, Catherine Nat, John Walston, Jod Monroe, Holly Delen, Meredith Morardi, Yan Mcnite, Lauren Graca, John Mc Phillips. Do we have any um pig or supa students here tonight? Welcome. Thanks for coming. Um you need to stay until 9:00 or the meeting is over, whichever one comes first. And don't leave without signing
002out on one of the sheets that's up here on the table. Um otherwise you won't get credit for being here. Um first up is our approval of minutes. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes from the April 23rd, 2025 regular board meeting. Second. Um all in favor? I I Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Uh three are meeting reports and first is our superintendent report. Sure. Thank you. Uh so the first um thing I'd like to have is Becky Ber come on up. She is our coordinator, director of our Odyssey of the Mind team. She's been involved with it for years. She's a teacher at the middle school and we have two teams here this evening who are going to worlds and Becky's going to talk a little
003bit about that process in Odyssey the Mind. So, thank you very much. Thank you for having us here tonight. Uh, a little bit of background. I know some of you are actually familiar with Odyssey since you your own children were part of it a few years ago. Um, but Odyssey is an international creativity competition that challenges students to solve problems and to think outside the box. Teams of five to seven students choose one of five problems. This year, students were tasked with building a ride-on vehicle that helped to show that the journey is often more important than the destination, creating a mechanical animal that perform performs various tricks, planning a dinner party based on a classic work of literature, rescuing and finding a new home for animals while testing the strength of a balsa wood
004structure, and telling the stories of constellations from a team created historic civilization. Odyssey helps students learn some of these so-called soft skills like communication, teamwork, public speaking, budgeting, and negotiating with other people. But it also helps them to develop character strengths like perseverance, leadership, and kindness. Now, coming out of COVID, BC had only one team of five students for the 202122 school year. The following year, the program grew to four teams with 21 students. Last year, we sent four middle school teams and one high school team to the regional tournament. All five teams advanced to state finals with our high school team advancing to world finals last year. This year, we had an amazing seven middle school teams and one high school team compete locally. That's 40 I'm sorry, 43 middle school kids and seven
005high school kids. Of that, six middle school teams, I'm sorry, six teams, five middle school, one high school, made it to state finals. And today, we now have two of our teams that are advancing to world finals. I believe this is the first time that Bethlehem has had two teams advance to world finals the same year. They will be going to Michigan State University two weeks from tonight for opening ceremony. We couldn't be more proud of these teams. We're also lucky to have two high school students, both former Odyssey team members, who volunteered their time to work with the middle school teams. Jackie Miller and Sierra Obernesser put in hours helping the students prepare. Sierra especially formed a close bond with many of the students. At state finals, she was awarded the special OMR award
006in recognition of her work. I'm so proud of these kids. We have some pictures uh we can show you. So, these are our two of our teams. We had so many middle school teams that wanted to form that we actually had to purchase two building uh memberships for the middle school because only five teams are allowed per membership. So, these were our second membership teams uh participating in the Balsa wood structure competition and the humor constellation one. Next slide, please. And then the next couple of slides, these are our kids that made it to state finals. The team on the left is all sixth grade except for one seventh grade boy. And then we had our team one vehicle problem. They used a um a rolling cart, some PVC, some casters, and created a time
007machine as their vehicle. Next slide, please. Uh the team on the left was our humor, our second humor team, constellations. Their uh civilization was Christmas Land. And the team on the right was our problem three. Their classic work of literature was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And of course, our two teams moving on to world finals. We have our high school team. Uh we have with us tonight Erica, uh Nicholas, Stephanie, and Rain. And we have our Balsa structure from the middle school. I'm not sure who was there. We have Vandala and Jasmine. Melissa, Ella, and Taylor are all are here tonight. Dakota Dakota could not be here. Uh so we're so proud we leave Tuesday the 20th, many of us, and we're driving out to Michigan State. Uh next slide, please. And on top
008of that, we were very honored this year that Coach Sierra won a special OMR award, and I was I was awarded the uh community star award for supporting the program and growing the Bethlehem program so much over the past few years. So, it was really an honor for me to be able to give back to Odyssey as well. So, we have our teams. Uh, if you guys would like to Yes. Okay. So, um, from the high school team, you guys go one off and shake hands. We have Rain Biter and we have um Erica Piccolo and Stephanie Piccolo and we have uh Nicholas Folio and we're missing uh Nex Crleg Bridger Lewis and Jeremy Cronis could not be here this evening Um, I'm gonna skip you for one second. And then from our middle school
009team, we have Vendela Regone and Jasmine [Applause] Harden, Melissa Yang, Ella Katie, Taylor Culie, and Dakota Tim could not be here tonight. And then we also have with us tonight uh, Coach Sierra Obernesser. Oh, me. Oh, and [Music] so I'm gonna actually have it over here. I'm gonna have you bring that in front. Okay. Make sure I can see everyone's face. If you can go to the [Music] Thank you. Congratulations. Good job. Thank you to Joanie for supporting us over the years. Thank you so much. Thank you. And good luck in Don't forget your pins. Don't bring your pins. We don't sixth graders too, please. Uh, I have just a couple other things I wanted to announce. Um, just a reminder that our universal prek registration is opened. It opened last week, May 1st. So,
010I would encourage any families who have preschool children who are eligible to register. They have till May 23rd to complete the process in order to be eligible for the lottery. That will take place on May 30th. Uh, as a reminder, this year we're expecting to be able to provide seats for up to 92 students, uh, partnering with TSL Adventures and Child Time. Uh, the next thing I wanted to just, uh, let the board know is the special ed department did hold a parent meeting last week. I know this was one thing parents had over the past year or so spoken about. There were about 30 parents in attendance. Doug Moresy, our director of special education, presented an overview of the current programs, what we offer, uh where the programs are located. Uh he also shared
011some performance data including some of the 3 through8 assessment and science as well as regent exam results um and graduation rates. He then opened it up for discussion. Some of the key themes across the conversation included uh a strong appreciation for staff, concerns about transitions between levels and buildings, class sizes, and some unmet needs uh an interest um there for better family resources in partnering with the district. So, there will continue to be uh some additional parent meetings, and I encourage any parents who are interested to attend those those meetings. Uh and finally we have a couple school board members who have certificates um from the school boards association. Uh these are recognitions for um it's a board excellence recognition program for service and training that individuals on the board have received. So Lauren Graasso
012uh congratulations. You have a board achievement award. I won't. Thank you. Okay. Make sure she gets a pin. Oh, yeah. Did she get a pin? She got a pin. Do you want a pin? Thank you. What did you do? She's earned a pin. Oh, and Meredith, you have received the board mastery award. This nice folio with complimentary training. Congratulations. Additional leadership award. Uh, that concludes my report. Um, does anyone have any questions for Jody about the Okay. Uh, next up is our board report. And I just I first wanted to um acknowledge the um the all the work that went into the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory um play at the middle school this uh this past weekend. Um, I also wanted to let everybody know, if you didn't know already, I think it's this
013weekend the BC Green Team um is um is helping to sponsor the the Bethlehem giveaway. Um there's information on the website about that where essentially you can put a table out at the bottom of your driveway with things that you don't want anymore um that other people might like to take and reuse. Um, and then, uh, the last thing I wanted to mention, uh, was just to acknowledge that, um, it is teacher and staff appreciation week, and we are very appreciative of all of our teachers and staff um, in the building. So, um, I just wanted to put that out there. So, thank you to everybody. Catherine, a couple things to mention. Um, first, we are we are into concert season here. So, I just wanted to congratulate um all the musicians who had concerts
014in the last couple of weeks. I know there were some at the high school, middle school, eighth grade was fantastic. And so, congrats to all the teachers and students who have worked so hard and sound so good. Um, also I attended I what I believe is the second annual multicultural potluck dinner over at Ellir Elementary. This is fantastic. This is where families families from throughout the school bring um a dish to share that represents their cultural background. So, tons of great food um and great conversation and great friends. The the whole Ellsworth community came out and that was really really wonderful. So, um hats off and big thanks to everybody who organized that and who provided such delicious food. So, thank you there. And then um finally, the last thing I want to share, our
015very own John Walston is going to be signing his book, which is out this coming Saturday, uh at 1:00 at the uh book house of Stein Plaza. Congratulations to John. It's quite an achievement and um look forward to reading. Thank you. I appreciate that. Congratulations. Thank you. Go ahead. Uh was it two weeks ago that beautiful unified basketball game? Oh, the assembly. There was an amazing game. Uh they did it during the school day. The stands were packed. The energy was amazing and that was really awesome. They were able to schedule that. So it was a great it was it was really great assembly. Yeah, it was. And I was able to I was able to watch it online from my desk and that was real treat as well. So yeah, great to see those
016those players get to be highlighted with such a wonderful packed the gymnasium and just uh just had that that awesome energy. So it was it was great. Yeah, I agree. You it's um National Honor Society induction time also. So we have I believe 73 which is a pretty impressive number new national honor society inductees this coming week. Um so I was impressed with the achievement level for those guys. That was it. All right. Um, do we have anybody here tonight from the student senate? High school student senate. I'm guessing everyone's home finishing up the year. Um, and I don't Yeah, there's nobody here from middle school. So, so we will move on to our presentations this evening. Um, and first up we have our 2025 2026 budget presentation overview. Good evening. Tonight is our public
017hearing on the 2526 adopted budget. And before we get to the public hearing aspect, a quick overview and recap of where we were, where we are, and where we were going. Beginning around the middle of February, uh we had a number of presentations to the board and public uh on the 2526 budget, what we were seeing in terms of revenue and appropriation needs, challenges, as well as opportunities. We began with a baseline rollover budget and then considered various additions and reductions in the areas of the administrative component, transportation, technology, operations and maintenance, athletics, instructional programs, and student support services. We projected revenues. We forecasted expenditures. We discussed the tax cap tax rates in the tax levy. And ultimately the board adopted a proposed budget on April 2nd that will be presented to the voters on
018May 20th. The election um and the ballot initiatives will be presented on May 20th from 7:00 to 9 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. All voting will take place in the high school gym. A one of the themes over the course of the budget cycle was the challenge the district had with regard to inflation. Over the past four years, the district has experienced a compounded rate of inflation of roughly 21%. However, the district is confined and constricted by the amount it can increase taxes by the property tax cap law, which provides for no more than a 2% increase on any given year. and that compounds to 8%. So that yellow shaded area that you see on the line graph there represents the inflation that the district had to absorb internally through resource management, strategic decisions, um
019maximizing uh revenue opportunities and making sure that on the expenditure side the district was living within its means. the proposed expenditure by type, both uh the dollars and cents as well as a visual representative of how those dollars uh fall out. You can see that for 2526, roughly $59.3 million in salary, uh 30 mill almost $30.9 million in fringe benefits. Those represent the lion share of expenditure costs for the district. debt service is down by roughly a million4 from uh from last year and both services and equipment contractional supplies are roughly even. Uh a bit of an increase in transfers in capital outlay of $1.1 million that's associated with some interfund transfers from the general fund to food service as well as uh the capital fund. With regard to food service, we uh Claire Gradine,
020our food service director, talked a little bit about some of the challenges food service is experiencing in terms of inflationary cost of its own on food supplies and food stuffs. Overall, the budget increase of roughly 2.3% resulting in a year-to-year increase of just under $2.6 million. same information just presented somewhat differently in terms of the um the component units throughout the budget. Uh again, the large increases and decreases sort of present themselves. I'll go into additions and deletions, but again, a helpful uh diagram to the right sort of indicating where those those dollars are are allocated. Um again big focus on instructional programs and uh fringe benefits are are large drivers in terms of expenditures by program area. On the budgeted revenue side, district is somewhat limited in terms of the available pots of money
021it has accessible to balance out the expenditure and appropriation side of the ledger. The largest of which is school taxes at uh just under $74 million. That represents a tax levy increase of just over 1.1% which is the maximum amount it can increase taxes by the tax cap law. Pilot payments at roughly $3.6 million. That was a large um piece of conversation and dialogue over the course of the process. When we first started the process in February, um we were anticipating pilot revenue of roughly $163,000. The Bethlehem IDA had identified that an agreement had been met between the taxing jurisdictions and the uh GB2 New York LLC. It's a power plant located on the River Road for an additional roughly $3.5 million. State aid at $34.6 million. budget's still not quite there yet at the
022state level, but we are confident that the governor's proposal and the agreement at the both the assembly and the uh senate levels will ensure that that state aid figure will be remain right around there. It provides for a hold harmless clause that uh allows for districts to at least receive a 2% increase in foundation aid for the uh for Bethlehem. That's helpful. It's not a significant amount of money. It's roughly $385,000 in foundation aid alone. The other increases in state aid are associated with increases in building aid uh associated with our recently closed out 2021 capital project and the middle school auditorium project. Other revenues at roughly $3.7 million. A large component of that is interest in earnings. Um, I highlight that only because the the figures behind that figure assume that the federal funds
023rate will remain somewhere where it is. If that fed fund rate decreases, um, interest in earning revenue will see a corresponding decrease. between expenditures and revenue. We uh the district was still a little short in terms of available funding by roughly $715,000 in order to plug that uh operational hole. Uh the business office recommended and the board subsequently adopted the use of roughly $715,000 of its undesated fund balance to bring revenue in line with expenditures. I do want to highlight that $715,000 is used to offset an operational or structural deficit within the budget which we'll have to address over the course of 2526 and as we begin our 2627 um budget process. Overall, the district was comfortable in proposing uh the use of fund balance, particularly because there was a bonus payment associated with the
024pilot in 2425 of roughly $617,000 that was unanticipated. So, what we're simply doing is shifting that unanticipated revenue that we we received in 2425 and allocating that to 2526 to balance the budget. Over the course of the budget process, we had several additions and reductions on the instructional side. Um, Bookworms, which is a reading and writing program, at roughly $50,000, a $5,000 increase in an arts and educational supplemental allocation and roughly $39,000 in an increase in Bosey's library services on student extracurriculars, various stipens for new or uh enhanced or expanded clubs. uh associated with the stipens in the collective bargaining agreements. On the administrative side, roughly $40,000 for phase two of a two-year process for the digitization of employee records, which is moving all employee records from paper to electronic format. general fund transfer of
025$685,000. Again, associated with some additional funding, roughly $200,000 for food service and $475,000 uh to the capital fund. On transportation, uh we had an increase of $22,750 for EV bus charge management. That is the next phase of the district's uh process and initiative of electrifying its fleet. Operations and maintenance. We had a $5,000 increase for the garden club. On athletics, roughly a $2,800 increase for a athlet uh ergon for a taping and ergo for a training table. We'll just we'll just stick with that on the instructional side. In terms of reductions, um various uh reductions on the instructional side, what I want to highlight is that the uh district leadership team takes uh and pays particular uh consideration and attention to where class sizes are, where enrollment is. These decreases are all associated with either
026current vacancies or uh unneeded vacant positions associated with enrollment. They are not uh layoffs. They're all associated with unfilled current vacant positions. On the student support services, same same approach, $271,000 there associated with a social worker, speech therapist, and a uh clerical position. On transportation, roughly a $512,000 decrease associated with a reduction in five drivers and three bus attendants. Ideally, we would like to have these positions in the budget, but given where we are in terms of recruitment and retention, we never were quite there to getting to these positions anyway. And they were just adding additional cost to the budget that at present was unneeded. On the technology side, um $295,000 associated with the reduction of a data web architect who is retiring, some Boseies library services, and an install per boseis installment purchase agreement
027which has ended and for operations and maintenance, a small salary uh correction associated with a uh retirement that's being backfilled with a new position. With regard to capital outlay, the district on an annualized basis devotes $100,000 to a specific capital project in a particular building. Over the past several years, the district has been investing in a door status monitoring system. Two years ago, we started with the high school uh for 24 25. that same monitoring system is being rolled out to the middle school. And now uh with those uh completed, we're rolling out the same technology to the various elementary schools for 2526. We're proposing starting with Hammerrell only because of the layout of that building with the number of entrance and exit doors for 2526. We anticipate between design, engineering, and the actual purchase
028and installation of that equipment, we should be close to that $100,000. And we'll roll out the other elementary schools over the course of the uh the following fiscal years. Quick history on where um Bethlehem Central School District stands in terms of its year-to-year increases on budget. This year, as referenced earlier, roughly a 2.3% increase, but over the course of the last 10 years, budget increase of 2.2%, which again is well below um where we've seen inflation. Again, over the past of the past four years, inflation at the the national level has been roughly 21%. Similar chart, but associated with the tax levy history. Uh what I want to highlight that is is that the district has been at or below the tax cap threshold for the past 10 years uh with an average annual tax
029levy increase of roughly 1.5%. This year's tax levy increase is 1.12% for 2526 which is right at the maximum cap associated with the tax cap law. In previous years, the district has always I can tell you that for 22 23 23 24 25 the district could have levied more taxes than it actually had. Those tax dollars were needed at the time. So we provided some tax relief to uh residents and commercial uh businesses within the towns of Bethlehem and New Scotland. 2526 preliminary tax rates. These numbers change today only because I recently got the tenative uh assessment roles from both the towns of Bethlehem and New Scotland. Originally uh we were basing um estimated tax rates on the 20 425 assessment role for now with the new information I can um it's still tenative. The
030final rates won't be available until uh July. The estimated increase for the town of Bethlehem is roughly $569 per $100,000 of assessed value. That represents a.26% increase for the town of Bethlehem. And for the town of New Scotland, roughly a $60 decrease or a 2.7% decrease in the tax rate from the prior year. I know those numbers look a little odd, but I I promise you whether you're a resident in the town of Bethlehem or the town of New Scotland, you're you're paying the same amount of taxes based on your assessed value. When we get to the August tax rating, uh tax rate um agenda there. There's a presentation that sort of spells out how that arithmetic works. Tax rate history by the town. Those green boxes show where um the tax rates have increased
031and the red where tax rates have decreased. Important slide is to show where Bethlehem Central School District stacks up against Alb County and New York State as a whole in comparison for its per pupil spending. Bethleam at roughly $21,100 and you can see Albony County is higher and New York State is even uh higher than that. On the ballot, we'll have a number of initiatives other than the district's operating budget. One of the items on the ballot is a bus proposition. Uh the board on its April 2nd meeting had adopted um proposing to the voters three large uh diesel buses and three small um gas powered buses total of six for a ballot proposition of $814770. The actual impact to the district is roughly $277,000 after you take into consideration the states uh state aid
032reimbursement at roughly 66%. There was some conversation earlier over the budget process in terms of continuing the electrification of the vehicle uh the bus fleet within the district. Presently the district has or will have 10 vehicles. At the time when we were having this conversation, the EPA grant funding that we had um received and had a grant award were suspended. We weren't quite sure where that was going to go. Not only for the three buses for last year's bus proposition, but as well as any future bus propositions, including ones possibly for 2526. Given given the timing as well as some operational challenges that we are having with the EV buses that we discussed uh at some earlier meetings there was some reluctance not only from the business office but from the board to move forward
033only because we weren't quite sure where the funding was, what would happen and what the actual impact to the local taxpayers were. The board voted on that proposition on April 2nd. About a week or so later, uh the district was informed that its grant application that was suspended had been uh freed up. So the buses that we had ordered for 2425 that EPA funding at $200,000 per bus will be received. We're coordinating with Matthews between the EPA funding and NAERTA. So we anticipate having those buses on site within the next few weeks. The unfortunate downside is we had three other buses aso ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass ass associated with that application that given the timing and the concern um and
034the timing of our own process here we won't be able to take advantage of at the present time. Also on the ballot a 2025 capital reserve fund for a not to exceed amount of $30 million for a 10-year authorization period. Uh the reserve fund serves as a as a savings account for the district to save for future capital needs, reducing the need for for debt service and future borrowing. Voter approval is not only required for the establishment of the reserve, but anytime the district would like to pull funds out to offset uh future capital projects. The reason uh the business office proposed the creation of a new capital reserve is because the existing capital reserves it has on the books are either um closed out of the 2015 and 2019 capital reserve. The board just
035closed that out those officially out the last meeting because the funding had been exhausted in the 22 capital. I do have roughly $14.3 million available now in terms of our savings account, but I only have roughly a $2.7 million cushion in terms of additional funding that I I can put in that 22 capital reserve. Should the voters approve a 25 capital reserve, any additional funding above that $2.7 million can go there for future capital needs. Fund balance and reserves. These are the various uh savings accounts that the district has as it at its disposal for either specific or unforeseen needs. Again, the $14.3 million in the capital reserve fund. I do want to highlight the undesated fund balance. Uh that balance as of June at the end of our close out of 2324 fiscal year
036was roughly four and a half million. The district by real property tax law can have no more than 4% of its operating budget in an undesated fund balance. The $715,000 that was proposed and ultimately adopted by the board to balance our 2526 budget will come out of that $4.5 million. I highlight that only because while we we have that funding available, it's not a significant amount of money uh to really offset some either revenue challenges or unforeseen expenses over the course of the year. Um but we're at the level uh provided for by law. Also on the ballot, there are two open board of education seats. Three candidates submitted petitions for a three-year term beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2028. And those candidates are John Walston, Susan Barber, and Robert Ten. There's
037a Meet the Candidates night, May 14th at 6:30 p.m. located in this room, uh, which is the high school in D 122. Some voting information. Just a quick recap. Inerson voting, it takes place May 20th from 7:00 a.m. in the morning to 9:00 p.m. at night at Jim A in the high school. Absentee ballot or early voting is in the process. You must complete an application. Those applications must be mailed to the voter no later than 7 days before the election, which serves from May 13th. If the application is hand delivered to the district, it must be received by the district clerk no later than the day before the election, which is May 19th. And completed ballots must be received by the school district clerk no later than 5:00 p.m. on election day of May
03820th. In terms of voter eligibility, three criteria, 18 years old, a US citizen, and live within the boundaries of the Bethlehem Central School District for at least 30 days prior to the vote. Thank you. Anybody mention what the kids vote was for? See, like uh there were some PE pickle ball golf. Rackets or golf? Rackets or golf. Rackets or golf? PE. Kids vote too. Yes, it's a very important. Um any questions, Katherine? Um, John, going back to the EV funding, I'm pleased to learn that we have received the funding for the buses that we have already purchased. That is a relief to say the least, seeing as those were completely funded by state and federal dollars and had the federal dollars not come through, we would have had to deal with that. Um, so I'm
039glad they are coming through. As I recall, um, part of as we as as the business office was working to give ourselves as much latitude as possible, um, in decision making, we had applied for and received an extender on the authorization for up to six buses. That's correct. We're using that extender to for three buses that are that are currently coming to us. were not putting uh EVs on the um or not putting funding for EVs on the ballot to to voters this year. Has the business office considered uh submitting a request for an additional extender for those three buses that we are not going to be using funding for this year? My understanding in coordination with Matthews is that the extender was only provided for because we were maybe considering a uh purchase of
040those three additional ones in 2526 because they weren't able to to separate out the grant application between three and three, right? Um so given that limited timing associated with uh the original application and the two extenders um that was the only leverage we had any like for additional buses there would have to be another grant application submitted the extender would no longer carry forward. Okay. We the district did submit a an additional grant application uh for some buses but there has been no progress on any of those new applications. Um, I think much of the work between EPA and state reps have been really on those award letters that were already in hand and the status of those to get that that funding uh cleared up. I have not heard any information or status updates
041on any new applications that uh associated with the mo the most recent round of EPA funding. If it's possible to just really make sure that another extender isn't pos isn't it wouldn't be approved. That would be just good information to have as we think about the challenge with that is if I were to do extend it I would have to wait on the three buses funding for the ones that we already got. I see. Thank you. That uh then please don't pursue that on my account. Um I think having the funding in hand for the buses that we already have is the priority there. Um, a couple of other questions just kind of looking ahead. I know that at the state level as the legislature um, passes the budget most likely this week for the
042state, there's a lot of conversation happening about if federal priorities or funding shifts, the need to potentially come back to Albany and potentially renegotiate parts of the budget to address any shortfalls in revenue. I'm wondering if you know there there is a world in which the trickle down impacts of this could impact school districts and could do so in the 25 26 year. I don't know how likely that is or not, but it's it seems like a a real possibility at this point based on what we're hearing. So I'm wondering if we had to amend the district budget. What is the process for that? It depends the extent by which we would need to amend the budget. So the the district budget is amended over the course of the the fiscal year anyway. I mean,
043keep in mind that we're putting a budget together starting usually in December or January for the next July. Um, in terms of the start date of the fiscal year, a lot of things change from one year to the next, priorities change, initiatives change, allocations by at uh different departments and buildings change. We tend to try to address those internally at the business office looking at, okay, where can you move money from one side to the other? maybe something was you don't need this as much anymore or you prioritize your initiative. So we we we will continue to do that uh for sort of day-to-day operational shifts in in needs and wants if there was a large funding change and one of the things I I have stressed over the the course of this budget process
044a little tight compared to prior years. to really maximize revenue estimates, making sure that we didn't necessarily leave uh money on the table. As an example, those interest earnings dollars, right? There's a million8 in terms of revenue estimates associated with that based on our current cash and the current interest rates. If the Feds drop that by a point or two, that's going to leave us short that we're going to have to address some way, shape, or form. If there are changes in the federal side, I don't necessarily anticipate that directly impacting Bethlehem Central School District in terms of federal funding. But if there's a larger impact to the state of New York in terms of federal funding outside of education aid, the state may have to sort of re-evaluate its own u financial plan both
045for the 2526 state fiscal year as well as moving forward which may trickle down to districts in terms of maybe a revised state aid formula or or something like that. We haven't heard of that yet. I'm keeping a tune of that. Part of my role in charge here is to inform the board and the public of any changes as they happen. If it requires uh a much larger re-evaluation of programs, initiatives, and operations, I will bring recommendations to the board for its consideration and ultimate implementation. Um we we'll have to be a little bit nimble here over the course of the next several months to make sure that any changes in either revenue or or other areas um you know can happen not only on the revenue side but on the expenditure side as well.
046You know where we see a large increase in pharmaceutical usage for example or um electricity rates go higher than anticipated. We're really keeping track of each of those areas of the budget to make sure that we have enough uh money appropriated or or booked in terms of the revenue side and the appropriation side and act accordingly should numbers not seem to line up with those original forecasts. Do we is there any policy or any threshold at which um a reconsideration would have to go back out to the voters? you there you can't do basically the voters approved the spending plan so you can't then go back you can't exceed that there's no process in place to change that during the course of the fiscal year so you'd have to wait until the next vote keep
047in mind the voters are approving a not to exceed amount of roughly $116.9 million right so that's the the most we can spend as it's currently structured how that's allocated is you know depending depending on the uh the extent is either business office prerogative or board prerogative in terms of moving some things around. If for example revenue fell off in some either state aid or or or some other that's why we had those reserves and when we start closing out our fiscal year 42526 I'll present to you we all right you know revenue uh the state aid was let's say a million dollars short in order to plug that hole we're going to p pull either additional money from the undesated fund balance or we're going to use this reserve to offset some other costs
048but I I'll do my best to inform the keep the board apprised of those things so that you're not necessarily seeing them at the time of close out. Um I'll I'm happy to report to you on a on a meeting basis or a monthly basis if there's news to report. I mean the news may be like hey we're looking good or hey we're running a little warm or hot or we're right on budget here. Um, I think that that information is important to the public and the board in general because this is just a snapshot in time and really it's only about 10% of the work of the business office. Management of the budget moving forward is about the is the real lion share of that work over the course of the year. Yeah, absolutely.
049That makes sense. And because the voters are um approving that up to a seed point and it's the board that approves the spending plan and the dollar amount. So, thank you. I think this is I foresee continuing to talk about this. I really again extend my deepest gratitude to the business office and everybody who works there for all of the work that went in over the past several months to preparing this um and then of course the maintenance day in day out. So thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, John. Thanks, John. Thanks, John. Uh, next on the agenda is our 2025 2026 uh, school budget official hearing. Uh, tonight we are holding the public hearing on our proposed budget as required by law. The notice of this hearing was published in the spotlight and
050a copy of the proof of publication will be included within the official minutes. At this time, I invite any members of the public to speak who wish to offer up comments either for or against on the proposed budget. Um, and if you come up to speak, I ask that you please state your name for the record prior to offering your remarks. Uh, seeing nobody who um would like to comment on the budget, I hereby close the public hearing um on the 2025 2026 um school budget. Uh, next is our presentation from Jody on the elementary zones of [Applause] attendance. Okay. So, tonight I want to talk um about some of our trends we're seeing with our elementary enrollment and some of the challenges uh that I think need to be addressed. So, I'll start with
051um Oh, I didn't. So, John hit it on me. That's why. Um, so talking about our enrollment since its peak in 20067, our enrollment districtwide has declined by 21.3%. The capital region capital district regional planning commission is an organization that we've been working with since 2016 and 17. their projections on our enrollment have been pretty accurate. Uh several years they've been really within one student in their projections. So that's been very helpful. Uh they have projected that enrollment will um has declined but has may have reached a plateau uh which hopefully we're seeing and current enrollment for the 202526 school year does still show us a slight decline K12. Our kindergarten enrollment is still, I've mentioned this in a couple of prior meetings, considerably lower than our projected enrollment. So, we're uh still trying to
052figure out where some of those students may be or if they're going to enroll. Um the K12 enrollment statewide and in the capital region has been declining. So, this is not just a Bethlehem issue. So looking at our enrollment graphically, you can see at the peak of our enrollment in 20067, we were just under 5,200 students to what our projections is for next year is about 3,900 students. If you look at this across the suburban council, again, as I mentioned, this isn't just a Bethlehem trend. All of the suburban council schools uh with the exception of North Colony have seen significant decreases in their enrollment over the since 20045. Uh this most recent data is from 2023 24. Niscuna has stayed relatively flat. And if you look across the state even you'll see similar trends.
053The most recent uh data is from 2018-19 to 2023 24. You can see the uh the dark pinkish red is the 21% which is where we are. You can see there's several areas across the state that are similar. Um and the only area that has seen an increase is that one little blue shaded area downstate. some of the factors um influencing the enrollment. Um this has been part of the capital district region planning commission trends in across New York State. aging populations, smaller family sizes, we see lower birth rates in families, economic factors such as the high cost of living in the housing market. Uh demographic patterns where uh families are leaving uh New York for other states and increased flexibility to homeschool uh for more flexible work schedules. That really is uh we've seen
054some increases in that since uh the pandemic. So our challenge particularly in our elementary schools is how do we address the disparity we're seeing and maximizing the facility use that we have. Uh I do think it's important to note that even though we have uh seen decreases in enrollment really since the pandemic one of the things that we've talked about and one of the things the board has supported is continuing to have lower class sizes. So generally and we presented this as part of the budget. I know Dave has presented this as part of our um updates. We generally keep our K5 enrollment classes to around 20 students per section where prior to COVID we had class sizes um that ranged and we had some on the high ends closer to 30 28 29. So
055uh we are using more classroom space because of that. Uh with that said though, since 20056, our K5 enrollment has declined uh just over 20% or just short of 21%. The enrollment patterns have changed since there was redistricting back when Eagle was built and then there was some more redistricting when Clarksville closed in since 2011 and 12. Uh so what we've seen is that the enrollment has shifted from Hamigrell, Slingerlands and Ellir and we're seeing upticks in Glenmont and Eagle to the point where Eagle and Glenmont are either at capacity or very close to capacity based on the classroom space that they have. Uh the enrollment distribution changes over time. Obviously new housing developments do impact that. that is a part of the planning commission's reports we get um and looking at what are the
056new housing developments, what zones of attendance are they in, and will that impact our school's enrollment or not. So some of the discussions that I think are important is how do we balance our class sizes across the elementary schools and optimize our district resources as well as our facilities and making sure we want to obviously our goal is to uh reduce the number of students who have to transfer between buildings uh when we can. Just a visual, you can see the decline. If you look at Slingerlands, Hamigril, and Ellir, you'll see some significant drops there in the enrollment over time. Eagle, uh, you saw a drop there, but now you see it flattening out and increasing. Uh, as well as Glenmont, you see generally a a pretty steady, uh, increase since 2011, which is when,
057uh, Clarksville was closed. So in looking at our current enrollment in our instructional spaces, this chart basically shows how many classrooms we have in each of our buildings. So for example, if you Eagle, we have 25 classroom spaces. That does include art, music, and special education spaces. These are full classrooms. Our general and general instructional spaces for Eagle, for example, are 23 general classrooms. two one art and one music for a total of 25 and next year our projections at Eagle are 23. So though all of the classrooms that are used for core instruction are at are filled next year. When you look at Ellir the difference there is there's two classrooms that are used for special education. So there's 12 uh there's 12 sections for next year. Uh two classrooms for special education and
058art and a music classroom. So they have a little bit of capacity. Um the one thing I do think is important to point out is even though we might have full classroom spaces over the course of years, some of those classrooms have been repurposed for smaller instructional spaces. So, for example, Glenmont uh has one classroom that was a full-size classroom that they've repurposed to use for reading instruction, special education instruction, or counseling because they didn't have areas designed for small classroom instruction. Uh, but this just gives you an idea of what classroom spaces we have, what's our capacity, and you can see, for example, Slingerlands, which used to house what was referred to as the early learning center, the ELC, uh, has a good number of classrooms that are not being used for full classrooms
059for next year. So this is where we want to look at how we can maximize our facilities but also being mindful that even though it on our diagrams it says classroom space some of those are being used for other things. So we also need to consider if for example like Glenma we said we needed that classroom back for a grade two class where does the reading teacher go where does the counselor go? Where does the special education teacher go? Um, so those are things we need to consider. So if you look at how our the percentage of our students are enrolled, you will see that again this just shows it in another way. Eagle and Glenmont are the highest um enrolled percent of K5 enrollment. Uh, general instructional spaces. So you can see the others
060are in the red, meaning those are declining. and looking at the map of our zones that we have. Uh this we are working with the town. Um I'll talk a little bit about that on looking at housing developments. Where housing developments are planned for the future doesn't necessarily mean they will happen but there is a potential for growth in certain areas. So that's something that we are working with the town on. You can see how large Eagle is and Glenma are two largest. Although Slingerlands um is fairly comparable um and you can see Hamigrell and Ellir are our smallest zones but they have very dense housing populations within those small areas. So some of the um next steps that I'm recommending uh for the board to consider is we do have proposals for two different
061consultants who do this work. Uh one of the consultants uh did work with the district years ago when Eagle was built and it was a full redistricting to look at the data, look at the developments, work with the community on balancing the enrollment. Continue to work with the towns as well as our transportation department because transportation and busing does play a factor in how this all works. uh developing a committee to review the current zones and identify the areas that we need to focus on. There are some districts that have what's referred to as flex zones where sometimes uh when you have a flex zone that means if you live in this particular area you may be assigned to one of two elementary schools and then you stay in that school for your K5 experience.
062that may be an option or we may need to look at shifting some of those uh boundaries uh that you saw on the map. So there would be then periodic update updates to the board recommendations to the board. Really, we would need to have this work done in proposals ready for the board to consider by next December because that helps in our planning for enrollment and registration and letting the community know if there are going to be any shifts to implement any changes for the 202627 school year. So, that's uh where we are currently, what I believe we should begin to look at. So we can uh not be in a position where we have situations where students are not able to go to their elementary schools thinking that they're going there and we have
063other space in other elementary schools that are underutilized. So I'll open it up if the board has any questions. You show eagle is full. Um but when it the start of that graph you got like 60 70 more kids in there. Was it just really overcrowded? Say that again. If you look at the trend for Eagle that Yes. So we started out with 500 and something kids. We now have 430 for the building's full. So those classrooms before the pandemic were at 26, 27, 28, 29. Now they're between 18 and 20 to 21. So that is something that we could review as part of this process is do we go back to having larger class sizes. If you could remind me is that something that's a classroom size is a school a district policy or
064is that a state? No, it's not a it's not a policy at all. Uh for the K5 level we had guidelines that we used for kindergarten, first grade, second grade and on up and the best practice best practice. Yeah. So I believe the highest the recommendation for fifth grade was at 28. Uh which is a lot of fifth graders. A lot of fifth graders and we used to I mean we used to do that in some of our classrooms. Correct. Fair enough. Thank you. Yep. Other questions. Are you thinking I I was going to say I think it is um it is a good idea to go ahead with um with hiring a consultant. I think there's a lot of moving parts that go into this and I think having some out outside um feedback
065on you know what are some good options uh makes a lot of sense. Um they maybe also as a an aside um they also could help us with we're struggling obviously everyone knows every district is struggling with bus drivers in trying to make sure that we're able to get kids to and from school. There may be in looking at this also some recommendations for um ways to consolidate or be more efficient with some of our routing um as part of this process which might help. Catherine, you mentioned there are a couple consultants that may fit the bill for work like this. Can you just talk a little bit about like what are their consultants where this is their they work basically with software where with routing with transportation. So both of them are in that
066business. So we would inter we actually have interviews set up with each of them to talk to them about what is their process, what is their plans, what work have they done with other districts. We have obviously one of the companies we worked with. I didn't personally, but the district worked with years ago when we were opening Eagle and redistricted the elementary schools at that time. So, we have some of evidence of that work. Obviously, there's new people involved. But yes, this is what they do or one of the pieces of what they do. And I would just ask that moving forward that we have um more I would rather have more updates to the board um than less just given um I know this issue can be it's something that people can get very
067passionate about what elementary school their kids are um are attending. So right if that's going to impact it at all. Okay. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. And next is our recognition of public comment on an agenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on an agenda item, now is the time to come to the microphone. Item six, action items. A, finance action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following finance action items. One and two. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Oh, thank you for the the scholarship award money coming in for our students. Uh B, professional personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following
068professional personnel action items one through five. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. C. Support personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following support staff action items one through three. So move. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries? D. Other action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following action items one through four. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Yeah, one question really. The election inspectors. So I know we have, you know, Britney working 17 hours a day at no extra pay. And there are some people noted as a volunteers, some people noted as full pay. And then there's some other people are those like
069people we hire like what what category is not volunteer and not paid district employees and they get compensated for comp. Cool. Thanks. Uh all in favor I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Seven. Recognition of public comment on a non-aggenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on a non-aggenda item, now would be the time to come to the microphone. Item eight, future meetings and events. Um, next Wednesday, May 14th at 6:30 here in D122 is our meet the candidates night. Um and then on Tuesday, May 20th, um in gym A here at the high school from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. is the 2025 annual election and budget vote. Um and then on Wednesday, May 21st, um here at the high school, we have our next regularly scheduled
070board meeting anticipating executive session um start at from 6:00 to 7:00 and then reconvening to open session at 7 o'clock. Um, we do need to go um back into um executive session um to um discuss a contractual matter. Um could I have a motion to do so? So moved. Second. All in favor? I if we must. Uh any opposed? That carries. So we will do that. Um so we are going to um go do that. But in the meantime, you um pig supera students, you guys are um free to go. So, if you guys want to come up and sign out What I read?