001We're going to start tonight with the uh public budget hearing. Um we're going to kick things off with a with a bang. Um So, I'm going to turn it over to Tracy Leone and Superintendent Bessette for the proposed budget hearing. All right. Welcome everybody. It's good good to see you. Um look forward to every year. Look forward to to being able to present our our next year's budget proposal. Um as we typically do, we take a walk through what our priorities because the budget should really be a reflection of how we spend our money and our resources should really be a reflection of what we say is is important. And um so uh we always talk about as we as we set the stage for this conversation um not just at this meeting but when
002we're talking, all right, when we're in meetings, planning meetings months ago um we talk about balancing >> [clears throat] >> uh the needs of the students, right? How can we provide the best education and opportunities for our students? Um and how are we also still responsible to our taxpayers? And there's always that balance, right? So, we have really good healthy conversations and there's layers to those conversations that we'll talk about tonight. So, as I alluded to, this is a a continuous conversation. Um every conversation we have uh really at any level um when I'm talking to Tracy and we're and we're we're talking to the principals and the directors and we have K-12 district staff meetings, finance committee meetings um we're always talking about planning for the budget because I think it's becoming increasingly important
003to talk about the fact that we need to think not just what's in store for 26, 27. What's in What do we need to consider long-term? Any effective budget [snorts] is not just the one-year budget. It is a long-term, multi-year um plan of how we are the best district that we can be. And again, I already alluded to the fact that there are many layers uh to this process. We just had one of those layers before a couple hours ago. We had a K-12 district cabinet meeting. Um and we had really good discussions about instruction. Right? And how we how we engage kids and how we get the most out of um the opportunities that we have to help our students learn. Those types of discussions shape our budget conversations. Well, what things do we
004need to fund? What types of core instructional programs, what type of interventions um do we need to put in place? Okay? So, it But there are many layers. Department uh we instituted a few years ago, again, uh grade level and department uh leadership teams. Um and certainly our our uh guidance and support areas, principals, directors. The another recent [clears throat] change, especially over the past, you know, 12 to 18 months, was our strategic planning initiative. So, we also invited members of the community. That was, you know, we we had board members, administrators, teachers, but we also had community members, alumni, who were sitting at the table with us as we were sort of wrestling with what are priorities, what what do we really hope for um for the district, what do we want for for
005the students um that come through our our school system. That is an ongoing process. That is uh and you'll see throughout this presentation when we talk about priorities, we'll reference those goal areas. And that is a living uh document. That is a work in progress. And And over time, every district who does this well will make >> [clears throat] >> uh adjustments to that strategic plan. It should look different because as we know, there are different variables, different factors that impact how we operate. There are things that 6 months from now might be a uh a factor that we don't even know about yet. And so, we should have the ability to make adjustments as needed. So, in goal one, we start with the area that, you know, really what schools are about, which is,
006okay, we need kids to learn. Well, kids need to learn, they need to have a consistent, coordinated curriculum. Uh I'm not going to talk extensively about this because this has been something I've talked about about extensively for for years now. The fact that we need to commit to consistent, research-based instruction. All right? And we have committed to that. This district has uh committed to that process, to supporting um the uh the curriculum materials, for example, that we need to be able to execute that plan for quality instruction. Um we've committed our time as well in that we have our K-12 uh curriculum uh committee where these types of questions internally we we talk about. Um what are things that need to be a consideration uh to make the district the best it can be. Um
007and I'll just go back for one second when we talk about So, so what's the product of that? Uh at the last board meeting, we noted the fact that um the the work of our students and the great work of our instructional staff is paying dividends. And that in the last several years we went from a district on the state list for performance to uh outperforming the regional average in grade math and ELA assessments in in uh 23 out of 24 categories in the last year. That doesn't happen by accident. That is through hard work of our students who are taking learning seriously and to our instructional staff who are committed to doing everything we can give our kids the great opportunity to learn. So, uh but we're pleased that that goal area number one
008we're making good progress. We don't want to turn away from that. We need to keep investing in our instructional programs and this budget provides for that. Uh next area uh is in our partnerships. And that you see that references goals uh three and five, support services. We've happily invested in recent years and this budget continues moving into 26-27 into our partnerships uh like community schools, like the satellite mental health office in partnership with Madison County, uh the the uh stepped-up levels of in-district counseling supports that are available. Uh that's not always easy because some of those things came in during the federal funding from COVID, right? So, there had to be a real strategy to what this looks like. So, I'll give you an example of an area where we say it's good for students,
009it makes sense because we need to have students can't benefit from the curriculum and the instruction if they're not in a frame of mind to be able to benefit from it. If there's something else that's that's a distraction for them. So, our school-based uh mental health office, all right, we invested in that a couple of years ago initially because there's an initial heavier investment. Okay? But, money was better and more available a couple of years ago when we still had remnants of the of the federal COVID money. All right? Knowing down the road that things were going to get tighter and here we are, fast [clears throat] forward to to now when we're looking at still a unresolved state budget. Um at this point, you know, maybe in a in a 1% or so increase
010in foundation aid. Well, that's become important because would we be able to start a program like that today? Probably not. It would be very difficult to start that. But, we're able to because we we started that with a multi-year plan knowing that the way the funding flows, the cost is greatly reduced by the fact we had this year in our in our implementation of that program. So, that's an example of a program that's paid dividends. It's a great thing for the students. It's a great thing for their families because it eliminates transportation issues and um if students can receive services right here at the school, but it also is an example of long-term financial planning and having efficient use of dollars spent in the district. Um and again, been incredibly pleased with our when we
011talk about enhanced security, uh now a couple of years into our uh our uh arrangement with Madison County with two uh SPOs in our in our district. Um this budget definitely continues to support that going into next year. It's been a great uh great service to the district. Uh So, as I mentioned, this is always a It's a constant evaluation of the needs of programs. What do we need in terms of staffing? That's an ongoing process. Um we look at that constantly, but we also have to have We can't plan for what was yesterday's educational program. We have to plan for what is on the horizon. We know that very soon the Board of Regents is going to be coming out with some revised regulations that are going to guide our work. We're going to
012We're going to have to construct plans so that these kids move towards graduation. That path to graduation is going to look substantially different than what it's looked like over over years. Probably the biggest shift uh in the time that I've worked in schools. And it's It's been a while now. Um and that um there's going to be flexibility that we haven't had before. That can be a great opportunity or it could be terrifying. Right? Cuz to if school is not looking at what the future holds, then how do we best prepare? So, a lot of our work now, a lot of our conversations are focused on how are we ready to be able to move uh and react to some of the changing conditions um that we're going to have coming up. Um so, our
013academic programs, again, uh we still are investing in early learning and pre-K. We committed to appropriate class sizes. Um and we still want to make sure that we have a wide range of all offerings, whether it be college courses, dual credit uh opportunities, or you're going to hear me say it and I know a lot of people get sick of hearing me say it, but stackable flexible credentials, which are the wave of the future. They are perfectly suited towards the changes that are coming down the road with the portrait of a graduate and your inspires initiative of the state. Perfectly aligned with having flexible ways that students can demonstrate proficiency and preferably through partnerships with the local and regional community. Leading to hopefully sustainability, you know, of the Ansonia community. Um it was a We
014know that a lot of kids come to school and sometimes are not thrilled with what they have to do during the They they can't wait to get to what what happens after school, right? We know that. That's a part of being uh human sometimes. We understand that we need to have different things that interest kids and keep their attention. Uh and it is important and it is a real important part of our overall program. They have clubs, uh activities that we have athletic offerings and so we this budget calls for the maintaining of that wide diversity of programs. We look at those every year, by the way. Part of the process is not just saying throwing number at what we're supporting. We really want to make sure we're supporting what makes sense. Okay? What where
015are Where's the interest of the students? What types of participation are we seeing? What types of adjustments should we make? Again, the example we used was our esports program. Didn't exist what? Four or five years ago it didn't exist, right? But now there's a massive amount of interest and participation in that just in the last couple years, so we pivot and uh and provide for that because that was where the interest was. Um we and anybody who's been around the school much in the last few years knows we've have heavily interest invested in our infrastructure. Part of again our long-term plan. You cannot let facilities crumble. We say to students, we have high expectations for learning. We want to be the best school in our region. It's hard to say that if you have a
016crumbling building, right? And things aren't working right. Things don't look sharp. And so we continue to invest in things like our capital outlay project, which is that is the $100,000 a year uh uh project that's built into the budget every year. And it doesn't go to a referendum like the large capital project that we that we uh approved in 2023, for example. But we've done this every year for many, many years. We've continued that is part of our long-term plan uh because it allows us to do those small things that need to be done. So, in the recent years, for example, stuff like you look at the the flooring in the buildings and and things like that, those are are pieces of that capital outlay project. Uh our capital project um again, we're really excited
017about how facilities going to look different even in the next couple of months. Think of what the school's going to look like by the time we get come back to school and we have renovated gyms and auditoriums and cafeterias and uh you know, instructional spaces. It's going to be awesome. Technology and the cameras are are are a necessity and technological replacements. I defer to people who know a lot more about technology than me. Looking over towards Mike and some other people. Um bus replacement, again. And we think that it's we knew uh that it was likely there was going to be a pushing back of the electric bus implementation. You know, now there's legislation or proposed legislation out there. We still don't have a state budget. It is what? Today is the So, we're 6
018weeks late on the New York state budget. But, all indications are that this electric bus rollout is going to be moved back. So, again, our our plan is for using replacing with gas buses as we have for many years. We will keep that replacement schedule rolling as we do with classroom furniture and all capital improvement Tracy Leone was really diligent in trying to get the district and buildings on a real schedule working with the principals and Nick Campo on a planned replacement of our furniture in the classrooms. Um with that, so that's sort of keying it up for okay, so what does the budget actually look like? These are the things that are priorities for us. Coordinated planning, but we have to now be able to fund it not just this year, but long-term so
019Chris is going to take us through all the different pieces of the budget. Well, thank you. Welcome everyone. This is always the most exciting part when that's over. So, budgeting no different than our household budget. Right? It's the same thing as the school district. We need revenue and we have expenses. Although in a school it gets a little bit complicated and we talk about a lot of different pieces. We're going to go through some of those. Try to highlight some of our specific changes. I will also point out at this at this juncture Uh, required documents that we're were required to provide and required forms by New York State that were required. So, some of what you're going to see here is in the required format and then we're going to talk about it. Uh,
020the newsletter, we provide some of that required format. You get that in early May with not a lot of context, right? So, that information comes out, there's a lot of numbers, there's a lot of percentages. What factors it mean? Uh, we've subsequently followed the lead out of the newsletter with some tidbits, uh, know before you vote series. These have been posted to our website and to Facebook. There's 11 of them and they came out following >> [clears throat] >> our newsletter, each one highlighting a different type of topic um, and diving a little bit further into it with hopes of a little bit deeper context. Um, so we know what we're looking at when we're looking at this information. So, again, as Mr. Masada said, um, the big picture. We we plan for the big
021picture and then how do how do we fund the big picture? Our expense budget that we're talking about today is a one year, but we're always looking at and planning for that three to five years. So, we're not short-sighted. We build, um, an expense budget that we present to the Board of Education. The Board of Education then approves the expenditure budget which then goes out to voters. School budget is the only budget that voters get to vote on. They don't vote on the city, town, county. They do vote on schools. Um, and and in conjunction with that, we need a revenue budget. So, sometimes, um, this is where things start to get a little bit confusing when we're talking about percentages and how do we maximize revenue and how do we maximize our resources that
022cost us money um, and how do we realign to continue to meet our strategic goals and the plans that have been set forth. So, I want to pause for a second because from about the last 2 weeks as information has been pushed out, there seems to be confusion and I just want to take a moment to clarify the budget increase and the tax levy increase. Those are two different things. I've heard multiple times from from just a wide array of different folks and groups. Oh my goodness, taxes are going up 6.67%. That is not your tax increase. That is the budget-to-budget, the expense-to-expense increase. We'll dive into those numbers, but I thought before we get there, let's talk about it for a second and then dive into some of those numbers. So, the 6.6% increase
023is our budget-to-budget, our expense-to-expense as we move into the next budget year. Of that, 1.8% is relative to our operating costs. Okay? As Shawn had said, we have a long-term financial plan. We also have a long-term debt plan. When do we bring debt on, how does it come on, and what is it offset by? When we walk through this, we will see we have 5.49% of the increase in our expenses is relative to us bringing the first year of our new debt plan on. But when we look at revenue, we're also going to see an increase of $1.9 million from state aid that we would not recognize had we not brought the debt. Okay? So, it's an aid that offsets the debt. Levy increase, another number that we are talking about, another percentage that is
024out there. The levy increase, the tax levy increase, the pool of money that is being raised to support the budget as one of our revenue streams as a 2.7 per- 2.75% increase. I had a lovely conversation the other day with a gentleman that called and said, "Please explain to me why Canastota went out with a 2.75% increase when the state says you have 2% cap?" And we had a lovely conversation about that and we went through the calculation and we went through the law and we went through the pieces of it and in reality, 2% tax cap is a term. It that goes through a eight-piece calculation and it produces a school district's tax levy limit, another term. Tax levy limit. It is rare that any two schools will have the same tax levy limit
025and it is even rarer that any school district will be exactly at 2%. Okay? So, what a school does generate through that calculation is their levy limit. Our levy limit for 2026-2027 is 2.75%. We are increasing the levy by 2.75%. Okay? So, we'll I we'll dive into um collectively in total our expense budget for 2026-2027 $42,270,000 for 2026. As I talked about, it's 6.67% increase for just over $2.6 million uh um uh on the expense side. I am going to present in the required format. You're going to see this in three different categories and what we're going to see is a program budget, a capital budget and administrative budget. This is the summary of that. Our program budget has an increase of 104,309 year over year. Capital budget has an increase of 2.295 million. This
026is where we bring on that first year of new debt. So, our debt $2.1 million is being offset by $1.9 million of additional state aid coming to the district. Okay? And then the administrative budget, 238,484. Again, at the bottom we see the total in the three specific categories, increase of 2.6 million or [clears throat] an expense increase of 6.67%. So, we will dive a little bit in and talk about what is in the program budget. And the program budget is all of our regular instruction, our special education, alternative, uh, BOCES, technology, library, nursing, guidance, mental health, SEL, athletics, co-curricular, transportation. Um, and all associated employee benefits in that particular category that is tied into our program budget. Again, line by line, we'll go across. I'm just going to highlight a couple things because these are
027questions that have come up. Um, so I think that they're they're important if people are asking the question. Uh, you see on the teaching of regular education, there's a decrease of $216,000. The question was, "Oh, well, um, you're saying that there's been no changes to program. Are we reducing staff? Are we reducing teachers?" We have, um, retirements. So, our reduction here is relative to breakage on retirements, some realignment, um, of either program or staffing, but there are no cuts and I I would be remiss if I don't say this because Sean is looking at me. There are no cuts to program or staffing that are relative to budget. So, there nothing is getting cut in the budget because we can't afford it. I'm just going to again kind of just pop on down through to
028some of the things that stand out. These are These are code categories and this is how we track our expenditures. Um So, special education and alternative education, media and computer services, pupil services. Pupil services are our services such as guidance, social workers, and those types of support staff that are supported. Athletic and co-curricular, in-service and training, interfund transfer which is also included in this portion of the budget. Um In In various budgets, there is often a need that we may transfer some money from the general fund to support another program within our capacity. So, we have two things that we transfer money to. One is we transfer some money over to school service because our school service program um just within last year and this year and and expected into next year with food with
029food cost increase, it's not running to a loss. We sent $90,000. And then we also support our pre-K program because our grant does not support that program in its entirety of its costs. So, those are two items that is called an interfund transfer. We transfer those to other funds within our wealth. Transportation. All of our transportation costs are categorized and coded under the program budget. And then all of the associated employee benefits um, for all salaries within this section of the budget. Capital, again, has very specific things that are accounted for in the capital budget. All of our operations and maintenance for all of our facilities inside and out, our staffing employee and employee benefits, um, refund of taxes, debt service, and capital outlay. So, again, when we when we walk down through the specifics,
030we'll see the largest item here, as we talked about, is our debt service. We're bringing on our new debt, the first year of our new debt, um, which is structured and planned for the next 18 years, um, and you'll see there that increase of 2.235% per year. 2.2 million, sorry. Um, break down break down along, um, employee benefits associated with salaries in this portion of the budget, and then it increased there, um, identified as refund of taxes and insurance. So, just to clarify, sometimes people say refund of taxes, well, who do you pay taxes to? Um, that is a refund of taxes. We don't have a We We don't We don't have an expenditure for refund of taxes right at this moment. It's all insurance that is in there, but that is the category that
031it's called. Um, we do have a substantial increase in, percent-wise, in our property insurance, um, that is budgeted. One of, again, one of the strategies is we're out and we're requesting, um, other insurance companies to look at this, because for our property insurance, we cannot continue to see 10, 15, 17% increases. There are not a a of companies that do, um, school business. Not like at home where we can call five different or six different companies and say, "Can you come and insure us?" Uh but those are the things that we do continuously if the if it's available to us. So again, capital budget, this is where our big increase is um from year to year. And again, you'll see the increase on the revenue when we jump over to that slide. The administrative portion
032of the budget uh reflects all of the items out of categorical items in our budget that are the Board of Education, Central Administration, Finance, Auditing, Legal, BOCES Admin, Curriculum Development that supports the initiatives that we have um been running for the last couple of years. Tax Collection, Personnel Services, HR, Supervision of Schools, and again, all related employee benefits. Which is straddled amounts each of these categories. Um so again, we run down through the particular line items. Um you know, got a little uptick there um Curriculum Development. This goes right in line with strategic plan and making sure that the resources are available as we continue um to work through those different initiatives. Employee Benefits, this is a calculation that goes across all three of these domains, Admin, Instructional, and um Capital. An increase of 238
033on the administrative portion of the budget with those categories there. So let's talk about revenue. It's not a lot of places for school districts to generate revenue. Our number one revenue stream is state aid. Not going to get into we can do a whole um night series in talking about state aid and the different types of state aid and how they're different and how you maximize each of them. Our main driver in state aid is called foundation aid. It's unrestricted aid. So, it's not tied to transportation. It's not tied to um a building project. It's not tied to an expense that we get back. It's foundation and it's unrestricted. When we built this project, as Mr. Vecchio said, the state did not have a budget in place right now. So, when we began our revenue
034section of the budget in January, we got a run from the governor and Canastota had a 1% increase in our in our foundation. They re-ran the database in February and re-run Canastota had a 0%. We built zero. I can't build one if I don't know what's coming, right? The state hasn't approved a budget. Um we may get a little bit more state aid that we've built in here, but right now the data that is provided to us from Albany shows us getting a 0% increase on foundation. But, other categories of A is where we maximize. So, some places um mainly here, we have an increase of 8.7%. 1.9% of that increase is specifically relative to the debt service that we brought on for our building project. Okay. Does that make sense? Right, that makes sense.
035But, our increase in state aid is relative to building aid. Um taxes there, that's the levy. That's the total levy that supports the budget amongst all of our municipalities and properties within the school district, 2.75% increase year over year. Other revenue, um you'll see $1.8 million various types of miscellaneous revenues, interest rebates, um insurance, various types of insurance claims. We are self-funded insurance district, so we have various types of revenue that come in offset our health insurance costs that uh get recorded in the revenue section of the budget. And interest, um over the last couple years we have uh increased our interest revenue because of the of the market. Reserve usage, we are using $705,000 of our reserves. Last year we used $600,000. Reserves are part of our savings along with appropriated fund balance. Reserves
036are are identified by New York State and they >> [clears throat] >> are for specific purposes. So, districts can put money into reserves if there is a category that New York State says is allowable and we have that on the books. So, the board would approve that reserve and then we can fund it. Um reserves have a whole slew of requirements. Every year in June their reserve plan is presented to the Board of Education um which identifies the plan for the next year. Reserves get a little bit tricky because one of the things that the comptroller will want to see is they will want to see that you're using some of those reserves. You're not just packing money and then not using it. So, some of our reserves that we use on an annual basis
037is the New York State um employees retirement reserve. We use some of that money and it's an offset to an expense. So, that is the purpose. It can offset a portion of your expense or the TRS reserve. Same type of same type of uh uh uh uh requirement. So, something I think is worth reiterating. We keep coming back to the point of cuz there's certain key numbers that keep coming up, right? That you hear people talking about. We want to make sure people are completely clear in what these numbers mean. If we hear the number, we've heard some people say, "Wait, taxes are going up 6.67%." No, that's not correct. That was the budget-to-budget increase, okay? What tax levy, right? As Tracy talked about the pool of money that the district collects from tax base,
0382.75%, which is within our tax cap. But, look at that number, that that state aid number and the increase. There's the other part of the equation when you look at the budget-to-budget increase that is so substantially offset, right? [snorts] By that uh uh that top line percentage increase, 8.77% uh increase in state aid. That's the other part of the equation that we need to keep reminding people. So, I'll just probably won't be the last time tonight I'll say that, I suppose. Um again, so Canastota does use some appropriated fund balance to balance the budget. You can see there it's a decrease in the amount of appropriated fund balance that is being utilized as we move into 2026-2027. Again, fund balance um is uh is is a result of if you if you will, for a
039lack of better terms, um if you you know, end up with a profit, if you will, at the end of the year. So, we had more revenue than expenditures. Um the money rolls into fund balance. New York State has that capped at 4%. School districts can keep 4% of their subsequent year budget in uh fund balance. And again, this is audited. There's a whole process that that surrounds fund balance and that is part of that reserve plan. So, we project out where we think we may be at the end of June, we bring that reserve plan to the board and say, "Yep, we did use some of our funds in the ERS reserve. We think we're going to have a little bit money at the end of the year. We want to put that back
040so that next year we have that available to us to offset our expense in the future. So, again, I'm going to stop here and pause. And just just for a takeaway, um just so that again we're very clear, expenses are increasing by 6.67%. That is not a tax increase, that is the expenditure increase. The tax levy is increasing 2.75%. Now, over on the very far column there in the right hand, and this is my 26th budget presentation, and this is the very first time that I'm using this information because it makes me very nervous to put up for this reason. It's an estimate. Okay? And I don't like estimates that I can't really know um them to to to be true. Okay? It's an estimate because that number is indicated by it it it's generated
041by what's called the tax rate. So, we want to throw a whole new term in here. The tax rate is what actually identifies the increase in an individual property's taxes. The levy is one piece of that calculation. The other pieces of the calculation come in August. So, New York State provides us equalization rates, it gets included in that calculation. The towns send to the county valuations, property valuations, that information comes to us. If property valuations change, if equalization rates change, then the tax rate changes. The only thing that is 100% steady at this point is what the levy will be cuz the levy is going to increase by 2.75%. So, that is the number that we know 100% in that calculation today. So, when this is when with this estimate here using all of the
042information from last year and increasing the levy, the increase on a $100,000 home would be $80.39 for the year. Okay. So, yeah, it's an estimate. That is not going to be the number because valuations are going to change. Equalization rates come to us in in the middle of July. The state provides that information. But, if we used the information we had today, that would be the number. Again, I talked a little bit about this. I could do a whole presentation simply on this. The the tax levy limit, the levy, the tax rate, how we get the calculation, the property tax cap. I don't want to confuse our presentation here because there's a lot of terms. But, if somebody is interested and somebody wants to sit down and walk through these, I'm always happy to sit
043down and talk about this. This slide is simply here just to say it's not as easy as just using a statement and saying, "What are What are What is my What are my taxes going to be next year?" We have a levy limit. We have a levy. We have a rate. It all becomes a rate. So, with that, uh we we will end here talking about what you will see when you come to the um polling site to vote and what the propositions will be. One will be to approve the appropriation or expense budget in the amount of $42,270,428. Approve the authorization to purchase and finance two 65-passenger traditional gas buses and two eight-person SUVs for $535,000. And this is one of those areas where we receive transportation aid back on our debt service. We
044receive 90% back. So, once we finance, the following year we'll get 90% back on the debt service that we spent in the first year. Okay? So, the local share for for buses over 5 years will be $10,700. There are two board seats up on um up for renewal, three-year terms. And so, we have two incumbents running, Jen Kitchen and Mark Cenciola. And then, we will also be putting forth a proposition for our public library. So, this is not very common um in Harristown. So, this can be done two different ways. We have a public library in our public school budget. We collect the public library's levy every single year. It's on your tax bill, school tax, library tax. We collect it, we then send it to the public library. A library has um the option
045to do two different things. If their levy doesn't increase, they don't have to go up on a proposition annually. Or they could. I've been in two schools where every single year the library was up as a proposition even if they had no increase. That was their choice. But this year, going into next year, the library does have an increase on their levy. Um and they are required to ask us to put their proposition up, which we are putting their proposition up for them, and that is for the Canastota Public Library. So again, just a little bit different than uh what what we've historically been used to seeing on the proposition. And again, this is very common in a lot of budgets. But I would just say, Bill, do you have anything you want to add
046to that for the library? Um it's uh for us it is a our first increase request in uh 8 years. Um we're requesting about a $14,000 increase from what we currently uh are receiving, and um we appreciate your support. If anyone has any questions, please contact me. Um I'm not too far from the library most of the time, so That's all. All right. So lastly, um vote day across New York State is May 19th, next Tuesday. It will take place right here on this campus. It will take place again in the tunnel. The hours for voting are 1:00 to 8:00. Um but new this year is students will also be asked to come to vote. In person to cast their vote. So um over the last year there have been several items that have been
047tested out as uh new new lunch items. Uh they're not regular items on the menu for a couple reasons. The price point of them might be a little bit more than where regular menu items are, or they may be a little labor-intensive, right? Uh so these three items, I don't know if you can really see what's there, but I will read them to you. Homemade lasagna, a zesty taco pizza, or the backyard bash, which included barbecue chicken served with fresh corn on the cob and sweet potato fries, were big hits. So, we are asking students to come, cast their vote, and that item will land on the menu next year as a regularly scheduled item. So, if we do this every year, you know, we'll we'll have items that are student-driven items that they have
048voted on, and you know, they're really concerned, and it's on the menu. So. Why didn't you bring stuff for us to taste? >> [laughter] >> We need samples. >> Questions? Does anybody have a question or something that they would like me to recap from now that I've been talking for a little bit of time here? Oh, thank you. Um again, if you do have any questions, you know, I'm in the district office. Please feel free to reach out, >> [clears throat] >> and um I will answer them the best that I can. I would reiterate that. If you have a question, we will go we will go to any group or organization that asks us to explain things. We'll go to you, you can come to us. We'll do whatever works because you know, we
049want to make sure that accurate information gets to people. So, if you have a question, or you're talking to somebody who has a question, tell them to to ask us uh you know, a question, and we we'd be glad to try to answer their questions for them. Thank you. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Uh now, we will resume our regular programming and I will call to order this regular meeting of the Canastota Board of Education for May 12th, 2026. Everybody will please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We do have a bee flying around. I think that's the size of a bird. Did you say bee?
050>> [laughter] [clears throat] [laughter] >> Okay. Routine matters. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board is hereby approved the following routine matters. Board of Education minutes for April 14th, 2026 and April 21st, 2026. The CSE recommendations for the dates listed in the agenda >> [snorts] >> and the Treasurer's report for March 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Next up, we have presentations. We're going to be doing our building updates by principals. I was told I have to share first. >> [laughter] >> Don't be shy. I was trying to play nice in the sandbox. So, um you know, just kind of some updated you know, data for the group. Overall attendance, we're hovering just above 90%. You know, we're
051kind of creep we generally have been sitting between 90 and 91%. Our attendance our attendance index still still showing strong. That's the newer measure for New York State. Um, March and April we're still showing that decrease in discipline incidents, especially those related to the class of experience. Um, you know, in March 25% decrease in April another 17% drop. Um, as I always say and I keep saying every time I come up here, 95% of discipline is handled by the by the teachers. So, that's the relationships they're building. That is what their interventions are doing. Um, myself, Mark, Justin, we're just handling that last 5%. So, it's kudos on the team. Uh, student achievement late April early May, we had our quarterly awards. 190 students achieved honor roll or higher. I was actually really pleased with
052this even though the percentage went down some, but as you may remember the 50 50 kicker that students will get. So, you'd often see third quarter drop at this point. So, that still puts 58% of our students at 84.5 or higher, which I think is a very very very good measure. Uh, peer tutoring center is still chugging along. That's one of our additions for this year expanding our offerings during the uh, advisory center. Um, just to be able to walk through there and watch those kids guide other students. It's it's really kind of magical and we're looking to expand that going in the next year. Regents prep courses have been chugging along. Um, math math starting up, social studies have been been rolling. Science and math be rolling the same way. Uh, this is where
053the nice part of our advisory period comes into play. We don't have to wonder if we can keep kids after school, we have them already. So, in terms of snagging them and getting them with teachers, that's just a matter of getting it organized and making that happen. Um some school environment pieces, the community awards we're presenting on May 15th. This is the first time I've well, first time I've ever done anything like this to have a group of students run an actual full committee has been a really, really fun. And guiding them through the process of set setting it up, making contact. Um I will tell you I delivered the news personally to the staff members that are being recognized and just watching their faces was was was pretty amazing for me. Um we had
054junior prom. You know, as many of you know, I will tell you one of the big things that I'm super, duper, duper proud of. Not one time did we address anything with any of our kids. Not once did any chaperone have to say anything. Not even, "Don't do this. Don't do that." Not once. And that [laughter] just shows the quality of the students that we have in our school. Um we had what I hope to be a pretty awesome teacher appreciation week last week. Um I left the graphic on the back part if you've got my written document. One of the things I was proud to do and some of my favorite parts of being here Canastota is a lot of districts talk about community to school, school to community. We don't just talk it,
055we do it. So, being able to work with Liz Garofalo and connect with some of these other organizations like the alumni groups, the Chamber of Commerce, and come in and be part of celebrating teachers was pretty amazing. Uh we finished off that week prince principal's cabinet arranged to have little fake instame Instagram drop boxes on the outside door of every teachers. And I will tell you I got many a report for teachers getting notes of you know, from a student that maybe they wouldn't have heard from. So, it was a real nice week to really give those teachers a shout-out for all the great work they've done. Um and given my team has been doing it for at that level for quite some time, it was really, really nice putting them on the stage and
056letting them kind of bask in the bask in the excitement. Thank you. So, for the middle school, we're looking at our attendance year-to-date, we're at 93.4%. Uh we have had an increase in attendance for the month of April. We're currently up 2% from March. We were at 92.5 and right now we're at 94.5. Uh so, I'm hoping that we can keep trending in that positive direction for that. Uh year-to-date for discipline, we're at 367, which is uh and we are down four for the month of April. Uh we are down uh about 10 referrals for the month. Our science state testing took place today. Math was last uh week. ELA took place in uh April 21st and 22nd. Our ELA makeups are finished. We have one makeup, I think, left for math and we have
057four left for science that we're uh aiming to have those finished this week. Current numbers right now, not including the makeups, out of 376 students, we've had 330 that tested for ELA and 329 for math. Um the science testing is only grades five and eight. So, out of the 177 students in those grade levels, we've had 150 that have that have tested. Um our NWEA diagnostic testing is also coming up this week. We have ELA Thursday. Uh science and math are both next week as well. Um we're continuing with our peer mentoring program with Connected. The participation is not where we were hoping it would be. So, currently our grade level teams and our guidance counselors are working with Connected to try to do more outreach with parents and try to increase that participation in
058hopes that we can grow that better next year. Our end of the year field trips are currently being planned. Right now, fifth grade is going to Herkimer Diamond Mines on the 21st of May and Chittenango Falls on the 5th of June. Sixth grade is going to Green Lakes on June 18th. Seventh grade is going to Enchanted Forest this year on June 17th and our eighth grade trip is still in final off. We had our spring fling this past weekend and which went very well. We also had no disciplinary issues with that. The students went all out with their attire and they had a great time. Some upcoming events that we have are middle school band and chorus concert is coming up on June 11th. We have our eighth grade moving up breakfast, which I would
059like to invite you all to if you're available. It's on June 23rd at 8:15 in the morning and following that will be our eighth grade award ceremony. Also, we want to see student interest and student driven activity. So, our student government is currently planning right now an end of the year celebration that we're hoping to take place on June 24th. So, um I am Mrs. Blenis are working closely with our student government and they are planning the activities and what that is going to look like. So, I'll have more information to come on that as they continue to work on it. Thanks. Thank you. So, for South Side, I'll stay with that first theme of attendance. For third and fourth grade, we are always at 95 94 to 95% on a monthly basis and we
060go back and forth with Jen. Um, passing the Canastota Cup. So, last month fourth grade got it back again um, above 95% but um, we had to give it back to her today. So, good for us, good for second grade, good for fourth grade where we want to keep that up. The attendance is always there. Um, and I have to say this year it was a first for me um, to hear of a capital project ahead of schedule. Um, we were informed of that in April and then the plans um, how it impacts South Side um, we started to roll that out in May. So, we met with faculty um, April 30th um, just to share and discuss about the impacts of the construction internally. And then on May 5th um, many of you were
061there um, the board here um, at our community forum which really makes a difference but it's it's again what Rob talked about, it's Canastota. You know, your influence, your your presence there and talking with the community. Um, neighbors to South Side had the opportunity to ask questions um, and it was it was a really um, positive roll out, you know, to to to the construction. So, the work itself um, is started. It we're on go we we we began this week. Um, right now it's on this on High Street. So, it's the building you know, the part of the building that faces High Street so it impacts two pre-K classrooms and one fourth grade. Um, and which what meant for us was the shift for the drop drop off and pick up door just uh,
062went over to the other side of the building to the gym door. Um, but again it it was amazing um, you know, this week we started in on Monday um, and I can tell you, you know, it just went really well. Tracy and Nick were there. Um, our Mike, our SRO, was present outside, and Linda, the crosswalk guard, she was ready to support that drop-off and pick-up. And again, it's just been seamless, you know, business as usual. So, um, keeping those kids safe with pick-up and drop-off is is the priority. Um, Tracy always finds those fun ways creating some fun around the buildings. So, um, in regard to the capital project, one one of the things Southside is really excited about is the opportunity to name their cafeteria. Um, so we've been out with a
063survey to get some ideas, and that vote will be on May 19th. So, that's the big buzz. They they're really excited about naming their their cafeteria. It's it's brings a lot of fun around all of the renewal of these large spaces. Um, so we said that that they'll be voting on that on budget night. Um, May 19th, as you mentioned, is a really busy day on campus with that budget vote from 1:00 to 8:00, but in the evening is when we do our fourth grade informance. And what this is is the opportunity for our fourth grade band students who first have that that that instrument in their hand to get up on stage and perform. So, it's an informance giving them the feel of that first experience to to perform. And then immediately following that,
064and then it'll be held in the Dimeo gym, is our Southside spring chorus concert. So, chorus is that extracurricular activity that is very popular at Southside. It is just that wonderful opportunity to get to this point of the year where they can celebrate song with their peers. It's just honestly a thrill to to watch and celebrate. So, really looking forward to that. Um today we completed the NWEA map growth reading assessment and then on May 26th we'll we'll follow up. Um I'm sorry, it was reading today and then math on the 26th. So, obviously those results we know how important it is to see the progress that students are making and whether we need it we need to alter make changes to instruction. We're continuously doing that even though it's toward you think it's toward
065the end of the year, but we that's such important information as we go ahead and place students for for next year as well. Um Andrew mentioned the New York State testing. I can't thank students and staff enough for their commitment. >> [laughter] >> Incredibly high participation rate for ELA and math. We had four refusals at ELA for ELA test and five at the fifth grade. And also just always thank Karen Henner for her testing coordination. It's always so so appreciated. Connected we're we're also jumping on that mentoring program. Pretty excited about that. That started this week. It's Connect 4 initiative which is the mentoring program that already exists at the other buildings and we're we're going to be test piloting it. In fact, the high school students came over the peer mentors are high school
066students came over to to provide that positive influence and meaningful support. The first session focused on respect and kindness towards others. In third grade classroom so we're piloting it right now at the end of the year and looking forward to planning for that for next year. And finally, you know, I I can't thank them enough, but the PTA was just over the top in celebrating our teachers, who should be celebrated right over the top. Um and I I just have to mention because uh um Stephanie and uh Rebecca Emerick are such an influence with that with that PTA and the work that they do was just incredible. Their devotion and energy. So, for all of the um um Teacher Appreciation Week, everything that they did with providing lunch, with providing flowers for each and every
067teacher, for just everything, so celebratory. Um also, I want to thank them for a spectacular luau dance that we held in May. Um again, it was all them and and the kids are just absolutely loving it. Loving this opportunity to dance. So, again, to PTA, your energy, time, and effort is just so greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thanks. What? So, Ellen already shared about our big highlight, second grade reclaiming the Canestota Cup for April. Uh to recap that, we are very excited to get that back. Um they actually earned that. It's 5 months this year uh our second graders have, and I think our attendance rates for the other grades are up there pretty good as well. Um and so, with those 5 months, they tied in November, and there was almost a tie in January.
068It was a tenth of a point, so um second grade is um on cloud nine and very proud of themselves, as they should be. Uh kindergarten, very busy time of year. Our chicks are going to be hatching around the 18th. They will go back to Uncle Dave's farm on the 22nd. We appreciate his donation every year. Kindergarten hosted their annual Mother's Day gathering last Friday and academically they're working on tens and ones, teen numbers, addition and subtraction in math, presidents and American symbols in knowledge and social studies, and in writing they're working on adding details and not only to their writing but to their illustrations as well and sequencing events. So some pretty stuff at the end of the year in second grade or in kindergarten. First graders are using quick tens and ones to
069solve double digit addition problems. In writing they are creating opinion books. So some of the topics have been indoor versus outdoor recess, eating in the classroom versus eating in the cafeteria, and their favorite special areas also. And as far as social emotional learning they're continuing to review whole body listening and how to make respectful choices, making sure that they're ready for second grade which will be here before they know it. Our current second graders just took a great field trip to Fort Rickey and learned all about the animals and their habitats. They were able to interact with deer, baby goats, and even a snake if they so chose. In math they're introducing the basics behind multiplication and division, working with repeated addition and odd and even numbers. So they're very busy academically. I want to
070highlight badging. Sean had mentioned that earlier and I have to give a huge shout out to Mona Rizzo and to Angela Stotts in library and our wondering tech special. So we have awarded in a very short amount of time 119 of an only impossible 233 digital citizenship certificates and buttons, which is a little over 51% of our kindergarten, first, and second graders. So, I'm so impressed with the devotion of those ladies and the kids are so excited. They'll they wore those buttons for days and they're just super excited to have their pictures taken and up on the flat screen. Our PBIS team continues to meet monthly to review our behavioral data, identify trends, and make sure you know, we're developing interventions and strategies that promote positive behavior and support student success in the building. We're
071in week number two of our high-five lessons in conjunction with the Child Advocacy Center and the topic is safety around strangers. So, students will be talking about staying safe and staying safe in public this week. And we utilized our CoSer and actually Southside benefited from this also. Had a wonderful, very energetic and enthusiastic author, Daniel Jude Miller, was here on the 30th of April. So, he did two shows at Peterborough for us. He actually ran a library class and had lunch with a select group of second graders in the library where he told them about some of the books that he is currently working on. So, he challenged them to make monsters and to be clever and they really had a wonderful, wonderful time. So, that was a huge a huge hit and he was
072very, very inspirational. So, that's the wrap-up for Peterborough. Thank you. Okay, new business. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approved the following new business items. Uh donation from Romano Toyota via Syracuse in the amount of $500 to go towards the junior prom. Agreement with Onondaga Community College in Canastota to partner with Central New York School District to offer OCC credit courses effective September 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 20 2029. The agreement with CSEA and the Canastota CSD to make the following changes to the collective bargaining agreement set to expire June 30th, 2026 for a successor agreement during the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. Special education vendor agreement with Oneida City School District and Canastota CSD to provide special education services effective April 1st,
0732026 through June 30th, 2026. Agreement with Kick Healthcare in Canastota CSD for healthcare professionals effective May 13th, 2026 through June 30th, 2026. Uh and change orders for the 2023 capital improvement project with John W. Danforth Company, PC03 for $10,589, HC05 for $14,800, Bacon and Siler Constructors, uh GC16 for $32,481, GC17 for $18,646, GC18 for $13,658, GC19 for $16,277, GC20 for I assume that's a deduct. Uh deduct $5,025. >> [clears throat] >> Um GC21 for $15,752, GC22 for $10,417, and EJ Electric LLC uh EC08 for 4,631. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Uh student board member updates, they are not present so we'll move on. Uh committee reports, um facilities there we have not met since the the last update two weeks ago. So. >>
074[snorts] >> Uh south south side construction started. There's your update. Um let's go to finance. Uh we have not met. Tracy was nice and gave us a break. Um >> [laughter] >> but with the budget coming up obviously we heard a lot of stuff today so please everybody go vote. Uh academic committee. We had to postpone and should have a new date set soon. I'll see. We met earlier today and we look we're looking at three different policies in our meeting today. So one of them was in regards [clears throat] to homebound students. Looking at revising and updating some of that language there. One was in regards to out of district students. Am I Am I getting those that language right Tracy? Do I have that correct? Not quite right. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And
075then looking at to bring forward for those changes to the the meeting next our next meeting. And then also looking at a new policy in regards to donations, crowdfunding, and naming of of spaces. And so that the goal is for all three of those policies to be coming forward to this group in our next meeting. Okay. Safety. Has not met. We meet in June. June. Okay. Uh public comment period. Anyway. Here you go. Yes. make sure you vote. Uh superintendent's report. All right. Well, I'd like to start by echoing some of the comments that were made earlier by the principals. We we're celebrating teacher appreciation, staff appreciation on a broader scale. Um so, we want to say that publicly. We want to thank the the work that our teachers, our our support staff, everybody that's
076a part of our team. Um there's a lot of stuff that goes on on a on a daily basis and and we really count on people to come together and and try to, you know, move in the same direction and and support a common cause. And it's really about when it boils down to it, it's about doing good things for kids. And I think we have a lot of people who are dedicated to to doing working hard and doing great things for our students. So, we want to thank everybody for their for their efforts. Uh tonight I'll just mention on the agenda, uh it's a big night for several people because it's a big deal to get tenure. And so, we really want to congratulate I see some smiles in the audience. Um well-deserved congratulations
077to people who are going to be recognized for tenure. Represents the culmination of a lot of work to get to that point, to get the position in the district, but then not only to get the position, but to show that you are doing a great job and um you know, we hope that uh you're a member of our team for for many years to come. So, congratulations to all of those who are who are here and are I think uh many are here tonight are with us tonight. So, I think we are going to take a short break when we get to that point in the agenda and get some pictures as well. I'm looking at Brenda. I I think she she has the plan for that. So, congratulations to our our uh new tenure
078uh so, appointments. Why don't I just again thank our staff and our students for their hard work because it was you know we didn't we're still in it but these state assessments they had sort of a chance we like to look at it as not something to dread it's a chance to show what we've learned right and how we improved and how we are learning and we're we're tackling things that aren't always easy but it's worth it you know it's it's good to be able to do difficult things and challenge ourselves so I'm proud of of the efforts of our staff and students and the support of our families as we are are sort of in the home stretch and wrapping up the state assessments but then we have the whole wave coming with Regents
079exams and all of that so we're still going to be in it for a while. Just want to really I guess highlight the the efforts of the athletic advisory council because it's a a new thing this year it's a new initiative that we've started I guess in in the fall it has continued you know throughout the year and I think it's only going to continue to grow but if people can get it have a chance to really attend one of those sessions it was really great we got a lot of positive feedback we had former professional football player SU star Billy Murphy Eagle rap Drummond 15 year professional athlete come and and talk to it was an open forum parents staff students but it was interesting that to hear from somebody who's achieved at such
080a high level these people [clears throat] know him because of his accomplishments on the athletic field he talked a lot about what he's done since then you know how would did that serve as a lot as as a sort of a starting point for his career after that and and and how that shaped you know that experience has shaped a lot of kids and students and colleagues from around the state and the country. So the plan is that we're going to have more of those sessions. We've had sessions with our professional trainers. We've had sessions with uh Robert Drummond. That's just scratching the surface. There's going to be more that we'll continue to publicize going into the into the new year. And I would also invite people to always give my promotion of the PAC
081group. The next meeting is June 3rd. Had a really good meeting at Was it I believe last week? I'm losing track of the weeks. But they're really great ideas and suggestions that come from positive people who try to put their heads together and say what can we do for for kids and for programs. And I think we uh actually have to I believe we have landed our our date for the barbecue for the annual Is this our fifth annual barbecue already? That will be it's and it is the I actually didn't write the date but it's the second Thursday in August this year. And I think we just landed that. So they're going to hear a lot more >> [snorts] >> about that in the coming days and weeks. That's been really at high attendance.
082We've had as many as I think 900 people at some of one of those events. I don't think we've ever had less than about 500. So look forward to promoting that and and bringing the Canasota community together and definitely thank community schools for their involvement. They've been very instrumental in in having that process. And my one last time since I'm already a lot of times a broken record, I'll be a broken record one more time. When it comes to the to the budget, and I would invite everybody if they have a question or they're hearing people that are confused by the difference in some of those numbers we looked at, right? I'll we'll keep reiterating certain key points. The 6.67 was the budget to budget increase, but the 2.75 is our tax levy increase, okay?
083Big difference. So, when you hear somebody saying, "My taxes are going up almost 7%," correct them or if you don't want to have that conversation, refer them to myself, refer them to Tracy, and we'll be glad to have that conversation with people because it's important that they have good information. Okay? And as Tracy referenced, because there's that large increase in in aid that came about because of the capital project, when you look at the operating increase in operating expense expenses, it was 1.18%, which is a really uh you know, pretty pretty reasonable number. Uh and we are pleased with the budget plan that we have because it's preserving programs and it's keeping us on a stable path. We don't want to be a district who has these wild variations with massive amounts of of cuts
084to people and programs. We want to have stability over the long term. It ties into our strategic plan and we'll continue to update you into the as we finish out the year, into the summer, and the new year, talking about things that are central to our strategic plan because, again, it's it's our actions need to to match what we talk about, right? And so, that strategic plan is is is a reflection of what we value as a school community and what we think is important in helping kids and being responsible to taxpayers. So, uh um the So, please ask questions when you have them um and uh we'll be glad to to try to answer them. But, that too many things to mention. Uh I refer people to the school calendar. So many events at
085the end of the year, it's almost impossible to track. There's like event after event. Mr. [cough and clears throat] Carter referred to one of my favorite events, which is going to be um this Friday morning. Awesome event at 9:00 because it's run by students. It's It's students recognizing people who've made an impact on them. And it doesn't get much better than that is when students have an opportunity to say thank you. And they're running it. Really, I mean, certainly Mr. Carter, I know has helped and some of their advisors that were They're helping them. But, it's an awesome experience to see the students be able to plan it and and really execute it uh at a high level uh every piece of that event. So, nice nice job and and we're looking forward to that
086on on Friday morning. Thank you. Thanks. Personnel recommendations, all appointments are pending clearance on fingerprinting. Uh retirements, resignations. >> [clears throat] >> Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board does hereby approve Janice Ms. Janice Wolinski's irrevocable letter of resignation as a social studies and business and marketing teacher effective June 30th, 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board does hereby approve Carrie Malavas' letter of resignation as a long-term substitute teacher effective at the end of the day on April 24th, 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Sorry. >> [laughter] >> Ask the question. >> [laughter] >> Courtney has second if I can all those [clears throat]
087in favor opposed motion carried resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the board is hereby approved Crystal Miller's irrevocable letter of resignation as a music teacher effective June 30th 2026 do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor opposed motion carried. Permanent appointments, here we go. >> [clears throat] >> Resolved that Mona Rizzo is hereby appointed on a probationary basis in the tenure area of teacher assistant with the understanding that the named individual does hold New York State certification appropriate to or required for that position that the probationary appointment shall commence on September 1st 2026 that the probationary appointment shall expire on August 31st 2030 and that the named individual to be eligible for an appointment on tenure upon expiration of the probationary period it shall be necessary
088but not sufficient that the individual has received an annual professional performance review rating of either effective or highly effective in three of the four years of the probationary service and has not received an annual professional performance rating of ineffective in the final year of the probationary appointment as based on ratings derived in compliance with education law section 3012d at $38,500 do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor opposed motion carried. Resolved that Travis Moyer is hereby appointed on a probationary basis in the tenure area of business and marketing with the understanding that the named individual does hold New York State certification appropriate to or required for that position that the probationary appointment shall commence on September 1st 2026 that the probationary appointment shall expire on August 31st, 2030. And that
089the named individual to be eligible for an appointment on tenure upon expiration of the probationary period, it shall be necessary, but not sufficient that the individual has received an annual professional performance review rating of either effective or highly effective in three of the four years of the probationary service and has not received an annual professional performance rating of ineffective in the final year of the probationary appointment as based on ratings derived in compliance with education law section 3012D at step 13 bachelor's plus masters plus 54 hours at $71,427. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that's Excuse [clears throat] me. Resolved that Sarah Snedeker is hereby appointed on a probationary basis in the tenure area of mathematics with the understanding that the named
090individual does hold New York State certification appropriate to or required for that position. That the probationary appointment shall commence on June 22nd, 2026. That the probationary appointment shall expire on June 21st, 2030. And that the named individual to be eligible for an appointment on tenure upon expiration of the probationary period, it shall be necessary, but not sufficient that the individual has received an annual professional performance review rating of either effective or highly effective in three of the four years of the probationary service and has not received an annual professional performance rating of ineffective in the final year of the probationary appointment as based on ratings derived in compliance with education law section 3012D at step 18 bachelor plus masters plus 30 hours $70,319 prorated salary will be 70,319 dollars for the 2026-27 school year. Do
091I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approve Heather Simmons' appointment of cook manager at a salary of 52,000 pro-rated effective June 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2026 with a 20 six-week probationary period. Salary will be 52,000 for the 2026-2027 school year. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approve Mallory Shields as a permanent nurse at 32.74 per hour effective May 14th, 2026 with a 26-week probationary period. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. >> [clears throat] >>
092Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approve Grace Davis as a 0.6 art teacher at 30,748 dollars effective September 1st, 2026. This is a non-tenure track. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Substitute appointments. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approve the following substitutes. Ashley Waterman is a long-term certified sub teacher at 257 dollars per day effective April 29th, 2026 through June 26th, 2026. And a daily certified sub teacher at $140 per day effective July 1st, 2026. Jamie Snyder to a 1-year long-term certified 7-12 social studies teacher at step two, 51,746 for the 2026-27 school year. Zoe Evans is a non-certified sub teacher substitute teacher at $120 per day effective
093May 13th, 2026. Zoe Fragapane as a non-certified sub teacher at $120 per day effective May 13th, 2026. Wendy Dunn as a non-certified sub teacher at $120 per day and sub teacher aid monitor at $16.95 per hour effective July 1st, 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Civil service appointments. Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approve the following civil service probationary to permanent employees effective May 2026. Destiny Hart, school monitor. Eileen McGrath, bus driver. Sarah Watkins, school monitor. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Coaching. Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby amend Sean Dwyer's girls modified track salary salary to step
094three, $3,068. >> [clears throat] >> Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board is hereby approve the 2026 ball season and the 2026-27 winter season paid and unpaid coaches as per the attachment to the agenda. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Okay. Now to the good part. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools that Nicole Lippard Doss possesses a physical motion carried. Congratulations. >> [snorts] >> Resolved that upon Timothy Bezan possesses a 7th through 12th English certificate issued by the Commissioner of Education is prospectively awarded tenure in the tenure area of English effective September 1st, 2026 conditioned upon compliance with APPR
095requirements or waiver as determined by the state of New York. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained. And one abstention. Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools that Cara Niles possesses a 1 through 6 childhood education certificate issued by the Commissioner of Education is prospectively awarded tenure in the tenure area of elementary effective September 1st, 2026 conditioned upon compliance with APPR requirements or waiver as determined by the state of New York. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools that Sydney Coleman possesses a 1 through 6 childhood education certificate issued by the Commissioner of Education is prospectively awarded tenure in the tenure
096area of elementary effective September 1st, 2026 conditioned upon compliance with APPR requirements or waiver as determined by the state of New York. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. >> [snorts] >> Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools that Caroline Billy possesses an a art certificate issued by the Commissioner of Education is prospectively awarded tenure in the tenure area of art effective September 1st, 2026 conditioned upon compliance with APPR requirements or waiver as determined by the state of New York. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools that Amy Perrone possesses a B through two early childhood education certificate issued by the
097Commissioner of Education is prospectively awarded tenure in the tenure area of elementary effective September 1st, 2026 conditioned upon compliance with APPR requirements or waiver as determined by the state of New York. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools that Katherine New possesses a 7 through 12 social studies certificate issued by the Commissioner of Education is prospectively awarded tenure in the tenure area of social studies effective September 1st, 2026 conditioned upon compliance with APPR requirements or waiver as determined by the state of New York. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools the board does hereby approve
098the following for the district cabinet subcommittee members at $45 per hour, Rebecca Emrick and Megan Miller. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools the board does hereby revised the following 2025-2026 co-curricular positions. Brian Dwyer, Science [snorts] Olympiad Assistant, Middle School, 7-8, at $1,563. Sean Dwyer, Science Olympiad Assistant, Senior High, 9-12, at $1,563. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carried. Do we want to take time for the tenure? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Picture time. I don't worry. Brenda, you want to orchestrate the uh process? [laughter] Don't be shy. Our new newly tenured And stand up. >> We're going in the hallway. Let's go in the hallway. Go in
099the hallway. Don't stand in the hallway. We'll address you here. You know what you're doing. So what it feels like to be a student again? You know, in the hallway. Now we're telling the kids to get out of the hallway. That's what we're doing. It's class. It's all right. I know what the hell. Go in the hallway. You know, go in the hallway. >> [laughter] >> We never WALK IN THE HALLWAY. Just put it on. What are you doing? >> Okay, resuming we are at the public comment period and I do have a request to make a public comment from Mr. Brunelle. Greetings everyone. I'm Rick Brunelle, I teach music what is it now? 5 through 12 grade. Um from year to year it's crazy. So Tracy already mentioned earlier on that nothing has been
100cut in the budget because we can't afford it. So my question is why did we choose to cut the art and the music positions in the elementary down to 0.6? We know about the art one in the meeting minutes tonight but I found out about the music one in an email. Uh that job is posted as 0.6. And I know you don't have to respond right now. So, I just have a couple questions and after that Um if this was due to a scheduling issue, um couldn't we schedule those positions to teach other classes that are already board approved but not currently offered? Um is this the first time we've known about a scheduling issue? If not, how long? What have we done about it in the past? And uh 0.6 positions probably fetch applicants
101who are looking to fill an in-the-meantime need until a full-time position becomes available for them. I believe this will be difficult to form the strong bonds of learning with our students and synergy between our staff members that occur over years. As Ellen Brents alluded to tonight, we will hear the beautiful voices of the elementary chorus students on the May 19th concert. Such an awe-inspiring event can only be created by the leadership and love of a caring educator. And we will miss Ms. Miller as our elementary music teacher. Thank you. Okay, was there anybody else that wishes to speak? Okay. Uh future dates, May 19th is the budget trustee vote again um in the high school tunnel from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Uh June 9th is our next regular Board of Education meeting 6:30 right
102here at the high school media center. And at this time, I will entertain a motion to enter into executive session for the discussions of employment history and for matters leading to the employment of particular individuals. Do I have a motion? I'll make that motion. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. We are now in executive session and we will not be returning for any more public business. Thank you. Reflects this is done