001All right, guys. We have a our board meeting starting. We have our quorum. Um we're going to open public session. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. Since we have an Eagle Scout group back there, would you guys like to lead us? >> Ready? >> Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, and justice for all. So when you guys write your opening letters about what you did at a board meeting, just say that you were involved in the pledge. >> So we are calling to order our annual budget hearing. Good. Perfect. I'll use the kick. Thank you. All right. Good evening, everyone. Uh, welcome to our budget hearing. I apologize. I'm a little under the weather, so I'm going to try
002to get through this um as well as I can. Um thank you for all of you that decided to join us today, especially our Boy Scouts. It's nice to see students in the midst as we're talking about the budget for next year. So this uh this evening, Dr. Mr. Oserio and I, our business official, will discuss a couple of things. One is that we're going to look at the district highlights in terms of what we did last year. Well, currently this year, the 2526 school year, and we're going to give another overview of our revenue expenditure proposal as well as the possibility of what a contingency budget would look like for the Santa Merch School District. So, it's interesting when I put together these two slides, the next two slides, which are the highlights of
003the 2526 school year. It's interesting when you look at some of the things that we've done as a district over the last 10 months. You don't really realize it as you're doing it, but when you begin to create a list as to what you've done, it's quite amazing. So in terms of the instructional enhancements that we have across the district for the 25 26 school years, uh we look predominantly at a couple key areas that that had a lot to do with the board of education goals that were developed in August of 2025 and predominantly we looked at uh how do we prepare our students, our high school students for postsecary endeavors in terms of college. So, we ran a lot of different activities throughout the school year. Predominantly, our college essay uh writing workshops
004that are coming up in May. We had a college fair. We had college information night. We had financial literacy workshops. Uh we had NCAA information workshop which was new to us. We've never done this before. It was predominantly uh geared towards our parents as well as students that would like to play uh a um athletics on the collegiate level. We also had quite a successful SAT preparation workshop, something we haven't done in a couple years. We implemented it again this year. Uh I think the students as well as the teachers responded very well to it. I I I received a lot of different um accolades regarding the performance of our students as they sat for the SATs back in May. A couple of our students sat again last weekend. So, they feel I think from
005from what I've heard, they feel a lot more prepared in terms of taking the SAT. So, that was really good. The other thing that we kind of looked at from the instructional point of view is closing the instructional um gaps, especially in the area of literacy. So we did implement a new literacy program uh at the elementary school uh which is magnetic literacy that is a K to five program. We also implemented I ready diagnostic which looks at students performance in reading as well as mathematics. We also uh implemented a literacy academy from grades K to 8 which identified the students that were struggling in various areas in reading and writing. Uh we had a great turnout in terms of students that participated. We had a lot of um family and and student input in
006terms of the the success of the literacy academy. So that is something that we hope to look forward to in the future. And finally what we did also is that we implemented a lot in terms of professional development. So we looked at some of the uh student categories that we have across the district that really required some additional individualized support such as our ENL population. Uh we did some professional development in artificial intelligence and we did a lot of work on the curriculum side in terms of curriculum alignment and data um development, data inputting in terms of how we utilize data in our classroom to inform our instruction, inform our assessments and to help students perform better on formalized or summitive assessments. The next thing that we did is we did a lot in terms
007of facility enhancements. So last year when the board of education developed their goals, one of the primary goals of the board of education was to look at facilities. I think that the community is fully aware that for years there were a lot of things that we could have done that we didn't do. So we uh we paid a lot more attention to enhancing our facil facilities, identifying areas that we needed to repair, identify areas that we needed to enhance. And some of the highlights of this year, as you can see, there's quite a few things we did, but predominantly we did the um renovations of the auditorium, secondary auditorium, where we utilize our reserve uh our capital reserve account to fund the complete cost of that renovation. We also renovated the boardroom as you see
008here. Uh we renovated the ath we added athletic signage to the secondary complex for years. We had these wooden signs that were in disrepair. So we we did allocate funding to change that. So we did that. We are in the process of renovating the APR which is the allpurpose room. It's a secondary gym at the elementary school. We at this time we painted. We did some small internal work and over the summer we're going to complete that work. We also did the elementary walkway which is one of the pictures here. And the last thing that I want well two things I want to mention. One is that we did the Unchuk resource room. So I think the community is aware that we do tuition students from the Unchuck Nation from the Puschuk reservation here in
009Massik. They come to us. They have been it's a long-standing relationship that we've had with the Unchachuk Nation for roughly about 60 years. So, um they are a great piece of our population, a great asset to our population where they add a sense of diversity, a uniqueness that is somewhat different than Sen Riches. So, we uh embrace that and we redevelop their truck resource room. It is a space where students can feel safe, where they can provide support, uh they can seek support from individuals that are there to aid them. The other thing that we did is that we renovated the high school lobby. We renovated the high school um welcome area to allow it to be a space that was that would be a lot more welcoming to guests as well as students. At
010this time, I'm going to turn it over to our business official, Mr. Oserio, to continue our presentation. Good evening everyone. Um, we are going to do like a little summary of all the budget season and we are going to start with the revenues. >> Oh, my bad. So at the end of all the budget season we actually have recorded this the the revenues for 2026 2027 um next year we will have 56,193,000 uh $689 um that keep us uh within the allowed levy that means that it will be an increase of 1.69 69 budget to budget. Um this is a really important figure to notice knowing that there is like a lot of expenditures that they are coming to our uh school district especially in in benefits side. We have the expenditures for this year.
011Um again the since these are balanced budget we will be spending the same amount as all revenues. Um we can see that salaries is for is almost 50% of our budget this year. A big portion benefits 26.2%. Um we have actually another big portion is bosses and transportation 6% and 5.1% respectively. That brings us to our three-part budget. So we are spending 10% in administrative cost. Of course the the highest expendituring in school districts is the instructional part. That's 79%. U for $44 million and $383 uh439 and our capital budget it's like our custodial department all the infrastructure part it will be at 11% this year. The budget proposal will be for 56,193689. Um, and basically that's the proposal that we had approving on the last meeting. What is important for the community is the
012tax rate projections. As we can see in this table, we have like a like a regular tax projection. Um the numbers here are like estimates. There are no like setting table because we don't have the assessed value. But we are projecting that we will have like a increase within the same range that we were having in the previous years. The tax rate for next year will be 3.0696. Now let's talk about the contingency budget. So when a school district doesn't pass the original budget, we have a second chance to present a budget, a re review, a review budget, we can present the same budget or review the budget and decrease some numbers. If in the second chance we don't pass the budget, we have to go under a contingency budget. What that means is like
013we cannot increase our tax levy. So if we don't increase our tax levy basically we will have to reduce our budget by $792,000 $458 uh dollars. What does it mean is like we will have to reduce our program which is of faculty staff. Um we have an estimate that we will be having to reduce around four or five FTEs. In the capital side of the things, we actually will have to limit the access to like the outside organizations. Um, they wouldn't be able to use our facilities in the afternoons. It will it wouldn't be any extracurricular activities and in the administrative because we should limit the the um benefits for some of the the some of the latest benefits that we have in query in this year. Um basically as we can see in this
014chart in the bottom line is like that will reduce the flexibility in our expenditure. Um we will have to cut like vital programs because the goal of the district is to keep the instruction as our main and primary um goal for the next years. And that also will reduce um the improvements and investments in our facilities which in the previous presentation we having notice uh we have been showing that we have been advancing so much in in this year. >> Mr. Zera can I can I just interject for one second? One of the things that uh the reason why we built this particular slide is so that the community really gets a good understanding of what a contingency budget would would entail for Senate merches and it would entail the same details for any district
015on the island. What that really means is that you cannot increase your tax levy from the previous year. So we would have to take our adopted budget and we would have to find an additional $792,000 that we would have to cut. uh or we would have to or there's another possibility where you would revise the board would choose to revise their original proposal and then submit it to the community for their approval. If that fails then we automatically goes go to a contingency budget. with a contingency budget. Unfortunately, the ability to uh allow us to allow third-party groups to utilize our facilities will be limited because what the regulations state is that you cannot allow a third party agency to utilize your facilities if it it if it's at or of any cost to the
016district. that would include electricity, that would include uh personnel, that would include perishables. So, unfortunately, the facilities would be shut down for any uh outside organization to utilize our space, which I think would be a shame to see happen in San Fern. >> Nope, that's good. So basically that the main goal with a contingency budget is to preserve the educational services and we will get rid of of any extra that we have. Um we hope that we are not going to get into that instance. We are confident in our budget this year. Uh please come to vote next uh Tuesday May 1926 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the library. This is how the propositions will look um when you are like when you receive the ballots and we have two members for election this
017year. The names are in the ballot. Um this is the timeline for our budget presentations. Um next we are going to be um we will have the the budget vote. Any questions from the board? >> Okay. >> Say any questions from the board at all? >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> So, so the location of the um budget vote will be the high school library. It has been there for the last few years. Uh we think it's an ideal location because of the traffic. Uh at the same time at from 4:30 to 7:30 that evening, we will have a celebration of America's 250th um independence. Uh I have to give a lot of credit and thank uh the efforts of our assistant superintendent for curriculum and data management, Dr. Botcher, for organizing it. We think it's
018going to be a great event. We have food trucks coming. We have music performances. We have arts and crafts. We're celebrating um the timeline of America. We're celebrating a lot of the different countries that contributed to America's foundation. Uh so that will be at the same time. We have outside groups helping us with it. I know PTO is um planning to have a station there as well as they did last year where they will be giving out popcorn and cotton candy and doing other activities to get the vote out. So, the vote wi is going to be on Tuesday, May 19th from 7:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. in the high school library. Uh we uh would love for our entire community to come out to not only celebrate the activities that we have planned that
019day, but also to make your vote vote count for us. >> Thank you. >> At this time, it's for general public comments regarding the budget hearing. So, this is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on the proposed school budget hearing presented this evening. Speakers are asked to sign in with the district clerk. State your name and indicate your topic of comment. Keep comments brief and limit remarks to no longer than 3 minutes. Focus comments on proposed budget and related matters. Refrain from discussing matters involving involving specific district personnel or individual students. Please stand and speak into the microphone so everyone present and those joining us live stream can hear you clearly. Do we have any public comments, >> Mr. Can we ask questions during the public? >> Yes, please. >> The reason
020the reason we're going to ask you to speak at the mic because it is live stream. >> Uh my name is Herb Stroble, Senator Mitch's resident. Uh just a couple of questions I guess for Mr. Osario and the board in general. So given that the state budget has not been approved, can you speak to how that's factored into the calculation? So yes, like um even though the the governor budget is not passed yet, we actually have include an estimate for the percentage that we are confident that we will receive in the next year for the foundation aid. >> And just as a followup, when you say you're confident, I mean based on what? So we have internal meetings between our group of business officials and in the superintendent as well that we have received the
021information that right now the governor budget is no um stopping the education side of the things is the other mothers and we will be receiving the 2% that we >> we so if I could interject uh Mr. Sarah, we believe that we're going to get to 2%. Right now, the the governor's budget has proposed a 1% increase to foundation aid for set merchants is roughly about $145,000. We're hoping that it uh will come in at another 1% which will be 145, but we did uh budget conservatively where we only allocated 75,000. So we are right now our budget proposal predicts another.5 not a full 1% on top of the 1% that the governor originally proposed. >> Okay. Uh and just I guess two more quick questions. Um historic Mr. Arsario and you may not have
022these numbers at the top of your head. I completely understand that in terms of uh benefits I think it was about 26% of the anticipated >> cost. Historically going back a few years can you speak at all to has that number has that fraction changed increased decreased I have reviewed the last four years and the basically the benefits are in the same range of percentage it's salaries and benefits are almost like the same percentage every year because they keep increasing. >> No I understand they keep increasing but I'm wondering is benefits becoming a greater fraction of the pie? That's my question. Yes, it's becoming like a greater portion of >> So it is it is becoming a greater portion. >> Y >> not just numeric not not just numerically but also fractionally. >> Yes. Okay.
023>> It definitely is. That that is a factor that increased our budget by about a million dollars this year. >> Right. And my final question is has the budget mailer gone out? >> Uh it's going to go out tomorrow? Uh but everything is published right now in the website. >> I understand that. But the budget mailer is going out tomorrow because there's a number of residents in the community who >> Yeah, it will be tomorrow. We just receive our printouts. >> Okay. So, it should we should receive it in our mailboxes at least the week before the budget vote. >> Oh, yeah. By Monday, probably everyone will be receiving the >> All right. The budget brochure and the six day notice. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments regarding this? All right. Move.
024So, I'm going to move to adjourn the budget hearing. Can I get a motion? >> Motion. >> Okay. A second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Yes. So, now we're going to call uh we're going to do a repair reserve public hearing. So, we'll call to uh order for our repair reserve hearing. And I'm going to turn that back over to you. Right. >> Yes. So, the main goal of this hearing is like the withdrawal of funds over like districts repair reserve uh for necessary and no recurring uh repairs specifically those will be used in the boiler in the elementary repairs and in the as in the high school um circulation BS and in the in the back parking lot. Um the amount of the withdrawal was 58,355. >> I'm sorry. What? >> It's
02558,385. It's two components. One is that we um had quite a few repairs that we had to make at the elementary boiler system. I think the community is aware that we are working on a boiler system that's over 60 years old. So this year because of the frigid temperatures and because of the uh just the winter that we had this year that was um not similar to previous winters, we did you utilize the boiler system a lot more. So we did have significant repairs uh that we had to make to it. That is replenishing or that is going to allow us to pay for the outstanding invoices that we have. the other I believe it was about $36,000 that's allocated to the secondary um parking lot and the bus loop asked for we had some
026significant damages as a result of snow removal. There's quite a few sink holes that we have to repair. That is going to be about $32,000. That is going to be the use of the repair reserves because right now we don't have additional funds in our general funds to support that. And that is the purpose of a of a repair reserve when you have emergency repairs that you have to make. That's why we're asking the board to support this. Any questions at all? This is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on the proposed repair reserve hearings presented this evening. Public comments will be conducted in accordance with the guidelines established for the budget hearing me mentioned earlier within this evening. Any questions? Again, Herb Strobels, resident of Senator Richards. A couple of questions.
027Um, I guess to Mr. Stoodto and or Mr. Osar, Dr. Stoodto andor Mr. Osario. Uh, first question is, how is the uh repair reserve funded? >> The repair reserve funded is funded through surplus at the end of the school year. the board has to allocate exactly how that surplus is used and it is used to repair the se it is used to replenish the seven reserves that we have um in the district. >> So just to be clear make sure I understand it. So if the district ends up with a quote surplus at the end of the year the board then allocates has the ability to then allocate that among seven different reserves. >> That is correct. And if there is no surplus >> then we would not be able to um fund continue to
028fund those reserves. >> And if there is a negative balance in the operating budget >> uh then we would have to either make a resolution to utilize the reserves that we currently have in place. We do not perceive that we are going to find ourselves in that situation. We feel that our current uh revenues are enough to support our expenditures for the next two months. >> And what is the current balance in the repair reserve? >> Uh right now is $280,000. >> And what is the current balance in the aggregate for the seven reserves? >> In if I'm not mistaken, right now is 7,611,000. >> I'm sorry. Say that again, please. it the balance of all the research is 7,711,000 in change >> 7 million >> 7,700,000 so nearly 8 million is that correct >>
029okay in all of those reserves >> in all those reserves and just as a general rule we are um we we can fund those reserves more we have more room to fund the reserves so >> and my final question is can you list off the seven different reserves not not the amounts just the category ories please. >> Yeah, we have a capital reserve, the repair reserve, we have a blar reserve. >> I'm sorry. >> Elar like the employees benefit liability reserve. >> Okay. >> We have the ERS reserve and the TRS reserve and the unemployment. >> What was the last one, sir? >> Unemployment. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And I think it's also good to know that a lot of the projects that we do are aidable, too. So, um
030like the auditorium part of that was aidable. So, we get some of that back. Any other questions? So, I one I I love the questions because they're informative. I think it's helping us get this information out to make sure that it's it's going the mailer question. I just went to my right and said, "Are we getting that out tomorrow?" Yes, that is going out tomorrow. Um, if anyone does not get it and we hear uh is it does it go on the paper as well or >> it it's actually posted in our website already, both of them. But >> to the to the point of the community side, some will see that, some won't. So the miller the mailer is still much of very much a big staple of probably 40 to 50%. So we
031just want to make sure that so I went to my right just to kind of follow up but um let's see move to adjourn uh repair reserve meeting motion. Do I have a motion motion? >> I thought the one was going to go for >> all in favor? >> Yes. Uh let's see. So use of reserves. It's very different this time. I'm used to like a consent agenda item and it's all there. end. So, be it resolved that the board of education of the Santa merch school district hereby authoriz authorizes the withdrawal of 58,355 and 38 cents from the district's repair reserve fund pursuant to general municipality law 6D for the purpose of funding non-reoccurring repairs to the boiler system at Clayton Huey Elementary School located at 511 Main Street, Sen Riches, New York, and
032asphalt repairs at the Sen Rich Mitches High School located at 311 Frewin Road, Sen Rich Mitches, New York. Do I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Do I have a second? >> All in favor? >> Yes. >> Uh miscellaneous. We have field trips. Be it resolved that upon recommendation of the superintendent schools, the board of education approves the following overnight field trips for the 2526 school year, My Brother's Keeper uh in Albany, New York. Do I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. All in favor? >> Yes. >> Um,formational items. >> Holy. >> All right. I asked for this, I guess, in the beginning of the year. Um, up Holy smokes. Uh, school budget. We'll start with the one of the the they're all importance, but we'll start with
033the top down. School budget vote and election. As a reminder, Tuesday, May 19th from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. High School Library, 311 Froen Road, Cinemer's, New York. And again, we will make sure that we are putting that out everywhere. Next regular board of education meeting, Tuesday, May 27th, 2026. Upcoming district and community events, it gets busy. 56 through 58, Frost Valley for grade 8. Saturday 59 PTO Mother's Day plant sale. Clayton Hueie front lawn 9:00 am until sold out. So hopefully people go there early and sell them out till 11:00 a.m. and they can go home. Monday, May 11th, Clayton Huey spring concert. That is in the high school auditorium 6 p.m. Tuesday 512. May 12th, unified national banner ceremony, high school gym. For those that don't understand what unified is, it's Special Olympics
034and general education students playing together. They were nationally recognized by the Special Olympics. Um, that is not an easy task. Probably one of eight maybe that was recognized in New York State. Uh, Wednesday, May 13th, Clayton Huey Mathletes Competition. It is an all day inschool event. It is in the science lab. I'm assuming that that's just a notice, right? No one can really watch that or Okay. May 13th, there's a PTO meeting in Clayton Huey Cafeteria at 6:30 p.m. May 14th, RDPC meeting, Red Devil's Pride Club meeting, um is high school cafeteria at 700 p.m. Thursday, May 14th, middle school spring concert. It is also in the high school auditorium from 7:00 p.m. Saturday, May 16th, middle school jazz band music in Park at Six Flags. Monday 5:18, Clayton Huey Art Show, 6 PM, allpurpose
035room. Tuesday, May 19th, school budget vote and election, high school library, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 19th, Melting Pot of America 250th anniversary celebration, 4:30 to 7:30, high school campus. While you're there, you can vote. May 20th, facility health and safety committee meeting 4 pm. Thursday, May 21st, art honor society induction ceremony in middle school gym, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21st, high school concert and art show, high school auditorium plus middle school gym, 7 p.m. Oh, all right. Just to reread that again, the middle school gym will have the art show and then the high school concert will be in the auditorium. I just kind of read it as I was stating it. Monday 5:25 school is closed. Memorial Day, Sen Rich Mitch's Memorial Day parade sponsored by the VFW Post 414 is
036on Main Street at 900 a.m. >> Excuse me. >> Yeah, they missed one. >> The board meeting for the May 197. Where's that being held at? >> Oh, district office boardroom May 27th. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. All right. Uh motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Motion. >> All in favor? >> Yes. >> Thank you. 7:35 p.m.