001Yep. >> Okay. Good evening. We'll go ahead and get started if uh with the flag salute. >> 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, liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Thank you everybody for that. Okay. Could I get a motion to approve tonight's meeting agenda? >> And second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. Thank you for that. Um, we got any blue cards, Pearl? >> All right. And here's Christie. Um, all right. So, I'd like to uh introduce Mr. Thomas Calaboufo do his presentation to the board. >> Projected revenues. Good luck with your your presentation. All right, Moren could not make it uh with us tonight. She does a wonderful job. This is just going
002to be one of many presentations leading up to the ultimate uh v budget vote in the spring. So, as you know, the governor's uh first run had come out. Uh it was pretty demoralizing for u most school districts because we got a 1% increase in foundation aid. And I'll break that down. So, as we can see, the state aid increase. So, if you look at it on paper, you don't really if you're not part of a school district and you don't really know what these numbers mean, it looks it looks great to a lot of people. State aid increase of 1.6 billion or a 4.3% increase. Foundation aid increase of 779 million. every district receiving at least a 1% increase. We were used to uh three three and a half% increases. Um something that actually
003is really good for us is the expense-based aids funded at current law um law levels. No changes proposed. So any decrease on your aid run is data driven. So that's a good thing. So that means all of the things that we get through city Boseies that um aid our aid is going to stay the same. That's not getting whacked. That's really really important because we get a lot of things through city Boseies. So that's good. That would be really bad if we took a hit there as well. It does not address a more realistic uh transition to zero emission school buses. Again, I took some some pretty ask Pearl creative phone calls from parents today wanting to know when it was minus14, how would the electric buses do? And I said, that's a great question.
004That's what we talk about all the time at our board meetings. That's why this year we're not purchasing any electric buses, just diesel only, which made them very happy. Okay. Um, looking at the executive budget proposal items of interest, universal access to school meals, a proposed increase of 55 million to make access to state and federal funded schools uh, meals universal for all school districts. So, we have that right now anyway because we we are beyond the threshold with our free and reduced lunches that all students get a free lunch, free breakfast. If that were to go away, it does look like the federal government would be picking that up. Um, so that that's good. Doesn't really impact us anyway because right now it's paid for, but if that were to go away, then it
005wouldn't be and that was a nightmare because we would have to have our food service department call parents to say, you know, you you have a balance. You have a balance of $100. And at the end of the day, if they don't pay it, which many of them didn't, it would just have to be paid for out of the general fund budget. Um, universal prek 1.6 6 billion, a significant increase aimed at providing universal full day prek for all four year olds in by 2029. So, this is something I want to give a lot of credit to Aaron Phillips. She's done a lot she oversees UPK, has done a lot of work with this. There's uh she's she's become quite the mathematician of figuring things out and getting the biggest bang from the uh for
006the buck from the from the state. It really does and I put this in a Friday memo look like we're now based on the feedback she did a great job very creatively using Facebook other social media aspects to be able to find out how many parents would would be interested in a full day and the majority of them actually were interested in a full day UPK program. That's what all the research is now moving to. However, we have a good compromise because we do have Erin is an AM and PM section that will be a half day. So, we're not fully jumping into the waters. And that's that's a presentation all in itself because if we were just all full day, then we would be limiting the amount of students that we would be able
007to service because it's classrooms as well. So when we're doing half day, you're getting instead of 18, you're getting 36 students in there for the full day. When it's a full day, you're only getting the 18. But we were very happy to see um the feedback. So that again, that was in a Friday memo. If you missed that, you can go back two Fridays ago. We broke it down. Aaron did a really good job there. And it it is great to see that the state is recognizing the need for early intervention. Then there's a new thing that they didn't really provide us a lot of information about. It's called back to basics. 4 million for educator training and regional pilots, but we're investigating that. They haven't really released a lot of the details about what
008that entails, but when they do, we'll share. All right. Does not include funding for prior year adjustments. Um, so when you look, it says date revision approved. Let me give you the little break uh Moren's little spiel about this. During years that the state audits different res uh reserve parts and discover they are undercharging us, they make up that difference in the next year's payment due. Now Moren wants me to actually say this part twice, so I will. [snorts] during this year's state uh audit difference uh different um revenue parts they audit it and when they discover that they undercharged us they make up the difference in next year's payment however and she said really make it a point however when they overcharge districts they say they'll make it up to us but they never
009do so as of right now the central square school district is owed 700 $17,044 that's still owed to us. In other districts, the number is even higher, but we have not received that. So, when they undercharge us, they get it back the next year, but when they overcharge us, they don't. And that's Boseies, building aids, um, stacking, you know, special education students. Correct. >> 2012. >> Yes. So, as you can see, it'll go jump back. The first time that they revised it was 2012, then 2014, 2016, 2016 on different things that that were revised. So, that money right there is sitting somewhere that they were overcharged on it. And it's not just Central Square. We have this conversation at chief's meetings regularly. If you look at all the money that's still owed to districts, it's
010astronomical. Where is it? But if they undercharge us, trust me, they're going to get that back. That that's one of the things, Steve, when we go to Barclay, that's one of the issues that I have a note. We want to talk about the 2026-27 state aid executive proposal. Uh again, the UPK grant is funded, so it's not sitting in the general fund. So that's why the number is different. So for the mathematicians to say, "Well, hold on a second. That n that doesn't match what is on our other form that all the board members get that's made public. It's off." That's because the other one shows up. This one does not because it is grant funded. >> Yeah. And I I I think there's a lot of if if you look at change in aid,
011there's a lot of things that are in parentheses. Um and at the end of the day, this is this is a flat >> a flat budget for us. >> Well, and you can see >> there really isn't any increase >> where the true numbers in our actual budget. So when you look at the 2526 adopted budget, which is in the column in the middle, and you look down, it's got building aid, transportation aid, Bose aid, private um access cost aid, public access cost aid, and the total expense-based aids, uh 21,227,274. Then you go in and you look at the executive proposed budget. What you're looking at there is the 504,8 um $857. The really frustrating thing is when you look at a 1% foundation aid increase that equates to $400,000. Last year we got $800,000
012at a 2%. When we got a 2% last year, we were hoping that we would get a 3%. If I had a crystal ball, I would say because this is a an election year that it's she's going to make it look like she gave us something and it'll go from a 1% to a 2%. That's what I'm thinking because again, it's an election year and they're lobbying hard. The uh superintendents um have lobbying day on March 1st. We're going to be in Albany as part of Niscus. We go through the whole thing. We talk about all the things the districts are doing. counseling um that we've increased our counseling support. Social workers, special patrol officers, things that normally um counties pay for, the districts now are expected to do it. And so there's a tremendous
013amount of unfunded mandates that are also put on schools. And one of the things that I know our board of education is working on is trying to go to our county to say, look at people don't vote for their county taxes, but they vote for their school taxes. And so if we're doing things that really could be in the purview of the county, like social workers dealing with things that are happening in homes, not in schools, right? making sure that we have our special patrol officers that are maintaining safety that also do a great job in and supporting things that happen in the community because they find out what's happening at school that what can be happening in the community. To me, it just seems like a no-brainer that that responsibility and funding should be
014shifting to the county that schools should be I know it's a shocking thing to think about tasked with educating students. All of those other things should be outside of our purview. If they expect us to do it, provide us with additional revenue streams. Again, as I said, this is just the first this is just as a result of the governor's run. We have this first one. Moren goes into greater depth when she comes back. We have many more presentations leading up. It's still early. It's just February, but it is important to be able to show what the executive um the the executive budget the governor's runs were and they were super low. Any questions? Okay. Thanks, Tom. Um, on to item E. Could I get a motion for item E, personnel, in its entirety? >>
015Motion. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. Can I get a motion for item F? And it's >> that was personnel that you approved. >> Yes. >> I would like to have Gavin Murphy stand up. >> So, Gavin Murphy. [applause] Gavin Murphy graduated class of 2022. Gavin had said numerous times when he was a student here that his dream was to a two-part dream to be a dispatcher but then ultimately to be a director of transportation. Well, Gavin was a student OCC or Sunni Swiggo asgo. He was working part-time for us in transportation. He was learning all the names, figuring everything out. He already knew about how the um bus radios work because it's not illegal for kids to buy one. He bought one when he was 15. I have never seen somebody so
016focused on attacking their goals and today is a huge milestone for him. I know his family is super excited for him. I know that the transportation department is stoked because he really takes great pride for someone his age to have the abilities. There's no doubt in my mind that you're all looking at a future transportation director here. So, with a round of applause, thank you so much. [applause] >> Well, congratulations and uh welcome aboard. >> All right, on to item F. Could I get a motion to accept item F in its entirety? >> A motion. >> Get a sec. Ken's got the thing on discussion. Item nine is approval of a resolution to authorize the board to initiate discussions with county. So, I have I sent you all a draft uh letter. Um this will
017give me the authority to actually talk with the legislature to have them take over uh SPO's cost. Um I think it's, you know, it when it comes to public safety, I think it's more on the county's um like Tom talked, it's more on the county level than really it is on the school district. It's a it's an outstanding program. I think it's well needed and I think that you know keeping the kids safe, the employees safe I I think is is a good thing but it would be with the budget constraints I think it would be a good time to maybe try and shift that those costs part of it all of it uh to the county. We would keep the program keep the supervision at least let them pay the flip the bill for
018it. Well, it it I I I was going to do more, but um I was I was told I couldn't do more. So, it [laughter] but it it's it's a start. We'll see. But it you know, if you run if you run the numbers of the people that that live within a Swiggo County that are within the Central Square School District, it's over a quarter of the people in the county live in the Central Square School District. So, I think we got a pretty good say, you know, so we'll see see what they say. Uh item 10 I do have to abstain from >> Oh yeah. >> Oh okay. All right. >> We have to take them separate then. >> Yeah. All right. So I'll change the motion to uh F1 through 9. >> I'll
019second. Any discussion? >> Does anybody want to know what 10's about? Like do you need to know? I mean I put on a Friday memo about the tower. >> No, we're good. >> We're good. All All in favor? >> I'll make a motion for F10. >> I'll second that. >> Teachers will be happy with their cell phones. [laughter] >> That's good. >> All right. All those in favor. Okay. Great. On to item G, reports. We'll go to our two outstanding student reps. >> Thank you. Uh, first of all, the Paul V. Moore National Honor Society is helping raise money for Griffin's Guardians. And throughout the entire month of February, we're going to be doing a class war to see who can raise the most money. So hopefully we can uh do better than we did
020last year. Uh, tomorrow, February 3rd, we're having eighth graders come to the high school for tours throughout second block, and we're having uh high school students bring groups around to show them everything and get them ready for when they come next year. And uh due to recent weather and some kind some of the delays, snow days, and after school activities, the musical has been moved to mid-Marchch instead of this week and Saturday to allow more time for preparations. So that's definitely good for them. And lastly for me, uh indoor track and field team recently competed in leagues. There was multiple first and second place finishers and new personal records for them. So that's really exciting. Um, flag football and the junior class are doing fundraisers. Um, flag football is doing a Buffalo Bills raffle basket
021and the juniors are selling chocolate. Um, winter sports are starting to come to an end. So, sectional games are coming around and um, playoffs um, Boseies is having their um, most employable and award ceremony coming up. So, that is super excited. Hopefully you guys can attend. Um, and sadly our lovely career center, Miss Dana, is um, officially not here anymore, which is super sad. Um, really happy that she enjoyed her time here, but I hope she enjoys her time getting her nursing degree. >> Okay, I think that I think we're going to have a long Tom's report on that one. Um board members, any anything to pass? >> Uh the only thing that I will say, uh kudos to the high school for the I attended with Katie the eighth grade um open house kind
022of presentation and uh I thought it was very well done. I did it with my son a few years ago and you know the presentation was great informative but what I thought was a little extra special this time and I think I think at least from what I saw with my my daughter and her friends the students enjoyed was the open house sort of of the electives in the in the cafeteria. So, you know, all the all the department heads or whoever came, you know, thank you so much for doing that, walking through it and seeing the excitement in the kids, which is a very nervous trans, you know, nerve-wracking transition for them to go from the middle school to the high school and to see so much excitement where they're learning about the art
023classes and all the it's a lot different here than it is at the middle school in terms of being able to pick and choose what you want to do. So, it was pretty cool to see and I thought it was very well done. So, great job. The only thing I've got is um we've sent out the invitation to meet with um some of them in Barkley. So, if you want, let Pearl know if you want to attend. I will be attending that. Um I attended last year. Lori and I both did. And um it um was underwhelming to say the least as far as my my opinion is, but we'll see. Yeah. Okay, Tom. >> All right. great uh great things with our ELA and math scores. Again, kudos to Aaron, the elementary principles, all
024the elementary teachers. We led for the first time outright in the scores for ELA and math across the entire county. And when it comes to the entire region, so I'm talking there's hundreds of elementary schools, middle schools. Brewerton Elementary came in sixth out of like 400 schools, beating the majority of uh elementary schools in Skinny Atlas, beating Favville Manlas, really just doing a tremendous job. But again, I wanted to lead with the first part was our entire all of our elementary schools collectively beat I don't want to say beat but scored the highest in the county and again we just continue to go in that direction. I remember the first time Aaron gave her presentation up here several years ago with Scarboro's rope and the science of reading and she took that head on. That
025no doubt will be one of her legacies because where we are with literacy right now. I was just having a conversation with Toby St. John's one of our veteran um e um curriculum consultant teachers and with Travis Knight just a a clinician when it comes to reading. We're day and night where we were even just seven years ago with the instruction to just so dialed in instruction when it comes to reading. It's so clinical and they're able to tell teachers exactly where students are where standardsbased where they know exactly, you know, where their kids deficiencies are and how we're working with them. So, that's a collective effort. Kudos to all of them. >> And if I could, Tom, I I normally don't say anything on social media, but when a post was on Facebook about
026about that that was in the Swiggo uh weekly news and and immediately what what is there to be a proud, you know, proud of? And I said, you know what? I so I I wrote a nice article ex saying how how proud I am, you know, as as a as a board member as far as where the district is and statistically you should be very very proud of how far we've come and what in the job that we're doing. So I normally try to stay off of it because it can get ugly but >> So Mary corrected all your expletives. I absolutely took took them all out, made it um a lot more informative, but it really um >> it's something to be very excited about and proud. I know I am. So, >> good
027news from the uh special education office. >> We talk about preschoolers all the time. There are 76 preschoolers with disabilities in our district. 73 out of the 76 are being fully serviced and have at least one of the providers for speech. Um, SEIT, OT, and PT. That came from Kate Lanzatella who works in the office with Chrissy is the assistant uh director of special education who's been doing a wonderful job and she Chrissy's been working so well with her. Good news from the Paul Vmore High School executive principal who is here today, Tom Sweeney. Students did an excellent job taking the January regents. The high school has a new Redhawks motto as well as the after graduation plans wordcloud that is visible in the cafeteria. It's pretty impressive. Tom came down. I tweeted that out.
028It's just there's a huge buzz right now and excitement in the high school. And I got to tell you, Tom Sweeney right there has played such a key role in the culture and really taking the time. I'm not throwing shade on anybody that was here before that. Everybody has has their strengths, areas to improve upon. But watching Tom with his teachers and with the students in the hallways, he's got a wheel around cart. So he's like operates in the hallways and when kids want to go in the bathroom, he's like, "I just saw you in there. No, I think you're good." The kids's like, "Okay." And the kid leaves. And so it they say it takes a long time to change the culture. We've always had a great culture, I believe, in this district for
029quite some time, but Tom is really just adding the cherry on top and moving us forward. Also, Preston Lacy Senior was teen of the week in the Palladium Times. Um, Barklay had laminated those. We've got passed around. If anyone hasn't seen those student reps, if you haven't seen them, it's pretty cool. I got to tell you, I've never heard a voice like that. And we've got like Eli Connor. We've got some amazing students. when that kid sings like at the holiday at the Christmas concert, it's amazing. And he's also a great basketball player. Um, as I said, Assemblyman been uh Assembly Minority Leader Will Barkley sent Mr. Sweeney a nice shout out in regarding this. And Preston is attending on um planning on attending Alfred State after graduation and he also wants to be a
030land surveyor. Congratulations, Preston. That concludes my updates. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, can I get a motion for item H in its entirety? >> A motion. >> Get a second. Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Oh, it's a roll call vote. >> Okay, Pearl, you're up. Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. And we have a vote for item two. Did we get that? Yeah. And could I get a all those in favor of H2? Show hands. Thank you very much. Okay. I would like to make a motion that the Central Square School District Board of Education hereby move into executive session to discuss the matters regarding the superintendent's evaluation negotiations to conduct in pursuant with the Taylor Taylor law involvement the SC CSTA and matters leading to employment of two particular people for tenure
031with no action to file. Can I get a second? >> I'll second. All those in favor. Okay. Thanks everybody. >> All right. >> Thank you for the