001of course. Yeah, that's not a guarantee. We're not doing it with like with gymnastics with five kids. Well, yeah. Okay. Good evening, everybody. If I could, um, we'll call the regular meeting to order. And I please stand 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. Okay, thank you for that. If I could uh get a motion to approve uh the meeting agenda. A motion. Got Christy. Could I get a second? Second. Randy, any discussion? All those in favor? Just Okay. Thank you. So, next is the, uh, community open forum. Pearl, do we have blue cards? Okay. What we'll do, um, I'll read this just so that everybody has an
002understanding what this portion of the, um, of the meeting is. As the board of education set aside time is an opportunity for the community to address the board to allow public participation. A period not to exceed 30 minutes shall be set aside for the first part of the board meeting. Presentation should be as brief as possible. The board will not permit in public session discussion involving individual district personnel or students. Comments should be related to school matters and we try to keep it to two minutes. Okay, any questions? Uh, John Ford, you're first up. Mr. Ford, there's a button to press. Is that Hi, my name is John Ford. Um, I have two things. Um, one, um, I know this is not an easy thing to say, but for, you know, the school board and
003the problems that we're having right now with the budgetary issue, um, it could be a possibility. I know I would not want it, but a wage freeze for all staff and thing for the next year or so until we can try to help keep our budget in passing as it is, even if when it is modified, as it is proposed. So, that's one thing. too. Um, knowing that we've had, you know, some contractual issues that people don't understand or may not understand how the budget works or they see raises that come across and all that. Um, maybe a better explanation to what is going on because um, not everybody's going to understand how the budget is. I know I didn't understand it until uh it was explained to me years ago by someone else in
004another district. They went through the same thing. So, you know, maybe just sitting there trying to, you know, just a general brief outline to everybody saying, "Hey, you know, these kind, you know, these raises are already there. They've been in place. No matter what happens, budget or no budget, they're going through." So, I'm just saying maybe we want to do a little better explanation to those who may not understand all of it. So, thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you, Jenny. Jenny, you're next up. Now that this goes low enough, can you guys hear me? Okay. Okay. Um, I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Jenny Trumbull. I'm a social worker at the middle school. Um, I'm also the gymnastics coach here at the high school. I've been there for 22 years as the
005varsity coach. Um, I also graduated from Central Square. So when I was a gymnast here, we practiced on wrestling mats in our gymnasium. We rolled out all the equipment. We we would practice. We would roll it up and we would go. And some of the other schools still do that we can practice right in the gymnasium. I'm not asking for that. I know the gym space is terrible. I know that's a whole other stress, a whole other discussion. What I do want to do is provide the information for where the expenditures come for the varsity gymnastics team because I know that's why it's on the chopping blocks this year. Um, number one, we rent the space right across from the middle school, the Central Square Gymnastics Center. We donated all of our equipment from our
006high school back before I started coaching. So, all of the Central Square gymnastics team equipment went to the Central Square Gymnastics program and it's housed over there. That being said, we're still charged over $5,000 every single year to use their space. About 10 years ago, we were given the ability to move over to a different local gym and it would be free of cost. That being said, we weren't allowed to. We wanted to stay in the community. We wanted to give back to Central Square, so we kept it here because we felt that was what was best for the community. So, yes, it's expensive, but we didn't have to stay there. Now that we're in another hardship, we were offered a whole other gymnastic center. Again, we didn't donate our equipment to any of these
007other gyms. Just out of the niceness of their heart and the tight gymnastics community, we're offered to go to a different gym free of charge. That would wipe out a big chunk of what it looks like gymnastics, varsity gymnastics is costing us as a district. So, when our bottom number looks like we have high cost and low enrollment, it's not showing the whole picture. So, I want to present that just so everybody's aware that we can save money. Absolutely. I know it's tough decisions. Nobody wants a program cut. Nobody wants jobs cut. Nobody wants any cuts. So, I do understand that. So, I say this with all due respect. However, the numbers don't look like what we really have going on. The gymnastics numbers always fluctuate. It comes in and it goes out. Same in
008the private sector and the private gyms. When the Olympics happen, everybody sees Simone Biles and they get excited and all these little girls come and sign up. So what we're seeing next year is I have 10 seventh graders who have gymnastics experience who are wanting to come and do the varsity gymnastics program. So even though last year we had five central squared gymnasts and we had I think five from outside schools from out of district. So we had 10 girls on the team. Next year we are looking at at least 15 central square gymnasts and at least eight from out of district. So, our numbers are going to be well over 20 is my estimate. And our cuts, if we looked at the way we did it for all other varsity sports, and we looked
009to cut an assistant coach while we need while we needed to, excuse me, and if we looked at cutting that rental space if we needed to, we could really cut our costs by three quarters of what we're already showing that bottom line to be. So, I know we're not here to vote on line items. I just don't want misinformation. If we're looking to really cut a whole entire program, I had a group of 10 seventh grade girls who are chomping to get out there and have the experience on a varsity gymnastics program and we support three other districts. Did those three other districts help fund any of those costs for this district? If their athletes are coming our way, can't something be worked out that we're working together since all of us as Swiggle County
010is really looking to utilize Central Square for their gymnasts? I just think there's other ways to do it to where we yes we can save money absolutely. We have to be fiscally responsible but can we save money and save a whole other program and I think that's possible. J has a clarifying question. Yes. So when we're looking at cost if you can let us know where this location is because inevitably one of the hardest things that we deal with is busing. Absolutely. Right. So every district struggles with busing and you look at the salary of a bus driver. It's even finding boss drivers, right? Absolutely with all of our routes. Where is the location? So, the first location was at Blaze. So, it was right in Cicero North Syracuse area. The location for this year
011is by Great Northern Mall. And I do know that that can be an issue. I've looked at it throughout like my coaching. I know. Am I too close? [Music] So, the most recent one for this year would be over by Great Northern Mall. And all I can say to you is knowing from the families that I've worked with for 22 years, gymnastics is kind of an original sport. Like it's just different. A lot of the families are already transporting to private gyms also. So sometimes they'll go right from varsity gymnast. So a lot of our girls are already involved. Not all of them because it cost $200 to $400. go to a private gym. Well, a lot of them participate in a private gym already. I can almost guarantee because I know um the parents
012always go and support their gymnast. So, I I'm strongly suspecting that we could also have parent involvement as far as Um, but I can say that if the parents knew that we had to work together as a team had a parent back down from don't have any uniform um expenditures because the girls by the so and when we've had girls that we have and I'm sure Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Patty. Oh, Jennifer, I'm just going by my list. It's okay. [Music] So, I'm a representative. I'm the president of the Central Square um athletic boosters. So um I just wanted to my question is we just want clarification. If the budget doesn't pass, is there an option of um paytoplay and where does that come in? What is the New York State requirements around
013that? Because just you guys know we have boosters, right? Where we have incorporation, we have satellites and I'll let you talk Tom. But we do a lot of fundraising to benefit these children to participate in an activity that really is beyond just playing a sport. You learn leadership to how to be a team player, you know, all these things that really take these children into the workforce or beyond, you know, opportunities in college, that kind of thing. So that's my question is what are the parameters around that? So it's illegal. So we checked and now pay to play unlike in previous years I don't know maybe five 10 years ago and prior to that they and prior to and prior to that can you hear me? And prior to that and prior to that they
014allowed that. So I wanted to make sure. So Jamie Grimshaw athletic director reached out to section 3 and they told him that. But I also reached out to Bethany Centronone, our school attorney, who provided the same memo that said that that is not legal. That because it's in New York State, no child left behind. Uh I don't I don't want to speak to all I know is in New York State it is not legal to do payto play. Um so so and that the reason why we originally full transparency was because of hockey. So hockey we had about four players. We weren't allowed to we're not having hockey next year because the cost for the rink that Fulton had to charge us. We couldn't justify to say that's going to come out of the general
015fund budget. That's going to be thousands of dollars for five students. Prior to that, when there wasn't a cost, parents would transport their their kids that wanted to be on that because we wanted to be able to have those opportunities. But that's why we originally checked and the answer was no. Pay to play is now illegal. which is a shame because to your point around gymnastics, we do have very supportive parents, families that will go and support not only their child but other children. Agreed. So, I know that has nothing to do with you. It's in New York State. But I just ask you guys as the board to look at every option out there to make this happen. I mean, we don't want to see cuts for you guys. We don't we don't want
016to see anything cut. We want the best for our children. And I just think we have to like look outside the box, right? Um, and I'd be willing to help with any committee or anything like that to kind of do that because I know that's a lot on your plate because you see a lot more than I do, but just wanted to thank you for that clarification. Yep. Thank you, Patty. Um, my name is Patty Keading. I've lived here in the district my whole life. Actually graduated from Central Square. um have kids that are in the sports program as well as the musical programs, drama. Um so all of the stuff that's on the chopping block really speaks to me. Um I am also on the CSAB. So for anybody who's not familiar what the
017CSRB is, is the Central Square Red Hof Athletic Boosters was established back many years ago um in an effort to get all of the athletic boosters under one house. So, we oversee all the athletic boosters and we have satellites. So, we how I don't know how many 17 different athletic boosters underneath our boosters. I wanted to make sure it was very clear that the community knows that from what you just said that if this next budget does not pass and we go into a contingency, we do not have the option to play no matter what. that New York State is holding our athletes and our students from being allowed to play. I think the community needs to hear that so they really think hard when this next budget goes up because if it gets voted
018down, we have no option for our children. I think there's a misconception out there that they think that that means that we will have other avenues and opportunities for our students. And I think it needs to be said very clearly that that's not going to be an option for our kids. If this budget does not pass, we lose the ability for our students and our athletes to play. The other thing that I want to talk about is um because we are on the CSAB, we have had numerous um sports reach out to us for different different reasons. One of the things that is said overly by everybody is was there is it equitable and consistent for every sport. Um we have a lot of concerns that were brought to us that some sports were able
019to keep assistance, some sports weren't able to keep assistance. Could it be something that was put out to the coaches of all the of all of them that maybe somebody would take a cut this year for even if it was $500 per coach to allow an assistant to stay or to for a whole program to stay? Is that an option? Is that something we could do? And why are some sports able to keep assistance but other sports weren't allowed to keep assistance? We have Jamie Grimshaw here today. Yes. And it wasn't just willy-nilly like we're just throwing a dart. There was criteria that he had about supervising the size of uh teams and whatnot. Did they already have an assistant coach? So the ones that were felt that could be taken away. That's that's inevitably
020where that happened as opposed to cutting teams. Like originally we were looking at all the additional modified teams, right? But we were able to then look at like weight room supervision if because kids can go in the weight room when they're with their coaches. That's what the board now and and our administration are looking at. If if this 3% that they're approving today has passed, we can do that. We can look at our program and make some some I don't want it. They're cuts, but they're things that a lot of it we added during the pandemic, right? I've been here nine years. I love to see all these people, but these have been all empty seats for the majority of my nine years here. And I get it. People have families and they're busy. I
021didn't get one single email that was negative. It was keep these programs. Please don't cut 60 teachers like neighboring districts are doing. And so it it's difficult because no one want to cut anything. But I do remember and since we're talking about sports, all of the phone calls from mothers and fathers saying this isn't fair for the summer. I realize that that's a lot of money, but it's not fair for summer band or summer sports if my kid can't afford the $200 or $250. And I remember sitting in my office then at the old district office, which we closed to save money. But I remember they were right. Right. So, there were parents that made legitimate arguments that that's the varsity coach out there. My kid doesn't have the same opportunity because we can't afford
022that. So, what did we do? We paid the $75,000 to be able to make it so every kid had the opportunity. It's really hard to now look at it and say we can't do that anymore. We have a 530 sports shuttle. Nobody else has. We're the largest geographical district. We won't be able to do that anymore. We have to look at the contractual items that we're required to do, which is about 75 million dollars, and say health care costs are going up six to seven% every year. inflation's at 2.9%. The state's giving us a lot less in our um fund balance a foundation aid every year. How can we do all of those things and we can't, right? So, I hear what you're saying. It's not lost on anyone. No, I agree. And I don't
023and I know that the job that you guys have is definitely one that nobody wants to be put in this place. I mean, we know, but we just wanted to know like is there is there room for other things to possibly what's going to happen or can we look at some of those other things um that have maybe been proposed to maybe still make the numbers work, but everybody do the board is look the board is looking we're looking at everything, right? So, we know that if if the 3% passes, we know mathematically that's a 1.2 million cut. We feel that we can do that with minimal impact, right? We don't want to do um go out with a we didn't want to originally go out with a two or 3% cut 60 people. All
024of a sudden parents are yelling at me going whoa we had manageable 20 to 22 23 24 and then in fourth and fifth grade 25 other districts have 30 in a classroom, right? We don't have any of that. We don't want that. So we're looking to make and we believe that we can do it with the 3%. Now, every year we're going to be getting less in foundation aid. So, every year we're going to have to look at that. And I heard someone talk about pay freezes and and what people need to understand is before when you talked about 4% raises, people that was like sticker shock. Oh my gosh. And I get it and that's not lost on me. But when you're going to see districts going out right now at 5%, 5.5% that
025are getting twice as much in foundation aid as we are, we won't be able to hire. We won't be able to keep up with that. So for all the parents that say, "We want the best teachers, Tom. I want the principles to be able to call me, do their We want that, too." Right? But at the end of the day, I came into a district 10 years ago, elementary principal starting salary was $69,000. That's a 12-month position with all the work that and all the degrees that are needed with that. We've changed it. We've made it where we are competitive. We are at the top right now, I would say, in our county. So we can draw in the best. But to your point, whether it's sports, whether it's band, whether it's DECA, all these
026clubs and activities, we built a premier district. We have a beautiful on the other side of that wall, career center, we're the only ones in the county that have the internship program. We're sending kids to college already with their freshman year done at a savings of $50,000. So now the question is, how can we maintain a really good program? It's something that the community members feel comfortable in in approving, but knowing that the funding is different now from the state. Oh, I agree with that. And I don't and I don't think that I think what you're proposing I I understand that. I just there's the the concern is just to make things equitable and across the board and all that. And I I agree with that. I just wanted to come as a representative for
027the CSB so that the the you know the individual sports that were looking at some cuts that were be made for some but not for others and maybe you know think outside of the box a little bit like is it a potential that maybe some you know that the coaches as a whole could say okay you know maybe a couple hundred dollars less to make this work or that work you know instead of just just to get together maybe with everybody as a as a group as as a whole so that we can make it work. But a really the biggest thing is is making sure that everybody understands that if this budget does not pass, our children do not have the ability to pay a sport because New York State is saying you cannot
028pay to play. You bring up a really good point because people will walk out of here saying, "Well, wait a minute. In 2021 and 2022, the district went out with 0%." They went out with 0%. Why can't they do that again? They did. We did that because of millions of dollars of COVID relief money that didn't come from the community, didn't come from the general fund, that it was use it or lose it. And we had tutoring programs, you know, after school check and connect programs. We increased our sports programs like never before. And prior to the pandemic, we had we relied on the foundation aid, but everything that you said about you're representing a group, I respect that. You want us to make sure that everything is done in an equitable way and that's
029what we absolutely will do. Thank you. You're welcome. And I want to thank everybody that uh signed up and spoke. Um, and the only thing I will add is that I've uh within the last two months, I have met with both our representative Will Barkley and and Senator Chris Ryan personally and talk to him about the 2% increase and how much it was going to affect us. So, call them. Mhm. Okay. I'm telling you that Senator Ryan's office called me after the budget failed and and asked what and and and you know whether you're talking about the income of the swiggle county right it's the poorest county in the state it's it's it's very hard so when you rely on the state and the funding and they're only going to with the new formula it's
030a brand new formula I don't see them changing 2% and it's just not sustainable so it we it's going to be tough so call The only thing I'll add is we will be meeting with them again. So for everybody, all of us send letters. We do whatever we can, but the community can do that too. Yeah. Yeah. Once Yeah. And that and that letter was sent the day after the state budget was approved by me and and the board with our disappointment that we were only going to get 2% after meeting with them personally. You know, I I sent a letter out saying this basically was unacceptable. So, but thanks for coming. We had to bring out extra seats, so that was that was a good thing. Okay, on to item D, special presentation. Moren,
031look at the look at the crowd. I know that's I'm actually kind of excited and glad we made a little presentation. Um just so that people understand tonight the board is adopting an expenditure plan so that we can move forward with the the hoops that we need to jump through to get to another vote. So it's not the public hearing that's next Monday. So tonight we basically they had to come in here and take one action and leave. But we decided, we were hoping and thinking that we were going to have people here that we would make a quick little presentation to try to educate some of us on where where we are and where we've been. So, school districts basically live off of two revenue streams. There's state aid and there's your tax levy.
032Central Square, if you look at the pie, gets the majority of their revenue from state aid. we only have a third 32% of our revenues come from the tax levy. So when it comes to discussing what we're doing as a program and what how we're sustaining program, the state aid is where the big money lies. The tax levy is the portion that um the obviously the voters get to vote on, but it's a much smaller piece of our revenue stream. So when we talk about impact on revenue, it's the state aid piece that is the big driving factor. The proposed budget that the board's going to approve tonight in expenditure plan is 102,658,363. So this is a 4.15% increase, which is less than the 5.41 that we had before. And it includes a 3% tax
033levy increase, which is less than the 6.86% 86% which was our tax our tax cap this year. Moren, if you can just touch upon the other part because I did have a couple parents that wanted to know in a ballpark what what is that the the other if you want to go back to the other other other well actually it's it's this is the revenue here in more detail. So up here, this state, all of these are state aid formulas that run. This foundation aid, the 40 million is the number one driver of state aid, and that's the piece that is being limited to 2% for us this year. All of the other pieces of state aid are driven by formulas based on what we spend and where we spend it. So it's the big
034piece that is the formula that is unencumbered by the rest of the what do I want to say the factors that we can control this the other are you talking about this Tom these other pieces that are in here. So other is down here which is essentially where we put together the extra pieces and then the property tax levies at the bottom. So in the other category we have interest earnings, donations, some rental income. The big pieces this year are actually pieces that are oneshots that the district is putting in. We're transferring out of our debt service fund to make a principle and interest payment on the capital project phase two that we have going. We are taking a piece of savings that we have had on health insurance because we've made some good gains
035in the last couple years and we are holding on to that for exactly this purpose. And then we are liquidating a non-spendable um fund balance piece. So, all of those pieces are not going to be are not always going to be there, but we're doing it to to um hold some of this budget together. Go ahead, Christie. Yep. Just between the last slide and this slide, there were a lot of questions that I answered because if you go to the last slide, the percentage change under state aid is 4.52. And I know from your presentations, but to the general public, that number is significantly inflated by the expense driven aids like BOSIES and things like that. And so if you could just clarify that one more time for the people in the room and watching
036online. So up here there's a total state aid number going across the bottom with the four the 4.52% increase. If you look at this top line item, the foundation aid, which is the large majority, largest piece of it. It's the for it's 40 million of the 61.5 million. That's the piece that is decided by a formula by the state of New York. We are not making strides in that formula because we are losing losing and have been losing student population and our actually our tax base has been increasing which makes it look like we are our wealth is increasing as a as a district. And is that fair to say that the state based on that formula they incorporate that piece because they expect we they expect us to go to the taxpayers to supplement
037that number. Correct. which is a reason why our property tax cap is high. That's another formula that drives the pieces that all move together like a puzzle. Okay. And with respect to the expense driven aids, those are strictly based if we spend it, we get a portion back. So it it's artificially it looks a lot better than it is. the the 11% increase in Bosey's aid that increased because we're expecting to spend a substantial significantly more currently spending that. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. And that's what we're expect. It's hard to explain because we are currently spending that but the corresponding aid does not come until the next year. Okay. That number is based on what we spent this year and included in Bosey's aid. That's not just students going to Boseies for trades. That's students
038going to Bosey's programs for special ed. No, special ed actually is is a different driver. That's what's driving the excess cost aid, the 2.8 million. And that's coming to us through a different process. All expense driven. Okay. All these state aid formulas and processes are um are a class in itself and we go to training like crazy to learn them and understand them as business officials. Anything else on this page? Okay. And on the same on the same side of this on the expenditure side again the revenue the salaries and the fringe benefits which are all contractually driven make up give or take 75% of our budget and any district's budget. Districts school districts are um a service industry. I mean we're based on the people and that's how it drives. There's a small portion
039that we you know we spend on Boseis. We always have our debt service our utilities and fuel and and the other line the 4.6 million of our proposed budget here is um I keep hitting the wrong thing is everything else. And so sometimes I think it's hard for people to understand that these other items that we're talking about that make up everything in the minds of people is a very small portion of our actual budget. So again, we're bringing we have to bring forward a balanced budget. So it's 102.6 million, a 4.5% increase. And that's where all the categories are where the money's being spent. These are the individual line items that go along with those totals. And in the budget document, each of these line items are broken out. I wanted to hit some
040of the revised budget highlights because everybody actually has seen them. This has been online. We want to go over them. So I want to this chart I think is tells our tale. The tax increase, which is the levy increase of our original budget, was at 6.8 86% and that was with obviously no budget cuts needed. So if you go down to the bottom, the contingency budget is a zero tax levy increase. So to do that, it's a $2.2 million gap that the district would have to come up with and then we have our steps in between. So at the 3% which is the number that the board has directed that we want to go out with it basically fosters 1.2 million worth of expenditures that need to be eliminated. The original budget proposition kept all
041the positions and the programs in place. There really were no additions. They had a goal of maintaining the progress made, but a lot of that progress made was made with stimulus money and we basically don't no longer have that with us. The revised budget includes some eliminations and positions. We have an elementary teacher for teaching assistants, a part-time lunch monitor, a part a.5 music, a social worker, a custodian, and two typist positions. The bulk of these positions are going to be through attrition and there's really only two I believe that would actually be layoffs. So yeah, super important that we Yep. not only for the people in the room but people watching this when we put on the website. So the four teaching uh assistants at the elementary level. So in any school district, 99%
042of teaching assistants that are hired are directly related to a student's IEP, which is a mandate by educational law. That is a requirement. A student could be on the autism spectrum, gets a onetoone that you can't say we're going to cut that, right? So that's that's the bulk of teaching assistance. What we were going to do is we were going to address a need in kindergarten because there is a huge gap and the gap got even like Grand Canyon size gap during the pandemic of kids coming into kindergarten that either did not have any prek at all. Um parents said, you know, I I'm going to keep them at home. I'm going to keep them with grandmother. Whatever the reason was, we had a lot of kids coming into kindergarten and the behaviors that they
043were seeing. And we took those phone calls during the day, at night from parents that were concerned saying, "My kids's in a kindergarten classroom. They've had to evacuate the classroom multiple times." So, we felt proactively if we could hire four teaching assistants. So, one that would be in each of those kindergarten um each of the kindergartens in each of the elementary buildings that we would be able to proactively address those issues. We cannot do that now. So when you look at this or a teacher that's retiring at the kindergarten level and not replacing still keeps those numbers manageable. I don't want someone to think, well, we're not replacing that with the new 3% that's devastating. We can do that and absorb it because our numbers were low and manageable. This is a district that has
044kindergarten numbers at 2021. There are districts, I've worked at some where they've got 25, 26, 28 kids in a kindergarten. We don't have that here. And so even absorbing that the numbers do not go up significantly where a parent would say, "Oh my gosh, if the 3% doesn't pass, you will 100% see class sizes start to rise up to equal what some of the other districts have and there would be no way to avoid that." Go ahead, Morin. Oh. Oh, you know what this you got to say the CSI because I don't want anyone thinking that like we don't care about our custodians. So we have a building CSI. We've been able to close CSI but keep it open for swing space. That has been massive cost avoidance. If you know people that work in
045other districts that had to rent a building from a district that had a vacated building, that is exceedingly expensive. We've been using CSI for our capital projects and no one disputes the need for the capital projects. We went 17 years without fullon and the buildings needed it. So we were able to first put Miller Hawk down there. I put myself as the superintendent acting as principal. When we did that, that's when the pandemic hit. Right. The bulk of that year. I was down there. We also then put Hastings Malor Elementary and then this year we have AA Cole there. Next year we won't have anybody in that building. So we're not actually cutting a custodian because there was an open spot. So again, that's a huge cost avoidance. I don't want someone to look at
046this and say, "Oh my god, I feel, you know, bad for the custodian." I just wanted you to be able to look at that screen and have that background. We're also looking at our Bosei services. So, we are going to stop using the behavioral specialists and the um instructional tech specialists. And there's some software that's ending. So, there's some savings there um programwise. And a lot of these, just to um Tom's point, were added due to the stimulus money. They have not been none of these items have been here for years and years. At the middle school and the high school, we were doing extra activities like engagement activities there, little clubs and little afterchool things. The fun nights, the district funded portion had been increasing. The there's committee stipens. There's check and connect mentors
047and transportation mentors. Um the DECA trip, we had been funding some of the some of it for the DECA club and the middle school and high school ski clubs. We had been funding some of that for the ski clubs. In the athletic realm, we have weight room supervision, JV boys volleyball. Again, because of the numbers, JV would just become combined with varsity. the summer athletic programs that were district funded, the gymnastics program, and the hockey program both due to numbers and costs associated with them. And then after Jamie went through the um the the participation, the numbers, and who's playing where, he we're taking looking at the assistant coaches in the the boys and the girls soccer, the JV wrestling, the modified football cheer, and the boys and the girls basketball. On the music side,
048the summer music program, just like the athletic side, um reduce field band positions, we can combine the middle school and the high school parade band and reduce a parade a parade band director or parade band positions, a couple of them, I believe. Reduce one middle school drum line instruction instructor position, eliminate the cadet winterguard, and eliminate the high school jazz ensemble. at transportation side of it would we're look we looking to eliminate the 5 ppm late bus and we had added buying elementary supplies and high school senior signs again happened with the stimulus money and it has not always been there. So with this new expenditure plan the levy the levy is a 3% increase the budget increase is 4.15. It does have, as we discussed earlier, the one shots, which I want to really
049point them out again because this this is money that would also be a gap if we weren't putting these pieces in there. We have the inter fund transfer out of debt service, the health insurance savings, and the non-spendable um fund balance being liquidated. The tax levy increase is 3%. Just to make sure that everybody understands that's the ch the big change. And I want to talk about the levy increase. I want to talk about levy versus rate because those are two separate things. The school district imposes a levy over the properties that are in our district. That is only one piece of a tax rate formula. The New York State um Office of Real Property assesses an equalization rate to all townships in the state of New York based on whether they have been re-evaluated
050and are at a full assessment. And then the townships themselves have assessors who actually assess properties. So it's the three pieces that make up a tax rate. So, it's possible and it's something to think about that when we put a levy out, when I put together our estimate of what the impact is on a a home, we are only changing the levy rate. We do not know what the town assessments are or the what the equalization rate are. So, in our example, it's basically the other two pieces are unchanged. So if you look at this on the left hand side, this is the number that I have used over the years at the April board meeting to say this is what we estimate that the levy would be. These are what the true levies are
051when we actually place the um when the school taxes go out. They're always much lower than the estimate because by then the assessments have been redone and the equalization rates have been redone. All we've all we have at our tool right now for us to guesstimate is the levy. So at a 3% levy increase, the estimated tax rate per thousand would go up to $13.91 um from the 1351 where it is now. So it's 40 cents per thousand essentially $40 per $100,000 of home assessment. And I do think it's an something to add out there which we just discussed. I can't think of who, but um at even at a 0% levy increase on our end, that's only one of the three-piece calculation, you still could have a tax increase due to the fact that
052your assessment goes up and your equalization rates change. So, we are only controlling the one piece of the three-piece pie. I like to put this up here because I don't think people understand the declining enrollment that the district has been undergoing over the last 10 or 15 years. We just now are starting to level off and that's where we're seeing the foundation aid formula start to write itself and that's where the 2% is coming into play. And that 2% is actually a safe harbor for all districts across the state who are not getting a formula that's working for them. So fair fair to say Moren that the state actually thinks we probably should get less than 2% from them. Correct. But we at least um there has yet to been be a budget adopted where
053any district has gotten less. They always have because of the safe harbor. was right and it was 3% up to the last till this year and now it's 2%. And so Mrs. Fishman, it's important that you that everyone understands the state has said you need to go to your taxpayers if they want to have the things that you have. Go to them. You went two straight years at 0% over the past 10 years. You're still at on average 1.98 annual tax increases. But what they don't understand is all of the other unfunded mandates. the fact that they're, you know, their their actual um assessments for their properties are coming to full assessments and the the 853 yeses or nos to the 743. I was off by 112 made it perfectly clear and I don't want
054anyone in the audience to think that myself or any of the board members or anyone sitting at that table over there is angry with that. We we heard their message. The state's going to give us less money. We need to put out a great program, not with the same things that we have this year because it has to be a $1.2 million deficit, but we feel that the 3% can do that. We feel that a 0% 100% cannot do that. I'm not allowed to say any of that during the regular vote. They make it perfectly clear because they say it's pandering. So, even a letter that I put out prior to the vote thanking the families for packing the auditoriums, I guess you can say read between the lines because what I what I was
055really insinuating was I knew that it was going to be close if we were going to keep those near and dear programs that the parents really appreciate the 26 college courses and all of the things. I my worry was I see the writing on the wall and if you look at what Cuomo had started years ago and I don't care that this is getting broadcasted or up whatever the news is here because people need to understand if you look they have been doing everything in their effort to make it like a Miami Dade where there's one school district in Asiggo County one superintendent everybody in the audience and they no one has a problem calling my work cell phone number ask my wife it's on the weekends, on Christmas, I I take those calls because
056it's important. If they say, "We heard someone say something about a safety issue on the bus," I take those calls. So, and I will always keep taking those calls. But try to imagine if there's one superintendent, they tried to do it with mergers. You had the faithful and the manliness is joined together. When all that stopped, now they're putting the screws real tight to us to say, "We're just going to get choked out." that that I there's no way that I see 20 years from now nine districts in this county. And so I know that the CO numbers are going to come and they may be in six and seven years from now that our district gets 2,000 more kids and we won't be having this conversation because we will have an abundance of money
057coming in with all of the taxable income. But getting to that point, maintaining solid programming, having, you know, the salaries that that were enticing people to want to come here and work is is is really important, but it's not lost on us that we really need to listen to what the community said, put out a budget that pe people feel comfortable with with with the 3% and just keep moving forward with these conversations. And I really hope that the numbers in the future for people coming to board meetings come because that is I think we only had two people that were here for the last hearing. Um and and so that's where I want to hear those questions because everybody has their own sacred cow. It's super important that people come in, they share those
058things. I know class sizes are an issue. I've got two of my own. I don't want 30 kids in my in my kids' classrooms. I want them to have sports and band opportunities. Right. We get it. Go ahead, Morin. So, I just want to remind everybody of the tight timeline we have for this revote. It's this is not something that we get to decide when we're doing it. It's orchestrated. June 17th, which is the third Tuesday in June, is the designated day for a revote. So, as you we move back in the timeline, we need to have a budget adopted. Basically, tonight, tomorrow, we have is our deadline to start running our first required legal ads. And we'll have to have the the um public hearing next Monday to be within the 7 to 14
059days of the revote. And we'll have to start printing off our our budget notice and get it in the mail to all of the um the residents and taxpayers of our district and we will have to start putting budgets out there for um people to be able to view upon request and it will be on the website. So, um, and I will add if there's remember the revote is on June 17th. There's just going to be the one proposition on there, the budget. Um, just is there any questions from the board? One thing I want to say is remember, you are adopting the expenditure plan. You're not adopting every line item and every piece of that pie. That es and flows every day, every month of the year as it goes by. next year because
060we obviously at this point everything is an estimate to the best of our abilities. So just something to think about when you're when you're voting and the times you stress the times right change. Nope. I did not because I'll do that tomorrow. I will do that at the public public notice or next week. Okay. I need a budget first. Yep. Yep. Thank you. Thanks Moren. Awesome as always. Um, I'm going to go to item G, uh, board members report. Is anybody got anything to talk about? Just one thing that I'd like to add that I think we, uh, we missed, uh, through the presentation that I wanted to, while we have a small audience, the state aid is very important to our school district. We pay that to the state. That is our money and
061we're not getting it. You have to talk to your senators. You have to have a voice at a higher level than just a local school board and a local budget. That's the biggest piece of our funding and we're losing it. So, please, if you have five minutes, just like Steve Patch did, voice it to Albany so that we can have our kids have the programs they deserve. Anybody else? Tom, you're up. Superintendent's report. Yeah, I um I was planning on doing that when we had the hearing. Um all I would like to say is what I have already said is the importance. We can do a 3%. The 3% we can we can look at the 1.2 and we and people will feel good about what next year will look like. If it's a 0%
062and now I'm finally allowed to say this, that's a $2.2 2 million cut. We went two straight years. We did not raise taxes. I'll always kick myself for that. But the reason why we did that is we felt it would not be fair if we said to the community, we have the COVID money, but we're also going to pass the hat. We didn't do that. And one of those nine years it was 089% and one was 1.2% because we are thinking about the community. So, I don't want that to be lost on people that over the nine years that I've been superintendent, the average annual increase is 1.94 because we do understand that there's family on fixed incomes, but we also there's one thing that we didn't really touch upon and it's the worst statistic
063that we're number one in. We're number one in the county in suicide. We're number one in the county in teenage and adolescent depression. If the community knew how many elementary kids that we see PEP for suicidal thoughts, you'd be shocked if you had to see every CPS report that comes across my table. You'd be shocked. And so we added positions during the pandemic, but the state is crazy if they think that all of that magic wand, everyone's fixed, everyone's good. We have social workers and counselors sitting in the audience right now and they're exhausted at the end of every day. So, this is probably going to be the most important budget vote that I will have in what will be my 14 years as superintendent in this district. This is going to be a big
064one. So, please let your your family members and your neighbors know that we worked it down. It's 3%. Let's get it done. Thank you. Okay. On to item H. Got to get a motion for item one. A motion. Any discussion? All those in favor? Roll call. Oh, we got to do roll call. All right, you're up. Pearl. All right. Steve, yes. Christy Fisherman, yes. Douglas, yes. Hoy, Mather, yes. Casey, yes. Sherman, yes. Dave Tapman, yes. Wood, yes. Thank you. Motion passes. Can I get um a motion for adjournment? A motion. Any discussion? All those some favor.