001Hello. Is that why you're working the thing? That's why you made that noise. Okay. All right. Good luck with that. That's why we heard that terrible noise earlier. Okay. If you if you broke it, you're the person to be mad at it. And we're not gonna let Declan think he did it. Right. All right. Hi everybody. Welcome. Um we will start our official uh regular business meeting at um close to 6:30. Earlier if we're done earlier, later if we're done later. Um but welcome. Thanks for being here for this um official budget presentation. Um the first part of this evening is a little different than our normal open board meetings in that people in the audience are allowed to ask questions and and uh Miss Ross and Mr. Ryvenberg can respond. Um the board can
002ask questions, the board can respond. So it's a little bit different than than usual and then we'll shift into our regular business meeting when we're finished with this. So I will turn it over to the team. Hi everyone. Um Kim Ross, superintendent. Um this is I'm finishing up my first full year here at Dwayneburg. Um so Mr. Ryvenberg is um been such a great partner that I had said that I'd like to be part of the budget hearing and the presentation. We joke that I am the front of the house, the instructional side and he's the back of the house, right? He is the buildings and grounds and transportation and the money side. So, my part will be wrapping around the front of the house. So, I just love taking snapshots of the school year
003um that we collect since September. And if you look up here on the slide, the the current budget and the proposed budget supports so many wonderful things here at Dwayneburg. And I know a year ago when I meeting or a little over a year ago meeting with the board that coming, you know, from Skhairi County, living in Skeri County, Dwayne'sburg is such a special place. And as long as I can remember as a student, uh, growing up in Skhairy County and as an educator in Skair County, we always looked at Dwayneburg as being a great place to learn and work. So even though we're small, we we really stretch our budget dollars, we are highly competitive with our surrounding neighbors and we outperform them academically. So what does our budget support and what will it
004support? So we knew this past year and again the goal is always to pro preserve programs and services and opportunities for our students and I'm pretty proud of the budget that Mr. Ryenberg and I have put together that does that exactly. So 26 athletic teams with 199 individual students. There's many of those 199 that play two or three seasons, but 199 students out of our secondary level actually participate in athletics. We currently have 23 clubs and the clubs range from everything from environmental club to student council to national honor society to STEM to robotics, the Dungeons and Dragons. And this year we piloted where we have those students come and present to the board because it really is just all about the kids. What is best for children? And we know that maybe if athletics
005aren't their thing, maybe Dungeons and Dragons is or robotics. And then we have 22 other um stipen positions that help support that front of the house. So we have MTSS coordinators or we have um special ed transition coordinators. So things are um within within the within those ECA stipens to promote academic and um students well-being. So just this slide here, right? Seeing everything from what our students are involved in, including athletics, Dwayneburg produces phenomenal athletes from Emma White to um Jeffrey Mullhern this year. Year after year, Wyatt Rock with wrestling, year after year after year, our athletic programs are super strong and they're one of the strongest in the region. And that goes to the quality coaching and as well as the our families being supportive of it opportunities that our budget supports. So this
006is I I know no one wants to read from a slide but I want this on the slide so that when this is put in the minutes people realize this is what we will maintain with the upcoming budget. just AP and university and high school courses. There are 16. There are 15 electives. That's for students 9 through 12. 38 of our students attend career and tech CTE. And I actually have here because I want I want to frame what does that mean? Our goal is always to empower and educate our children so that when they leave our brick and mortar they are ready for employment or enrollment. So 38 students and that's only for juniors and seniors who can go to CTE. We have five students who are so this is skillsbased. They they will
007leave our our building ready to take a job. Five students are in heavy equipment. Three students are in cosmetology. Three are in culinary. Three are in building trades. Six are in auto trades. Five and are in electrical. Four are in welding. One is in entertainment tech. Two are in early childhood. One is in HVAC. Two are in auto body. Three are in health careers. one diesel mechanic, one in criminal justice, and one in global fashions. So, there's actually 41 students, I must have miscounted, there's 41 students who attend CTE. It's phenomenal. And CTE does a signing day in their senior year where kids can actually sign up and get a job right out of school making $60,000. It's our job. It's our responsibility. Sending kids to CTE can be expensive. It's around $14,000 a student.
008But if we create that foundation for them because college isn't for everybody and people's journeys are never a straight line and I know I always need a mechanic. I like to always have a nice meal out. I need to get my haircut or we need welders. So it is a phenomenal opportunity for our kids. Even though we're small, we enroll in the distance learning program. So distance learning is where Jody, how many classes are in the catalog each year? Usually hundreds. Hundreds. So say if a student um one of our students is really interested in um early childhood, maybe they go to CTE, they can take a distance learning class in child psychology. We wouldn't be able to to offer it, but they can take those classes. But here's the sweet thing about the distance
009learning and being a part of that consortium. If a teacher teaches a class and or supervises it, part of their salary becomes aidable salary and benefits. So it's actually generates revenue for us. So, right now, and I might have miscounted, but I'm pretty sure I'm close, we have 63 full-time teachers, one part-time ENL teacher, three school counselors, 20 support staff, so TDAs and aids, four full-time related service providers, which we've talked about in the past. Now that we have a full team, we can start doing preschool um evaluations and provide services and then the county will pay us. Um we have an instructional coach from Boseis who comes two times a week. She's been working at the elementary school with zones of regulation. It's kind of um PBIS the positive behavior is this is the
010next layer where kids self-identify where they're at and it promotes self-regulation. We have Trisha who we love and adore our communication specialist two times a week. We have our food service manager three times a week. He was out there grilling today. Was it today? he was out there grilling for the kids. Um, and he's going to be pivotal during our capital projects because our cafeterias are going to be under construction. And we do um deploy a physical therapist two times a week. And we have two full-time SRO's, though we only pay for one because the county has been such a great partner with us. And again, we can see the the lovely faces. I do want to mention, oh, I'll wait till the end to talk about it. So, so there's I'm going to talk
011a little bit more at the end about what our budget um currently supports and what we're looking forward to the the coming school year. So, now Mr. Vivvenberg gets to do his magic and talk numbers. Okay. So, uh first off, this is a summary of the uh 2526 budget. It's the same slide that you saw during the budget or during the board's adoption. Uh the total budget brings us up to 20,686,000. That's a budget-to-budget increase of 1.2 uh43. Uh, and then it's a 6.39% increase uh with a tax levy increase of uh 3.2%. That gives us a 287,125 uh for dollar for dollar over from uh from the current year to next year. So this is a uh a wraparound of the proposed expenditures in the different categories. So, general support, instructional, uh, operations and
012maintenance, pupil transportation, medical and benefits, and then debt service. So, debt service went up quite a bit because of the capital project. Um, so that gets balanced out also with uh with building aid. Um, so you'll see that too uh in the um in the revenue side of the budget as well. Uh so something I would like to mention is that uh when we started budget this year uh we were able to whittle down a lot of things that we realized maybe we were just too high on some of the budget lines. Um and uh so the uh the overall budget without considering debt is only about 3.86% uh from budget to budget. So we were able to whittle down quite a bit but there is uh part a large part of the budget increase
013is due to that that debt service uh for for capital work. This is an overall look just a visual of the uh the categories that you saw on the previous slide. Um just to highlight that um a huge portion of our budget is uh almost you know almost 50% of the budget is is the instructional side. Uh and then the uh the next largest portion of the budget is the medical and benefits and then debt service. So this is a uh this is a look at the current budget uh compared to the proposed budget for next year um in the uh revenue side of the budget uh showing the the tax levy, the state aid and then other revenues. So a large portion of our budget is funded either by state aid or property taxes.
014So when we don't get funded enough on state aid, we have to balance that out with property taxes. Um and I I will add that this year's New York State budget has been uh an absolute trip. Uh so um not having a a final budget when we were developing our own uh made budget very difficult this year. So um you know our last proposal from the state was that we're getting only 2% uh foundation aid increase from from over prior year. So uh that leaves a big gap in the budget uh and we have to find a way to fill that. So through the use of either savings and fund balance and reserves and property taxes is where you have to fill that gap that for state aid because we're running a business, we're running
015a school, you have to fill uh you have to be able to pay for the increases for contractual items and uh for services that you get for kids. Uh so this is a look at the state aid uh for what we know. So this is what we had budgeted last year uh compared to what we are budgeting for this year based on our assumptions uh from the governor's run and then a look at the the tax levy. So the tax cap is not being exceeded. We are um we're not exceeding the tax cap. We're going out with a 3.2% increase uh for the tax levy. And then this is a general approximate uh assumption of what it would um what what that 3.2% increase would look like. Um and I put some home values in
016there on the left hand side. You can kind of plug away it and see uh an estimate of what the the home value and the estimate would be. And then uh just to highlight what I had mentioned before is that state aid and property taxes is our largest source of revenue. Um so when one doesn't fund the budget, the other has to. Uh so we need to find ways to fill that gap. So um the state aid uh if it if it lacks, then we have to fill it with the property taxes. So um just highlighting that. And then we filled that gap with a little more fund balance this year than we did or for next year uh than we did for uh for the current year. And and then we also uh added
017added back that $100,000 assumption to use for reserves uh in the uh retirement system. So if we uh get to that point and needing that reserves, we'll be using that as well. And this is a uh this is the three-part budget uh looking at the administrative, the program and the capital portion of the budget. Uh so again the largest portion of the budget being the program uh and then the uh capital coming in at the close second. So administrative portion uh includes uh all of the uh BOSI's administrative costs, central data processing, salaries and benefits for administrators, supervisors, administrators, clerical staffs, duos, school board, uh tax collection, etc. All the business operations uh and then program covers all of the educational things that uh Mr. Ross was talking about a little while ago. So including
018salary and benefits of all teachers, staff, any pupil services at all Bosey's programs, special education services, etc. And then the capital services, capital is uh anything building related uh custodial staff maintenance etc. Um and then utilities uh and also bus purchases and buildings. Uh I would like to highlight uh this slide just to show that our per pupil cost um for Dwayneburg are you know is actually lower than some of our neighbors. Uh so we are still doing a great job at doing more uh for less. So uh this is based on data that I pulled right off of uh New York State um gov. And I I I did not highlight the actual school districts. say um but this is in comparison to a few of our neighbors. We are actually uh so I
019would also like to say that we are um expecting a slight increase in enrollment for next year just because there's so many uh kids um wanting to go to UPK. So it's a it's a good thing we've started to see that enrollment trend start to level out. Uh so just wanted to highlight where we've been over the past few years with our budgets. Um so we've actually come close or spent some of our of that fund balance that we did uh put into the budget. So in the 23 24 school year we spent some of that extra um fund balance that we had appropriated. Um, so we are budgeting closer and closer to what we feel is going to be the uh the expenditures compared to the revenues. Um, so the 25 I kind of
020colored that differently because we that's kind of the unknown right now um until we close out the rest of the budget year. So, I would like to highlight that um this could be this could be the unknown if we continue to see a um a a smaller increase on our state aid increases. Um we're still going to have to find ways to fill those gaps in the future and and this is something that, you know, we're going to have to continue to to work on and that's why we are balancing our budget also with a a tax levy increase. and we can't just go out with a 0% levy increase from from year to year. Uh so the next slide here I'm showing what it would look like if you didn't increase the the tax
021levy for this year and went out with a zero. So it makes that deficit even more severe in future years and you won't there's no way to really build that back. So I'll go back to the other slide and I'll show what that actually does. So quite a significant or decrease there. So um that's why we built the budget that we've built this year and uh on the on the ballots to uh for the vote for the or the budget will be on uh May 20th. Uh school bus purchases uh we have a maximum of two buses at a maximum cost of 230,000. So, this is the lowest we've gone out with with several years. So, we're only buying two buses and then a repair reserve up to a maximum amount of $300,000 for uh
022for the purpose of repairs of facilities. And I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you, Mr. Ryvenberg. So, you're going to see here the question that's been asked a lot is what if the budget is defeated? um we go for a revote on June 17th. If it's defeated on June 17th, then we go into a contingency budget. And what does a contingency budget mean? It means that we cannot raise taxes, raise the levy. So based on New York State regulations and laws, that means no equipment purchases, public use of building by outside groups and organiz organizations must be charged to uh a fee to cover all expenses related. Non-instructional employees not in a collective bargaining unit cannot get a raise. No rental of office equipment. Those are the guardrails. But the reality is is
023that we would have to make pretty significant cuts. And what we mean is co we would have to cover a loss and things that we are looking forward in the future is including staff we'd like to do we've talked about this with the board um at a third section of UPK. Here's here's the hiccup with uh UPK. New York State has um awarded us financial means doesn't cover the whole cost for two sections. So for 302 32 36 36 students right now we are up to 61 applications for UPK. Oh 51. Thank you. Sorry I was you know I thought about that for a second. Wait, no it's not 61. 51. And that doesn't mean the stragglers that are going to come in in June, July, and August. And so I've talked about the board
024coming as um wearing my elementary principal hat um a huge supporter of early intervention. When we can have every four-year-old in this community and put them in our UPK program, the foundation is significant. Ask any kindergarten teacher if they can tell the difference if a a child's gone to UBK or not gone to UBK and it's the foundation for their educational journey. So by having a third section even though we have to absorb the cost of it, we're not going to trip over a dollar to pick up a nickel. And what I mean by that is when districts have to do a lottery and 20 kids or 18 kids are left behind, we end up having to hire more interventionists down the road to fill that gap that they didn't get in prek. So we're
025better off getting a hold of them when they're little and making sure we're giving them the supports that they need, kindergarten ready, but school ready. So, we would also would have to consider the extracurriculars, including athletics. Athletic is is a huge budget line, over $200,000. Field trips, I'm going to talk about that in a minute, but all those things would have to be on the table if we if we ended up with a less budget and or a contingency budget. just being honest like what what what what are the steps? Here's our why. These faces, I remember every one of these moments as I was grabbing them. Our why is to empower and educate to get our kids ready for employment or enrollment. And just some things that you know this budget supports moving forward.
026Did you know that we had 34 events for our families this year? Three of which were community events where we invited the community in. There were 26 field trips that we had this year from going to Proctors to Herkimer Diamond Mines to doing some uh soil and water testing. On top of it all, our ECAs, our extracurriculars that raise funds were required to get do give back days to their community. So if they raised funds, the expectation that was set out was that they had to give back to their community because our community feels taxed all the time. But when they see students in the community giving to their community, I always say it's squeezing the zucchini and the chocolate bread. They're giving back to their community, but the community is seeing them and it's
027building that positive relationship. And the school year isn't done, but they have to give back twice. So, a few of the things right now there's 19 that have been completed. Things like cleaning up the little league field, coupon books for our students with the backpack program, assisted with the pancake breakfast, assisted with the spaghetti dinner, made holiday cards. They actually made cat mats, mats for cats, cat mats for the animal shelter. They also did a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House. And the list goes on and on and on. These are the faces. This is why we do what we do. This is why we want to give our students and continue to give our students the opportunities that we in little old Dwayne can give to them. There is so much joy in the
028elementary and the secondary building. Yep, there's challenges because kids don't grow unless they make mistakes. But overall, it is such a special community and I am so proud to serve this community and see the students and see the things that we can do for them. And even though we I don't it's a miracle and I think this is a testament to Mr. Ryvenberg. Um he had that slide. Bigger districts usually spend less money per child, right? Because their mandates, right? We have to have a biocertified teacher. We have to have a a certified earth science teacher. We have to have a, you know, certain certifications. Smaller districts usually spend upward from 35 to 40,000 per student because we're mandated to have that staff. larger districts because there may be a classroom of 30 kids in
029a room. They spend around 23 24,000 a student. We are so fiscally responsible with the funds that we have that we hover around 23 24,000. And that wasn't Mr. Ryvenberg pulling that number. That came out of the Rockefeller study. the Rockefeller study produced um back in late fall what districts were spending per student and in the capital region we were one of the lowest and we still provide all those opportunities that we've talked about. So when it comes time for for the budget vote, please remember this is we make decisions based on kids, our kids, and what our kids deserve and what opportunities we want to keep going and keep keep for them moving forward. I just love their faces. That's why I love going to the elementary school. It's my therapy. All right, so
030we have the public budget hearing. Meet the C what? That's okay. meet the candidates is I don't see at the current Oh, May 15th and the vote is the 20th 1 to 9:00 at the elementary school. Any questions? This is actually a part where you do the hearing before the regular meeting because it can be open dialogue. You don't have to submit a question. You can ask any questions about the budget or if you need any clarification. It's conversation with us, conversation with the board. Don't be shy. Oh, yes, Chris. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. It's the the audio thing. I don't know. Some tech genius figured it out. My way. Um, yeah. I I I've asked this question in the past because I just think it's very good for the community to understand the the
031checks that go into the finances of the school with the auditing and all of that. I just think that it's a good thing for people to know the level of well checks and checks and checks that go into developing a school budget and that and the annual finances as they're expended throughout the year. Thanks Chris. You're absolutely right. So there's regulations around internal auditing, auditing, external auditing, and then there's the big audit, the once a year, right, where we have to open up our books and it's a third party vendor who comes in and spends weeks and weeks and weeks looking at our books. Um, and it's a great checks and balances because there was a few errors made recently that Mr. Ryvenberg was able to put a corrective action plan forward. It's all great
032stuff, right? We're transparent and we're held accountable. Any other questions, thoughts? This is an easy crowd. Does the board have any questions? Go ahead. Oh, get you got your mic. I have I have a couple. Um, okay. [Music] So, the CTE classes, I'm glad you mentioned at the beginning because I keep forgetting to ask. Um, do we happen to know how many students who graduated from CTE last year that actually forward in a in a career in that that they stayed within what the CTE. Yeah. Um can So that's a I wasn't here here for that. So that's probably a Jod question. And probably how many kids did you how many seniors did you have enrolled last year? You don't know. It was it was 37 last year that were enrolled because you're limit your
033I think you're capped, right? No, we could we financially we try to keep it on at the same level, but there's it's unlimited. um districts aren't limited to um how many kids they enroll in CTE and then some kids can move on to do like new vision. So if they're in the healthcare that's it's a really uh rigorous program it's hard to get into but um we can definitely um find that out and that because that's a great question I keep forgetting to ask so I since you brought it up I perfect question my next question is probably more for Jeff. How many is how much money is currently in our savings? Yeah, that um so if you look at the reserve fund report that I gave back in um that would have been September
034or October. Yeah. Uh we could reference that. I I did not come prepared to give you a reserve fund report though tonight. So yeah. Right. Yeah. So, you will also find the um the uh tax report card on the uh in the budget packet that will be located on the uh budget page of the district. Um so the if you look at the budget section it will actually have that information on that um on that document as well or last actually at the last meeting um property tax report card that was approved by the board. So that you should uh it's right on amendments from last from last meeting. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. It's a it is from Yep. So you will find the reserve fund report there as well. I was wondering when it
035came to the more with less page. It looks like that data is is that old from 22 23. Yeah, that's the most released data that comes from state ed. So they're always like a couple years behind when they issue that data. Because when I ran the numbers by like our budget as a whole divided by our student population, it's a much different number. It's not 23,000, I get 31,000. So it's based on what um state and so state actually they the Rockefeller Center put that the report that they got from state ed. So, STA does that calculation and they they do a they they actually put out a number that's determined for us. So, it's not like I submit a a per pupil amount to them. They actually say this is what you spend per
036pupil. So, but how do they figure you know what are they using as the basis for their formula? Because if we don't know that, then how are we supposed to really know from our angle in doing the budget, you know? So what I'll do is I can hyperlink the Rockefeller to you again, but state um state ed. So when we think of when we say enrollment, those are our human beings walking through the building. Okay? Versus um charter school or private school, those are not in those numbers. So when we say enrollment, when we have 660 students, that doesn't include students who are Dwayneburg students but go to private or charter schools. We when a student goes to a charter school we have to pay for it. So any we are build for charter schools
037as well as we are build for health. You know how you you um resolve you approve and resolve those health agreements. So the numbers that the Rockefeller study came out with are the numbers when you take all the different variables including those students who go to charter or private schools as part of a a cost. I was going to say private private sorry private in general. Yeah. Actually I heard I heard they're going to do a charter school in connectity. Outside placement outside placements. Yes. For special ed or whatever. So this is a very confusing number and formula basically. That's what I'm getting. It is very confusing but I welcome Sarah. If you read through the Rockefeller study and they explain the formula in it and if you can figure it out, I'd love for
038you to tell me in fourth grade words because all I know is we go by what what's produced by state ed and and then the Rockefeller study. Yeah, they've got to be subtracting something out of this to get to that number because that's not the number we're working with. Oh, another variable would be that I think our last number, this was back in the fall. part of contractual language is that um our staff can bring their children here and that's part of the enrollment. We don't get aid on those on those children. So, it's probably part of that formula as well. But it is a great question and I I'm always baffled about the very long calculation that they do to get to what the price is per pupil. But I'll I'll share that Rockefeller
039with you so you can see comparatively around around here. Thank you. You're welcome. Anything else? I'm sorry. That's okay. I think I have the current report. I just I'm just Which one is the one? All right. There isn't any other questions, Melissa? No, we're good to That's it. All right. That's great. Thank you. And I'll get that stuff that link to you so you can unpack it. Okay, great. We are uh not too far past our normal start time, so that's great. Uh so, anybody need a break or we just dive in? We're okay. Okay. All right. We'll dive right in. Uh all right. So, uh I will now call our general meeting to order at 6:39 p.m. Beginning with the pledge of allegiance. United States of America. Okay. Uh our next item is recognitions.
040And I was frantically writing things down as you guys were talking that I remembered that I wanted to to say. So, um, we have a few we have a lot of things that have been going on recently and a lot of things that are coming up. Um, so I want to, uh, just do a few shoutouts and and, um, and note some upcoming events. So, last week uh, on the 30th was the annual elementary school art show. If you haven't been to the elementary school art show, I highly recommend that you put it on your calendar for next year because it is awesome. Um, Mrs. Chovin works tirelessly for weeks putting all the art around the school. Um then she has to take it all back down again. So I think she's in the midst
041of that now. But um I heard there were several hundred people there. Is that right, Mrs. Conover? Oh, you were out of town last week. That's right. But the like hundreds. Hundreds of people. Say again. That sounds accurate to hundreds of people. Yeah. Which is awesome. So, um, so good for those young artists, um, developing artists, and and for Mrs. Chovin for working as hard as she does to showcase all the things that that the kids are doing. Um, I want to point out that next week, uh, the same day as the meet the candidates night, but earlier in the evening, is our national honor society induction ceremony. That's always a really nice uh a really nice ceremony um honoring uh juniors um that are moving up to be seniors that are um really excelling
042academically uh and and as people right in the community. So that is upcoming. Um there are some teachers and staff out there in the audience tonight. This is teacher appreciation week. So thank you teachers. Thank you teachers. Um the PTA has has some special things planned for you. You've had a few of them already. Um a few more are coming your way. I know that uh our building leaders and superintendent have some things planned, too. So, um we appreciate you every week and every day of every week, but um we especially want to know you to know that we appreciate you. And here at Dwayneburg, we actually use the week to appreciate the entire district staff um because we really can't function without all of them, right? So, so everybody's going to get a little
043recognition sometime this week um just as a thank you from all of us for everything that you do. Um the last thing I have on my list uh is that the grand opening of the playground, even though it is being well utilized already, uh is next Friday afternoon from 3:30 to 6. There will be popsicles and raffles. Um so it's it's it's awesome. I I rode the zipline over the weekend. It was super fun. Um um they have an easier time getting on it. The children have an easier time getting on and off than I did, but um it was super fun. So, next Friday is the grand opening um celebration for the new playground. And I think that's everything. I didn't think I had anything and then I thought of all those things. All
044right. Um okay. Next item is board discussion of tonight's agenda. comments or questions? Okay. All right. And uh Serena, there were no agenda changes for tonight, right? Since we posted the agenda. All right. Um so with that, resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the board of education approve the agenda for the regular meeting for this evening, May 6th. May I have a motion? Thank you, Francis. A second. Thank you, Tony. Again, comments or questions? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Our next item is public comment. I paper. Okay. Um I didn't see anyone that signed in to speak um during the public comment section, but before I move on from there, is there anyone who had wanted to ask a question or make a comment? Yes, Lucy Spore, please come up.
045Last time she talked to us, she ended up dressing. So, this should work out well. All right, guys. It's on now. All right. Yesterday during lunch, I called the Fredo lady on the back of the chip, the chips they sell at lunch, and I asked her why we get those versions. cuz I thought we weren't supposed to have like a certain sodium amount in our chips. And she recommended I talk to my school board and ask why we get the baked Lays instead of the normal Lays. So, she she recommended I ask you. I know that's not really like your job, but like whoever picks the chips we get, they're really salty. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else have public comment or question that I can't answer? You have any questions for me? Okay. Excellent. All
046right. Next item uh is where are we? Uh acceptance of minutes. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board of education approve the minutes of the regular meeting on April 23rd, 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Tony. A second. I'll second. Thank you, Alyssa. Comments or questions? Um, we're I know we had some discussion before about how the minutes are different this time. Um, will we be adjusting them to not have because there's we can I'm uncomfortable with the way that the layout is because there's a lot of information missing if we're going about it this new layout. Yes. And where's our board disc? Oh, is this what we can we use this for board discussion? Okay, great. Okay. Okay, great. Um, yes. Uh, so I'll just I'll just for
047everyone else's benefit here, um, Serena, uh, I asked Serena to provide sort of some additional details, some context to, uh, the things that we vote on. Um, and she, in true Serena fashion, went above and beyond what I had anticipated her to do. um which was a a lot a lot of detail but not every detail right so um I think that my thought process behind it so I'll I'll give you that and then we can answer the the the question the thought process behind it is that there there have been many times where not just our board but school boards in general um there's a perception that we just rubber stamp everything and if we were to read our minutes as they have traditionally been done That's what it looks like we do, right?
048Um, I hope that people are watching the videos, but when I look at how many views there's been on our YouTube channel, it's three or four. So, and I'm guessing one of them's me because I'm reviewing and Rey, like we're reviewing what what we went over. So, um, so from that perspective, you know, we do have meaningful conversation. We do have meaning meaningful discussion and and content before we vote. Sometimes we don't because there's nothing really to say, but but oftentimes we do. So So that was sort of the the the thought process behind can we can we offer the public a little bit more in our documentation of of our meetings. Um we have way more than we need. So um for this one we can certainly how do we do it? We we
049motion to table until the for this particular agenda um minutes. motion to remove and then we can put it on the next um agenda for approval at our next meeting because Serena has right Serena you have you have the document as it has traditionally been done as well. So that's not a heavy lift for Serena to put it as it has typically been been done. Um, so that's the answer, but I'm interested in people's thoughts about having some kind of highlight or or you know, some bit of context to what we what we do at at each of these meetings. I like that thought. Um, I do agree that it is I I don't know if it's just too far away. Okay. I I like the idea of having some of that additional context available
050for folks that maybe aren't here or are not available to watch YouTube. I know sometimes the sound on the YouTube videos not come through great um even with our mics and such. So I do I do um think that that would add value. I don't know if I'm on I have no idea. Um anyways I think the the screen is awesome. I think we should keep iterating. It's just too much work. Even if it you know it was just too much too much work. So I think we should look at other tools. I know there's AI summariz and proud man. I cannot hear you. in the mic. Hello. Okay. Okay. Wrong way. Um, is there ways on our video where we can have the words on there? YouTube transcribes every video, but it's only what
051it records. Okay. and it cuts in and out because of a variety of issues. Okay, that's not it's not a perfect system unfortunately. Um and and actually that's that's often the complaints we get is can't hear you. I know someone's talking but we can't the mic isn't loud enough or they're not talking into their mic so it can only record what it hears. Yeah, you'll get those black patches when when it doesn't pick it up. Go ahead. Somebody else turned on or off? I can't tell. Um, we can we can continue this discussion. We can carry on, you know, for tonight's meeting as we have been, but perhaps we can come to our next meeting prepared to talk about what some of the options might be if that's something that that folks are interested in
052in providing really to the public, right? the ability to to read the minutes, to scan the minutes, and to have the context of of what, you know, what we're voting on, what we're doing, and and why. I'm sorry. I just I'm confused. What more do we where's the balance? Because what we were doing before kind of seemed like that high level enough already. And if you wanted to know more, you watched it or you know, you came to the meeting or are we going to do a transcription, you know, like it kind of seems redundant if we do that? I just I was always thinking if we're a little bit more high level and documented the important things with the vote. Um so I guess yeah, that's my question is where do we want to
053land with this? Yeah, I think it's it's a it's a conversation we can continue to have. For sure. For sure. Um my you know my again my thought was let's let's see what we can do. Um it is a lot it was a lot for Serena to write all these things down. So um and and I very much appreciate that that time that you spent Serena in doing that. Um so to Francis's point we can accept them this time if you'd like. If you're not comfortable with that, we can table them or a motion to remove them from this agenda and bring them back the next time and then we would vote on two sets of minutes at that at that meeting. I mean, I know for myself there's a number of things I said
054in here that are missing. So, I I would like to have it taken right now and be fixed and vote on it after we can see the fixed. How do I do that? Because we made a motion. So, Do we close that motion? Right. But I already opened a motion to accept them. So now, do I have to close that motion and we all just vote yes or no about accepting them? And then or or is this within the motion within a motion? Okay. And then we'll do another motion to to have them right. Do we have to have a motion to have it put it back on or we don't? Okay. All right. Great. All right. So, so all in favor? All opposed? I. Any abstension? Okay. All right. Thank you, Serena. I I
055think I'm very funny and I like when next up we have some presentations and reports starting with the National Honor Society. How great. Who's coming up for that? So, I'm not sure how to get the presentation. All right, I can be funny some more. We get we could get it written down at the minute. The spring concert was also on Thursday. I write that down. Speaking of telling jokes, because we had some time to kill, um there were a lot of jokes on the stage on Thursday evening for the secondary uh concert was on Thursday. Would you like to tell your joke again? See one of your gra Good evening everyone. I just like to start out by introducing myself. Um, I'm a senior here. My name is Joey Harris. I'm the vice president of
056NHS. I also played basketball, soccer, and I'm attending Clarkson University next year where I'm going to be majoring in mechanical engineering. My name is Ella Raymond. I'm also a senior. I play basketball and soccer and I'm attending U Albany next year for psychology. So, now on to the NHS side of things. Just a little recap of what we do um as an organization. Um as you can see, we're a pretty prestigious group. Um fairly selective. um you have to have a cumulative average of 88% which is you know fairly difficult to have for the majority of students and it's definitely a um struggle at times and then along with this students have to be evaluated on their service leadership and character to be admitted into the national honor society. Um, and you also have to
057have a solid um, track record along with different student body organizations that you participated in throughout your high school and middle school career. The screen is frozen. Yeah, it's not moving. Okay, there it is. Thank you. So, the first um event that we sponsored this year and participated in was the blood drive. So, as you can see, we have a student right there taking her blood during school. Um, a lot of students came down to the gym, um, took their time and donated their blood, which obviously is a task in its own. But as the NHS, we helped set up, take down, check in donors, and work at the canteen station. Um, I worked at the check-in station, and just checking in a lot of people from the community. It was nice. It was nice
058to see everyone come out and support. Um, but as you can see here, we have some stats about how much blood we collected, and it was fairly successful. So, we met our goal as um actually we almost met our goal. Looks like a little bit short, but the effort was there. And there's some pictures of some people giving blood and our volunteers. Next sponsored event that we did was the adopt a family for Christmas event. Um so we worked throughout December and a little bit of November um collecting money and gifts from faculty and students along with just other people in Dwayneburg um to help provide a Dwayne family with a happy Christmas. And um I think we did that pretty well because we raised $300 and over 50 gifts. So yeah. Um, the next
059event that we did was the tie dying pillow cases. This was a fun one. We all got together in the morning. Um, and we teamed up with the Leo Club and we ended up dying 24 pillow cases for the pediatric wing of the Basset Medical Center. And I think that's major um, mostly children that they went to. So, yeah. Um, next we did the food bank. Um, a majority of us went down and sorted and packed fruits and vegetables for the food bank to distribute to various places across 23 counties. Um, and this supplies over 40% of New York. And there's some pictures of our volunteers. Um, right now we are currently collecting supplies listed on the Ronald McDonald wish list to bring comfort, hope, strength, and love to the children and families facing serious
060health challenges in our community. These items from the wish list help keep their pantries stocked, facilities clean, and most pressing needs met. And we will be collecting these through May 16th. there. So there's in the office and 117 in El Y. Um we are also collecting aluminum can aluminum soda can pull tabs. Um the Ronald McDonald House recycles them for revenue to provide services for families of seriously ill or injured children. Um, thousands of dollars are raised each year through this recycling effort. We already have a lot as you can see. So, um, but any more are definitely appreciated. So, thank you. Any questions? Anyone have any questions? Um, 5:15. 515. Yeah. I like that you're testing. Anyone else have any questions? Well, listen, congratulations to the both of you um on your upcoming graduation
061and your next steps um in life and and thank you for all the work that you did through NHS. It's great. Absolutely. Thank you. It's a great resume builder. [Applause] Okay, next we have a representative from class of 2027. There you go. Um So, can I start? Yeah. Okay. So, um I'm EF Goldmith. I'm the vice president. I of the class of 2027. I play basketball, cross country, golf, and I'm coming back from track meet right now. And um this is Joseph. Um I'm Joseph D. Carlo. I am the secretary of the class of 2027. And um I don't do any school sports. Um, our 2024 to 2025 fundraisers included Smith pies, which we made a $439 profit, and nothing but cakes. And what does tit for our giving back to the community project? Um,
062In December, we made holiday cards for um the like homebound uh parishioners um for the lady of fat fat month. Our second give back um for the year was in this month we are going to make cat mats for the animal protective foundation and our future projects looking forward um are going to be like potential partnerships with Leo Club as we saw in the NHS presentation for future giving back to the community things and also potential food drives looking forward. Can I ask because I don't have cats what a cat mat is and how does one do you make it? It's like you like so you take like two pieces of fabric and you just cut them like you cut like inch strips and on each side and then you tie it up. So then
063it's like a little blanket and like a little mat for the cat to lay on and shelters and stuff so they're not just on the bare cage floor. That's lovely. Thank you. So like one of those little tie blankets. Yeah. Oh, how nice. So you guys are 10th grade, right? Mhm. So that means you're two years being seniors. So you started thinking about, you know, the big expenses that your class has coming up prom and possibly. What are you thinking along those lines and how are you going to raise the money to get there? Well, so I feel like for class officers, um, there are some constraints on what we can kind of do because we can't just magically throw fundraisers out there and have people pay for them. And it also depends like um
064we also we have a smaller grade so it's harder to raise money for big like projects such as like a nice prom or other things but we'll probably follow in a lot of the footsteps of our like older grades doing continuing the fundraisers they're doing because those have been successful. Yeah. Anything else? Any other questions? Thank you ladies. appreciate you coming in and thanks for running from your trackmate literally. [Applause] Okay, our last um presentation and report is from the class of 2028. It was an evil picture. We'll go son's eagle. It's okay. Oh, wonderful. Hello and good evening. Um, this is the class of 2028 presentation. I'm Lucy Spor and today I'm representing class of 2028. I'm not a officer or anything but um and I participate in numerous activities and multiple times I've
065been on this pedestal talking multiple times about the numerous activities I'm in. Um I am Gwennav Evans. I am also a representative of the class of 2028. Um also not an officer. Many of our officers had sports this evening so we are representing. Um, I also do many activities. I am I do the play. I'm in the orchestra every year and um I'm on student council. Okay. So, to in order to raise money for our end of senior end of year goals, we have had one fundraiser this year so far and then we have an upcoming one. So recently we did the Hoffman's car wash fundraiser. So it was a virtual sale for gift cards which was really nice because we got all the funds from that. It's really easy. You can just use your
066credit card and buy it. So we earned $479 from that. So that's a really good profit. And then upcoming we have May 12th we're doing the amazing cookies and snacks virtual and catalog sale and our goal is to raise 500 which is pretty reasonable. We got pretty close with the car wash sale, so we're hoping it'll all round out really even. Um, so far we have done one give back so far. We are planning another this month. Um, we collected food items for the local Our Lady of Fatima food pantry. Um, canned goods and um, such. This month we plan to be decorating placemats to send to the friendship cafe during the senior lunch program. Um like spring colors on paper place mats to brighten up the senior lunch program. Our goals with these fundraisers
067that we have done, we hope to raise funds to have a nice prom and go perhaps on a senior trip. Um that's kind of why we're doing the fundraisers in the first place. So, thank you. Do any questions? Anybody have any questions? Thank you, ladies. Appreciate you coming in tonight and telling us about your class. It's awesome. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, our next item is our superintendent report. All right, not a lot to update. Um, just putting it out there to the board as a reminder, but um, Trisha's going to put something out to the greater community that May 28th is going to be our celebration. Um, of eight teachers that I'm going to be recommending for tenure board. You'll have your packet um in this week. Are you breaking the joint? He's good. Um
068I'll have the the packet for you to review um with this week's um update. Um we're really excited. There's five people at the secondary level, three at the elementary. I hand delivered letters to them today inviting them to the celebration, inviting their their families as well. Um the principles will be involved in talking about their journey. Normally, um, after a few years, I am always honored to do that, but the principles have been with them since the beginning. So, I'd like them to be able to speak of the folks, um, and then meet their families. I actually had one of the teachers tell me today, she said, "Are you sure you want my toddler to come?" I said, "Why?" She said, "We went to my brother's uh wedding and he knocked over the sweetheart table."
069I yes I I would hope that the the school building will be able to handle children. I think so. I said I promise there won't be a sweetheart table for him to knock over. So um you know it would be nice to get to know them um and and their spouses or partners and their children. So um then as well as we can celebrate the board prior to that celebration at 5:30 is going to do the final round interview with the selected principal candidate. So, it'll be an opportunity for the community to meet the new principal and the board to spend time with them prior and um celebrate them and joining the Dwayneburg family. Um as for the principal update, um we we had 20 applicants. We the leadership team looked 28, oh sorry, 28
070applicants. um screened uh the leadership team went through narrowed it down to 10 and then board president Peterson and I um screened those 10 last week and we're down to six. Um six candidates will go to the interview uh teams on May 13th or 14th. I'm in the process uh tomorrow night I'm meeting virtually with the interview um teams to kind of go through the dos and don'ts. Here's the non-disclosure agreement. Um so the there's three teams. two teams are going to be traditional interview questions and then the third team um is the candidate has to dispense 30 to 40 minutes professional development with guardrails. So maybe on the science of breeding or on the science investigations or something like the zones of regulation with the PBIS social emotional. So the reason I do that
071is because sometimes people look great on paper, sometimes they interview really well, but we need an instructional leader in in addition to a manager and this is an opportunity for a candidate to really shine to be and adults learn differently than students. So it's um it's always a unique and interesting panel. Um and then the panel will have anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes to ask questions about their professional development. Um this Could you just um tell everyone who are on those panels, those interview panels? Right. So, we have none of us are. No, none of Nope. And nor am I. Serena and I will be running around uh making sure that we're troubleshooting if people need anything or water. Uh we'll serve a little bit of a dinner each night because we're keeping them
072from 5 to 8ish. Um there'll be dinner break will be the candidate will will stay in the in the room with the panelists that they're in front of. So one team is just teachers. The second team is some um some related um support staff and parents. We have two students. And then the third team, the professional development team is is um staff as well or community members who signed up who work in education, right? Want we want to make sure that we don't want a community member who say works and not in education be confused. So um very blessed we have three groups of 12. Is that what we have Serena? We did the group three groups of 12. So we have 36 panelists. Lot of interest and it pretty even across the board. Um
073and then each team will be like Mr. Ryenberg will lead a team. Schneo will lead a team and Jod will um to kind of keep keep uh keep it flowing so that they don't get bogged down. There will be canned questions because we want to make sure we're consistent with each candidate. We ask the same questions that are wrapped around the uh PEL standards that New York State adopted. So every question um is tethered to a standard for for leadership and education. Um so we're pretty excited. And then debriefing will happen on May 15th. So panelists who can make it right after school will kind of go through. I'm a big believer in sleeping on it. And then um the selected candidate will be notified on Friday and we'll develop and that gives them the
074following week is budget vote. It's so so busy. It's the week after, right? And it gives them time to develop an entry plan to present to the board of education. Any questions on May 28th at 5:30? it. That's all I got. That's all I got. Oh, any other questions? Okay. Jeff did his presentation at the beginning, so you don't have another one, right? All right. Give another one. You want to give another one? Do you want to do it over again? You have slides prepared. All right. Just something in your pocket. We'll move to our financial items. Um recommendation that the board of education based upon the recommend sorry be resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approves financial items 7.01 through 7.03. May I have a motion? A
075motion. Thank you, Francis. A second. I'll second. Thank you, Lissa. Uh comments or questions on any of these items? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Next item. Uh, instructional personnel. Approve school psychologist appointment of M. Is it Havick? Am I saying it correctly? Uh, be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent. The board of education approved the appointment of Mary Havick as school psychologist within the school psychology tenure track probationary period of three years effective September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2028 at step 16 at a salary of 67711. Uh may I have a motion? Thank you Tony. A second. Thank you Avis. Comments or questions? Just happy to fill the position. Have a full team. We had a lot of great candidates and um it was we were pleasantly surprised.
076We had another um good problem to have and but Mary is um a phenomenal educator. She kind of stepped out of the school psych world for a little bit um because of COVID. But by having her full-time, she can help with those evaluations, those preschool evaluations. Again, generating revenue for the district. question. No, no, I know. But I was gonna say something else about it. But can when you say generating revenue for the district by the school psychologist doing these evaluations, what kind of revenue were we talking about? So in in the preschool world, when a parent puts in um for either EI or CPSSE, early intervention, ear I'm sorry, early intervention. Yes. Don't speak in acronyms. and uh the uh preschool childhood the cse for uh preschool uh it all filters through the county
077and I don't know why um because if there are kiddos there are kiddos but it that it is what it is. So the parent puts in a request for an evaluation and then it goes um for CPSC. It goes to the um we submit it to the county and then we currently we have to go out and find the parent can um have some you know have a say in that we have to find an evaluator. We have to find somebody to do the psycho edal, the speech eval, sometimes OT, sometimes PT and um there are none to be found. And what happens is if you are um and then the county pays the bill for the evaluations. So, I had mentioned before that once we had a full team, we had a full-time school
078psych, full-time speech pathologist, um, and a full-time OT that the county will now do a contract with us that if we, any preschooler who needs an evaluation or therapy that they will pay us directly and not an outside evaluator because there's outside evaluators throughout the county. Um, so like Whispering Pines would be one and they they're they're backlogged by months and months and months. And by law, you're supposed to have the evaluations done within 60 days. They're probably four to six months backlogged. So this would allow us to to do the evaluations within the regs. So we there's a fee rate online. It's an hourly, it's a per hour rate based on sets of services online. Okay. So you know, I mean, we're talking revenue. It sounds great, but are we talking like $100 a
079month or are we talking, you know, like $20,000 a month? Like is this a real number? Yeah. So, it really depends on the volume. So, right now we have a current bubble of kids coming up through with with a lot of needs. Um, and especially in the prek world. But I can probably I not probably I know I can get for you the per it's usually a per eval per evaluation rate. So, Danielle had to go home. um she had an emergency at home, but when she's back in tomorrow, I'll ask that and I'll email it to you what the per evaluation rate is. And it es and flows, right? ES and flows on how many kids and then it's a different rate what Francis is saying per hour for therapy. So like is it
080group? Is it individual? It usually runs anywhere from $50 to $60 per session if they're if they are dispensing related services at at just at the preschool level which usually occur multiple times a week. Yes. Um I remember what I was going to say and that is just that her tenure uh probationary uh period is three years because she was previously tenure. Correct. She was tenured at Coopertown. Okay. Any other questions? I just wanted to say that the school psychologist is always also going to be used for like situations in the classroom, right? Like behavioral. Well, so um sometimes so the priority is because by law an IEP if they have uh counseling by the psychologist that has to come first or if she has evaluations because like I said it's a 60-day window. Um
081if she has an evaluation she has to do that has to come first. But she is part of that social emotional team. We do have Miss Camer now um the school counselor who um interventionist at the elementary school. She's there full time. So, she's usually the first point person to go intervene if if a if a teacher needs support. Um, but Mr. Preston is up here most of the time now because his his case load is bigger up here. Okay. But they all function together, right? If it's all hands on deck when when a child may be in crisis. Okay. Yeah. Great. Great question. Any other questions? Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, our next item, approve deputy tax collector appointment of Serena Kllenberger. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation
082of the superintendent, the board of education approved the appointment of Serena Kllenberger as deputy tax collector at no additional compensation effective May 7th, 2025. May I have a motion? I'll move. Thank you, Francis. A second. I'll second. Thank you, Ray. Comments or questions? Thank you. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Next item. Uh, cse and CPSSE minutes. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent. The board of education approved the cse and CPS minutes from the meetings on April 124 111228 30 and I'm sorry and 30, 2025 as attached. May I have a motion? Thank you, Avis. A second. Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions? Busy times. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, we have a handful of other things. Um, I don't think they're relatively self-explanatory. Um,
083so I am going to do a consent uh motion, but certainly ask questions uh or make comments on any of the individual items. Um, so be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approves the items 11.01 through 11.05. May I have a motion? I'll Thank you, Alyssa. A second. Thank you, Sarah. Comments or questions on any of those items? I would just like to support. I'd like to thank Mr. who for his donation. Oh yes, that's very kind of him. Agree. Um, you know, and the last one I don't know we're really voting on information in there, but as a reminder, oh, no, we're adding it to the calendar, so it has to be on not a resolution. Oh, okay. You just have to give notice. It doesn't
084have to be a resolution. Okay. So, okay. Any other questions or comments? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Um, next we will be going into executive session for purposes of personnel. Um, the board does not intend to return to open meeting. So, we will say thank you um for being here this evening. Thank you for participating in the hearing um and budget presentation. Um, and uh come out and vote in a couple of weeks. Um, may I have a motion to enter into executive session at 7:25, please? A motion. Thank you, Ray. A second. Thank you, Avis. All uh all in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you again, everyone.