001Good evening everybody. Meeting order. Please stand for the pledge. United States of America to the worldice for all. We're present to advise members of the audience that they may address the board regarding agenda items after the superintendent report. Only those members whose names and addresses are listed on the signing sheet available prior to the start of the meeting will be recognized during business. The chairperson will limit discussions of any item by the public to three minutes in order for the board to expeditiously conduct its business. I'm going to turn over to Mr. Thank you, Mr. Dorian. Good evening, everyone. I would like to start by acknowledging the incredible performance of Big Fish, our high school musical which was held this past weekend. It was tremendous success. Uh I want to thank the student, staff, and
002all involved uh for a great job. It was a wonderful production. So thank you. I also want to congratulate our board of ed trustee Chris Zachary, high school principal Mark Bernard, and president of FTK Cheryl Pepe for being recognized at the scope dinner this past Monday. Their hard work and commitment to our schools and community are deeply appreciated by all. Again, congratulations and thank [Applause] you. At this time, I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Restivo, athletic director for tonight's student athlete recognitions. Good evening everybody. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our superintendent of school, Mr. Manzo, assistant superintendent, Dr. Bells, Dr. Rock and assistant superintendent for business, Mr. Harrison, and to our board of education for their continued support of all of our athletic teams. So, thank you
003very much. We appreciate it. Our athletic teams are very successful because of all of us working together together to provide us student athletes with a great experience and a foundation to do great things once they graduate. Uh, at this time I would like to introduce our varsity boys wrestling coaches, coach Lombardi, Coach Espazito, and Coach Copinger to please come up. First off, I would like to thank the board of education for inviting us here tonight to recognize these special student athletes. I would also like to thank Mr. Restivo for your constant support throughout the year. I feel very proud being up here talking about the wrestling team. I'm truly blessed to have the best coaching staff who always go above and beyond to help out wrestlers. I would like to give a huge thank you
004to a few of my best friends and assistant coaches, Joe Espazito and Mike Hinger. Tonight, we're here to recognize Vasilius Tamil. He's a special wrestler who had an outstanding outstanding season, finished his New York State qualifier, and competed in the New York State Wrestling Championships in Albany in front of 10,000 fans. This kid is a warrior. The dedication and sacrifice he's made over the past three years is the reason why he's standing up here tonight. I've been coaching at East for the past 19 years. And Basilios, you're one of the most improved wrestlers I've ever coached. Seriously, from his sophomore year, his record was 1 and4. Fast forward to this year, he he's won 39 matches, had 32 pins, played second in Suffach County, and is a New York State qualifier. We're super proud of
005him as a wrestler, but I really feel I'm more impressed with him as his leadership skills on and off the mat. The kid has grown up to be an amazing person and a great student as well. He has a 95 GPA and recently received a high minds motion award last night. Vilios is taking his skills to the next level in college and is deciding between Ryder, St. Fer, or Nassau Community College. Congratulations. We wish you all the best in the future. Steven [Music] All righty, moving along. Our varsity girls bowling team also had uh another very successful season. Unfortunately, Coach Skone cannot uh be here. He had a prior commitment. So, uh Coach Fischer, our varsity boys coach, is going to come up and speak about our varsity girls bowling season. Good evening everyone. Um,
006this is uh Rob Sensson remarks and I'm going to read the review and he does apologize for not being able to be here tonight as he recognizes the girls bowling team for their outstanding achievements this year. He wants to thank Mr. Restiva, Mr. Manzo, Dr. O, and Dr. Dr. Bells and the entire board of education for recognizing us as a team and the accomplishments we have achieved this year. I am absolutely overjoyed and incredibly proud to celebrate the many amazing achievements of the girls bowling team this year who just so happen to be back-toback county champions. Winning a county championship is no easy feat and securing it for two consecutive years is a true testament to their hard work, passion, and talent throughout the season. With that in mind, not only did we secure the
007Suffach County Championship on February 8th, but we also had three of the top six bowlers across both NASA and Suffach counties. Five of the top 16 bowlers in Suffach County and seven of the top 15 bowlers in our league. This is a remarkable testament to the hard work, dedication, effort, and teamwork that define our program and was something that had not been accomplished by any other team across both NASA and Suffach County. So, congratulations. Following our county championship victory, our team traveled to Syracuse, New York to compete for a state title. In the state tournament, we finished fifth, which was an impressive accomplishment in itself given the fierce competition we faced. Despite the challenges we faced, our team demonstrated resilience and continued to fight as they put forth their best efforts in pursuit of our
008goal of becoming state champions. The following day, Leaderman Brooke Andrezen and Dakota Collins had earned the incredible opportunity to compete on the section 11 all-star team where they had a chance to contend for yet another state title. These three athletes delivered exceptional performances throughout the tournament, ultimately achieving their goal of becoming section 11 state champions. Their remarkable achievement not only highlights their individual talent, but also demonstrates the dedication and commitment that defines our entire team. These achievements would not have been possible without the unwavering dedication of our athletes. These young women have committed themselves to practices and competitions year round, giving up their time and energy to perfect their craft and push themselves to be the very best they can be. Their tireless effort is the backbone of our success and they deserve all the
009recognition in the world for their hard work and determination. However, none of this would be possible without the constant support of your parents. Thank you for all you do from buying them new bowling balls, a lot of new bowling balls, girls, right? Getting any and every piece of equipment they possibly need, driving them to practices and tournaments, and even more. You play a vital role in helping your girls and our team reach their full potential. Your sacrifices and commitment to your children's successes are deeply appreciated and we are so grateful for all the ways you support the team. Our C County Championship victory is a true reflection of the dedication of our athletes, the support of their families, and the incredible teamwork that has been built over the course of the season. I'm beyond proud
010of everything you have accomplished, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for each and every one of them. With this being said, I would like to congratulate our senior Dakota Collins. Junior Brook Andrezen who's not here tonight. Junior Michaela [Applause] Boyd, Junior Payton Shawl, who's also unavailable tonight. Junior Rosalie Crowe, sophomore Mia Leerman, and freshman MJ Schweiser. We also have two seventh grade students on our squad, Ella and Katie Coglin. Congratulations, ladies, and thank you. She's not here. I see the picture. Was that a rock? Okay. Thank you. All right. Congratulations once again to our varsity girls bowling team. Um Fisher, yes, please come here. I would also like to take this opportunity to um congratulate coach Fischer on uh winning and being recognized as this year's coach of the year in
011varsity boys bowling in Suffach County. Uh this is a great accomplishment. uh all the hard work that she puts in and gives to our students. Uh we greatly appreciate all that you do for our student athletes here uh in Eastip and it's a great and welldeserving award. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm going to turn the microphone over once again to Coach Fischer and Coach Diamio uh to speak about this past year's varsity boys uh bowling uh season. Thank you. Good evening again. Um, Coach Mike and I, Dean Rosie, were really excited and proud to be here tonight to share with you some of our season highlights. Thank you again to everyone, Mr. Restivo, Mr. Manzo, Dr. of Rock and Bells and the entire board for inviting us. So, Coach D Ambrosio and I,
012and you guys all know this, we tell you this all the time, but everyone else needs to hear it, too. We are beyond proud of your amazing season. For the past seven years, we've worked really hard to continue the amazing tradition that is East Iceland boys bowling. We have want to have a team in contention for leagues and counties every year. We want to maintain a strong feeder program, which we have. Um, we have some junior, well, not junior high, that's my age, middle school boys who are on a developmental team. And that's where each and every one of these boys standing up here started in seventh grade. And we wanted to instill the value of we, not me, in our kids. We have never witnessed more of that than this year. This group of
013young men and outstanding athletes have surpassed all of our expectations. The outlook for this year was incredible. We had three of the top bowlers, three of the top six bowlers in the county returning to lead the team this year. So last year um we were runners up in the county, but we had three of the six and we we felt like we were really set. But as with any sport, injuries occur and changes are made and one of the boys who had been a county leader for many years had a season ending injury during the first week of our season. Additionally, the state changed the format of the bowling season and the championship and section 11 of course followed. And so now our season changed. So now we needed to replace a fifth starter who
014was one of the top kids in the county. And we needed to fill a new sixth starting spot. It would have been easy for these boys to turn around and say, "Oh well, there's always next year." But they are standing up here tonight because they chose to put in the hard work and excel. All of the boys are county champions and all state athletes as they finished third two weeks ago in the states at Syracuse. So guys, this is the part where we sort of put together some words about each of you individually. So just like smile or something when we mention your name. Sorry guys. So, sophomore Lucas Bellsford, he stepped up and he bowled in 46 of 48 games this season and he posted a 190 average. Lucas was not a star last
015year. He went on to shoot 10 pins over his average at the counties and added his high game of 223 in game three, a pivot pivotal game at the county tournament. He performed super well at the state tournament with another pair of 223s. Lucas, I just realized that when I was writing this up. So, 223 is your number in game five and six. and we know that you have an important you will be an important and vital member of this team going forward. So congratulations Lucas. That leads us to our two freshman Lucas Lola and Chase Lefado. They were tapped to split that sixth starting position and each of them bowled in 25 games. We split the season between them during the regular season and averaged a really great 187 and 182 respectively. Lucas shot
016his average at counties, which is not easy to do, and he added a 207 and a 204 in games one and three. Chase and Lucas worked tirelessly at practice all year, and on their off days, they worked alone with Coach Mike. The next three years are looking really bright for these kids. Congratulations, guys. And that leaves us with seventh grader Anthony Sasso. who lettered this year. Guys, that's really hard to do to letter as a seventh grader. We haven't lettered a seventh grader possibly since Andrew, I believe, six years ago. So, congratulations, Anthony. You have big shoes to fill. He bowled in four different matches this year. And in all the matches that he bowled, we wanted to get him lane time because that's what a team does. We pick each other up and he
017averaged 2011 over those five games. So, congratulations, Anthony. You are going to be a bowler to watch in the coming years and we expect great things from you. Well, that leaves us to talk about the big dogs. That's what we call the big dogs. We're going in um age order here. So, junior Greg Stevens averaged a solid 200 during the regular season. He bowled 15 of 16 matches and came out big in games four, five, and six at the counting tournament, averaging an amazing 227, which helped push EI to the title. He followed it up with a 213 average on the day at states in a tournament shot he'd never bowled on before and averaged 13 pins higher than his season average. So, Greg, you're an integral part of why we ended up in third
018place up there. So, thank [Applause] you. All right, our next big dog is junior and captain Brendan Mueller. He's been a captain since 10th grade, so you can guess he's a real leader on the team. He was a solid force in every frame of every matchual year. He finished the regular season with a 218 average, then went on to have the high series in the afternoon block at the county tournament, averaging a 229. And at states, his calm confidence on the lanes had him filling. I don't know if you guys are bowlers, but in a game there's 10 frames to fill. We mean that you have to make something that you should make. Splits a part of the game. We're not talking about that. He filled 58 of 60 frames at the state tournament, which
019is unbelievable. As you can imagine, this young man was a clear choice for the section 11 sportsmanship award at states and last night was honored as all league and all county at our awards dinner. So that leaves us seniors, Nico Spopoulos and Andrew Jacobson. You both will be sorely missed and we are so grateful and proud of all you have accomplished over the last six years. Nico is the only two-handed bowler on the team this year and the only left. He was solid all year in the lineup, finishing with a 205 average during the regular season. But wait, where's my third page? But he excelled in the off season. The day of counties, Nico averaged a spectacular 224 on that day. But at states, he put up a sixgame series of 1,511 pins for a
020252 average on the day. That allowed EI to capture third place position. He also now took over sixth place in the New York State history for high game six series in game six series in a tournament and he now holds the Suffach County record. Nico received 12 league honors this season and he will be deciding on his choice for school next year but it's looking like Sacred Heart where he will continue his bowling career in USBC men's bowling. Congratulations to all and our co- captain Andrew Jacobson. He finished fifth in the county with a 223 average, posting five series of 700 plus pins in the regular season and as you expect performed big in counties. Had a pair of 255s in games three and six when we needed them. at states. He anchored out a
021left pair, kept his teammates on track and like Brendan filled 59 of 60 frames up there. Incredible. The following day, he competed on the section 11 all-star team. He ca which the team came in second on that day and had a high gain for the day of 280. So in the past two years, Andrew has won a gold medal as a state champion, a silver medal as a section 11 champion, and a bronze medal. So that's quite a feat, Andrew. I'd have to check on that. That may be your record, too. Andrew last night received all league, all county, and we found out Tuesday, Mr. Jacobson, you are also all Long Island. Once again, is going to be attending the Savannah School of Art and Design in September and is planning on continuing his bowling
022in college as well. So, there's a lot to celebrate. Coach Mike and I love you guys and we want to thank your parents and your families for all the support this season and helping you guys experience this amazing accomplishment. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I take yours? Yeah, I did, sir. Smile, guys. [Music] Thank you. [Applause] All righty, moving along. I would now like to introduce Coach O'Connor and our varsity girls gymnastics uh team uh and Sophia Pepe. Please come on up. All right. All right. Good evening. It is truly a privilege to stand before you today and honor a remarkable individual Sophia Pepe. As a five-year team member, Sophia is a fivetime all league, four-time all county, and twotime all state gymnast. This past November, Sophia had a personal best with a score of a
02394, securing her spot on the section 11 state team along with 11 other individuals from Suffach County. This senior gymnast has not only competed at the highest level, but has also earned a spot on the podium at the state championship. The first weekend of March, Sophia and I, along with the rest of the section 11 state team, traveled up to Buffalo, New York, where the team finished with an incredible third place. But beyond the medal, there is something more extraordinary that Sophia has earned, the New York State Sportsmanship Award. This award speaks to character, integrity, and the respect that Sophia has shown both on and off the mat. It is a testament to the way you uplift your teammates, support your competitors, and demonstrate what true sportsmanship looks like. This award is voted on by
024every coach at the New York State Championship. And it is honored to say that there was not one single coach who did not vote for Sophia at that meet. If this does not tell you the kind of person Sophia's Sophia is, I do not know what will. Your dedication, strength, and grace have inspired us all. But is your kindness, humility, and positive attitude that will leave a lasting impact on everyone who had the honor to watch you compete. You have shown us that it is not just about the medals and titles. It is about how you carry yourself with respect and honor for the sport and those around you. Sophia, we are so proud of everything you have accomplished and we cannot wait to see what amazing things you will do in the future. Congratulations
025on your third place finish and receiving the sportsmanship award. These achievements reflect the incredible person that you are both as an athlete and as a teammate open. You're right. Good. Oh, thanks. Coach will come. I would like to please call up uh Coach Reynolds. our varsity girls uh winter and spring track coach. I would like to uh take this opportunity to congratulate both coach Okconor and coach Reynolds as they were recognized this past winter as the small school county coaches of the year uh in Suffach County. So, how about a nice round of applause for Hold on. This is open. Open it. Thank you. I'm going to have Coach Reynolds uh speak uh to all of us regarding this past season and the team's acco accomplishments. Thank [Music] you. Um so this was another awesome
026year for the girls winter track team. For the second consecutive year, we were small school county champions. It's never happened in school history until last year. So, for us to capture it back to back in a really tough county. It was an amazing meet and like it was a to track is obviously a very individualized sport. You know, people think of track, they think of the person running, jumping, throwing individually, but I can honestly say like we won because we were the best team. The meet was extremely close. it came down to the end of the meet and you know sometimes the best thing I could always say about these kids is when things get tough they get better and the best example for us with that was she's not here tonight but our race
027walker Brianna Tucci who was not a race walker but she learned it for the team she ended up taking second in the county and um was huge eight points for us and then it came to the long jump and Khloe Garina who was the champion last year in the long jump wasn't having her best year and her season best before this meet was 16 f' 2 in and it came down to the last jump and Chloe was in fourth place right going into the third place going into last jump we were kind of in a scary situation and Chloe jumped a new school record 18 ft 1 and 3/4 in up close it was awesome it was a really cool experience. So, congratulations probably sets our school record. Um, and from that point on, our
028team just took off. It came down to the relays and like I said, it was a total team effort. Our 4x8, which had some girls who never scored in that situation, um, Katherine Simeonetti, Key Smith, Kay Ole, and who? All awesome last leg. I'm sorry, Al. Um, they took third place in the county. We were not supposed to score in that race and they did an amazing job to get us up closer to the to Sable who was ahead of us. Our 4x4, which is our bread and butter, we had to kind of spread them thin. They ended up taking second place in the county. And then it came down to the final relay, our 4x2. And with the pressure on, and I have to be honest, it's a little scary when it's a 4x2
029because if you ever watch that race, it gets very congested. And while all we technically have to do is at this point we needed to get fourth place or higher, it's easier said than done when people are running max speed at you and those girls did an amazing job. They took third place during our second fastest time in school history. And that was Danielle Simonetti, Kayley Garcina, Khloe Garcina, and Maya Brown. Um, our 4x4 in particular, that's been our bread and butter the last few years. For the third consecutive year, we won't be qualified for the famous Milrose games. We took second place at the Milrose Games. It's something that before those this group of girls and Danica Tibridge, Grace McAlli, Daniel Simonetti, this is their third consecutive year and Daniel Burner's second year. Before
030this group of girls, Easts never made the Bill Rose games. It is a very difficult meet to qualify for and it's an honor to make it. It's the this year in particular, there were numerous world records broken at the meet when we were at there. Um, so congrats to the 4x4 who I'll get to in a little bit. But then it came down to the state qualifiers. Oh, also I'm sorry at the county championship. I can't forget people. Um, Grace Malli, it's funny cuz if you ever look and see what Grace does, Grace, step forward really quick. You would never know. And I know Miss Aman has come to live meets and Dr. Aore. Grace is literally the best jumper in Suffach County. She is one of the best high jumpers where she qualified for
031states. one of the best long jumpers and she is one of the best triple jumpers, but she also qualified for the state. Um, it kind of just shows that it's not always, don't judge a book by it, but Grace goes up there and she has some bouncy legs and man can she go. So, um, Grace at the county championship took second in the triple jump and second in the high jump and unfortunately did not do as well in the long jump, but that's where Chloe helped picked up the slack, which was great. um at the state qualifiers. She's not here today, but Danielle Simeonetti qualified for the second consecutive year in the 600. Danielle also at the county championship was county small school county champion in the 600. She also she came right back from
032the thousand meters where she jogged the school record in the thousand and took second place huge points. Her sister Katherine was right behind her scoring some serious points in that meet. Um Danielle is one of the key members of our 4x4. As I stated before, it's Danielle Simmony, Daniel Burner, Grace Maui, and Dan Katridge. And at the state qualifier for the third consecutive year, they were uh Suffach County champions out of everyone in the county. Um where they qualify for the state meet once again. They took seventh in the state meet. Amazing. It's I sometimes feel bad that we take it for granted, but it is not an easy feat to keep performing at the highest level with the pressure on. And those girls constantly keep doing a great job. Um, at the state qualifier,
033Grace also qualified for states in the triple jump and the hydra. She was one of only two section 11 two section 11 athletes to qualify in three different events. In winter track, it's a little different than outside. As some of you know about the pole vault, they don't do they don't compete in the pole vault in the team portion. So, they do it separately. So, a lot of these girls have never seen this, but Katherine Simetti, where is stand up? Catherine after our practices would go and pull vault in a separate location and on Valentine's Day when the team was everyone was getting ready for break, Catherine competed in the section 11 individual championship for the pull vault where she set the East school record and was individual county champion, the first we've ever had
034in Pvault and Catherine qualified for state meet. Awesome job, Catherine team. I will tell you it is an awesome thing to watch. Again, Katherine's not the tallest of people. When she gets flying, as Nicole can attest to, it is it is cool. She gets up there. Um and she's working super hard to get even higher. Um it's been an awesome year. This is, like I said, our second county championship. Selfishly, I don't think I could have done this without Conor, Coach Oconor. I think the team would agree these championships aren't won by one person or one individual. And together, we've done a really good job with this group. Um, it was not easy this year. Like I said, Sable was a good worthy opponent, but we took care of them. Plan on doing it again
035in the spring and then we'll see him next year in the winter. But it was a great year. Thank you to the board and thank you Miss Samantha, Dr. Rook, Dr. Bell, Mr. Harrison, um, for all of your guys' help throughout everything and support. Thank you. I don't know. More than two, more than two. You guys are pretty smart. Those grades are 10 man. Got a couple more. [Music] Uh once again I would like to thank our district office personnel, our board of education, uh parents and student athletes. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication. As you can see, uh, many of our student athletes excel in many different areas, uh, not only in athletics, but also in academics as well. So, how about a nice round of applause for all of our
036students? Thank you, Mr. Resto. At this time, I would like to to ask Mrs. Carl to come to the podium. [Applause] Good evening everyone. Adele Life's Press Day is an exciting showcase where students step into the spotlight to share their work, voice, their ideas, and engage with the broader community. It's a celebration of student journalism medium and story storytelling offering a platform for creativity, critical thinking and collaboration. From panel discussions to live reporting, press day highlights to the power of student voices and the impact of strong communication in today's world. Under Mr. Michael Jello. Our journalism class has grown tremendously and our students were able to compete in this prestigious event. Mr. Jello, please come up. [Applause] Thank you very much, Miss Carlos. Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, Amelia Scal, come on up. Brooke, if
037you're here, I see that. All right. Brooke might not be here, but you can come on up with me. So, in February, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. Uh, in February, I brought 12 students to Adelfi University to take part in their press day. Students listened to a keynote speaker and panel discussions involving Adelfi professors and industry professionals. They were able to ask questions, learn further in breakout rooms, and even take a tour of campus. Maybe the most exciting part of the day was the announcement of the Quill Awards. Our school newspaper, which is now a school website. Uh the broadcaster nominated submissions in six categories. And the occasion for being here tonight is honoring two impressive young women who have took home some hardware. Uh first is sophomore Brook McCauley. Uh she's not here
038tonight, but I'll still give her her flowers. Brooke joined the newspaper club last year with a few friends who are here today. and uh this year wrote the first true opinion piece for our newspaper uh that we've published since I've been running the program. The article called Maybe athletes don't need fizzed won an honorable mention in the competitive oped category. Junior Amelia Sali was a member of our journalism class this fall and has since joined our club. Uh you might remember her first article of the year back in October. She wrote about the board of education. She was nominated for the highest individual award of the day, most outstanding reporter because of her wide range of high quality articles published throughout the year. And in a field of impressive schools and writers from Nassau, Suffach,
039and New York City, Ameilia won third place for most outstanding reporter. I'm very proud of both of you and all you've done to grow our program. Everyone can and should read their work at ehibroadcaster.com. Uh thank you to everyone for for these continued opportunities and and we'll be back next year. [Applause] That's pretty much [Music] Thank you, Mr. Carlson, and thank you, Mr. Steel, for tonight's presentations. Uh, we're getting ready to go into our budget presentation. So, if you are looking to uh exit, please do so at this time. Have a good night. [Music] All right. Lastly, I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Steven Harrison, assistant superintendent for business for our second academic 2526 budget presentation. Mr. Harrison, thank you very much. Welcome to our second budget presentation. As it is
040our second presentation, I am not going to spend as much time going over things that haven't changed. I will say a few words, but uh there is some new information included. I'll spend a little more time on that. So, there's been no changes yet on the state aid front. This is still the governor's proposal. Overall, a 2% increase, $820,000. Uh, making up the majority of that increase is foundation aid, uh, which is going up $580,000 or 2%. This is the minimum increase that schools in our situation get. Uh we're a school that's getting state aid increases based upon being told harmless, which means we will not get any less state aid in the upcoming year that we're getting in the current year. Uh you may remember from last year there was some uh talk about
041eliminating the whole harmless provision. If that was to happen, uh we would have lost up to six uh to $7 million in in state aid. Universal PreK is staying the same at $963,900 which funds 178 uh seats, full-time seats. So again, state aids going up 2%. We have a couple of new charts today. The first one on the left hand side is a measure of property wealth per student. So it's looking at the assessed valuations of those homes located in the East Icelip School District. the uh yellow I'm sorry the green and orange lines the green line is district data and it's comparing us to the average in New York state which is the orange line so you can see that the assessed valuation value per student in the east IP school district is very
042comparable to those throughout the state the white line is those districts within eastern suffices and is skewed by properties towards the east end of the island the next chart is looking at income wealth per student and this is information that's gained from the tax returns filed by the residents within uh the district and again our numbers are very comparable to the state again looking our line our line graph is the green versus the orange from New York state so there's a measure that got that is hugely responsible for the amount of state aid received by the district and a district that's very comparable to the average throughout the state. So, we don't get uh the large increases some of our districts that are in more poverty than us. Looking at student counts, you can see
043the decrease in all three categories, whether it's attendance, weighted pupil averages, or actually enrollment. So, again, we've dropped from enrollment wise uh above 5,000 to roughly 3500. And if you combine all these factors, you can now understand a little bit about why we're considered to be overfunded when it comes to foundation aid. So this is the impact of this previous uh screens on foundation a back when we had higher enrollment. You can see that we were being underfunded back in 200708. The white line represents the formula if it was working. The formula has not been working for a number of years. So we've been continued on holdless and that's the green line. So the uh topline green line shows you that we have been getting somewhere close to $30 million in state aid in the
044foundation aid category. However, if the formula was actually working and running, we'd be somewhere in the mid $20,000 range. There's been talk uh recently about the Rockefeller Commission which was put together to look at foundation aid and uh the effort was obviously to update the formula and also to give a fair representation of districts in need. So unfortunately for East ISO, if you look to the bottom of this page, the pupil needs index only increased by 014. So whether they brought in the new uh measures which are called SAP or economically disadvantaged count um those two factors did not influence the new uh state aid proposal in the governor's budget. So going down to the bottom of this page, foundation aid per student rose only $62 from 5407 to 5470. And what this is actually
045doing is just narrowing the gap of how much we're overfunding. So it's not going to be really changing our situation that much, which puts us in in jeopardy. If they ever eliminate the whole harmless provision in the budget or go to a different calculation, there's a decent chance that we could get hit to upwards of a $7 million decrease in state aid. So the tax cap levy uh going into uh for East Icelope is 2.93%. That's the amount that we can tax up to without needing a 60% majority. Uh the board has um in discussions with the administration uh currently supports the first draft second draft of the budget at 1.75%. So this is roughly $900,000 lower than the maximum that can be taxed um to the community. Again 1.75% is the amount that currently
046supports the second draft of the budget. But we've seen this graph before. It's a it's a representation of how we've done in in comparison to the levy again for the upcoming year. Right now 1.75% is the amount that supports the budget versus the maximum of 2.93%. And you can look at the trends. Uh we've been at at or well below the tax levy cap historically. This is just a numerical uh representation of the same information. As I said earlier, the tax levy right now is close to 900 $900,000 less than the maximum allowable levy under the cap. So there's a cumulative impact of being below the cap every year and this chart represents that. So if we had gone to the cap every year, uh there's about $12 million difference in what our levy is
047now to what it could have been if we gone to that cap. Now, this is important because earlier I said that if we lose that old harmless provision, it would put us short by $7 million. It doesn't mean we can go back and make up for lost time, though. We would only be able to increase the tax levy up to the allowable cap or consider piercing the budget, but we are not able to go back in time and recapture these dollars that were not uh garnered through the tax levy. So going into uh the 2526 draft budget, the average homeowner can expect an increase of about $140 annually to their um tax taxes, school tax based upon 1.75 in 1.75% increase in the tax levy. So again uh we should be familiar with this chart.
048It's just highlighting the different uh drivers for revenue percent contribution. The uh tax levy at 77 million represents 60% of the revenue. Second by the U state aid at 32%. The district is funding the difference between budgeted revenues and budgeted expenses by putting forth $6.4 million in reserves at a surplus or 5% of the budget. So there are presentations on the table if anybody like to take them and this also be uh posted to the website. There are very many accomplishments initiatives put forth and u you'll have the opportunity to look at those as they'll be again posted to the website. So I'm just going to highlight the changes to the salary and benefits. The uh changes in salary benefits are due to contractually bargained agreements between the district and various bargaining units. So that
049had to be updated versus the last presentation. Overall uh salary and benefits are staying relatively flat or 1% increase at 893,000 which has helped by a decrease in benefits due to lower than anticipated medical premiums and also lower TRS rates. remainder of the budget which uh represents a 6.55% increase or $2 million. Uh there hasn't been much change there from our previous uh presentation. Overall, the budget to budget increase from NE uh the proposed the draft budget to the current year budget is $2.9 million or 2.35%. As is with most districts, all districts I should say, salary and benefits is going to be approximately 74 75% of total budget. And you can see that here in the breakdown of the different categories. And then the remaining part of the budget which is 26% is made
050up of three main categories whether it's transportation boseis related expenses or debt service. Uh there's very little outside of those categories that we have much control in in terms of the smaller expenditure categories. So, there's going to be a second proposition on the ballot, which is an a proposition to expend money from a previously approved reserve or capital improvements. The capital reserve was approved last year, which uh allowed for 10 years of contributions not to exceed 3 million or a total of 30 million. And before we spend this money, we uh it's required that we get voter approval. The scope of the capital reserve was to cover major system upgrades, interior and exterior building renovations, and site work. So, the project that we're looking to put on the ballot for uh this upcoming vote would
051be the replacement of the switch gear at both this building as well as Timber Point Elementary School at an amount not to exceed $3 million. And again, this is money that's in reserve. there's not going to be an additional tax for it and we're not going to have to incur borrowing costs because of our ability to put money in reserve. So an an improvement on this chart is now a 10-year average for the percent increase in the tax levy. So if you look to the bottom line over the 10 years the average increase has been 92% in the tax levy. Okay. Our next meeting on April 22nd will be budget adoption and our third budget presentation. That's at 7:00 here, followed up by budget hearing on May 6th, which is a New York State required
052meeting. And then finally, the vote on May 20th from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. So, if there are any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. Mr. Harrison, this is not working. Uh, Mr. Harrison, first of all, thank you for the presentation. You're welcome. U, but back to the hold harmless policy that the state has. So, right now, if the state were to get rid of their hold harmless policy, so you're saying we we're currently overfunded by about 6 million. Yeah. 6 to7 million. That's correct. And didn't they threaten that last year to to not to take away that policy and take away money from us? They did. They were going to do that in two steps. uh split in half each year, but over two years we were we were in uh
053harm's way of losing, you know, $6.5 million. And about what percentage of $6.5 million for our taxes or tax? That's about um I'm sorry, it's less than 10 cents, but between 8 and 9%. So, we would have to increase taxes 8 9% just to be even if we lost that statement. That's correct. And we would require uh probably a 60% majority vote to get that passed in the community. I guess we would have to rely on reserves more potentially. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Harrison. I appreciate you including that that 10-year average as well. I think that's a a very good uh statistic to show the community at large about the what the five buses have been able to do over the course of the 10 last 10 years building upon uh
054previous year's budgets to try to maintain um overall an average of less than 1% is very good. So I appreciate you including that number. Thank you. It was a good suggestion. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Certified personnel be resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of education hereby approves the resignations termination leave absences position abolitions employment appointments tenure appointments and salary changes in accordance with applicable provisions of education and civil service law as cited in the certified personal attachments motion. Motion second. Any discussion? All in favor? I stay. [Music] So on tonight's agenda, you will see two retirements. We want to congratulate Mr. Harold Kench, a technology teacher at the middle school who will be retiring in June. And we have another retirement on the agenda tonight.
055Mr. Mark Bernard, the principal at the high school. Mark, we want to congratulate you on your upcoming retirement. Your dedication and commitment to the East Icelip School District have made a profound impact on countless numbers of students, staff members, and families throughout your 22 years in the district. Thank you for your leadership, your guidance, and your support for and for all you've done for our district. We wish you nothing but the best in your welldeserved retirement. Mr. Bernard, please stand so we can congratulate you. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations, Mr. Non-certified personnel. Pap resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the resignations, termination, leave absences, position applications, employment appointments, tenure appointments, and salary changes in accordance with applicable provisions of education law and civil service law as cited in
056the non-certified personal attachments. Can I get a motion? Motion second. Any discussion? All in favor? I agreement between East School District and a member of the East Icelope Association of School Administrators. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of Superintendent of Schools Board of Education hereby approves the agreement between a member of the East Ice Association of School Administrators and the East Virginia Free School District effective June 30th, 2025. Can I get a motion? Motion second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I Does anyone need anything removed from the consent agenda? Consent agenda items 8.2 through 8.14 be resolved upon the recommendations to schools board of education hereby approves consent agenda items numbers 8.2 through 8.14 in accordance with the action presented for each item. Make a motion. Motion second. Any discussion? All in favor?
057I I donation from EI maps. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools, the board of education hereby accepts a donation of six 60 ukuleles for our elementary students at JFK Elementary and RCK Elementary for from EI maps. The cost of good whaleies will be approximately $5,000. This donation is a wonderful addition to our music department's inventory and will benefit our students. Make a motion. Motion second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Thank you very much for the donation items. Appropriation changes for the 2024 25 school year be resolved upon the recommendation superintendent of schools. Board of Education hereby approves detached list of appropriation changes for the 2024 25 school year. Can I make a motion? Motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I old business. All business. New business. Um, I
058just want to mention I was I got an opportunity to attend the Big Fish production uh over the weekend. The students phenomenal job as always. uh very much appreciative of all their efforts, time and dedication to that. I want to thank Mrs. Affel as long as as well as Dr. B for all their uh efforts and supporting the students in that production. I just want to mention as well uh next Wednesday uh uh high school PTA and Z are having their annual fashion show. Um tickets are available. There was a parent square message that went out um I believe earlier this week. So there's more information there. Public comments Stephanie. Thank you. The next board of education regular business meeting and annual budget adoption budget presentation number three will be held Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025
059at 7 p.m. Motion to second. All in favor? I thank you for everybody. I