001meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. [music] Yeah. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Okay, good evening everyone. Five exits are located in the sides room front and back. In event of a fire, you will hear a fire alarm at that time. Please move in a common orderly fashion to the nearest exit. [snorts] Um, I guess we're going to do the consent and agenda items and action items before we move on to the budget workshop. So, we'll move right along to consent and agenda items. Are there any items that we would like to discuss
002that we would like to remove from these consent and agenda items? Okay. Now, I will now make a motion for items one through four. Do I have a second? >> Second by Vice President McIll. All those in favor say I. I and on oppos motion carries. Uh moving on to action items. Um do I have a motion for action items one and two? Anyone like to move the motion? Moved by Mr. Cth. I will second the motion. Um we'll open up for discussion. I believe Mr. K had a good question today via email about can we have that addressed? What's just some clarity what we're talking about? >> Yes. So the question was related to the um the timing of the um contract on the agenda. So this contract um West Ed was awarded the
003RFP for uh providing executive um mentoring um and they started the work prior to this contract. Now the contract um the terms and agreement for the most part of the contract were included in the RFP that was approved. Um but uh Douglas was working with their um lawyer throughout these last few months uh on fine-tuning things like how to submit invoices and and other minor issues, not money. But we also have not paid any money. So we started sessions, we withheld money. Money won't be paid unless and until the contract is approved. >> Thank you for the clarification. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. And when oppose abstain. Motion carries. Okay. So before we move on to budget workshop, I believe uh my colleague Mr. Rivera
004had some questions. >> Yeah. Yes. Thank you. President Shio first. Uh so the question is superintendent about the emergency snow days. >> Yes. And it appears that it may be on the calendar that days are that teachers and students will have to come in possibly two days if I understand and please correct me if I'm wrong that they're going to have to come in on the days of their Easter break of you know the spring break. Is that correct? >> So the here is um here's the story so far. We have a calendar that was board approved and in that calendar we said that if we use a snow day then we would make one up on and the first one would be on March 30th. Now uh we had our first snow day. It
005was a state of emergency um and we did not uh choose to try to go remote because we were expecting to have um outages everywhere as per what was being reported to us. >> Correct. So, uh, we didn't think we would be able to provide remote instruction. So, uh, we just closed on that day. Uh, and I'm going to continue on. We've closed two more days, but in those two instances, uh for the first one, we received an email from the uh via from the commissioner's office saying that um we would not have to make up that day to ensure we have the 180 days that are required, >> right? Um for the second day, Tuesday, um there was an acknowledgment that um the state of emergency was still in effect and there was not
006confirmation that we would not have to make it up, but there was um um they said we can submit a waiver requesting that we don't have to make it up and it'll I can't speak for the commissioner, but we hope that under those conditions it will be approved. Now um in addition in that email it stated that if there are additional other days that the district wants to us to consider then we can submit those additional days. What does it mean? It means my understanding we won't have to make up one this last Monday. Tuesday requires approval and the initial day which I don't remember the date of that now um January 26th. uh if we don't have to make that up, we uh would require approval. Now, the challenge is that we may although
007we may submit a waiver requesting approval, we may not receive a response in time to make a determination regarding March 30th. The commissioner's regulations say in a state of emergency, it is possible that we will be excused from the 180, not that it is automatically an excusal. to clarif going for a waiver also for the 30th because I know that >> we're going to try. >> Okay. >> But we'll, you know, we'll see what happens. We have to submit. >> So, so just we're going to be going for a waiver for all three days that we had. >> My uh my understanding is that for Monday, we don't need one. It was already given, but maybe we do. If we do, we will. And that for Tuesday and for the 26th of January, we will
008we will submit a waiver. >> Okay. >> I I mentioned >> wa request. >> Yeah. Um, you said something about the 26th that was at our remember at our last meeting. >> I believe I mentioned that it was a um it was a considered a state of emergency and that we would that day would be waved. >> No, it says May, not will in the reg. >> So, um if it so that's why there's a waiver form. So, um that was sent to all the districts. Um and districts that took off on Tuesday, um were encouraged to submit the waiver if they were going to close. >> so a waiver is required except for maybe on Monday because Monday, I believe they said that that it was already waved. >> I I know in the
009absence of Mr. Ghart not being here. I remember him saying that he was going to look into it and get back to us. Did he >> was he able to >> um he uh I believe he referred that back to us >> and so uh we we looked up the regulations and um we did submit a soft request through the commissioner's office. We haven't received it and now this happened. So, um, when if you read I'm happy to share with you the emails that we've received, it indicates that if we want to be exempt from making up the day so that we don't meet the 180 requirement that we will need to submit a waiver form for Tuesday, I believe Monday is already waved. And then it also said if we want other days considered
010that we would need to submit a waiver form. That would be the 26th, which was the other day was a state of emergency. So, we're in a sort of a unique situation because we don't have additional days built into our calendar. Other districts do, not all, but some. And so, if they did use the 26, a state of emergency, they would have never had to have made it up anyway because they had an additional day built into their calendar. We did not have additional days built into our calendar. Does that clarify >> mostly? I I just I know that when it's declared a state of emergency >> that um the school would not have to make up that day. >> It's not it's not that they you know it says will not have to make
011up that day. So it's um declaration state of um emerges chapter 605 of the law um that was signed by the government governor I'm sorry in 2019. So, >> Douglas, >> this is the same this was the same information that I brought up the last time. >> Yes, you did. >> And and that's what we found when we looked into it is that um when we read it, it said May um and that a waiver is required. I know. I know. Commission waiver >> the commissioner waver request form for this >> she she gave us a waiver request form >> for the days other than Monday I my understanding of what I read is Monday she waved anybody else >> we don't we have a sent representative in meaning can we call the commission's office
012and ask them yeah we'll >> let's get some clarity on it >> so I'm sorry not to belver it just >> it's already on the calendar the 30 and the 31st are makeup days. Yes. And so, but we're saying but you I want to make sure I'm hearing you correctly that those two technically uh the one that happened the first big snowstorm that day was already waved and this Monday was waved. So, shouldn't that take care of those two days? >> No, no, no. The only one that I believe was automatically waved is this last Monday. >> We have had a total of three emergency closure days. Uh we received an email saying that if we want the other days to be considered to be waved, we would have to submit a waiver form. Monday
013is waved. Tuesday, if we want it waved, submit a waiver form. And it also said any other days that we want for consideration, submit the waiver form. >> I get it. So it's any other day that >> other than Monday? >> No, other than Monday. >> You get what I'm saying? >> Yeah. No, no. It was any other day other than Monday. Monday, state of emergency, waved. Tuesday, state of emergency, not waved. Submit the form. Probably will be waved. >> I don't understand. Okay, commission. >> Just we need more clarification. Yeah, thank you. >> Why was the Why was the Why was Monday waved? >> They made that determination on their own. I I don't know why. >> Okay. Thank you. Let's begin our budget workshop. Mr. Stark, >> is that process beginning already or
014is the waiver being submitted already or like >> No, we we we just returned today. So, we will be submitting the waiver. >> Okay. So, let's keep >> Okay, thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. So, we will begin um with the revenue budget. Some of this may be uh a little bit u repetitive although there are some minor changes in some of the things that we will be uh showing you and discussing with you. So again um the maximum allowable tax levy calculation and I gave you a draft of this at the last meeting. This is actually the final that I will be um submitting to the state controllers's office. There's only one difference in what I'm showing you now compared to what uh was in the uh version that I showed
015you at the last meeting and that is the line uh in the lower half that says less pilots for the coming year. Uh last year we actually had more pilots and a few of the pilots that we had and uh just again to to to make everybody understand pilots are payments in lie of taxes that are given by economic development groups to uh developers. So they pay instead of property taxes they pay these payments that are contractually uh set forth. Um a few of those expired after last year's payments. So, uh, those those tax uh those properties go back into the tax roles. Uh, that the pilots are a little bit lower. That led to the maximum allowable tax levy being slightly higher at 171,206874 with a tax cap uh maximum allowable levy increase of
0165.16. And again um that is not what we are putting into our um into our presentation. So uh the first uh the other piece here that we're showing you is the um executive school aid run. This also is not necessarily final as what we um have to use as we get a little bit closer to this is when the legislature passes their budget which is normally done prior to uh when the board has to adopt its budget although last year it it happened after um in which case you still have to use an estimate. So, um here we're showing you that um our foundation aid um has an increase according to the the run that was given us and we have decreased uh that with a foundation aid adjustment in the next line by $2
017million because we are experiencing declining enrollment. And foundation aid is uh a formula based aid that is uh one of the major uh factors in that formula is your student population. So we have ratcheted that down by a little bit. Um the rest of the aids that you see here are um what are known as expense driven aids. So the usage that you are having um affects the amount of aid that you are receiving. So we're showing increased uh usage in some of these areas such as BOSIES. We're showing uh lower uh amounts of aid coming in for things like um high-cost excess aid and private excess aid and so on and so forth. So you can see those uh going down. Um you'll also notice that um we are showing uh an increase in
018our transportation aid and that is based upon uh some increased cost. But we're also adjusting that line because uh we did some work with our uh transportation um consultant. My screen went dark for a minute. Uh we did some work with our transportation uh consultant as well as our state aid consultant to rework our non-allowable pupil decimal which is uh affects the rate at which you're reimbursed for transportation costs and as you recall at our last meeting uh we talked about the increase that we had in our transportation cost for this year and what will be in the budget for next year. So, you see an uh a modification there that we will actually collect approximately $5.6 million in additional aid in the current year and that um because that number wasn't used in the
019executive proposal, we anticipate collecting an additional 13 million uh and change uh in next year's um aid. When we add it all up, we're looking at a uh an increase over our projected year-end aid of 175 million, excuse me, to just under 186 million or an increase of 10,614,770, which amounts overall to a 6.05% increase. Taking that um we create our draft revenue budget. Um as you can see what we have used uh in the property tax line is a proposed increase of 1.9% or three a little over $3 million. Again that is not the number that we we saw in the maximum allowable tax levy of 5.15. Um and then you will also see in two lines below that which is the uh the these are the two biggest pieces of our revenue budget
020um an increase of $10.6 million in our aid coming from the state. So adding all of those up, we look at a projected revenue uh for the current year of 367 million, moving that up to 370 uh.8 8 million u which is an overall increase in revenues of 1.01% from the act from the from the projected amount that we are uh receiving this year. So again we >> going back to that our projection our projection is that we are because we are uh as I said projecting that additional um transportation aid which was not a part of our budget >> and what was our budget 349 >> u it would have matched it would have matched the yes it was ma matched the uh expenditure budget >> so we have a surplus surplus for this
021year for the 25 26 we actually end up with a surplus. >> No, no, no. That that that you're talking about one being a budgeted number for expenditures. Our expenditures are are looking to be higher as well, which is why we did that transfer from um from the capital to cover those additional. >> So, we have greater costs as well. >> So, what's going to be our cost in the end of the year? What we project now? Our budget which we voted on last year was about 340 something. 348 >> around 348. Yes. >> I think we have that future slide. Hold on one second. >> Yes. Last year's expenditure budget was 348 million and change. And yes, so that we we anticipate that that will be overspent this year. >> We over we went
022over the budget with U. 20 almost $30,000. >> 30 million. >> I'm not projecting that we're going to be at 30 million, but I I will provide that um that projection to you uh at our next meeting. >> Okay. Because the income the income is way ahead than that. >> Yes, the income is ahead. Yes. But however, just just to clarify that a large portion of that income is from fund balance. >> Okay. So it's >> meaning that we took our money that we had from previous years and put it into this year. >> Right. Right. So that was to >> cover the additional >> meaning we took the 10 million for fund balance >> to cover what the additional transportation cost. >> Right. >> Where will we see this on the sheet? Fund balance
023appreciation. And I see 5 million and no 17. What's >> and then 17? Yeah. So you see the >> So we put in 22 million is from money that we had sitting before. >> Correct. >> And that's money that was above our which we are allowed to keep for um constingencies. Yes. >> Correct. Yes. >> So we had to put it back in. >> That wasn't the purpose of it. Um we we also are working on a plan in terms of the fund balance to create a um a reserve that will hold uh some of the other dollars that we >> our reserve but can only be as a certain percent of the budget. Yes. >> No, the unallocated part can only be a certain percent and that's the one that we're open. That's the
0244%. >> Okay. I'll I'll uh since you mentioned it, I will I'll do a full fund balance um report to everybody at the March 10th meeting so that you can see that as well. Okay. All right. Um All right. So, moving moving on. Um again, we know that we're asking uh in in this version of the the budget being requested a 1.9% increase in the tax levy. Um, so we did want to uh review the fact that um the the full value tax rate in this district is actually below all of the others in Rockland County 25 years ago. That was not the case. You see uh this is a graphic representation of that. So you can see that back in 2000 um the red line was right in the middle. So, it was just
025in the middle of all the the school districts in Rockland County, but over the years with um the tax levy not increasing for uh several years over that period, um the full value tax rate now is uh the lowest of all the school districts in the county. Um to show you that with the numbers, you can see here that in 2000, East Ramapo's full value tax rate was $20. um per thousand dollars of taxable um land of assessed value. Correct. And um now um in 2025, which is the last year that's been fully calculated, um it's at $945. And then you can see on that bottom line there that $945. The uh the next lowest in the county is Clarkstown at $16.26 26 cents and um Suff South Orangetown is 1666. Oh, so I'm sorry.
026Suffering is uh that that so that they they took over the low this year. They were higher than uh Clarktown last year. So Suffering, correct? Is the lowest at $15.69. My apologies. >> If if uh if you can explain again, what does this chart tell us anything about the 1.9% proposed tax increase >> on this chart? Yes. >> Nothing that that will it depending on what we do with the tax levy this year that will affect the the rate that is created u the full value tax rate for for the year uh 2026. So we're we're talking about next year's budget. So the actual tax rate will only be calculated when the the budget is adopted and voted on and the tax levy is actually issued. So this is the the 945 is based on
027last year's tax levy. >> But could you >> what does it say? What what does the 945 mean anything to the >> What are we trying to demonstrate with this chart? That's what I'm trying to ask. >> I'm trying to to explain that the taxes that are being paid in this district compared to the taxes that are being paid by homeowners in other districts are at a much lower rate. So what what East Ramapo Central School District residents are paying per thousand dollars of assessment in taxes is $945. Okay. In suffern, which is the next lowest, um for for each thousand of assessed value of a property owner's property, they pay $1569. >> Could you explain? But the says value the says value has nothing to do with the it has to do with the
028tax collected I understand but the way it's assessed is is it depends a lot with the equalization rate >> compared to the to the full market value. Yes. So, so what you're seeing here um is based on full value, not based on each indivi. So, all of the uh different towns can assess in different ways. That's been equalized here. So, they they use uh what's called as I think you just said it the the the um New York State Office of Real Property Services, uh which is also sometimes called orps. um they set equalization rates for every municipality and also for each municipality for um the levels in each of the different school districts if they're split up because some of the towns are in many different school districts. Right? So um the uh the
029equalization rates are creating a what they call full value and that these are the full value rates. So everybody's on even playing field in terms of the value and these are the rates per thousand that are being paid. >> Could you explain I'm just curious how it works. How from 2023 it was $12 per thousand and now it's 945 per thousand when we actually our budget was increased and our tax levy was increased. How does it go down with that much? Went down like $2 and half dollars. >> So >> over two and a half dollars. So in effect if that is the case then what would have happened during that particular year would have been that the overall assessed value of all of the property in the town had gone up. >> So that's
030so >> that could be from new property being built. It could be from >> so the fact that >> reassessments or >> so it's not that we are paying less just a bigger we have more people paying or the assessed value the price on the houses went up so they still pay the same amount but when you take let's say a property pays $8,000 and when you paid $8,000 when it was worth $500,000 and you pay $8,000 when it's worth 700 700,000 so the % drops but the amount paying stays about the same. >> It could be that. It could also be that there is a a lot of new development. Um we know we know that there is development in our in our district. >> It didn't drop down that much per per property
031to affect that much of money. That's >> unless maybe it did >> and that that is not a part of this. Uh, but I could I can look into what the um overall um total full value assessment of the school district was in each of those years and provide that to you. I'll have to I'll have to find that though. Okay. Any other questions on this before we head over to the expenditure side? One last chance. Okay. Oh, sorry. Good point. >> We also have our graphical representation. At last year's meetings, we actually had some um some community members actually come up and ask um that that you know we have people that are uh different types of learners. Some people are visual learners, some people are audio learners, lots of different ways. So I
032was asked if we could provide some graphic representations of some of the things that we were doing. So this is one of those. Um, this is a 4-year historical graphical representation of the breakdown of our revenue budget. And the interesting thing here is if you look at uh the 2023 24 school year, property tax made up over 50% of our revenue budget. And um based upon the large increases that the state has made to our um state aid over that period of time having a lot to do um with the um with the fully funding of foundation aid which I know that we discussed last year and and has come up and you probably hear about that um when you hear legislators talking about it. um our state aid has increased significantly um in terms
033of the percentage of the budget. So you see that that green area in 2023 is less than half the percent half of the budget and property tax is more than half of the budget. Um, and over that three-year period, as we go over to the left to 2026, 2027, property tax is now down to 44.9% of our revenues. And for the first time, I'm not sure, maybe ever in the school district, but certainly in a long time, state aid is uh representing more than half of the revenue that we receive. One more chance for questions on revenue. All right, we will move now. we will move on to expenditures. So, um we did want to uh go over um what uh some of the main priorities were in the development of the budget. Um and
034you'll see those as we go through some of the other items that we're doing in this presentation. The first um is obviously student academic outcomes, which is has to be um one of the most important things in just about every school district. That's something that is incredibly important and it's why we're all here. Um another was infrastructure improvements and a third was transportation operations. So at this point, I believe I'm going to hand it over to our superintendent to discuss the academic side. >> Thank you, Eric. Uh so this next slide uh highlights the academic priorities that we have in the uh 2627 proposed budget. And so the first bullet is um in reference to the reading program that we're using in grades uh K through five this year and K through six next year.
035Um and that's our American Reading Company. Um we're using it at the elementary level. We've implemented it. It's our second year of implementation now. It's pretty successful and we're looking forward to continuing with that initiative. At the middle school level, we're using Carnegie um learning for ELA uh and for reading. In addition, um we have an initiative to develop and strengthen our uh multi-tered um services that we uh offer to students. We have a whole model for that. And um so this really represents our AIS services. It'll be in um services um focused on literacy development, math interventions for all of our students, but certainly our L's are students with disabilities and students that require tier 2 and three intervention supports. We also want to um make sure that we budget for our early literacy
036programs. These would be programs that likely offered in the summer to our students entering kindergarten. Give them a little bit of a head start. Um and our next bullet is um related to math instructional program and professional development that we anticipate. We do have a mathematics audit that is planned for this year. We wanted to make sure that we put appropriate budgeting um aside for that. Um we still need to uh have the audit conducted and then we will um take it you know take it apart bit by bit and an analyze the recommendations for it before we can determine which programs we will actually be um investing in. Uh in addition, we um want to start to plan for uh curriculum changes associated with the requirements that all districts are facing as we um
037convert towards a um um high school offerings that prepare students for career and for college in a different way using the um form the forum of portrait of a graduate that's been released by NYED. So that's going to require us to um put some money aside for professional development, for some research, some programming, and um it'll be a shift that will be underway for a number of years, but we'll be initiating it this coming year. And um finally, as we discussed a little earlier today, we saw that um we had a contract that was just approved for uh leadership development. We are investing in uh providing our executive team with mentoring and uh in addition to that we are also providing some mentorship to um other uh as members of our leadership team. So those
038are are in general terms our priorities for next year >> this year how much did we spend for new teachers? I know we spend a lot for executives new executives on every level. The question is when we were shown the slide last month, if you took a deeper dive into it, yes, some numbers change, but these numbers only changed in the 20%. The 80% that was below stayed in that number. The only thing that became better was the good ones became better. It helped for good ones. So when we had one point, it didn't affect the lower the lower graph stayed at about 80% of below three grades below where they're supposed to be. It just from the top grades instead of 1.2 being on top it became 3% but it didn't affect the 80%.
039How much money did we spend for it? And what was the return? And if if at all we had a return for on it didn't change much on the on much on the low end why >> sure good good question I don't have the the money figure we can certainly try to extrapolate that uh but we did invest heavily in programming and in um providing um instructional support um and professional development to teachers especially at the elementary level especially in literacy. So Why don't we see the results yet? Why after six months of school it's flat >> the student performance? >> Yes, >> that is a good question and it's a complicated answer. Um so one of the things I'll say is that uh implementation of a new uh of a new program like this
040uh districtwide is going to really it's a three to five year plan. So this is year one uh for many teachers, year two for some. Uh and so they are making gains. They have learned a lot. And um in addition to help us with that, we've also had another consultant to come in to talk about instructional strategies. So it's not just the use of a specific program and the professional development associated with those programs, but what are the best strategies in a classroom to uh make sure that we are um improving student performance. So we're at the beginnings of that. That's one. Two, how do we measure success? Um, we are in the be in the beginning stages of learning and unpacking how to measure success with these programs. So, um, uh, we're still involved
041in professional development with that. The leaders are and the teachers are. So, uh, we are looking at student performance data. Uh, and I'm going to be just really, um, um, candid about, um, the way that we've been doing it in the past. Uh it requires a lot of transformation and a lot of professional development. Um and we have been working at the executive level to identify our practices that need improvement and we have identified some and we are working with the building level leaders and with teachers to start to look at our data in a more meaningful way. But we have a way to go. But >> um with last year we said we had a lot of vacancies in teachers. How many of those did we fill this year? >> I wanted to know
042that. >> I know at the executive level we filled a lot of the higherups of management, administration. How many did we fill in classrooms? >> Well, um it's a good question. Um and so we we do still have vacancies. They are currently filled with um 0.2 two positions, which means that we um assign teachers that have five courses that they teach at the secondary level and they have room in their schedule for one more. So, they're not required to teach one more by contract, but they can. If they do, they receive 20% of their uh salary for doing so. So, that's called a point two. So we take our vacancies at the secondary level and we fill many of them uh with these point 2 assignments. So that's how we're addressing some of our VA
043a lot of our vacancies, not all. Uh the ones that we can't fill that way are ELLL services. So we're having um uh we're we're getting as creative as we can in providing ELLL services for all students, but that is a shortage uh area throughout the state. You know, with that being said, I think it's it's necessary for us to get some type of report because I'm curious as well to see how many vacancies are there still. >> Yeah, we can get that information. >> Absolutely. We're going to provide that. Uh we we have been looking at that regularly. Um but we just didn't have it ready for today, but we were close. Um so we've been meeting with all the principles. We've been meeting with all of our executive leaders. We've been evaluating um
044our student enrollment uh information and but we also need to look and see how students perform. So how they perform on the nislat tests will inform us regarding our need for bilingual and elelll teachers. How they perform on the regents will inform us a little bit you know for next year and our enrollment our changing enrollment. So but we are very close. >> So I have a question. How long does it take to find out how many vacancies we have per building? Because I know every time we have a list of point 2s on our agenda, I ask that question. What are the numbers when it comes to vacancies in our buildings K through 12? Not only that, too, I think we need to make it clear that when it comes to our point to
045teachers that we're putting in the classroom, a lot of them, from what I'm hearing, are not specialized in whatever subject they're being asked to teach. So I think that's another issue that we have that we need to look into. So even though we're saying we have >> teachers and we're pro, you know, they're doing point 2s, a lot of them do not feel comfortable teaching whatever it is that they're being asked to teach because that's not what they've been doing, you know, the years they've been here in the district or in other districts. >> Just to address it and then I'll ask Mr. Kravitz if he wants to. Um, also, um, the way that we do it is, um, and by the way, you should know that teachers normally are very competitive about these. They
046want these. So, the way we do it is we prioritize um, certification. Example, if we have a math vacancy that we prioritize somebody who's certified in math and we do that then based on seniority. So within that particular building, uh if there's four math teachers, um then we prioritize it has to be a math teacher and then it has to be the one with the most seniority. That's how we do it. If we don't have enough math teachers to fill it, which is not usually we do or we come very close, then we um look to see well maybe they're not math teachers but they have math certification or they've taught it before. So we have a system. Um, it's not perfect, but it's it's certainly not that we just uh disregard certification, Mr. Kravitz.
047So, that that's correct in terms of filling um positions by certification first. We we always look to do that. We do have we still do have some vacancies, but the way it's structured is we have vacancies from a budgeted standpoint, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those positions aren't filled. and and you know, our superintendent talked about the the point 2s that we currently utilize. We also have other people in positions who show up in our vacancies because they might be the permanent building sub who's being used as a on a temporary basis. Our what we're continuing to try to do is we have a our postings are out. We are trying to recruit as as most as much as we can. the biggest number or the highest area of need right now from a
048vacancy standpoint is is ENL and as was just stated it's obviously a high need area a shortage area across the across the whole state. So I think what we're looking to do in terms of the the budget are creative methods to recruit people for those positions for next year um including using our own people and how can we get people who are currently in positions interested in some of those those types of certifications. If we can get them, our own people to fill those, that's a that's a big win for us. >> All right. So, moving on. Um the uh second priority that we had was infrastructure improvements. as we did last year, we would be looking to have $5.25 million uh in the budget. And also, again, as we showed you, I'll back up
049a few slides to the uh draft revenue budget, that $5.2 million shows up on the bottom uh the second line from the bottom in fund balance appropriation. So, uh that is uh the plan is to use capital dollars that are in our fund balance for these items. And what we are planning on for the year for the most part is uh HVAC replacement, repair and replacement districtwide. Um and uh we currently are in the process of evaluating the locations that would um need it most or where it would be most effective. Um also understanding that when we're talking about HVAC uh in in terms of this, we're talking about air conditioning as opposed to heating. Um we we are doing some other uh work that's in the current year budget which we which was part
050of this last year which are the two boilers that remain to be done at El Dorado and Limekil I believe if I recall those two correctly. Um but this would be for um air conditioning. Um and as you know we have the new requirement by the state um where uh when when school buildings get to a certain uh temperature in interior temperature you either have to at a certain point you have to start mediating um and moving children around at a certain point if it gets super bad which um I believe that's over 88 degrees you either have to um move children to another building or or close the school. So um this is uh a piece that is very important to us uh moving forward. Um so that's why we earmarked a good portion
051of that. >> Is this going to be putting in new new air conditions or is >> so this is a combination of repairing some systems and then also new new air conditioning that can also come in a variety of ways. Um, it could be window units. It could be um in a larger project, it could be a big chiller in in a building that might need to be replaced. It could be um a large a large air conditioning system to do a large part of a building that doesn't currently have it. So, um and Carl Thernau, our interim um director of facilities, is um currently evaluating the the most needy areas in the district. So just quick question just because you mentioned Carl is are we are we budgeting for a director of facilities this
052year? >> Yes, absolutely. >> Are we still looking for posting for it? >> Yep. >> Do we have a posting for it? >> Right. >> Say that again. >> Is there a posting for the director of facilities? >> Um there not exactly. We we are in the process of putting that together. Um but um I would say that it will probably be available within the next month by the end of >> we're considering an RFP for for that service. >> RFP for >> for a supervision of facilities rather than posting for a director. We we have tried that unsuccessfully. >> Why why has it been unsuccessful? >> The candidate pool. Well, can't you can put it out >> because a civil service. >> Got it. >> So, that's it's a civil service position with a
053list. >> We we did we did post. >> Can you use the helps like you know that New York State is doing that helps program where you could do it outside of an exam? Is that something that >> I doubt it would go to that position? Um but I we can certainly inquire. It's been normally it's been mostly clerical >> and this is considered a very competitive um >> we can we can certainly ask them but it would take them months to if they did do it to have it approved. >> Yeah. Because we do need a director of facilities. >> There's no question. >> Desperately >> was the is the 4 is the 4.75 for example for AGAC was that estimated? Do we have do we know anticipated how much it's it's going to
054cost? The reason why I'm asking is um the number is exact same that uh we're budgeting like last year. Is it coincident that >> No, no, no. This is No. So, you're right. This is an estimate of the way that that breakdown would fall. We have $5.25 million in the budget. Um the breakdown is will will obviously not fall exactly exactly like that. that would be based on on competitive bids. Um so, >> but Eric, if I just may, just to be clear, the um the entire um HVAC project and the conditioning, air conditioning of all the buildings that we need to do, that's really a three-year plan or so. Is that true? >> Oh, yeah. This this this amount is not going to to cover what what would need to be done district-wide by
055any stretch of the imagination. >> So, it's year one of a plan. Yes, correct. >> Okay. >> So, uh if I remember correctly, um with the ARPA funds that we had with the construction report that was provided to us, HVAC was part of that. Are we um do you guys have a list of buildings where HVAC replacements, upgrades were done throughout the district? >> So, again, I wasn't here at the time, but um it actually came up in a conversation um that we were having with uh Mr. are thrown out today. I believe that initially there was um air conditioning work in the ARPA funds but um those projects were never done and the reason that they were never done and they were switched into other projects was because um coming out of COVID there
056were very large lead times for certain items and HVAC was one of them. Um, and with the federal grants, you have an end date uh by which you have to spend the money. And although it was extended apparently before I was here and when these decisions were made, they didn't believe that they would be able to complete the um air conditioning renovations or projects within the time frame that was set for the end of that grant. That grant was actually extended a couple times after that. >> Correct. But at the time they made the decision to move into other projects. So um the air conditioning that you may have been presented um in the ARPA grants was not actually done. So, do we do we have an updated or can we get an updated report
057of the project status from the ARPA funds um from Jacobs to see >> I don't think I don't think we were told >> and I think Sabrina's you've requested a few times to know like we did this we had a building survey >> saying what were all these peers that need to be done so if we can get an idea of like what how much of that survey was done what other needs are needed. I mean, obviously, I'm sure the AV track replacement is just one of the myriad of other needs that are still needed. So, maybe if we can have an idea what else is needed, you know, a big good picture of where we're at because we initially got a building survey of, oh, we need hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements
058and then we spent hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements. So, where are we? like >> sure we can we can uh I can work with our architect to >> um put together a presentation. I would actually probably have them do it as opposed to to me >> but um exactly >> to show um what was in the last five-year plan. So building condition survey is uh has to be done on a five-year basis. Um um we'll probably have a new another one coming up. Um but we can show you what was in the last one, what was done um through ARPA, what was done in, you know, any of the budgetary things that we've done along the way and then show you the things that are still out there remaining and I can promise
059you that um there's there's still plenty plenty. >> No, I'm sure about that. But I think would be definely beneficial that we should see and know, you know. >> Sure. Because I I know um it was also a question that I had when we received the ARPA funds when they provided um you know an outline and list of things that were going to be done throughout the district. Um I had mentioned to them that we had the capital project which was uh done in 2018 2019 between 2017 and 2018 uh I'm sorry 2016 and 2018 um and I feel like a lot of the work that they mentioned for the ARPA funds was already completed with the capital project. So, I just want to make sure that, you know, if there was work done and
060there's a warranty, maybe we should look into the warranty instead of um spending money to replace something that was already replaced. >> Okay. Um again, not having been here at the time, I don't know all of the details, but I do believe that our current architect was not the architect of the 2018 project. So, there, you know, but we can try and um cobble all that together for you. >> Thank you. Okay. All right. Moving on to the uh the final uh of the priorities that we discussed of the major priorities, transportation operations. Um and uh a few of the things that uh will be uh important and and uh be a part a large part of the budget will be contractual increases and rebids for um some or many of our uh bus contractors.
061uh for both the public and non-public transportation of our students. Um and another important piece that is a part of the budget is the use of a consultant for the reorganization of transportation department operations. Um we actually did have earlier in the day a facilities and transportation meeting with uh several of our board trustees. Um and uh there was uh a lot of good conversation uh regarding this this item, the reorganization of the transportation department. Um and we are in the process of doing a number of things that we think are going to make um the operation uh more effective um and and smoother. Um, and we very much hope that when we get to September of 2027 that we will be having a a very a much much more successful and smoother opening of
062school in terms of transportation than we did this year. I don't know that it could be a lot worse, but um we are committed to making sure that uh it is uh far uh better and uh hopefully it will exceed even our expectations. >> Question. I know with Rockland Boseies and Rocklin County Schoolboard Association, we've had um extensive conversation about the zero admission buses. I haven't heard any conversations here in East Rampo about that. Are we looking into that and what that will look like? um moving forward once we have to start um moving to zero admission buses. So essentially it it's an interesting um conversation. So um when you have bus contractors that responsibility falls to them really. So we we will we have we'll have language in our contracts to ensure that the
063buses that they are using or even suburbans or any any of the vehicles that they use uh fulfill the law that the the state has put forth um because it's obviously the law. But um so we will be looking to put language in our contracts that requires the use of those vehicles. Now that being said, um those vehicles are much more expensive. And when I say much more expensive, um currently three to four times the the cost of um fuelpowered vehicles or or um fossil fuel powered vehicles. So, um what we can expect when we get to those dates is that um our contract our contractual costs are going to be higher. Now, if we were a district that owned our fleet, we would have increased costs in transportation because we'd have to buy all
064of those, right? So, we'd have to we'd have to increased costs in purchasing the buses. So one way or another we will wind up seeing increased costs from uh this this mandate for for um low or no emission buses. >> So I guess my question is um based on the way you just answered that are we have we started the conversation with our outside contractors? >> Yes. So all all of the contractors are aware of that. Uh I also believe that um we um worked with a group of the YPC contractors to um cooperatively um apply for a grant. Do you recall this uh Shimon? So um we we we have worked with some of them to apply for grants that uh allowed them to get a certain number of buses at uh much reduced
065cost or or where the costs were reimbursed by the federal government. Um hopefully they did that already. Um but um yeah, so it's definitely a conversation that all of the contractors are aware of. Um they all know that it's uh the case. I think it's been extended once if not twice. Um there's also talk that it may need to be extended again. Um, and part of that has to do with the fact that there's not enough power infrastructure in the state electric infrastructure to charge all of the buses because it's not only school districts, it's all municipalities, including New York City. So, think about all of the buses that New York City uses and having to have the power within all of their yards just to charge those buses. It doesn't exist anywhere in the
066state right now. So, >> well, not not only that, too. know that um we a few of us met with um the governor's office and not only is it an infrastructure issue, but Orange and Rockin also mentioned that that's not something they can handle right now. So, I know we've been lobbying for it to be extended. Um but like I said, I just want to make sure we're not forgetting about that just in case it's not extended. >> Yeah, understood. All right. So then um moving on, we have um built a budget um which would balance out with the revenue budget that we shared with you earlier in the presentation. uh totaling 370 million um739,225 which um would represent a budget-to-budget increase of 6.44%. Um some of the notable areas that you see in here
067um is that um in the teaching area you'll see that we have uh growth of about $5.2 2 million which is 3.96%. Um and then uh two of the other areas where we have larger increases are our pupil service area uh which is >> a second when when you're talking about teaching increases. Is this for current vacancies that we're looking to fill? So this would be a combination of contractual increases that are required by the contracts as well as um any um uh new positions that might be added. >> So the vac >> well the well the vacancies would have been in last year's budget as well. So >> too but that's same brings us back to the question are primarily based on the contractual increases. Now that that there there would be small contractual
068increases that we would be budgeting for vacancies as well because the starting numbers move, but um it's primarily the contractual increases for the uh for the employees as well as um new newly requested positions. Um pupil services is our uh special education area as well as uh multilingual education, nursing services and other um guidance so on and so forth so forth are um put into that area. Um we see an increase of uh about $2.6 $6 million there which is a 16% increase that is normally based upon uh additional um students that we have that are requiring services transportation uh >> pupil services only special ed >> I'm sorry >> p people pupil services only special ed >> special ed multilingual education and the other areas >> I'm sorry I take it back mult multilingual
069education isn't teaching um pupil services is um special education Um, you want to help me here? Nursing, uh, speech and is a psychot psychologist, >> right? So, >> and so all that includes for not only public school but private school when they have to come in for Okay, thank you. >> So, this Yeah. So, there's no separation between the public and non non-public um pieces of of these departments. Same goes for transportation. That's one number um that accounts for everything. >> Thank you. Um and then the other large uh uh larger increases there are um in um transportation services we see is 10.8 million. We've already discussed that and made a transfer for the current year. Um benefits you'll see has an increase of 4.32%. That comes primarily from your um health plan expenses. So,
070uh, as you probably all know and see in reports all the time, health care expenses, uh, throughout the country increase generally at a number that is, um, higher than, uh, our inflation rates. Um, it's one of the things that drives inflation rates. Um, and why is our debt service going up by 24%. >> I'll let you ask the question. Go ahead. So why, Mr. Stark, are we going up by 24.38% in our debt service? >> Okay, so um this is actually because um years ago, and I'm not sure how many years ago, but I know it's several years ago, the uh board of education authorized an energy performance contract. Um some of you, I'm sure, were on the board when that was done. When that was done, uh it's a $12 million project that was
071authorized. Um, energy performance contracts are designed to cover all of the costs of the um principle and um the interest that is um generated for for those in by and have it covered by energy savings over a 16-year period. So all of the costs of the principal and interest are covered by your energy savings over that period of time. When that um project was approved, the district had just had its um Moody's credit rating dropped significantly and when they went out for financing, they did not have any biders. So, um I was approached by the um by Amoresco, which is the the ESCO, the energy service contractor that uh had won the bid in East Ramapo that they've done a lot of work. They would like to see if there's a way that we can
072get this project off the ground. Um one of the things that that you did as a board recently was you authorized a new financial adviser for the district. We had an old old financial adviser that had not um successfully provided us with biders. Um that was a big part of our RFP. It was a big part of the um interview process that uh we had before selecting fiscal adviserss which you did at one of our last couple of meetings. Um we have been working with them. We are going out to uh bid for the financing of that project. uh we should have I believe an answer back uh and be able to bring uh you the the results of that in one of our April board meetings. Um they are confident um they have heard
073from several of the people that they do th this type of work with that we will have biders. Um, we might not get an interest rate that is uh the same as what Scarsdale or another district with a better credit rating than us will get, but we will be able to actually do the work. Um, and that will be uh need to be paid for. So, um, they have we have done an estimate, a conservative estimate at a higher interest rate than we believe will actually be achieved. uh because you want to do that. You want you want to be conservative when you're putting something like that in your budget. So um the increase of the 1 million62 represents the the estimated um uh the estimated principle and interest that would be um a part
074of the payments in the 2026 27 school year. So that's why we have that increase there. >> I thought our Moody's went up. >> Our Moody's did not go up. So what happened uh last year was that um our Moody's rating stayed the same. They the only thing that they did which can be perceived as going up but not really was that they removed the negative outlook. So we have the same credit rating but instead of the credit rating with a negative outlook, it's a credit rating without comment on the future. >> Okay. So I I have just a question. >> Sure. And last year we discovered that we had 90 to$100 million surplus. Agreed. >> I I believe that this this came up during the audit. It it it sat at uh June 30th
075at 70 million around 70 million. >> 70 million >> not 100. >> Okay. So where where do we anticipate after this year June 30th 2026 our call it whichever number you want but our available cash in the bank is how much do we have? Um if I were to answer that question with you right now I would be making something up and throwing it out. So I'd rather not do that. having prepare uh uh a fund balance analysis and cash flow for you um that that projects toward the end of the year and I can have that for you at the next >> I mean we should have an idea right I mean we have all the numbers here so >> yeah so so we we know that we're going to be overspending the 348
076million we also know that we're going to get revenues that exceed that 348 million but in order to make a determination as to exactly where that's going to fall >> it's going to go up or down a little bit. Um I believe it that it probably will will move uh in in a much smaller amount than it has in the previous >> but I'm saying but we had >> go up a little bit. It >> let's say we took out 10 to to cover the the the the additional transportation costs. We did that transfer, right? Was it 10 or 16? >> Right. So we're up to 54. >> Yeah, just basic math, right? We took out 16. >> The budget came out even. Yeah, it would it would that that would show a decrease. Um
077so >> right so we should be at around 50 million >> it could be there it could be that there are other expenditures in our budget that won't get spent that would that would push some of that back up toward you know 60 or so. So again >> to 1560 million >> we are working on our cash flow projections right now because it's a part of the budget process. Right. So that's why isn't this important part of the budget process to know how much money we we're going to have sitting around after the year when we're asking people for more money? >> Repeat that question please. >> We are going out for I mean you're currently obviously presenting an a tax levy increase. >> Mhm. >> Right. So the number one question people are going
078to be asking is we had you're saying it wasn't the 100 it was 70 million and and and and additional funds. So they're going to ask what happened to the 70 million. How much do we have now? You know we we have to present the full picture. >> Yeah. >> So I think a big part of the full picture is knowing how much money we have in reserves. Is that >> very fair question and uh intended to be a part of our um presentations as we move forward. So correct >> at the March 10th meeting um I promise that you will have >> I will not be here then >> analysis. So for clarification purposes, you're saying that June 2025, as of June 2025, we had a surplus. That surplus was $70 million and as
079of today, that 70 is still in the pot or >> No, if you recall, we we did we did two transfers >> minus minus whatever transfers we did, >> right? Yes. I'm looking at the nove I think November 17th we approved the uh the time it was uh >> sorry what >> on November 17th meeting which uh we approved the was presented for us as a draft of the uh audit report. >> Yeah. >> And at the time we only had 38 million unrest unrestricted funds. >> How much? >> 38 million approximately. >> But that's that's the 38 million in unrestricted funds is a portion of the fund balance. uh you have to add in all the reserves and all the other pieces there and um the total is approximately 70 million. >> Eric, could
080you just provide a couple of sentences regarding the restrictions of the use of those funds? We can't just take those funds and >> put the the the restricted funds are the funds that we have in specific um reserves. So for example, we have a tax circularari reserve. that reserve is set forth to pay um claims that are made by uh the larger taxpayers like um the utility companies that own large pieces of property, things like that. Um we have a reserve fund for um for large increases in our pension funds. So we have ERS and TRS reserves. We have >> Those are all restricted. They can only be used for >> the majority of it is restricted or unrestricted. >> Uh right now the the majority the slight majority is is unrestricted. However, that is
081over the statutory limit of 4% of of your budget. So >> So Eric, when they're looking at the 70 million and that may now be 50 million or 55 million, whatever that number will be, I know you're doing an analysis. There's a restriction on what we can use that money for. >> For parts of the parts of that, yes, and parts of it, no. Some is restricted and some is unrestricted. >> Yeah. Thank you. I I think the announcement is very important. I think I think it's really an important part. Uh lastly, just another graphical representation of the breakdown as to how um our budget uh in in the larger chunks breaks out. Um teaching is at 37.4%. You would expect that as that's the business that we're in. Um and if you add pupil
082services into that, that uh uh comes out to about a little over 40% of our budget. um benefits is always in that area of of 19 to 20 something percent. Um the one outlier that we have here which shouldn't be a surprise to anybody is that our transportation uh piece of the pie is larger than most but we also transport far more students than um uh any other school district in the state. And >> and I think it's also important to point out the benefits really is part of the teaching. Is it not? I mean, is it really >> Say that again. >> I'm just Okay. Um, and that really is uh what we have for you this evening. Uh, any other questions? I can go back through any of the slidesh if anybody has
083any questions that they'd like to ask. Okay, we hearing no further questions. I think we missed one slide. We're talking about the budget voters in May 19. Oh, there we go. May 19th, 2026. And there's going to be port of uh Kathy, maybe you want to read this fly for us. So for anyone interested in uh possibly being a trustee on the board of education, um every year three wards are up for election. This year it's ws three, five, and eight. The trustee candidate petitions and statement of expenditure forms have been on our website this month or people can call our office and we happy to send them out to them. The deadline to file the petitions is Monday, April 20th at 5:00 pm. They must be brought to my office. You can't fax them
084or email them. They have to be original. And the budget hearing is set for May 6 this year and the actual budget vote date is May 19. Voter registration forms are at the table every board meeting or they're available. You can click on their website. If you go to budget vote 26, you can get linked to the forms, all of this information, and um you can also link and register with the county board of elections. And you must be registered to vote at least 14 days prior to the vote date of May 19. >> Thank you, Kathy. Um I would now make a motion to enter executive session. What are we discussing, Kathy? uh to discuss matters regarding information relating to a current investigation and we do not expect action following executive session. >> Thank
085you Kathy. Do I have a second? >> Second by Vice President McIll. All those in favor say I. >> I. And oppose stay motion car. Thank you all and have a good night. session. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Like to bring this meeting back to order like to join this meeting. All those in favor say I. And when pause motion carries. Thank you all.