001Good evening everyone and welcome to the monthly work session of these track we Board of Education. At this time actually I like to call this meeting to order at 6:11 p.m. Uh at this time can we stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, [clears throat] next is old business, Mr. Di Tomasso. Yes, I have some old business I'm going to add a few things for new business. So first of all for old business I feel like I've been mentioning this since last June but there is progress happening with the cupola. When you drive by the high school please take a look. You can see
002wood paneling's up, windows up. Uh and progress is moving. Hopefully in June we'll be able to ring that traditional bell and the cupola will be all set. So I'm very excited about that. And I I know Mother Nature and uh kind of got caught in the way of us really getting that done. So I think that's going to be a great thing for the school and the community. So thanks to Mr. Van Wart and his team and Mr. Daly for pushing that. As far as new business um tomorrow or Thursday I'll be putting out my superintendent's corner and I'll be including a few things. If you haven't already received our district's point of pride that's lined up by elementary schools, high school and all the district initiatives that are going well. It's kind of like
003the wood grain cherries of what's happening district. So that'll be on the superintendent's corner. Also I will be including proudly our student superintendent student advisory council their presentation which was absolutely wonderful at the meeting. Uh I did meet with the principals and they are going to start to meet with the students to make sure the things that they proposed are moving into place. Um I will include in case anybody did not see the district realignment letter. And in addition, uh this budget presentation hearing will be included in the uh superintendent's uh corner. So, look out for that on Wednesday and Thursday. And that's it for old and new business. All right. Thank you. Okay, next uh review uh minutes of the budget work session and special meeting on 4 21 26. Anyone have any questions
004on this? All right. Um next review minutes of the regular meeting on 4 28 26. Any questions on that? >> No. All right. Um uh questions on the next board agenda um 5 27. No. No. No. All right. Um budget hearing. Okay. Great. I'll start Yeah, good stuff from here. Um >> [cough] >> so I just kind of want to give a quick executive summary and I'd like to start by uh thanking Mr. Van Moore, the administrators and the team for really putting together a very responsible budget. Um I don't like to call out other districts, but I I think if you see what's happening around us um in terms of, you know, staffing being cut or different programs not being able to be run uh and uh districts in financial trouble, that is not
005East Rockaway. In fact, I'm going to highlight a few of the things that we have been adding. So, I'm very uh happy and I'm very proud of the fact that we're we're coming under the cap this year and the budget that we're putting forth is going to be a good one. So, with that being said talk about the strategic plan for a minute. So, I'll give credit to Lisa Ruiz. She started in her second year. She started the strategic plan. This is the second version of it which she and I worked on and we're in year four of the plan and I'm [clears throat] very proud to say that we're meeting a lot of the objectives and goals and sometime next year we'll be reforming [laughter] the strategic plan so I will need community and
006staff and if if wanted Board of Education presentation to start a new five-year strategic plan. So as I mentioned there are some things to really highlight. I know I had mentioned some districts are you know cutting staff. We are not. In fact, we're adding two special education staff members, one in the elementary school and one in the secondary school. You know, we have students with IEPs that are required. So we were able to do that and be able to build that into the budget to make sure we're taking care of our students with special needs. We also adopted a new K through math program, Eureka math. We had the old uh I'm sorry, Eureka squared. We had the old Eureka program that I'm going to say 10 years. About 10 years old, it was time
007to update and I'm very excited that a group of teachers, administrators were able to agree unanimously on the new Eureka plan and we're actually starting the training this year so we can springboard right into it without any hesitation for next year. Um At our previous budget meeting, Mrs. McClellan talked about student Chromebooks by grade level, how we'll be replacing them based on the warranties and I know she'll be working with the teachers and giving them more information about that. So we're proud that we're going to be shift making a slight shift with our Chromebooks and utilizing some of the used Chromebooks and and um I want to say resurfacing but re refreshing refreshing the Chromebooks so all our students will have access to that. Um in the uh music department uh instruments are aging out.
008So, in this year's budget we're able to uh provide some new instruments uh and equipment for our learners. And as you know, I think 13 years in a row we've won the music outstanding in music award. And this year all three uh all three orchestra, band, and chorus finished in first place in their competition. So, uh we obviously want to keep that going. Uh as far as um interior and exterior renovations, if you noticed uh we last year we painted the lockers and added school colors in the hallways. You know, we're all big and all all psyched up about the orange and black. And this year we're going to be renovating the uh stairwells. And in and um in in the elementary schools uh we're hopeful that we'll be able to do the stairwells in
009Center Avenue as well with the transfer to capital line this year. So, that's So, that's really, you know, I think that's important to me the look of the school and to support our school scholars. Well, that'll be included in the budget. Um way back when uh I think maybe when I was a teacher we put in a darkroom. And at the time film and chemicals were the way to go. You might have even been a part of that. You remember it in the darkroom. And now uh because of, you know, digital photography we're making a change in the art room and changing that darkroom to a digital studio in there. So, we're making that adjustment for the art department which absolutely is uh crushing it in terms of our students succeeding and doing very well.
010So, we're excited about that. That will be in the budget. And as far as athletic goes, you know, this year we had our first junior high boys volleyball team. And we had a number of teams merged with uh other schools. Uh and that was really to keep keep the programs going. I mean, we merged our girls lacrosse with Valley Stream, football uh with West Hempstead. So, we all we always want to give our students an opportunity. At the same time, honestly, it helps us split the cost of the programs. So, it works out for both schools. So, that is in the budget. And the last thing uh is uh the project-based learning and family engagement nights. Uh this year we ramped it up to four. Our first uh family engagement night was on character. Our
011second was on um uh digital safety. Our third was a cultures of East Rockaway, and the fourth one we just had uh which was uh uh run by uh Kristen and Ences and uh Shawn and uh Rob Kennedy. They were able to uh have a family literacy night where they had the public library come in. They had uh kids read to different kids in different rooms and explain some of the literacy programs we have. So, all those things that um uh uh Mr. Van Wart is going to get into the the numbers of that, but those are the things we're able to provide for you in in the budget that we have. And again, uh including but not limited to. Including but not limited to. Right. Uh he likes to say that as the the
012shows. Uh but um you know, uh so we're very proud of the budget that we're putting forth. Um you know, as far as you know, if we're uh competing with other districts, I think if you look around the area, we're doing a fantastic job and credit to the uh business office and uh Mike for doing that. So, without further ado, I'm going to turn the details over to Mr. Van Wart. Thank you, Mr. Gitsomanso. So, um just to give the community and the Board of Education perspective on the budget development cycle, we start developing the upcoming school year budget pretty much 6 months in advance of the actual budget vote May. Um and just a shout-out to our uh wonderful building administrators, department heads, everybody who had a a a role in building the 2026-2027
013budget. We couldn't do it without the support of our team. Um today is the culmination of the 2026-2027 budget development cycle with the budget hearing um and the budget vote will be on May 19th 2026. So, the proposed budget for 26-27 is $49.24 million, which is a $2.2 million budget-to-budget increase year-over-year, or a 4.84% increase. Now, that percentage increase is a little bit higher this year as compared to historical budget increases, and that's because this is the year that we are assuming debt service associated with the last bond projects, as well as the energy performance that we completed this past summer. Um with those budget with that debt service um coming onto the books on the expense side, on the revenue side, those expenses are mostly offset with building aid that's flowing through to the
014district. One of the requirements of the budget hearing is to present the expenditure budget uh in three parts: administrative, program, and capital expenditures. This pie chart here represents the percentage um of each of the parts of the budget. Program being the uh the main component of the East Rockaway 26-27 budget and directly correlated with the instruction that's going on within the classrooms, as well as extracurricular activities, before-and-after-school events. So, for 25-26-27, the administrative component of the budget is increasing by $427, $420,000 to $6.1 million. Program is increasing by $1.04 million to $36.5 uh million dollars, and capital is increasing by 811,883 to $6.5 million approximately. Now, I'll talk a little bit about each of the components. The administrative component of the budget includes costs associated with uh the Board of Education, um the district and
015building administrative salaries and benefits, and support staff, our technol- if our technology infrastructure, and all the operations that support the um the the learning that goes on in the classroom, but that is not directly correlated with the learning that's going on in the classroom. So, things like the district's insurance, our external and internal auditing fees, our legal expenses, um salary of our district So, for for for '26-'27, as I mentioned before, for the $20,000 increase in this part of the budget, main cost driver there is the insurance premium increases we're experiencing this year, as well as the increases in salaries and benefits for our administrative and support staff. In the program component, um this is the cost associated with our instructional staff, our PPS support staff, our health services, any instructional materials that are supporting
016the instruction that's going on in the classroom. Transportation costs to get the kids to point from point A to point B, our before-and-after-school activities. So, in this area of the budget, the major cost drivers for '26-'27 is the additional special education teachers, as Mr. Deatsman mentioned, that are being incorporated to the budget this year, as well as cost increases for salaries and benefits for our existing staff, and then transportation cost increases, which I talked about at several of our work sessions. And finally, in the capital component of the budget, this is the cost associated with some of the maintenance and operations of our buildings, including security costs, our custodial and maintenance crew staff members, um our debt service, which is the district's financing for things like bond projects, and then energy performance contract, and then
017any capital projects. So, the cost driver, main cost drivers in this area of the budget are the debt service that I mentioned previously, as well as the custodial and security salary fringe benefit cost increases. So, on the ballot this year, in addition to the school budget, will be a separate proposition for the use of capital reserves. So, what capital reserve is is um district has savings at the end of the year, it goes into a reserve, it could be used for certain types of things. A capital reserve can be used exclusively for building improvements, capital improvements that go through state education department department's facilities planning department to ensure that the proposed capital improvement is in accordance with building code and allows that project to be what we call aidable, which allows money to flow back
018into the district to offset the overall cost. So, on the ballot this year, we'll be seeking authorization from the community to an expend an amount not to exceed $1.6 million for capital improvement to the middle school roof, which is over 30 years old. There's a picture here of what it looks like right now. Um a capital improvement project to restore the fascia on the exterior of the junior high school with the cupola project being wrapped up hopefully by the end of this summer. We also are looking to update all the fascia that is in the front of the building. As well as a project for the HVAC upgrades in the athletic wing of the junior senior high school. So, we do a not to exceed resolution. So, if these projects come in under $1.6 million,
019that money goes back into the capital reserve and could be used for other projects in the future. In addition, as Mr. Gitsis Matso mentioned, we also have some capital projects that are being supported through the general operating budget, namely the high school art renovation to a modern digital photography student student workspace. Stairwell repainting phase two. And if we have money left over, instructional space off office floor replacements district wide. So, the voter proposition that you'll see for number voter proposition number two will say not to exceed $1.6 million. I just want to be very clear about this. That does not impact tax levy for 2026-2027. This is money that's the district has from previous years that can be used in the future for capital improvements. This is what the ballot will look like. So, you'll
020see the trustee election on the left side. In the middle is proposition number one, which is the vote for the school budget, and proposition number two for the capital reserve fund. So, under New York State Ed rules and regulations, the community has to approve the establishment of capital reserve as well as the expensing from that reserve. So, this this resolution here would be allowing the district to expend from that reserve. So, how do we How do we pay for this proposed school budget? So, the East Rockaway School District's budget is supported 75% historically with the property tax levy, uh 20% from state aid support, and then 5% which is either through local revenue generated by the district or through other financial resources, specifically fund balance or restricted reserves as I've kind of talked about before.
021For 2026-2027, this is the projected revenue for to support the 2026-2027 expenditure budget. So, foundation aid is a state aid category which is formula driven. Uh it's specific to a school district based upon enrollment, um the the wealth of the district, and the percentage of high-cost students, namely special ed classified students or English language learners. So, what the formula does is it it it supports districts, um who need the money from the state's perspective a little bit more. So, the less wealthier you are, the more foundation aid you would expect to receive to support the school budget. Um for 2026-2027, we're expecting a 717 717,000 dollar increase budget to budget. Now, these numbers are based upon the governor's executive proposal that was put out at the end of January, early February. State legislature has not
022approved the budget yet, so we don't have final numbers, but this is a pretty Generally speaking, the legislature um goes goes pretty close to align with what the governor is approved recommending because the governor at the end of the day has veto power over the overall budget. >> [laughter] >> So, we feel pretty comfortable that this is going to be a pretty good number for 26-27. Next line on the revenue analysis sheet here is the non-resident homeless state aid. So, for students that get displaced out of East better that's that live outside of East Rockaway that get displaced to an address within East Rockaway, we receive state aid support for those individuals as well. So, we're expecting to see an increase on that of at least $140,000 for 26-27. Um then our expense aid driven
023category. So, the state also provides state aid for expenses that occurred in previous years to incentivize school districts to use services like BOCES or provide transportation to students, etc. Uh for 26-27, we're expecting about $140,000 increase in those aid categories. Uh we're also expecting to see a slight increase in our pilots for 26-27 about $37,000. These are local businesses that have negotiated a um tax assessment that is not tied to assessment values separate from um from other entities within the organ- within the community to incentivize them to start a business in the area. So, for 26-27, again $37,000 increase we're expecting there. Um the local revenue we're expecting to generate for 26-27 is increasing expected to decrease slightly by $18,000. The driver behind that is interest rates are a little bit lower now. So, any
024of our cash balances we're not projecting that we're going to have as much interest revenue for 26-27. And last but not least um our two categories that are on the revenue analysis sheet and will support next year's budget but are not technically revenue are our appropriated fund balance and reserve for retirement contribution. So, these are This is money that has been put into a reserve or has been left over from a previous school year which we're putting towards next year's school year school year to reduce the burden on the tax levy. So, for 26-27, we're looking to appropriate $800,000 of fund balance and use $852,000 from the ERS reserve and I'll talk a little bit about that later. This slide here shows you the balance in each of our restricted reserves. So, we have six
025reserves as of now. We have an unemployment insurance reserve. The money in this reserve can be used to offset the cost of unemployment insurance. We have a employee Excuse me. Employee benefit accrued liability reserve which can be used to offset the cost of sick day, vacation, sick leave accrual, retirement incentives, et cetera. We have a debt service reserve which can be used to offset the cost of debt service principal and interest. We have And then we have two retirement contribution reserves, a TRS reserve and an ERS reserve. Those reserves can be used to offset the the cost of employer contribution rates for our teachers retirement system employees and our our employee retirement system employees. And last but not least, we have the capital reserve which I mentioned previously which we're seeking authorization from the voters
026to expend 1.6 up to 1.6 million dollars to support some of those capital projects. The reason why we're proposing to use the ERS reserve to offset the cost of the 26-27 budget is because that is the healthiest reserve that we have right now. We have enough money in that reserve based upon what we're projecting next year's expenses are to be to cover at least year's ERS contribution expenses. So, the way it works is if if we get through next year's budget and we don't need to use the reserve because we had a very good fiscal year, expenses came in lower than we were projecting or revenue came in higher than we were projecting, the money goes back into the reserve and can be used again in the future. We also have an unassigned fund balance
027and statutoriely that has to be kept at 4% of the overall school budget. So right now the balance in that in that in that fund balance reserve is 1.6 million dollars. It's a little bit below the 4% cap and the reason why that is because we appropriated some of that money with the board's support to offset the cost of the underground oil tank removal at Center Avenue. So that reserve is really that fund balance assigned fund balance is really there for the the events that occur on an emergency basis and you really need to tap into you know to a a fund balance to cover those costs. This slide here just shows the history of the of the proposed tax levy increases follows inflation. I think it's a it's a good visual for the community
028to look at. So for 26-27 we're proposing a 2.64% tax cap increase as tax levy increase. You can see the history here. We've been trying to be as fiscally responsible as possible and respectful of the community. This will be the fifth year that district is proposing a tax levy increase that's lower than the tax levy cap for 26-27 the tax levy cap is 2.9 percent. What does that translate into for the average class one residential homeowner? So in East Rockaway the average property here has a tax for assessed value of 409. If you're interested you can go on the Nassau County property look up website and look at what your assessed value is. But if you were an average property in East Rockaway with the proposed budget and tax levy increase you're looking at about
029a $232 annual property tax increase or $19 and 33 cents a month. We put projected tax rates on the left side here. The only caveat I'll give to that is we don't get the finalized uh, numbers to make that calculation. So, there's a there's a calculation that's performed by the uh, Nassau County Assessor's Office between the different classes of properties, class one being residential, two, three, and four being commercial properties, uh, or uh, non-exempt properties. We don't get those final adjusted base proportion numbers until September. So, these estimates here are based upon the current adjusted base proportion. But, it is a good indicator of where we expect um, the uh, the tax levy increase impact is going to be on the average homeowner. And last but not least, um, I just included this for the
030community to look at as well. I just want the community to be aware of a number of tax exemptions that exist uh, that you can apply for through the Nassau County Assessor's Office. Uh, as any property in New York State, there's STAR, basic STAR, and enhanced STAR. Um, so, if you're a homeowner who makes less than $500,000 in income as a as an example, you qualify for basic STAR. If you're a senior citizen over 65 with less than $110,000 in income, you qualify for enhanced STAR. Those are the Those are the exemptions that most are familiar with, but there are a variety of other exemptions that the Board of Education in East Rockaway has supported and approved through resolution over time, so namely the senior citizen, the Cold War veterans, alternative veterans, clergy, volunteer firefighter
031and ambulance worker, and disabled with limited income tax exemptions. So, in New York State, uh, local control for the school boards, school boards have to adopt a resolution to uh, make those tax exemptions current available to the community. Those are all currently available to anyone who qualifies in East Rockaway. And I just wanted to put it on the community's radar. There are three new tax exemptions that are out there that were just passed as changes to real property tax law. Um, there is a new exemption for veterans with a 100% service-connected disability. That is a full exemption of property value, so veterans who are honorably discharged and rated permanently and totally 100% disabled by the Veterans Affairs Department would be eligible for that exemption if the Board of Education was to adopt the resolution. That's
032something we're going to be doing in the future. >> exempt? Fully exempt. Um surviving spouses of police officers, volunteer firefighters, and volunteer ambulance workers is a new exemption uh that is now in property real property tax law. That's an exemption up to 50% of assessed value and is intended to take care of surviving spouses of of those of us that gave their lives in the line of duty. Uh and then the senior citizen tax exemption that I mentioned that is previously that I previously mentioned is available for individuals who qualify in the community. Uh it's currently at up to 50% of assessed value. Uh the change in the law is to expand that up to 65% of assessed value. So um stay tuned. We're going to be talking about that before the board can adopt
033those resolutions. One of the requirements we have is to have a scheduled public hearing on it, and we're looking to do that in the next couple of weeks. And just on the the veterans with the full exemption, is that in line of duty only? The volunteer fireman gets hurt or um you know, in a fire, but he's not not that he's It's so it's So the So the the uh disability has to be from service It has to be connected to the service. So if you're a veteran and you are uh you get discharged and then you get you get disabled after your service, you would not be eligible. So and for the widows of the police, that that's really where I'm going. So that's if they got killed in the line of duty, not
034just age, and now the widow's left and she all sudden has no tax. >> Has to be related to your service. >> Okay. Okay, so So that concludes the budget hearing. So the next um the next event on the budget calendar is our school budget and trustee election, which is on May 19th, 2026. Polls are open at the high school from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. All right, that concludes the questions. No, thank you. Thank you. Good job, Mike. Mike said you'll go over all of those proposed new budget cut uh tax cuts at a future date and just explain them to us. Yes. Okay. >> So, I'll do a chin sore. Yeah. What I'll do is I I'll put together a presentation for the for the board. Um we'll give an opportunity for the
035community to come up and do a formal hearing. Then we decide if Yep. We can structure it however you guys want to. We could either put it on that at night's agenda. We could do it the next agenda. Mhm. And that's next school year. Uh is it like September? So, thank you for bringing that up. So, I actually didn't mention those new exemptions are effective for January 2027. So, we have time to do it. Um however, it has to be the board has to adopt a resolution before probably November time frame so that we can notify the tax assessor's office so it would be eligible so this community can apply for it in January. It would be effective for the 2027-2028 school year. Got it. Other questions? Nope, I thank you guys. All right. Um
036All right, at this time can I have a motion to adjourn this meeting at 6:39 p.m. to go into executive session to discuss contract negotiations. >> Motion. Motion by Mrs. Doyle, second second by Mrs. Salupo, all in favor? Aye. Motion approved. Goodnight, everyone. Goodnight. See you, Jill. Mhm. Goodnight, all.