001Test one, two. Test one, two. Good. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, uh for those of you who are watching virtually and in person, thank you for attending the 2025 2026 Eden Central School District budget hearing. Uh, our plan this evening is to share some information with you regarding the budget and we will accept any questions from those in attendance in person. I'm pleased to introduce Mrs. Frankie May. She's our assistant superintendent for finance and operations. Frankie will be leading the bulk of uh today's presentation, but again, we will be happy to answer any questions uh late uh as we get to the close of this presentation. Mrs. May, take it away. All right. So, a review of tonight's agenda. So, we're going to start with the budget goals that were used in developing the 2526 budget.
002Uh talk about proposition number one, which includes the general fund expenditure budget. Uh broken down by major expense category as well as the three-part budget components uh administrative, program, and capital. look at the revenue side of the budget including the tax levy which makes up proposition number one and then talking about proposition number two which is the use of capital reserves uh to purchase diesel buses, transportation and buildings and grounds equipment. Let me talk about the budget goals that were used in developing the 2526 budget process. um looking at making budgetary decisions that are consistent with long-term financial planning. Continue to keep tax increases to a minimum by staying within the tax cap. Um communicate budgetary needs and decisions to the public throughout the budget process. And lastly, maintaining student programs and class size, which
003has kind of been um the crux of board of education's um goals for uh the development process. So when we look at proposition number one or the general fund expenditure budget, the proposed budget for 2526 is $40,76,769 which is about a $2.4 million increase over the current school year or the 2425 budget uh which equates to a 6.24% increase as compared to the prior year budget. So the budget tonight is presented in what is called the three-part budget. So in the budget newsletter as well as other presentations, these same budget figures have been presented in different formats based on major expense categories. However, the state does require that we use the three-part budget in this format for the budget hearing. Um so the three components that make up a three-part budget include the administrative, the
004program, and the capital. So if we think of our administrative budget as the like our district office, our business office, um curriculum development, our principles um at each of the buildings um as well as our legal expenses and insurance payments. Um program is more of our school instruction, our special education instruction, student services, extracurricular activities, our transportation, and any community services that we do offer. And lastly, the capital component is our uh maintenance and operations or our buildings and grounds department, um judgments and claims, debt service payments, um utility payments that we make. Um so you'll see that the program makes up the bulk of our budget uh with an increase of about 800,000 over the current school year. A majority of that is related to salary and benefits that are uh based on contractual
005obligations. um our capital component uh which is the majority of the increase. If we compare the budget from the current school year to the proposed next school year's budget, um, as we look at that in the next slide broken down by major expense categories, you can see that a bulk of this increase is related to a debt payment that is due next school year, which is offset by revenue, the revenue side. Uh, once we get to that discussion and then the admin component, an increase of about a 100,000. Uh again, this is related to salary and benefit increases based on contractual obligations as well as increases in insurance payments and legal expenses. So if we look at the exact same budget from the previous slide just broken down a little differently based on major expense
006categories um you can see that you know we look at a historical review going back to the 22 23 school year of actual expenditures as well as the adopted expenditures for the current 2425 budget as well as anticipated expenditures for the 2526 budget. So, if we go line by line, salaries estimated increase about 500,000. Um, again, contractual obligations, uh, you'll notice that if you look at the 2324 school year expenditures for salaries, there's a pretty significant increase uh, from 2324 to 2425, that increase was related to the federal stimulus funds for COVID uh, grants that the district received um, federal assistance for learning loss after the pandemic. uh those grants ended at the end of the 2324 school year. So that's why there's such a significant increase in salaries from 2324 to 2425. Equipment small
007decrease um about 4,000 contractual. So this includes our legal expenses, our utility expenses. Um if we bring in the outside vendors for professional development or buildings and grounds u maintenance um vendors, that's all included in contractual. So a decrease of about uh 95,000 in that category. Materials and supplies um an increase of about 25,000. Uh so this is related to you know our student supplies, our teacher supplies, our uh general office supplies as well as you know our family and consumer science food costs. Um so as we all experience at the grocery store or just at a normal store um prices are increasing. So this is a um direct relation to in inflationary factors. So increase of about 25,000 for materials and supplies. Um same thing with tuition. Tuition goes up each year. Uh so
008this is students that are attending um outside placements. Um tuition's increasing about 20,000 from year to year. Bosey's expenses are decreasing about 175,000. So this is not um services that students receive through Boseies but rather um administrative services that the district does um participate with Boseies in. So for example um in the past couple years the district worked with Eerie Tubosies through the central business office to participate in their payroll services. Um in January we did bring that payroll clerk position back inhouse within the business office. So we are discontinuing the use of Erie 2's payroll services which results in a decrease in our Bosey's expenditures. Our benefits of about $440,000 increase. Um so this is our staff benefits for health insurance as well as social security and retirement payments for both the employee retirement
009system and the teacher retirement system which are based upon a percentage of um salaries. So as salaries are increasing our benefit costs are also increasing as a proportion of that debt payments um so an increase of about 1.6 6 million uh which does make up a bulk of the increase of the total expenditures year-toear. Um however, when we look on the revenue side of the house, you'll see that there is an increase in state aid um which does offset this increase in debt uh related to deferred building aid. So essentially when we look at the overall net local share of what our local taxpayers are paying for capital projects um or old capital projects remains unchanged year-to-year because it is offset by the deferred building a payment. And then lastly, transfers. So this is the
010capital outlay. So the small capital project of $100,000 that the district does complete each year and must be completed in the school year. Um and it is located at one school building. So next school year it is um at the GLP. This also includes our uh portion of our school uh food service program as well as our extended school year program for special education students for summer school. Before you go on, I just I just want to mention too to those who are listening when you look at that reduction in in Bosey's aid and you were very specific that this is not about student programming. It doesn't mean we're sending fewer students to Boseies. We we average between 30 and 40% of our students attending uh CTE classes through Boseies and and we're absolutely glad
011to support that. That's actually decisions we've made inhouse to reduce the services and take on the work internally. Um you pointed out the example that um we'll no longer be partnering with the central business office. We we have uh onboarded and are continuing to train someone to handle uh our payroll services. We also have reduced uh the BOSI service through their their uh public relations specialist and we are training and onboarding someone in house to take on more of that work. Um so we actually cut that um cut that cost uh by 50%. So thank you for your work on that. Okay. So when we look at the revenue side of the budget which offsets the expense side of the budget, uh you can see that the state and federal aid is estimated to increase
012about 1.77 million. A large portion of that is related to the deferred building aid which I referenced on the last slide. So that offsets our debt service payment for next school year. So again, the net local share or what our taxpayers are paying for capital projects remains unchanged from year to year. Um other tax items include our payment in lie of tax. Um so projects that are happening throughout the district such as the solar projects. Um they don't they're not on the assessment roles with the town. Instead they pay the district directly um for taxes. So that's a payment in lie of tax. This also includes any interest in penalties. So if someone were to pay their tax bill late, uh they would be subject to interest and penalties by the town and then that
013is remitted back to the school. So again, this line kind of remains unchanged year-toear. Appropriated fund balance um decrease of about 70,000. Um this is kind of in relation to the increase in the use of reserves. So the use of reserves or we're increasing it at about 750,000 from year to year. So as we were going through the budget development process and we were looking at what the budget gap was. Um, so the difference between our revenues and our expenses, the board was very adamant that rather than cutting programs or cutting expenditures or costs related to the district that we would use additional reserves to fill that budget gap um for one year knowing that once uh that money is spent. So similar to a savings account, once that money is spent, it's no longer
014available for future use. Um, so an increased use of reserves for next school year. Uh this also reflects a um increase in real property taxes which we'll talk about on the next slide of about 415,000. Erie County sales tax uh decrease of about 9,000 yeartoyear. So all school districts within Erie County receive a portion of sales tax collection that the county does receive um which is in direct relation to consumer spending. So we are estimating that in the political climate that we are in right now with potential tariffs that consumer spending may be affected uh which would result in a lower um county sales tax distribution to school districts. Miscellaneous revenue um decrease of about 180,000 uh majority of this is related to interest revenue. So uh interest rates are are already starting to come
015down. We are anticipating them to come down even further next school year. So reduction in interest revenue as well as uh we currently uh collect tuition payments from surrounding school districts for students that attend um our special education program here in Eden um but reside in another district. Um so we currently bill for six students uh we are anticipating that number to drop to four. And then lastly inner fund transfers. So the current school year there was about 300,000 budgeted in this line. Uh we don't anticipate any of that happening for next school year. The only time this would really occur would be is if we had a capital project finishing up and we had taken out debt for more than the actual expenditures that we incurred for that capital project. So we do not
016have any capital projects that would complete next school year that we would have any additional funds to contribute back to the general fund as an interfund transfer of revenue. So eliminating that to zero. So when we talk about the pro the proposed tax levy for 2526 um it is amounting to $16,500,419 which is about a45 uh,000 increase over the 2425 tax levby. So when we talk about the tax cap threshold uh New York State adopted legislation which would propose the limit um the increase that uh property taxes could be raised in each uh each school year. Um so although al although the tax cap identifies 2% as the limit, it does have numerous exceptions um to that that would affect the rate. Um the items that affect this rate include um costs related to um
017increases and percentages that districts pay towards retirement. um so our ERS and TRS um as well as costs related to uh previous capital projects as well as the allowable growth factor which is in relation to the assessed property values in a given year uh within a community. So our actual tax uh tax cap calculation for next school year is 2.58%. So the proposed tax levy is raising taxes to the cap at 2.58%. [Music] So on the revenue slide, we talked about increased usage of reserves for next school year. So the breakdown of that 1.9 million in reserves is as follows. Uh workers comp reserve, unemployment reserve as well as our employee retirement system and our teacher retirement system. So offsetting those expenses within the budget. Um and then that middle section you'll see the 1.182
018million that is actually proposition number two. Um, so it is voted on separately from the general fund budget. Um, it is not included in the 1.9 million that is built into the revenue side for the general fund budget, which we will talk about a little bit [Music] later. So what would a contingent budget mean? Um, and what may it look like if that should happen? So if the vote should not pass in May, the board essentially has two options. They could go for a revote in June or they can adopt a contingent budget at that time. if they decide to go for a revote and that vote should go down. Um the district must adopt a contingent budget at that time. So what would a contingent budget look like? It would be no tax in
019or no increase to the levy um from the prior school year. So although the levy itself would remain unchanged, individual tax bills may increase or decrease depending on um the assessed property values across the five towns that make up Eden as well as the classification of property within each of those towns. Um it would eliminate equipment purchases for next school year. So when we talked about uh the expenditures broken down by major expense categories, that expendit or that equipment line would be completely eliminated from the budget. It would eliminate the capital outlay project. So that $100,000 mini capital project that has to occur each year in one building uh which is scheduled to occur at the GLP next school year would not uh would not occur. We would not be allowed to have outside entities
020use our facilities free of charge. We would have to charge them for using the facilities. It would eliminate school bus purchases and it would eliminate any non other any other non-contingent expenditures to reduce our expenditure budget by that 415,000 or the increase in the tax levy. Okay. Okay. So, if we look at proposition number two, um this is the usage of the capital reserve fund um to purchase the following uh one diesel bus, one one diesel wheelchair bus, five diesel full-size buses, cafeteria tables in the middle school and high school, as well as equipment for maintenance at the transportation facility. Um since this is using our district savings account for these purchases, it has no taxpayer impact. Um, so this is that the section we talked about on the reserve the reserve usage slide that
021middle section of the 1,182,000. So if we look at the summary of propositions for ballot, so when you think about when you come to vote on May 20th and you have your ballot, your piece of paper that you're voting yes or no on, each proposition or each line that you're voting yes or no on is considered a proposition. So proposition number one is the general fund expenditure budget in the amount of 40,76,769. It includes all the expenditures that we talked about on the previous slides um as well as which is includes the capital outlay as well as it includes the tax levy increase of 2.58%. Proposition number two or the second line item that you would be voting on includes the use of capital reserve funds for bus purchases, transportation, and buildings and grounds equipment
022in the amount of 1,182,000. And this one, since it's using our savings account to pay for those purchases, has no taxpayer impact. And then lastly, just a reminder that the budget vote and the board of education election is scheduled for next Tuesday, May 20th, from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the middle school high school auditorium foyer. And then any comments or [Music] questions? Anyone? I guess I could say something. I don't know if that screen just see I read the report in the last 45 years that I've been paying school most of the money that I've ever made school taxes county state federal everything that I guess it's fine if you're making plenty of money but you're old and you're on a very extremely limited budget any increase is a big is a big
023I guess I'm all for the school because my boys went here. I vote it down every year, but it passes every like why should we have a vote? Because it's going to pass any. But I guess the bottom line is just $40 million just sounds like an awful lot of money back in the old days when a million dollars was a lot of money. now 40 million school and I know everything's changed with the kind of technology that we need and the kids need to know that but then you have to evaluate you know how all of those advantages affect the society and the kids and everything that is different because seems to getting extremely divisive about it just down the road from me there's no one room schoolhouse down in New Orleans I'm guessing
024the teacher that taught 1 through 12 might have gotten like a lunch pium back in the day and everybody was just fine and everybody learned everything and the world was a fantastic place and you know America's America I don't mind paying my taxes for you know we got aircraft fries and F35s and was born in the space age so it's nice when our tax dollars go big important things but you know to go line by line you know we increase this is always the increase the decrease and I think if you're in the food chain it doesn't really matter that much I know everybody's driving a nice big car watching the economy but it's it is a real challenge for those of us especially career. You know, you don't get paycheck every year. And you
025know, it's not that I'm crying about it. It's just that that really affects my bottom line. What else I guess should I say? I came to hear the budget and I could barely hear you and I know we're back here, but I don't know what's on the screen. I guess I wish you well the budget, but I guarantee it's going to pass. So, I don't even know really why we have a vote, but it hasn't always passed. It's failed twice in the last five years. Yes, it did. Yes, it hasn't always passed. And in the last the last capital project, we had half that fail. Yes. And so, did you go to the contingency in those years? No, it went back for a revote and then it we lowered the rate a certain amount the
026tax. Yeah. Did that mean that you then deleted services in the school? Yes. Self was adjusted football. Yeah. I mean that's always going to happen. Well, I know we all need, you know, highend football fields too. I mean that must be probably still paying for that. [Music] Raiders throw that out there. economic support at school is just the financial industry challenge social security recipients. It's not even paycheck but I am affected. It's the most money that I'm an artist so I don't get a paycheck. I just work real hard, but you know, the school system did get most of the money I've ever made in my life. Any other thing that I support, so it's a biggie. More than state, county, the whole where all the money goes trying to keep my old car. I
027know this got I'm the only one that struggles with the vote. No, only one. Oh, okay. I won't be shy about it. It's just that, but there's people at the top and there's people at the bottom. I guess that's spectrum that, you know, school system really has to address because some kids are not going to get to be the corporate executives. mechanics, the builders, the plumbers, they do all right, too. But not everybody, but I think everybody should be, we all have a voice. I just voice. No, I appreciate that you did. Um, and I I will say that we are and this board is cognizant of of the impact set. I I appreciate that you that you shared in such an honest fashion your your feelings about the budget. I will I will tell
028you that this board has charged me as the superintendent and Mrs. May as the assistant superintendent charge of finance with with coming forth with as low of a tax levy as we can that can also continue to maintain the diverse programs we have in the district. So, we have and and it's written out in the budget newsletter that if you didn't receive it today, hopefully you receive it in the next day or two and there's copies there to your left. Um, we have we have uh programs that are directed towards artists and kids who are interested in diesel mechanics or uh or being an electrician as one of my children are. We also cater to those students who are uh pursuing higher ed after after uh they graduate from high school. And the the real
029challenge in a district our size is to make sure we have the programs that meet all the students needs but we do so in an affordable way. And you know there there's a kind of an adage in my world in superintendent's world that a zip code shouldn't determine the level of education a child receives. It should be fair and equitable to what some of the bigger districts have. And I think we can do that. Maybe we're not as shiny as they are. We have some things that that certainly look great, including the space that we're sitting in. Um, but it's really about focusing on on the diversity of programs to make sure we're meeting those student needs. Would you just say real quickly like the Boseies that go to where does it go to the
030other schools that have the classes or just all that isn't in house. So we we bring back inhouse as much as we can service. So if you have a student with special needs, they learn differently. Um more likely than not there's a spot for them in Eden. Now we do have students that who whose needs are um are so great that we can't meet those needs here. Uh, and that that saddens me, but I don't have a choice. Um, and you're talking about kids who who are who have profound needs, maybe, you know, including physical needs, and they have to be serviced elsewhere. That's where I know you weren't able to see the slide, but our tuition costs have gone up astronomically in the last four or five years. transportation and not transportation are our
031our uh tuition costs where I where I have to pay some another school to service a child with profound needs. I'm going to pay that bill every time because that child deserves an education in a facility that that can support them, right? That family deserves their child to be educated in a facility that can support them. Okay. Um but there's a lot of answers to the question you asked. So, so we do have students that that go to Boseis for career and technical education courses um like HVAC or welding or there's a whole variety of them. Excuse me one second. And and we pay we pay bothies for the for those services. Um the umbrella. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a financial support that we participate. Yeah. And the the whole concept behind Boseis is it's
032a shared service. So I I can't create a welding program here. And I I know this factually because I looked into it three years ago. What would it cost to to um take one of our technology rooms and put in whatever we need, the venting, anything else beyond my understanding? What would that cost be? and how many students could I service because at that time there were no spots at Boseies and we had kids that wanted to learn how to weld that would include the teach and so it's actually more economical to send students out for these specialized programs. When you look at the culinary program at Boseis it's the real deal. You're you're talking commercial grade kitchen and and the whole setup and what they're learning is is way more than we could do
033here. Pardon? East Aurora. No, we don't we don't send students to the East Aurora program. They they are uh by the by Lakeshore High School. It's a carrier program. Carrier. So, one other thing too is over the last 10 years, we as a board, we've been very cognizant of taxes, you know, to the community and we've left $2 million in the taxpayer pockets by not asking like we've kind of gone out to a higher rate. We didn't we chose to stay at a lower level rate and and leave the money in our taxpayer pockets. So $2 million over the last 10 years has been left in the community. Instead of the school saying, "Hey, I can go to 6%, I'm going to 6%." No, we decided to go to 2%. I thought that was a
034cap state. It's a cap, but the cap formula can be as high as 7% some years. You can establish your own cap. No, it's a formula the state gives us. And once you calculate it, it tells you what you go to. And we've chose more often than not not go to the cap and and leave money in the taxpayers pockets. I saw 2% is a little that's all you can go to. But based on the formula like said it could be as high as seven. It could be as low as 01. So it just depends on how the formula plays out for you every year. Well, the I mean the bottom line is we have an incredible school system right anywhere else. That's the beauty that beauty comes across I guess. Well, so pay taxes.
035Here's our biggest challenge right now. Like if you look at at Frontier and some of the neighboring communities around us, how many new rooms do a year an ungodly amount? Um where here which is a tax base with which the tax base now increases and now the tax increase gets spread across everybody. So now if you add 50 new houses in in Hamburg or Frontier, they bought 5%. And the problem is you get your tax bill went down because the tax levy increased in that kind of dispersed where we're lucky we get three or four new books a year in. Well, that's the building job. Well, it's it's that it's lot sizes. It's but I mean you drive down the high school in in Hamburg and saw what they just did in their athletic fields
036and they and you figure out what that costs. Oh is one of the things we looked at it. You know what that cost was more than paid more than 40 million. It was no to put new baseball a baseball field and softball field was over 11 million and we chose not this community does not need that. No. Exactly. But I mean Amber, they've got a lot of spirit change. They're doing all Not necessarily. They started laying teachers off. Yeah, they did. So they ran out of money. Is that what you're saying? Couldn't afford teachers. Well, you got a football field. That's That's the tradeoff, I guess. Bills, I could tell you why. I'm not here. We should sell t-shirts, you know. I'm not from a transplant. I actually so school district at York school district
037and why I came out here in 2007 when my parents moved out here from my sister and husband raised their kids out here who are now moving here with no kids. So that's good. Yeah. But um I came out to take care of my parents who were elderly and ill and I thought well I you know on my shoulders I'll do it and but I just don't see myself staying here. Well 18 years later I'm still Yeah. I love it. I do. And yes I mean I'm retired now for two years but I've been on board for Are you guys all board members? Yeah that's why we're sitting back here. man's been [Music] here. Hallelujah. You said it's a small town for a bottle of champagne. It's a great school district. My sister and kids
038ones are It's a tough balance and we all know Yeah. And also like thing is, you know, it used to be rural, but with internet and technology right now, you could be really anywhere. You're tuned into everything. So that's what we want to give our kids to make sure they have access to everything which is computers or I guess on their phones. So know that's expensive. I tried to save 10 bucks on my my internet today. They came out and they said, "Oh, we're going to give you this new system, but it cost $65." Well, okay. You can't do anything without it. It's your business price. My job went to China. Hallelujah. Trying to get that back. That'd be nice. Do the jobs. All that cheap stuff. I think it's going to cost a lot
039more because everybody, you know, labor is labor. All this money didn't just do money that Originally [Music] was interesting. Well, we appreciate you coming. What's that? You guys, I'll tell you right now, I'm gonna vote somebody's got into the descent, right? [Music] Any other questions? All right. Well, that concludes our budget hearing. I appreciate your attendance. I appreciate your questions and your comments, sir. And I'm I'm glad that you're going to vote. And how you vote is your choice. So, thank you. Absolutely. That's right. I got a vote. Nobody knows what I voted, right?