001[Music] It's been Here's our [Music] Good evening, Elmont community. My name is Pamela Stidz and I'm the principal of Steuart Manor Elementary School. It is my pleasure to welcome Elmont's board of education, Superintendent Small, District and Building Administrators, our dedicated Elmont staff, and all of our comm community members to April's board of education meeting. It's an honor to work in a district that is so committed to the very important work of ensuring that all of our students are learning, thriving, and reaching their highest potential. Before we begin the program, I just would like to point out our emergency exits. In the event that we would need to evacuate the gym, please remain calm and exit through either the door to your front left or your back left and exit through the Steuart Avenue exit. There's
002also an exit to your back right that goes directly to the blacktop area towards the playground. Let's begin with the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. Ready? 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. We are in for a treat tonight. So this evening, we've prepared a presentation for you. Our hope is to entertain you, to also inform you a bit about what our children are learning here in school, and to also to warm your hearts. So, it's my pleasure to turn the program over to our hosts, Steuart Avenue's sixth grade kindness crew. Enjoy the program. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our Stewart's Manor School board meeting where we will focus on Bosy
003positivity, inclusion, and kindness towards others. Hey guys, let's start our evening with a cheer. What a great idea. Look at all these people that came to help make our message clear. Will you help us out? Yeah. Ready? Great. Ready? K. Give me a K. Give me a I. Give me a N. N. Give me a Z. Z. Give me a N. A, give me an E. B, give me an S. S. What does that spell? Kindness. I think we can be lighter than that. What does that spell? Kindness. That's right. Tonight, we celebrate the power of kindness and acceptance through performances by our amazing classmates. Kindness isn't just about saying please and thank you. It's about making everyone feel welcome and included. It's about standing up for others and not judging others for looking or
004acting differently. It's about knowing that everyone belongs and making sure that they're included. It's about loving yourself and your body for who you are. And it's also about asking every Oh, and it's also about asking anyone else if they want the last slice of pizza before grabbing it because you know you really want it. Okay. Okay. Kindness is about a lot of different things and tonight you will see performances that remind us how important kindness and acceptance is. And what better way to kick things off than with our kindness cheer. Ready? Okay. Kindness. Kindness. Let's all share. Show the world we truly care. So bright and a hand. Spread some joy across the land. Kindness. Kindness. Let's all share. Show the world we truly care. So sit back and enjoy this first performance by the
005fabulous prek, kindergarten, and first grade. [Applause] Stand up. Stand up. You have to stand up. [Music] I love my head to my toes. I love my face, my eyes, my mouth, my nose. I love the way I look when I look in the mirror. I stand a little closer just to see a little clearer who is [Music] that can be [Music] so I love you every day [Music] I Love my body from my head to my toes. I love my face. My eyes went off my nose. I love the way I look when I look in the mirror. I stand a little closer just to see a littleer. I hope [Music] you love. It is true. So what do we say? We tell ourselves we love us every day. So what do we say? We
006tell ourselves we love us every day. [Applause] From my head to my toes. I love my body from my eyes, my mouth, my nose. I love my body. When I look in the mirror, I stand a little closer just to see a little clearer. So, what do we say? We tell ourselves we love us every day. [Applause] I love that song. Me too. Me three. Me four. Me five. Me six. I know. Do you love that song, too? [Applause] [Music] No. Wow, what a marvelous and kind performance. Make sure you look in the mirror and say, "I love you every day." Well, now let's make this performance extra kind with a performance by our wonderful by our wonderful Steuart Manor second graders. This song will show us that kindness should be spread all over our
007wonderful country. [Music] United States from 13 original colonies. 15 nifty stars in the flag that below in the breeze. Each individual state contributes equality that is great. Each individual state deserves a bow. We salute them now. Nifty nifty United States from 13 original colonies. Shout them, scout them, tell all about them one by one till we've given a day to every state in the USA, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, [Applause] Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyom, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
008Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyom, Norththeast, [Music] West United States, 13 original, SC to every state in the good [Applause] You take the bow. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Another wonderful performance. Let's remember to keep spreading kindness wherever we go. We hope you enjoyed our night dedicated on kindness and acceptance. It's so important that kids today feel good about themselves and feel like they belong. The best way to treat others is just to be kind. On that note, we leave you with a final cheer. Ready? Okay. Kindness. Kindness. Now we say thanks for joining us today. Our hearts bright.
009Spread the love. Good night. Good night. you're going to lead them out. What an amazingly adorable and informative program. Thank you to our students and also thank you to our preK through 2 grade teachers, our teacher aids, as well as Mr. Diccastro and Mini for their hard work in helping prepare the students for this performance. We hope that you enjoyed it. Excellent job. One more round of applause. Parents, please wait until the students have exited the gymnasium. Once they've exited, you can also exit and meet them in the cafeteria for dismissal. Thank you and have a good evening. For those of you who would like to stay for the board of education meeting, you're please you're very welcome to uh for those of you who feel like your little ones need to go to bed,
010you're welcome to also take go ahead uh home. So, thank you. [Applause] May I have a motion to approve the the minutes of the regular meeting of March 11th, 2025? Oh, can we not do a video while we're holding a public meeting? Excuse me. Hi. Can we Can you step outside, please? Thank you. Thank you so much. I like your dance moves. All right. I'll state again. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of March 11th? Thank you, Mr. Palmer. May I have a second? Thank you, Mr. Ramos. All in favor? Thank you, Dr. Battle Perquette. Thank you. One abstension and motion carries. Dr. Battle Perquette. Do we have any correspondence? Yes, we have correspondence. The board has received it for your consideration. Thank you. All right, moving right
011along. Good evening, parents, staff, and students. Thank you for joining us tonight, whether you joined us in person or virtually. Last month, you will recall we celebrated our Alden Terrace students. Tonight, we are delighted to also celebrate our Steuart Manor and our English language learner students. We are also kneedeep into budget season, so tonight you'll hear a budget presentation. Please don't forget to vote Tuesday, May 20th. Polls are open 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. And finally, I want to encourage you to all of you to check your building schedules for our spring concerts and make sure you get the opportunity to see our beautiful scholars in their performances. Thank you. Can I have the report of the Swanica Central High School District, Mr. Palmer? No. No. Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh and happy April to
012everyone. It's been an exciting season of achievement across our Swanica High School district. At Alma Memorial, we're proud to share that our science research team had several LISF round two winners. and AFIA is heading to nationals. Our art students were featured at Gallery 77 and we host hosted a vibrant science expo. Our key club attended the state convention in Albany where Miss Justin was named the top key club adviser in New York State. We also uplifted students voices and career exploration through alumni panels, resume workshops, and an H.B.CU college panel moderated by Dr. Cox. Be sure to join us this Friday, April 11th, for the Elmont Memorial High School PTSA Supermarket Game Night fundraiser, which proceeds go to support scholarships for the class of 2025. Uh Sheldon, you're moderating that? Are you moderating that this
013year? No. Yes. Actually, I'm not moderating. MC MCing. I mced that event once. Yeah, I was never invited back. I don't understand why. So, it might have been the bad jokes. Okay, it's going to be it's going to be a whole vibe. I don't know what that means. While over at Sonica, students shine shined in every corner from robotics winning the inspired award inspire award and qualifying for the world championships to the district-wide science showcase and student talent on display at Swanica Folly's. Our artists, performers, and scholars continue to lead with passion and pride. As we enter this new month, we wish continued success to all our students and staff. And as many and as many in our community observe Ramadan, Passover, and Easter, we send a we send warm wishes for peace, reflection, and
014renewal. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Are there any audience members who would like to speak on agenda items only? We ask that you limit your comments to three minutes and refrain from using any staff members names. Whether the comment is positive or not, we would ask that you first contact your building administration uh before coming to the microphone of the board meeting. All right. Now, I'll turn the meeting over to Mrs. Small for our report of the superintendent. Thank you, Mrs. Capers. Good afternoon or good evening everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Um, as Mrs. Capers indicated, um, we had the opportunity in March to celebrate our students uh, at Alden Terrace for their their efforts and accomplishments in the LEGO U Robotics Competition. And we do have another opportunity to celebrate
015our wonderful scholars here at Stuart Manor. And with that said, I would like to introduce once again Mrs. Stitz to recognize our students. Thank you. Thank you. So, the first Lego um Lego League Challenge is a global robotics competition for elementary and middle school students. In preparation for this competition, our Elmont teams designed and programmed Lego robots. They also participated in an innovation project where they researched and presented information on a specific topic. Participating in this Lego League challenge provides our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade robotics club students a valuable realworld problem solving experience. It helps them develop coding and design skills while also building teamwork and presentation skills. Our Elmont robotics team had the opportunity to compete in the first Lego League Challenge on Saturday, January 25th at Minola High School. And I'm proud
016to announce that Steuart Manor School won second place in the robot performance category. They also qualified to move on to the championship round in Hicksville on Sunday, March 9th. At this competition, the Steuart Manor LEGO Robotics Team won the Excellence in Engineering Award. This award recognizes a team with an efficiently designed robot, an innovative project solution, and a team that exhibits core values in all they do. What a well-rounded award for our team to win. Outstanding job. And most recently, our robotics team was invited to participate in the American Robotics Open Championship, which offers postseason competition opportunities to high-erforming First LEGO League robotics teams. They will compete in this championship event on Sunday, May 18th in New Jersey. So, it is my honor to recognize the Steuart Manor LEGO Robotics team. Team members, please stand
017up when you hear your name and remain standing. Our robotics team includes Tristan Canedo, Kimberly, Kimberly Matthews, Kaden Ye, Alex Serretis, Billy Madigan, Audrey Spiegel, Silano Tini, Athena Jensen, and Annayia Amir. And of course, all of this could not be possible without our LEGO Robotics team adviserss, Mr. James Restano and Miss Parine Rampal. Please stand up. I'm looking for the two of them. We are very proud of each and every one of them. Congratulations and good [Applause] luck. Thank you, Mrs. Tides, and congratulations to our students. We are so very proud of you. We would like to present uh do a presentation to the board of education and our community on our NISLAD Academy that ended on March uh 29th. Uh we have the principal of the NISL Academy uh Mrs. Rita Johnson who will
018give us an overview of the program and the supports we've provided to our students funded by our budget. So, we would like to give the board an update on that wonderful program and the opportunities that were provided to not only our students to but to our parents as well. Mrs. Johnson, thank you. [Music] Do you guys want to budget? Good evening, Elman community. Good evening to the board of education and Mr. Cavalier and Mr. Small. Thank you for this opportunity. I am Mrs. Johnson. I was I serve as the principal of the night academy and I'm going to give you just a overview of what we did during the program. Okay. So, I'm going to walk you through to the screening process that children go through uh to enter the program registration. All families have
019to complete a home language questionnaire. Then there's a screening process. HLQ based on the HLQ answers an individual interview is conducted to determine the students English language skills and then if the teacher deemed that is necessary she will make an assessment is called nicotel the outcomes the results determine if student qualify for ENL services and the level of support they require. Then we invite our parents to our orientation to tell them about the program and tell them how to support their their child's education. Funding is title one grant, title three, I'm sorry, title three grant provided to schools to ensure multilingual learners attain English language skills and develop high levels of academic achievement. Enrollment. We have 533 students in our program and they comprise 16% of Elma's total enrollment of 300 3,414 students. Our ENL
020scholars are very diverse. They speak 28 languages. As you could see, Spanish is the most spoken. 54% of our students speak Spanish. Elman as a new language ENL standalone program gives them 360 minutes of ENL services with an a certified ENL teacher. So the entering and emerging students get the same amount. Then we have 180 minutes. Transitioning and expanding students get 181 minutes. And then commanding students get 90 minutes. Commanding is when they become proficient when they test out. This is that's the goal of the proba to test out the children and but the state recognizes that they still need need support. So they get 90 minutes a week either with the classroom teacher in small groupoup instruction or tier 2 with a AIS teacher. The ENL program provides scaffolded instruction led by a certifi
021certified ENL teacher in a small group in a small group setting to make contact accessible to multilingual learners. We use the native language to leverage native language skills and to transfer language skills to English skill development. We focus on speaking, listening, reading, and writing. And we prepare them to meet the standards and thrive in an English-speaking environment. Now, I'm going to speak to you about the NISAD Academy. We had 203 multilingual learners and we grouped them by proficiency level. We had 35 members from all six buildings, some bilingual. The program duration was four weeks and they were there for two hours and 75 minute and 45 minutes each Saturday. The program itself has been um around for over 12 years but this current format has been four years and I've been working the program the
022last four years. One of the components that we added to the program was family engagement. We had a workshop. 80 plus parents and guardians participated in a workshop to learn strategies for supporting language acquisition at home. We gave them a lot of tools so they're able to sit down with their kids and practice English language skills. Now the next slide we'll talk we talk about academic enhancements. Okay. So we proposing theme days provide bag breakfast participation incentives for students and for parents parent support groups job readiness skills and understanding the school system. So now the nice slide academy is upon us. I'm sorry the nat is upon us. It starts April 21st to May 21st, I mean to May 23rd and is administered one- on-one in a small group setting. We assess speaking skills, reading,
023re writing and listening skills and the results are given to us by the state in the summer and it will determine the ENL services for the next school year. Now we are going to give you a little overview of the program. Highlight video. This book this video was created by our technical assistant Parvine Rampales. [Music] for [Music] hey, I need you and you need me to make up this community. It won't work without my friends. So, let's all come together. Together, we're stronger. We got to remember we're one. When love at the center, we can come together. Hey. Oh. Hey. I will listen to your words. I'll forgive when I get hurt. I'll pick you up when you fall down. So, let's all come together. We're stronger. We got to remember we want the sensor.
024We can come together. Hey. Oh. Hey. [Music] Everyone lost in this community. the same as one. Let's all come together. We're stronger. We got to remember we won. We love the center. We can come [Music] together. Together we're stronger. We got to remember we want the sensor. We can come together. Hey. Together. Hey. Together. We can come together. I just want to acknowledge Mrs. Waffle for helping with the program, for their support and guidance, and again, thank you to the board of education and Mr. Small, Mr. Cavalier for this opportunity. Thank [Applause] you, sir. Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh I have the pleasure this afternoon or this evening of presenting our budget. This is the second public presentation of the budget. Uh the board will be asked tonight um or I am recommending to the
025board for its adoption. Before we get started, I want to thank Mrs. Stitus and our scholars for the wonderful uh welcoming and performance. So, it seems like we're at the concerts. We want to thank you and thank you for your leadership. So, we really do appreciate it. So, thank you. Also want to thank Mrs. Johnson for her leadership um at the Saturday um enrichment program or the ENL Academy for our students. It is fitting that we are doing a budget presentation because the wonderful things that we're able to do on Saturdays, whether it's the enrichment program that we did and highlighted in March or the the ENL Academy that we do to support our second language learners, it is all funded through our budgets. And as we said at the last time that our budgets
026are not just a a document with facts and figures with um revenues and expenses, but we do believe that our budget is a statement of our priorities. It's a statement of our what are the things that we value. And so when we are able to come into our buildings and see the wonderful performances of our students and we see the programs that we provide to our students on the weekends, we see that the budget is geared and centered around enriching and strengthening the programs we provide to our students each day. The last time when we met in March on March uh uh 11th, we spoke about the budget development uh process. We spoke about our goals and priorities in the budget. We also spoke about the three-part component of a budget which is required by
027law which is the administrative component. The programmatic component which is the largest section of the budget that deals with things having to do with instruction and then we spoke about the capital component as well. Then we also spoke about how we intend to pay um um for for the um for that budget through state revenues, local revenues and our tax levy. And we also gave the board and our community an overview or a comparison between what Elmont is proposing and what our neighbors in the the county of Nassau is also doing. Tonight I will do the same as the board uh uh will be asked to adopt a budget which is required to be adopted in April so we can have our budget hearing in May uh at the next board meeting and then therefore
028the voters could vote on on March on May 20th. Tonight again we will go over what are the priorities for student to support student um learning and our um district operations. We will show an historical tax levy information to track and show our community and the board that we've been fiscally responsible in terms of how we've conducted or we've we've done levy increases over the last 10 years. We will talk about the tax cap levy for this financial year and then we will also give uh the board uh an overview of some of the fiscal challenges that we've seen as a result of mandated expenses. Right? namely in special education, health insurance, pension expenses, charter school tuition, and um debt servicing. And then we will um have the board look at the the the the
029budget components, both the the administrative, programmatic, and capital. Look at all of those in a different way of cost segment. So you can see how increases are happening. And then we'll ask the board um to adopt that budget and we'll have our next steps in terms of meeting with our community members and our civic organizations and our PTAs in terms of making sure our community is aware of what the board the board has adopted and then thank So what are some of the priorities that we have? Uh we want to continue all the excellent educational programs and services that we offer to our students. One of the things that we have in this budget is to establish a full um to establish full-time teaching positions for positions that we now call literacy teachers and they
030are used to cover subs. And if you were at the last board meeting, we spoke about the fact that these positions have become um a rotating uh situation where these teachers leave on a regular basis because they're not probationary positions and therefore they leave our district to go to other districts where they're offered offered probationary positions. We do believe that we have invested a significant amount of training into these teachers only to have them leave to go and and and and provide um services and have other districts benefit from from from the the training and support we've provided them. So, we want to stabilize those positions by making them into probate probationary positions. We're beginning to have conversations with our administrators or principles to talk about what those positions will look like in the future.
031We also want to establish a district-wide leadership position for our English language learners. As you saw in the presentation from from Mrs. Johnson, our ELLL students, our English language learners account for 16% of our student population. and we have not had a coordinator, a leader, a director that coordinates how those services are provided to our students. And so we want to make sure that as this growing population continues to grow, we have consistent leadership that will coordinate how we provide services from building to building, how we provide our teachers with the right professional development to make sure we're meeting the needs of our students. And so we believe that this is essential to make sure we're providing the best educational services for our students. We want to also adopt a new science curriculum um for
032our for for our students. We have created this school year a teaching and learning committee that is chaired by our interim director of curriculum and instruction. And we have teachers, administrators, um, part of this committee and we have been reviewing science uh, materials because what we want to do is to make sure we're giving our kids hands-on learning experience um, in science. We don't want them to just read about science. We want them to do science because we know students learn more when they're actively engaged in that learning process. Uh, we're hoping I think last Friday we had our last presentation. The committee is now reviewing the presentations and the materials they've gotten from the four vendors and now we will make uh we will hope to make a decision soon. We also uh want
033to provide our students um not only academic opportunities but opportunities in the arts, right? We want to make sure so we want to give them opportunities in the arts. So we are launching or we hope to launch a theater program across all six um um schools that will culminate at some point with um a a theater production um for our students. We have started and we want to continue to implement a telephone translation service uh as we talk about 16% of our students being English language learners. We have a growing diverse population of students and if our students population is diverse linguistically. We know that our parents also uh is diverse linguistically and we believe that the opportunity to speak to our parents and to engage our parents is essential and the phone um translation
034service allows us to do that when phone calls have to be made to our second language learners. In terms of our reading intervention programs, we are we are we are are intending to purchase additional reading um resource supports for our classroom teachers and the budget will support that and expanding staff and support services for our special education students. Uh as we go through the slides, we will show you that over the last few years, you will see a continuous increases in our students who've been identified with um um um uh um our special needs students. And so you'll see that population continues to increase. And so we expanding programs to better support our students in district. It is it is more cost effective to educate our students in district than to send them to Boseies
035and to other programs. And our goal is to keep more our students in the district being educated by our students being educated with their siblings and neighbors. And so you will see where some of the expans expansion um takes place. Part of the budget will also fund principal and interest payments for a bond issue. The the community supported a bond uh referendum um of over $52 million and those that loan has to be repaid and and and and I think so far over $40 million have been drawn down um to to fund the capital project. Over the last few um two meetings ago, we had an update from our construction managers that show the work that's going on. So, we are repaying the debt. I think over a million dollars additionally going towards paying the
036principal and interest. We have additional funds for utilities and the HVAC system, building and grounds, um equipments and school cafeteria tables. the H the HVAC system. It is important to note that as part of the bond project, we are now moving to having ACs in our buildings, right? And to have heating and and the air conditioning unit now will be electrical. So, one of the things that we will see will be as will be a a a transition from oil into electricity. And so while we will spend less on oil um um for heating, we will see increases in electricity for for running that system. And even when we are not in the winter months, in the summer months, that system is continually going to um take out the air of the system, recirculate it,
037and bring it back in to clean the air that our our staff and students are breathing. So we are we will be monitoring that to see where the increase is happening but we will most likely see a spike in our electrical bill. We are upgrading our bus routing software. Okay. We have transfinder. Now what we want to do is have the have the the the most updated uh uh routing system that will help our transportation department to make sure as we are scheduling bus routes in the fall we have the most updated system. And another thing that we are going to do is to track all of our buses. So, for example, we had um earlier this week a bus that was broken down in one of the highways around here and the driver had
038um we were trying to figure out where the bus is and we're like if we had GPS, we we'll be able to figure out where the bus is, right? So, one of the things that we're doing is we'll be putting GPS on all our buses so we could track where our buses are. It will make the transportation department more efficient. It is safer for students and staff because we'll be able to pinpoint where each bus is at any given point. And so when we get a call that a bus is broken down anywhere, we'll be able to pinpoint where that bus is. Okay? But also, it will be able to to let our parents know that we know where our students are at all times. That will lend to more efficiency in the transportation department
039as we have a better routing system and we're better able to track where our buses are. And those are some of the things that this budget will undertake to go forward. We are doing an integrated management system software for instruction. We are a teaching and learning institution and to have information data about our teaching and learning about how our students are doing will make our teachers better prepared to meet the needs of our students. And so this year we started this process of adopting uh a program called data mate and we're going to continue to do so to enable our teachers to have data on our students at their fingertips so that they can make real time instructional decisions about what they need to change to meet the needs of our learners. And those are
040some of the things that the budget will support. And that we are also trying to upgrade our software in terms of how we we we track employees uh absences and also how we evaluate our um our employees. We're trying to make sure we have a software that will help us to do so. So we are we're implementing some technological advances and the budget will support um those initiatives. What we have here is our tax levy increase over the last 10 years in comparison to our neighbors in Nasawa County. On the left, that's Elmont. You will see that 2015 2016 up to 2425, the 2425 school year. We've had an average of 0.6% increase in our levy. We've been very prudent. We've been very fiscally uh responsible in the terms of how we have levied our
041taxes on our community. And then you can see on the right for Nassau County as a whole that as a whole over the last 10 years, the county average is 1.6% increase. However, as we are holding steady on our levy increase, right, we are seeing additional increases in expenses. So for this budget, you will see that the tax levy, the allowable tax levy increase for Nasawa County on average is 2.8% increase. That's what the the allow the allowable tax levy increase for Nassau County is for Elmont because um of all the other um exemptions that we have, ours is 5.6%. However, Nassau County on average districts are asking for a 2.6% increase in their budget. Element is asking for 2.5. So again, what we're asking for is below the average of Nassau County. Even though
042when we calculate what our allowable tax levy should be, the law allows us to go up to 5.6 six without piercing um the tax gap, without asking for over 60% of the voters to approve it. Right? We can go up to 5.6, but in our effort to continue to be responsible financially, we're doing we're asking for a 2.5 levy increase. as we have maintained a low tax levy increase over the last 10 years including the the the year that we're asking for right we have seen an average of less than 1% increase we have also seen fiscal challenges from mandated costs as we've gone forward we mentioned special education we don't have a lot of leeway when the cse recommends services and programs for our students those are mandated costs that we must we must
043honor those recommendations health insurance and pensions. Those are mandated costs that we must honor. And the same thing over the last few years, one of the things that we have seen is an incremental increase in the number of students that we have who are going to charter schools and the amount of money it cost the district for those charter students. And so we'll go over those as we go forward. The budget increase for this school year budget to budget from this year to next year is proposed to be 5.1% um over the current budget. However, mandated increases account for 4.1% of that budget and the other uh increases account for 1%. So the things that we have no control over are accounting for 4.1% of the budgetary increases and the things that we have control
044over account for 1%. So special education if you look over the last 10 years from 20145 through 2425 you will see that in 24 in in 20145 our our special special education budget in the budget cost $13 million. this current year that budget um the budget accounts for $22 million or $22.7 million of the current budget that is dedicated toward special education. So you could see that over the last uh few years that the budget for special education has been steadily increasing. If you look at um the 202021 school year 2122 through 2425, you will see that's where the dramatic increases have been going on, right? And there's a a slew of reasons behind why those increases are happening. could be we have COVID, we have students who have had more social emotional challenges, we
045had students who are on remote learning and those things, those things have impacted um students um um response to interventions and response to learning and therefore you could see where the dramatic increases in our special education budget has taken place in terms of the identified students with disabilities in our of our population. You could see that again in 201920 we had roughly 11% of our students who were were classified as students with disabilities and five years later right 2425 we have 18%. So that has been a dramatic increase from 201920 to 2425 where we've gone from 11% to over 18% of our students and that uh puts an additional cost on the budget each year. Health insurance uh 20145 7 uh 7.7 million um in the budget to 2425 it is now um uh 13.6
0466% of the budget almost doubled in terms of health insurance cost over the last 10 years. Our budgetary allocations for health insurance has doubled approximately in 10 years. pension trends over the last 10 years. You could see that in 20145 um right in terms of million eight millions in p 8 million in pension then we saw a decline in pension rates and then we are now going um from last year um the pension um cost was $5.3 million and to this year pension cost is $6.4 million which is a million dollar increase. So that is also seeing increases um over the last year. Charter schools, I wanted to bring this to the board's um attention because 2014-15 um $146,000 going towards charter school. Um this this year we have over $800,000 going toward charter schools,
047right? Um I think we have approximately 50 students who are um attending charter schools. One of the things that we've been doing, we've been doing residency checks to make sure that these students are indeed our students because students do move. So we are trying to make sure that before we pay a dime to the charter schools. We have verified that those students are indeed our residents. So, we've asked and we continue to ask that all charter school students register with the district so that we can do residency checks to make sure that when we are invoiced by the charter schools, we can make sure we are we are certified that the students we're paying for are indeed residents of our school district. And then debt trends. Uh as I said that the district has uh
048taken out a loan a bond um to to renovate and improve our learning spaces for students and teachers and that debt has to be repaid. Okay. So for 23 24 school year that debt payment was $1 million. For 2425 that debt payments was $2.4 million. And for this upcoming year, we anticipate paying more. So those are things that we take out a loan, we have to pay it back. And so you will see that that um is an increase in our budget. We anticipate in the future getting building aid back um hopefully next year. And that will help to um offset some of the expenses that we're currently doing to ser to service the debt that we've incurred to improve our buildings and to improve the teaching and learning environment for our students and teachers.
049So as I mentioned before that we are seeing a $5.6 6 million increase in terms of budget to budget which is 5.1%. Of that $5.6 million increase, mandated costs, special education, medical insurance, pensions benefits, um social security, principal, charter school account for 4.7%. And all other budgetary items account for $1 million. Okay? And so the the the vast majority of the increases in this year's proposed budget are coming from mandated increases. This is just another way of looking at the three-part components of the budget that we presented the last time. Remember we had administrative, we had programmatic and we have capital. Some of these lines fall both in administrative and programmatic. So you will see for example salary and wages go going from 59 to $61 million or 3.5% increase. All right. And so this
050is another way of just looking at the three-part components of the budget to make sure that you could see where most of some of the expenses and increases are taking place. Uh you will see for utilities and contractual going up um 12%. So these are different ways of looking of the three-part component that was presented on uh March 11th. How will we pay or we are proposing to pay for the budget that we are presenting? We are proposing to pay because we have state aid an increase in state aid of $4 million or 10% over what we received um um this current year. So, uh, uh, the foundation aid will be $42 million up from $38 million. Our local property, our local, uh, revenues that's not levy connected um, will be $3.4 million of the
051proposed revenues to fund the budget. And our tax levy will be $59 million, which will be a 2.5% increase. And then we have pilots that are fund uh, payments. we get from the state for people who u for pilot agreements that will one be 1.3 and then we have our um appropriate fund balance that is rolled over. Okay. In terms of uh a chart to show how um the uh the the the the estimated revenues, you will see that property tax accounts for 57% of the budget and state funding accounts for 40% of the budget. Right? So, and then 3% as local revenue such as interest such as the Belmont Park agreement. all of those different um local revenue streams account for 3%. One of the things that I pointed out in March is the
052fact that as a district because we get 40% of our budgetary allocations from the state, it means that we are more subject we are more um uh we are at the mercy of what goes on in Albany and what goes on in Washington, right? because we're asking for 40% we rely on the state for 40% of the funding for our budget which means that whatever happens in in in in Washington and Albany um will impact what goes on in Elmont. Um and so um on Friday I was uh I think superintendents in Nosa County and myself I'm going to a meeting with Congresswoman uh Laura uh Laura Gillum uh she's invited superintendents to talk about what do we need from the federal government and how what's going on how can they help the supporters and
053what we need is stability and consistent funding to make sure that if funding is decreased where will we go because we're depending for 40% of the budgetary allocation from the state. Okay. So, where do we go tonight? Tonight, we're asking the board to approve the proposed budget and we're after the board approves that budget, we will start the process of informing the community through the budgetary brochure that will be distributed to the public and then we will start having public consultations and discussion with our PTAs and civic organizations. Uh we are scheduled to have a hearing on May 13th and we invite our community to participate in the vote on May 20th. With that said, I thank you. I want to thank members of our board of education for your support and leadership um and
054uh uh as we continue to provide our our students and staff with the best educational opportunities possible. I want to thank Mr. Galante and our administrative staff who have been instrumental in the work that we've done to put forward a budget that we feel is fiscally responsible and will continue to maintain the services and programs we we offer to our students. So, a big thank you to our principles, to Mr. Cavaleri, Dr. Leande, and all the administrators who've helped to to fashion and develop the budget that we're presenting. Thank you. questions, comments or concerns to the slide on the estimated revenues. Estimated revenues. Yeah, there we are. Yes. Yes. Mr. Galante, you would have a better history of that than I do. Say that again. Now I pay some of those coming. No. What that
055is is LIFA is the primary model of those pilots. We have three other pilot properties out through the town of Hempstead as well as the county, but those other pilots are small. Lipa is the big one. they've been going for tax or shuery type things to try and reduce what they're obligated to pay. And then the other factor is our proportion, the elementary district's proportion of the total school levy continues to decline somewhat when you take our proportion and add swanica to it. And we do take those lipopilots and allocate a portion to Swanica. So when let's say let's just say last year let's just say we're 50% no let's say we're 48% and they're 52 and let's say then goes to we're 47 and 53. They're picking up a little bit more. So if
056you were to look at the slides at Sonica, you might see the pilots's actually going up a little bit, but we're going down a little bit from that factor. Thank you. Yes, Miss W. I have a question in regards to the charter school. Yes. Does that include the private schools such as us providing buses or is it No, charter schools. That is just tuition that we pay for students who are residents of the district and their parents have opted to send them to charter schools. And what we have seen, I think right now we have 50 students and we are in the process one of making sure they're all registered because typically what happens is we get an invoice from the charter schools and says these students are Elmont residents and they're attending our school.
057So we have um asked all those parents to register. Um, we've consulted with the Eagle Council that we'd like to notify the charter schools that we're requiring those students to register so we know who they are. Some are students that we know of and some we don't know of. And then Mr. Darlo and our residency officers are now going home to home to check to make sure they're all our students. I think we've found one or two already that do not live in our district. So, we are trying to make sure that we are covering uh before we write before we write a check, we're making sure we can certify that that they're in our districts. Okay. Yes. The 2.5% increase, what does that look like for the average homeowner or individual? an increase of
058how much follow from memory because I my laptop is being repaired right now but I believe it was right around $100 a year for the average homeowner and hopefully we can get that information when we do the budget hearing in May have that information. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a note of that. Any other questions, comments, or concerns? Okay. Thank you. All right. Now, we'll get into the action items of the agenda. Thank you. I think you're Yes, ma'am. [Applause] Are you ready? We're going to speed through this. Yes. All right. We do it. Okay. I seek a motion to approve item 5.1, professional per legal. Oh, we want to do that. Legal. All right. So, we'll now have a report from our attorney, Miss Candace Gomez. Thank you, President Capers. Uh, the first resolution
059for the board's consideration this evening is as follows. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby ratifies and approves a memorandum of agreement with the teacher aids association regarding summer school rates. Do we have a motion? Moved by Miss Caper, second by Dr. Battle Berquette. Uh all in favor. I opposed. Abstensions approved unanimously. Thank you. [Applause] The next resolution for the board's consideration is whereas the board of education of the Elmont Union Free School District has the legal authority to direct an employee to undergo a medical examination pursuant to education law section 913 to determine the employees capacity to perform their duties. And whereas the district employs two administrators whose ability to carry out their duties has been called into question. Whereas it is incumbent on the district to take action to confirm whether
060the administrators have the capacity to perform their job duties. Now therefore be it resolved, the board of education hereby directs the administrators at issue whose names are known to the board of education but are being intentionally withheld from this public resolution to submit two examinations by a physician selected by the district to determine their capacity to perform their duties at a time uh to be determined and be it further resolved upon reaching a conclusion on the administrator's capacity. The physician will prepare and submit a report to the district that will be considered by the board of education. Do we have a motion? Moved. Moved by President Capers. Is there a second? Second. Second by Dr. Battle Bquette. All in favor? I opposed abstensions approved unanimously. That concludes my report. Thank you, President Capers. Thank you.
061All right. All right. Thank you. All right. So, I seek a motion to approve item 5.1, professional personnel items A through D. May I have a motion to approve item 5.1, professional personnel items A through D? Thank you, Miss Wong. Second. Second. Second. Thank you, Miss Battle. All in favor? I. Thank you. And yes, Dr. Battle Porquette abstain. Thank you. Motion carries. I seek a motion to approve items 5.2, civil service personnel items A through D. May I have a motion to approve item 5.2, civil service personnel items A through D? Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. Thank you, Mr. Ramos. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you. I seek a motion to approve item 6.1, academic enrichment summer school programs, item one, item A through H. I don't have that one. Can I have
062it? May I have a motion to approve item 6.1, academic enrichment, items A through H? Thank you, Miss Wong. Second. Move. Oh, second. Move. Thank you, Miss Battle. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you. I seek a motion to approve item 6.2, extended school year program, items A through C. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve uh item 6.2, extended school year program A through C. Move. Thank you, Mr. Ramos. Second. Thank you, Miss Wong. All in favor? I. Motion carries. I seek a motion to approve item 6.3, curriculum mapping item A. Uh, may I have a motion to approve item 6.3, curriculum map mapping curriculum mapping item A? Move. Thank you, Miss Battle. Second, Mr. Ramos. Thank you. All in favor? Motion carries. I seek a motion to receive um agenda item
0637.1, the committee on special education, the committee on preschool special education, and section 504 committee recommendations. I have a motion to approve 7.1 Committee on Special Education, Committee on Preschool Education, and Section 504, Committee Recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Ramos. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Motion to receive. Motion to receive. Yes. Thank you. Oh, thank you for that correction, Dr. Ba. Motion to receive. All in favor? I. Thank you. Motion carries. I seek a motion to approve of business items 8.1 through 8.3. May I have a motion to approve business items 8.1 through 8.3? [Music] Thank you, Miss Wong. Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Ramos. All in favor? I. Motion carries. I seek a motion to adopt the 2025 2026 budget. I have a motion to adopt item 8.4,
064the 2025 budget. 20252026 budget. Excuse me. Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Second. Thank you, Miss Wong. All in favor? [Music] I. Motion carries. Thank you. I seek a motion to adopt the fiscal year 2025 2026 property tax report card. May I have a motion to adopt item 8.5, the fiscal year 2526 tax report card? Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. Thank you, Mr. Palmer. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you. I seek a motion to approve item 8.6, related services contract. I have a motion to approve item 8.6, related services contract. I have a motion. Thank you, Miss Wong. Second. Second. Thank you, Miss Battle. All in favor? Motion carries. Any absention? No. No obstensions. Thank you. 8.6. Motion carries. A motion uh is approved. Excuse me. I seek a motion to approve item 8.7, the
065custodial unit MOA. May I have a motion to approve item 8.7, custodial unit MOA? I have a motion. Thank you, Miss Battle. Second. Thank you, Miss Wong. All in favor? I Dr. Battle Perquette abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 8.5 A through M are noted for the board minutes. 8.8 8.8 Yes. 8.8 8.8. So noted for the minutes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. This concludes my report, Madam President. All right. Do we have any committee reports or anyformational items? Do we have any old business? Any new business? Uh, new business if I may. Uh, so two acknowledgements. I just want to definitely acknowledge the Steuart Manor Stallions for their beautiful uh, gifts to the board, the picture frame and the folder and the, uh, plant. We didn't get to do that before they left.
066Majority kids. And then also uh April fourth, let's see, fourth Tuesday in April is National School Bus Drivers Appreciation Day. So I wanted to say a couple of words. Our school bus operators and matrons ensure student safety uh to and from school. Our role models uh and promote respectful respectable behavior. uh our school bus drivers and matrons play a multiaceted role that goes beyond mere transportation uh being a consistent face in the morning when the kids get picked up and in the afternoon when they get dropped off. So I just want to recognize them and appreciate them. Thank you. [Applause] other uh new visitors. I just want to remind all our parents both here and on Am I on? No. Okay. Both here and uh joining us virtually school recess April 14th through the 21st.
067Enjoy. And just want to wish our teachers and students a very restful and enjoyable and administrators. Yes. Um everyone a welldeserve a very restful uh spring recess. come back rested and rejuvenated to finish the year strong. We're looking forward to seeing you on the 22nd. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak? Please limit your comments to three minutes. And praise or problem, please refrain from using any staff member's name. All right. Our next regular board of education meeting will be Tuesday, May 13th at 8:00 PM at Steuart Manor again. That's at Clara Carlson. Yeah, that's what cypo at Clara H. Carlson Elementary. Uh before that, we'll have the meet the candidates night hosted by our inter school of PTAs that will be held on May
0685th at Clar H. Carlson at 7 p.m. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Thank you, Mr. Palma second. Second. Thank you, Miss Battle. All in favor? I 9:30. I said hi and I don't even have a vote.