Fayetteville-Manlius BOE Meeting - Apr 20, 2026

001Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for coming. It's 6:00, so we're going to get started and call the meeting to order. And if everyone can please rise for the pledge. 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 Thank you. Item 1.03, approval revision of agenda. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manly Central School District approves the agenda as presented. May I have a motion? Thanks, John. And a second? Thank you, Anne. Any discussion? All in favor? Okay, great. Thank you. And then we'll move into recognitions. So, Lisa has some um recognitions from Mott Road Elementary. Good evening. My name is Lisa Geraci Sivilletto, and I'm the principal at

002Mott Road Elementary School, and I'm so pleased to be here tonight to recognize three Mott Road staff members. Distinguished members of the Board of Education and FM community, I'm honored to take this opportunity to recognize the exceptional work of three dedicated specialists who make a meaningful difference in the lives of our students each and every day. Virginia Powell and Christie Amak are reading specialists, and Joanna Gilbert are math interventionists. These outstanding educators play a vital role in supporting student growth and achievement, and I would like to highlight the profound impact they have on our school community. Our reading specialists, Virginia Powell and Christie Amak, work tirelessly to support students in developing essential literacy skills. Through targeted instruction, thoughtful assessment, and a deep understanding of individual student needs, they help learners build confidence in reading, strengthen

003comprehension, and foster a lifelong love of literacy. Their collaborative approach with classroom teachers ensures that all students receive the support they need to succeed. A highlight this year has been their continued work in implementing evidence-based reading strategies and interventions that have led to measurable growth for students. Our math interventionist, Joanna Gilbert, provides invaluable support to students as they develop foundational mathematical skills and problem-solving abilities. Through personalized instruction and data-driven interventions, Joanna helps students build confidence, close learning gaps, and approach mathematics with a positive mindset. Her dedication to meeting students where they are, and guiding them towards success, has had a significant impact on student achievement. A highlight this year has been her innovative use of small group instruction and engaging strategies to make math accessible and meaningful for all learners. These professionals work collaboratively with

004teachers, families, and staff to create a supportive and inclusive learning environment for all students. Their compassion, expertise, and unwavering dedication ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive. On behalf of our Mott Road School community, I extend my deepest gratitude for their contributions and respectfully request the board's recognition of their invaluable service. Their commitment to our students exemplifies the mission and values of our district, and we are truly fortunate to have them as part of our team. Thank you for your time and consideration. All right. Now, we're going to move into some presentations. Uh Brad here on deck here. Or up, I guess I should say. I feel like we say that every week or every every time. Uh So, we are at uh kind of the the getting close to the to the

005end here with the overall budget presentation being tonight. Uh a lot of this will look familiar to everyone. Uh we've kind of went through it uh from that aspect. So, we'll kind of get started and kind of go through. Uh the first thing I want to talk about is kind of like how we got here. So, from this standpoint, you can kind of see the looking forward and what are our options and you can kind of see the three uh numbered items on there for finding other sources of revenue being the first one, consideration being state aid, grants, legislative aid, FM property taxes as sources of revenue. Another option being cut expenses, attrition, reduction in staffing and other programs. And the third one being use of reserves and fund balance. So, that's kind of been

006the key as kind of we've been going through uh the budget season and kind of how we're going to go through it. So, I'll talk a little bit more about that as I go through. So, program overall, uh the main components within program, you can kind of see there again, it's the athletics, benefits, regular school, special ed support. Uh program overall, so an increase of about 1.6 million or about 1.8% and program represents our largest portion of the budget at about 87.5 million. Uh within program, you can kind of see here, we've got uh Oh, excuse me. I don't know if we have the right one loaded. Yeah. Hey, Sarah. I don't know if we have the right right one loaded. I was off to a really good start. That's on me. No, we're good.

007If you don't have it, I can grab it. Well, let me tell I'll talk a little bit as we kind of go through it. So, basically uh what we're going to really go through tonight is we're going to kind of talk about the three parts. We're going to talk about uh the components overall being uh program, like I was talking about, the largest part, admin, and capital. Uh you're going to see a lot of the kind of same drivers of what I've been talking about. Uh that the main point I think Dan and I usually do a nice little bit towards the end where we talk about the concept that really uh people need to understand is fixed cost versus variable cost. Uh with the budget itself, a lot of the things we're going to

008be facing, they're really a fixed cost basis. We're going to see health insurance. I'm going to talk a little bit about, you know, basically a 10% increase. Uh that's something that we're kind of seeing trending, a lot of it being the GLP-1s and the increase they're seeing. It's an increase anywhere from around 2%, 2 and 1/2%. That's driving it. You're going to hear a lot of districts talk about the concept with those GLP-1s is it something where uh that that initial cost, if you will, is something up front that maybe there might be a favor on the back end where uh folks that are actually using those costs and seeing that increase might on the back end turn around and there might be a reduction in the future. It's kind of over, you know, how

009they end up uh going through that. So, I'll talk a little bit more about that. Um we'll get there. Thanks, Sarah. So, again, looking forward, kind of here's the options. Uh other sources of revenue, expenses, and use of reserves. Uh again, it's the three-part budget, capital, admin, and program. Uh within the capital, uh overall, at this point, I'm going to talk maintenance, buildings and grounds, debt service. Those are kind of uh the main components. Debt service, you're going to hear a little bit more about cuz that's going to be one of the drivers in kind of overall budget. Uh increase approximately 3.9 million or 22.6%. So, there's really where you're seeing the kind of that significant increase of what's driving the uh this case, the capital budget. Capital uh is is, you know, 24.2 million.

010It's one of the smaller parts of the budget and we'll talk about that as we go through. Uh admin as within district components, there's board of education, chief school administration, uh business administration, and we have some of our services, auditing, legal, etc. And you can also see the supervision component, district-wide supervision, and what I call building supervision. Uh admin is increasing approximately by 183,000. It's 2.6% increase. That 2.66 Excuse me, that 2.6% is actually skewed a little bit. I'm going to talk about one of the drivers that being BOCES, a component in that with a capital portion that comes over into admin. So, that number is actually smaller than what we're showing. The admin budget's the smallest. It represents 10.8 million. Program, largest part of the budget. Uh what's in that is athletics, benefits, regular

011school, special ed support. Uh program's actually increasing about 365,000. Uh it's only representing about 0.6% and there's a reason for that and I'm going to talk about that as I go through. And the overall budget itself, again, being the largest part of the budget about 87.5 million. So, within the components, you can kind of see there on a pie chart perspective what those three components are and again, the blue one being program representing that 87 million or about 71.4%. Capital representing about 24% or 19 Excuse me, 24 million or about 19.8% in the green and administrative being the smallest part at about 10.7 or 8.8%. I think the kind of metric uh most most districts use as well as kind of throughout the state is kind of that uh the concept of somewhere in that

01270-20-10 and you can kind of see program is a little bit higher than the 70. So, we have a little bit more uh focus on our program at 71%. Capital, we're sitting right around that 20% at 19.8 and that administrative being a little bit below 10 at that 8.8 overall. So, within the budget itself, I took this is something again we talked about I think maybe last time where we've added a little bit of a a difference here where we've kind of put in a benefits portion. So, you can kind of see program, capital, and admin as a three-part breakout here as I noted above. Then we took out benefits and we pulled it out of that. We kind of showed that as a standalone separate item. So, program, as I talked about a minute

013ago, it's sitting overall at about 60 million overall without the benefits in it. That change being 0.6% from an increase year to year. Capital, you can kind of see that increase there from the 17.3 million up to the 21.2. It represents somewhere around the 22.6% and again, significant increase and we'll talk about that in a second. Admin, you can see there it's going from 7 million to 7.259 and you can kind of see to the right that 2.59 with a red asterisk. So, that red costs. So, BOCES passed uh construction referendum this year where they're going to actually have uh construction done to some of their campuses. Those costs are then passed through back to districts. So, if you take admin and you pull that part that 125,000 out, you're really looking at a year-over-year

014increase of about a 0.82%. And benefits kind of was what I was just talking about a minute ago, going up from the 31.5 up to the 33. Um that's a 5.1% increase. The change is really driven by the fact of health insurance costs going up to the to that uh 10% mark. And it's something unfortunately we're kind of seeing at we're sitting on, you know, having the seat as I do on the executive committee. It's a situation where again, the GLP-1s are increasing it. We're starting to see it kind of with other districts. And I think I told you about uh they have a neighboring uh consortium that's seen increases up to some cases 30%. So, we're fortunate. We've kind of applied everything on a conservative level through the years and I do expect over

015the next couple years, you're going to kind of see somewhere around that 9%, 8% and I do think the driver, as I just said a minute ago, is really going to be that GLP-1s and things of that nature. That seems to be driving it with that 2%. You pull the 2% back, you're sitting somewhere around eight and I think we've averaged somewhere between that 6 and 7% annually over the last 10 years. This is a slide that's showing the proposed budget. It's really kind of part of what we show as a three-part uh budget and this will be what goes out with part of the budget brochure. It takes it and take This is program and then it breaks it down into uh into individual categories. So, it's basically the same thing. It's just kind

016of the way it's broken out. And then you can kind of see those percentages again on the right-hand side over. So, if you take overall, you'll see uh I think it's almost like the third line from the bottom, you're seeing program overall at 0.6% increase year-over-year. And then you'll see program with the benefits portion in there uh with the increase of about 1.83 year over year with including those benefits. You have similar thing here with the other two parts of the budget, administrative and capital. Again, you can see the admin up the at the at the top square up there and it's 2.59 with that piece without the benefits in and 3.88 with the benefits in and then keeping in reminder that 125,000 with BOCES. If you pull that out, those not those percentages would

017be lower than that. And capital, you can it's kind of see where we talked about that one kind of striking that that increase where you're seeing that 22.6 as you look at kind of most of the way down. And then overall with the benefits in 20.8. And really what's driving that as you can kind of see in that long-term debt line which I think is maybe third from it there going from 4.6 million up to 8.7. And what's driving that really is the construction and the completion where we're going to actually go over to from bands to bonds as we can as we finish up the the capital project at the high school. That will actually have another story to it that'll tie to aid and building aid and we'll kind of have kind of

018what's offsets that in a minute. So overview, this is the one slide I kind of tell people especially as we start as Dr. Parvey and myself get ready to go on the road shows. This is kind of the slide I'd like to have folks kind of concentrate on, focus on and kind of you know, you know, if you're going to retain anything, this is really kind of you know, what's really driving the budget. So summary of expenditure increases really represent these four things, salaries. Again, negotiated contracts and attrition and it represents a $500,000 increase year over year. Health insurance and benefit costs, again, there's that 10.5% rate increase which I think I just quoted 10 10.5% and that's a $1.8 million increase year over year. Gas and electric, we saw an increase this year or

019projecting one I should say and what we're seeing for national grid increases that's about 100,000. And then debt service and that's that piece talking about where we're going to to long-term debt with overall bonds. High school capital project and roofing project are really the result of that and represents about 3.7 million. So if you take the 3.7, the 100,000, the 1.8, the five, you get somewhere in that $6.1 million year over year. So what I was talking about a minute ago, you know, referencing BAN, this is the piece that kind of on the slide that we go to when we talk about what are those costs represent, you know, can you adjust them, are they variable, are they things you really have control over. Salaries, it's a negotiated contract, you know, it's something you're kind

020of fixed on from that aspect. Health and benefit costs, the co-op makes up basically what they believe the premium should be. We vote as a group overall in the overall consortium what we think is, you know, an appropriate amount. You're really kind of fixed into, you know, what that amount is. That represents that increase. Gas and electric, that's something's based on whatever we're going to be using. One of the nice things we've been able to do around here as we've increased, you know, as far as overall heating, air conditioning and things of that nature as electric costs have spiked and we're also going to have some use, you're going to see that corresponding increase with that. And the last one being debt service, that's going to be driven by whatever we're going to be doing

021for construction wise and the corresponding borrowing costs and whatever those corresponding interest rates are going to be and that's kind of driven by that. So for the most part, those four items themselves are really more of a fixed cost basis than I would say variable cost. Mental health, that's a slide I think we kind of show every time we really kind of focus on and talk about kind of this, you know, when we get into services and some of the things that we're doing, this is something that's been a primary item that we've kind of focused on in the past. I know overall we kind of maybe sometimes put the cost up or didn't put it up. In this case, we really kind of wanted to show it's something we take pride in what we're

022doing. This is the corresponding price tag for it, represents about $4 million. And again, this should be similar from prior years where we talk about from an internal support, you can kind of see what we have for our focus there being the family school liaisons, the counselors, the psychologists, the outside service components being Contact Community Services, CNY Mental Health, and then Onondaga County with their corresponding parts. So the budget on a five-year trend, this kind of just shows over the last five years kind of, you know, where we've been averaging overall. 22-23, we're somewhere around 5.9% and you can kind of go down through and you see 26-27, we're usually averaging somewhere in that 5 to 6% range, I think give or take. This year we're sitting around 5.22 and again, the primary drivers being

023debt, health insurance, etc. So we're kind of sitting right in that 4.5 five for the last couple years. Now we'll talk a little about the offsetting pieces and that being revenue. So with the pie chart here, you can kind of see how we make everything up. From our standpoint, the green being tax levy, we're primarily tax driven as far as our revenues go. You can see that it's represented again by the green, state aid. 31% being in the blue and then other revenue being 5%. So from a state aid perspective, you can kind of see here with foundation aid, let me say this. So this is really broken out between what I would call an aid that's really spend driven aid versus what's more formula based aid. Foundation aid, it's formula based, it's something they

024kind of they tried to adjust a few years ago. And that amount represents somewhere around 342,000. This is something that kind of we're still waiting to have the final budget released from the state. That's projected somewhere around a 1.7% increase. It's probably conservative but at the same time, it's kind of what we wanted to try to put down in this case from a conservative projection perspective. If it's something where the state comes through and there's better numbers, good news, that would be more favorable that would get to the district. The remaining aids that are on there are really spend based. So as you spend corresponding services, so for instance, BOCES, whether it's high needs or software, hardware, things of that nature, etc., the more you spend, the more you kind of go through and you

025you'll pick up that corresponding aid. So you can see there BOCES aid, we had a slight increase around 118,000. And then you really get down to the big one and that's the building aid. So talking about a minute ago where the construction we were seeing that increase in debt overall with the completion of the high school project, this is where the kind of the good news comes in where that building aid comes in and as we complete that project, we file final cost reports and then we turn around and we generate projected aid. In our case, we're seeing an increase of about 3.3 million. So you can kind of see in the middle there I got an asterisk on the 7.9 overall, what that is. Out of that 7.9, you can kind of go down

026and follow the asterisk and it tells you we have construction debt of about 10.7. That's going to be offset about 7.9 and that'll kind of get you over to where you're talking with that at somewhere in that $3.5 million mark. So that's really what's driving the aid in this case. Foundation, like I said, is a projection. Building aid is a situation where it's kind of at the done end of that capital project that would be the projected corresponding aid coming in to offset that debt. Property taxes, you can really kind of focus towards the middle. You can see there with the tax cap or excuse me, let's go 25-26, you had a levy that was 3.56 or a $2.6 million increase year over year. 2. In 26-27, we had an increase of about 2.3 million.

027It represents a 3.12% tax gap, so less than the year before. And the levy increase that we were recommending would be 3.12% as well. And again, it represents that 2.3 million. The big thing that you can kind of see on the last bullet is the is ones that tend to folks tend to focus on and it's really kind of what's that impact mean on a $100,000 home. So the number I've got there is $58. It's a number where usually in the past I've been able to talk to the assessor's office, talk about kind of what they're seeing for assessments, what's that look like. And then you're going to go through and ideally come up with what you think would be for equalization rates. They've had a turnover this year kind of at that level. I

028think Pat is is retired and they've got a replacement and I just haven't been able to get the new information from them of what to expect for overall assessments. Past years I'd like to go through and apply that and kind of that way gives folks an idea of okay, what to expect. I do think that's probably a high water mark. I think it's probably going to end up a little bit lower than that. But at this point, I just wanted to give what I knew with, you know, with the data that was given. Other revenue, for the most part, those are kind of represents again the smallest part of the budget. You can see some changes there overall kind of as you go from the top down and really what I want to focus on

029is probably the last two lines there being the reserves and fund balance. So as you go through with the budget, you basically you have your expenses, you have your revenues and then ideally in a utopian world, you kind of they equal each other out and there's some kind of a, you know, net zero. So how do you do that in our case because at this point we have expenses that exceed revenues. This is basically how you balance a budget. So use the reserves and assign fund balance. So in our case, if you take last year which is that middle column, 25-26, it represents somewhere around 3.45 million. So about 3.5 million dollars is used to balance the budget. And this year in 26-27, it's about the same numbers. So one of the things you kind

030of you can look at is over to the right, you can see the 6,000. We're really only had a small shift of about $6,000. But if you think back to when we had that first initial, I guess I'd call it state of the union budget meeting back in February, that number was much more significant. So how did we get there? Some of the things we've talked about, really when we got into basically attrition and then we had one of the reductions in the admin interim role. So that represented somewhere around 700,000, 750,000 give or take. That allowed us to only have to appropriate or assign fund balance to use the reserves. In this case with only a change for about $6,000. So really what we did is we kind of came back from last year

031and we kind of almost netted to where we got to this year with that small change to six. So that's kind of how we go and I'm going to talk a little bit more about it as I go through. So overall again, revenue slide similar to that expenditure slide. If you take away anything on the revenue side, this is kind of that main slide you're going to focus on. So state aid, we talked a little bit about that already being the increase in building aid at 3.3 million. So overall state aid representing 3.9. Property tax levy, again, that 3.12% increase represents about 2.3 million. And then other revenue, there's going to be less interest projected overall there about a decrease of 100,000. If you take those three numbers at 3.9 and 2.3 subtract the 100,

032you're give or take right around 6.1. That offsets that 6.1 that I talked about on the expenditure side and that's kind of how you wash between expenditures and revenues. Tax levy on a 5-year trend. Uh 22-23, you can see about 1.8%. I think you're kind of seeing the end of that COVID time period at that point. Taxes weren't as high. You had the federal funds that have come in to help offset things. The district itself wasn't doing as much as from a activities aspect, from transportation, uh some of the co-curriculars, uh athletics, things of that nature. So, you weren't requiring as much money to actually uh perform all the activities. Then you start to spike back up in 23-24. So, you had a tax levy at 3.82 with a high water mark. 24-25, 3.49. Last

033year, 3.56. And this year uh reduced down to 3.12. I think I showed a slide back maybe around the Feb- February time frame. Overall, I think our high water mark has only been probably somewhere in that 3.8 uh time frame. So, for the last 10 years, we've done a really good job of going out, >> [snorts] >> excuse me, from a tax levy perspective. And the district has seen a nice thing from the aspect of kind of somewhere between that one and three mark. So, an expense summary. This is kind of just wanted to take everything, put it into a, you know, a little bit more of a, you know, item-by-item kind of what's driving it. So, if you think about it, again, benefits, $1.8 million increase overall in health insurance. Again, that district-wide health

034insurance increase at 10.5%. Program, not filling seven positions due to attrition. This represents about 650,000. Athletics, we saw about a $100,000 increase. It's really an increase based in an official fees and rental fees. So, uh cost to go and use, you know, corresponding facilities for some of our athletic programs, as well as the renegotiated, I think, officials contract. IT, we saw an increase about 240,000. Uh that's basically related to software and hardware needs for some of our what we project for the district. Capital, again, we've talked about that a little bit. 3.5 million increase in overall debt. That will, again, be offset by that 3.5 million of projected building aid. Gas and electric, we talked a little bit about that being somewhere around the $100,000 mark. That represents about an 18% increase overall in projected

035uh gas and electric costs. Admin, we got a reduction of one administrative intern position. Represents about 96,000. Building insurance costs, we had an increase about 17% due to uh premium increases, really the cyber insurance and building replacement costs. And then both these capital expenses, I talked a little bit about that. Better go with the increase of 125,000. Uh that was due to both these capital improvements. So, again, those both these construction costs being passed through. So, again, offsetting that is state aid. We talked a little bit about that. Foundation increase, 342,000. Again, there's that 1.7% increase that I talked about. Uh the building increase being 3.3 million. Again, that's offset by that 3.5 million dollars in overall debt. Taxes, we talked about the cap and levy being at 3.12. And again, the main point there

036being that fund balance or reserves. So, if you take all those things we did in this previous slide, with all the expenses, how are you only appropriating, you know, at this point, what are you coming back to? And that's you can see that uh use of reserves at 560,000. And then that use of fund balance at 2.85, giving you a 3.4, which is the same as the previous year. So, again, this kind of focusing on that use of reserves and fund balance, you can kind of see here the district's in the reliance on how do we balance the budget. 23-24, we're still doing well after the kind of the COVID, the federal money is still there. We haven't had as much going on activity-wise. The expenses haven't been that significant. You're showing somewhere around 319,000.

03724-25, we're starting to see the end of the federal funds come through. The activities are starting to go through. We're still spending. We're showing about a 2.2 million. Last year, we're sitting at 3.45. And then this year, again, similar to that. And so, that's the key point there being that asterisk. You can see after this year, includes that $750,000 of attrition for the seven instructional positions. And then the reduction of that one admin intern. So, overall, that's kind of if people ask, how would you get to kind of where you got to last year? That's kind of between those expenditures that we've seen. That's kind of a reduction offset there. And that's really how you net it back out from year to year. So, recommended options. I think this is something we kind of put

038up in February of how we're going to get there. And this was just kind of basically at this point want to put this slide in and talk about how we did get there. So, other sources of revenues. Again, state aid, any significant increase, you know, at this point, we've budgeted conservatively. I don't know how likely that is. FM property taxes, we write the cap. And that is the 3.12. I wouldn't recommend going to supermajority from that aspect. Uh expenses, what we're going to do there. And in this case, we had to reduce staffing and through attrition, in this case, about 750,000. And again, the bullets right below it being attrition of seven teaching positions. And then the actual reduction of one admin. Uh the use of reserves and fund balance, again, short-term solution, using those

039reserves to balance the budget. It's not sustainable. In our case, we budgeted 3.5 million dollars of reserves fund balance to balance the budget. And that's similar to what we used in the prior year. Kind of just brings us back to that one slide of where three years ago, we weren't using anywhere near that. And now we're kind of being forced to use that to balance the budget. Next steps, we've got the budget hearing on May 11th. And then we actually have the vote itself on May 19th. So, with that, uh what are there for questions? Thanks, Brad. Um my money was on you. Usually is, right? Vegas has you two to one. I I have a couple of very specific questions. >> Sure. Um and then our broader ones. So, back on slide nine, the

040the more detailed program budget. Tell me, can Further back? Yep. No, that one? No, program. You're good. Okay. I I didn't recall. Can you Can you remind me what the change is from the current school year to next school year with regard to summer school? I I I think it's really based on the uh literacy um initiative where previous year, we had pulled it out because of all the construction we had going on. And that was putting it back in. If I remember right. That sounds right. Okay. I I couldn't remember what that break was. The other is something that came up in the facilities Sure. meeting. So, we'll talk about reports later, but um with respect to state building aid coming in offsetting our building debt. Yep. The And this is news to the

041rest of the board, so apologize. We haven't gotten to reports yet. So, preview of coming attractions. >> to give the good news? The which is good news. The maximum cost allowance for the high school was increased. So, originally, it was a $52 million project. Sure. MCA was 44 million. So, only 44 million of the project was aidable at about 80%. The MCA was increased, correct me if I'm wrong, to 55 million. Yep. So, the whole high school project becomes within aidable, as well as part of the um state and security 15.4 million project, the work that was done at the high school was also beyond the old MCA, but is now within the revised MCA, so becomes aidable as well. Tell me when I'm going wrong here. And I know Cheryl was still running numbers

042with Mike Schuster on this, but Sure. but does the budget as you have it reflect the additional aid that we should now be able to anticipate as the result of the high school MCA being increased? Good question. Good point. Um So, yeah, that's a great thing he just talked about. So, if you kind of go back down to that that asterisk at the bottom being the construction debt, the 10.7 offset by the building aid. What Dan's talking about is the fact that when this when we first kind of start going through the budget process, we didn't have information yet on what the state was going to have from a potential MCA adjustment. And subsequent, what we learned was is that more of the project, when it was first when we got to where we got

043to now, was more aidable. So, in other words, I basically have a budget where I have a conservative amount of building aid in there that's probably going to be higher because we have anticipated uh increase in maximum cost allowance. So, the good news is we probably have more aid coming in than what we're showing here due to that fact that we're kind of working through those numbers. So, it is looking towards the fact that there will be more building aid than what we're showing on that 7.9. And that number could potentially then increase and offset the expense and be higher to help dip into what we're actually appropriating overall. That was my point is, obviously, as you've talked about before, that level of dip into appropriated fund balance is not sustainable. Correct. But the magnitude

044of that dip in the coming school year under this budget Correct. may not end up being as uh dramatic as we think because some of that may be offset by potentially increased state building aid. Correct. Okay. Um Does everybody kind of follow that? So, this is the second part of what he's talking about in the other revenues. If you go to that middle part, you see the 3.3 million or excuse me, 3.4 million. So, basically, how do you balance that budget? What Dan's talking about if the expenses are still going to sit here, you got eight here, but in reality, it's supposed to be higher, it's less appropriated fund balance that you're using to balance the budget because you got more rate to actually utilize. So, that's less reduction on having to figure out how

045to balance that budget, which in turn could generate a little bit more surplus. And just parenthetically on that, just I know she's not at our meetings typically, Cheryl, who is like rockstar of She's listening. Cheryl, I know you're listening. >> of our business office and and is is she who we turn to at each of these committee meetings to fully understand where we're going. So, forever grateful for the work that that she does. Um the the tax levy uh slide that you had for the the trending for last 6 years, which if I could find right here. Yep, slide. So, and this is the part that I just you know, there's always community confusion over what we have control over versus what we don't have control over. >> Sure. What what understandably all of our

046residents will always do and very understandably is look at tax rate and actual tax bill. We don't have any control over tax rate. We can do projections based on numbers that the town assessors provide to us from each of the involved towns, but the only actual number we as a district control Levy. is the tax levy, the total amount that gets billed to each municipality that they then bill to uh that they they set based on the assessments that they do. Correct. So, I just wanted reiterate You want to we don't have control over assessments. We don't do assessments, we're not in the business of assessments, we're in the business of education. All we can do is control our revenues and our expenses. And in this time and place in history where inflation has been

047very high and all costs have gone up significantly, what we're proposing is a total tax levy increase of 3.12%. Correct. Which is underneath the increase of virtually everything we actually pay for um through the budgeting work that this district has done and continues to do that thank you Brad and your team for what you continue to do, but to be able to have a tax levy increase in the upcoming year that is lower than the three prior years is commendable to both the work that's been done to our uh amazing staff and faculty and and the understanding of our financial situation that they've had as contracts have been negotiated um which we're greatly appreciative of. That's what allows us to do this. Now, how that translates to tax bills through tax rates through assessments, I

048mean, if there was issues with that, go talk to the towns. Um we don't we don't do assessments, we're not in that business here. So, as you said, as we've always talked about, uh most of our expenses are contractual. We don't have any control over the levels of increases that we do each year because they're they're contractual, the health premiums are not you know, not in the business of health care, so we don't have control over those or insurance rates. The one thing that we do have control over with regard to even contractual costs is whether we cut positions or cut programs as a district. And so, I will ask you two questions that I know the answer to, but I would love for just plain clarity. Sure. And I know you've said it before

049in your presentations. Um am I correct that we are not proposing cutting any programs in our upcoming school year budget. Correct. 100% correct. Am I also correct that unlike the unfortunate path that many other local school districts find themselves forced to, that we are not eliminating any positions among our staff and faculty. Yeah, the only position that we've eliminated would be the administrative intern, but program-wise, no. Okay. Um thank you and I I really sincerely appreciate the work of you and and your team on this. I know it's a massive undertaking each year. Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. But, it's all love over you guys. Now, the big thing to kind of talk about, you know, what Dan's saying and and you know, it it's you already know that, you know, you live

050here, you see the assessment rates and you kind of see what, you know, you're kind of going through. So, to achieve what we have, you know, was built on the foundation before me and they did a fantastic job and you guys that have been here who have you know, um years past and the baton over to Brad, we're able to go through it. We are fortunate. You've already probably seen it. There's districts, you know, I'm I'll name some of them with Liverpool, etc. You see what's out there and then some of it, you know, I don't know how they could have avoided it and there's other things maybe they would have done something different, but we're not them and we've worked real hard. Uh these are the tightest budgets I've ever ran in my life.

051I I've never ran them any tighter. We run them heavily detailed and it's one of those that um the folks do a real good job behind me of kind of going through and identifying the budget and kind of putting in kind of what they're going to commit. They do a good job of kind of going through and trying to anything that's going to be maybe that's mandated or, you know, unmandated, I should say, we try to figure out different ways to do it. Uh we have some reserves, you know, that we can use and I love to keep those for a rainy day because we are going to need them from some aspect. The key here is basically reduce, but not eliminate. Uh we got great programs and you all know that and that's why

052we're all here and the the main point is to pre- to preserve those. So, with our thing, we've been fortunate, you know, I I know kind of at this point I think the sweet spot's around here with what we have for taxes. I know what we need to do. We've got a plan, we're going to start working a little bit more probably on a long-range plan, you heard a little bit about that with Deb. Uh I've got some ideas for the next couple years for sure and then uh Dr. Parvi's already jumped in and and uh we'll be working through kind of what that looks like, but uh I'm not seeing any despair. I'm seeing more of kind of just we're going to work a plan and we'll make sure that we go through it

053and and preserve what we need to here. So. Are there other questions? The only thing I was going to say quick was just, you know, I'm going to I think maybe in May we're going to talk a little bit about maybe some other funds that we kind of work with, one being food service. This is just general fund and and and we only vote on that. Uh the one aspect between general fund that kind of differentiates it is the fact food service is unique and and I think it's going to be a great conversation because we've had some good things happen and then we'll talk a little bit about maybe kind of any opportunities we're going to have, but food service is one of those where as it goes that year, like how it is

054profitability-wise, that's the situation. I think Dan might have brought it up or Jason did. Uh we talked a little bit previously about it that if it shows anything in the red, it basically has to be uh brought back into the positive by general fund. So, lack of a better term, you have some fund balance in there as the program goes and if there is any profitability, that's great, you're in the black. If you're any kind of reduction in that standpoint where basically expenses exceeded revenues, it has to be made whole, like better term, quote unquote, and that corresponding, you know, that year. Uh once fund balance is depleted, so then general fund, you'd have to go through. There is no budget line item in there called, you know, fund, you know, food service program, but

055it has to be made whole. So, that'll be something I just want to talk about with the budget. Then as we kind of transition over into food service, I'll talk a little bit more about it, but on this place, we do have fund balance with it, you know, we're we're doing well, that kind of thing, but I just want to add that kind of as a as a little supplement. So, that's all I had. Again, I don't know if there's any more questions. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Brad. It's been several months. I'm sure you're ready. Yeah. And for anybody who's watching, if you'd like to come to the May 11th board meeting, that's when we have open public comment regarding the budget. Uh okay. Item 2.02, President's Report. Uh couple things. Um Number one,

056uh thank you to Jacob and Ann and Dr. Parvi, um the four of us attended our OCM BOCES annual meeting and they talked a lot about the uh administrative budget that we're going to be voting on tonight. Um and they echoed some of the themes that Brad just talked about with a lot of the component districts facing a lot of budget challenges and this is not unique um to any one particular area, it's across the state and so, um they did talk about that a lot. Um Additionally, um we met with community relations um as we talked about a couple of meetings ago, the concept of maybe piloting uh Board of Ed listening sessions. Um and so, we had a community relations meeting and I'll let Christy kind of share a little bit more, but

057we did schedule our pilot for May 7th. And we're going to be sending out communications to the community about that. They'd like to pop in and just it's basically an open public comment for anybody who would like to stop in and say hi. Um but we do need one additional We'd love to have one additional board member. We're going to have the community relations folks, Chrissy, Sarah Pinsky, and myself there. And then we're welcome to have another person if you would like if you're available. Great. Thanks, Dan. Um if anybody else would like to fight Dan for that, uh welcome to. It's from 4:30 to 5:30 is what we were targeting. So, May 7th. So, we'll be sending out more information for the whole board to read over some of the communications piece um and

058information on that. And then we'll see how it goes and um take some lessons learned from it and go from there. Um additionally, just as a reminder, um Sarah Gridley asked everybody to let her know if they're able to attend graduation and to give her some information about that. So, if you can make sure to do that. And then last but certainly not least, um I copied you guys on an email that we received from a student um who was interested in maybe discussing a student advisory council. Um and so, I know Dr. Parvi was um talking to Mr. McNamara about how we could maybe have a discussion about that. So, I'll turn it over to you. Sure. Um and thank you for that. And we thank our students for their engagement. So, Mr. McNamara

059is going to be meeting with the interested students um next week. And in their back-and-forth communication with Mr. McNamara and I, they I think they realized that what they're more looking for is probably what I've done before, which is the superintendent student advisory, where they would be bringing their questions and interests to the superintendent and then I would share with the board cuz some of the things that they're talking about are operational in nature. They're not necessarily from a governance structure, but should something rise to the level of policy and governance, then we would appropriately bring it to the board for their consideration. So, Mr. McNamara is meeting with them next week and then I'll be talking to them about the structure and the shape for a superintendent's um student advisory. So, we thank them

060for their interest as always. That's great. And I think probably can have a liaison, you know, with our student board member and um I think if we have some interested parties for succession planning for you, Jacob, that would be exciting as well. Um do you have anything you want to comment on? Oh, that all sounds good. Yeah, my question was if um whoever will be replacing me in the future would be part of this council, just, you know, for the sake of legitimacy. Um yeah. Um I'm sure of who will be replacing me, but um I good faith. I'm sure the line is very long. >> [laughter] >> And you've made big shoes to follow, too. Um So, that that's all I have. Does anybody have any questions? Okay. Yep. So, as as Mr. McNamara

061communicates with um that there always is one area in which our students actually some of our students have an ability to have great say in our district that they don't always remember about or know about, which is for those who are 18 and older, they are eligible to vote in our school budget vote and our board of election. And they don't always know that. They don't always aren't always reminded of that. So, we certainly encourage and welcome their input for those who are age eligible. It doesn't just have to be on Tuesdays we vote. We can really take a Tuesday and vote. Um yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um moving on to 2.03, superintendent's report. Thank you, President Fitzgerald. I'll look at Sarah Gridley to make sure we're on the same page and we're synced up.

062So, the past few weeks continue to be busy weeks in our district and I've been really enjoying my engagement with our staff, our community, and our students. And our staff really do a great job of highlighting our students and making sure that they're aware that they are the stars of the show. This was directly from a bulletin board in our one of our classrooms. I want to say at Mott Road during their um kindergarten orientation. So, it just highlights really that our students are the focus. And so, my agenda this evening we'll talk a little bit about my school visits, administrative happenings around the state in our district, community engagement, of course, but closing out with our FM pride. Make sure it's together. Okay. And so, um I had my visit at um FM High

063School. I was invited by Mrs. Stokes at the entrepreneur class. Want to also thank our um Assistant Superintendent Katherine Dalton, who was also there. But our students really were talking about their potential businesses. Some really good ideas um that were presented by our students. So, I wanted to highlight our students and give a shout-out to not only our students, but Mrs. Stokes for inviting me and giving me an opportunity to see some great um ideas like the bottle rocket soda soda shop that um our students were thinking of creating. And then this one um on the right was our students were thinking about a bookstore that also had snacks, but there was open all night, kind of like the Crumble theme, but also with some Barnes & Noble's mixing there. So, it was quite interesting.

064Um and then um again, Dr. Dalton and I had an opportunity to attend a OCC um collab cooperative meeting where there were several districts talking about the potential for collaboration around ideas, but um specifically with Micron coming on. And they were showing the courses that they offer and it was again about collaboration. We all want the same thing. So, how we go about working together to make sure that our Fayetteville students are ready for the future. So, this was really a great day and a great opportunity to be at OCC and look at the different offerings and also all that Micron has already invested in building in that facility to prepare for their future um employees. It was really a great um learning day. And then again, we had Mott Road and Enders Road that

065had their open houses. I would um a Our teacher creativity is just really um amazing what they do for our students. But also, I wanted to highlight Mrs. Gordon, who is an enrichment teacher at Mott Road, who has been in our district for brace yourself, 40 years. 40 years she decided that this year she was going to retire and I think it's more because of her spouse who said it's time, not because she would leave cuz she loves what she does. So, I felt like we needed to highlight our educators. I can't think of anything other than being alive that I've done for 40 years. So, I think that's great. Um and then again, our family is very engaged, well-attended um evening. And then we had our our PE students who are also leading the

066show here with activities um with our teachers. So, again, whenever I get to see our students and our staff in action, I like to highlight those things because they are always engaged. I've never seen a dull moment in any of our schools. This was quite the fun day and I want to thank my um team. I had um Lisa Wade with me and also again, Dr. Dalton and our um staff at Wellwood, where we had our Funk'n Waffles um I guess I get I'd call it a cook-off. And it was really great. Um we actually had our um the um creator and owner of Funk'n Waffles who was there helping with the judging. And our students really did a really good job preparing not only preparing the meals. So, the winning while the winning waffle

067was the Waffles, which was um nacho taco type of waffle. It was actually delicious. We were very curious about that batter. Um the the one that's going to be offered at Funk'n Waffle restaurant is actually going to be the cinnamon pretzel waffle um because they felt in terms of being able to prepare it, that was more um more doable for the restaurant. So, the um Waffles were done by T Gunna Jones. Fabulous job. I think that's him presenting there. And then the um dynamic duo, Cinnamon Pretzel um Waffle was done by um Mondongo. It It was done by Reagan Do Little and Mikayla Abdo. So, congratulations to them because their waffles are going to make it into the actual restaurant. And so again, we had a great Saturday on April 11th. We had our um

068culture fest, which was very well-attended. Thank you again, um President Fitzgerald was there with her family. Very well-attended, great food. A lot of our families were there. And we also had our um our robotics tournament. And so, I had to get um a picture with our metal slingers, who won several of their rounds and they were very proud of that. And so, we had to highlight them. And I also thank Jason. He was also there for the um robotics competition. So again, it was a busy Saturday, um a lot of attendance, and FM High School was buzzing, Mr. McNamara, that day. Um again, this is from our culture fest. Um our families, different countries, and different presentations. Again, a well-attended event at our high school, which I think it's important when we see our community

069come out to support our students. And we had a wonderful second grade concert at Fayetteville. And they were celebrating the birth of our nation, a lot of songs and costumes. So, congratulations to our not only our students, but to Mrs. Brooks, who organized it. Shelly Brooks did a really good job to have to herd all those cats and make sure that they did everything very well that evening. Um kudos to Mrs. Brooks and um again, it was great to have that um to see our students and very well attended again by our families. And so administrative happenings in our district, we continue to meet as an executive team as we continue to prepare for the final launching of our budget and really talking about the many things that happen across our district and staffing as

070we are preparing for 2026-2027 school year and we're knee deep in that right now. We had Regent Mannion visit us. I also saw him actually at the second grade concert because he was there as a grandparent, but Regent Mannion visited us really find out the needs of FM, but also stopped in our principal's meeting to hear directly from principals about the things that they need and I thought that that was really good of him. He had good conversation with us and it was good to have had his engagement with our district. We had our BOCES superintendent's meeting. Again, a hot topic is definitely our budget budget across our districts and the different challenges districts are facing right now and how we're going about navigating those in this budget climate. Um, we also had a security

071audit recommendation. We reviewed that at the meeting I had an internal meeting I had with the team because we will be sharing that with the facilities meeting and then back to the board to really be looking at those recommendations that are high priority and that we'll be working on in the district. And then we had our owner architect construction management meeting and that meeting is where we prepare for our facilities meeting, but again get an update as an operational piece of our work about what's happening with those projects for our district. So very um, people really are very invested in our district and also making sure that we're up to date on the things that we must do at this time. So with community engagement, I'm still in the engagement phase of my entry process

072which has been wonderful. I've had some office hours. I had my superintendent drop-ins at our schools and our staff have participated and it's really been a great opportunity to learn more about our district and the things that are front of mind for our staff. So I appreciate people stopping in and making the time and I'll be looking to have focus groups sometime soon in the future to be talking about how we look at the next steps of our strategic plan and some things that we want to highlight and I thank our staff all of our staff for the one-on-one meetings. I've had a very diverse group of our staff come and meet with me from principals, APs, our director of transportation. It's really just been very everyone has been interested in sharing their perspective about

073FM and then the things that we do really well and the things we can continue to improve upon. So I thank our school community and our outside community for their engagement. And in terms of my office hours, um, FM High School was on April 9th. I'll be at Eagle Hill this week for Eagle Hill's office hours. I'm looking forward to meeting our parents there and also coming up I have going to be meeting with the focus group that was charged with giving feedback in terms of what they were looking for in a superintendent. So I'm really looking forward to were the expectations met at least somewhat. And I have my Mott Road Elementary School visit their superintendent office hours on May 4th. My drop-ins at for the staff again March 27th I had Mott Road.

074April 9th I had the transportation department. Really great conversation with our bus drivers, our bus attendants. Again, every corner of the district has been really good to get dip my toe in and learn a little bit more about and then Eagle Hill Middle School as well was had my drop-ins there. I'll be doing the technology department this week. I'm looking forward to that and then Fayetteville will be on the 28th. So I don't know about you all, but I'm very busy. And so again, the drop-ins I love catching our students who just polite one at Mott Road just wanted to say hello as she was picking up her breakfast. So hello and then these are our students again always engaged with our teachers. You'll notice how rarely does anyone ever look at the camera. They

075are looking at their teacher, they're focused on what they have to do and that just shows how much learning is important for our youngsters and for our educators. And this is our wonderful transportation group who decided to pose for me. They were very gracious. I wanted a picture to show that we had great conversation that morning and I really learned a lot about the importance of our transportation department and their work through that drop-in. So thank you to that group. And our FM pride, congratulations to our scholastic artists who received 145 awards during this year's competition. Our students are amazing in every way. We had Tony Zhao, Kyra Evans and Audrey Corey. Just look at that work, the uniqueness and they have great a great eye. I would put that work in my home particularly

076Audrey's work. I like that a lot. So and then our Enders Road Elementary students are making a difference when they're honoring Earth Day. So please please please while supplies last you can get a student designed coffee sleeve at the Holland Farms Bakery and Deli, SkyTop Cafe, Crepetime Cafe and the Manlius Library. So support our students by picking up homemade sleeves. And that is all I have for this evening. Don't know if anyone has any questions. Anyone have any questions? I just want to say thank you for always reminding us of all of the great work that's going on inside the district and I just it's it's a nice refreshing reminder of why we're all doing what we're doing. So thank you. You're very welcome. Um, okay. So it's April. So we are up for quarterly

077committee report updates. Um, we can start with we don't have any any other legislative ones, right? Okay. And then nothing on the BOCES side. Um, Jacob will go first with you. Thank you. So following up with the school, kind of I know Dr. Parfitt brought it up the both the culture fest and robotics spring robotics tournament. This is mostly just a recap on both events. So for the spring robotics tournament, just a shout out to Mr. Buckman and Mr. Larry for their constant support every year and hosting this event. Our metal stingers, they managed to get first place in the balloon battle bots. So yay. Um, this is one of the larger larger audiences we've had seen. So yay. For culture fest was a huge success. Props to Dr. Watson and Mrs. Allsup as well

078as all those who participated and organizing this event. Great job. Just on Tuesday there will be a blood drive in the library at the high school. So if there's anyone who is willing to give up some blood, please do. >> [laughter] >> Apple cookies. You get a shirt actually. Don't quote me on that. >> [laughter] >> All right. On the same day on Tuesday on same thing with the robotics team. They'll be going to the Micron Fest along with them other students. But at this event they'll actually be presenting alongside a lot of businesses and two high school students and middle school students. So very nice. On they'll be a showboat on the 25th and 26th at the high school at 7:00 p.m. So um, they'll be students will be presenting their different talents. So

079I would recommend going. Um, Maker Faire the robotics team will also be going to present to um, the Syracuse community. So very nice. On May 6th there will be a jazz night at Wellwood I believe at 7:00 p.m. So support our music division. And on May 9th STUCO plans to have a flag football tailgate at 2:00 p.m. So come for some popcorn, cotton candy, there should be lemonade and shaved ice shaved snow cones and then watch the nice play some flag football. So yeah, exciting things coming up. Does anybody have any questions for Jacob? Uh, thank Jacob. I just wanted to to add you know, for to make mention to the rest of the rest of the board might already know, but also to the public. You mentioned showboat coming up. I last year I

080went for the first time because my my my daughter was participating in in one of the shows. So I you know, of course I went and I was completely blown away by the level of talent of students in the district at showboat in showboat. And to be honest with you, I would go uh, you know, I I would go every so I I would recommend I couldn't recommend it more I guess is is what I'm trying to say. So even if you don't have a student or anybody you know in it, I would not have went at it just cuz I didn't even know what it was to be honest with you. Um, but I would go every year since you know, from now on because it was it was just incredible the talent and

081it was you know, truly entertaining. It's there's a diverse if you haven't been there's a diverse number of different acts. You know, there's singing, there's there's playing different instruments, dancing, you know, all all stuff, but it's it really is impressive. So I highly recommend anybody if you haven't been definitely go to showboat. Love it. Thanks John. We might have to see you there. That was that's quite the endorsement. Yeah, it is. That's awesome. Uh, okay. Now we'll move to some committee updates. Ann, anything on audit? No, audit committee's not scheduled to meet again for a while. Okay. Yeah, we don't even have one on the agenda today. Um, Christie, want to give an update on community relations? I kind of already did. Stole my thunder, but hey. Um, I will just reiterate with the uh

082community um listening sessions. This is something that we've been talking about for a while now. Um we're no strangers to surveying our lovely public. Um, so we do use a lot of data that we get from those surveys and from that we um concluded that it would be a great opportunity um to engage our community in new ways for them to be able to talk directly to the board in a more informal setting um to share their perspectives and to make sure their voices are heard. So, we're really excited to pilot this um in a couple weeks um and we hope that people come out and share their perspectives with us because we would really love to hear that. Um, and then the only other thing that we have in CRC uh we do have

083the April newsletter uh the spring newsletter I should say that's coming out so you can be looking for that in your mailboxes probably the first week of May or the second week of May it should be hitting mailboxes. Stay tuned. Thank you. Um, Dan, facilities? Yeah, there's never anything going on in the facilities world. Um, I gave you the biggest thing during the budget so I don't know if anybody has any just questions or clarifications I can provide on that. I guess the one thing I was wondering does that impact um our allowable cap for other projects as well or is this strictly for the high school? This was strictly for the high school. So, so just refreshers so each building has what's called a maximum cost allowance assigned to it based on uh what

084the state lovingly calls building aid units that FM call them students. Um and it cal- it's it's calculated based on that so it's just for projects it just affects projects at the high school but it brings the full 52 million project within aidability as well as like I said there was another million and a half of work that was done at the high school through the $15.4 million safety and security project that was not going to be aidable work but is now aidable because of the increase in the MCA at the high school. So, and remember that the reimbursement rate on that is 80% so you know, the final numbers are still being worked out but it potentially brings into play about $7.5 million of previously unaidable work that will be within target of aidable.

085Which is a pretty significant swing and very fortunate. We will see the opposite unfortunately as we approach our next project. Our next project including Eagle Hill um everybody should know that that is is on target for next. Eagle Hill has a very low MCA. Eagle Hill has a lot as all all each of our buildings have had a lot of structural needs a lot of boiler needs, a lot of HVAC needs, a lot of guts of the building needs that frankly in and of themselves exceed the maximum cost allowance on that building. So, that building is likely going to have to undergo a a phased project where we do a set of work under the current MCA and the MCA is reset every 5 years and we can go back to that building after 5

086to to touch the real stuff but there's some really serious um infrastructure work that needs to be done at Eagle Hill as part of the next project. Um, we do continue to do work at at all of the buildings to bring as many of them under AC as possible. Um, Wellwood is Help I'm allowed to say this? Brad, am I allowed to say this or are they all aware of this at Wellwood or should I just stop talking now? Yeah. >> [laughter] >> The fifth grade Just just so you know, when I was at Wegmans last week they had a thing called it's literally I have a picture they were selling money trees. You should go get some, Brad. >> [snorts] >> Um, they would be very helpful. The Wellwood fifth grade wing will be

087brought under air conditioning for the upcoming school year. Um, that's a really significant change so we know we have other areas in this district that are heat challenged. Eagle Hill especially in the loft area we we are keenly aware we are doing our very best to move toward those. Um, Wellwood will be addressed and that was because we were able to move a unit an older unit from the high school that was being decommissioned for the high school use to Wellwood to be able to put that online there. So, we're trying to repurpose things as much as we can to to save cost and and expand what we're doing as as we're going forward. The last thing I'll say cuz minutes are in there is the high school will largely be closed this summer. Um,

088they are we we are keeping the aux gym and weight room open for teams and training. There will be specific access to those. We know the importance of that but largely aside from that from those two areas the high school will be closed for the summer. Um, there's a lot of work to be done inside as final push and stretch to get that project done and we will also be milling and paving from the front entrance back to the student parking lot as well as the house two bus loop. The house one bus loop and student parking lot are not going to be done. Remember we've talked about redoing those holistically as part of a later project to to reconfigure those into a safer configuration but paving from the entrance to the student parking lot

089is all going to be milled and paved and that will also take time so if anybody planning on using the high school this summer um find some new plans, please because that won't won't be available. Okay? That's all I have on that. Thank you, Dan. Sarah, welcome. We saved it for you. Do you have any updates on finance committee? Oh, I do like to make a dramatic entrance. Um, I think the key update is that the budget will be presented >> [snorts] >> this evening. Um, so that's in work. One question? Yes, I apologize. Yeah, so that's that's our key update. The budget is being presented and um we hope that the entire community engages in the process and educates themselves in the next um month or so to understand the inputs and all the

090drivers for our budget this year. And policy? It has the best committee that ever did exist. That's how it's [cough and clears throat] come to be known. Our policy committee. It's true. Sorry. It's No, it's accurate. Did I miss that? Did you say that earlier this evening? >> Yes, yes. You were unavailable. Um, so the policy committee meets every about every 2 weeks. We are so close to being all the way through all of the policies. We only have a few to go back to and I do want to thank all of our administrators who we are consistently going back to with questions and more questions. Um, also thanks to the board members last week who asked a couple questions about a couple key policies that um we took back to committee and went over

091in a lot more detail so uh there's I think there's policies in second reading tonight, right? Um, but we are so close, friends, to to having these policies all all taken care of and they can all be uploaded at the same time and ish. And then no, okay. All right, that's the end of the report. Well, we need something for next year's committee members to do so don't you worry. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Um I know uh DEI committee is still they're working on um survey information for to help support some initiatives. Um, mental health task force. So, we actually received an email for the the next scheduled meeting which was April 8th which instead was an update. Um, I think as I gave an update in the last meeting or the the last

092meeting where we had updates um a lot of the work has been taken um under the wing of the co-chairs of the committee which are Dr. Melissa Carmen, Heidi Green, and Dr. Corey Wallach. Um, and this update which I will forward to the board after this just cuz I think and Dr. Carvey just to see um was great. Um, they talked about, you know, the mental health brochure, the revisions to really make sure it was very specific to providing um contacts for every building. Um it talked about the school-based mental health clinics and what Helio Health is doing um and then some new and exciting updates around the athletics mental health initiative I just wanted to mention. So, if people haven't already seen that on social media and um through some of our FM channels

093um through the partnership with Contact Community Services, through Dominic Mallare, um Dr. Scott Sugar, and our FMA Sports Booster Club, they've launched a series of events for student athletes. And that first kickoff was on March 27th. There were um about 500 athletes there, including students, coaches, staff, and families. Um and topics included teamwork, performance anxiety, stress, and time management, and recognizing warning signs. And there's more events planned through the spring um along with mental health matters themed games across all spring sports. So, this is I know it's been something that's been in the works in kind of all these different groups. So, to come together and collaborate across um the district and the booster club and athletic department is super exciting and it is getting some great momentum. And the second I wanted to highlight

094was some executive functioning groups that CNY Mental Health Counseling has started. Um they're being offered right now at the middle school level. So, 7th and 8th recently concluded and 5th and 6th is now beginning. They've done some pre- and post-assessments of the students. Um and the data is showing measurable improvements in regulation, organization, focus, and task initiation. Um and one student shared that they learned I'm flexible, which means I can change how I think about something to make it work better for me. Um so, that is a really great new offering by the district. Um as well as just some of the other things we talked about, the Panorama student surveys um that is a new program that our district is using and can really focus in on um implementing surveys to talk about positive

095and challenging feelings, supportive relationships, emotional regulation, social awareness, and sense of belonging. Um and then the comprehensive comprehensive mental health survey, which I discussed before, is they're working on that. That will be brought by an external agency, um but that is still in development. So, it's been less of a working committee this year, but I think there's a lot of great work being done. Um and we will be meeting in June. Um I think combined with DEI to see where we land and what the path forward is for the committee. It's a big committee right now. It's great. And it dovetails off of the you know money that we've invested in understanding the importance of mental health supports as well. So, it's great to see that it's continuing. Um safety committee, have you guys met?

096Sure. Yeah, uh just kind of a brief update on that. Since our last uh update in the January meeting, the safety committee uh has met twice, uh January 27th and on March 24th. Aside from the you know, just kind of the usual housekeeping items, uh just some highlights. Uh just couple updates on the construction and capital projects uh with regards to safety. Uh fire inspections of the buildings were completed on March 19th. And uh currently, the committee is reviewing proposed updates uh to the district safety plan, which we're going uh we're reviewing right now and will be discussed at the next safety committee meeting, which is on May 26th. And for the wellness committee, have you guys had a meeting? Um we are scheduling our next regular meeting. Although um I'll mention that um Dr.

097Sugar had mentioned potentially connecting some of the work to the mental health matters initiative um that Rebecca mentioned that the FMA Sports Booster Club uh is championing. Um and so, I would imagine our next meeting may have members of the FMA Sports Booster Club. Do you know if they're also going to be circling back in the beginning of the academic year? We talked about trying to get some student feedback with regards to um meals and quality and quantity and all those kinds of things part of wellness committee. Do you know if that's something that would make it onto the agenda before It it may. I can only say that Anna and I haven't seen the draft agenda yet, so I'm not sure all the specific things that'll be planned for that meeting. But we'll make

098a note to follow up on that. That'd be great. Thank you. All right. Uh public comments. So, I believe we have a few folks registered for public comment. So, as I call your name one at a time, you can come up to the podium. Um just as a reminder, um so, this is an opportunity you have Everybody has allotted 3 minutes um for public comment. And um typically, the board listens to public comment, but we don't respond. So, uh don't be surprised if we just thank you and um move to the next person. And then, of course, we um we would not want anybody to talk about any um district staff members or students by name during public comment um in addition. And if there's anything that we can follow up with afterwards, we certainly

099can do so. So, let's see. Um Elliot, you are up first if you're ready. Good evening. My name is Elliot Olaf. I'm a junior at Fayetteville-Manlius High School. I'd like to thank the members of the board for the opportunity to speak tonight. Back in September, I learned that FM High School wasn't going to be participating in the school lunch and breakfast program, even though New York State provides funding to make school meals free for all students through the universal school meals program. That surprised me. The state has made the resources available, and yet we are one of very few schools in the whole entire state to deny our students access to it. When I first started talking with others, they brought up their own personal issues. Some students told me that they were nervous about

100going into meal debt and that they were scared to owe hundreds of dollars to fulfill a basic human need. Others told me they want to be able to have a lunch if they forgot theirs at home without needing to pay. It became clear that this isn't just about food, it's about recognizing students who are fairing worse than others in a district that exudes wealth. It's about noticing kids who are failing, who are falling under the radar. Is it not the duty of a public institution, of specially a school, to look out for the needs of its people? With the rising costs of living, it's causing families who could afford lunches a year ago to now be forced to make difficult decisions when it comes to budgeting. And by not providing free lunch, uh we're putting

101needless stress upon them and their kids. The same kids that they are trusting you to care for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. By requiring students to schedule lunch next year, you will ostracize the students who cannot afford what their peers can't, which will only add to the heavy mental burden that they are already carrying. If FM district truly dedicates to the mental health of its students, it must do so for all of its students. Other schools across New York State have already eliminated the stress entirely by participating in the universal school meals and making food available for every student. I'd like to quote the student handbook for this year, specifically section 4, 8, and 10 in the list of student rights that all students have. Number four, an educational climate where the

102well-being of students is of primary concern. Number eight, health and psychological services to assist in physical, mental, and social development. And number 10, consideration as an individual within the educational environment. I've been working with the Syracuse Onondaga Food Systems Alliance to increase my understanding of this issue in addition to getting other students involved. What started as a question has turned into an issue that people in our community want to discuss in order to help those who are less fortunate than themselves. I'm joined here today by representatives of the Syracuse Onondaga Food Systems Alliance and parents who want to show their support for this issue. The funding exists, the need is real, people here demand a change. Thank you. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. Ask question.

103But I I do have There are many people here who have signs. I can't see any of them because of the >> they're not all the same. Can you Can >> lights. So, I I I'd love to at least See what they say. >> see what they say. If Yeah, are they all the same or No, they're not all the same. Yeah, we'll pass them around. Just Thank you. >> You went through the effort, so I'd like to at least see what they say. >> Thank you, Dan. Up. You can do different. Thank you, Dan. Uh Angelique. Yeah. Okay. Elaine. >> Good evening. Uh I'm Elaine Denton and I'm speaking tonight as a parent of three current FM students. Uh my oldest attends high school and my second will be attending in the fall. Uh

104I'm encouraged and excited for the recent engagement at FM and I really wanted to come here tonight to support the students. Um when New York announced free lunch and breakfast program for every student across the state, even though my kids bring lunch, I knew how important it was to have access to to the nutritional affordable food. And if there is anywhere I would like my tax dollars to fund, it would be filling kids' bellies. Uh I was going to believe that our high school decided not to participate with no public input or really a reason why why why we weren't participating in this really important program. Uh we we're seeing costs continue to soar for families. Uh now our tax dollars are paying for feeding kids across New York but not in our own district.

105This program is working and helping and it's popular. New York is increasing funding due to due to the demand. As a kid, I did I received reduced lunch and I you have that experience. Um and I would love to reduce that and end the stigma here in FM. Let's make sure kids have good food to eat without having to worry about money. Let's support the students who are organizing and supporting their classmates. Let's support parents by giving them the choice of making lunch for their kids or letting them eat at school. Freeing up valuable time in the in the morning. The stories I've heard from FM students break my heart. Him hearing kids going without food due to the worry of cost. It's expensive to live in suburbs and it's only getting more expensive. The

106free and breakfast and lunch program is impactful in so many ways. It gives everyone access to free nutritious meals for healthier kids, removes stigma, improves attendance, and improves test scores. Schools that participate in the program still can offer extra items you can choose to buy but it's not required for access and that's that is so important. So I'm asking as a parent of three in this district, please enroll the free in the free lunch and breakfast program for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Thank you. Thank you, Elaine. Appreciate it. Okay. All right. Moving into new business. Sweet item 4.01, approval of agreement. Uh be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District hereby approves an agreement with King and King Architects in the amount of $37,000 for work related

107to the 2024 capital improvement project at Wellwood Middle School and authorizes the superintendent to enter into the contract on behalf of the school district and take all actions necessary or convenient to proceed under the contract in connection with the project. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Sarah, and a second, thanks, Rebecca. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. Item 4.02, approval of minutes from March 9th. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District approves the minutes of the March 9th, 2026 meeting as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Anne, and second, John. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Uh item 4.03, approval of the minutes from March 23rd. Uh be it resolved that the Board of Education

108of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District approves the minutes of the March 23rd, 2026 meeting as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Christie, and second from Dan, I think. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Rebecca. Yep. All right. Item 4.04, adoption of the budget. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District hereby adopts the 2026-27 budget as presented on April 20th, 2026. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John, and second. Christie. Uh any discussion? Did you read the material? Did you look at the materials? You're okay. Yep. Yep. Uh all in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Thank you. And item 4.05, adoption of the property tax report card. Uh be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius

109Central School District hereby adopts the 2026-27 property tax report card as presented on April 20th, 2026. Property tax report card Say that. Um may I have a motion, please? Thank you, John, and Rebecca. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Item 4.06, resolution on OCM BOCES administrative budget. Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District hereby approves the tentative OCM BOCES administrative budget as presented. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Sarah, and a second. Anne. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay. Thank you. Item 4.07. Uh OCM BOCES Lots of things popping up. Uh OCM BOCES bill. That's okay. I'm having mouse issues issues, so yeah, we're Uh let's see. Okay, there we go. Um be it resolved that the Fayetteville-Manlius

110Board of Education agrees to cast its vote in the annual election of members of the Board of Cooperative Educational Services for the person or persons indicated on the ballot. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, John, and a second, thank you, Rebecca. Any discussion? All I'll say is in past years my not all past years, most past years, my recollection has been that we've received some information about the candidates on the ballot before it's brought to us. Um I don't remember I missed it but I don't remember seeing that at all this year. I don't have an issue with anybody who's on that but I think they're they're in here. But yes, we should that should have Here is this is from the meeting that you guys just went to. Oh, okay. Good It's

111not our perhaps I may have missed I've been a little occupied recently, to say the least, so thank you. Our district's representation is not up for Uh not sure. Um any other discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. All right, policies in second reading. Oh, and I don't have a little thing here. Um let's see. So we have two policies. So be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District hereby takes the following actions in second reading to rescind policy 1640, replace it with policy 2120.2 as revised, and rescind the policies found in the attached document. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Anne, and second, thanks, John. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Thank you. All right. Ongoing business. So upcoming

112meetings. Um Leave that one. So the budget hearing is May 11th. Um also we will be prepared to report out on our pilot board listening session at that meeting as well. So exciting May 11th date. And then the vote mark your calendars is May 19th at Wellwood. Um and I think we're going to change that special special meeting, right, Sarah? Figure out how we want to do that. think we're Yeah, we'll talk about Yeah, so that may change. Um and we have a proposed executive session. Um be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District enters into executive session for the purpose of discussing matters leading to the employment of a particular person. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Dan, and second from Chrissy. All in favor? Anybody

113opposed or abstaining? Okay, great. And then um we will be Oh. Did I do the right one? We have three here. Just go through them. Are coming in first, actually. Yep. And then we'll be back for consent agenda, so shouldn't be too long. But you guys are welcome to stay or leave, whichever you >> Mhm. >> Okay, we're going to move along cuz we all would like to move along. Item seven, consent agenda. Uh be it >> [clears throat] >> Be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District approves the consent agenda as presented. Oh, where's Rebecca? I thought she was here. Sure. Well, and before we vote, I just wanted to um ask that if we could pull out uh item 7.08 that uh that contract. Didn't we want

114to Yeah, how do we do that? >> Yeah. Yeah, so I'll make a a motion or I guess a friendly amendment maybe to uh to to that to pull out item 7.08 because of a a typographical error in the contract that we identified in review. Thank you. Yeah. Uh can we have a second for that? Thank you, Anne. So, we'll remove um Sarah, which one? Yes, 7.08, the Health and Welfare Services contract with Baldwinsville Central School District. Oh, yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right, so everything except for that is in the consent agenda. So, be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District approves the consent agenda as modified. May I have a motion, please? Thank you, Sarah. And a second, Dan. All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Okay.

115Great. Come at a future agenda. >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, we're not going to do individual like we're not going to vote on it individually right now. Okay. That was our friendly amendment. >> [laughter] >> I like that better. Okay. Uh all right. So, then we have another proposed executive session. And let me make sure I got the wording right. All right. Um be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District enters into executive session for the purpose of discussing the appointment of a particular corporation. May I have a motion? Chrissy and John, thank you. Any discussion? All in favor? Anybody opposed or abstaining? Great. And afterwards we will adjourn the meeting. So, all of you have a wonderful evening and we'll see you in May. Or before. >> [laughter]

116>> It better not be snowing.