001it probably would be helpful if you say your name before you speak just for the members of the public since we're doing things a little differently this evening next on the agenda item 1.03 is approval or revision of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda for this evening thank you kelly sucker from jason any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i anyone opposed or abstaining next on the agenda item 1.04 public comment sarah do we have anyone for public comment this evening no we do not should not get arrived okay uh next on the agenda item 1.05 public hearing proposed 2021-22 budget proposed 2012 we have anyone for the public hearing any board member comments for the public hearing mr furlong you have your presentation for us
002we do a little error here is there a motion to open the public here is there a motion to open the public hearing for the budget thank you dan and a second friend rebecca any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand in ti i you want to pose or abstain good evening and welcome to the required annual budget hearing that is mandated to be done seven to 14 days before the actual vote which will be coming up next week hopefully a lot of this will look familiar to the board of education in terms of all the budget workshops that we've conducted since the governor released his executive budget all the way to our most recent adoption and as many of you know i shared with you the video that mr furlong and i
003created for those individuals in our community who were unable to attend or watch a prior board meeting and as you know in the past we used to do community forums at both of the public libraries so during the pandemic the videos from last year and this year i know have been a very important source of information for our community simply put as you all know our budget for the upcoming year is really built on the foundation of our strategic plan our mission and vision encompasses and mission in particular four key priority areas areas that we have felt that have been the foundation of the fayetteville manelia school district for years past and will continue to do so for years to come and as you know this includes our commitment to the teaching and learning enterprise
004a positive school environment supportive community partnerships and fiscal capacity and responsibility and it is those areas of fiscal capacity and responsibility that you can see we've been committed to strong financial stewardship sustainability sound budget construction and best business practices and we've even been audited by the state comptroller's office in some areas that has identified our business services and being in a strong position in fact our recent iso audit validated those results and certainly the board's audit committee will be kept apprised of both internal and external audits coming up in the months ahead our accomplishments for the past year in spite of the pandemic have been many in the areas of teaching and learning we've worked hard to improve the remote learning environment it certainly hasn't been optimal for our students and our teachers but as
005you know the district has made a strong commitment to hiring an online learning specialist that's worked with the teachers every wednesday for staff development and i've been very pleased to superintendent to see the growth of the students and the teachers over the course of the last academic year we've worked hard in the area of positive school environment in terms of mental health supports there was an inclusion to your personnel or a report today from mr gordon indicating an expansion of our mental health supports for the upcoming year we've added therapy dogs not only to the high school where one existed before but we've expanded into other buildings such as ender's road elementary we've worked hard in the mindfulness second step and character ed areas and our home school liaisons have worked to ensure connectivity between
006students who may feel disenfranchised whether it's because of the pandemic or other reasons and making sure that they remain connected to school we've also improved our safety and security infrastructure as we all know our construction projects have continued whether certainly here adding cameras and other security measures uh to the buildings and even planning ahead for door hardware and the year to come up under support of community partnerships we've continued our networking and legislative advocacy the work with our assembly and senate representatives for this district has been rewarded in terms of increases in foundation aid not only for this year but projected for the next few years we've remained connected albeit virtually with the tri-state consortium and our american association for school administrators future focus schools collaborative and as you know we've partnered with the onondaga
007county health department to host vaccination clinics asymptomatic testing and testing of our athlete student athletes since interscholastic athletics has resumed and then last but not least the fourth key priority area fiscal capacity and responsibility our finance committee has worked on a long-range fiscal plan which has included projected capital improvement projects for the future we've hosted a number of budget workshops i mentioned that audit regarding our rfp cycle request for proposal cycle for professional services and thanks to the leadership of mr furlong we've targeted areas such as insurance and legal counsel as well as all other professional service areas to bring the best best value for the taxpayer mr furlong has also been responsible for the transparency and financial reporting is required by the state and certainly our facilities committee has provided the financial oversight of
008our building projects taking a look at the contingency budgets and soft costs that are associated with the projects and i'm pleased to say uh with the current wellwood project we remain ahead of schedule and under budget uh going forward and i know the facilities committee will be taking a closer look at that at their next meeting thank you dr tice so this evening i know the board has seen this budget presentation several times but there's really three key points that we wanted to focus on and we thought we'd look at it a little bit different way to this evening and we figured the best way to start was with a history lesson and we'll talk a little bit about that in a minute and then we'll switch to a math lesson and uh just to
009tease it out you know when does five point eight percent equal point one percent equals zero point zero percent and then last but not least uh we'd have to have a physics lesson so we'll kind of hold the line on that one so before i get to the lessons uh just you know a few things i wanted to mention about the budget and specifically the highlights of the budget you know first and foremost uh the budget represents a full return to five-day in-person instruction with all the pre-pandemic activities and athletics that that we've enjoyed here in the past secondly uh there is some significant debt coming on stream and we'll talk about you know what that means uh and really that that stems from recently completed projects at the high school anders road elementary as
010well as the ongoing project at wellwood we did some uh see some other expenditure increases in the areas of health insurance retirement system costs and contractual salary increases which are not out of the norm and the resulting budget if we look at just ongoing operations the budget increase is 3.7 percent but when coupled with the addition of the new debt the budget increase is 5.8 the good news though is the tax will be increased is 1.1 percent and we can certainly estimate that the tax rate will remain unchanged and we'll talk a little bit about how that's happening in a minute so a history lesson foundation aid foundation aid is the main operating aid that school districts across new york state receive we go back in time the foundation aid formula really dates back to
0112007 and you know at the time there was a promise that there'd be a multi-year phase-in of the foundation aid to the full formula because it was a substantial increase in aid for all school districts however after that first year the foundation aid formula was never fully funded uh primarily due to the recession that occurred in 2008 and for years uh we've been shorted this current year we're shorted 5.97 million dollars almost 6 million dollars short just in this year alone but while that's the bad news the good news is that the legislature passed a budget that was signed in the law it represents a significant increase in foundation aid for the fm school district this next year and the even better news is is the new york state legislature is on record to commit
012to fully funding the foundation aid formula over the following two years that could be an additional 4.5 million dollars for fm so this first this next slide is really a state a comparison this is a budget budget comparison and you can see that top line the foundation aid line is where we're seeing that significant increase 1.6 million dollars represents 16 and a half percent increase a couple other lines i'd like to highlight are boces aid which that's an increase of almost a half million dollars this past year we had to buy a lot of equipment because we were in a remote learning environment we had to buy a lot of chromebooks for our students we did make those purchases through boces which drives boces eight so the expenditures made in this year drives state aid
013next year as for the building aid you can see that building aid is up 1.6 million dollars we'll get to what's causing that uh in a few more slides and the other line i wanted to highlight was the cares act this was the original stimulus package that was passed by the federal government over a year ago and we have yet to see any of that money but we are projecting or budgeting for that uh funding in this next year the overall increase of state aid is 4.2 million dollars that represents over a 20 increase year to year which is significant uh without description it's just we've never seen that type of increase before so for the math lesson when do those three percentages equal each other well first of all the 5.8 percent represents the
014total budget increase for this year as you saw a few slides ago the 1.1 percent represents the tax of increase now remember the tax levy is the total amount collected from all taxpayers within the district but the zero point zero percent represents what the tax rate is expected to increase or estimate increase that's what actual taxpayers pay on their bill so if their assessments haven't changed if their exemptions haven't changed then their tax rate will remain at 0.00 the only outlier is those people who live in the town of pompey who uh because of their equalization rate changing they may see a more significant increase than 0.0 but equalization rates do not get published until august so we don't know that yet so you know usually when you have a budget increase the tax will
015be increased is fairly close to the budget increase but you can see this next year the 5.8 percent is rather different than the levy going up only 1.1 and that's entirely due to the significant increase in state aid for next year while the tax levy is going up by 1.1 percent why we predict or estimate that rates will remain unchanged it's really due to the growth in the tax base and once again that's a conservative estimate that we will be seeing an unchanged uh tax rate this next year so if we dive a little bit deeper into the tax overview women as you as you know the tax will be limit is really a multi-step calculation uh there's three main components that make up the tax lb limit for fm this next year one is
016an inflation factor also known as cpi and that is 1.23 percent uh we also have a taxable growth factor which is real new brick and mortar growth in our district uh which equates to a point five four percent increase and then last but not least there is a capital exclusion and this is a calculation of the difference between what debt we have and what aid we're receiving on that debt and the difference is really called the local share and if you compare the local share with the current year to the local share next year local share is actually going down and that's driving the capital exclusion down as well so if you add up those three percentages 1.23 0.54 and minus 0.65 you'll come to our actual tax will be limit for this next year
017which is one point one percent and the proposed budget uh is at the tax heavy limit and that resulting tax levy is 66.3 million dollars which is an increase of a little bit more than 700 000. one thing i did want to highlight as people have seen in the past that the tax will be increased you can see for these three years the tax will be increased range from 2.9 to 3.7 and yet the tax rate went down those three years um and that kind of is indicative of when we see growth in our tax base how it drives that rate much lower than what the tax over increases and once again as mentioned before we're looking at an unchanged tax rate for this next year all of the revenues and there's uh you know
018quite a list here i'll kind of skip through this slide pretty quick it's really this is a listing or a complete listing of all other revenue categories that we have here at fm a couple of items to to highlight interest income you can see is a a reduction in 43 000 interest rates have fallen dramatically over the past year the other item i wanted to list was donations or highlight we are seeing a 327 thousand dollar increase in donations this is specific to a uh agreement that we were able to negotiate with a solar company that is putting in two solar farms within our school district this is a one-time donation and will be used to fund stem projects throughout the district this slide just kind of breaks down the uh overall uh you know
019we look at a couple different ways what makes up our total revenue uh state aid last year was actually under 23 but with the significant increase in state this year it jumped to 26. at the same time tax levy went from 74 down to 71 so hopefully over the next two years if the state continues or sticks with their commitment to fully fund foundation aid we'll see the percentage of tax levy continue to decline which is good news for our taxpayers so now we'll switch our attention the expenditure side of the budget and as i mentioned before you know we have new debt and we have some contractual cost increases related to salaries and benefits but in addition uh it is important to note as dr teich mentioned earlier that this fund this budget does
020support the district's strategic plan we are expecting staffing to be relatively the same as in the current year we have put additional resources in the budget for a wide variety of areas but more specifically related to supporting students we are looking at increasing the amount of money we spend on instructional technology since we had to purchase a lot of chromebooks this year and ipads we got a little bit behind in our regular replacement plan and the additional money this next year will help us catch up if we look at fringe benefits alone we're seeing health insurance premiums increasing by five percent but the good news is the dental and vision premiums are remaining unchanged uh we're also seeing workers compensation premiums declining by eight percent the next two relate to our retirement system costs uh
021the trs is the teacher's retirement system we're seeing an increase in employer contribution from nine point five three percent to nine point eight represents a little bit less than the three percent increase uh for the employee retirement system uh the increase is a little more significant going from fourteen point six percent of salaries to sixteen point two which represents about eleven percent increase so i know everybody was really waiting for the physics lesson especially dr at that science background so what is newton's third law yeah for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction so what's the action well the action is capital projects the reaction is building it so when we uh gone out for uh these capital projects that we're in the pro process of doing it's going to generate additional building
022aid revenue and you know our aid ratio on building aid for the fm school district is now 80 it's been creeping up over the last few years so it's 80 which is good news and really what that means is for every dollar we pay whether it's on principal or interest related to that debt we receive 80 cents on that dollar back in building aid so that's that's really good news so the pictures here at the bottom is our you know some pictures of our our great new addition at wellwood the art room on the left the cafeteria in the center and the strings room in the right and this year we mentioned that that expense was increasing by a little bit more than 1.8 million dollars because of those projects but once again the good
023news the the reaction is that building aid is increasing by 1.6 million so you know if you look at um what's being covered we're well over 80 of our debt additional debt is being covered by building aid which is truly good news i know typically we save the employee benefit part of the expenditures for the end but we're going to take a look at it first and i'll tell you why in a minute you know you can see one line that we've highlighted is the health dental envision almost 838 000 increase and that's really related to health insurance premiums going up the reason why we looked at this fight first is as part of the three-part budget process or three-part budget presentation we need to allocate those expenses back to those three parts those three
024parts being the instructional program the administrative program and the capital program so that's why we looked at that first if we turn our attention to the instructional program this first slide is basically a listing of all of our k-12 instructional expenses since we are a fairly labor-intensive entity it should come as no surprise that the single largest fine item increase is in the area of instructional salaries we look at this next slide as part of the instructional program these are more student support activities everything from boces career and technical education special education and summer school to some of the health and guidance services that we provide for our students athletics the transportation to and from school etc and a couple items here that are the highest a uh increase is really instructional media which is
025related to that i.t equipment purchase that i mentioned earlier and also in the area of guidance health services social worker and school psychologists so those are really a look at the instructional program increases if you look at the percentage way at the bottom you'll see that our percentage is down a little bit but that's because the capital expenditure uh percentage is up because of the new debt and we'll talk about that in a minute the next portion or part of the three-part budget process is the expenditure part or i'm sorry the administrative part here the single largest line item is curriculum development and supervision once again we're putting a little bit more money in the budget to support different curriculum initiatives that we have within the district and as you can see the percentage here
026of total administration compared to the total budget is down slightly from 9.4 to 9.3 percent the capital part of the budget is really where we're seeing an increase um operations and maintenance we incurred a lot of additional expenses this year related to providing protective equipment and hand sanitizer and sanitization materials we also had reduced the budget this past year of a couple people in that area due to retirements and we're restoring those positions so that's really driving the operations and maintenance budget to a large part uh also you can see on this uh down a few lines is the capital bond at suspension notes 1.7 million that's part of that 1.84 million dollar debt increase and that's directly related to the ongoing financing of the wellwood building project you can see that the total capital
027percentage of the budget has gone from 14.4 to 16.2 so the proposed budget the total total proposed budget for this next year is 93.4 million dollars which is an increase of a little bit more than 5.1 million and as a percentage it's 5.8 transfer to capital um you know the last line and let me go back here the last or one of the last lines transfer to capital 450 000 that relates to budgetary appropriations for limited scope uh capital projects that we do each year uh in the current year we're doing work to repave uh pride mining as we speak and we're also looking at replacing some carpet with tile at enders road uh this summer this 450 000 that's in the 2122 budget is really to continue and repave the remainder pipeline and then
028do a little bit of safety related work at fm high school which makes project language in addition we feel that we're going to get a significant amount of carpeting carpeting replacement done at enders road this next year that work does also include asbestos abatement that work will not be done until the summer of 22. um but we're hopeful that if if the bid prices come in the same as this year that we'll be able to almost complete the cargo replacement ender's row hopefully we'll be able to do that so this kind of ties everything together and the whole purpose of this slide is to really illustrate that of that 5.8 percent increase almost 2.1 is really related to the increase in debt uh 2.59 you know when you add in the benefits allocation uh almost
0292.6 percent of the increase is really in the instructional program which is really where we want the increases to be so to summarize once again i can't stress this enough it's a the budget is based upon a full return to five day in-person instruction we are not looking uh it does include funding to support the district's strategic plan currently no plans to make any reductions to any of the programs that we offer our students and while we do have some increases in salaries and benefits of the biggest increase is really due to the new debt from the recently completed or ongoing billing projects and the good news is the tax heavy increase is fairly nominal and we believe that the overall tax rate will remain unchanged and with that i uh want to then turn
030our attention to the bus replacement proposition you know the school district will have two propositions out one is the general fund budget but the second one is a bus replacement proposition and that proposition is there to uh basically get voters to uh vote on whether we are allowed to borrow money to then make a purchase of five replacement for school buses these are the buses that we're looking at purchasing this next year the cost is going up a little bit we are looking at an annual cost after aid of a little bit less than forty thousand dollars for those five school buses we do receive about 73 on the dollar of what we spend both principal and interest so the state covers the vast majority of the cost of those of that purchase and due
031to the timing of the purchase this purchase will not have a budgetary impact until the following year so it really doesn't impact our finances for this next year so with that i'll turn it over to dr thais thank you mr furlong and just before we open it up to any questions it's important to remember that the budget vote will take place next tuesday may 18th the polls will open at 7 a.m and will close at 9 00 pm at fayetteville elementary for that day the teachers and students will be on remote learning and we will certainly provide additional security with our school information resource officers and we will have the staff support the vote but that the students and the teachers will be on remote learning as you in the i indicated the voting hours
032the polls will open in the morning and then close at nine and absentee ballots are available on the budget and finance page of the fm website and a thank you to our district clerk sarah gridley for all of her efforts to organize the vote in person this year and a month ahead of what it was last year in june so if you need to call sarah the number is 315-692-1200 this time we'll entertain any questions that you may have or clarifications that you think the community or public would appreciate again for those who missed tonight's presentation the video is available on our website as well craig just a question on the staffing i know that we talked about the dollars are going up and that's mostly contractual increases but in terms of numbers of teachers
033and teachers aid are we up are we down are we consistent year over year budget to budget a lot of the teaching assistants are dependent upon the individual individualized educational programs but right now we have budgeted a continuation of employees and services going forward but you're right the finer detail will be as a result of the staffing needs based on a lot of those ieps it could be supervision as well we've added super supervisory aids for crosswalks such as during the construction from fail through the wellwood area and the construction zone so we give ourselves some latitude to play with that but it should be fairly consistent looking at a big picture could you just remind us of the foundation aid that we're receiving how much of that is budgeted in next year's budget we
034budgeted the amount that was on the state eight runs actually i'm instead of going all the way back um basically we get state aid runs once the new york state budget is passed that information is given to us we basically budget pretty much from that run especially this foundation aid so we're going to get over 11 million dollars this year so 1.6 million dollar increase over the current year all right the entire 11 million you're putting is in the budget for that that's the one thing i wanted yes we did put the entire amount in the budget yes other questions questions just to thank you for uh switching it up a little and doing our little school format today don't encourage them okay thank you very much dr tyson is there a motion to close
035the budget hearing thank you rebecca a second from daryl any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i you opposed you're abstaining all right with the board's indulgence i want to go back to item 1.04 because the person who wished to have public comment is here okay good evening my name is amy caputo i'm a parent in this community i have a son who graduated last year from fm and i have a daughter who's in ninth grade and a daughter who is in eighth grade i see some familiar faces here uh thank you for giving me a moment to speak to the board um i wanted to come to speak to this group this evening as i recently received um the letter from dr tice in regards to some current events
036as far as systematic racism and our community and our school's initiative to focus on diversity equity and inclusion i was very happy to see that our district was taking some steps to work towards harmony among all the students and the parents it is a very important issue facing uh our community and our nation um when i was reading through this information um i found that i had a lot of questions that i needed clarification on um i know over the last few months as i read through it stated that this was something that you had been talking about and going to conferences and um i wasn't i was not privy to it as all of us over the pandemic it was crazy times and this was something i had not been privy to but now
037that i am um i really would like to at some point have some of my questions answered and i understand it won't be in this environment but at a future date i understand as a parent i send my children to school to learn academics i also understand that it's important and it's vital as a community that we support our children in being good citizens and caring for those around them i also know there's a fine line when it comes to teaching morality and i my question and i wouldn't necessarily say concern but i wanted to bring it forward to the board that as a parent i do have a lot of questions concerns about that um i have high regard for fm but i also have regard for my own capabilities teaching my children morality
038and i uh appreciate a lot of wonderful things as i've educated myself on this dei inclusion program and the training you went through and i've actually just recently ordered the book how to be um anti-racist by candy and i'm doing everything in my power to educate myself about this program i'm not coming here to be critical i'm coming here to educate myself and to learn more about it um i've many questions about i hear a lot about policy being created and it just leaves me it's very generic what is this policy what exactly does that entail um who's involved i see that there was a board the excuse me a board policy committee and i understand certain things have to be formulated and organized i've been on boards in this community for years i understand
039the board has a certain response responsibility create policy but when do the parents in the community get involved in this i as a parent want to be involved i want to be aware i don't want to be surprised with an assignment or something that comes home from my child that doesn't um reflect what i thought fm was teaching my children and i'm sure every parent would say the same thing um i want to know things like what exactly when you say you're coming up with this initiative are there specific guidelines are there a checklist teachers are required to teach specific items can teach you to deviate from it can the teachers take those policies and guidelines and interpret interpolate it and interpret their own um ideas of what you're saying um also i would like
040to know um excuse me let's see how how's this going to be implemented in the classroom but most importantly i would love transparency and involvement as a parent i would like to know exactly where you're going with this what's happening i found it very challenging going on the fm website as far as finding the details of it i kind of had to do a lot of research and if i could have a little bit more if you say you're coming up with policies as soon as we can know about it could you could it be available to us so that we can review it um and be a part of these committees um i also i i'm very appreciative like i said of the movement and everything the school board is doing to um increase
041the harmony among all of our students within the school and um like i said i just hope that at a later date it could be considered um that parents can be involved in this whole process and i thank you all for what you do for our children and your time i know that you're taking time out of your personal lives to be on this board and to serve us and i'm very appreciative of that and your time to be here today thank you very much for coming thank you for taking the time to come before you leave um so there will be information forthcoming on the website about the work that we're doing we've discussed it at board meetings uh recently there's an update um that we do on our board agenda under board development
042related to the dei work that we're doing and there's also information from the state i think that may be what you are referring to um the curriculum audit that we've talked about that's something that's coming from the state and so there will be guidance from the state and that will be shared with parents so that information will get out i wrote down your questions um i think i've got them all but we will definitely follow up with you thank you i know there's guys from the state but i also know like right you'll pick pieces from it so what are we going to implement from that and what do we feel doesn't is it perfect to our community so thank you i will look at that information all right thank you good night alrighty so
043now we're going to go to item 1.06 code of conduct of our availability so the code of conduct for 2021 22 is available for review the public hearing adoption of the code of conduct will occur at a future meeting item 2.01 president's report so the board self evaluation information will be sent out shortly we should be concluding our superintendent evaluation this week and get that information out to the board ahead of our special board meeting on tuesday the 18th for the purpose of reviewing or for the superintendent's year in evaluation just wanted to um thank sarah and our tech team for putting together this setup for us this evening this is fantastic and up there it took a lot of hours for you all to put this together so thank you very much we really
044appreciate that um so we've had teacher appreciation week this month i just want to say another thank you to our teachers and staff for all the hard work that you guys are putting into making this year good for our students we do appreciate it it's also mental health month which i think is something that is important that we acknowledge we do have groups in our district that are doing a lot of great work there and our guidance counselors and school psychologists i didn't want to acknowledge its mental health month school nurse week is this month as well so we wanted to show our appreciation for all the work that our school nurses have done and lastly it is asian american and pacific islander month as well so um just want to make sure that we
045are aware of those recognitions that are on the calendar and that is all i have for my report today i'll turn over to dr teich for his superintendent's report thank you president mims i put a copy of my remarks in for docs for you to follow along under internal operations in an effort to plan ahead we are required to host our organizational meeting on tuesday uh july 6th that's the first tuesday of the month unless it's a holiday it can push to that wednesday or it can be established by a resolution on another date before july 15th so i ask the board to think about that and to plan ahead because we will be approving the board of education meeting schedule at the june 14th meeting as we plan ahead for the new year under
046community relations with my recent letter to the community regarding the governance team's work on dei diversity equity and inclusion and the board of regents announcement last month we have received letters of support and letters voicing concern from the public as always we appreciate the feedback but it will be important to follow the board of regents initiative as they roll out the policy and procedures in the weeks and months ahead in fact for those of you that were looking at your nisba emails today you'll note that the board of regents chancellor dr lester young jr and the state ed commissioner dr betty rosa issued a release today just moments before tonight's board of education meeting as administ as an administrative team we will delve into that information and report back to the board of education but
047i encourage you to look at some of the hyperlinks included in that state ed release just earlier today under administration as i mentioned before onondaga county provided an on-site pfizer vaccination clinic on tuesday april 27th i'm pleased to report that we had 89 students and some staff take part in the on-site clinic i'd like to thank dr ray kilmer for his efforts to organize the event furthermore i welcome the opportunity to speak with dr andu gupta from the onondaga county health department who took time out of her busy schedule to visit the clinic which was held at fm high school in the house one gym under non-instructional and business operations i'd like to extend my sincere appreciation to our network manager mr josh becker on his recent promotion to the central uh new york regional
048information center at boces while we will miss josh's expertise in providing daily oversight of our instructional technology network we know that he will be staying in close contact contact with him when he assumes his new duties at the city wreck we wish josh well in his new endeavors in the area of personnel as you are aware our annual school budget vote and board event elections are scheduled from seven to nine next two year this coming tuesday uh may 18th at fayetteville elementary school accordingly the students and teachers at fayel will have a remote learning day on the day of the vote i'd like to thank our district clerk ms sarah gridley for efforts to organize the vote and to training the election inspectors in advance for an added measure of security we will have some
049of our school information resource officers and special patrol officers at the polling location because of the pandemic we will not conduct an exit poll survey in an effort to facilitate movement in and out of the voting location and under students uh congratulations to our students and our music department faculty for a wonderful high school music performance of a new world not only did the musical provide some light in the darkness of the pandemic but it allowed our senior students to enjoy some measure of ceremonial closure to their music careers here at fm while i was very impressed with how quickly the effort came together i was not surprised regarding the high level of quality of the overall performance so well done to our team and under the area of instruction last but not least i'd
050like to extend my sincere appreciation to our teachers and staff following teacher appreciation week while the pandemic has been very difficult for all of us to navigate our teachers have worked very hard in managing multiple cohorts of students both in person and virtually so congratulations on a job well done i was certainly honored to co-write a letter of appreciation along with board president marissa joy mims on behalf of the entire governance team is a small way to honor our teachers and all of our staff including the nurses transportation maintenance buildings and grounds instructional technology support staff clerical and so forth through their dedicated efforts over the course of the past year that ends my superintendence report thank you doctor ty for the questions for dr tyson regards his report i just need five terry and
051then dan i'm just a quick one you mentioned that we will not be doing the uh voting location um the the poll on the way out um is there a plan to do that in some other format uh we've talked about it internally we haven't reached a conclusion yet we're just trying to keep the flow of traffic going in and out so it could be something that we could follow up on it is important information i always enjoy reading and i kind of missed it last year when it was a balance okay definitely makes sense thank you so mine were too and one of them was that i think there's a lot of valuable information that comes out of that especially after this year and not having had it last year so i certainly understand
052that doing it on site but if if there's a way even as people come in to vote if we collect their email addresses and send them the survey externally i think i think that would be well worth the effort to gather that information my other question was on community relations um where you said we've received letters of support mother's voicing concerns some of those come copied to the board but i'm suspecting that many of them do not that they go directly to you or through let's talk and and i guess what i ask is that's all feedback that's going to be very valuable to the work that we're all collectively going to be doing but but we don't see that so i think it would be beneficial to us if those could be compiled and
053shared with the emails and the replies so that we have the benefit of that full package of information as we continue our work on this absolutely and as you know we've been trying to channel people to let's talk i think they think it's a gimmick but it really allows them to either put their name down or to shadow themselves as a hidden customer or they still enter the information but they're anonymous to me and then there are some that just are anonymous comments and as we saw with the facilities project we're able to compile that resort our results that it's a little more difficult with emails so i try to do what i can some of the emails as you know or carbon copy to the board so i reply all but it would be
054nice to channel people to let's talk so we tried to do that with the dei letter that went out but i i totally agree i think it would be helpful to see what the community whose perceptions are and just like the exit survey we may want to do a survey down the road to the community like that going forward all right so justin because i know you you've done this in the past off of last time let's talk so if those can just be compiled and shared on some interval that would be very helpful additional questions or comments productivity we will move on to item 2.03 committee and representative updates all right so i don't believe there will be one audit next meeting is june 16th um community relations next meeting is may 25th okay
055uh facilities met on april 6th i'm sorry may 6th did you have an update dan yep um so we went through a very preliminary very craft phasing plan um the the phasing of this upcoming proposed high school project is complicated to say the least because this project is touching almost the entire building which is a building at capacity so there's been a little bit of change driven by the desire obviously to impact the students as little as possible um so originally this had been talked about as a two year three summer project it's looking more like a three and a half year four summer project because it's ultimately touching virtually almost every part of the building so i did forward to each of you just a very preliminary draft and please understand it's very preliminary
056and a whole lot's going to change but just in terms of what's included generally speaking is a new technology edition consolidating the main office suite renovating uh some level of renovation in every house two classroom in addition at the underpass and bridge between house 1 and house 2 so that we can finally close that in and not have students passing outside to go inside and creating a a very collaborative space that's combination partially cafeteria but primarily designed as a is a collaborative workspace open within the school for for a wide range of collaborative work that would be done a new learning support center a new broadcast journalism center new auxiliary gym new photography center and major mechanical upgrades that are driving a lot of this in house one and house two so throughout the building
057so it's it's a project that is is going to really take this building that we're in tonight to you know the next level for what our students and what our programs need within the school so um more to come on that at our june meeting um they're still working through costing estimates and so we're really not to that point yet um so just that's that's the overview of where we're at and it's looking still toward a november or december referendum vote later this year thank you any questions for them next uh finances meet on june 11th mark would you have anything you want to add no i just wanted to thank bill and dr tice and everybody else for a wonderful budget um i think i look forward to a successful vote next week and
058you know i think it was well done thank you policy committee met on the fourth it's been on the 20th ellen did you have anything you wanted to add um yeah i want nothing really to add outside the minutes but um i think it was helpful we did go through all the 1000 series excuse me the zero series so that we were on the same page with regard to changes that were recommended and and sarah i wanted to thank sarah on behalf of the committee for compiling everything and sending that to us we could see it in redline version and double check with our notes so that would be helpful so that when we get everything to the board um you know we are all in agreement with what it is that we're recommending we
059did send a few policies to legal for them to put their eyes on it and we're plugging away and um you know what we're just we're doing as much as we can during each meeting and continuing at the next meeting so it's interesting at best and i think i know i'm learning from it i hope everyone on the committees have been learning from it and i just did want to thank the committee as well i know we're not done yet this year but you know it is a lot of reading and a lot of looking at our current policies with regard to nisba's policies and recommendations from our administration so um i thank you for all hanging in there and doing the work that's necessary thank you sherry third education foundation update no waiting this
060month i'll do one do one real quick just that there are signs community signs that are for sale on the ed foundation's website and i believe those are for sale through the 14th of this month um so for science throughout the community recognizing the graduating class those are all still available on their website it'd be great to get those orders thank you um i don't believe we have a legislative leave on report and student board member hey lucy do you have time for her yeah so i there were a few things that a couple of the students came up to me within the past few weeks one of them actually very simple question when is pride lane going to be done paved because that's tricky to get out of after school and then also we
061are now that we're moving forward into the remainder of the school year if there's like proof of vaccination or you know like negative tests are we allowed to attend sporting events and also there's been a few a little bit of confusion at sporting events i know that some governor came out with a rule that we're allowed to take our masks off outside i think socially distant do those rules apply for school sports or do school sports or are we supposed to wear our masks during school sports outside and then next year a few people have come up to me about the plans next year if there's going to be four days in the week five days of the week if there's going to be a wellness break and that's basically it for that and then
062a graduation question now that graduation has been confirmed the outdoor date with a bunch of rain dates how is the configuration of students and parents looking will parents sit together will students sit together um yeah and that's it all right well pride lane what's there pride lane uh the construction they said it would be three to four weeks so we're all ready week or so in i mean it's weather dependent so the more it rains the longer it gets pushed out so they're trying to finish as expeditiously as they can so they can move on to another job so hopefully within the moment or less question two uh in terms of the proof of vaccination masks to our knowledge things haven't changed for the venues inside we are trying to keep track of that dr
063montgomery who's our covic coordinator is working with our communications department and our athletic director on that recently that has opened up in terms of numbers that can attend so we are going to accommodate those increase in numbers and it doesn't uh we don't have to count the student athletes themselves where we did in the past so we are trying to stay nimble with that and adapt to the new rules that are coming out but they have treated it as an event and so masks are required as opposed to just outside socially distant in terms of next year five days a week is the plan so again a lot of that will be dependent on what guidance comes out as the cdc makes statements and then as the new york state department of health adopts them
064that will determine a lot of what we do so will we wear masks we don't know we might will there be mass breaks or you know wellness breaks we don't know at this point so we're hoping as you know herd immunity is reached and more vaccines are out there that they will lessen some of the restrictions going ahead but we are planning for five days a week and then last but not least in terms of graduation dr kilmer had to submit a plant on county health department which was approved so right now people will be on the turf the graduates in front and then family members behind i believe it's four chairs behind so a little unit of five together and those will all be socially distant from other units so the five people within
065the circle will be from the same household or family unit and then those will be changed you know six feet socially distant from the other things there but i'm sure there will be more information forthcoming from dr killmore thank you okay moving on now to item 3.01 approval of the minutes from the april 19 2021 board meeting is there a motion to approve the minutes thank you daryl and the second for mark you need discussion of the minutes all of those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i your opposed or stating item 3.02 personnel actions is there a motion that it be resolved at the board of education of the fayetteville manly school district approve the following personal actions as recommended by the superintendent elena and secretary darrell all those in favor please
066raise your hand indicate i i your post are abstaining item 3.03 approval of policies is there a motion that it be resolved with the board of education of the fatal manly central school district approved the following revised policies and second reading 7280 standardized testing program and 8360 religious expression in the instructional program is there a motion thank you sherry a second from kelly discussion although the favor please raise your hand indicate i i you are opposed or staining item 3.04 health and welfare services contract in the pacific city school district is there a motion that it be resolved that the board of education of the fayetteville manly central school district authorizes the board president and superintendent to sign the contract for health and welfare services provided by ithaca city school district for the 20 20
06721 school year thank you dan a second from elena any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i am opposed or abstaining item 3.05 202021 calendar adjustment is there a motion that will be resolved at the board of education or the fayetteville manly essential school district that upon recommendation by the superintendent of schools due to the remaining balance of emergency closure days all schools be closed for students and staff friday may 28th and that for students in grades k through 8 tuesday june 22 wednesday june 23rd and thursday june 24th become half days of instruction is there a motion thank you kelly and a sega from daryl discussion um dr i noticed um we've had discussion about including juneteenth on the calendar and i do understand that it falls within the
068region treeview week is perhaps one of the reasons why it's not included this year but um i personally would be i think it would be a good idea to recognize that holiday this year um i think it would fall right in line with the work that we're doing as far as dei um i know that it's going to be something we recognize in our calendar next year but i personally would support having that at the additional holiday this year another thought from board members or comments but it will be recognized on the um friday i believe it is you just must say you just mentioned that it's part of regent's review week can you elaborate dr tess can you elaborate what that means in terms of studying and instruction and that kind of thing what
069would be missed or included yeah that we did discuss that as a possibility as a lot of you know in terms of the back story when a federal holiday falls on a saturday it floats forward such as july 4th and when it falls on a sunday it floats back to the monday state holidays are similar but with a slight twist if it falls on a sunday it floats back to the monday which will be the case next year in 2022 june june 19th will be on a sunday so we'll float to that monday when it is on a saturday like it is this year it does not float it does it is not observed on that friday it stays observed on that saturday that being the case a lot of districts there are a couple
070that we're aware of that are observing it on that friday but for the most part a lot of districts because it falls in the middle of regent's week are staying open boces is staying open uh during that time too for the students so it's strictly at the board's pleasure and discussion but internally when we talked about it as a district office team in an administrative cabinet it is in the middle of regents week with the modified regents schedule this year because of the pandemic june 17th is an exam on that thursday there are no regents exams on that friday it would be a review session the world language checkpoint exams are on that monday we are not administering so we will be in session uh as a district for a full day on monday the
07121st and then there are regents exams on tuesday wednesday and thursday in fact what this resolution does not show is that the middle schools like the high school will be remote on wednesday and the middle school principals ask me today if they can be remote on thursday for the exam there so we would have to provide remote instruction at the middle schools but it would still allow them to administer regents exams on that wednesday and thursday you know mr catalina had a question this weekend i responded earlier today i don't know if you had a chance to take a look at that but we really did try to we understand there's differing opinions coming in from all different angles and so we really tried to target something in the middle but one thing i did
072try to clarify is that by contract for any of our bargaining units we do not have to give any days back and so i want to be crystal clear about that we do so because we feel that's the right thing to do because it's been a pandemic because it's been a crazy year but unlike some years where you've heard me say oh i have to call one snow day or i have to call two snow days in order to get to the 186 day work year for the fmta i do not have to do that this year craig i'm sorry i guess i'm a little confused on the last part where you talked about the middle schools going remote on the 23rd and the 24th is that all the middle schools um that would be
073both well i mean well wood and eagle hill they're already a remote day on that wednesday it's just k4 is monday through friday as you know so you're right it kind of looks it would be in person for a full day on monday the 21st they would have a half day or what the state is calling an early release day on tuesday the 22nd then all of our secondary buildings are remote as per our model on wednesday and so what the principal's basically asked is if they can do their schedule on wednesday for the regents exam at the middle schools can they provide remote instruction on that thursday like they would on a wednesday which would allow them to proctor staff not have to worry about noise in the hall during regents exams so for
074our middle school students high school last day is monday the 21st and so it's regents exams the high schools are forgiven in terms of the compulsory attendance for those days in terms of counting it as for state aid the middle schools are not so the middle schools would have a full day on the monday the 21st and then they would have a number or early release day on tuesday the 22nd and then there would be remote instruction on wednesday and thursday while the middle schools both well with anne eagle hill would administer the regents exams for that day okay so then for the middle school so just so i'm clear then so that for the middle schools the last day of in-person instruction would actually be tuesday the 22nd of june right and then we're
075saying the next two days are going to be remote on the 24th that's it correct correct and the rating day is the 20th of that friday right okay got it thank you so a logistical question going along with that it's probably i don't know if it's in the works or anything but if we're telling the students they don't have to be there for the quote last day of school but they have to be remote are they keeping their chromebooks indefinitely that's a great question i mean we have collected in the past i mean as you know they kept their chromebooks a lot of them participated in project soar that is something we're talking about internally whether that will be continued or some modification thereof so they may very well we may very well want them
076to keep their chromebooks with the exception of the seniors that we would collect back nothing so on the elementary level we're going back to a proposal that they end half they have to have to which i think it wasn't that many years ago that we closed on four half days um and obviously that's that's a logistical challenge for a ton of families so can you just help me understand what the rationale is for those being half days versus ending a day earlier versus i just i i read your email but i didn't i didn't know where this lands us on the 176 and 184 so i'm just very confused why we're trying to land on half day half day half day uh the teachers have asked as you as i said in my email today
077uh usually progress reports for the first three quarters teachers work on the grades the week after the quarter closes they do not have that they're not afforded that time so to speak during the last week of school things have to be wrapped up by rating day so they the term is pack up their classrooms but traditionally what they're doing are closing out the books grading lead assignments whatever and trying to finish up by the rating day on the 25th so we like last year we have to provide food service we have to do it this year so i prefer the term early release day it'll look and quack much like a half day but the idea would be is to provide the teachers with that time in order to close out the year you're right
078it's difficult on our families but an early release day still counts towards the 176 instructional days and we can only count up to four staff development days but as you know with the shell game this year we front end loaded all our staff development days at the beginning of the pandemic so we have to be in session either a full day or an early release day so that was my question so that was so that gets us right to 176. yes that's what i wasn't clear about okay thank you the 25th uh as a rainy day counts as well but it's by law it counts as a student attendance day even though it's a work day can i go back to the original topic if we are the original comment if we were to give
079juneteenth as a friday um how would that affect those uh early release days at the end they wouldn't exist if we mean traded for them is that what you're saying i think marissa's initial comment was she would like to do it as an observance on a friday if we chose to do that as an observance on a friday then how would that affect the last week of school uh it would be the second emergency closing day that we have left we have two left so some districts are giving juneteenth but they're not giving the friday before memorial day so i know based on our conversations before we wanted the friday before memorial day for a four-day weekend if we were to give juneteenth off that would be the second emergency closing day but we wouldn't
080have to do that we wouldn't have to take away the memorial day right right we wouldn't have to take away thoughts from other board members comments from the board members i mean i'm wrestling with the issues and thinking about the administrative recommendation which i know there was a lot of thought put in um i personally want to see juneteenth recognized and i understand it doesn't need to be this year as it doesn't float um i would support that over a four-day weekend for memorial day it's a more meaningful day and also understand it doesn't line up perfectly with regent's prep and a very chopped up last week of school so not sure exactly where i i stan land on it but i i definitely support certainly for next year and if it's if we're able
081to swing it this year i would i would be in favor next year it is in the calendar that you already know i'm very grateful that it's in next year's calendar it definitely should be um i wonder and this is maybe a lot to ask but is there any way that our administrators could do any kind of quick zoom team on friday just some acknowledgement even i don't know exactly what that would look like but i know it's busy for everybody but there are still people who don't know what the holiday is i can certainly discuss it with the team yeah but i also as rebecca said i respect what the administrators are asking us to do this year and i would proceed on that the last chief school officers meeting there is a district
082just to the east of us or so that's taking it and then is one to the west of us that was considering it but most are staying in session to the point where the ocean boces is staying in session just because the schools are operational on that day i think for me i mean i'm again a little bit torn on it but i mean because it's a saturday and i know we are going to recognize it next year and i know there are other groups that are not also not taking the day as a holiday because it falls on a saturday but planning going forward to follow you know the the state guidelines for the forest state holiday um i think in that case i'm okay with not having that day this year for that
083reason just because of where it falls um you know i i certainly don't want that i wouldn't hate for that to send a signal to anybody that we didn't think it was important so i was thinking the same thing that daryl thought of if there's a way and you know maybe they're already planning i'm sure there are some teachers that are already planning this but to recognize the juneteenth holiday on that friday i think would be great um but you know i mean i absolutely think holidays are great and recognizing people and our history is important um but i think as a district we'll show our true colors by the work we do on this so i would hope that just because we don't give that day that doesn't mean that we're not invested and
084involved as i think we have been so i would be okay with going with the administrative recommendation on that um i as well i'm okay with going with the administrative recommendation um i'm a little leery of asking administrators to look to see if they can do something to within each building you know i would hope that on the website perhaps we could put something up on what website um showing that we are acknowledging you know i because i also don't you know with testing taking place on the 24th from what i'm understanding or reviews i just i'm sure that's the part of the conversation that took place with all the administrators and i feel confident that if they landed on the recommendation that we handle it this year that that's really truly what's best for
085our kids this year so that's why i'm leaning towards following that recommendation i couldn't feel anything i might ask or suggest would be a public address announcement free nothing certainly not an assembly running just something i think my biggest concern with doing it this year as opposed to as it is on the calendar next year is is our students have had just an unprecedented number of not in-person days this year and i'm sure the teachers in those classes that are giving regence exams already have their calendars planned out of what lessons they're going to be doing and what regents review and test prep review they're going to be doing and it it just it's one more change to their planning calendars of how they're going to fit in material that they just haven't had time
086to fit in this year and it's one more hit to the students who have to take those exams to cost them that extra day of reviews i i would be very reluctant and not in favor of changing that day for this year because of the impact that it would have on the students taking those exams and finally i'll add um you know stepping back and looking at the academic year and the challenges we've faced um i certainly do value the importance of that june 18th however i would want to recognize the hard work that the administrators put into the thought process and their recommendation and echo dan's comments with all the challenges our students have faced during the year i think we should allow them that day to study for their regents and to have
087a class time so that's my thoughts any additional comments or thoughts on the account oh sorry lucy it's okay oh i was just saying for the recognition of it if we're not getting the day off i'm sure fmtv would be willing to do something put on the announcements and send out during um wellness breaks great idea lucy thank you all right is there are there any additional comments or thoughts on the calendar we got a motion and a second we've had discussion all those in favor were approving the calendar i'm sorry proving the action please raise your hand and kate i i ain't going to post or stay all right moving on to item 3.06 king and king's architects contract is there a motion that the board of education of the fayetteville manly central school
088district approved the contract amendment number 12 with king and king architect for the 2021 capital transfer project in the amount of thirty six thousand dollars is there a motion damn second from daryl any discussion although the fair please raise your hand and he died i am opposed or stating item 3.07 let's chase cons construction services contract is there a motion that will be resolved at the board of education of the fayetteville manly central school district authorizes the superintendent of schools to execute the contract for pre-referendum services from the chase construct construction services in the amount of ten thousand dollars is there a motion thank you callie second from dan any discussion although the favor please raise your hand in the eye i do imposed or abstaining next item 4.01 board development so as dr tyson
089mentioned there we do have an email that we received with an update from the board of regents there's a lot of guidance in there if everyone could take a moment to make sure you read through that um because it talks about policy it talks about um how their recommendations are going to affect every aspect of of um school so please make sure you do read that email and i think we'll have a discussion better to have a discussion about that after everyone's had a chance to look at that guidance but it should be it came right before the meeting started uh working agenda items none potential considerations for future meetings uh future meetings calendar so our next meeting is on may 18th that's a special meeting so that we're going to go immediately into executive
090session for the purpose of the superintendent's year-end evaluation there is one correction there the annual special services report will be june 14. there may be some personnel on may 18th but their special services report will be the 14th the last one that'll be a very special day sad day we don't return the security deposit until we get that relaxed report okay thanks to remember consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented thank you mark in a second from rebecca all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i came out opposed for saying all right now executive sessions so we do have two items proposed for executive session one is the employment history of a particular individual and the second is collective bargaining related to fmaa is there a
091motion to go into executive session thank you rebecca and a second from jason any discussion all those in favor please raise your hand indicate i i you know opposed or abstaining all right so we're going to conclude our public portion of the meeting gonna go into executive session and we won't have any public business afterwards thank you all for attending okay it's so much nicer and the mask is driving me crazy but it's nice