001Do they requ [Music] call the order of the uh 2526 uh official budget hearing for the Ford Edward Unic School District. Uh welcome everyone here in person and those of us watching online. I'm going to turn the meeting over officially open. I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mr. Reer and Mr. to uh present the budget information. I had a cookie. You could have taken the whole show. Thank you everybody for um being here this evening. This is our required budget hearing. This is on top of the workshops that we've had as a school board. There were four of those. Uh backing up from the workshops that we presented to you, this goes all the way back to the fall. Shortly after I had had enough time in the district to kind of get
002orientated with how Fort Edward had done things in the past and kind of get some ideas about how things were done. um probably was late October that Chris and I started putting officially on our calendar, you know, an hour a week to talk specifically about the budget process and that we would both have meetings with different people throughout the course of our day. And then we would bring things about those meetings to the table so that we could specifically talk about the budget process and the numbers that may or may not be affiliated with those conversations. with the intent that we could present to everybody and most importantly you as a school board a budget that you feel is a uh appropriate and fair representation of the school district in order to do business for
003next year. You've adopted a number that we have then presented now to the public uh for their fair consideration. So, the purpose of this hearing is to make sure that all that information gets out there publicly uh and accurately so that people can make an informed decision on May 20th, which is the official New York State uh budget voting date as well as the election of board members. So, that's a quick recap for everybody how we got to this point. What we have here are a few slides that I'll turn over to Chris. He'll start walking us through them. They are summaries. They're not the detailed uh workshop information, but it's the numbers of where we ended up in each of our categories. And then certainly we'll have time for any questions, comments from anybody
004uh when we get to the end. So that being said, Chris, I'll turn it over to you. Welcome to our budget hearing tonight. We will again provide business direction through transparency and detail and note that numbers that are current um at this pre time of presentation are actually the current numbers. Uh we also just got word on Friday that the governor did pass the state aid run. So all of the numbers we originally presented are actually where we're landing. So there's no decrease. So tonight we will what does the budget uh this budget do for Fort Edward? We'll review the administrative program and capital of the three-part budget, estimated expenditures and revenues, the school district budget notice, uh estimated fund balance, and estimated property tax. So, what does this budget do for for Edward? This
005is most important. What is our money going to go for? First, uh preservation of all core academic programs. unchanged for Edward student experience. Full continuation of athletics and co-curricular activities. All collective bing units are under contract. Administrative restructuring for stabil uh sustainability. Transportation department optimization capital outlay project for the piping infrastructure. So, here's our three-part budget, administrative, program, and capital. You'll see the total of our budget for what we're proposing is 13 bill461,558.73, which is.56% increased over last year's budget. And they're broken down into their subcategories and the percentage of what the whole equals out to. This is how we also broke it down into the estimated expenditures. These are special items. Uh so we kind of in there's subcategories. We've also um broke them down. But like for the finance, it's not all just
006business. It's all the supporting uh parts to what we do in our finance world here at the school. Um benefits are actually broken down in each subsect. So you'll see how that's broken down in the three-part budget. But that's again how you get down to your total expenditure compared to last year. And here is our estimated revenues. So with our levy uh miscellaneous revenue which as we mentioned uh from our last uh meeting that is with the Medicare uh reimbursement, Medicaid reimbursement, interest and earnings, tuition with the special education and again miscellaneous revenue. they're all thrown into that category. So, state aid projection again is what the governor originally projected. So, that's where we're still landing. Uh appropriated uh reserves and then the fund balance that's also appropriated. And here is our uh district budget
007notice. So, this is actually required by law, but this is uh how it's also broken down. You'll see the different percentages and how that's all figured. And of course, the three part budget really is down at the bottom. So, you'll see how those numbers also are presented. And here's our estimated fund balance. Again, we're estimating because this is kind of our projections of next year, but we are still trying to, as you see, get down to what we're uh under law required to be the 4%. So, that's how we're able to kind of do that with moving up monies. And so, that's that's where we're at. Currently at state we're almost at 16%. So that's something the governor's kind of already told us we need to stay within the 4% or they'll start uh probably
008taking some of our money because it looks like we're wealthier than we really are. So we want to make sure we're at that 4%. Estimated property tax. Again our tax of $18.98 per 10,000 assessed value. So we broke it down by 100 $100,000 assessment, $150,000 assessment, and 250 or $200,000 assessment. So taking the $150 $150,000 assessment, it will be $59 increase from last year or 4.92 a month. Any questions? Did a very good job. Thank you. That was all T9. Thank you. Thank you. Quick one, Chris. Uh, I forg capital C capital outlay project. Are we going to be getting capital outlay reimbursement as income this year or is that our It would usually go from the year before. So, it's the year prior. So, it's once we put the money in, you get the
00990% of that back the following year. So, we actually did one last year. Yep. We actually my first year of the 23 season um we actually did the IT. Okay. So, we're getting that back next year. Great. And then um we're doing lights for this current year and then that will come back the following year and then the pipe will actually be the following year after that. Okay. That's how that works. Great. But again, 90% of what we invest will come back to ours. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions? Anyone else? Okay. Going to hereby close the budget hearing. Do we want to take a five minute recess or continue on? You guys are okay. Continue on. Okay. We're doing this in one continuous YouTube or do you want to break it?
010Do you do you mind if I take a moment to just skim through the slides on the stream itself? I've only just now gotten to the point where I have it pulled up on the stream. I just want to make sure they have a chance to read it alongside having them present it. Sure. Okay. I apologize again for the technical difficulties. That's okay. this here. I mean, I'm down to that much on know my password so I can't log in on my phone. It's like don't forget password. Okay. I mean you can always get like just Okay. I just went through them all. Thank you. Think we're ready? Yeah. There's no chance. All right. I'm going to call to order the regular May 12th, 2025 uh meeting for the board of education of Denver School
011District. The meeting is called order. Please stand with me for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Hey, would you please do a roll call? Sure. Tim Clark here. Audrey all here. Sarah Vashinsky here. Cam Chester here. And Tara Ryther here. Great. Next up, we need an acceptance of the agenda. Can I have a motion to accept the agenda as president? Audra, second by Sarah. Any discussion? All in favor? I carried. Okay. The next part of our meeting is recognition of successes. We have a student that was published in the Chronicle newspaper. Um, which is very exciting. And let me get to it. That's so sweet. And I'm trying to get to it. I'd like to
012uh congratulate Gabriella Bradley. If you please come up and shake my hand and Mr. Hollyy's hand. Congratulations. Good job. Good job. We have Mrs. Bruce is here with her. Her teacher in the back. Congratulations to you as well. And mom, congratulations to you as well. Yes, you should be very proud. Do you want to give a speech to anybody? No. Now's your chance. All right. Well, congratulations. Thank you. [Music] And you don't need to feel obligated to stay for the rest of the week. Just I feel bad cuz no one's here. No, it's okay. Normally they don't have people here watching online. We have lots of fans. Have a good night. Okay. Okay, next part of our meeting is dedicated to community comments. Uh Casey, do we have any comm community comment for us? I
013do not. Okay, next up we'll get into administrative reports. First up is the superintendent report. All right. Thank you, Tim. Um first thing I want to acknowledge is the state budget has indeed uh gone through and we have accurate numbers as we've shown in our presentation uh for the school budget. We weren't sure that was going to be the case by the time we had our official budget hearing. Uh it probably I'm thinking would have been my first if the the numbers were not definitively in place for my for a budget hearing that I had to present at. It would have been the first time. So it was getting a little touch and go, but I'm pleased to know that they were in and uh as we had predicted, which is a good thing for
014us. included in that a lot of media attention to some of the governmental uh it wasn't just about the numbers and it's it's the budget was used as a way to advance policy uh in the state and the big the big one for us uh is the cell phone ban from Belltobell that will need to be implemented at uh Fort Edward and there are going to be some steps that we're going to need to follow. We're going to have to devise a plan as to how we are going to put that into place with some stakeholder input. Um, we can choreograph all of that, which we will do. The plan will need to be presented to you as a school board uh over the summer with the intent that you will adopt our plan as
015presented to you based on stakeholder input as well as administrative input and your input as board members. we adopt the plan with the intent that it's in place for the start of the school year in September. So, that was something that the governor always indicated that she was going to hold strong on. Uh she did and it was supported by both sides of the house uh in Albany. So, we will move forward with it. Also in place for this summer and I mentioned this back in the fall after we had started and it is uh also in place is as a board we are required to add the student member of the board of education known as the exeicio member of the board of education. They are a non voting member but a member nonetheless
016that gets sworn in just as you do as as board members. Um, we are required to have that in place and we will, um, I had some ideas back when Aaron was still here as to secure some interest from the high school students. I'm going to use some of our high school staff, particularly those that teach government, those that work with our our juniors and sophomores. Obviously, not going to work with our outgoing seniors on this, but this year's juniors and sophomores, we will canvas for their interest. and uh working with the administrative staff holds some some sessions to interview them and then bring you a recommendation. Uh if there's any member of the board that would like to sit in on that process, we certainly can choreograph those interviews, you will if we if
017we have enough students that we need to hold interviews, uh we can choreograph the conversations around your schedule so you can be a part of it. Ideally, we should have this in place so at the reorganizational meeting on July 1st, they are also present and we get sworn in on that date. We did have a student act official. It was two years ago. Okay. One year ago. So, you're not it's not, you know, new to us then, but it's but the district has had it, right? And um we will go back to it. Just have to go through the process to get it there. Um, quite honestly, it was one of those things with the amount of transition we had administratively that I just kept taking that sticky note and moving it further and further
018down until we got to the point where it's in the windshield very close. So, now we will address it. Uh, last week Sandy, we were canvased by uh the state end department. They have started data privacy reviews of select districts across the state of New York. And uh they call them reviews. It's a gentle way of saying an audit of our data privacy uh that we use in the district. Andy Wangner who you you know works for Boseies, but really we utilize him almost like our director of technology. He also served a neighboring district of ours who also got selected. So he's been through this twice already and was very well prepared for us as a school district with all the documentation that you need. our board policies the way they're written, our acceptable use
019agreements that every person who uses our internet here has to sign or if they have one of our devices. Um, we've gone through that process. Sandy and I sat through it. It was about a 2hour uh virtual um questioning session, if you will, and a presentation of our of our documentation. There were a few things suggested verbally to us that we should probably try to clean up. Things like uh how often do we need to change our passwords? What is the extent of our passwords? How elaborate are they? Things like that. We're probably going to get some recommendations particularly with our students on how we um monitor their use of passwords and there were a few other things but they were in the grand scheme of things minor where our website the way it's designed
020for accessibility and the information that's contained was was rated very good. So we get something in writing in a few weeks with a little bit of an action plan and we'll put that in place. Uh but even the reviewer stated that uh there was nothing there that was of concern. They're just strong suggestions to make things more secure. I also sat in on a webinar. This was a little unique. I was not aware of this, but Albany Med uh has a device and they are looking for partnering schools in Washington County that would allow for tele services to be provided for our students right in house rather than having to leave school and go to a doctor's office. And it's a device that has software and attachments that allows them to take vital signs that
021immediately get registered with the uh either a physician's assistant, a doctor or a nurse practitioner who's on the screen at the other end and they actually do a telement visit with our students in the nurse's office before we determine they need to go home. And it's of course it's not for every medical issue, but there are a lot of things that a medical professional can tell from the vitals or the camera is very powerful. They can look into the throat. And for example, if you've got the spots and the streped throats going around, certain things can be done from telemed, which you know, in a community like ours where it might be hard for some of our families to be able to get their children to uh a physician right away might be challenging. Um
022there is no cost to this. There are some agreements though that would need to be signed and there are a few other schools that uh in Washington County that are looking at this. Um this was an initial presentation for us to at least come back and talk about it if we're something we're interested in and then they would like to come and maybe do a more formal presentation because there would be a contract involved with all of that in order for it to go through. But um the device is quite fascinating. So I mean it's basically a laptop on steroids with all kinds of attachments that come off of it. It was quite impressive. Um la the 29th of April was very proud to attend the National Technical Honor Society induction for two of our
023students who uh go to Boseis for CTE. uh Jackson Chester, who some of you might know pretty well, uh was one of the uh students inducted into the honors society, as well as Leam Monroe, who is also our valadictorian this year, and she was also inducted into the honor society. So, I was held at Queensberry Auditorium uh and it was it was a very nice, you know, ceremony. And thank you for attending because I got to be honest, there wasn't a lot of superintendents there. Maybe one or two besides Mr. Holden. Yeah. It was it was very nice meeting. My pleasure. We got to celebrate that stuff. Much appreciated. Happy to be there and congratulations to to you as well. Um and then Steve Non is not here for buildings and grounds. So I have
024his report when uh when you're ready or I can jump into it first. Uh we'll wait till the agenda. All right. Very good. That's all I have then. Thank you very much. Next up, business office report. Thank you, Tim. So updates with our office. It's been a busy budget season and all the jazz that goes with it. But we uh just submitted the school nicer insurance. So this is our vehicles property insurance um just basically ensuring our building uh that has been completed and submitted. Uh we also are beginning to do our pre- audit work which I can't believe it's already upon us but we work with our auditors Bonado and they opened up their portal and we're already submitting all that documentation to do the pre- audit. Uh as Ben also mentioned that the
025state budget passed another um addition that affects my office directly is the waiver for retirees has been extended through June of 27. So two more years retirees can still work without any penalty to them. And then uh we're still working on closing our books. So that's kind of what we're doing in the business office. But that's my updates there. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Next up, elementary school improvement coordinator report. Um lots going on on the elementary side of the house. We finished up the ELA and math testing for grades 3 through 8. Um this week we will do the science testing. Um for uh National Honor Society, we took a group of fantastic kids to the Double H ranch. They had lots of compliments about our Fort Edward group. Um they jumped right in
026and helped out getting the ranch ready for campers to arrive for some of their weekends. Um, but again, many compliments and they were very impressed with our student leaders. Summer academy plans are in the works. Phase one letters have been mailed out um for some of our grade levels, and we'll be continuing to work on that. Friday, we had a fantastic author, illustrator, and publisher come and be part of uh our assemblies in both the elementary and the middle school high school. His name was um D. Jude Miller and he just really brought the kids in and really was very engaging. Then spent the rest of the day doing writing workshops with various grade levels from K through 8. So I think our our faculty and staff really connected, you know, a lot of what
027he was talking about and he really inspired a lot of the kids through just those brief moments with them. I've already heard a lot of great feedback even today about his visit. um for professional development. We had a great PD after school today at our all faculty meeting um scratching the surface on the science of reading. So setting ourselves up for some long range planning this year and for next year. Um our subgroups have been working on um you know auditing our current assessment tools such as our 3 through 5 report cards. We've had some great conversations there and had a few teachers kind of step up and go to Mr. Hollyy with me and present some suggested changes there and we'll be doing something similar with our lower grades um tomorrow. Um, I'm very
028excited to announce that we had 73 Fort Edward students enter into the National Poetry Contest in grades 3 through 11. So, that was great. So, uh, we, um, we'll see what happens. We announced at our assemblies our poetry contest winners in each of the categories. So, be on the lookout the night of the arts and the budget vote for all those to be displayed. Um, I believe I talked about our green shield um, designation and that should be arriving here very soon to the school and with that comes a press release that will go out talking about what we've accomplished um, here at Fort Edward. Um, we have also announced our P2 t-shirt design contest winners for the elementary and in the high school. Again, be on the lookout for those. So, send around a
029little sneak peek. In the high school, we had Patrick Voucher, grade nine, and McKenzie Burch, grade nine. Um, they were the winners of the t-shirt design contest. And the elementary winner, um, DaVon Mallerie, he created something that kids were very excited to see at the at the assembly. Um, and just to touch back, um, in April, Mr. Smith brought 19 Fort Edward students to the El County Band Festival in Greenwich. So, that was quite an accomplishment to have that much representation of Fort Edward. Looking ahead, we've got preK and K screening coming up this week. I already mentioned the science test. We've got lots of arts centered activities and concerts coming up. Um, our spring band concert is tomorrow at 6:30. Uh we are going to have obviously the night of the arts and P2
030showcase um and budget vote on the 20th. We are going to resurrect our Ford Edwards Got Talent talent show that's happening on the 29th of May. So that should be quite entertaining. Um, and in June, I don't think I think um, a few things to look forward to is we have Planetarium Adventures coming, which is an inflatable planetarium, and they have lots of level programs. So, teachers preK through, you know, some of our uh, middle school and high school science teachers have picked out programs that they would like to have their students attend. So, that's a great opportunity. A couple of years ago, we did it with a one-day residency with him being here. in this time we're doing it for two days. Um we also have a birds of prey program coming and we're
031bringing back I'm very proud um to say that PTO has agreed to sponsor the grandparents breakfast. So we're bringing that back at the end of June. Lots going on. Um a lot of celebrations and the kids and peers are all working really hard. Thank you very much. Next up, secondary people services report services. Um, no problem. So, uh, in the last since we last met, there's been a good amount of field trips and experiences for kids at I mean the whole school, but specifically at the high school, we've had a couple field trips. And just to um give some background about the field trips that we offer and we do here. It takes a lot of effort just in the planning piece of a teacher or an adult's gota contact that building. They have to
032fill out some forms here. They have to talk to transportation, make sure we have that sent. They have to talk to food service cuz it could impact if it's a lunch period. And there's a lot of just small key details that someone has to follow up on. And it's just a lot of planning that goes into just even going to the field trip. So in order just to do it, it takes a lot of work. and somebody's just doing it just because they feel like it's a great experience for kids. So, some of the great experiences that we've recently had was um some of the students went through their art classes. They went to Mass Mocha, the uh kind of big um gallery in Massachusetts. We had some students go to New York City through
033art classes and through positive psychology class where they toured uh parts of the city. they went to um one of the big museums in there and they just got to have experiences or one of the students had told me go I've never seen a place that big before referring to New York City. So just being able to offer some of those positive experiences for students to get out and just and see what's out there in the world. There's been a bunch of other ones too. uh we some bring in-house as Jess mentioned uh DJ Jude Miller where he did the assembly as she mentioned for the young kids but also for the older kids and when speaking to some of the kids who hey did you know like you could do drawing as a career
034and some of the kids are like I never thought of it that way and he did a lot of graphic novels and just his experiences living in New York City how he transformed him into hey you know just a dragging in the subway or this or that and some of the kids really got to connect with oh okay I can do this or maybe they're artistic but they don't know what they want to do with it. Um, another of some of the things that been going on is again the National Honor Society they did had that other person mindset through P2 and they went to the WH ranch. They got a lot out of that as a volunteer work and working with others to provide something for other people. Tomorrow the eighth grade uh girls
035are going to a girls in STEM kind of field trip at um ACC. um page tum is taking them and again it's through um at a community college it's through STEM to see girls in STEM and some of the things that they offer. Uh Friday at Hudson Falls High School we are invited through the Fort Rescue Squad to have a pre-prime assembly a MCI better known as a mass casualty incident. They're going to see what it is actually where a destructive decision or behind the wheel can impact not only themselves but other people. And it's again it's at Hudson Falls High School. It's uh for 11th to 12th graders. That's on Friday. And it's going to they're going to stage like an actual incident so they can see what goes into it to see the
036impacts that again your decisions behind the wheel could have on you but other people as well. And they have like a quick wrap up and discussion afterwards. And then um they'll come back here obviously. And then with that, prom is the week after Memorial Day weekend uh that Saturday at the Queens Bay Hotel. And so students are getting excited and getting ready for that with everything coming up. Uh just a few other things like some of the other experiences being offered is through John Boucher's the history for Edward class he teaches. They've been doing since the weather's been kind of nice, they've been doing a lot of the walking field trips to see they're learning about some of the history of Fort Edward. Now they actually get to get out and walk and see some
037of the things that he's teaching about talking about. So they've been able to do that the last couple weeks and he's been telling cuz I tell him, hey, I was a former soul middle school social studies teacher at one point in my life. So he's been telling me about all the great experiences they they've been doing and about the class and everything. Um, as mentioned, there's the band concert tomorrow at 6:30. kind of connecting with that the Triam music uh they are introduc uh the word I'm looking for inducting that's the word I was looking for some members into their honor society and that's coming up as well so there's been a lot of experiences for students in the last month or two there's been a lot of arts there's been a lot of either
038STEM things going on just a lot of things to engage students with the weather being nice and just giving them different opportunities uh on more of the administrative kind of end. I'm working on the final exam schedule, which is crazy to think that kids will be taking final exams in uh 3 weeks, four weeks, and getting ready for regent exams. I have that all ordered. They get delivered the week of a couple days before. So, that's all set. Kids are getting ready for that. Uh we've been having some talks about graduation, just getting making sure everything's ready for that. So these are just a lot of the big exciting things coming up for May and June for the students and the families and the greater community. Uh in terms of kind of on the PPS
039side and reviews, I've still been asking the question and I'm still in the high 90% of families are appreciative and they're just so proud of the growth that their student had been making or students have been making this year and they're just they rave about all the great things that are happening. I had a quote today from a parent who this is a student who does not live in the community but they have a tuition agreement from our school to come here and just in discussions about everything how's it going uh the parent said to us that well because I have to ask the question do you plan on sending to the cse so what happens uh the cse of the other district they kind of run the meeting and we're just there just to
040kind of hear and support and we our teachers and staff give their reports on how everything's going. So with that, I have to ask the question, oh, is the goal still is this the right appropriate place for the student? Should that student come back here last year? And the parent kind of interrupted their cse chairperson said, well, I hope so, cuz if not, I'll have to find a way to either rent or buy a house here so my child can go here. So that was just kind of really good to hear that this parent is really like I I will find a way to buy a house, rent something, or find a way if the school that they go to doesn't recommend that they go here, and I'm going to find a way to get
041them there cuz the parent had said, "This is my child's first time ever going to school and liking it. They had had previous experiences where it wasn't the greatest experience and they weren't so happy about it." She said uh now that their child looks forward to going to school. And that's kind of it. We're wrapping up annual reviews. I've had a lot of uh the first part of May has been a lot of annual reviews for some of those outside placements. So our students who go to wish we boseis or they go to say the prospect center or some of the other placements that we have for students and that was that great experience just to connect with their staff and those other buildings and again with the whole families asking you know how how
042do you feel what what are your thoughts and a lot of the families are you know I'm so glad that our child goes there cuz some of those supports we're not able to offer in house and so we obviously pay tuition for those students but it's also you always try to examine like is it worth the cost just seeing and hearing all the positive things in the growth. It is worth the cost that we can provide those students with those opportunities for the families and all the families have been super appreciative just hearing things of like my child has like spoken for the first time ever and starting to use their communication device when a child hasn't been speaking and at an age where they should be. So those are just some of the great
043positive things that almost make you just like tear up inside of hearing so all these great things happening. So that's just a quick overview of the secondary school, the schools in general, and of the PPS side. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Okay. And back to Mr. Holly for the building maintenance report. All right. Couple of things here from Steve. First is uh he's working on getting quotes on a new glycol heat exchanger. As they've identified, ours is currently leaking. [Music] Um have no idea what type of quote might be coming in with that but um the leak was identified fortunately I believe since it's uh related to heat uh after the main need for using it. Uh we have a major fix a class we had one class upstairs in the elementary wing
044second floor that had uh some shattered glass. Um we have we secured that initially to make it safe and uh that window has been replaced. Um we also are exploring uh the possibility uh we have one radio that's able to reach our buses wherever they are and it's located in the main office in the front. It's not necessarily conducive to for example where Kathy Trainer's office is and where our drivers are. um through some exploration of the wiring and things, we're looking uh for getting a price to also set up a second radio where it would also be available in the transportation office and we purchased the equipment and then we feel we can uh install that with some assistance as well. Uh there is a resignation of uh of a part-time cleaner uh that's
045taking place. So we will be looking to fill that position from a HR standpoint. That is a part which is in our budget. Uh and then we've spoken to you about the auction we were holding for some uh equipment for buildings and grounds including the John Deere tractor and a lot of its implements. A lot of that was stored along the Broadway side of the bus garage. Uh most of the items have been picked up and the few parts or implements that are left are being picked up by the end of this week. Uh and we're pleased to report that the whole process through the auction process. We were hoping for five grand and we secured 9500 through auction bids. So from a business decision, it was a win. and from cleaning out things that
046we are no longer using on a regular basis to becoming more efficient, it was a win. So, that was a good good move on everybody's part and it looks better from the Broadway side of our campus. It's all great. Thank you. Okay, moving on to discussion items. Uh item A is board member resignation of Chris Boucher. um he gave his regation effective May 5th, 2025. I just want to thank Chris for uh all the months that he served on the board and uh wish you well in the future. Any other comments? Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for being on the board that hired me. Is that inappropriate to say? Okay. Uh, our next item is board seat vacancies and timelines. It's kind of confusing this year. Kaisy's going to kind of walk us
047through it just so that it's on. I think if you don't mind, I might do a visual aid on the whiteboard. Going to go really old school for you. It's not that bad, but I think it helps to really see it. So, as you guys probably know, um, for our election, we have four open seats. One of those seats is a full term. So, that starts in July and goes through June of 2030. That is technically the seat that Chris Boucher was just in um prior to his resignation. We then have another seat um that was formally Ella Collins's. That seat would take effect immediately and go through June of 2027. Ken is currently occupying that seat. Taylor Boucher's former seat would take effect immediately. That would also go through June of 2027. Tara is
048currently occupying that seat. And then with John's resignation, oh, John's seat would be effective immediately and that seat would go through June of 2026. So, this was John and obviously there's currently no one in this one and currently no one in this one. The way that the election works is the person with the highest votes gets elected to the longest term. So we're going to call this full term CA. The other ones that take effect immediately for just reference I'm going to call X, Y, and Z. So in May after the election is completed, Tim, Sarah, and Audra are on the board. They're they're existing. Congratulations. Thank you. X, Y, and Z who earn these seeds would take effect immediately, right? Mhm. What the what the stickiest part is is this seat A. So technically
049this seat doesn't start until July, the highest vote getter, but we do have a vacancy with Chris having resigned. That happened to me last year, right? So you got voted off. So because your seat was occupied, you because your seat was occupied, you fell off until July. Because there is no vacant seat till July, we could put the highest person in there, basically appoint them and have them start immediately and then carry out a full term starting in July. Or theoretically, you could also leave it, bake it for June, take a month off, take a month off, and then start in July. So, I just wanted to give you a a pretty good representation of kind of what is happening, how it will land, how it works with who gets h what seat, and how
050long you end up staying on there for. Um, and then I guess kind of for you guys to decide what happens with that highest vote getter if we're just going to put them on or I think that's kind of up to you. I'm going to leave this out. You want me to raise it? Just making sure there's not going to be any point where we won't have a quorum available to conduct business. Right. We have five now. We'll have four at all points. We should have six if Y and Z don't materialize. Mhm. Then we'll still have X which will hopefully be one of Car. So why if if we do have trouble getting people to sit on the board from 7 to 5 that is all your reductions and those are um those require
051voter approval. So your your proposition correct proposition. So we wouldn't be able to do that next year. Correct. discussion. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. That was a very nice job. We've only been working on this for like a month and uh she's in a much better state of mind as clerk to you folks presenting that than she was. It was a little more cumbersome before too and I sat down and freaked out a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. But thank you. I was worried about the X Y and Z but then it made sense to XYZ. Yeah. Okay. Next item. Uh item C board of education me member mentorship. Um this was an item I came up with. I kind of like us to have like an informal mentorship next year where hopefully the
052vice president would call each of the new members or text them like every two months going through the first year. That's kind of the limit of what I'm envisioning. Just like a call or text, you know, decided by the new member uh what they'd like to do just to check up on them as they go through the first year. Does that sound okay? I just appreciate that question. Yeah. Yeah. Could it be a role for the vice president? Yeah. Yeah. I don't see why. Could it be? Yeah. Okay. I'm just picturing we kind of do this informally the next year and then the following year if we want to codify the policies or something. I think it's a good idea. I do. Okay. All right. Great. I'll just make a note with that uh for
053after the election or after the organization meeting. Next one on item D, board workshop. I was thinking about having a board workshop in June. Inviting, we don't have any outgoing members this year, but inviting outgoing members and oncoming newly elected members just to get together and kind of reflect on the past year and brainstorm ideas for the future. Um, we've done kind of like uh orchestrated or facilitated work workshops in the past where we like invite in an outside person to kind of guide us through team building. I'm picturing more informal, just Ben and myself coming up with a few agenda items and discussion topics to get us going, having dinner. Um, just a couple hours in June. Um, you guys open to that or Sounds good. That's fine. Yes. Okay. I'm thinking maybe the
054third week in June, like the 16th or 17th. Guys want to jot it down or check your calendars. You have your your phones out. You can check either of those. You thinking like a 5:30 start, something like that. Yeah. Yep. As long as I know ahead of time with work, then 5:30 is fine. I on the 18th I could possibly have a sixth grade moving up ceremony at my school that I work at. Mhm. Um, so I would have to confirm yes or no to that. For the 17th, I don't have any. All right, let's go for the 17th. Sounds good. Ben, you okay with that? I want to picture anybody else attending except Ben at the beginning of last year. What? I think that's a great idea. This is our Okay. I wanted to
055do that at the beginning of the school year. All right. It's a good idea. A great idea. Um, sometimes we do a building tour. I don't. Okay. I'm not particularly too small for that. Okay. We haul kids and we chase them around here. We don't follow here. You'll have instruction for them. All right. Great. Okay. So, tenatively on 17th of June. Yep. Next up, superintendent evaluation process. We did this I think the first year I was on the board. um and then skipped it the next year. Um it's just kind of uh good practice for school boards. It's not really like to evaluate the superintendent for their paying benefits, but just to maintain communication, kind of do a once a yearly check-in like how doing that we think you're doing. Great. Um, yeah, that is
056informing that there's like a online process that Yep. It's your members of uh the state school boards association. Now, you have access to an online tool that is uh very self-explanatory and easy for you to fill out as individuals and then it can be sent to either the clerk or the president to tabulate the official evaluation. So, you have your individual one and then it tabulates the rubric scores andor comments and that sort of thing and the superintendent also fills it out from a self evaluation process. This is all choreographed through the school boards association. Okay. And then a total combined summarized version gets put together that then gets reviewed in uh the intent is the final one gets reviewed in executive session with the superintendent and then superintendent and the board president signs off
057on behalf of the collective group and then there's your you know there's your evaluation process. But because it's an online and you're a school board member you would all have access to be able to go in and do this as individuals and it then it syncs with the school's version and it makes it very seamless. It's a tool that was used, you know, in the different superintendencies that I had prior to coming here and it you can make it as elaborate as what you want to write in there or as simplified as you want to write in there. So, um, and it it's a cross-section of business items, curriculum items, public relations. I mean it it allows you to really look at all the different aspects included in the superintendency, not just, you know, limited
058selection. You can make it cover everything that really flows through the district office. Yeah, that's like that. That sounds pretty much like what we did before, but with paper forms and then one person like combine them all into one form. But I don't know how that works. All right, sounds good. Yep. Is there like a start date for that type of process like uh for the summer or there's a webinar that was going on on Wednesday and we hope to attend. I was say there's some kind of training that we could see that way we can like log on and start using it get used to it using it now but getting used to it for and then you could go on and log on past webinars and see it in practice how it was
059supposed to work and then once you agree that that's what you're doing. Can we get that in an email like websites links all of that information in one email? Sure. Please. Thank you. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We're moving on to our consent agenda. These are um agenda items that happen every meeting. We usually approve them all in one group and we'll do that again tonight. So, can I have a motion to approve uh consent agenda items A through D? Can the motion and a second for? Uh any discussion? All in favor? I carried. Okay, moving on to action items. Um I'm kind of going to go through these pretty much one by one. Um because some of them deserve a little uh description. I can do the first two
060together though. Couple fixed asset disposals. Um I got A motion for items 8A and B. Ken and Sarah. Any discussion? No. Just want to say these were purchased with tax dollars, so they're in the budget as surplus items to be approved. All in favor? I carried. Okay, the next one. Item C, prospect school contract. Can I get a motion? Audra and Tara. Any discussion? Uh, this is pretty standard. It's a all know what it is. Okay. All in favor? I carried. Next item. This is AD the F AAA M OA. Can I get a motion? I have a question about this. We got a motion to put it on the floor first. Okay. Second. Podra. Any discussion? Go ahead. Um, what is the housekeeping part of it? I'm I'm guess I'm confused on what it
061is. It's not really descriptive in here. Yeah. You want me to jump in? Go ahead. Y. So, uh, the administrative unit uh, here at Port Edward, uh, we don't currently have any administrators that are permanently or probationarily appointed to the administrative unit. Okay. We have a teacher on special assignment and we have an interim principal. Those would be two people who would be in that union. Um their contract expires June 30th. In talking with our labor labor relations specialist Rachel Rossto as well as uh because our administrators are part of ses which is the statewide association of school administrators who would represent them in negotiations. We all felt that since we are in the process of hiring new administrators to be a part of this. Instead of negotiating a new agreement that we don't have
062people in place yet, we would extend the existing agreement one year to allow us to get people in place and then we can decide what the contract terms. That makes sense because I was confused. Thank you. Yes. How's it house? Who's getting cleaned out? Perfect. Thank you for your I personally think negotiating against nobody is a great way to negotiate but you know it's not good practice. Thank you for the explanation. I appreciate it. Y Okay. All in favor? I carried. Okay. Next up letter E. The FITA MOA. Can I have a motion? A motion. Audra second. Tara, any discussion again? Do you want to deal with this? Yeah, I'm I have some concerns. I'm all for giving people opportunity and I reflected on this after we talked about a little more. I'm not sure
063that the public should pay for that opportunity, though. If we're giving a waiver to the person that's not exactly qualified position, that's pretty much a given. And if we give them a 2-year waiver, they should provide their own um education and not to taxpayers in my way of thinking. What do you So this is a reimbursement for the Pedmont number two. Yes. Sorry, I'm looking at my phone here, but it's not coming up. That's all right. So I had talked about uh when I briefed you on some possibilities. This is a reimbursement of of education. Yes. So they would be required to pay the education upfront. Yep. And once secured it, there would be a reimbursement with the intent they would have to work seven years for the district and then they would not be
064responsible for paying it back. If it's less than seven years, it's prrated how much of that they would have to My concern is that it's not enforceable. It, you know, if they were to get an attorney, it's it's going to be sticky. I've already checked into it. And the other problem that I have is that we're setting precedent for the rest of our staff. We're gonna have most of our teachers have always paid for their own education. We've not reimbured them for it. So my concern would be that later on down the road, they're going to say, "Well, past practice was we paid for the media specialists to get their education. Why can't I get it for this position?" I I did some thinking about this and I I just I'm very concerned about the
065taxpayers reimbursing for education. I mean, I think that we're allowing the opportunity for a person that might be great position and doing a great job and we're giving them a waiver for the next two years, but for us to pay for it as taxpayers is a concern to me. I don't that's my way of looking at it. We can have more discussion about it, look into it more. Yeah. Y it's I just giving my opinion I agree. I'm looking for that to table uh to table it for next meeting or table it to discuss an exact and come back possibly move on it. I don't know. I'm not I'm just giving my opinion. I'm not speaking for everyone. So it's what everyone else wants to do. I just I in good conscience can't have the
066taxpayer reimburse for an education that every other teacher has paid for themselves. thinking about it the more I reflect more time let's do a next meeting so that we can actually like really and maybe discussion just okay session table Tara second Sarah all in favor I I carried Okay. Item F, another fee to MOA. This is for chaprons for music festivals. Um, gives them two days of two sessions of chapron pay for music festivals. Um, Ben said this was in line with other, you know, common practice, standard practice. Shoot. House supposed to get a motion first. Can I get a motion on that one? Adaf Ken and Sarah. Any discussion? Any other discussion? That seems seems good. Pretty standard. Yep. Okay. All in favor? I carried. Okay. Next up, 8G, the fastest MOA. This is
067to help establish a uh permanent um teachers aid like we've been discussing the last few months. Yeah. Like a permanent sub substitute teacher will be here. Yeah. Can make a motion on that. Terodra. Any discussion? Question. Further discussion. Go ahead. What is the contractual hiring rate for this position? Uh it would be step one of the contract for best for TA. So is it below the 1849 or is it started right? Oh, it's on my head just Oh. is step one fest's salary like yearly is it or is it hourly? It's a contractual rate that it is paid hourly. However, you are guaranteed a sum of pay as long as you don't take all your sick days, whatever. But it is [Music] uh they tell you basically this is how much you're going to get.
068My concern is just if we're hiring somebody in as a sub higher than what we're paying a TA to come in and work for us permanently. I would rather work the sub pay than I wanted to come in and work permanently. No, I I get what you're saying. I just And I don't think it's fair to somebody that's getting hired in permanently for someone for them to get another person to get paid higher. It would be the lowest rate level one but in compliance with the law. So you're looking at minimum wage and or the language for step one in the in the contract and it's a one-year basically is a it's almost like a pilot agreement to see if this is a position that works well for us in managing our human resources with
069absences. Um, and that's what this is signifying is that it's not binding for adding the position to the contract permanently. It's a one-year uh trial program to see if it works. I No, I think it's a great position to have. I think it's definitely needed. I just don't want the discrepancy in the pay for people. I just don't know that that's there. Right. Okay. So, do we need more information or are you are we okay to 1849 to start next year? That's that's okay. Yeah, that's fine. That's okay. Okay. Okay. All in favor? MG? Yep. Carries. I group the next two together. Bowling merger and baseball made baseball merger. Um so kind of a motion for items eight uh H and I together Sarah and Ken. Any discussion? Um these are just mergers that we
070do every year. We got to inform the league. They're placeholders a long time in advance. Yep. They might not happen, but uh can I get uh all in favor for these two? I I carried. Okay. Next up, item J, a donation from Crystal M. Can I get a motion on that? Tara and Sarah. Any discussion? Thank you. Thank you very much. This is for a generous donation of clothing to the school nurse. All in favor? I I carried. Next up, donation from the Aderanak League. Take a motion, Ken and Sarah. Uh, this is for a generous donation for the Aderanak League in the amount of $82.50 for the Fort Edward Backpack Program. Thank you so much. Thank you. All in favor? I carried. Next up, item L. Donation from Christmas Project Santa. Can I get
071a motion on that? Sarah and Ken. This is donation from Christmas project Santa in the amount of 10,000 for the backpack program. That's awesome. That's great. Thank you very much. Thank you. All in favor? I carried. Okay. And item M, election inspector rates. Can I get a motion on that? Tara and Audra. This is to establish election inspector rate of pay uh for the upcoming election. Any other discussion? Okay. All in favor? I carried. Okay. Moving on to personnel. Going to read the little blurb here. All appointments are subject to change in compensation proration pending emergency school closings and require reduction of force. All coaching appointments are made pending completion and verification of all required coaching credentials with the stipen perfeed contract measured with experience and no other salary benefits. All coaching extracurricular appointments are
072subject to reduction compensation proration pending final student enrollment numbers and pending the outcome of any potential mergers and emergency school closings. I'm going to kind of just group these together by by function. Um, can I get a motion for items uh A and B together? Audra and Cat. Any discussion? Thank you. Yeah. Again, thank you uh for your service district. All in favor? I carried. Okay. Then moving on to the election staff. I a motion for items C through F. Tara. Second from Sarah. Any discussion? Again, thank you for your service, especially Kazy. Thank you. All in favor? I carried. Okay. Next up, summer academy staff. Can I get a motion? Uh items G uh G through X. Motion from Sarah, second from Ken. Any discussion? Thank you for doing this. Thanks for giving up.
073This is an amazing program. All in favor? I carried. Okay. Okay. Item Y, student teacher Eddie Gillis, I get a motion. Sarah Audra, any discussion? I think that's really neat. I thought it was really cool for him. Yep. All in favor? Carried. Uh, item Z had bus driver W. Gray. Can I get a motion for that? Bus driver. Terra. Second from Sarah. Any discussion? Thank you. So, he's going to finish out his uh current position and start with us July 1st. So, great. Thank you so much. Welcome to the team. All in favor? I carried. Okay. Now is the time of the meeting when we have time for a second public comment period if needed. Have there been any interested public comment people? Nope. Okay. Okay. Uh, we need to enter into executive session next.
074Uh, can I get a motion to enter executive session? Sarah and Ken. All in favor? I. Excellent. We are in exact. Question. E for today and coming back and voting on it or is that next? It's table for the next meeting. next meeting more time. All right. Thank you. I'm I'm older than you. I'm older than you. Are you older than me? Yes. Can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting? Sarah and Audra. All right. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi. Thank you everyone. Thank you everyone here.