Fort Edward Board of Education Meeting 03/10/2025

001e e e all right I'd like to call the March 10th 2025 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order would you all please stand with me and FL flag okayy would you do a roll call for us please sure John Google Elmo is not here Tim Clark here audre all here Sarah kinsky here Chris Bower here kener here and terara ryther here excellent thank you uh the next uh order of business is to accept the agenda for tonight can I get a motion to accept the agenda as presented Sarah and audre any discussion yeah um I would like to what what uh where is that second Chris that is on the take no rush be under action item [Music] D um I would like to to table the ad uh the adopt the

0022025 2026 budget um I'd like to have a little bit more thorough uh meeting with Finance before we go ahead to present that it wasn't uh had no idea that was going to be presented here tonight so is budget calendar yes we do have some time built in to make sure we have all the publication dates um that are supposed to be under law we do have some time both this is early for us okay um but it would have to be scheduled I would say within the next week yeah if we can do one next week quick just for a vote uh what do everybody else think I'm okay with that seems F probably get together next week y I'm good with that um so do I need another motion to amend this this

003this agenda we just table just table it right sure it was my thought process was is that you could accept well okay I think you can just Mark to table it Market table yes yeah uh all in favor approving the agenda with the uh budget vote section 9d table all in favor I Carri than everyone okay our next section of the meeting is called recognition of successes we're going to be recognizing the 2025 aori and salor Y uh Tim thank you uh we had invited our valorian Salud atorian to be here this evening um obviously they uh were not able to make it but I did want to go on record with you as a school board um you know as an academic institution it's uh and all the effort we put in to get

004them from where they start with us to where they finish our senior class to honor a very unique setting and that they're both from the same uh home uh maharet Monroe uh is our valedictorian and our salutatorian is Silas Monroe uh very proud of the effort both of them have put in um you know academically as well as being the the people they are and being involved in the things they are we have a couple of certificates here that are that are signed by myself uh Tim and I'll make sure that they get those um they of course will be honored at graduation as well but I thought since we just informed them uh a short time ago and then I made an announcement to the entire student body of who they were and ask

005the student body and faculty and staff to help me recognize their accomplishment I I wanted to present them to you this here this evening as well so that's where that comes from and I wish them both all the best and we'll see them again with these honors at the graduation ceremony okay how about a round of applause for okay our next section of the meeting is community comments um if there are any Community comments now the time I do have one okay that be me that would be sorry okay I guess I'll come over here since it's uh little weird hiding in the corner so uh on page to me I uh I wanted to come here and kind of express some things that have been going on because I think it's important for the

006board and the community to know what's been happening and uh I try to briefly write things down it is double-sided I'll do my best please bear with me so I wanted to say right I felt compelled to be here to be the best Advocate I could be for my girls and when I say my girls I don't just mean forever girls I mean the Harper girls that have been playing for me as well I passed out a letter to each board member because I didn't feel like I could fully encapsulate my feelings tonight um so I hope that at some point you take your time to read it to get a better understanding of what's been happening first I'd like to say um again I would not be here if I didn't think this would

007benefit both the Ford award and the heart for girls program this is my fifth year coaching and each year kind of crazy of me I track every single at bat of every single game every season so if you said hey what did this kid have have two years ago play playing against haly Lazar I could give it to you because I I don't know I like to be like a science teacher and track the data to really see everybody's playing time um if you're interested in that data I can share it with you gladly um I just wanted to highlight some things my second year coaching I had 23 girls on my modifi team just me my second year or sorry my third year I had 18 okay and again just me and just if

008anybody's unsure really there's only nine positions on the field modified I can get away I have Rover I can play 10 but still I can only feel 10 girls I have 23 and 18 so those were obviously challenging Seasons at practice I have all the girls all at once with just me and especially at modified I mean half of my girls had never even touched a softball before so it's you know I'm teaching them foundational skills how to throw a ball how to hold a bat how to you know communicate a play like if I have the ball where do I throw it to these are things that really every girl is very needy with at modified and I felt like I could not accomplish what I wanted to accomplish in a season you know

009trying the very best that I could with the sheer mass of numbers that I had each year um the games were maybe even more crazy because again it's modified so I'm trying to get everybody playing time and there's only 10 spots so my lineup cards instead of having just one row or one column I have two everybody goes down one line and then we go down a whole another line and then we restart so we had several games in the season where girls are getting one at bat right they get up to bat they've never played softball before they strike out that's it they're done there's no adjusting to the pitcher trying again try again next week when we have another game um and then my diagrams I used to hand draw diagrams I mean

010I still do this too where I have my substitutions because every inning there's a whole new group of girls on the field so maybe your daughter plays the first inning she doesn't play the second she plays the third but you're sitting through the whole game trying to see as much as you possibly can so obviously this is frustrating right it's frustrating for me because I feel like I'm not able to do as much as I want to do in a season it's frustrating for the girls they feel like they're not growing as as much as they should be each season I'm it's frustrating I know from parents that have spoken to me saying you know my why is my daughter getting one at back grandparents even why you know we're coming to watch the games

011every week we're only seeing what at back what am I supposed to do right I have 17 other girls on the bench also wanting the same opportunity um So within even with these struggling Seasons Right girls still show up every year girls still show they assume that the next year is going to be better last year what the scenario last year was we found out last minute that we had nine signed up from Hartford and 11 signed up for Fort Edward so I thought this might have been the that last year might have been the year where we could finally say okay we are going to start building up our separate modified programs the issue was that Harford did not believe that those were strong numbers so we still merged but 9 + 11 that's

01220 again and I said this cannot continue we cannot continue having an effective again for Harford and forever girls cannot have an effective season with this many girls on the same team so my previous administration gave me two options the first option was to cut girls which I said it was never going to happen it's never happened at Fort Edward at the modified level I wasn't going to be the first coach to do that i' actually had in basketball a couple times I had to but because the board at the time didn't there is an AB two team process in basketball that you can do got and they chose not to for some reason at that time I wasn't on but I remember the time well gotta it's not a good practice Yeah I didn't

013know that thank you well can I before you go any further can I ask you couple questions did you explore the two team option in the years that you did have enough in the years that I had the 201 team no the other thing I would ask you is it have you ever considered it in maybe just even for this year mhm the uh three the ABC team where each kid is on two teams you stagger they play two you play three games a week they play two no we other two they play two we did something similar last season but those first two years we did not we play a little bit games but there'll be less people in the gamees right right we um we did something kind of like that last year

014okay yeah so so last year when we did merge so that was actually my idea last year which was okay uh we're not going to have because the second option was to have two teams but they wanted one team to be the good team and the other team to be the bad team and again I didn't F feel like that was the right mentality when we're trying to build up our program that we're already it's pretty much cutting Girls by saying you're not on the good as good team so instead the plan that we did was we had a Ford Edward team and we had a Hartford team and I only swung girls as needed and I had a different girl swing to play every time so for example the Ford Award Team they had

01511 girls I wouldn't pull any hardford girls over the hardford team eventually as the season progressed they ended up only having eight girls so I would swing a four hour girl just to fill a spot right she' played where a Heartford girl did not want to play and she batted last and that's how we worked it out so and and that those games were so much better because your your players were playing the entire game and everybody's you know getting more experience the issue with that was we had to cut our season in half I was told we could only sign up for 14 games so each team only got half and half they had to share so I still as much as that was better well the only thing with the threes what I

016said the one the ABC is that you can actually schedule more games if the budget allows it because the players can only play in a certain amount of games okay you can schedule more games but each player is only allowed to play in certain amount of games gotcha that's why a yeah so if you had there 18 games in basketball right Varsity players can only play even if they play a JB game that still counts as a game so okay they go back up they lost a game so it's the same thing in any sport but got there things to look forward to but I mean that's not the goal right right right and we get it we know what's going on I had a conversation with Mr Hy just the other day people were

017asking about up from the other side you know yeah it's a tough one because you want to make sure that there's a program going forward in both sides absolutely we we don't get we can't really get involved in like negotiations or anything we have to count on the recommendation from the superintendent and I think you have a better one uh better grasp he's got a better Gras of where we need to go going forward whether we're going to do listen if we don't have numbers and we look at a snapshot we say oh for fourth to Fourth to 12th grade we don't have enough boys to play baseball we don't have enough girls to play softball but maybe it's one of those Sports we that we might have to start looking at other other options

018here you know for things kids are going to go out for because the mergers the only benefit the only downfall to the mergers right is you're is you're going to get over you're going to get overburdened on teams and if you can't split those teams you got it's going to be a problem on either side Patrick Patrick sat on the bench for a whole year played one inning a game in seventh grade and then played three Innings a game or four Innings a game or something in the next year I understood that but a lot of lot of time for them too there was probably 177 kids on 18 those when they a lot of those kids stopped playing right and that's what I'm afraid of right that's what I'm afraid of is like because

019of this now we're getting kids who maybe used to be interested who no longer are so just to kind of give you still about last year when we ran those two teams another thing that I tried to prevent was the the transportation it's a 20-minute ride whether they're we're going that way and then 20 minutes back or they're coming this way and going back so I said I was going to be the person going back and forth so I borrowed the Ford award van and I would run practice at Harford from 3:30 to 5:00 get in the van drive back to McIntyre Park had practice 5:37 every single day two teams you know two practices and clearly again that was better because I could do more with less girls right but I'm going crazy driving

020back and forth and just to point out to be clear just you know to say I didn't get paid extra for that I didn't ask to be paid extra for that you could offer me 100 times what I was paid for that and I wouldn't want it just to say like I I still didn't feel like me running around back and forth in the Girl season getting cut in half was worth it I it was better than 23 girls but it wasn't 100% season experience like every other District gets um so just to keep on going again right so the season's cut in half uh this year because I try my best to monitor girls as they move from seventh grade all the way up to 12th grade I felt confident that with based on

021returning numbers and current Ford award signups that we actually could field more teams than we had before that because we have Ford Edward has 11 girls currently as I speak signed up for modifi and we have 24 girls signed up 9 through 12 okay and Hartford should have 12 returning Varsity players and there are six freshmen six freshmen that should be up for grabs and I say that because freshmen do not have to be on varsity they do not have to be on JV they could be down on modifi which is what other districts in our area do there are other districts that are larger than us that do not have JVS and they keep their freshman down and they have a full modified and whole full varsity and their season is still successful so

022I thought that you know that if we could have as many different teams as possible even just for just one year that that would be better like everybody would get more playing time forever girls would get playing more playing time Harford girls would get more playing time and that is kind of I thought the goal of us talking um and then I uh I was reaching out more and from the sounds of communications that I'm getting from athletes that there are at least five girls that played last year that are not yet signed up over in Harford and three of those girls I know are Juniors that have played when I first started coaching in seventh grade and they've played all the way up through and they even played in the summer league and they

023have yet to sign up so they're not involved in those numbers that I just said um so I guess what I'm trying to highlight is is when we're expressing that there might be again too many girls on JV one of the suggestions was we would just have an A and A B team again you know or try to divide it up so we'd have two teams that are back to kind of normal size but the issue on JV yeah and and I guess I'm just kind of trying to highlight hey there's only that this time it sounds like there's two girls that were missing last year we were short one girl and we cut our modified in half this year we're short two girls and it sounds like we're trying to cut our JB in

024half and I feel like there are people not just in this community but in harford's community that may not even know how close we are to this number like it's it's that close just a couple more girls what's that how many freshman out of the grp our group or their group The JB all together well so the issue is is that I know out of my group uh I'd have to look up on my phone I could tell you that number but for their group I know last year I had six eighth graders but they when they've communicated their numbers won't have not expressed what the age groups are in those numbers yeah okay so I don't know how many have how many you figure it's going to be What's the total number including there

025just your ask for for what JB have including them oh sorry so that should be 16 girls 16 girls okay so if you so if you say left three unmodified right I'm saying the the they've already suggested that there might be a few that they feel like they want their varsity to be a competitive varsity as do we right we don't want a bunch of girls on our varsity team that don't need to be there just to sit the bench right so we're saying this is the amount of girls we would like and then we can still have a competitive JV team but they are suggesting that they don't want to try to have their own modified and keep the Freshman all the way down and they have a small like a normaliz team un

026modified they'd rather how many do we havei we have 11 right now yep we have 11 so if you left three down and you had 16 you have 13 and 14 that'd be a lot better it it 14 I modified 13 on JV if you left three freshmen down totally all the way down brought them all the way down if you brought them down modified if you if you combined number of 16 oh so sorry they have four unmodified too so they want four unmodified and then plus and again this is just as of today because the we don't know official numbers so just to say to maybe highlight something you can play with eight it's not the best case scenario you take an out every n better but you know what last year we

027played with eight we had a girl get hurt we had people sick and we still won the game and to be honest with you if I was a player I would rather be on an eight girl team where I'm playing the entire time and I and okay we take it out but maybe we could still win versus being sit on the bench on an overstack JB team um so I guess I just wanted to say I'm imploring you to hear from players and families that have experienced this mortgager before uh I believe with just an ounce of effort in recruiting that's the key issue the issue is recruiting we would able to see districts have both districts have more playing time and uh last year I actually went before our season started to try to

028have like a rallying speech to the Harford School District like come on let's try to get some girls to show up again who am I I mean but um I I don't I've s I've offered to go there again this year and it has I have not heard anything back about that so uh I I just feel like I can't keep motivating girls to stay in this program hoping that they finally end up on a normalized team competitive team just for it to not happen year after year after year and I totally understand merging for survival totally but it feels like not everybody's doing all that they can to build the program and instead accepting that the merger is just going to last forever if the opportunity presented itself to not merge even for just

029this season I'm not saying I'm advocating for this forever but I'm just saying for this season I don't see how both districts would do everything that they can to have the smallest teams possible so that all of our girls get the most playing time and I I you know obviously I've been on those large teams and I feel like they should only happen if there was really no other options at the end of the day everyone's going to have more fun and a more impactful season being on a smaller team and we should be striving to achieve this if possible our girls and coaches will be burnt out from dealing with the same chaos every year and I really to point out I really feel like how do we expect players to be able to

030compete at the varsity level when they do not receive any playing time at the sub Varsity level so I again I encourage the board to listen to community members who have experienced this mergers the ones who have witnessed their daughters get one at bat or play at every other inning or their season has been cut short I know I absolutely PA you're telling us all something most of it we already know the problem is there's no solution we can't say okay we're going to we're going to sell we're going to say okay cut baseball because that's what no no no no I don't think baseball s should be spoken together at all I think that's not a reality well they're not even only one school but tied them so is that that is saying that

031the girl Sports is is tied to boys so the girl Sports matter less than the boys for them it is because their boys don't need us but we they're in the same situation that you're in with them it's a it's a catch22 they they need us for softball we need them for baseball so we you have to tell the girls sorry we don't care about your softball experience because the boys that's a totally different sport if you want us to sell the boys down the river because there's it's been just the opposite way the girls had no numbers and the boys only had numbers and we we had mergers on the girl side we can't and if and if we sold them off on football or one of those other ones they would and our

032guy when we had that they wouldn't have let us do the sports of fair place like there's always a give and take we can't sell one part of the but but that's I think that's a key point I'm not trying to say that Harford oh well what I'm trying to explain that I actually I sincerely believe that they actually have more numbers and more athletes than they might even realize because there has been no out I mean you might know me right yeah I speak to Pat all the time about hey are we playing football are we playing basket I I talk to all kids all day all year trying to encourage them for sports right I don't know if that's happening over there listen you're speaking to the choir I've been running Sports in

033this house 25 years and begging kids to play off the street and making every single level have kids that's what I've done for 25 years I am not a anti- sports person of course I'm not suggesting here's the thing we can't control Harvard they tied the two together there's nothing we can do about if we say Okay B we're not taking your softball kids are going to say okay we're not giving we're not taking your B but the difference between that is is that if they cut off us for baseball we actually wouldn't be able to have a baseball team where I'm saying if we cut them I'm not I don't even want to use that language if we said are worse for us if you're saying if we if we don't I'm saying the

034Harford program is better than it should be and I think a key issue with that is that there's no modified coach at that level recruiting girls and if somebody was in that building and said I'm going to coach modified softball I I'm sure that more girls would show up and I genuinely believe that if they were if they told they're girls we need two girls and we can have our own team this year abely we can't tell them what they have to do we can only say do you want to merge with if they say no we got no baseball and it may never come back I think that's an extremely unfair thing I think it's extremely unfair thing to say softball was in that same position and we didn't sell them down the river

035or if another girls Sports were down the river we wouldn't sell them down the river again so when was the last time that the conversation there are modified there are JD kids there are modified baseball kids and JD kids and those guys will all be gone they will be when was the last time that Harford was asked like about the merger and we talked last year okay no I just talked with Harford many times leading up to this meeting here everything and and thought we should support the softball going independent I had conversation with and was headed in that direction all along right okay um so are weing options p connection to Harford with what the numbers are because she's coached a lot of those girls and who's playing and not playing I don't have

036that kind of close information but I have had conversations with the superintendent about where we are on all of this um and I in the in the big picture of moving us forward given the time of year that it is I felt like my original decision for our softball to not merge with Harford separate from baseball um was caught Harford offg guard that they weren't prepared for that all along they assumed we were merging with them and I felt in here in the 11th Hour um that's what they were assuming because they were not informed back in October when I had had merger discussions that we were were to notify them that we were going independent it didn't happen forward didn't notify Harford back in October when I had a merger meeting that our intentions

037were to go independent okay so here we are we've got a program and coaches that have done everything right to be a standalone softball program Hartford was probably resting on their Laurels a little bit with like piges indicated as far as recruiting getting the coaches in place and things because they assumed we werein and just in the 11th couldn't pull that plug on them and leave four of their modified girls without a team and some other situations in place but I've clearly told them that our program has done everything right and we can be a standalone program at three levels which is very impressive uh and so made the tough decision to tell our program here we got to go another year with the merger sub Varsity merger which would be modified in JV um

038but I've also asked Harford to please consider taking their ninth graders and dispersing them up and down just like Paige indicated so that it would really be a modified merger with maybe a player or two coming to our JB because we do have large numbers and I want those JB players to get that quality experience so I've had all those conversations and then indicated that at the end of last week too so with the separation of those players would we be playing all 14 to 16 games or would we have the ab teams like we have well I'm going to the superintendent from Harford I AG that we she want our ads to work very creatively to create as many opportunities for girls to play in authentic experiences whether they got to divide the schedule

039they got to take something like Chris is recommending with a C team where you can get as multiple experiences it's a short season I'm not worried about the budget number of paying for officials and busing it's a short season and we're talking about a few things um we've as superintendent asked our ads to work on that but obviously they can't do that till we know exactly what the number is when the season starts here in the next couple of weeks and we probably won't know that official number until the first day of triy outs because this has been a reoccurring thing where a girl might say oh I quit and then they all of a sudden they're they have their paperwork in and they're showing up yeah on the in the tri out day and

040now there's more numbers than we anticipated and yeah so again I'm here because I I I genuinely believe that I'm advocating for Ford Edward and Harford girls Harford girls are in the same exact situation as us being on teams too big and again I'm not asking for anything permanent I'm just saying if this year if it was it's this close it's this close to trying to have we could have a modified JV varsity and a modified Varsity five teams instead of four to me that is worth it just for a year just to get more girls involved because I I feel like I'm like a Salesman where every single year I say just be tough this year and next year is going to be better and then next year and they say Miss tum me

041this has happening again right and I say well just this one more year and the next year's going to be better and then this is happening again I mean again I'm very excited because I genuinely feel we have a a strong Varsity uh Team we can have a strong varsity team year the first I mean last year if you know anything about our varsity team last year we were swamped with girls we had to pull all of our freshman and everybody up to varsity because we had literally we had girls that moved into our district and were wanted to play softball which was great but they had never played before so we weren't really confident that they were we didn't know what was going to happen so we had a massive Varsity I know the

042goal for this year speaking to the other softball coaches is we want a real varsity and that way girls that should be at the JB level play at the JB level instead of getting pulled up to sit the bench on varcy that that is the goal for this year so you know and again I if you know I am totally fine merinet modified 15 girls that's nothing compared to the numbers I told you I had 23 and 18 that's nothing right but for I am highly um you know saying that please I really consider about what we're doing to the JB level girls I really am worried about girls feeling like especially the ones that we may potentially pulled back down so they were on they were had a crazy seventh grade crazy eighth grade

043then ninth grade year got pulled up to Varsity and now we're going to tell them you got to go back down to JV and your Seasons maybe cut around or you're on a huge team that is a tough sales pitch it's the 16 for J include yes how many of those are hard they as last I heard they said a few so I thought that I added three so we're carrying 13 of our own girls potentially yeah so thank you I I uh I got my list of things but um yeah I thank you for listening to me and and again I'm really nervous about the JV level modified I'm modified coach they have four girls I'll take them absolutely no big deal but our JB girls I I feel like I can't go back

044to them and say you are you are merged at JB when they've been working hard and doing everything right to then you have to share it to you might have to well I'm hoping not to if you don't I know no that's not ideal but if they don't budge that's what that's well I would say this if we really want to talk about exactly numbers in math if from the sounds of it again I'm not exactly sure they might also have like a 10 girl Varsity which I would say is a great number for them right um if they have a few freshmen that's 13 on varsity and versus 16 JV I know it's JV and varsity but that's what I'm thinking like they don't have to we don't have to merge at JV then

045they could if they don't want to pull them down to modified and try to have their own modified okay but they could totally be on a varsity and it would they've had uh they had a 14 girl Varsity last year so it's not much different I would say it's better one girl better so thank you if you have any more questions please let me know and if you'd like to see the numbers I I can show you anytime I'm just interested how it can push you can see how crazy I have everything written down I hope you understand what we're saying I if we could do it it's just y right yeah no I I understand that that's what I mean like I I feel like people don't know exactly the numbers right the so

046it's kind of like what is going on and that's why I've kind of been pulling my hair out because I look at the numbers every day all year long trying to figure out try to figure it out this year and I think that it's very Sol in the future moving forward thank you thank you thanks bab okay the next section of our meeting uh something we've been putting off for a while it's part of the reorganization that we did at the beginning of the fiscal year here we have a bunch of subcommittees to the board um each committee is supposed to have three people in one Alternet we need to finish stacking those out uh do you have the lists of who's on I did I printed them for all of you as well oh

047great okay so the first one we're not going to add is Budget Finance and audit committee we got Chris as a chairperson uh John's been sitting in John's been on that one and now that you place of T are down to seven you can do like two on your I think that you'll notice like some of them already had two you you can also only do two if you wanted like two in an alternate yes but that's up to you guys how many you do on there I mean there's no as long as we don't go over four right yeah [Music] um I don't know what do you guys think should we stick with three regular members on each year no because people are going to have to go more often okay go to two

048if if if it's at all available pick a couple you like and you're all set so Budget Finance audit will'll go with Chris and John as regulars and how about an alternate do what can as an alternate okay next one is Personnel grievance and negotiations got Audra John and Tim myself uh want go Audra and John and Tim is an alternate you're Tim so you team joh alternate if he's doing John's not here do what you want yeah I I'll go I'll be a regular member we'll put John as the alternate on that one there you go we rarely meet I know well but then we meet continuously in certain years okay policy review we got Tim Clark auger all can we have an alternate for that one I will be the alternate on that

049one you're already on you're supposed to jum maybe somebody else wants to else want to beest and I'll be the alternate J do you have your eye on any you like to be on my committee I definitely want to be um On Athletics T just because I'm like smoothing in I would prefer to stay as the alternate so Sarah's on it Taylor's gone you could just AUD we jump to Athletics I don't she talking oh you don't you don't want to be on it no because Sarah's on it I know so if she just takes Taylor spot on here which say Taylor then I can stay as the alate okay so back to policy review we still need an alternate for that one that's right Tera you want to be alternate fory I know I'm

050try to cut myself down uh project got John Sarah and Tim SAR you want to be an alternate okay um I don't want to throw Ken the [Music] bus want I think we'd be remiss Capital project just oh you're not on there I'll be on any whatever I think that's a good good idea I did the alternate because he already had two there but I'll do whichever you take my spot I'll take my spot on Capital project somebody somebody's got to go alternate Sarah will be alternate on Capital yeah you don't care googly googly is the chairperson he G that out will Sarah be taking the chair up Athletics yes okay the only member look you got and then Tera tera's is to be Sarah as the chair terara as a regular and CHR as

051alternative I'm glad you're board with the c want to know if you want to be got I'm on board yeah hey that skylight knowledge man that was like pretty sharp already volunteered you don't have to don't worry last time that's [Music] right okay thank you everyone next part of our meeting is is reserved for presentations and this evening we have a budget presentation by Chris Raider and Ben [Music] H just got to SI with a bottle of water that we handed out nine cases of today little story here they were more hydrated today than their yeah we had to we had to laugh because of was the scenario here with the water main breake we put out three tables of water one in the main lobby one in the high school by the TV there

052before you go up to the auditorium and then one at the elementary and uh we put three cases out at first thing this morning and uh 8:15 were replenishing 10:15 were replen in and uh we had to laugh because they drank more water today than any other day ever which is not a bad thing it's not a bad thing so all right uh budget Workshop number three correct uh Chris put a ton of work in uh drafting the presentation tonight which is um some new information which we haven't covered yet in our two other previous presentations uh which uh he's going to take us through and then it's a recap of the numbers of the presentations that we have done with a final number and how it relates to the average taxpayer and how it

053relates in the bottom line with the tax cap and all those things so it's it's a combination of some new material refreshing the material we've covered in the two other presentations and then how it all ties together at the end so that's the purpose of tonight's presentation with the intent uh as we talked we we want to get to a point here quickly this spring so that we can adopt it in time to then get all the required Publications out to the public and submit and everything the way we want to to our credit it is built in a really good shell so we we we did build a nice shell here with some time frames so that we can make adjustments based on how conversations go absolutely all right so Chris go ahead so

054again we are our goal is to provide our business direction through transparency in detail and transparency again is first and foremost so again this is not be like a shell game or Shady business we really want to make sure you guys as the board also know where every sent is spent so transparency is also our major goal here so if we have the table at tonight so that we can make sure everybody knows exactly where every sent is we're on board with that and our number of projections again are based on historical baselines we consult with our team and also business costs so what we anticipate for next year with inflations and all that tonight's final uh Workshop three these are the topic points we will review our uh Revenue we'll do the update we'll

055give the final tax levy and tax cap uh the tax impact with house assessments the uh by law we are uh required to present in the three-part uh budget with the administrative program Capital we also have the food our school Food Service uh budget our Reserve plan propositions fund balance projection update and our final draft of the 2526 budget so here again is our Revenue updates based on the governor's run uh we are also trying to highlight the areas where we have significant decreases as we pointed out previous slides before the Bose's is because we used to invest the business office with the fbh bosis and since that $522,000 is not invested every year we actually did lose some back in Return of investment with Bose's Revenue um but also buildings uh we because we

056uh don't have the debt service that we had previously uh we have now been able to create a capital project that we approved last budget but that also significantly was a decrease so that is where our beat is currently and here for I word again we have $7,800 th000 from state aid allocations of Reserve but also additional revenue is a million $50,000 property taxes in Star is about 3,720 appropriate fund balance for this year we're looking at a million uh 80,000 to balance our budget this is the different breakdowns here so you can see the percentages and again I wanted to present our ratios of building Aid is still 90% transportation is 90% and our Bose a is 77% and this is our updated tax levy and tax cap our tax levy this year for

0572526 is 3,728 33 and the tax cap is 2.19% and this is how the tax impact is on our real property assessments so without star uh we looked at the different 100,000 assessment 150,000 100,000 and you see the current taxes in the 2425 versus are estimated for 2526 and taking $150,000 assessment it is an increase of $64.50 for the year or $538 for the month [Music] and this is our three-part budget so again administrative cost Capital cost program cost that's how it's broken down um so you'll see an increase with the administrative of 228,000 increased from last year and 75% of our budget is program 133% is capital and 12% is Administrative and this is our food service I always talk about how it's a budget within a budget so it's kind of self- sustaining

058it takes money to invest into the bosis to have that kind of run but this has been uh an amazing partnership through that bosis because in the past we've actually had to use transfer Capital out of the general fund to even balance this budget but they actually with the reserve or with the way that they create the revenues and state reimbursements with lunch breakfast and um snacks we actually uh are able to balance that budget uh and our director right now Jeff uh is amazing at doing his uh exploration to find out how we can get even more State reimbursements uh we have a grant that we got the breakfast cart so we've seen increases and breakfast participation so those numbers look really solid so going forward again we don't anticipate any transfer from Capital

059to uh to this um to balance it because it actually self- sustains and here is our Reserve plan so I've taken each reserve and I've shown how it's created um the purpose of it and kind of what we expect for next year our current actual Bal uh balance uh and what we anticipate for at the end so uh workers comp we actually uh in the bud will have about $36,000 that we budgeted for workers comp and we're planning on using Reserve that's part of the reallocation keep in mind these are not savings these are not areas to just on a rainy day we really need to show how that movement of money happens this is best practice for ever in the past is kind of like oh we just hit it this money way it

060stays there forever uh this is one of the areas where the governor really is spotlighting if we don't show how we are navigating and moving our monies around we actually will show them we might not need need more Aid so we want to really do our due diligence of being fiscal managers here at the school to make sure we're showing how that money happens so by taking it out of reserves to then maybe balance it into that specific year budget then we can take whatever comes out of fund balance and then replenishes them from year over year so that's kind of what the plan will be so that's workers comp here is our ERS uh retirement reserve and in 25 26 we have budgeted 85,000 for the ERS and we're planning to use again $85,000

061out of this Reserve to balance that part of the Budget Insurance Reserve uh this is just this is something we use for if by chance there is a major Insurance claim against the school this isn't something we haven't even really um put a lot into the budget specifically for that because these are things that we just don't really anticipate uh that's why this Reserve is created so by chance there is some kind of an insurance caim we have the Reserve to offset that cost so this one we don't have any plans to use for balancing because it's not actually a balanced it's not a budgeted line item and here is our ebl what we call the acred employment benefits liability Reserve this is used a lot for those who have full sick Banks and at

062the end of each year we then will then use this uh Reserve to pay out these sick times um this year is covered because last year's budget was kind of budget for it but next year we anticipate two more retirees at 54,000 that's what we have budgeted for and we'll use the reserve elar to um pay for that $54,000 so that's where you see the money is Flowing here is your uninsured uh unemployment insurance Reserve we have it budgeted for 25 26 at 10,000 uh we have not touched that usually uh on rare casions it might be a couple thousand here and there but again for budgetary purposes we budget 10,000 and and from a reserve standpoint we will try to balance that out with another 10,000 if we need that reserve and here is

063our TRS teacher retirement uh Reserve we have for 2526 uh 650 65 $465,000 for TRS and we're expensing the $63,500 if by chance there's um a claim against the school with a tax reimbursement uh usually it's a big property that felt that they were maybe under assessed this is a way that we can again build this uh after every year we need to take the 20,000 that we put in or whatever our tax sory amount and put it back to general fund and then replenish this Reserve so that's how best practice is uh and we're doing again make sure it stays with the 20,000 for next year and we then after this year we'll make sure it goes back to zero we could put it back into the general fund and then replenish it back

064at 20 transportation and maintenance Reserve this is actually a very helpful Reserve we've been using this quite often the last few years just um not having any extra impact to the tax base uh we need Vehicles we need our transportation to uh be up to the snuff that we need to make sure that we actually have all the vehicles uh in our Fleet uh we are seriously um under fleeted because we are still uh borrowing vans from Glenn Falls we've done that now two out of the three years I've been here this proposition basically of getting a a new vehicle new bus with a lift and with three buses that or three vans that will actually help us become the fleet that we need to be for our goals and to make sure we have

065transportation um up to the level that we're looking at so with this said uh the total of 366 37178 will be used um to take that Transportation Reserve to make sure there's no tax impact on the on the base this one's a little wonky CU I've looked out to every local district and the only reason this Reserve ever should have been Rec created is based on selling or buying of a property and it's usually related to a sale of a property we don't have that here at forward so I'm not really sure why that Debt Service mandatory one was created um but with that said we can use this Reserve to um use what we've uh budgeted for Debt Service and so that we can kind of liquidize this uh reserve and use that money

066specifically in a Debt Service payment so that's with um the 2526 budget we have 395,000 budgeted for the debt uh service and we were going to use this Reserve to help offset some of that cost and this is the summary of those reserves so in our 2526 budget we have A45 ,000 is what all those budgeted lines equal and the reserve allocation will be 630,000 and using the transportation again using that as uh a proposition I just wanted to show you how Aid works because this is really kind of exciting I like doing this this is the stuff I love at night but because our transportation Aid is 90% the cost of $366,000 for those Vehicles we as a school district will only have to pay $37 $1,000 the rest of that comes back in

067Aid so it's really kind of cool when you realize we have an entire fleet that we've only paid for 37,000 which is basically less than most cars go today but then this is how it comes back so Revenue per year will be about $66,000 and that will be anticipated Revenue aid for the next 5 years so that's how that's paid back but the exciting part is by using Revenue AIDS using the uh Aid ratios with the Bose's building and transport and and the transportation we can actually generate these revenues that then therefore the governor really can't touch because these are based on true revenues that we've helped create based on our ratios and this is Again part of what we do as strategic people trying to show how our monies can stretch how that dollar

068can stretch but that's one of the things I wanted to show you is just from a revenue standpoint and from AIDS how we can actually take something that looks really really scary as a 600 $366,000 money item and you're actually saying we're getting 329,000 of that back so that's how that works that's y uh let's go skip back up here to your reserves yep you're right there uh so Reserve allocation which which means that that's hope what you're putting in back into the reserve that's what we're spending in reserve we'll be spending out yes spending our reserves because we have to show Money movement because that's a big thing that the governor bu get that but what's that do to your budget it balances our budget it balance you're just putting it in take out

069which means basically you're actually raising your budget by that amount right not necessarily cuz a lot of these we are budgeting it so therefore we anticipate certain costs but not every one of those things will so you budget it to spend it in the same year well so it's coming from there to spend it in the same year so I don't know I'm confused on that how does that not show as additional budget money well some of these things we won't be spending like again unemployment Reserve we rely even spend any so that will be a it just shows like that offside we want to make sure that we show how much of it do you actually use on school outside of the funding and non-f funding reserves how much Reserve are we using this

070year just to balance budget outside of this we really have not been doing that that's part of problem we don't really need to balance we got so we're equal we're not taking money from Reserve to balance our module that's bad that was been bad practice you want to show res I just wanted to ask questions about that because that was practice and I want I want to make clear that that's not happening correct correct yeah no we definitely need to make sure that's happening okay because you know it's it is UN clear on here you know it comes through as it's clear when you explain it but it comes through as uh here's your Revenue 1 million of it from Reserve might well it's reserve and other res Reven I know I'm just saying because

071it's not going to be in this room reading that at some point like they might want to know like a little bit of a explanation is I think some of that would be like a miscellaneous Revenue like on on one example would be we got uh $75,000 of bullet Aid because what happens is then from the legislation they say oh forever gets this money so we get that kind of money thrown in so there's no other lines we throw it into miscellaneous Revenue so those kind of revenues do add up but between the reserve allocation and the other revenues that come that we don't have like state8 related then that's how we then be able to show that extra million thank you you're welcome good question though yeah I'm sorry that that wasn't completely clear

072so here is our fund bance projection so again right now we are currently at almost $2,200,000 of extra fund balance which is about 177% over what we're supposed to have we are only allowed 4% according to the law which with our current budget at the 16th or 136 it would be $145,000 so that's another thing we have to show is that we have intent to use that's why it's also good to have the appropriated fund balance because I will start lowering some of these numbers so that therefore we're not going to be on the list of the governor of okay we don't need the aid we definitely need state aid and we have to make sure we're listening to what her guidelines are because she's pretty clear on how she's playing this card game we

073have to make sure that we're doing what we need to do so yes we don't want to show we have all this money but there's ways to make sure that it kind of balances our budget like even this year we we put in about um actually the next slide we'll show so we have almost a half a million dollars so we're anticipating actually looking at the books right now we're looking at not even using a sent of that so when we're trying to say okay here's our cost and this is the uh revenues how to balance that budget we actually won't be using about a half a million dollars of that and that goes right back to the fund balance so the numbers that were even at the 16 17% we're talking us back to

07421% so this will allow us to show them how can balance our budgets show how money movements how it's fluid um but we haven't really again used a lot of the fund balance like they've been warning us to use uh we just want to make sure we're getting the state aid that we're expecting to get we using any for the project uh the project we already have invested so that 1.2 is already set aside so that's actually year marked for that from last year so that's not including these numbers it's on its own it's actually set aside for like a capital reserve okay good question and here is our final draft so again uh if we need to to drill it down like some were saying uh previous presentations did actually have a lot of

075these uh drilled down but if we need further to explore that's completely fine but each one of these are the accounts for our draft budget so this is just breaking them down in different slides uh you'll see the different percent increases I gu this all the slot all the all the accounts that keep our business going and the final one you'll actually see last year's budget at 13386 this year's proposed budget at 13632 and keep in mind this is also including all of the cont contracts our teachers contract was was finalized we did the support staff we have another full year of that contract so we're talking all of these embedded costs that go over we only have a 2 245,000 correct yes that is exactly what that is that for the capital outlay uh

076right now uh you guys will see the Seeker on the next part of our presentation tonight as you guys approve things but that will be for um pipes at the school uh talking with Steve specifically we had a couple options but we really feel school right now still needs the infrastructure to includ including pipes to to be fixed um he saw he showed me some pictures last year that were kind of scary so actually talking with our Architects that is the plan so we will be using Capital outline liting uh specifically for pipe uh infrastructure and again that is using Aid with the a the ratio so building Aid with that you're only investing $10,000 and you're getting $90,000 back in Revenue so that's five years is over two that's actually broken down it's embedded

077into like capital projects usually with capital outlay it's like a onee return so one year for that but capital projects usually are 15 years so but this will actually be once we keep doing this it will go right into Capital um projects and will'll generate Revenue every year over strategically it makes sense to do a out every year correct so working with the Architects working with Steve and we have a capital project plan on a grand scheme which is are those that you take to your voters you know yep but our outlay has to also have a five and 10 year plan because you know this year it's the pipes it may be the pipes again next year I know we get all done in one year it would help if they' raise it to

078250 because you can't get much for 100,000 I mean 100,000 when they originally approved this in legislation you could get a lot of work for 100,000 but those days are gone correct um but we need to have an outlay plan correct sequentially so that we take advantage of that because that turnaround of the money I mean you're $10,000 you get $90,000 worth of financing on which is y and our local bosies is aware of trying increase that but it's kind of like right now staying on the legislative line they're not yeah they've been holding for years so unfortunately we know that 100,000 doesn't go that far but still for us $100,000 will stretch that dollar so especially if you do one every year absolutely and again this this year um we're doing the 4A lights

079last year we did the it stuff so we always have a plan that we're actually increasing our school and as Ben said once we have that plan we're actually putting more money into our school and it's stretching the dollar so that's exactly what we're doing but those are the lines please look at them if you have any further questions we definitely can dissect them further for you but again we're only at 1.84% higher than last year's budget with everything we've in in included all of the Strategic um additions that we would like to uh have approved but again when you're talking all the contracts everything right now is increased it's only a 1.84 increase over last year's budget so tax base isn't going to feel the rub because we're actually able to stretch the money

080and push it in different areas that you're not feeling the impact well thank you I appreciate your time do you have any questions did a great job thank you I think it's be pretty just yep okay the next part of our meeting is uh administrative reports so first up we have a superintendent report Tim what's that at the table um I know most of you met um Nick when you came in here if you haven't had a chance his first board meeting has been here for a couple weeks but uh Dr Nick comproski joins us at the table here uh serving as our interim principal and director of uh people Personnel Services uh welcome you to Ford Edward officially here at the board table we're glad uh you're here and uh enjoy working with him

081and uh as he he gets his feet wet and dives into things um he's uh he's diving right into the the fabric here we we're glad you're here um I'd also be remiss um I know he doesn't want these accolades but uh I did share an email with the staff today and I I do think you should be acknowledged here with the people we work for uh Chris Raider has completed his doctrate and he was awarded his doctor this weekend so drer is sitting with us at the table and and I'd like to you know we're an institution of uh academics and uh you know we preach lifelong learning congratulations and Chris is the is the epitome of someone who always strives to learn something more and I and really time it congratulations appreciate uh

082tomorrow March 11th uh a few of us are uh setting up a uh there's a job fair at bosis in the evening uh and for all kind districts can set up a booth it's like a promotional opportunity to set yourself up um it's for substitute positions teaching positions everything across the board we looked at it as an administrative team as an opportunity to go and promote for Edward for people who may not even realiz you know if they're looking for jobs in the area and education that Fort Edward is still here and it's a great place to work and so we've got some things set up promotionally we're going to set up a table from uh for a couple hours at a job fair at bis tomorrow and just continue to to get our brand

083out there and um see you know who's out there and and um you never know you you can find a lot of neat people when you least expect it and you never know so uh um look forward to that tomorrow night uh Friday March 21st is our our full day superintendent day and I've reported about our structure that we have for those we have a guest speaker in the morning that'll spend time with all of our faculty and staff and then we have a multitude of professional development opportunities for them to choose from for the rest of the day um uh and then we have one half day left in April and that will conclude our professional development opportunities for this school year uh and then I'd be Miss if I didn't say congratulations to

084the cast and crew of susil this weekend um I mean what what a great production and to walk in at 4:15 uh and HP into the auditorium and see Maryann Stark just like looking like she's about ready to pull her hair out a few weeks ago to where they ended up this weekend is is a tribute to her and Sarah Taylor and all the others and you know Ryan Herman with the set I mean it's a thousand hands are involved in this thing um and from a superintendent perspective I was extremely proud to sit there in the auditorium and watch that performance um and that's all I have because uh we've got a table of people here that also would like to speak so thank you for that any questions for you I just want

085to say Ryan Herman's everywhere he's a good guy you know little knowledge with that gu that thing and he's got some different roles he plays here but he usually always has a smile on his face pretty good pretty good man couldn't ask one of many good people we got here doing stuff for our kids okay thank you very much next up business office report yes so including our budget development we've actually purchased a voting machine we actually will be delivering or be delivered on site between March 17th and April 1st just in time for our election we spent over $5,000 a year just to rent machine we did a cost analysis and a return of investment it will happen in less than 2 years using Bose's Aid we will now be able to own our

086own machine we actually then could even do a special election if we wanted to remember last year's Capital project we had to pretty much time at the same time this allows us to have that flexibility having our own equipment on site but just wanted to throw that out there that's another reason of looking at these kind of options of of buying our own equipment not having to rent that we just throw money to the wind we actually get that we own it and again um less than two years of a return of investment uh updating uh we're doing updating for the grants Finance so what happens is for every grant that we go out there and receive uh we kind of give them a proposal what we're going to use but this is the time

087of year we kind of show what we're using and other ways to reallocate and that's where we're at on that uh again Ron black is worth his weight in gold he's phenomenal on helping us navigate that part uh beginning we're now beginning our B's final service requests which we we call the fsrs for the 25 26 years so we're basically uh we partner over about 10 different bis so we collect all of what we kind of use as services and we look at exactly what we use what we need and then we actually then for our local bosies go through the entirety and make sure we're getting together with superintendent and the business office make sure these are the services that we are paying for for next year and that we need um but we

088actually have a pretty good idea of what we're already doing um I just wanted you to know about that that's the process right now and we're also planning and preparing for potentially uh adding Amazon Prime business to our repertoire cuz right now it would allow uh teachers throughout the year not just like one time of the year to order we can kind of work it that way um but right now we're kind of exploring that and the fact that we're just gathering information uh I like to adopt but I don't usually like to be the first adopter I like to see how other people have like their labor pains so there's some in the area that are kind of like that first adopters and I'm going to watch how they uh in their own schools

089operate and and what the benefits and negatives and try to learn from that experience and make it have happen for netw so that's still the plan is for next year to do that but I wanted you guys to be aware of that so you can order from Amazon and it would be free shipping been doing it for years I love it because they have things that you can't find corre unless you get a per correct so that's why we're also looking at it because EDS has some limitations or you know there's like a time frame related to it this allows us with a lot more flexibility yeah so we're looking at that just because um I think that's the way of the future anyway um but I still want to wait till the The Kinks

090of the the labor pains have been taken care of so that's what we're trying to do so that was business office updates thank you okay thank you Chris next principal report um just a quick report I just wanted to kind of introduce myself formally and just give a quick like 30 second version of my background I was a former specialed teacher and a socialized teacher at both the middle and the high school level I was assistant principal I was a building principal and just some of my outside random skills I guess You' call it I've been a volunteer firefighter for 15 years and an EMT for 12 so I have some knowledge in that area and I'm also a Schoolboard member where I live so I want to thank you all for the service that

091you provide to the school and with the great salary that it comes with so again I quick about myself and I'm someone who's pretty open and honest and if anyone ever needs anything from me they can contact me anytime so just some quick program we've start for um on the BPS side annual review season so we're meeting with those students and those families to just go over how the current year programs going on with them and how next year looks for them and what we're predicting for them for their program for next year and then on the principal side just I've been meeting staff and students and some families and that's kind of a quick 30 second version great thank you well have you board Jessica would you like to take an opportunity to report

092from your side of the house sure um just to piggyback on what um Ben had said we had over 500 people attend the Su School production over the weekend which is a huge tribute to the program that we're building here so great job to everyone involved um a look back at what's been going on I kind of was filling in for both sides of the house here um we had back in February we had over uh we had 80 students that um participated in our midyear incentive where we did kind of a an escape room challenge for them they had a great time and we also had some folks from the county come down and volunteer some former students and bring some items for um kind of patting those students on the back for earning

093that um our kindergarten celebrated the 100e celebration and walked through the hall while all of our other friends cheered them on which was a great moment here in Fort Edward um it's Park month this month and we're listening to what our um older students had said during a student advisory committee meeting that we had last month where they communicated the need and want to collaborate with the elementary side so we've had different classrooms signing up to read all over the Elementary which has been a great collaboration I think that's a a great thing that we have here at our school and those kids really look up to their older friends that they see in the hallway so that's a way to kind of build community here um we had some students go to the Fort

094Hudson nursing home last month as well and really make an impact on residents so that was fantastic uh looking ahead I'm excited to announce that Fort Edward will have for the first time in my knowledge um a battle of the books team going up to Sunni ater on back tomorrow so we have a group of students who had to read 10 books um Mrs ricelli and Mrs ruer definitely spearheaded that um and we're going to be cheering them on as they get ready to leave tomorrow um and curriculum wise we're going to start to introduce some science of reading PD with our folks on the elementary side and kind of go over an old viiew with the rest of the group in a May meeting um through some training through bosis so we talked about

095that at our faculty meeting um and that is about all that I have to report great thanks thank you you're welcome okay next up building maintenance report hi everybody um been been really busy with u uh first of all first of all there as everybody you know there been a lot of lot of sickness and my crew has really hit the mark on that so I've had a lot of people out and a lot of trying to make sure we got coverage and everybody on Queue where they need to be um over the over the vacation we redesigned the kitchen uh it was driving me nuts because I can't stand to see Joy open that hot oven door with a hot plate of food and have somebody stand right here and actually trying to get

096the food that way so I reconfigured the change the gas lines and everything Rec configured but now she pulls out from the side and goes into the warming oven and from the warming of comes across to so nobody's going to get burned anymore and took care of some obstacles in there they got rid of the mixer we had that auctioned off uh Je did a fantastic job so they got quite a bit of money for it I help I help load it on I think the thing weighs as much as a car that was interesting trying to I didn't realize you were that strong I wasn't I wasn't an A so anyway we we managed to reconfigure and take some things out we got some other ideas that I'm working with uh in the kitchen

097there's been a lot of work um the dishwasher is down uh it's been a problem it's it's getting tired it's it's been there for quite a long time and right now it's down where tomorrow I hope to get the new pump and motor back into back in there and then we should be good with the unit but uh been a lot of issues I've taken care of but she said we haven't had soap we haven't been doing our dishes in there it would soap it's just been steaming hot water but you know now they're soap and we're working we're working towards getting everything functional and and up to Snuff in there um been working on on lot of the equipment uh as snow plow equipment Bob had um The Pusher blades and stuff have been

098worn haven't been cleaning properly haven't been doing things you know scraping good with all the ice we've had has been in store so I've been getting in there and replacing a lot of stuff and and uh the the blades and different things on the pushers and stuff so we what's the wear like on those year to year huh what's the wear on those things like year to year they get old quck if we had a winner like last year you could probably get 50 years out we have the the winner we've had this year you know it can wear you you can adjust them down and you can't keep using them but after a while you how about the old one this one the rubber in the bottom flip it up once and turn it

099over and reuse it one side and then you have to replace it you get two two years yeah yeah you can get depending on the winners like I said if you get good winners and we've had some so for the most part they're not something we got we're looking at byy all time they last they last pretty good you know I and that was the reason um another another thing looking at our equipment and everything I need to um we're talking with Ben and and everybody we want to get those vans and I want to set up an area for the vans that this this slot is for Van 31 it's good for me for cleaning snow clearing and stuff like that if I have off what do you think right along this side of

100the garage say why don't you just use a side I am we're going to use that I'm sorry if you if that was SP your spot for anyway bu sorry I'm sorry might be tow away yeah no I just got a pusher on the on the tool C we can move it but hold my walk myone yeah I know I get it all D I'm older than you so and then uh um had to had to do some work on the on the heater in that the heaters and stuff in the gym I'm glad where capital projects got that included because the motors in different things I'm trying to do a preventative maintenance thing on them and keep them keep them greased and belts tighten properly and different things like that so try to stay

101on all the preventative maintenance stuff so it works on it but you still got to you still got to work on stuff so um and then um the last thing I'm I'm excited about is that tomorrow I get to go on the roof and get all these holes patched on the roof I've been waiting for 50° weather and we're currently getting some so I know I know um a lot of people it's like I got a leak here it's the PS all over the place I know where they are I'm going to get up there tomorrow going address that situation tomorrow and get get everything so we're back and snuff I couldn't do that before cuz they kept telling me I'll board the warranty but now with the capital project I know exactly where we

102are with warranty and there isn't any it's it's a it's it's all now up there if I find a week I can I can take care and save save some money on having Greenwood or somebody coming in but other than that uh everything else has been going good it's just been busy and trying to stay stay on top of everything and uh working with Chris and and uh asking asking for a little bit of money here a little bit of money there yeah it's I I can't help it I can't fix stuff without without having having what I need is he tough huh is he tough with the money oh yeah yeah yeah I have to I have to find out I have to I have to I have to learn his lingo his price

103points and different things like this you guys better yeah and now now the joke is is I I when I open the door up a little bit and say Hey Dad need a little money here come on can I borrow the car keys do so that's all I am you V it that's what my daughter ask you well I've never seen uh the Departments working so well together I'm not just saying that true been a lot of uh resistance from those two offices in the past now he's great to work agree he's tough but I enjoy working with Steve I don't know where our building would be without him on the so we came all right thank you Steve thanks so we have a discussion item on the agenda uh dealing with Bose Capital project

104y uh thanks Tim I just wanted to put it on here Dr Parker had asked at our um our last School uh Chief school officer meeting you know for all the area superintendents if at our next board meeting we could just give everybody an update I threw it on the the discussion item rather than in my report um just in case you had any questions you know they did take you through um there's a number of slides and I'm not going to take you through all of them um I will refresh everybody's memory that because they're going through a different approach of the developer is actually bought the land and is building the facility the restrictions and the time frames are way different than ours so it's actually moving very quickly they' had uh zoning

105board approval their Architects have everything almost completely designed everything is uh is on track we've seen some schematics which they've included there so some of their their labs are going to look for like cosmetology and the autot te um you know the hbac lab that they're creating um our students in the future are going to have a part of this facility and it's going to be quite exceptional um the other piece that's not included here the intention is that the existing facility that they have would also then become uh a Transportation Hub which regionally could be a great Advantage for those of us who have to Bus kids to Albany and from various places if we can meet at Ballard Road and then they provide a transportation service they take kids from Bolton Fort Edward

106whoever who are coming from the north we get to Bard Road they take in the rest of the way so I mean it just is the possibilities here are exceptional for becoming more efficient and how because we're all sending three or four kids to the same locations and running our buses when we could have a Central Transportation Hub which is the other part of this project would come after it uh I I think that has some potential it may not work for every scenario but there are some common places we all send are out of District kits and if we can have centralized Transportation that's organized and efficient and is B's aable then regard we've seen how Transportation Aid is just perfect way to flow through money so um couple things I I did want

107uh to highlight this this project f fing it's nonprofit organization purchases the land approximately 2 and 1/2 year process projected to move in July of 20127 100% of the cost of release is aable it's exempt from property taxes State a offsets any other cost at 54.2% the cost of the construction is built into a 20-year whis with no debt assumed by the districts um and at the end of the 20-year lease it will then be up to the component districts working with bis to decide what we would like them to do do they want to release it or do they want to buy it and at that point then the component districts would vote um like you would a normal Capital project that's 20 years down the road and there'll be no existing debt that

108so you're looking at really a very creative uh um and a very efficient way to get a top notch facility for our CTE students our B students uh in a short period of time but that also mean a lot more opportunities for more numbers of students to be able to because their facilities are going to be larger they're going to be more modern they're going to um and their location they're not going to have such fragmented use of facilities they're going to consolidate a lot of their facilities and then sell off some of their existing buildings is the intent um for much more efficient model in one location for everybody to have more opportunity because it's going to be more comp so um it's in the long run for any component District in this FES

109it really is is a great opportunity um and if you ever have any questions or anything about that feel free to reach out to me and then you know I work you know in touch a lot with with Tony who's been here many times and Dr Parker and her team um they're happy to either come back or I can get answers for you and bring them back to the table anytime you need so fall of 27 is a pretty exciting opportunity a short period of time for a brand new state of the art so mind home yeah there you go so that's all I have on [Music] great all right the next part of our meeting is when we uh when on some regular business things there's a little blurb I'll read it for the

110public uh this is all consent agenda all the board action is required it's generally un necessary to hold discussion on these items with consent of all members they're therefore grouped and approved was given in one Motion in the event the board member wants to discuss any item AG so can I get a motion uh to approve uh the Section 8 a through d Audra and Chris any discussion all in favor carried okay section nine action items uh we'll go through these one at a time looking at item a Cooperative bidding custodian products copy paper and envelopes I need a motion to approve participation in The Cooperative purchasing program coordinated by Washington Saratoga Warren Hamilton asex Count's bis for bids awarded in the 25 26 school year for custodial products copy paper and envelopes can I

111get a motion Ken and terara any discussion all in favor hi next up fixed assets can I get a motion to approve the auction disposal and auction of various items in accordance with policy 5250 sale and disposable of District property the items uh listed are in the agenda I got a motion for the approval Audra and Sarah any discussion all in favor carried item C approve the 2526 school calendar can I get a motion to approve uh the school calendar for next year Ken and terara any discussion sorry do you have discussion I'm sorry I thought I wasn't paying attention sorry was I heard the line I heard the line what we were on I just thought you said in favor you got we got to honor the honesty what it is all right all

112in favor I I carry item D we're tabling for a future date item e Seeker resolution for the 2526 Capital out Lake Project extremely long resolution um um Chris would you be able to give a quick summary of again this is that piping infrastructure so because of the old to copet piping that we currently have in some areas of the school this will allow us to use monies that we've invested in the budget to make sure we take care of that problem can I get a motion to approve the secret resolution Ken and Audra any discussion all in favor carried don't raise your hand don't want to I was trying to spe it up okay letter F is a propositional resolution for uh Transportation purchases I'll go ahead and read it it's not too long

113I a motion to approve the following resolution weol that the Board of Education hereby approves the following proposition to be placed before the voters at the May 20 2025 budget vote election shall the Board of Education of the P Virginia Free School District be authorized to expand a maximum of 3 67,000 from The District's existing Reserve fund known as the transportation Reserve fund for purchase of one 28 passenger bus with a lift and three minivans with all such vehicles to be used in the transportation program of the district and with the result that such expenditure from the Transportation Reserve fund shall have no impact on the tax levy of the district for the 2025 2026 school year and I got a motion on that Tera and Chris and we get how much P95 all in

114favor I carried I would also like to throw in there that we still have that mandate that we have to make sure that after July of 27 we no longer can buy any vehicle that's diesel so that's still on the play but right now this this is the way that we can also make sure our Fleet is not only up to date but we can actually navigate that mandate uh there is no indication that that right now is off the table this also allows to with our strategy looking ahead this will allow us to make sure our entire fleet is optimal and can naig [Music] hand next part of the meeting is Personnel all appointments are subject to change and compensation pration pending emergency school closing and required reductions in force all coaching appointments are

115made pending completion and verification while required coaching credentials with the stien for feed to contract to measure with experience and no other salary benefits all coaching and extracurricular appointments are subject to reduction and compensation pration pending final student enrollment numbers and pending the outcome of any potential mergers emergency school closing I'd like to group these four together we got three sub three sha rooms and the cleaner everybody okay with grouping them can I get a motion to approve uh personel items a through D terara and press any discussion all in favor Carri next up in the meeting we have time for a second public comment period if there are any there's none thank you okay uh do we need an executive session for this evening items okay what we else got on all right I

116need a motion to adjourn the meeting Audra and Sarah all in favor hi I ask a question sure if we're tabling an item can we set up a meeting or do you guys want me to just text you you see what's available for you how long do you want what's that do you want like a week yeah if we could if we could go up a week yeah that would be good okay sure no worries just while you were all here I wanted to ask before I I had to send out text messages that's all couple days B