Fort Edward Board of Education Meeting 4/17

001thank you the first open presentation [Music] Ellie yeah where are y'all all right we're going to turn it over to entrepreneur for recognitions of successes thank you president thank everybody for being here tonight the following individuals who receive special recognition from our board of education for their participation we'll first start off with our first unified bowling team Unified sports is recognized by section 2 and Special Olympics Unified sports provides the opportunity for athletes and partners to work together towards a common goal through Athletics we also think the youth activation committee for their efforts to bring awareness of students with disability and their accomplishments to our school community first we want to recognize the unified bowling coach coach Nelson Chase [Music] Mrs Kylie Weston [Applause] to our athletes and partners Leah cross Coss Bryant [Applause] Riley

002Howard foreign [Applause] ette Dixon [Applause] let me know if anybody's making their way through okay Bobby Landon here all right Nick all right next time [Applause] congratulations [Applause] Bobby Bain [Applause] thank you good job good job all right [Applause] Dominic Klein Michael glass foreign Bartholomew I saw this individual Daniel Boucher Spencer Smith [Applause] Sophia White and Rihanna flew all right the Washington County area music's Teachers Association WCA m t a All County Music Festival participants these students were selected for their talents in the Performing Arts they performed in an outstanding concert held in Grandville on April 1st they were conducted by Castleton college professor Joshua Thompson who also conducts the Saratoga Youth Orchestra we thank Mr Smith and Mrs Miss Taylor for providing them with this opportunity congratulates all the students on their outstanding performance

003on that day I was able to go up there it was a fantastic concert and was really well done so first Hillary voucher [Applause] Noel Dickinson [Applause] congratulations [Music] Abigail Foster [Applause] good job good job congratulations Kayleen Nichols [Applause] congratulations [Applause] okay Trey I'm going to apologize in advance but I'm going to try it tray to the Redstone Perkins Gabrielle Durkee [Applause] Ollie Cutler [Applause] 's race [Laughter] [Applause] Natalie Durkee astronaut will also apologize in advance but leg a day [Applause] yeah and Lynelle Coleman congratulations okay thank you sir we're now like to recognize one of our students who was published in last week's Chronicle for their ice cream invention worms in a bowl and that is Jalen Taylor [Applause] if I invented a new ice cream flavor jayla's spot up here let's stand right

004there in Facebook there you go if I invented a new ice cream it would be so Heavenly good I would call it worms in a bowl the base flavor would be chocolatey chocolate stuffed inside would be gummy worms and chocolate chips now if you like gummy worms and chocolate you will yeah I'm hungry for ice cream we will now recognize uh community business a community car club and a Community member but first we'll start with uh Irving tissue because we want to we fake Urban tissue for sending Representatives here today we thank them for their generous donation of Thirteen thousand dollars to help fund our homework club and enrichment programs we also thank them for their donation of six cases of facial tissue and paper towels [Applause] there you go thank you very much appreciate

005it why don't we we'll come around we'd like to we would like to show appreciation to the Adirondack car Enthusiast car club for their generous donation of 500 to the Fort Edward School this is a local group of car enthusiasts that hosts two car shows a year and with the money they raised through Raffles and registrations they decided to donate to Local Schools this year and we were one of them they have an event on June 11th at Crandall Park another in Late July and August at the you all parking lot on Dix Ave I was contacted by Mr G's inspector a member of the club and a PE teacher in our neighboring South Glens Falls School District about the donation and the events Mr Spector did inform me of the third event that will

006take place next Saturday at smeed Park and Hadley that event runs from 9 A.M to 3 P.M hope you'll go out and support the Ace Car Club as they generously donated 500 and we thank them for it and last we want to thank Mr Patrick columbetti for his donation of softball catchers gear to be used this year in our softball program [Music] there you go thank you very much I'll just wait [Applause] yeah okay [Music] anticipated update on our five-year long-range plan this Saturday thank you thanks for having me it's nice to actually all the good stuff that makes us Sarah before you start I think there's one more that I think we have to mention right at the bottom there uh all right looked at the wrong documents [Music] one day that we've been

007trying to kind of get out in front of everyone thank you I don't know it's a great place so do I have um okay I'm getting Sarah Bradshaw from Bernie dunnigan's office your Municipal financial advisors and this is an update to the long range plan we were here prior to take a look at your position your current position this has your proposed project built in it as well we're going to start with the capital section which is your buildings um we do have a lot to do with that piece of it so we'll go through where we're at here again what makes sense for a future project look as far as timing dollar size and then again those numbers are already built in this long-range plan okay [Laughter] okay so we're gonna just start oh

008you're okay um in business Chris really just a refresher what the long-range plan is um is the first slide there there you go um so it does help project the general fund revenues expenses and the fund balance and the use of such helps assess the expenditure commitment before you enter into any long-term commitments good to take a look at the effect and the rolling impact of taking those on any Revenue Trends Financial Risk and affordability of new services and Capital Improvements and again we have built that in here this time long range plans are not static documents as you know this is why we're back here again presenting the update um once you present it again you always have your new budget coming on you have new actuals coming on and your your expectations and

009really your end is kind of always constantly changing so anything like that you want to layer in make the update and then see where you're at um that's pretty much the last one there too um they're really not a budget document you don't want to use it for a budget document it will maybe spell things out make you take a look and pull back and look at things but again your budget kind of runs separately then this is a year-end projection document apologize maybe it's me you guys so if we flip over here if you want to just kind of keep going with the paper version and we'll catch up here if we need to so again we're going to start with the capital section this is pulling all your past project Debt Service as

010well as you're building a coming back in and just to take a look at you do this to take a look at your local share to see where your current position is you want to make sure if there's any walls coming up is in a spike in local share why is that like that and how you're going to handle it if there's a drop that's also something you want to pay attention to if you're dropping in local share that may be good the year you drop but not sustainable to bring a project back on and then it kind of spikes things the year you have to bring something on so stability is something you want to take a look at when we're looking through this local share and you can see in column F here

011this is your uh existing to your building Aid and Debt Service so your local share here um which again you have a positive local share your actual building projects are bringing in more building Aid than you have outstanding debt service we do have this area which is different and new from the first time we presented I'm not sure if anybody got that the last time I tried to present or not but this is capital outlay projects a lot of districts do them the state allows a hundred thousand project each year the next year you get all the building Aid back on that project so again it's a really good way to stay on top of just the little items it's not a huge building project but just a little stuff that kind of can keep

012going instead of putting into maintenance and not getting any building Aid back on it this is something you can make a project out of each year get the building a bath the next year instead of over 15 years which is typical projects so what we have here is a four-year plan so you build in the expense you plan it with the architect the next year get fed approval you spend it the following year and then you get the aid back so we have it built in the first two years and then you start getting your Aid back so your local share on capital outlay projects is just a reciprocal of your building Aid so we're three thousand four thousand dollars and you get to do the hundred thousand of project each year so building that

013in with your existing debt our new really local share for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal year is around 46 to 50 000 local share the drop um comes after that dotted line in the year 2026 again same as we've presented before that really spells out an opportunity to be able to bring a project on board a capital project with no additional impact so if we stay at this 50 000 local share there would be no additional being built back into the tax levy so again that's our goal for looking at a future project and the timing of that really would be to make sure that service hits and then that in the 2026 year you don't want it sooner you'll have an overlap and you'll see a spike in your local share you don't want

014it later than that because then you'll have that one year drop and then have to bring that that local share back on so again the goal for a project coming on board so again timing and dollar amount would be to stay below that black line your current level of 50 000. so all this white space underneath the black line would be room for a project to come on board this is just a visual of how the capital outlays work so again you have your vote in May of 2023 23 24 is where you would design and submit your project receive STD approval you spend it in this year here and then your full building comes back the following year and this is the ideal of to try to fit in a project to hit that

015drop off again the drop-off was in the 25-26 fiscal year so this is our first financing that's where our debt service is going to hit so we fill in that drop off so we don't see any drops or spikes in local share what that does if we back it up from here this is our Target we're looking for STD approval the beginning of 2025 which really would put us back to a vote for a project around 20 uh February of 2024. and then the blue longer box is just permanent financing of a project can I jump in sure it goes back just a little bit to the capital outlay project does that fall into this kind of question for you as well the when we did the proposal for establishing the capital reserve fund to

016be designated 2023 capital reserve fund does that that Capital outlay project fall into that that's different that's more building in the budget for that one hundred thousand dollar item that I highlighted in our proposal today that's what we call the capital outlay so which does not require it like a voter of approval a proposition a proposition correct got it okay yeah there's two ways you can do a project you can do the proposition which are typical larger projects uh you do a proper separate proposition you can also build it into a budget line item the capital outlays are just built into a line item okay got it thank you any other questions before we moved on me I'm going good so far we went through a couple slides okay so this is again just a

017look at the next step is building in what size project would fit to fill that drop off as well as that timing so we have the same the blue is the same your can is the same the existing and capital outlays this purple area is a proposed project again I believe you guys um have been in discussions of a capital reserve use and build up there this is a project size based on 800 000 capital reserve contribution which is fantastic and you can really see what it does to be able to have the capital reserve to put towards a project for the dollar size so we have 800 000 capital reserve the proposed project dollar amount is now at 12 million three forty five again no additional tax impact so again you're at the 50

018000 once we build this purple area in which is the 12 million dollar project this is the local share of the project once we build it in with your existing you're at the fifty thousand dollar Mark so again there's no additional impact there just some assumptions for this project again the vote would be 2024 followed by SCD approval January 25 time frame you have your borrowings that fall after that we did use your 2324 estimated billing Aid ratio of 96.1 which is very helpful and we did run this at a 95 Bond percentage that's the adability of the project so that does kind of assume all items of the project would be able items you can go over your maximum cost allowance so it's not fully aided just the dollar amount would come down so

019again if one assumption changes one other one has to as well any questions on that the breakdown of the budget of that 12 million is really you're looking at construction incidentals of 11 million for Saturday any questions before we move on from this area again this is just a visual you can see we stay below that black line there's the target for the no additional impact okay so this part really starts the long range plan portion of the presentation and again those numbers are built in here and ready to go we always start with the analysis of the fund balances in the past three years looking at your reserves and this is a great picture you can go back to 2020 if you want to look at you're restricted you've been able to really build

020up and fund some of your reserves in a much better position there as well as here your overall fund balance has been growing over the past three years so overall this is a perfect picture well done next here is uh our next two is really building up into the revenues um of the of the district here this is a state aid we have two main Revenue sources state aid and then taxes so we just break down both of those and then put those in the picture what we've done here is really just the numbers through 23 24 is coming from the executive budget proposals most recent numbers if you look at your top line here Foundation Aid one of your largest it is your largest piece of your estate that we have projected as Flats

021there could be an increase there but again with the conversations of re-looking at the formula and the overall Foundation Aid um explains the rest um safe really just to kind of keep it flat and assume no increase if you do that's great it better is the picture but for now we do have that flat going across um a couple things can you can you just pause and see how does climation aid aid relate to enrollment like it hasn't factored in the moment in the last few years is that correct but to me um yeah there's a lot of the formula for foundation Aid is all pages but yeah there's a lot of backers and I'm not actually quite sure if they really talked about the pieces that they want to adjust specifically um there's a

022lot of it and it's been in talks for a while actually of re-looking at it um it's very scary for a lot of people because it could be helpful it could be hurt you know damaging um so hopefully it doesn't everybody should be fully funded and then kind of stabilized from here hopefully it doesn't have any impact on where you guys are as far as you shouldn't be reducing any um but the increases the three percent would be nice and I think the last time we saw the three percent you have been getting this rate three percent so hopefully it stays there okay um so just a tan section here that's kind of where we come in and use our projective for um building Aid yours is all kind of all your projects are closed

023out so it matches the state runs anyways but just a couple things being pointed out here uh this is this 480 000 difference here and that's coming in the 23 24 year that's for the Emergency project so the aid coming back um it was a well told story of and really the SCD the state really did work well with the district in um granting that Aid coming back for that emergency project the following year if that didn't happen the expense is gone in one shot and you get your AIDS sprinkled back over 15 years so well done by the team here the architect everybody kind of came together and in the state listened it was not always the case but it was very good uh so again this is the um Aid coming back for

024the Emergency project uh you can see your building Aid is pretty stable and then you see that deduct hitting in the 25 26 years so now you're at 330 that's that drop that we're trying to build in the project we've got service to go down as well and then stabilizes from there you can see the proposed building Aid we have stripped up separate so in the 26th 27 year you can see the increase there and again that's the new project coming on board any questions here kept that way is there as well okay so the second largest piece of the revenue that's factored in is your tax levy this is a cap analysis there's a lot of numbers on this page um really just pointing out what we're using for this report um if you

025want to focus on the on the center there super majority vote needed in this scenario we are showing no super majority needed um and that's not built into this if you go down this tan line that's really um the the revenues the tax levy that is built into this project or into this report and it is actually matching your maximum Levy increase allowed within the tax cap that's in the green and again the blue is what we are going out at so we are showing um max Levy throughout this report built in already which again you can see on top of here those are the increases you'll see a couple different things going on here and I'll explain to those what that really the mechanisms of what's driving those um you know in a little

026bit these tan sections here you can see the the footnote there it's the champagne Hudson power Express pilot coming on board we have that showing starting in 2027. portion of it is a pilot portion of it is a miscellaneous Revenue that's supposed to be feeding the capital reserve so we have those both coming in um to this this 505 in the inner fund transfer Capital line is a capitalized interest which is associated with the proposed project as well it's just offsetting the interest until building Aid comes on but again it is shown as a revenue to the um to your general fund so you do have a couple different areas going on there and then that's pretty much it revenues are again most your revenue is derived from your tax levy and we're going out

027to uh showing a Max increase there your average increase for your revenues is 2.23 over the five years moving on to expenses and we've worked with the districts for a while now to project uh some expectations for year end as well as future projections for your expenses this picture does show being built salaries being built back in that were being paid from the federal fund so that fiscal cliff that everybody was talking about this is already accounted for it it's already included in here and you can kind of see the the jump up in the expenditure line for a couple different reasons one of them is the building back end of the salaries um this area down here your inner fund transfer to Capital Area the footnote down there that's where all the capital has

028to be shown that runs through to get it out of the general fund to get it over to the capital fund and get it out of your fund balance really so we have the hundred thousand dollar Capital outline being expensed from your general fund your eight hundred thousand dollar transfer to the proposed Capital project and then we do have the expense of the 500 emergency project so this 1.4 does include a lot of that so a lot of that big jump there is really planned use of your money's further service okay and then again this is really just pulling your all your full picture together your revenues and expenses um you can see here the 1.4 um really is just this eight this start here 800 and we have some additional fundings there's 125 being

029funded to Transportation so the expectation in 2023 we've already done some of that movement so you can if not it would have been still sitting there and that unassigned not quite sure how you presented that if it was in the unassigned already but so before any movements happened at the end of 2023 all of your excess fund balance would be sitting in this unassigned this is already pulling out the 800 to fund the capital 125 to fund the transportation and a couple other um littler items there as well just a question it's probably the slide prior I was transducing a nap here um so as far as revenues the one slide for revenues and then the next one expenses everything seems in line for 22 and 23 for the most part and then 24 it

030looks like our expenses outpace our revenues by almost 1.5 million dollars is that correct yep yep again a lot of that is the use you're pulling your 800 000 expenses in there um that's the 800 uh you're taking it from unappropriate and you're putting into the capital so it has to be expensed it has to show up as an expense so that's not you already have it there and basically down the line though up until the end of the graph our expenses are outpacing revenues on average 1.2 million dollars a year correct yep so make sure that's always yeah okay just looking at this piece of paper right now that's the story it's coming correct yep yep you want to that's why you want to hold sorry I'm trying to get to the page foreign

031just by looking at your revenues that was going up to point three 2.23 your expenses are going up 6.17 so yeah and the spread just kind of grows and increases from there um so when that happens you're gonna really pull from different uh reserves and you can see that's why you're uh Sun balance is really being reduced um you're going to fix the any issues with that if you can't go out with the budget like that right so you fix the issue but this does one you to pause and kind of take a look before you take any expenses on before you um you know enter into any agreements things like that to pull back and take a look at the ripple effect of doing so because it's sustainable I think that needs to be

032our question with every financial decision that's been moving forward it always has it always has them I think that still needs to remain at the Forefront of our conversations is it sustainable for us to say it's good I don't think right um for backup yeah so again you can see we're reallocating here um these negatives in your unassigned it's really you would just be kind of pulling from your other sources but you do start to go into the negative overall fund balance towards the end um that's good to look at again good to see that it's out there what you want to do is when we come back and do this again that Red's not here now so this is okay we'll always make those adjustments make sure they're not growing uh that would be

033alarming if they're moving up closer if we're not making the adjustments that's something to take a look at and to really pull back and take a look at but it is not surprising this is kind of a picture just on the mechanism of um how projections are with expenses and revenues but again things would be adjusted and fixed along the way before this gets to that you will see you do have this looks like a huge decrease you do have that's what you've been building that for right is is to spend it so it does show a draft there quite a bit but it's a responsible drop that's what you were doing that's what your plan was that's what you're building for um if you didn't have it and you needed that size of project

034or anywhere close to that size project your revenues would go up but that would mean your tasks are going up so some you know you have to get that from somewhere else so I I do have a question for um about that if we are like we just talked about pulling from the fund balance and pulling and then eventually I mean even the 2028 there this is in the fund balance it's in the red to 2.1 and I know on here you said that the project every year would we would not have to put it to a vote for a super majority but we're gonna have to get the money from somewhere correct adjustments would have to be made yep if you if you're expensive in revenues if your expenses remain the same right here

035and you've got no other Revenue sources so Foundation AIDS didn't increase nothing else increased you'd have to look at if you made no other adjustments um as far as your expenses reducing them taking shared services things like that then yeah she would have to you'd have to do something so those are the adjustments that is looked at every year to make sure again that you're you're meeting your your goals and what you need to do but yeah this picture would not play out like this um so I do want to let's see the the spread here hasn't really changed the increases um this bump up you can see kind of two different bumps up we that is the result of the project so the local shares we have the revenues coming in the same it

036offsets each other but you do see an increase in your expenses because of the project so um but again your bottom line it doesn't make you negative quicker or any more that's where the no additional impact comes in but you do see the increase in expenses but as well as the revenue so this is your tax cap page and I just want to speak to a couple different points on here you have some some things happening um this your max increase this year is at 3.66 if you look at this line here a lot of that reason's a little bit larger than what you're used to seeing is that Capital outlay being built in so the first when you start building those in that does go you have no building a going against it right

037now so that does bump that up a little bit so put it gives you the ability to be able to add that addition what you're needed to the tax levy you stabilize out from there then you have a negative here yeah which is really a negative tax cap as in to not need a super majority you would actually need to decrease your budget that's how the formula is yeah yeah um we need to decrease the budget I thought that was to counteract the pilot going on correct right that's what that's what's causing this so this is the year that the pilot comes on you see a decrease in again you're getting it the revenue from a different source so they want it to be removed from your Levy yeah so that's why it's it's decreasing

038so you actually won't even you won't even be able to stay at your budget because it's being pulled from your exclusion piece it's in the formula so it backs that out so we would have to decrease the budget even though we're getting the money we have to get some more money from the taxpayers I mean that's that's the balance that supplement is basically takes the burden off the taxpayer that year but it affects our budget so we would have to consider different so if we sit here for the revenues um it's coming in as a pilot so you don't need it in your Levy it's not being filled out as a tax item right so it's still there so you're still getting the revenue it's just not in the tax it doesn't go it doesn't

039play a part in the tax levy it's pulled out from there yeah right okay but our overall budget the amount of money that we spend in a year we wouldn't have to reduce that right it's your Levy yes okay okay all right sorry yeah yeah so your Levy would have to go down by the 0.02 to again stay within uh to not need a super majority yeah and that'll be a decision we didn't cross that bridge before where we said well we can save some money from the taxpayers and have that you know but it it kind of hurt us in the long run because you can only increase so much over time so it might not have been the best decision back then not to go out for a super majority because we paid

040the price according to that yeah we get the same Revenue because uh it's being supplanted by a pilot but you're missing out on Revenue yeah that you probably need so it's a decision for the board to say well we've probably got to go out and do something but I won't be yes but it but it is a good timing to take a look at especially if it is needed if it does look like it fits in there um that we did that remember it was we knew we were putting a Band-Aid on probably before 10 because that 60 would not have gone yeah you're talking double digits it wasn't going so it wasn't I mean we knew what was going to happen right on normal circumstances to get a super majority of your percentage shows

041up fairly large in this case because you're already so low yeah that it's not going to change the numbers all that much but you're going to need the super majority so yeah it's a little bit softer and more comfortable of a story if you're looking at and need that to possibly do it that year we have historically passed so much there was um it's one of the charts that was done for the ability study and it laid it out very nicely for that you typically get over in the 60s we know that we had that we had a budget that had gone out that was over the cap and needed the 60 majority and it it did get it I don't remember which year it was but we have that chart so the opposite indicating

042the taxpayers okay so they understand where that where those monies are and and how that affects that percentage so and who knows what will happen with Foundation that won't change this picture though it will give you more Revenue it won't change this picture though it's very hard to handle those Pilots coming on and on what's going on they're more apt to be in favor of the the hole the same will happen but in opposite effect the year a pilot rolls off is instead of the negative you now don't have it anymore so you need to build it back into your Levy that's where a lot of people say that's a huge increase we can't go out with that that's where you really do lose Revenue so when that falls off and it's it shows this

043may now be a five or six percent uncomfortable to go out like that but we have an analysis to show you really what it does and if you're losing revenue is that is not coming in anywhere else possible armentations no there's a big plan there so there is a huge line there so I can so any other questions we're good so again considerations to improve on balance we just kind of discussed a lot of those just looking at that picture but increasing revenues that is your taxes at this tip that's really the only control of revenues that you have at this point um decreases in your expenditures it's just revealing your contracts before you put in um commit to any long-term contracts shared services you can look at and review review your program needs um

044plan use of reserves we do have that built in for that one year as well but that's a another option an idea and again moving forward that's why this is an ongoing document you want to make sure you do those updates um after June 30th we now have actuals now we're going to change their projections going forward to put you in an accurate position and kind of refreshes from there um any other contract negotiations things like that take a new look at it and then just see again where that red is is it staying there is it increasing is it getting better so those are the pictures that you want to kind of just take take a peek at any questions overall um this project in general it's great information and we appreciate it because

045I missed service visits it's the information we need um as we go along so I like to perform that too yeah it's very easy to follow a little easier than that the more and more you actually get to see it too then when you end up coming back you guys can read the document yourself but it is good information you guys are doing a great job I'm very excited to look at a project for the district thank you thank you very much foreign lots of good news but uh next couple years looked really good doing a great job missing your team we appreciate it obviously you got some good information on that um so you're going to do that are you going to present yeah I'm going to actually give a more of a synopsis

046since most of you guys work here don't build it up too much because I don't want you to get too much businesses yeah you have the floor go ahead everybody again I appreciate this uh this is a budget Workshop five and as Tom said I previously presented today but we're going to just run through a little bit of the information of course we're gonna have our same goal we're going to provide business direction through transparency and detail again most of our numbers are still fluid we're projecting but a lot of the budgets and numbers will be actually what you need to vote for for this evening so tonight's topics were school resource officer SRO extra classroom activity funds we're going to do kind of an educational piece uh final review of our 2324 budget we

047will update you on the administrative program at Capital sections the three-part budget updated expenditures Revenue estimates and also the property tax report card so the SRO again this is something that just came to mind uh about three weeks ago I did a lot of research it was um because again we're living in a culture where it's a little bit of an anxious moment schools that see to be uh more vulnerable or again uh there's a swatting that's going around people again a little bit anxious but an SRO SRO role would be assisting the school administration and maintaining a safe and secure environment providing visible highly visible presence to deter or identify trespassers responsible for investigating violations of criminal law this person is also a positive role model endorsing high moral standards law rate related counselor

048assisting in Conflict mediation efforts providing crisis and emergency training to faculty and staff these are just a little bit Snippets of what that role is and they are not a school disciplinarian uh Ford Edward is currently one of the last school districts and our Washington Warren County uh area that does not have an SRO and we would be contracting with Washington County Sheriff's Office and the budgeted line which we do have the money for is 52 000. so who does not have one currently Putnam because they have hardly any students and Cambridge in Washington County uses their Village Police and they actually are Contracting them to stop by about four times a day uh Granville did not until this year they actually are moving with also Washington County and they're adding an SRO to their

049program uh Saratoga County's number is about 75 000 and more uh Warren County runs in the mid six sixty thousands so we were kind of getting a a deal Washington County they're they're not making a profit off this program they're offering it to our school districts um really almost at a loss but um I did look at Grants and as I said to the group tonight it was a Federal grant that kind of looked good it was a mirage it does not actually equal good funding because what happens is it's a 75 to 25 grant so the grant would cover the 75 percent the 25 would actually be Washington County residents and because this is a program that they already said when they started back in 2018 they were not going to fund this this

050has to be something the school itself provides and the way of the boarding is the um primary brand writer is the count is the work by Washington County Sheriffs and what happens then is the language of that contract of the grant is as a primary grant writer they're the ones that have to pay the 25 so it can't be us it can't be anything that we could do I can't even give them the money that has to be as primary grant writers they're the ones that actually get they have to put out the 25 percent so this would be an active Deputy they are actually retired police cars they will be armed but they are highly trained as an SRO to provide those security uh details so are we going to public notice this for

051a discussion at a future meeting or are you saying we're like deciding on this tonight this would be something you would decide tonight because it's a board decision so we would have to decide we want to go forward with it I don't see it on the agenda though as a discussion on it I don't think we should go forward without a public notice it seems like an important topic it's not it's not it's not anything for a tool we assuming so I think we have to you have to go to May anyway I think right we put it on an agenda I think this is just saying that there is money in the budget for this position in the future we even have Community input and things and then if for some reason we decided

052to not move forward with the school resource officer than that 52 000 hits um but yeah it's definitely something that yeah you want to budget for it so that's what we're approving tonight is the money is allocated for that position yeah the other piece that we had talked about that to clarify was that it was um one person that would be assigned to the Fort Edward School of five days a week we're not shared with somebody else and that the SRO training is a specific school-based um training with the retired officers go through did we used to have a school resource officer I heard it was more of a security person with a badge this is a completely different program they are truly trained not to leave for police but as Amanda said their Roboto

053school resource officer if that's their training and they and they were and should we go forward it would be effective September correct for the for the new school year no and that's that's the same person Iran is always the same for consistency or whatever that is what they were saying yeah yeah you got to be careful there yeah they did say this would be the person that's assigned to or in a word right no one won't be sharing anybody I don't want somebody here with the same person my understanding of that was what they would be okay I still have sick time though still right yeah correct they work for Washington County Sheriff's Department correct their contracted yes and we contract that through them so we pay Washington County obviously correct Washington County provides and

054pays for their train all of that's inclusive in that 52 000 yes and it's also good about events as well it's also their benefits as well okay so all their benefits comes from Washington County as a retiree they get all that's all in that package correct yeah thank you and because we needed a little actually my own education as well we had some issues with the extra classroom activity funds and we presented tonight that under the law we are not able to use taxpayer Monies to fund any outside clubs any of our uh extracurricular co-curricular what would be what we only can fund are advisors for co-curricular and we uh the clubs must be self-sustaining so either fundraising dues that's how that has worked however we also were able to present uh with questions tonight

055that this could also be other extra classroom funding other extra classroom so at the student council said we're going to give money to this club they can do so but this cannot be out of taxpayer or budgeted money foreign part of the administration budget also in my deep diving of what I inherited from previous budgets we took out a lot of the 0.2 codes which are actually equipment so if we need to say furniture for the library which we desperately need we do not have any funding right now available a budget is one of those things you have to approve you can't add later so by not having equipment or Furniture opportunities we were kind of stuck so um being able to take some money and move things around we were able to create some

056line items here we have 500 dollars that again wasn't previously budgeted for wonderful transparency I wanted you guys to know that right now in our budget we have about 11 500 for furniture or equipment that we need to do upgrades that we're not able to in the past budgets because the 0.2 codes were not available and this is our second part of the administration budget besides not changed these are the same numbers that were presented previously foreign this highlighted section down where it says non-instruction and salaries also as we were doing our edits and and listening to different meetings I was also part of the best negotiation and since we have not yet settled their contract uh some of those uh percentages that we were previously budgeting for were a little bit lower so we

057increased those slightly so that we actually are are projecting a little bit more accurate so that's where another highlighted item here is the contract Transportation this is usually what we've been using with Durham which is transportation aidable but what happens is uh we previously last year had 95 000 we dipped it down to about 35 but now looking at more financials and certain contracts that we still have with Duran I feel better with the 65 instead of the 35 so we're not getting a major hit and right now we are running about 65 000 so we're hoping to be better and also the highlighted item this is what Sarah presented with the capital outlays it is not the capital project per se it's not that 800 000 we're investing out of reserves this is truly

058budgeted money that can kind of do like side projects a little capital projects as we get monies from building Aid and another Fest on support staff increase was with the operation of plant non non-instruction salaries that also was a little bit of an uptake just again to balance what our uh hopefully we can sell these contracts uh this was again another this was the way the ten thousand dollars landed for plant equipment so again having these line items you can always take the money out they said and put it into different areas but you can't put it in going forward so by having it built in as we have we can actually again have equipment that we desperately need uh the SRO where we budgeted that is on the operation of plant contractual because it

059is a contractual staff member and reaching out to other school business officials that is where they have also budgeted that line so the numbers here are landing almost what they were it's just that how it was uh structured as slightly different and this is our updated three-part budget so uh 12 as our Administration costs capital is 14 and program is 74. foreign list of our estimated expenditures this is again broken down as a three-part budget I highlighted this number here so I want you to kind of put this one to memory in the second uh 300 670 278 016. because when we take a look at this slide here with our estimated revenues what we are getting just for our state aid projection we are almost thirty thousand dollars ahead of the game so in

060my way of doing budgeting I kind of like to balance what we got extra from the state versus what is extra from last year's budget comparative so again looking out but we have difference from last year's budget is significantly lower about thirty thousand dollars for them our state is giving us extra this year also I want to bring to your mind we are under six percent which now when we look at are property tax report card Consumer Price Index is eight percent so all the price of goods uh being under six percent is a pretty decent Landing knowing when uh everything is so expensive today gas paper goods food and also uh during our tax report card we also need to put out our enrollment and current enrollment right now is 366. so it is

06111 decrease and these are our fun balance projections keep in mind they are estimated on this side here all of these are the accurate as Sarah was saying too once we close out the books and as actual projections you'll see better uh but in discussions uh where we're trying to land this actually could be a little higher than what we're projecting so we're healthy our fund balance is healthy we took out the hundred thousand dollars for our Capital project so that's why some of that number is a little bit lower than what we started outdoor because that was already outpushed into our revenues or Reserves foreign picture any questions we do again nice great job I really appreciate the choir we and the transparency to right uh the only other meeting that we have is

062policy that you met on June 22 23. yeah we did um and finally finish our policy audit review and that is in your cabinets and then the minutes for our first reading of all of that um the actual policies themselves are listed in the shared drive that's like 175 page documents so I have specifically see there was no need to paper copy of that for everybody the chart the chart here is what we went through and in each each change is described within that chart sui policy Services makes the suggested revisions most were updated terminology within policies and we suggested uh to adopt most all of them as is the one that was not adopted on h23430 that is being just not adopted at this time being put on hold until it'll be on our

063policy audit again for next year that's what happens and we wanted to represent that one closer and one clarifying piece on the last page um 8340 the box is checked revisions made by District when we've had our meeting we had talked about adopt ads is in rereading the information from policy Services because its customization was required we had to do that June 1st for when people needed to request the information we then checked that box instead of adopt as it is so it's adopted as is but because we had to customize with the date that's why we do that yes um so tonight is technically the first reading and then there's a whole other month where people can review things closer if you have questions or concerns over the course of the next month with

064regards to any of it please feel free to send an email and you know and everything discuss next month if anything as well but um looking forward I want to thank Amanda in the community I'm a member of that committee but it just seems every time the last couple of meetings take place I had some working business so I'm not really able to make it so thank you for picking up the Slash and getting all this work done I appreciate it and I think each year now the procedure in place or fluid levels are there any um opportunities that we need to be within the next month that's when something comes up we'll we'll take it um okay so um the Future Kids program I don't know if you recall was an after-school program they

065did a presentation that we sent out a survey to see how many families would be interested in possibly utilizing that service and it was a fee for that service but we did have five families return the survey interested in the service so I would like to move forward with that program I said if it was interest right yeah they'll be here Friday to kind of look at the physical plant and I sent them some floor plans in our certificate of occupancy because there's licensure as you remember that they're going to have to acquire from the state so I will let them know tomorrow that uh we'll see that okay thank you Casey and I were discussing this do we have a main board meeting what what is the main board meet when is the date

066is it usually I didn't know no I think that's always the budget hearing that you'll have a meeting after or you're right yeah that's the way it is are we doing another budget here we've already got five well we have to do the public now those are working out yeah thank you [Music] all right that's the big one about you budget caring usually is done in the in the auditorium gotcha there will historically there have been yeah um some community members that come yeah as well so we will be seeing each other do we have them meetings well what is it the second Monday in May I'm just thinking because we're together today next week we have to get together for the BOCES budget and uh but and then the eighth would be the next

067week so you could possibly see each other for straight weeks just saying not that I I don't know I'm okay with that I'm just saying wait it's a valid boy anyway yeah [Music] no if you don't need me there's no I mean I don't know it's not mandatory no the night of the budget vote we've never here yeah okay so that will be the board meeting so May 8th will be the board meeting now we got it right yeah okay so I wasn't totally off my rocker no okay since I thought it was going to be fun with all of those and not one that was like very designated I was very interesting all right so we're set up there all right we should rifle through the rest of this okay all right so item

068since the last board meeting are Adirondack League didn't meet I want to say two weeks ago or three um there was decisions made about basketball coming up that I just want to make you wear it right um they we had three divisions we're moving to one um will play all League opponents one time the bracketed tournament at the conclusion of the season will be based on the order of finish so bracket a teams will be one number one and number four bracket B Teams be five through eight and bracket c teams will be 9 through 12. I'm not sure what all of that requires but the biggest thing that I wanted you to know was one division with one time playing each one leaves us with seven non-league games to fill I was going to

069ask no more East and West is what you're saying correct is it because like it how many teams do they have how many teams I think they were nervous because people are having having issues Fielding varsity and GPS so that's because this isn't just boys it's boys and girls wow that's crazy so it is decided to try this for next year and then see how it goes so it could possibly be um they'll be developing the schedule in the next couple weeks in the guidelines for potential tiebreakers and scenarios so there were a few other teams that were enormous about a non-league schedule but so what the league has decided and that's what they'll go forward one of those played Argyle toys and weren't just a madly he doesn't have one thing yeah because everybody

070perform as bad as we are so much Bob we have another Esports we had another Esports meeting since we last met now that we know the clubs cannot be funded we will be working toward I.T on a bring your own device so we can still keep Esports rolling because we seem to have quite a bit of Interest so that's still on the radio radar all four new boilers are are in and they're being plumbed in so believe it or not you didn't feel the heat from the four boilers today um the issue that we're having is is that since we've taken things offline we are now manually controlling the actual one boiler that works and the pumps so because the nights are still a little cold we were kind of nervous to shut them all

071down so Friday Steve flipped the coin the coin said leave them on and we walked into like 90 degree classrooms this morning so uh fortunately though he was supposed to take a day off but Steve is very dedicated we have a great man at the helm there came in in his shorts and a cup of coffee this morning turned everything off and then uh did a couple other things and left so um we were okay by 11 because obviously when you boil water and this paper building up to 100 some people come back [Music] uh Aaron and I Aaron and I and Mindy are in talks in about our end of the year events so we are heading towards graduation you can believe it or not so we'll meet you again this week or next

072week um I did attend the County Supervisors meeting with Mr Besson and Mr ward in regards to the Ida and things are just going to remain status quo so there were no major changes needed that need um Mrs Russo Russo and I met with all non-tenure staff since our last meeting then you will she will provide you that update later this evening we want to publicly thank the Fort Edward public free library for sponsoring Jeff Boyer's big bubble show we thank them for uh offering him to make a presentation to our kids they loved it it was fantastic April 4th we did have a two-hour delay to the waswati incident which encompassed many New York State Upstate school districts um I met with the data privacy administrator of our BOCES which is Gail Galusha um

073we will have to move to what's called two-step authentication next year so basically and we're going to try to figure that out but it's something that must be done I I know Bob I want to say was it Southwest Falls they had were they the internet they could not use their internet for two weeks it was pretty difficult so that has brought a heightened awareness to our districts about what we need to do um and we have taken steps already to better secure items on our website that deal with personal information she was ecstatic about our website felt like we were doing a great job and we're keeping that information so um extremely satisfied with the website I think everybody involved in that especially on Mr Herbert April 5th I attended the BOCES annual budget

074meeting which we'll be voting on and I think you have packets on that Casey already shared with you is that true yeah from the board from the BOCES um future items I do have a bomb threat overview training for this Friday due to what's been going on uh healthy kids will be visiting the site on Friday on New Meadows has approached me about renewing their contract they are requesting a one or possibly two-year deal I'll be working with our lawyers to see what the best course of action is for us they are also requesting three additional rooms so connection so I would like to and Aaron and I are in talks with that and I did send a notification out to the staff you're aware that we could be looking for free rooms um well

075we have three rooms available but they're not in close proximity to them so we may have to shuffle some special stuff yeah how many do they currently that's a great question I want to say they have two up front they have I want to say five classrooms and then three or four offices 425 again we have a meeting to adopt the BOCES budget 426 we will continue negotiations with fess um we'll be talking about that later tonight um 428 I have a diversity equity and inclusion meeting at Ballard Road I thought it was pertinent for me to attend the policy actions and May 2nd we will have a graduation discussion and then the budget vote will be on May 16th Mr niron did ask me to share a few things with you uh Mr Sharkey

076has been prepping both the softball and baseball fields they were ready for play today um but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate they did a nice job in that softball field down there oh good I was down you overseeing yeah well that's great I think it will they will be they would love to hear that they did a nice job good uh he did fix a frozen spicket from the bus garage by the bus garage I need to put some new Lighting in the boiler room he ran a class with all of the cleaners including two part-time people last week during break and basically showed them this is how you clean a bathroom this is how you avoid cross-cut contamination and this is how you clean a classroom right and it was fantastic and you

077Sentai they sanitized the entire School top to bottom including our buses inside and out wow and fixed any plow damage from the grounds from the winter so they did that and they've been removing some little beehives from the corners of some of the windows if you notice there were a bunch of them near dormant and I we've been talking about that at our leadership meeting for about four or five weeks so I'm happy that they got that rectified and that is my report for today thank you thank you I just want a quick question what's the phone correct thing that you're doing is that the computer BOCES yep it's a needle which we are a subscriber to they are hosting it I mean they are putting it on in both Valley Road as full State

078okay so I think it's going to go through all of those scenario of scenario the bond thread and what we should be doing and kind of updating this on that right thank you all right because report in your packets uh principles report hello everybody um you're going to hear from me a lot tonight because I've got this I've got a presentation I've got a couple things for executive sessions so you're going to hear my voice a lot um so upcoming events uh between now and the next board meeting um the book fair is currently happening in our library um I stopped in it's set up beautifully and the kids are going to be really excited they get to go for a preview starting tomorrow and then can purchase things from the book fair um tomorrow

079we are having two concerts both put on by John Farrell and um his peace and hope organization um he's a gentleman I'm familiar with from Columbia County he's been all over the world um he's got CDs um he's singing songs about peace and hope and teaches kids how to make music um and he's coming here tomorrow to do a concert for pre-k through two and then three through five um it's going to be focused a little bit on Earth Day because that's that's coming up soon and our PTO is generously sponsoring that so a big shout out to the PTO he is not inexpensive and they are fighting the entire bill for him to come he did waive the uh he typically he charges a travel fee but he weighs that um so I've known

080him for since my kids were yay big um so he was excited to be able to come here um this coming Thursday and Friday we have the three through eight Ela testing um I was really excited because during break I think I only had four students um at that point refusing to test that number is has gone up a little bit um but hopefully like right now we don't have I think we have fewer than 10 students who are not slated to be tested um but yeah so everybody's trained all of our teachers are trained the schedule went out over break and we're ready to do that Thursday and Friday uh on the 28th of April we are our 10th and 11th graders are going to New York City with myself Melissa Rosenthal Pete Prindle

081Amber beamant and joy glass we are going to the Holocaust Museum in New York City um because they they read night um in English and they study the Holocaust in Global Studies and in U.S history um so we're going to the Holocaust Museum and then to the 911 memorial and then we're breaking off into groups and everybody's going to a different little niche of the city to give our kids that experience um I think we have 39 students with permission slipped in so far what would be cool I don't know if this is something that could happen yep a couple of kids could come after that experience and do a little presentation absolutely love it nothing big you know but I'd love to see some pictures of that Excursion sure oh for sure I'm sure

082we've got kids who've been through yes paper so it's next Friday it's coming up quickly um we have our three through eight math testing on May 2nd and 3rd just like the ELA testing that will be happening this week um and on May 2nd I have um the assistant district attorney coming to discuss attendance interventions with myself director long our school counselors Mentor school psychologist um he uh Brendan Rathbun is yet the Ada and he came to our principal's meeting and talked about what pressure he can exert in extreme cases of of uh non-attendance so he's gonna come meet with us and lend his name to our attendance letters and uh yeah put a little bit of teeth into some attendance interventions so I'm happy about that um how's that going any attendance yeah it's

083oh actually I'll skip down to that um so for the year so far um we're at 89.63 attendance rate best attendance um remains 12th and second graders at 93 for the year um and the most room for growth is our current ninth grade at 80 um and this quarter um our numbers have been very similar I'm 89 for the quarter um second 12th and fourth grade what we're good for um for this quarter and the ninth grade through names are challenge there so nobody does not want to graduate for Life Independence right you're right they're all they're coming they're coming that is good that is good I'll tell you it's a good idea if Ada's gonna attach his name to that letter that goes only attendance one because the nasty phone calls I used to

084get is when the District Attorney's name was on the letter because that police got the parent for contact B because that's true if you're the parents so that's a good that's a good approach yeah I'm and he's um he's been very you know receptive and he was very helpful yeah yeah so I'm really yeah the other side [Laughter] of our Junior Senior High code of conduct Review Committee has met one time so far we have three other meetings scheduled um we have five teachers who volunteer to participate in the code of conduct review process and I've reached out to student council and class advisors to see if students would like to participate in this um you know the student council members and the class officers have been elected by their peers to to represent their

085their cohorts and so we're asking them for any changes that they'd like us to consider in the code of conduct have you reached out to parents pardon have you reached out to parents I have not I would do that matter of fact I think it's state anyway one or two grants they always have good Insight great love it we will definitely I'll reach out tomorrow and get something out to parents for sure um we're doing character Ed in elementary um this past month's assembly focused on responsibility and we had the NED Show come virtually um just not go uh helped orchestrate that we recognized our March Rock and respect crew as well as recognizing our students with perfect and excellent attendance um and our Rock and respect crew was treated to a principal's pancake party

086um so I made pancakes for the kids and got to wear a little chef's hat and uh they loved it and I learned what it was like to be a short order cook and I will not be changing careers anytime soon let me tell you um but they liked it despite my pancakes um our cell phone practice where um we have cell phone holders in every classroom um and if they're ouch if I confiscate them it's going really well I've had to confiscate very few phones on the ones I have parents have come after school to retrieve them and then I haven't had an issue with that student having their phone out again and feedback from the teacher so far has been positive um so I'm I thought I'd be running around a lot more

087collecting more phones than that I had to be so students are are respecting that so far which is good Athletics we have three students playing tennis at Argyle which is great um in all three levels of baseball and softball are a go so if that's all happening um I know we had a question last month about the bathroom update about the doors on the bathroom stop or on the bathroom they have them on the bathroom stalls but on the hallways um so we I went into the boys bathrooms and and took some pictures of what you can see from the outside um you can't see anybody in the bathrooms if you duck down like this you can see feet um but you can't see anything else you can however hear water moving um I've requested

088a divider be put in the second floor boys bathroom between the urinal and the sink because right now there isn't a divider there um so that has been requested because that needs to be there um for sure um and if we can go for a month with no more than three students in the boys bathroom at a time no reports of vaping or marijuana smells in the bathroom no vandalism and no tardiness due to hanging out in the bathroom then I think it's fair to consider reinstating the doors um if it shows that hey does it you know they're all following the rules and and we can put the doors back in but if those parameters are not met it shows that there's a reason to keep them off right following the rules now um

089well there's often more than three pairs of feet in the bathroom when I duck down so I you know I often have to to and I to break up groups of people in the bathroom just kind of hanging out um and again there's no there's only three places to use the bathroom in you know in the bathroom so there shouldn't be more than three people in there um yeah so we've got signs up um teachers have been great um popping into the bathrooms and then just you know saying hey if you're not using the bathroom you got to get out of here um so teachers have been doing a great job between classes trying to get in there as well so um we are testing a web filter called hapara which will allow us to

090um kind of keep track of what website students are going on and it also allows teachers to from their their website or from their laptop to look to see what kids are doing and shut things off when they're on a site that they're not supposed to be on and they can send a message like hey that's not the site we're supposed to be at and actually shut it off for that student um anything you want to add about that Brad it is AI powered so it's constantly adapting so that's perfect with adapting a filter is you don't want it to quickly become um not useful but with AI adapted to it it'll continue to be useful and continue adapting to new language and stuff that the students adapt so that way you don't have to

091keep adding keyword filters as the language and adapts and change with the students as they grow so it's a sustainable to say the least it's a new technology yes yes the the AI adaption widely in schools yes I use it at my other two districts as well so um it's used by other similar districts around yeah yeah we use it so we surveyed a lot of the schools in the area most of them are using hypothesis so we're gonna test it out and see what we think it's very useful oh good good um tomorrow is the New York state maple experience uh Patrick camily our um food cafeteria coordinator um is bringing a Mobile maple syrup maple syrup Shake yeah Sugar Shack try saying that again removal maple syrup Sugar Shack to Fort Edward and

092the kids are going to be able to go through on little tours of 15-20 minute um demonstrations of a mobile Sugar Shack so uh yeah and uh just to chatting thank you Jessica for organizing that spreadsheet and getting people to sign up back which should be yeah so I was yes sir um I'm going to assume that was probably the safest place yeah exactly I've had a few people ask me yep I don't know executive decision that's where they're broken right in the back starting in May um I started a document and teachers have been plugging in when they're going to offer extra review classes so um I've been waiting for one more teacher's definite dates and then that'll be posted for students and for parents so they know when they can get extra review

093for those Regents exams that are required for graduation um and I already talked about attendance for this quarter so that's my report it was um thanks for following up I think it was our student board member that mentioned the bathroom situations and things called I think Ella also brought up um student to the corner or a motherboard to bring that back does that opinion there yep I did actually Joanna Scotch is the one who kind of spearheaded it when it was in you know in something we want to you know bring back um probably for next year so that we can do the whole you know do the whole year and um but yeah she was she was excited to be able right now awesome and Aaron I want to thank you for offering to

094help with the survey I want to do the kids we're looking at I'm trying to get the kids as busy as possible in the summertime since I'm lucky enough to run the rapping in the pool in the library and as I'm trying to get some information from the kids not what I want to do or not what we think they should do what they really want to do and also if you're in a Marketplace because they want to get kids so if I can get everybody under the same umbrella if you look at the horse the kid so find out what they want instead of dictating let them tell us you know that we have to go somewhere because we get we just gotta give them all you know the days of just setting up

095you know building a Field of Dreams build it they'll come they won't come so you got to go find out what it is so I'll get repairing and we'll get a survey together short and sweet It's Gonna Give Kids the answer but you know thank you anymore and speaking to him if anybody has any any ideas or any questions we can ask you know general questions for kids to get on please let me know and I can get it done in a week so I can start working on that schedule because it's going to be all different this summer cool thanks so thank you of course of course all right appreciate it um so we're going to go to your presentation uh I was obviously my previous CE so yeah all right um okay and

096this is fancy um okay so this is um cohort report so these are predicted graduation rates through 2026. so um our the cohort is basically who is still on our books who entered in so our seniors and entered in 2020 or sorry tomato 2019. so these students were freshmen in 2019 they might have been freshmen here or they could have been freshmen somewhere else in 2019 but we now own them because they've transferred into our district um if they were freshmen here and transferred someplace else they're no longer in our cohort they would belong in the cohort of the school to which they transferred um so our current seniors we have 30 students in that cohort three of them are out of District placement so these are three students who we don't see they don't

097attend classes here they're in a BOCES placement someplace else um so they don't have the benefit of our counselors our teachers their um they're an outside placement so we have very little unfortunately very little um input or control over how their students are doing um one student out of that 30 is what's called out of cohort they're in a life skills class they're considered an ungraded student and they were inadvertently included in this cohort um so BOCES will Rectify that Amanda Bergen our data person will Rectify that which will then bring that cohort to 29. um we have 21 of those 30 are on track to graduate in June two are on track to graduate in August until about a month ago we thought they were not going to graduate until the end of next

098year um in looking at their credits what they need to graduate we can offer them some online credit recovery and accrual between June 1st and the end of August and we can get them to graduate in August so they will they will count toward our graduation rate which is really good because the district is small two kids makes a huge difference in that graduation number we have one of those students on track to graduate in 2024 I've looked at her transcript Every Which Way upside down backwards sideways and there is absolutely no way we can get her through by this August she just needs too many classes to graduate um and five students of that original 30 have dropped through lack of attendance family instability to the students who dropped were out of District placement

099so we really didn't even have the opportunity to intervene they just stopped attending at their BOCES program and then dropped which is unfortunate so that would be the highest graduation rate you could have right now excuse me we could have would be 83. well I'm moving to right here so if all of our if our outer District students all graduate um 21 out of 30 students we'd have a 70 graduation rate 72 after that one student gets taken out of the cohort um 23 out of 30 students it's a 76 graduation rate that's for the district that's including our outer District students um our building level stats what we can control here in our building we're at um worst case scenario is 74 graduation rate and then in August after we get those two students

100across the stage and do that cohort adjustment we have an 84 graduation rate at the building level but what you'll see on our school report card will be the district level um and okay um I did the same rundown for our 2020 cohort which is our our current 11th graders um I'm not going to read the whole thing to you I do want to show that we do have um a student transferring to homeschooling which is the once they do transfer we can take them out of our cohort because it's as if they transfer it to another school um and we have five kids in that 2020 cohort who have already dropped um whether it was this year or in previous years one of whom is an out of District policemen student so here um

101the whole District again what you'll see in the report card 75 graduation rate um and after that one student transfers to homeschooling 78 graduation rate so you see that one student is three percent so that's that's huge um and I got our building level stats are a little bit better um 77 graduation rate and after that student transfers to home school will be at an 80 graduation rate similar data for the current sophomores um we I had two students who did already transferred to homeschooling that were not already taken out of the cohort and three who are planning to transfer to home school they simply have not submitted their paperwork yet or their iHip so until until that's approved I I don't count them as transferred out yet because you never know um we do

102have three who are out of sequence they're not 100 on track to graduate but in evaluating their transcripts and how much time they have left in school we can easily get them caught up and back on track as long as we're offering them the right schedule to get those those needs met um and again our district staffs this is looking pretty good um District stats worst case scenario is 77 graduation rate after we did the cohort adjustment and confirmed homeschooling we're an 88 graduation rate and then if those students actually transfer to homeschooling that would be 100 graduation rate now granted these are our 10th graders um so that 100 is definitely pie in the sky but in all the you know if all the numbers work out well and everybody stays on track that's

103what we're looking at um our building level stats um again very very similar uh worst case scenario 75 graduation rate um and then after the confirmed homeschooling 87 graduation rate so it's definitely going up our current ninth grade we don't have a ton of data because this is the they're in their cohort they just just enter their cohort so at the district level we have 24 students in that cohort um the building level we have 21 students because three of our students in that cohort or are placed at a district 16 of our 21 students in the building are passing all of their classes which is great um five students are failing at least one class um but again that's at this moment um so there's definitely room for improvement and I'm going to tell

104you about what we're doing to help those numbers improve we have academic recovery so students who are failing um get put in a directed study hall where they are assigned with a teacher to catch up on work that they're missing um retaking tests um making up essays that kind of thing to try to get them back on track so they're not failing classes students who are failing classes parents get a letter every two weeks saying your child is failing this class so lots of communication with parents teachers are available for extra help every Monday through Thursday until at least three o'clock um we are in building this master schedule for next year looking to give actual academic intervention services at the Junior Senior High School level which isn't homework catching up um it's skill building

105so we'll look at a student who is not just not doing their homework but wow they're really they have a deficit in math or they have a deficit in reading or writing and actually giving those skill building so that they can succeed um Richard I actually talked today about a summer school plan um so that kids students can recover credit um currently those students who Maybe Can't graduate with their cohort it's because if they failed Global 10 they reach up Global 10 the following year which then put them off track social studies wise and if they failed something else it put them off track we'd like to offer a summer school so that they can recover that credit and stay with their cohort and graduate on time um I'm going to be implementing an advisory

106program beginning next fall on the goal of the advisory program is to create more connections so basically you have a teacher who's responsible for a small group of kids uh five to ten kids and they have them all the way all four years through graduation um they stay on top of them um they establish relationships with their parents so they're almost like they're little their parent here at school and check in with them on at least a weekly hopefully a daily basis depending on what I can make work in the schedule you designate meeting time for them because we we did the same thing and it worked it was wonderful yeah so it would be a meeting time I'm actually right now looking at retooling the master schedule for next year to put in like

107a 15-minute daily advisory if I can make that work and if I can't make that work I'm going to do like a weekly advisory for at least 30 minutes again to establish those relationships I still have kids that contact me either DM from mentor just from the not because I have this principal because of a mentor thing because it's a different relationship it is it is very different small school that's one of those deals you really got to take advantage of the assets that you have here and I'm just trying to help I feel very interesting good I'm so glad that you had experience with that right now I'm sorry yeah we do yes yep Joanna Scotch is at the high school level okay and then double the Barons of the elementary level okay yep

108um and they you know double or I'm sorry Joanna scotch's job at the high school level is to you know she's tracking graduation requirements she meets with kids who are not achieving um pardon yeah about a lot yes a lot of that stuff yeah it is yeah yeah um yeah but it's but you know that advisory program is great because you know you might be paired to the music teacher or an art teacher or a math teacher and they just become your your person here in the building um yeah and then another thing we're doing is students who want to drop um we are you know meeting the parents and and trying to if they no longer want to come to school here and then either the parents are supportive of them continuing or the

109parents who want them to continue but the child is simply refusing um we're then talking to them about homeschooling um I mean we want them here but I'd rather have them homeschool than not finish at all um and that you know they they get some educated until they can take their GED and they also don't count against us because they're doing a different educational program rather than no educational program questions I do so let's just for a moment uh homeschooling so each grade through seems to be percentage-wise several kids that have elected to homeschool those are a common reason for that um I think so entry which is n't the 9th through 12th yeah so I think usually when kids are electing to homeschool it's they they don't they're not feeling successful here whether it's

110they're not making connections they're not attending a lot is that I'm talking about our kids our kids yeah I think a lot of it is they're just um either not interested in coming anymore their attendance is poor their attendance is poor they cut when they do come to school they're a little bit lost because they haven't been here in a while um so it's just this this kind of vicious cycle of wow I come I'm a little bit lost I don't know what's going on so then I'm going to stop coming um and then they show up you know once in a blue moon they don't feel a part of it um so so sometimes they do go to homeschooling because of that is that I'm sorry was the root cause that's a great question

111that's a great question um we haven't done a root cause analysis for the the homeschooling but that would be I think that'd be a valuable exercise I think it would be value if we're saying that the kids don't want to come to school I mean then why don't they want to come why don't they want to come is it the environment is it their parents is it the curriculum are they falling behind and they feel that they're never going to cut shops is that you know there's several I'm sure reasons oh sure solve any problem s so we can pay why kids don't want to be here and if they are here why aren't they doing as well as they should until we get to the root of the issue and the root of the

112problem we can't solve the problem right we're just treating a symptom instead of banding on something and the wrong reason to do that is to boost a graduation rate on paper right so the right reason to do it is to get kids a good foundation to move on after they get out of the school exactly yep a couple of pieces to that also though it homeschool programs are now so online homeschool programs are so readily available to parents and they're they're very um affordable at this point as well you get a very affordable homeschool program and um so that's another reason why Chris had mentioned about an 11 drop in enrollment when you look at um when the kindergartens that's not compulsory age but when you look at six-year-olds up through graduation time the amount

113of students that are across the state and Country probably that are moving to homeschool and it's it's a family decision the parent has to do all of the the paperwork for that to occur and so um I think that's a reason why you're seeing a lot of enrollment drops in school districts across the state there are a lot of families who are choosing for any given reason to homeschool their children the other piece to it though and and the talks have have been in New York State education department but they we are operating under very very archaic graduation requirements Regents exams are still pencil and paper exams and that is still a requirement in New York state that every student take those to graduate and yes there's Pathways and there's all these different pieces to

114it but New York State education department needs to change what we're doing and expecting of our students we're losing kids because we're trying to get them through earth science and Global Studies and algebra so that then they can get to a CTE program which they actually enjoy and do very well then but we can't get them the necessary credits that they need to then attend next to then attend that program my hope is that eventually stay dead is going to be opening the doors and saying we can track our students we can track them sooner and we can start kids in tech programs and CTE programs more like seventh or eighth grade because if we can hook them and we can hold them you're going to see those numbers increase right now we they're not

115buying what we're selling because what we're selling is is a square peg round hole and we do the best that we can to try and and provide and it's it's here it's it's across state it's everywhere um there's a lot that that we're up against and stay dead needs to change some things and I think you're absolutely right we have to put the yeah the lack of a better term like get in the right seat on the right box you know until we do that as a as a state we're going to see you know our numbers drop you know however you know New York and New York it is what it is I've lived all over the country and I will tell you that yeah it's rigorous and it's archaic but I'll take New

116York over you know a lot of other states that I've been in and where do you see that their best is at at their best they're at our upper middle or middle and invest at a valedictorian level and uh so we have we have a great education program here you know we just need to continue to pound payment and improve and parental involvement is key I believe the kids are not going to be successful without at least one parent pushing them in the right direction and I will say our teachers are doing a really good job of reaching out to parents um I do agree with you Amanda it gets heartbreaking to me when I see a student who should go to a BOCES program should be a CTE kid who then can't go because

117they're not on track graduation wise um it's heartbreaking because they should go there and then learn their trade and go do what they want to do they'll do fabulous I'll be hiring them to do all the stuff at my house that I don't know how to do um but I can't get them across the graduation stage if they're not on track um so that is heartbreaking and I will say um I want to Mr Becker did he teaches English 11 and that's a requirement for graduation um and he has one section it's mostly um career and tech ed students in that section just because of scheduling um everybody got through the Regents at least with a special appeal um so he was able to change what he's doing in that period so that they are

118now buying what he's selling um he turned it into the first half of the year was definitely literary based and they were doing all kinds of literary analysis things that they need to be able to do in order to pass that Regents exam they got through the Regents exam so now they're doing um they're choosing books they are um have they have some tasks oriented um things to do every every week and then this quarter they're actually working on comparison um about jobs in their their chosen trade talking about how much money you make here or what your job duties are here and then different branches they can they can go off of so like if they're in a automotive well what happens if I'm a body guy what happens if I work at a

119dealership what happens if I do this and really kind of um doing English that way so um and the kids are are eating it up they they're very happy so he was able to see that it was Square Peg round hole and and change what he was doing for those those students and it's working I have students who didn't think they were going to make out at English Robin who said no I'm going to get through it now um so I think that's great awesome yeah well I can say those are all tremendous proactive pieces to getting the kids to where they need to go but the big one you kind of fluffed over a little bit that contact with the parents is just key it is yeah I used to irritate me when parents

120when teachers would just call when things are wrong well you know that just doesn't work sometimes you get a call when things are right so the contact can be made for whatever reason but man you gotta do it both ways when the conversation is always a negative thing oh my God so that's just it's cute you're absolutely right when it's always bad news I don't want to pick up the phone when they see Fort Edward school they don't want to pick up the phone right um yeah and that goes right down to the end you know they're going to avoid you in the hallway we're gonna you know that's what leads to appendix issues and and um you know hardiness and hanging out in the bathroom and you know not doing anything extra curriculum you

121know if everything is a negative and I'm not saying it is no sure everything is a negative every time I see Miss Russo and I'm like wow man right what now exactly you know hey go see your guidance counselor oh I don't want to because now I'm failing this class and we need to inject positivity we need to inject enthusiasm I think that um you know we've got wonderful teachers we've got wonderful administrative uh people we've got great support people you know we need to use that greatness to be contagious and infect these kids with positivity look we're only talking about classes of 20 20 something kids my goddess Apple study hall you know there's no reason no reason why every parent shouldn't be involved and I know that's not on us so we can

122help them there's no reason why any kid legitimately should be failing at least one class I mean that's a problem a problem it is it is definitely I mean they're just I just can't wrap my head around it I really can't it's there's always going to be some kids that you're not going to grab hold of the way you're saying it's not the school can't affect every household I work in Family Court John you have no idea what some of these kids go through oh I certainly do yes I do well that's what I'm saying so you can't say that you need to grab some sometimes passing every single friend sometimes is the best part of their life you know sometimes lunch is the best meal they're gonna get you know sometimes practice well no

123that's what you're saying don't say it wrong I'm not a harassing the kid what I'm saying is and we have enough teachers enough good teachers you know good people in this school that we can positively affect it and not harass them to help them bring them up stay after school like we do you know it make it fun to learn make it interesting like Becker did you know those are the things that you know what like he's got kids calling him now well that's the goal is to teach somebody to be a good citizen a good person and a well-rounded person when they leave this school they should be a productive part of society and I will say when I call parents when I'm calling them it's usually because of a disciplinary issue I will

124tell you 90 90 of the parents are happy that I called are saying I'm so sorry my child did this um thank you for calling um and are really supportive so I do I agree that even you know they're they're happy to hear from us um and they're willing to work with us so I think a lot you know more apparent Outreach is key you know we said during this whole annexation thing it makes the village well you know what let's be the village this is the bill yep absolutely I'm very confident though in the fact that given cohort of 2019 the one that's graduating this year was five that dropped out and there was a number that were the within District students any of those students I am confident that there are people in

125this building that know that number by name and they went down swinging what I mean by that is people try right they try to not have that student drop out they try to do things differently they try to reach out to the family sometimes there are things that we cannot control it doesn't mean that we give up our efforts right doesn't mean that we don't try but it is a reality of what we are dealing with um and I am confident in the numbers that our numbers are individuals especially post covet I mean honestly these 2019 kids have some high school more than half their high school was virtual how easy it is to lose kids like that very good point absolutely yeah yeah it's unfortunate I you know graduation rates are what they are

126and they're what we're compared by when you take a look at our report cards so and I'm sure we're not the only school that has family issues and high poverty and you know all those things that contribute to graduation rate numbers so we do have to take a look at our numbers in comparison to some other districts and see what they're doing right what we can do right and we can share what we're doing right to those that maybe don't have the same success that we have so I think it's a group effort all around but unfortunately it is one of those numbers that we're tasked with driving um because it's what we're ultimately judged by so one of those things we're hoping to judge by so when we see 72 percent we should shut

127her a bit and we understand what's behind the numbers we understand we've got a high quality District you understand it there's the cyclical poverty and cyclical education problems um that go on but we do have to do what we can and what we are doing um and what we can to get that number up that's what it comes down right and again I think we need looking at a big picture we're narrow it down to to 40 weeks out of the year because they're around for 52. so not because I'm doing the summer thing but I do part of it is getting interaction in the summertime getting the kids comfortable with other kids build a group they want to hang around with so they want to come to school so if we can get them

128active in the summer it'll translate the kids maybe why don't they come they'll have a more positive feeling more friends whatever else so we really need to we all need to be on the same page and we all need to look together to get these kids because like exactly the covet effort and we sought everywhere do 20 things went down so get them back to where they were it's a difficult thing but we have to work together to get them in the right direction do everything with us we can these numbers are fantastic thank you great slides absolutely I'm happy to share it with you all yeah could you get that too Casey you can go in our room absolutely share a drive that'd be great thank you thank you all for your efforts [Music]

129sure um we have we have fast negotiations coming up um bus drivers are at a premium um we're trying to be as competitive as we can but I think adding in that we will help out is um their licensure and some physicals I think will will help us I'd like to try to negotiate that into the next contract as well with stipulation that says you know you got to be with us yeah for years exactly yeah stay with us for at least I always thank you two years you know that that was one of my thoughts so if we have that stipulation but there's no way of getting the money back when the New York State unless they sign a waiver to happily give you the money back if they don't they don't need that

130timeline you're never getting the money back if you put it let me answer this just put it into the contract because I'm sure people leave with one paycheck on the table could you take out the absolutely sign that they are willing to Forfeit that money if they leave behind it's the only way New York State well I did them on the document if you don't have it so if we were wired tight we'll never get it so if we worked in the contract that way because check with Chris she'll have to say she's worked driving all the time so because we gotta have if we're given we gotta have something back okay I don't know it sort of has to be an effect right except one way you're willing I guess the whole thing is

131I'd like to move forward in that direction yeah all right what's the cost average but now I'm looking at you I'm sorry what you know what does it cost to put someone through a CDL class and the driving and all the things for that stuff I don't have that number on my head but I can find that for you it's probably upwards about 1800 bucks again I don't know at least 1500 yeah I don't want to look at that yeah what we need them right we need people to come if that's then it's going to bring them in the door and it's going to work that's always thick right the April 25th board meeting I just want to make sure we have guidance that's going to be at what time same time I think I

132think it's at 8 25th of Monday Tuesday Saturday Tuesday um Tuesday next Tuesday yeah we have a gallon calendar already for 6 30. okay we're good we'll have five what time 6 30 6 30. yeah I'll be here three [Music] I think I think the policy one of the policies and I know in the policy committee we talked about this so that yes the two one Scholars by the gym like we have to change those over to gender-neutral correct but we thought in policy committee meeting that there was a reason why we had to pull the trigger I just wanted to make sure we weren't missing something a lot of us will remember [Music] I don't know yeah okay that's all I got reasonable all right okay moving on to the consent agenda Rich this

133could be tough yeah you don't address that you graduation diploma we'll go here um later okay uh and I have a 10th agenda may I have a motion for the uh items a through e Amanda in discussion favor good with that action item a most to approve the CSE cpsc recommendations as included in the board packets motion Taylor and Tim any discussion all in favor all right motion to adopt District 2023-2024 budget the amount of 12 million 449 626.16 as stated on the budget notice of property tax to report a card in motion any discussion thank you Chris new to the district thanks a lot after the start of the year was it I saw the schedule and I said oh dear as long as I did but I feel like been here like you

134came into it you you've owned it and it looked yours yeah thank you absolutely well it took me a couple of months to learn your name but yeah we have two motions all in favor most to accept the generous donation the Adirondack car enthusiastes current Club at the amount of 500 John James any discussion thank you ACP all in favor supposed to accept generous donation from Urban tissue in the amount to thirteen thousand for the after-school enrichment program James Ella and discussion cash thank you thank you Irving again for your continued support all in favor most accept the generous donation of the softball catchers Year from Patrick Hollman John thank you Mr convention all in favor motion to adopt the following Amendment to the resolution passed on March 13 transfer a portion of the real

135property located at 220 Broadway Fort Edward to the Village of Fort Edward and the town of Fort Edward for public use that's the amendment adding the town correct second Amanda any discussion that was so that was at the request of The Village's attorney did we was there hey babe made contact with the town the town to where this is going on that I can confirm but I can tell you is that because I know my conversation the the town attorney contacted Chris or vice versa Village attorney contacted Chris right so that's why I'm curious I'd hate to stick the time they're not the same not the same pun yeah Bill Nichols does the town right yeah it does the village we're turning it over now yeah but the request didn't come from the town that

136came from the Lord yeah yeah me too because and I've had discussions for a few years now what are those that's why people maybe it's part of the history of maybe part of this well historical Village too and I just you know I don't want to put somebody on if they're not they're not aware of that they're on the on the proposition so could we potentially approved tonight get clarification from Chris is that who you've been communicating from this part Christian as far as I mean um can we please confirm that the town is used to accept it you could you could I don't see any reason not to accept this there's not it's not like we're doing something to the time [Laughter] any further discussion all in favor all right all right motion to

137approve the first reading of the following revised policies as listed on the agenda thank you Wednesday evening Amanda any discussion yeah all in favor all right thank you very much please all appointments are subject to change your compensation for a raise your penny emergency school closings that required reductions in poor soul coaching appointments are made pending completion and verification of all required coaching credentials disciping for fpta contract commissary with experience no other salary benefits all coaching us particular appointments are subject to reduction and compensation probation pending final School enrollment numbers and petting the outcome of any potential mergers an emergency school closings okay hey be it resolved the Board of Education of the Florida school district upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools here by grants tenure at stoppable to um Amber Beeman in the

13810-year area of English teacher effective November 16 2001 need emotion 2020. Amanda thank you so sexy any discussion was that did we miss that yeah and um there was a year that I don't think was counted but did Count forever yeah okay okay just yeah yeah you don't see that very often uh yeah well in the in the um when we review her years of service and I met with Rachel she's like that oh yeah okay all right okay so had we had she then approved before and it was not no goodness it's a pandemic in the middle of it okay I'm just curious because I've never yeah all right okay okay all in favor at a rate of 1420 per hour as per the Fe SS contract expected of October 26 2020. anyway [Laughter]

1392022. before we get on with the guy John and James are they still okay yes okay any discussion so this person has been yes yeah doing this since October but just hasn't been paid he's been paid we just didn't have sorry it's well after eight o'clocked no no it's a legit question most you'll prove the appointment of William LaFontaine uh as part-time bus driver at a rate of 1847 per hour for the fuss contract November 12 2022. function Amanda Taylor I'm sorry Taylor Taylor and Tim all right any discussion all day most who approve the appointment of Anna lamphere as part-time cleaner at a rate of 14 20 per hour as per the fpss contract effective April 3 2023 promotion that's Amanda and Taylor in discussion yeah I see that look on your face we'll

140resolve that later yeah okay yes all right most to approve the appointment of Dakota Lorac is substitute cleaner rate of 1420 per hour at the SS contract effective April 17th Tim any discussion all in favor it is very cool most you'll prove the appointment of Andrew fish is substitute cleaner at a rate of 1420 per hour as per the fps's contracts effective April 3 2023. Dr fish James any discussion all family all right well to prove the opponent of Sarah Tucci as a 0.4 school psychologist step Masters plus 30 as per fpta contract effective April 3 2023 okay hello second tip any discussion all right all right welcome I'm going to request uh tabling H for discussion executive session can I get a motion John James any discussion on favor most to accept the letter

141of resignation from Christina Marchesi effective May 3rd 2023 James and Amanda in discussion all in favor most to accept the letter of resignation from Anna lamp here effective April 21 2023. so we were in and we were out in a couple different a couple weeks Jonathan any discussion all in favor all right is there a second public comments hey Mom uh I need a motion to enter to get your site Johnson foreign