001Well, you know, I'm speaking to the choir here. Ha have a voice voice on the board. So, we're looking forward to to um electing either reelecting or electing new candidates. So, and they'll begin July 1st much like your your board here. And then um I did put on here just that just takes you to that annual report to the community that you have so that you can see that. So, the reason we wanted to make sure that you had a copy of this is that we know that as um ambassadors on this board to the community, people might have questions about the library budget and why it's on there. This way, this will inform you if any questions come your way. So, feel free to share this out with anybody who you think um might
002be interested. And then other than that, I can go to the next slide. And if I don't know if you have any questions for us. This is just a brief overview. We will be doing a full budget overview to the community on May 5th um at 5:00 at the library. So, um other than just this brief, um overview for you, please feel free to join us or encourage anybody that you talk to that ask about the library budget, encourage them to to join us on May 5th. And we are posting that on our socials as well as our website. So, I don't know if any of you have any questions. [Music] Thank you. They just vote yes, that's all. All right. Thank you. It was nice to see some of you. Thank you very much.
003Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. It's uh we partner with you on so many different things. So, thank you for providing a great opportunities for our kids. I should have said that when I but thank you so much. You do so much and I think sometimes we never make that connection. So, thank you for all you do. Thank you. Our next presentation this evening is our budget presentation for 2526. Miss Hooper. Yeah. Give me just one minute. I have the wrong one up here. Here we go. We don't want an old one. We still haven't heard from the governor. Correct. We have not heard from the governor. No. No. The latest that we received was yesterday from Niscus and there's still um a number of things that aren't associated with apparently education
004or school aid of any but it's apparently some number of other um things that they're working through with the state negotiating around a number of different pieces of legislation. So is what I've learned yesterday. somebody apparently not related to education based on what we're seeing. [Music] quick. So starting again with our mission, our vision and our values and just sort of reiterating that as we went through this process, you know, we we really did keep these things in mind as we were discussing the budget and the decisions and choices that we have to make in talking about the budget and our programs. um moving forward into next year. And then you know the circles that we look at the culture, the systems and structures and as we go through the budget process and even the
005discussion of having to make reductions in the budget, we continue to revisit these ideas of our culture and our systems and structures and how all of these things influence the learning wellness and the life pathways um of our students. and to make sure that these things are driving the decisions and choices and conversations surrounding the budget [Music] process. And having said that, you know, as we discuss the budget and the draft budget that we've been presenting, our current 2526 draft budget does continue to prioritize and we think deliver, you know, many of the things that um we agree are are priorities and strengths here at Fulton. And you know, this probably isn't an exhaustive list, but you know, many of the things that we all uh think about and hold as important um factors and
006priorities, you know, with student safety being at the top along with academic programs. We have a strong MTSS system, behavioral supports and emotional supports, academic intervention and supports, special education opportunities for college level courses, extracurricular opportunities, our community schools programs, our summer professional development opportunities and professional learning teams. Again, it's probably not an exhaustive list, just some of the things, the many things that we think about and, you know, take pride in as we think about what we have here and the budget process. Okay. Can can you explain the CSS for anybody who might be watching and doesn't understand? Actually, I might let Don TSS multi-tered system of supports um that basically is looking at uh the services that we provide kids and what all kids get uh would be like tier one supports for
007all students. Tier two is kids need a little bit of extra help understanding something. Um that's tier two a little bit of a boost for the tier one. And then tier three is off level um more substantial supports um for more intensive need kids. Um the idea of MTSS is a stack on each other. So a student who is needs tier three interventions. Those intensive kind of one-on-one or small group interventions also gets tier 2 also gets tier one. So they kind of build upon each other. It's not that kids go into three different categories. The kids that are the most intensive get all three services. all three levels of support. Um where tier two would get tier two and tier one as well. Anything you want to add? And it's not only for academics
008but for behavior as well. So we have systems for both and part of that process is having team meetings regularly. So we have PST meetings. So problem solving and then we have um more intervention meetings. So they get more intense and more focused on individual students along the way. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And some of these slides will be familiar to the board, but I wanted to make sure we go through them all again just for anybody watching from the community. Um, so the factors influencing the 2526 budget and some of the challenges, you know, we spent a lot of time talking about the escalating health care costs and that certainly is a huge factor, but there are others as well. You know, just the cost of operating and doing business has increased
009for schools and for everyone from the individual household to other types of businesses. So you know gas and electric is a great example. So I I'll show that graph again as well as other contractual increases. Um so here's the graph we looked at a couple of meeting uh for the last couple of meetings. um looking at the health care costs and how they've increased over the past few years or you know looking over the past 10 years where they stayed relatively predictable and almost almost flat with minor increases and decreases and then starting in 22 23 and over the last three years and moving forward we've seen sharp increases and that's where you hear us talk about the challenges of increasing health care costs and the impact it's had on the budget. And then gas
010and electric um is a good example of how operating costs have impacted um our budget and like I said everyone's really I think even um our own household budgets and electric especially in the the red bars you can see really starting this year in 2425 increased sharply uh from 23 24 and we can see in 2526 we expect that trend to continue. So that um certainly puts stress on our on our operations and maintenance portion of our budget. And then contractual increases. Um aside from contractual increases such as operating increases, you know, other examples would be, you know, our trash and recycling contract or our snow removal contract. But contractual increases in the sense of when you roll over a budget, contractual salary raises are one of the first increases to consider. And in 2425,
011salaries accounted for almost 46% of the overall budget. Then if you couple that with the benefits that go with the salaries, we're talking um over 70% of the budget are the salaries and benefits um for our staff members. And then in 2526, each bargaining unit will receive another percentage either percentage increase or dollar amount increase between 3 and 4%. So those are all important factors to take into consideration when you first begin the process of rolling over your budget from one year to the next. So then we uh we get to the 2526 draft budget. And again, a couple of notes. Um so again when we went through that initial rollover process with those factors that I just spoke about the rollover budget when we first started before looking at any type of reductions was
012uh around 99.3 million on the expenditure side which represented a 12.2% increase to the overall budget from the current year. Uh through different reductions, the expenditure side was brought into balance with the revenue to reach 94,197,840, which is a 6.45% increase from 202425. This represents a dollar reduction of $5.1 million. So this included a careful analysis of the needs and spending on supplies and materials, equipment, BOS services, other types of contractual services, employee benefits, salaries and positions. And some of this was done as we were rolling over the budget. So you know, we looked carefully at spending on um supplies and equipment especially, you know, were there any areas where we could pair that back a little bit. We looked very closely at Bose services. Bose services are wonderful and amazing opportunities, but you know,
013we looked very closely at, you know, were there any that we could think about reducing or um going a couple of years without to to save some money. So everything was looked at and you know when when we get to the expenditure portion of the budget you may see where lines still did increase but if you think about rolling over to 99.3 million had we left it there those areas would have increased far more than what they what they do. So um then you know part of every budget is deciding on a tax levy. So we've shown this slide um over the last couple of years and then updated it as we've gone. So at the last meeting we shared the that last line in blue that's 2526 but it's in blue because of course
014it hasn't been voter approved so it's not official and it's not included in the calculations in the green and red lines at the bottom. Um, you know, and we kind of just give some context to the idea of the tax levy and what Fulton has done over the years. And the average percent increase over the last 10 years has been around 1.2%. And should we decide or should the voters decide on the 1.9% increase that we're we've been speaking about, then it would remain around 1.2% in the 10-year average. It would be 1.23 going forward. And then you know we we talk about the dollar increase over the last 10 years being just over um 2.5 million but the total permissible increase could have been 5 million and the difference between the two being 2.4
015million. So the total permissible increase meaning if we had gone to the cap each year the tax cap meaning the the highest allowable amount we could have gone to. So again, just giving some context to the discussion uh surrounding the tax levy and the amount that um we may choose to increase taxes in a given year. I think it historically it just shows the board's commitment and the administration's commitment to trying to really take into consideration the impacts on our community and to see the comparison side by side really shows that I think we've worked really hard at that and that 1.2 two has been a, you know, it's a good snapshot of a 10-year picture. The next slide is the the estimated impact per household based on the assessed value of a home should
016um the voters approve a 1.9% increase on taxes. So for a home assessed at $100,000, the estimated impact would be $34.58 per year increase on taxes. For an a home assessed at $200,000, the estimated increase would be $83.98. And for a home assessed at $300,000, the estimated increase would be $133.38. I keep emphasizing estimated. Um, we we do these estimates, you know, to help make it a little um I guess bring it down to, you know, the per household level to to give the community an idea of, you know, how how would it impact me? It's hard to look at the overall tax levy and really think about, well, what does that mean to me? So, I think the estimated per household might might help um make it a little bit more meaningful, but it
017is an estimate because we don't we don't get the actual tax rates for the upcoming year until uh the beginning of the summer. So, we use the information we have, which are last year's tax rates. Um so, it is an estimate, but again, it does make it a little bit more personal and realistic, I think, in terms of what that would mean to the individual. Uh moving on to the projected revenue and again unfortunately um we don't have the numbers from the legislative budget just yet. Um so these are the numbers that we received back in January from the governor's executive budget. Uh historically it hasn't changed a whole lot. So we're we're hoping that these will remain relatively stable. when we do get those numbers hopefully any day now. But um on the left
018hand side you can see in the in the pie chart the largest amount of the revenue we receive is in state aid at almost 70% which is typical and then the tax levy is 24.4% of our revenue and the the rest of our revenue um that we say other is 6.7% this year. That's a slightly larger piece of the pie. We are uh exercising our option to use some of our reserves or our savings to help balance the budget. We're using 3.8 million in reserves. And then the rest of the the other uh part of the pigraph is um different forms of miscellaneous revenue. That could be a portion of um money that is a refund from our Boseies expenses from the prior year. It could be rent from the use of our facilities that
019um we have agreements with Boseies to use different portions of our buildings. Um some tuition money, some donations, you know, various uh sources of miscellaneous revenue and then some federal money through Medicaid reimbursements. And that rounds out our revenue total at $94,197,840. You were saying federal um for Medicaid. We do we get anything for education from the federal. We do um in the form of grants, but that that's not in the general fund. It's a separate fund. So that's not uh depicted in in this particular number. The Medicaid is reimbursement for like um our speech OT services, things like that. So it's it's a relatively small amount, but sure our refund from the coasters that goes into miscellaneous part of it does. So is that possibly a little bigger too because we've been trying to
020switch more of our services. Um, it's been relatively stable. Um, I tend to, um, try not to over plan for that, you know what I mean? I kind of base it on on this year and they give us some idea of a projection. So, but um, I mean, that's always something we can plan on, but um, like I said, I try not to over plan on that portion. just you never want to think you're going to get more than you are. To Nick's point on the federal, even though it's it's not related to the general fund, there's is it approximately a little over 3 million roughly title one um IDEIDA, which is special education, we have a lot of staff on those types of grants. So, it's not a part of it. It's it's an
021addition to what's on the budget or on what you're seeing here. So, I didn't want to kind of avoid it's it's out of the way, but it's not part of the general, but it's very much related part of the work that we do with our schools. But those are grants. Those are we have to apply for it. Well, yes. Um, you're typically awarded a certain amount and then you fill out the application to to make sure you you receive the money. And it's not in that total revenue. However, when we we receive our allocation of the money, we do put a lot of that towards salaries. So, a lot of we we say we assume grant money. So, we know we're going to put grant money towards salaries. So, it would certainly hurt us if
022for whatever reason we that money was no longer made available. Well, there's nothing like we could state aid. Educationally, there's nothing from the department of federal department of education as far as aid to to Fulton. We get about $3 million done through grants the Yeah. So if that goes away, that's the that would be another area where we'd have a hole, right? And right now we're not hearing that from the federal government, but there's so many things changing at the federal level. You're monitoring on a daily basis to see everything I heard is that the money will continue to come. that may filter through in a different way possibly through the states possibly through a different entity which was the strategy before that the US department of education actually did float in each state the
023question was the distribution wasn't in education at the time it was in the 1980s and we know what the distribution looks like where it goes so yeah so there'd be a lot of advocacy that would have to go along Um, the next portion uh discusses the three-part budget and the expenditure side a little bit. Before I showed the numbers, I just wanted to outline what's included in the different parts of the three-part budget. So, the three parts are the program, capital, and administrative portions. Within the program portion of the budget, that's the largest portion. You have um regular school, special education, special schools, uh special schools could mean summer programs or occupational education, student services, extracurricular activities, transportation, employee benefits and interfund transfer to special programs. And what that means is um our contribution to
024the ESY summer programming for special education students. So the extended school year programming for special education students. Then within the capital portion um we have the operation and maintenance of the plant debt service employee benefits and inner fund transfer to capital. The inter fund transfer to capital would be if the district the district were planning a capital outlay project which is a $100,000 project which we're not planning in 2526. So you won't see that in the budget but if we were that's where that portion would be. The administrative portion includes the board of education central administration which is the superintendent school supervision and curriculum supervision. So that's school principles and um our executive directors, finance the BIS which is the business office personnel which is human resources Bosey's administrative services um that's actually about 25%
025of that portion of the budget and employee benefits. Um and then this slide shows the dollar amounts as well as the percentages on the right. Um and again um you want to see the program percentage be the largest percentage which we we are at 75.7% for the program component. The capital component is at 14.7% and the administrative component is at 9.6%. And then in terms of dollar amounts, program is $71,261,347. Capital is $13,879,637. And administrative is $9,56,856. And again, our total is balanced with our revenue at $94,197,840. And then another way of showing the proposed expenditures just in different expense categories in terms of salaries, equipment, contra contractual spending, materials and supplies, Bose services, debt service, employee benefits, inter fund transfers, and then the total expenditures overall as well as the dollar increase or decrease
026from uh 24.25 25 to the proposed expenditures in 2526. And you can see the largest decrease in debt service which we have talked about right along. Um we did see our debt drop off this year which also led to a decrease in our building aid. However, we expect to see those numbers come back to a similar level to 2425 in the following year. And again, um, the employee benefits line certainly is the most significant increase we see in the budget. Are there any questions in terms of the expenditures? Then um this is just a a small table of the last five years in terms of our overall percentage increase to the budget. Um and 23 24 is where we were starting to um see the COVID stimulus money fade out and have to absorb anything
027back into the general fund. So you can see our percentages sort of have been relatively similar from 23 24 on. It also matches our increase in our healthcare that too and that's about the time we saw that right but sharp increase. Yep. And of course this year um our overall increase is 6.45%. Then you know we discussed in one of the earlier slides um our need to make some reductions to the budget this year in order to balance the revenue and the expenditures. Um we carefully examined all of the different budget lines and as I said when we rolled over the budget reduced as many of the lines as we could um and some of the reductions did include positions. So I will let uh Mr. Kopani and Mr. and Mrs. Hendendrickson help me out
028with this portion of the presentation. So we had reduced 59 positions. Um we did our best to have this be through the natural process of attrition meaning retirements resignations. Uh as of April 7th, this is throughout the year the resignations and these are positions that we're not replacing. So far, I've had two what I would say are summer resignations, meaning somebody's leaving at the end of the school year to go to another district. Um, both of them are home districts, actually, their home districts. But throughout the year, there have been 13 resignations that are positions that are not going to be accounted for in next year's budget. 16 retirements. The numbers are not going to add up because, keep in mind, there are specialty certifications that we can't we can't move an elementary teacher to
029chemistry. We have to hire a chemistry teacher. Uh, we couldn't move, you know, a gym teacher to special ed. we'd have to hire a special education teacher. So, the numbers won't match up um exactly, but we've also had 15 fair dismissals, which is high, but um this is a process that we use. It is education law 3031. That is basically for a teacher that we're not confident to give tenure to. And so, we give them the option to resign. as this process carries on it, you it really it's our way of saying we're not going to give you tenure and you're not going to come back next year. And so again, we follow in law with that process and we've done 15 this year. Um based on the numbers through attrition, we are this is
030actually wrong. Um as of 48 2025, we're looking only at four instructional staff positions through one resignation and one retirement today. Um, so we're looking at three teachers and one teaching assistant. And then we're looking at 16 non-instructional staff would be 15 teachers aids, uh, and one clerical. So my prediction, again, I couldn't guarantee anything, but based on our experiences, we had nine teacher resignations last year. We had 15 non-instructional resignations, and these would be more or less summer resignations. um is that through the process of attrition over the course of the next three months, we will not be laying off any teachers. Um we'll be sending an email out tonight just to make everyone aware of the information that was shared at tonight's board meeting. Anyone who is going to be fair dismissed or
031potentially laid off will receive notification by the end of the week. Uh that'll be their initial notification for the people who may be laid off. Um, and the letter that we use does state the process of reinstating them, which would be through seniority. Um, however, we will not give them final notification that they're being laid off until June. So, we'll give them the opportunity to look for another position, but we will let them know for sure June if their position is expected to be gone for next year. Um, so you want to go to the next slide? Yep. Jeff, this might be more of your area about where we decided to reduce. So again, when we look at the reductions, these are areas, a lot of those areas when we go back that slide, it
032showed the retirements, the resignations. This is where those are coming from. So looking at actual position reductions rather than people reductions. Right now we're talking about the layoffs being 16 and four, but the actual reductions is the 59. So of those 59, they came out of these areas. Uh administrative, clerical, um our multi-tered system of support coordinator, special area interventionist, secondary and elementary, um special education teachers, secondary content teachers, instructional coaches, uh student support service, uh student support team members, uh our teaching assistants, aids and monitors, and custodial. Jeff, can I jump in for a second? Sure. um custodial there there will be no layoffs. All of those positions were through attrition. We've had in fact we we are going to be hiring for custodial because we plan to reduce five and right now we
033are down seven. So we plan on hiring two for custodial aids and monitors. The reason why we have a high number of aids and monitors that will be reduced is because over the last two years uh through cse we've had a lot of onetoone aids that have been placed on students. Now, the goal when you place a special needs aid on a student is to gradually reduce the restriction and allow that student as they get older to be more independent. Um, so through the process of spring annual cse, we've reduced well over 15 um onetoone aids. However, we're going to stay with the 15 now because we know that throughout the course of next year, we're going to have more um aids needed to handle um special needs kids. Those are based on projections. they're
034based on the projections from the the spring annual and we also created a 1211 class uh around January based on the students needs. So when you go to a more restricted environment like a special class, you start to look at the dynamics and the supports that are necessary in that classroom as well. So knock on wood um there's some really good things happening in those classrooms as well. So we made some good decisions there as well to to better uh organize the resources around the kids in a in a for example like a special class environment. Mr. Kapani, I'm sorry and I just thought of this when you're talking about the reduction in custodial staff if we're reducing the aids. Can we also say like you know but we do have other positions that may
035be opening up like custodial things like that if you're interested as well and put those offers or we expect food service turnover. I don't know but just let them know food service turnover. So, yep. And again, that'll be um I don't want to say unfortunately, but I'll be having conversations individually with each person, and that'll be something that I will bring up to them as well. Um Jeff, do you want to touch on instructional coaches? Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm sorry. That's all right. Um you mean it's part like we are um proposing combining instructional opportunities for the coaches and balancing it with being instructional specialists. So not necessarily coaches but using their skill set to help um with trainings. They're experts in each one of the content areas. We really can't lose that piece
036but we also know that we need to fill some instructional pieces and they're highly skilled um teachers. So, we're thinking about how to leverage those um skills for them while meeting our kids needs and our staff's needs with professional development, right? We save a lot of money by doing train the trainer models. And so, a lot of our professional development is we've had people go through trainings with, for example, um uh letters, for example. We went and got some people certified uh that are here tonight. I see um and go on the trip, but then they can train our staff. we don't have to pay like for example a company to come in $10,000 $15,000 to do the training. So part of what our our instructional um uh people will do is that they'll provide
037those trainings that'll actually help us build the capacity and sustainability in our in our district which is what you want which is why we did that in the first place because bringing companies in and out doesn't create the consistency that you're looking for and there's not an understanding of what we're trying to do in our classrooms and an understanding of our specific data that's going on with kids so that we can make those adjustments to better support our teachers as they strive to to develop interventions strategies in their classrooms as far as best instructional practices. And it's probably a lot more useful to have that coach here for after the Pday day is over that your staff can go and ask questions and still reach out to a little bit more conveniently as well. This
038something we don't really haven't really talked about. We should have been talking about over the years. We've been doing that. It's not something recent. We I was going to say we've been doing this anyway, right? we've been doing it, but it just shows an example of how we can be more flexible and we can really think out of the box to reduce cost and really think about how we're doing things as well. We're also reducing four full-time content positions based on resignation and fair dismissal um and retirement from the high school. And so that's how we're reducing we coaches positions. They're going to be kind of like our department chairs uh teaching a few classes and then they're going to be focusing on their their instructional specialty after that. So it was a way to
039reduce it was a way to get the coaches maintain the coaches for our our tier one professional development as well as um kind of rightsize the high school which has gone which has shrunk by about 130 students over the course of a couple years. We were at 1,030 when I first got here thereabouts and now we're at 936 940 left. So that's 70 80 kids. Plus remember we have the early college high school programs. We've got a number of different programs that draw kids differently with with the way we're doing things as well. So part of what the the team focused on was that idea that a whole position isn't always necessary to to remove. Sometimes it's just a part. So if you take parts of the parts and put them together, you're back to
040a whole. So that idea of like some of our uh interventionists or secondary teachers along with the coaches or they might have a little bit of a different role but it's a part and a part rather than have two missing two two positions that were cut. It would be one and then a partial and a partial to kind of make up the the rest of it. So it it none of these were were easy like clean moves. There was a lot of uh trying to figure out how things could fit back together. Keeping uh the services and supports for our kids as much in the center as possible and making sure that uh our level of support for behavior, our level of support for academics um were first and foremost as much as we could
041uh and keeping our people in front of our kids. Any questions? How are we doing that with special area teachers? So, uh, same kind of thing. It's it's right sizing. It's looking at where we have some flex in the schedule. Um, and if we have positions that we're not laying any special area teachers off, but we are looking at right sizing through people who are resignations or leaves or dismissals. So, uh, all of our, uh, PE, art, music are all being looked at, looked at as far as reductions. So we have two music uh retirements for example. Do we need to fill both of those? So we're looking at and prior to that we were at 11 prior to that we were and then we've gone to 12 the last couple of years. And so
042obviously not ideal but looking at those and when there's retirements we have to look at all of the different components within the district. So that's an example if we need to analyze that to see is that possible while maintaining the high quality of our programs because um you know one of the things that you know for example we're one of the few districts that offer strengths and we should be very proud of that um in this county um and so just things like that looking at that. So, we're working closely with that. Um, what's your what's your job? Um, facilitator. Uh, and looking at that. We'll also be looking at our art. Um, and looking at the number of sections that we need across the districts to be able to do that because we had
043some areas where we had some ability to to look at that. And then we'll also look at our PE health. PE and health goes together as well as a pair. PE is mandated, not an elective. Correct. Right. Um, how I don't I guess I don't understand I guess I don't understand the the reductions like Okay, so we're we're doing now four instructional reductions and 16 non-instructional reductions. No, we're doing 59 reductions where four is the layoffs people who we couldn't find a spot for and 16 will be the non-instructional people we don't have a spot for. But as far as total reductions, there are 59 up there, but most of them are through again resignations, retirements, and fair dismissals, and then moving the pieces around. So there are positions that are not going to be
044here next year. There'll be 59 of them. But um we've been able to again move people into different certifications that they may have. Someone may have special ed, literacy, and childhood education. And so we have a position opening, and instead of having them be reduced because they're high or low on the totem pole, they would be moved into that position. Right. I understand that part, but how many people are do we have to talk to total to well four as far as layoffs and one more as far as care dismissal and then we're done with all that. So that'll be done by Friday. Four plus the 15 plus this Oh, great. Just want to make sure. So is that So is that that or is the budget reductions that we're seeing here? Is that the
04559? That was the 50. That's all of this. Yeah. I'm like in my mind. That was okay. Gotcha. And then we are also keeping track if anybody may have a different position next year. Um had a very organized map of every building and every position, every reduction, every move. And so it was actually I mean master organizer over here has been very helpful to take sticky notes, move the pieces in order to coordinate who's going to be going where and then we use those um to check off so to speak as we move through the process to make sure that we're doing it in a timely fashion and considering everybody and making sure everybody's spoken to about any new position or potential layoff. Yeah, that was the question I had for the fact that you're
046moving things around and reconfiguring. When would our people who are staying know, hey, I've been in this building for 25 years and you know what, we need to move. I'm not I'm just throwing a number out there. Or I, you know, I've I want to work in this building, but you have a position for me here. When will our people No, that's not by the end of different responsibilities. That will be a little bit later. But we don't want to be too hasty because this is this changed in one day, right? Like I said, I I want to guarantee, but I am pretty confident that we will not be laying any instructional staff off and a lot less aids that we have out there now. Um, so what we want to do is we put
047people in positions. Um, we've we've met with union representation for any area that's going to see reductions and discuss seniority lists and make sure that they're on board and those lists are certified. We don't necessarily want to start notifying people of moves until we get a little bit closer, I would say, into May just because they may change, but nothing is as drastic as someone being taken out of a building they've been in 25 years. I was just throwing that out because I have no idea what you're looking at, but they've all been fairly I just wanted to know that they're not just finding out at the end of June like you're going to give everybody regardless of what the moves are. Um, and then subject to change because it's possible that we won't need
048to. Correct. And I think it's like super good and nice that there's an alternative. Yes. If I had to move after 26 years from the um middle school, but I'm keeping my job. Thank you. And I'm moving to the elementary school. You know what I mean? Or I'm teaching halftime at the elementary school, halftime at the middle school. No, that is definitely not what I want to do. But I want more to stay in the with in the district. We also know that when people have some control over their own destiny, they're more likely to feel good about what's happening. So, the first thing we do before any of this, and we do this any year, is we reach out to the staff and say, "Would you be interested in a change if there's something
049that came up and what would that look like?" So that they can say like, "Yeah, I'd be willing to try this or do this." And one thing that's that's evident through Alyssa is uh our our teaching staff looks out for each other and tries to coordinate with each other and and take care of each other. So, uh, if it means that I go do this, I mean, people have already preemptively re reached out and said if this if this is open, I'll do this so someone else can do this and we can coordinate cuz they're already thinking about how this is going to look. I mean, the reductions and the layoffs are one thing, but then all the jostling and movement and switching around really throws people for a loop because to your point, if
050you've been somewhere for a long time, you get comfortable and and safe there. And having this weighing on your, you know, hanging over your head is is tough. So, as soon as possible, but to Mark's point, not too quickly so that we say one thing and then change because that's what really throws people is you're going to do this. No, you're going to do this. No, you're going to do this. Instead, we we try to make sure all the pieces are are laid out because with 59 reductions, you know, it's going to hit almost every department of every building in some way or another where there's going to be something. And as I keep calling Kate, you know, every other day, I think at this point, I'm having to back up. We still don't have
051from the state what we were supposed to have on the first of how much money we're actually getting. I mean, if they come through and say, "Well, we need more support." And they give us more, that also changes what we have to do in the long run. So, I mean, just looking at it as, you know, letting people know possibilities, but nothing's written in stone at this point, especially because the state hasn't given us that all the information we need to make decisions and and we we plan for the worst and hope for the best in a lot of in a lot of cases. Like, this is the bare bones what we can do. This isn't hopeful that, you know, this isn't based on we could get more. This is what we're going to have
052to live with. If we get more, great. Then we can add things in. We can look at that. we can reassess and see where we are. But right now, this is this is where we have to be. And then building back would be fantastic. Also, making sure we have enough room in the budget next year so we have to do this again. But, um, building back, I think, would also be a collaborative process with FTA leadership. Um, we we shouldn't be the only ones to determine what's important each building academically. So, they're very involved in this process. Um, and it's been a very good collaboration from the beginning. So, um, when we do talk to people about moves, it's usually it's got to be within their certification area. We try to keep them in the
053same building and we try not to do anything that is too crazy, but sometimes our hands will be tied because someone may only have one certification. Well, we have people we discovered because when we went through each list and each person, we looked up their certification. We have some people with multi-certifications that are very uh versatile that we were able to move into a different position which saved another person's job. And so I think that's how we're able to reduce the layoffs so much is by being clever about where we move people and use their certifications to preserve really it's it's it's only one area as of now and that is um free elementary teachers. And so like I said I'm confident based on the last few years that I've been doing this that through
054resignations and people moving because there is an open market to their home districts or to another district hopefully for good reasons and not bad reasons they'll all have jobs within a month and a half two months. So, we're cautious about announcing layoffs, but I also, this is where we're at as far as the budget goes in the numbers. Um, and I wouldn't want to give anyone false hope, but I would be pretty surprised if it stays the same up until the end of the school year. I think I think we're going to end up hiring more than we think as of now, which would be a good problem to have. Mhm. Well, I appreciate the attentiveness that you have to the details of finding those extra certifications in your staff and really looking at each
055position to benefit our students and our staff and not just, you know, jumping in there blindly. You guys have put a lot of time and effort into this. I I can't imagine being in the shoes that you guys are in. You guys have put countless hours into really trying to balance things out correctly for what we have to deal with here financially. So do appreciate I do too. Oh, I have another number for you guys and then they have to switch gears and they so back up to back up back up to back up and really Kate started with those three circles culture systems and student learning in the center. That's been our driver like how do we keep our culture intact as much as possible that supports our systems to support our kids and
056in the middle of that what is the direct impact on our learners that that's been where we we keep coming back to that okay how can we do this with as little impact on those circles as possible and keep things intact that we that we need I just want to get I just I also I'd be remiss if I didn't say that building principles have been excellent in order to make sure that we understand the dynamics of their building and we've been again trying to provide equity throughout our four buildings because as much as we'd like them to be the same they are different. So um principles have been and the directors have been incredibly helpful and this is this is definitely a team effort not for great reasons but I think we made the
057best made do with the best that we could in this situation all of us. Sorry. Go ahead. No that's okay. Um so I just wanted to add I know I appreciate everybody's hard work. I know you guys are working on this night and day every day and things like that. I just for a staff perspective and my own perspective, right? Everybody knows I'm a federal employee, got return to work orders. It's a mess. We don't know where we're going. We don't know where where what building. We don't know if I'm going to the post office or social security. We don't know. That unknown has created with all of my colleagues such anxiety and restlessness. We could process this a lot better if we just know or here's kind of what the plan is moving forward.
058We're not 100% sure, but this is what we're looking at moving you here or this, but things may change. just making sure that we're able to communicate that with our staff instead of saying, "Oh, we're gonna, you know, trying to notify them more in May or June or things like that where they're moving to. It's the unknown that is really causes them keeps them up at night, not knowing where they're moved or what the plan is or things like that." And I know we have to do it for certain reasons, but that not knowing is going to cause more staff turnover and people like, "Well, I don't I I think I'm going to get moved or worst case scenarios in their head." and then they start looking for other jobs or things like that. So,
059I just wanted to put that out there saying I'm going through it, my colleagues are going through it, I know our staff's going through it and if we can just, you know, let them know is like this is what we're thinking and and we may place you here, you know, but things could change at least they've got peace of knowing like, okay, there's a place for me or this is what the plan is and I'm being included in the plan. based on the way that we did the reductions, I would say the people who are being moved to a different position, it would be less than 15. Um, so we're not talking about a large number of people, but I do understand what you're saying. The unknown has been keeping us up at night as
060well because we're constantly having to negotiate, you know, what's going to happen in the next two weeks. But I your point is valid and we will try to tell them as soon as we can or at least give them an idea. But I think the important thing is that after this week, everyone's going to know that they have jobs. Yes. And I know that it's only 15, but it's really all of the district not knowing, you know what I mean? Assuming like, well, maybe it's me or maybe it's me or, you know, moving and things like that. So, it is only 15 positions, but we have the bulk majority of the staff wondering, is it me? Am I moving? Am I getting pulled to a different direction or things like that? And so, I as
061soon as we can. Yeah. I mean, we're not going to hold off, but that idea of false starts, too. Like, you you could go here, you might be moving here. This as as sure as we can be. And to your point, every move has dominoes into another move. So, we talk to someone, we think, okay, these are three positions that could fall together. One person says, I'm not doing that. I'm going to go to my hometown or I'm going to I say at miday at the absolute latest first week of May right after spring break I would think at that position we'd be in a position right there where we could inform people of the potential move and be pretty accurate as to that they're staying in that position we'll set that as a goal
062we'll do our best and I think to echo that you know one of the things and thank you Brenda for for bringing that up that that this is so people focused this whole thing when You look at our budget over 73 74% is about people and and all these people bring gifts and talents. And if you were a fly on the wall in the room where we have these massive chart papers up and and we're moving things around, the emotion that goes on in there thinking about the human beings and the little human beings that are in all those classrooms that they're serving. it always gets back to what's going on with the kids, but also all of those individuals that have committed themselves to the Fulton City School District and the emotions as we
063talk about and we're trying to figure this out and how do we maximize the resources here. Um, it always comes back to the humanness of this situation, which is a little different than than some of the ways of the world right now where they just look at them like numbers. And like you're saying, I think if there's anything that that this team has brought to this is there there's been a strong element of humanness. Um, and really being about thinking about the individuals and the process that goes along with it, being in a timely way, but also in a way that's meaningful and purposeful and um, thinking about, you know, helping people understand this is why we think you might be a real great fit here. Yes. And understanding that your gifts and talents could
064be the perfect fit that you never thought about here. And it's all of those things as we go through. But I I appreciate your words. Um, and I appreciate my team and my team has extended beyond the individuals sitting at this table, but all the principles and everybody else that we've been getting input from. It's been really valuable as well as the board. Um, as we work through, we're not we're just a ways little ways through this right now. The other piece is we're looking at how do we find cost savings. I come into Kate's office all the time and I have you thought about doing this and what about if we do this and um and you know obviously we're looking at is there other ways we can save monies whether it's in the
065energy field whether it's in the benefits we're looking at all of those different areas because this isn't just a 256 problem. This is a this is setting this budget helps the 26 27 27 28 28 29 down the road. So, you know, we're setting a foundation for what the district will be able to do flexibility-wise over the next few years as well. Y So, thank you to my team. Just a couple more slides in terms of the rest of our timeline. Just this is just in terms of meetings and dates. our next board meeting on the 22nd. Um couple of big uh tasks in terms of adopting the draft budget and the property tax report card which I did give um just a the draft for everybody to review um and your executive uh materials
066for this meeting just so you see it one time before we have to adapt it. It's pretty straightforward in terms of the numbers, but let me know if there are questions before the next board meeting. Um, again, many of the dates are already reviewed, so I don't need to go over them again. Um, just May 8th is our our public budget forum where um Brian and I will present the budget and then the vote on the 20th and the ratification on the 21st. And then again, as Brenda had mentioned, if there are budget questions or comments, we are going to host a series of community forums throughout the month of April with the first being this Thursday, April 10th at 6:00 p.m. here at the Ed Center. Then the second one, Tuesday, April 15th, which
067will be um online, and we will share the link um probably on Facebook, on the website, and on Parent Square. And then the final one on Monday, April 21st at 6 PM again here at the Ed Center. We would encourage if community members have questions and they would like to send them ahead um to use the email address on the screen um it's fcd-budgetfton.cnyick.org. or if you can't make any of the forums but have questions or comments, please feel free to email that email address, we will post the responses to any questions we receive and are happy to um answer questions and just hear anyone's thoughts regarding the budget. You know, any community members certainly we encourage um community members who have children in the district. you know, this certainly impacts families and children who
068are attending our district especially. Um, but all community members certainly are welcome to attend any of our sessions or send emails. Um if if um if people have questions about registering to vote, um we did have some information in our recent newsletter, but there's also information on our website under the board of education section or um people can call the district clerk's office for help with any questions regarding registering to vote. Kate, can I just ask one question? You said for community members who send you information through the uh email address, you're going to post it. Can you let the community know where you're going to post it? I'll do um sort of a probably FAQ type document on the budget area of the website. It's under the business office and then 2526 budget. It's
069where we've been posting the presentations uh so far as we go. Thank you. So that's where it will be. And I feel like I was going to say something else about the public forums and it has escaped me. But did we say that we're going to do an all call out for the budget forum? I didn't say that, but that's a good idea. Okay. I didn't know if I was if I missed it. I think all call me do a snow day. Oh, okay. Did you say the wrong word? No, I was It's just a different term for I said parent square. I parent square. We would do a blast through parent square. Yeah. Okay. or Yeah, that's that was an older term. I just I missed that. Well, that's because I'm old. No. Okay.
070Yep. All right. And do we have anything like right on like the front of the web page about this? I actually wrote that down cuz I wondered if we had a link on the front page special announcement stuff, but we could do a special and I'd like to get the u especially the email address too on the front page. I feel like I was just there looking up to see if the game got cancelled tonight. And so when I was on the front homepage, I I was just thinking maybe it would just be easier because sometimes I mean it's hard for me to navigate and you know try to find all of these to work your way through work your way through and with something so important that's going to impact so many kids and
071families especially wanting the families to come out. Yeah. Yeah, we'll put it we'll put it on the front page of the website. Um we can put it back on Facebook again. Yeah. Tomorrow and then um our first one's Thursday evening. So yeah, put it back on Parent Square again even and then I'll call Brian using Brian's voice. Got it. Now using Brian's voice, not Kate. Not Kate. I have a voice. Yeah. All right. Perfect. Any other questions? Any more components? Kate, I think that's the last page. I got one for K. Sure. Sure. The electricity, the uh the utilities. Is there anything out there for uh uh commercially? Well, I get I get advertisements all the time from Next Amp. It's a a solar farm. I can save 10% on my electricity, right? Is there
072anything out there for us as a school district that can Right now, we're in like a cooperative. Um so, they put out an RFP every couple of years. They're putting out a new one. uh next year hoping to get better prices. It's through um and I should research this more. We you and I can talk to Corey about it. It's through it's called Nismic. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. I'll send it to you, but they just RFPD it last year and it's not exactly impressive. It went up by like 50%. So, they're going to put another RFP out, but um it's sort of um all the districts in the area go through this. It's for gas and electric and it's not saving very much saving it's not saving us anything but
073um and I don't know but that's a good question for Corey. I don't know if if you if you can go outside of that. I'm sure you can but then maybe exploring what our options would be if we did that if we broke from Yeah. I mean if if something like that was available just looking at the electricity 10% on substantial because we went from like you know under 500,000 now we're up to almost 800,000. I wonder if Nerta Yeah, that may be able to help us. Those are good questions, but maybe the three of us can get on an email. Yeah, I'd love to. Okay, well that's the conclusion of the superintendent report. I hope um if you have questions, please reach out to us. Thank you Kate for presenting tonight and the rest
074of the team for everybody participating as a group effort this evening. Um that's conclusion of the superintendent report. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Move on to action 4.01 accept the financials. Can somebody move it? Move it. I don't know who seconded it. Who second? Lori. Lori. Okay. Done and Lori. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed. Passes 600. Action 4.02 to approve the snow removal bid. Somebody move it. Move it. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed abstaining passes 6 0 action 5.01 approve committee on special education move it second all those in favor I opposed seeing passes 600 we can get a colleague to batch personnel 6.01 01 to 6.10. Second. Tim and Jen. All those in favor? I opposed. Abstaining. Passes 600. All right. Board forum. Let's start with Lori tonight. Well,
075I'd like to say thank you to the team. you put so much work into it and I hope everybody appreciates all that you do with that. Um, I'd like to say for city Boseies, congratulations to Jeremy Bel Delfield and I'd like to give a shout out to that fabulous dinner we had the other night from city Boseies. That was phenomenal. Um, and thank you library for all your information. So the annual uh BOSIES budget was last weekend's or last Tuesday and Lori and I and Brian were able to attend the new superintendent is Jeremy Bellefield out to city Boseies um one of our Fulton uh teachers and I remember he was an intern when I went to fair when I worked at fair grade. It was uh it was good to see him get closer
076to home. Yeah. Um, and the fabulous dinner was put on by all of the students in the county uh who attend the city of Bosey's culinary uh program. Um, there were many. Oh my goodness. And they had uh the diamonds to to denim. So there was basically foods you would eat in your backyard versus like fancy foods that you would eat if you went out for fine cuisine. Uh the kids were in charge of those. They helped do like sue chef, the prep chef. They helped the chef. They were, you know, matraes and the waitress and waitresses. those who weren't front house coordinator, they just did so much and they they got to present all these different foods and to talk to them. Like for me, it was nice because uh our Santina was one
077of our students out there. She's not able to join us this evening, but uh she she was fantastic. She um shared with us what she made. Uh she came over and she you know met with the table, kind of talked with us and we were sitting with the superintendent from Hannibal at the time. So, um, and then to see students from my own school building and lots from yours, too. It was just great. And they go up and they they uh get to talk to us at the end and introduce themselves. Um, it was fantastic, uh, event. And, uh, every year, I mean, it was so great to listen about the city, you know, budget as well, but, you know, kids definitely stole the show. Um and as with that uh city Boseies is also
078in the same as with many districts the same situation we where we are with the high rise in healthcare and the gas and electric and they talked about that at city Boseies which in turn then affects all of us as well. So not only 10% increase. Yeah they had about a 10% increase that does impact our budget as well. Yeah. So thank you for touching base on that. That was on my list but I love that you brought that up. So that is fantastic. Um, anything else you would like to add? I think I think that about covers up. All right, Mr. Mayfield. Um, thank you for the presentation for the library. I like I love that we have that connection and that um that outreach and we're using it a lot more because it
079is such an important resource and God knows we need help, you know, with the kids reading and stuff. So, you make that fun, you make it interesting, different atmosphere. So, thank you for that. Um, and thanks team. Like it's such hard times right now and you're going we're all going through a difficult time, but it's even more difficult for you guys. So, um, thanks for being as transparent as you can. Um, and we're just going to hope for the best and, you know, move forward. Um, that's all I have. Thank you. Yep. Mr. you are. Well, congratulations to all those who participated in the battle of the books. Uh, and to add for the library, just I hope everybody gets out there and votes yes on their budget and to the team u Mr. Paulino's
080team. Thanks for all your hard work and uh trying to save as many jobs as you can. That's all we can ask. Thank you, Mr. Connors. like to thank all the work everybody's doing. Everybody tonight did a great job presenting. I appreciate everyone who shows up to all the meetings and is listening and being informed on what's going on. And everyone get out and vote. Uh right now controls in our hands to kind of decide how things go. If it doesn't pass, uh let's just say then other people get involved and they decide what's important to us. So, I'd like to keep it with us, keep as much as we can, our community culture and everything in our district to continue what we're doing and push forward for a better future. Thank you. That was
081a really great way to put it, Tim. Nice job, Mrs. Hutchinson. Um, yeah, I just want to thank everybody for the presentation tonight. Um, I did, um, when we were talking about the website, um, I was wondering if it's possible if we can find an easier link for our policies on a website. Right now, it's very difficult to go in there and try to look up policies if you think it'd be in our district or resources or things like that or even our code of conduct. Um, I've been visiting it a lot lately and it's not user friendly. Um, and then my other question is I did email um, Mr. Mr. Povino and Mr. Trude today just thinking of the budget. I don't know if you had a chance to see it. It was a
082late I was half done and I didn't push that. No, it's fine. It was a late question, but I was like, well, maybe I can bring it up at the board. I was just trying to refer you, but um I was wondering if it's possible when we get a lot of things like, you know, we have the CNY schoolboard association dinner in May and we have law conferences and things like that. I was wondering if it's possible when we're getting that information if we can also include there like what the cost is to the district. I know that we certainly want to be very budget friendly and you know maybe it's something that I'm kind of interested in but then I want to be able to compare that to what the cost is and if
083it's going to cost the district $250 to 10 something and it's not you know I'm not super excited or interested about then I at least can use it to base my decisions or you know or maybe just send a couple of us and not all of us either way but I just either I'm just like oh you know the this dinner's really nice to go to and I get to meet other school districts, but if it's going to be an extraordinary cost that I don't want to and a lot of times conscious of it with Central New York school boards and Asiggo County School Boards, a lot of times they're offering these to us for free because yeah, which is would be a nice to know when they do because we pay a membership to
084be part of those organizations. But that's a great time that's no district and so it's oh yeah, I'm definitely more interested in going to that. But in so my response was actually going to be let's talk about it at the board meeting and see what everybody wants. So I was just I was so perfect. So I just was responsible for us as well. It's embedded and I think we we make the assumption that you can do all the clicks but we've already done the clicks right so we already know how much a room if if there was an over like Nisba for example we know what the the rate is for for school board members. We know the rate of what travel is going to be. we know we can kind of estimate it. So
085we can provide an estimated cost. It's probably simpler than just I'm surprised after 9 years nobody's ever asked for that. But it's kind of a basic kind of thing. So we can do that and and and and to your point there probably is a click but we have so many clicks here you know going to board and you know we get the weekly update and we're clicking here and clicking there and going to board decks and clicking over and I miss things but just just to have something handy so we would make decision and then as a board you could decide you want to send one none three five yes yep and keep checking out those webinars because a lot of those webinars are free just click on those uh and If we can't watch
086the whole thing, a lot of times they send it to us after. So I know I'll start to watch it on my lunch break, but then if my class comes in, I just pick it up later when they send send the rest on. So those are very helpful, too. That was it. Yeah. Perfect. That's great. Thank you for bringing that up. That was wonderful. Well, ditto to everything that my colleagues have said tonight. I just wanted to add one more thing. Uh some of us were able to go to that AI presentation which was phenomenal. I did get to send you guys the slides. I hope you were able to look at them. Kate and Renee were also there. Um, I just wanted to share with you, I went to the Asiggo County School Boards
087meeting on Monday and I shared this with Mr. Paulino earlier. I guess it was last Monday. It was a week ago and I shared this with Mr. Palino. Um, Asiggo County School Board is looking into possibly bringing back Edfini or uh is it Finn? Finley. Finny. Finny. Finny. Okay. I I look like I had an extra L in there, but um he was uh from the Shandoic Central School District, a history teacher who does a lot with technology. He is amazing with that AI information and he just gave us a small little smidg of what he can do. Um, so the school Swiggle County School Board is looking into different districts who might be interested to bring him back to us maybe with two or three other schools where we could do a PD day
088for for staff. Um, I know I know that your school district was interested. I know my school district's interested and I know Fulton is. They all may. Who knows? But just from what I've been hearing, so it is possible that that could be something that's presented to us and maybe possibly a Swiggle County School Boards could help us out or pick up the cost of of doing this PD day. So put that on your agendas for for next year's possibility. also show shout it over to this side of the room to next year's possibilities because I know we only have in general that one countywide staff development day, but if it's possible, you know, to be flexible might be a great idea. So, and I know that Lori was uh snapping away a lot of
089pictures here, too. So, so I just wanted to add that in and and update you guys on that. So, with that said, I don't believe we have anything for executive session. I'm not I didn't know if the board had anything that you need. I do not ask. So, we do not I asked my team earlier today if there was any questions. Can I move to the journal? Look at this. Mrs. Hutchinson always wants to get out early and it's not even 7:25 yet. So, if we can get someone to move for a message forum. Oh, wait. Let me ask that. She'd be failing got all excited. We're going to 7:26. Is there anyone who would like to join us for second public forum? Nope. They want you to get home, Valon. All right. Move a
090journal and second. All those in favor? I passes 600. Thank you everyone and have a great evening.