001welcome to the March 11 2025 work and special sessions of the Board of Education this is Joe CIO president of the board education speaking thank you for attending in person or through Zoom please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance do noce of today's meeting has been provided to the public and each member of the Board of Education as required by law Tina will you please take attendance presid present pres pres super for human resour pres presid just before we start I just wanted to alert the public we have a new member on the legal staff with us Mrs chrisy Jacobson who's joining us uh as our Council part of the gcio team and uh we wish her uh the best of luck helping us and we we thank D Spencer who is no longer with
002us and wish him the best in in his future endeavors thank you yeah we're going to go we're going to be going through the non-instructional administrative and capital components of the budgets I'll hand the mic over to Dr s oops thank you Mr CIA if I can get this thing here there we go there we go all right great so um this is our second uh budget workshop and as you recall the first one we uh you know we gave you an overview of our proposed budget or how we calculated the tax cap Levy and we really discussed the revenues which was state aid was part of that and uh also the reserves so the next three meetings will be on the expense side so we discussed the revenues with the first meeting the next
003three expense and we start off with the uh talking about the administrative and capital uh portion of the budget so again we always start with our mission and vision you've seen this plenty of times and again even with throughout the budget process we keep this at the Forefront so this evening we'll again talk give you an overview of the budget we'll discuss the expense summary especially uh the the administrative and capital components Transportation our projects capital projects that were recommending and Mr Capia is going to go through the uh budget in terms of with numbers um the entire um the administrative and capital budget codes you've seen this before at the last meeting our proposed budget uh which is uh 137 m410 1845 that's a budget to- budget increase of 2.56% and the and it's
004within our maximum allowable tax levy which is at 2.42% so this here is a you know again this is just a our major um uh budg this is a major components of the budget so you'll see again um this is what we're proposing in terms of expenditure which matches our Revenue that we reviewed um at the last budget meeting so we're required to um to present the budget in this three-part Series so this evening we'll be discussing the capital which is 133% of our budget administrative which is uh 11.4% of our budget the program which we'll discuss in the next two meetings which is a little over 75% and that's where you want it to be program side is what touches students so that's the those numbers are where they ought to be and they're
005pretty consistent for the last I would say five six years they're very consistent those numbers and this is the pie chart and numbers okay so here are the various codes Under the administrative side of the budget so you have the Board of Education my office um the business office the Personnel Legal Services you have uh the curriculum and you have all the supervision so one thing I did want to point out here the the curriculum and instruction we you know we discuss the administrative portion of it but the program portion of it we'll discuss it in the the next two meetings and the 1680 code which is the central data processing the it administrative costs are under that budget code um the building supervision that's all of our uh principles assistant principles are in that
006code the AC memic program all of our coordinators and directors are in that code um and the other program admin those are all folks that support the um you know the other programs that I just spoke of the curriculum the building and the academic programs and then we have the employee benefit in there as well so here is our um you know C uh the capital budget and this is um these are all the different codes that fall under the facilities maintenance and again the employees and we do discuss the benefits rather we do discuss the student transportation it's covered here in this presentation although it's part of the program we discuss it now because these are uh it's a non-instructional codes so with the central office or the central Administration you can see it's
007my office my colleagues that are here their offices so just to kind of give you a little bit of an overview the um uh Mr cia's office the business and finance um they oversee the you know the um they administer obviously the budget they it also includes her office also overseas Transportation Food Services facilities uh benefits and all uh Civil Service employees Mr McLaughlin's office the HR office um um that office overseas also certified employees hiring evaluations Staffing scheduling continuing ed um those aspects are under U Miss McLaughlin and then Dr Bowman's office curriculum she works with the coordinators directors all um you know all of our um student programs uh professional development special projects uh such as the parent University and then also the universal prek program falls under her as well okay here's
008Transportation so we have almost 3,000 students uh that we transport within our district and about 300 outside of the district so the Personnel that the that make up our transportation department you can see that's there um you know our bus drivers and bus attendants they also serve as lunch monitors in our program and with uh plant and operations that is under um uh Mr Foley's uh department and those are the Personnel that are that are within his department and you know this this um one thing I wanted to make a note of is the you see the supervisory AIDS and the weekend and evening security that also falls under uh these codes um and just to you know they're responsible for all aspects of maintaining our and upkeeping all of our facilities our campuses um
009you know we especially with our athletic games that are held on our campuses we have about 470 home games if not more and they also complete many of the projects inhouse as well capital projects so this is kind of um you know it's kind of nice to show some of the work that has been done so with our capital projects if you see you know just some of the pictures here you have you have what it you know some of the things we've done but the first picture is in the Middle School we have really this is our second hallway that's been completed painted we've taken a lot of the things off of the walls so it's nice and clean there's less visual stimuli you know so it's just much more pleasing to the eye
010we actually hear from our um you know faculty and staff and even our students it just uh you know it's just very looks clean um and if you notice the fencing that second picture that is something that we put in this year that's on the on the east side of the field and with the gates what this allows us is that kids can go outside for um recess we didn't have this opportunity but um this is a a safe you know safer area for our kids now and if you look at the uh bottom picture with the cars there in the parking lot that's the fuel tank cover replacement that may seem simple but it was a very big project that was completed um this year um and the PA system at the high school
011we also did the same thing for steuart school that was completed this year and this is something that you know we look at every year and this was the PA system is extremely important because it's just it's for communication but it's also for safety operations of the building so this we were glad we were able to complete uh these projects and you see more that are listed um and then uh for our elementary and primary schools you know it'll be remember two years ago when we had uh the board had approved to with the multi-purpose room at the primary schools to have that air conditioned well that project is uh almost completed and you see the pictures of the the first two pictures that are there um in the first row that's from our primary
012schools the gymnasium that's another uh big project that we completed that's for Stuart's school that we um we really refinished the gym floors and at Stratford we did even more than that at Stratford with uh just a real refresh of the gym with the paint the wall pads and the doors um so that was very nice our gymnasium looks very nice in both the buildings and the PA system at Stewart for similar reasons one thing that I wanted you to see the before and the after picture so if you look at the paint I don't know if you could see it as well but the paint that was done the and we do the uh the ceiling tiles rather and the lighting big difference and you see it and every year but this is not
013a project that's one and done it happens every year we do about five of the five classrooms so it's it's it's nice the um it looks a little dingy and then when you Spruce it up it looks it looks nice the lighting and then these are some of the projects um that are in progress so at the high school we have of course the boiler replacement we had discussed that um couple of weeks um maybe a month or so ago so that's here that's up at the state we hope that it gets approved and we have a that boiler is replaced before uh this next winter um the the gym bleacher replacement remember that was approved I think that was last year the year before we had approved the bleacher project and that project is
014the demolition will start in uh April and uh and it'll be done over the summer and then the other ones which are uh which our um our projects that some of some of it has been approved but again these are long longer term projects that they're part of the bond project that'll get done um you know they'll start this year but it'll take some time before that gets done remember with any of our projects that we do have the interior projects just take longer time to get done and we have a very short window of time because you can't do those projects when the kids are in school and um the middle school we have the air conditioning the cafeteria and again painting uh in you know our hallways and classroom that work will continue
015and at Stuart statford and the primary schools the air conditioning you know that's a big one the two Elementary School in the cafeteria and at the primary all of the classrooms so those projects I think those those have been approved or they're they're on the agenda tonight so so but again these projects will will take some time but they'll we'll we'll get them um you know taken care of and then at the at Stewart School the parking lot that picture that you see up there that's the parking lot Stuart School we've always had an issue with not enough space for our our our staff or parents so these extra 28 spaces will be uh will be nice for Stuart Avenue and then at bus garage if you see that last picture that cement repair um
016you know our bus garage is on top of a landfill so you see the ground you know the the sinking that happens so that needs to be repair that's a safety issue and then of course the HVAC and electrical upgrades Robert did you want to add any more to our project list before we move on sure I can talk to certain things so for the capital projects as uh Dr cumman said um you know those are the big ticket items um what we have is under the operational budget uh and the facilities Department you know traditionally the facilities department is a a reactive group you know we F things are broken we fix it uh things are dirty we clean it uh we're trying to instill in our group of uh of staff to be
017uh proactive rather than reactive and with the talent uh pool that we have we've been able to take on projects with the district save the district money so we don't have to hire outside contractors not all project projects but quite a few of them and we do have a decent talented group that I can challenge them and they'll uh they'll do things you know one of the things that uh I try to do for the facilities department and the Mantra is really I want to be uh proactive but I also want to do quality of life for the students um lighting upgrades we're trying to do on a case-by Case basis um throughout all the classrooms we are replacing floor tiles that are broken damaged chipped um things things to make things look better have
018the students feel more comfortable in their classrooms some of the items that we've picked up were uh classroom floors excuse me in the Middle School in Stratford we replaced completely replaced floors that were CH chipped and peeled we uh I don't know if you everybody seen the parking lot here at the high school we resurfaced it restriped it it hadn't been done in many years couple other things we did uh were in the parking lot the Li would Chang into all LED lighting in the parking lots uh to enhance security and visibility at night uh that goes along with some of the outside of the buildings uh to talking to the LED lights we are also putting LED LED lights in the classrooms many classrooms and part of that project is we now taking advantage
019of rebates that available uh so the district can actually make some rebate money on the LEDs uh currently we're about $6,500 in rebates on the positive side for lighting upgrades um one of the other things we're doing internally is working with National Grid we took advantage of National Grid uh they have a a program called a demand response that uh since we have oil capability and on times of need we will shut down the gas and go to oil for the one or two days uh required and part of that we will get a rebate for that uh participation in that group currently we we're on a positive of over $188,000 uh to the district um couple other things we want minor items in middle school we uh we placed a bunch of the doors
020uh to Ure lockdown capability um one of the other things that I've taken on is I'm trying to now put branding in each of the schools I don't know if anybody noticed but we uh bought some mats for each of the schools instead of having the district I'm trying to put in Stratford school Stewart school give some identity to the kids into the school and even in the uh when we do renovation of the uh the gym floors now I want to put the name of the school on the gym floors give the kids some chance to you know have some pride in their school so that's one of the things up you know that was a personal project I want to take on for Branding the schools for the children thanks Robert um and
021then just moving on for our Capital transfer proposed projects you know at the high school um you know if you look at we only have one turf field and gets used excessively so uh we want to replace that turf field you could see even in that picture the the repairs that have been done with the patches we also want to as we're doing that the netting there's a picture of The netting there as well we want to replace the The netting and then uh the this this Library we're in at the high school the air conditioning at this library because we've had some issues with the with the air conditioning here and then districtwide boiler control upgrades this is something that um uh Robert and his team we have started that this past school year
022that needs to continue painting and beautification you know what we talked about earlier for we did some painting at the high school also this year um or yeah right we did some or was it right we did do some painting here also that needs to continue that we have to continue to um keep uh painting and making sure our facilities they they're um you know they look nice our classrooms the molding and the the door molding right that's when you start at the high school the door frames refreshing classrooms every so many years I think it's p to the way side a little bit so we want to re that and get that back to where it needs to be yeah that's something that we do here like the more we do the classroom spaces
023the more we paint and make our our um you know that they look fresh it's a nice welcoming uh atmosphere and then um the concrete and the masonry the pointing that work um I think every year we all lot money for that that needs to happen and then for technology infrastructure that's really for the servers and the wiring and that is something we want to you have strong infrastructure for technology and uh you know one thing before I hand it over to Dana the the the transfer to Capital those funds are part of the the local budget that we vote on that's why we share that with our with our community it's a separate line item thank you Dr San thank you rob that was great um a lot of I will say that a
024lot of the transfer Capital it really comes in from the principles from the buildings and from Robert and his staff just to prioritize what we need and obviously the mechanics and all of that have to take precedence but we also need to update and you know keep the facilities going so we we we're always very proud of that list and then we work on it over the next two to three years and uh you know it's it's it's fun when those things finish up and get on on uh you know out to uh the public to use so that's good so um this slide is the total 2526 proposed budget um it totals at the end m410 845 this is it broken down into its major expense areas we do go through each of them
025this includes all the budget I know we're only talking about capital and administrative today but this includes all of it including the full program budget um you could see on here just generally that um most of the increases come in the areas of salary contractual expenses and bosies and we'll be reviewing that over the next three presentations so starting on the administrative side with the 1099 which are our first codes these are the Board of Education expenses and here you might see things like workshops membership dues budget vote expenses election workers supplies materials and uh these are flat to the current school year $12.99 are the superintendent codes here you have salary for the superintendent and the secretary the superintendent secretary supplies materials travel Workshop increases here are in salaries and some in dues moving
026on to the 1300 codes and these are the business office codes so this is my office the full business office across the hall Treasurer benefits attendance all of the expenses related to purchasing Financial software auditing supplies materials travel many more come into here uh increases are due to salary and some contractual expenses mostly due to uh auditing and some Professional Services 1420 is our Legal Services here we do have legal both on the administrative and on the student side uh these are increases in um for labor negotiations but District Council and and other litigation 1430 codes are for Mrs mclin's CL uh codes she runs the office with herself and 1.5 clerical support they handle Human Resources leadership development Personnel recruitment orientation supplies materials I know I'm missing some I know advertising but that just
027gives you a flavor changes here are are really in the salary osis 1480 is community relations and these are expenses for our public relations firm we use syntax which we hire through bosis so we do get aided back on those Services it also includes the cost of producing the newsletters and the printing of that um and the increase there is projected for bosis 1670 is essential Printing and mailing this covers all lease expenses for administrative copier and postage it also any supplies related to that we have a small decrease here due to a lower pricing that we had and we wait able to negotiate with a new copier contract so that's reflected there uh 1680 that is the administrative side of our technology department so Mrs um Lauren Maguire she budgets in two areas both
028on the administrative and the classroom side so that ends up in program and she'll be here in two meetings to go over her codes uh the technology department has a technology manager they have five us technology Specialists that work there they support the buildings and the ad administrative staff they have one clerical that's divided between it and student registration and the salaries for all those staff are budgeted in the 1680 codes also in 1680 we have expenses for our website platform cyber security firewalls networks work support in bosies we get a myriad of different Services through there including our student Management Services Frontline uh State reporting so these are really the services that we use to run the district not as much the classroom so those are all uh reflected in here uh we also
029have H supplies materials memberships for the it office and the 1680 codes or the any increases you see there really due to uh salaries and bosies in the 1900 codes is insurance and Bose's Administration here we budget for a general liability insurance Schoolboard liability policies student accident in this grouping we also budget for the district's share of administrative facilities and capital expenses for bosies Bo NASA bosis is made up of component districts and their expenses are divided up between them and that is budgeted for in 1980 Insurance costs have Inc any increases for that are reflected in those codes you'll notice at the top of this slide it's switched over from administrative to program um while these actually show up in the division for the uh program side we do discuss them here because they're
030non instructional so um we feel that it's just simpler because it's not part of the classroom but we do like to go over that here in 5500 these are codes for all the transportation expenses Dr SAS showed a a slide earlier that went over that we have a director assistant director dispatcher 54 drivers and everybody else that Mak up that team we are budgeting 2.0 clerical they currently have a 1.5 but in order to properly support that office we are advocating for an additional one .5 clerical making it to full-time clerical support in there uh the 5510 codes relate to all of the uh Transportation staff salaries bus equipment insurance repairs all of that it also covers the routing software cameras the GPS Leasing and all of those in 5530 you have the maintenance of
031the bus garage so there is where you'd see the heat water electric and the remaining codes are for contract transportation and boses which handles any students that we transport that we don't do ourselves but we contract out for uh those Transportation contracts are either rebid or they rolled over at CPI we are actively trying to do that but we do find that some of the lower contracts because of the increasing expenses some of the contractors are throwing back at us and we'd have to rebid them 860 is for civic um activities this is for um really a part-time clerical person who works in the facilities office issuing permits and assisting the facilities office so this person arranges for any use of our facilities or Fields by outside groups and the code is a small increase
032in salary uh 8070 um is the demographic study this is something that Miss mclaughin handles we do do an Inc uh a demographic report every two years 2425 was an off year so we're updating in 2526 and then 9901 is a transfer to the other programs on the program side of the budget so there's two things that we have programs that we transfer to one is to our summer is to our special Aid fund which handles the 20% of the district's cost of Summer special ed that's both our IND District program or anyone going out and the other is for school lunch to cover any administrative costs that aren't covered in the revenues that we come in that come in as well as any uncollected debt has to be paid for from general fund not
033from the funded sell now we've switched over to Capital I'm just pointing out uh 1620 are part of the codes that Rob Foley budgets for and handles this is 1620 is for facilities operations so here Dr sow went over that so that's where the director grounds secretary and uh night Personnel night security and weekend security is all out of that we also have um we have one head custodian each building 37 custodians and cleaners throughout just to give you an idea our facilities operations is in is in production I guess uh from 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. regularly scheduled sometimes it has to go past that but that's just our regular schedule so um also in 1620 and 2223 we introduced supervisory AIDS at the at this time we now have seven supervisory AIDS uh
034one FTE in each building a couple of them are split between two people but they cover those buildings full-time so that's been a really great addition uh in 1620 he also um budgets for some equipment so here we have a floor scrubber and a and a burnisher some vacuums it also covers all our utilities buildings cleaning supplies training all of that um are covered in the 1620 codes there's really quite a few of them uh increases in salaries and supplies account for the increase in those codes 1621 is for facilities maintenance so that handles all the maintainers and the grounds Keepers um we have contractual repairs uh flooring Plumbing glass replacement anything you can imagine comes out of there equipment next year there is a Toro groomer and a ride on lawn mower that we're
035adding capital projects um you can see here we this is the 2.3 million you'll see in 23 24 those go up because we would have used our capital reserve this year we are we do have a $100,000 increase in this which is for that is coming from the current Year's appropriation we so we had about $100,000 come in in e- rate Revenue this year so we're taking that money increasing um our appropriated fund balance and moving that to um to do part of the technology project for next year um our I our Tech director is really very good at this she looks to see what kind of funding we can get for our projects Robert does the same thing trust me when that $6,400 check comes in he's looking he's like we have to increase
036the budget I got this extra money and we put it back into facilities it's the same thing with technology and that's how we fund a part of our infrastructure so we're very pleased with that and that's the increase there um the 9700 codes is for Debt Service that's basically flat I will tell you in 2526 we do have some Debt Service falling off so we will see a change in there uh the 9,000 code this is this is really showing a recap of our employee benefits um this is the last section we're going to review tonight so I am done after this I promise um we pay for things like the New York State retirement system FICO workers comp health insurance and all that you can see that we're reject we're projecting this code rather
037flat health insurance in the current school year was lower than projected those savings is what is making that budget be relatively flat for next year so we will have some savings this year that we so and we had to increase the the account less for next next year to cover some of the projected increases we are uh projecting about 10% in health insurance for next year for the last 6 months that benefits are done on a calendar year not a fiscal year so we're never aware of that until the year changes but for 2025 it was less than we had originally anticipated the other thing is is that TRS which is our larger of the two Retirement systems are projecting rates at about a half a percent lower in that next year than they were
038this year so those savings are projected here and um it was able to offset some of the other increases and at that I will hand it back over to Dr Sina thank you Mr capua um this again you've seen before are on on the ballot on May 20th we have two proposition one is the budget and the election of two Board of Education trustees and then our next meeting which is on March 25th our principles will um you know along with um Dr Bowman we will go over the instructional component part one of the budget which is all of our programs at in K12 K12 programming and then on April 8th um we'll have Athletics technology and pupil Personnel Services we'll present that um those um portions of the budget on April 8th followed by
039the adoption of our budget on the 23rd of April budget hearing on the 13th with the vote in election on the 20th you have any questions oh yeah we have one yeah this is Dana she has last time it was Tina there yeah Kristen's picture there with her little guy hang around long enough they put you on the screen so it's cute that's from parent University not parent um it was from the family night yeah the literacy and math night there were a lot of Cups on the table I don't know what was going on but every time I oh yeah they were they were doing it was a math activity family friendly any are there any questions from the board on the budget one quick question about the I'm really happy to see that
040so many of the spaces are getting air conditioned I had a quick question about the air conditioning at the primary schools so that's because of the windows the way that the windows are that the units have to be those yes so and that was one of the reasons so the um the districtwide hbac project that we're approving tonight that covers all the classrooms in the three primary schools so we'll be removing all of the what they're portable right yeah so they're um the portable air conditioners plus we're air conditioning the cafeteria at the middle school Stewart and Stratford and we've already we're just finishing up the multi-purpose rooms in the uh in the primary so those were done this winter so the pict so these are the Portables that are going to be portable we
041just wanted to show you what that looked like because that was a big discussion that we had last year and around yeah right around a little bit before this so we did outfit that so those will be available once we get this project in for the picture that we showed of the um of the multi-purpose room has what what are they called the um those the split units split the duck yeah right the ones that are going into the classrooms will have like a it'll be in the ceiling tile so you'll just have the vent in there so um you won't have those splits in every one and it'll be tied into the BMS system so the controls would go that way these classroom going have to set un you really w't see anything just
042blend in with the ceiling and thermost fact as well thanks but it's dockless or was that stck yeah the the cassette units have the supply and Air Supply and return built in yes are they heat as well so we have stop def failure if there's a problem right and the idea is to do all of the Interior spaces all of them so offices and and so on all the student spaces all the student spaces are covered and some of the offices already have covered whatever needed to get done there any other questions maybe now it's time for questions from the community on the budget just come come right up if you name and address good to see you again 111 Sher Valley app I have a couple questions on various topics at the last meeting
043I think it um I think it was um trusty Gaffney that brought up the issue about the electric buses is that correct I know someone brought it up yes it was when you give your legislative update oh yes someone was listening yes yes well I well I well I do pay attention um I'm I'm curious to know how we're going to approach this issue because what do we have about 35 buses is that about right no more we have about 60 buses 60 buses okay but there'd be a mixture of large buses and smaller buses because electric bus May cost $400,000 which is more than two times what the current bus costs the I think I know where you're going with this and it's it is going to be very expensive obviously to trans to
044go over to follow the Mandate of what state wants us to do and so part of the legislative update and part of what we're working with our repres Representatives is to you tell them that it's 2027 is too early and it's just it's not um it's going to be a challenge for us to do that we recognize the challenge we're not alone every district is with us in the same boat and so we will hopefully be hearing from our legislative we've been we've been lobbying for years I think we don't have the infrastructure you need charging stations the buses don't run long enough to do multiple we are what we did put in the budget for this year is to get a study done what it entails for us so once we get that we
045will be sharing that with the board and the community so I I was gonna say that we're we're in the middle we're in the midst of that survey um or we have a uh consultant and a project through nerta that just got approved and uh we're going to be doing this study to uh to look at what our space and our Capac capity and what the charging plan and all of that would look like so that background work is being done now um it'll be done hopefully this school year if not it'll go shortly into the next and we'll take it from there but we'll that that's part of the work you in order to do anything including applying for Grants or any monies on this you have to have a study done right because
046this would be a considerable capital expenditure consider depending if it's all required in one year or if it's phased in I'm sure all this stuff will be in your there was no yeah there was no intention to ever do it in one year it was supposed to be uh put in over over time and people are really pushing for that to be extended and uh so that's what we're looking at okay the other concern we have too is the actual structure of the building being able to accommodate things right this and you might need system not may we will like we've been talking about it for years yeah to be honest right well it's just another one of our state's ridiculous policies because the economics of this make no sense and I don't know why
047they're not using compressed natural gas instead which would make a lot more sense but anyway the other question I had and I know Dan and you touched on it was the contractual transportation services and the that category has grown tremendously over the last 5 years it's grown at 18% a year which is a lot more than CPI um over that time period what what actually is this for this is where we hire an outside bus company yes to supplement the 54 drivers is that correct that's correct and we we still we haven't like the number of buses that we use that probably has not really change that much this is just mostly price um it really has to do with most of the ated district or not most some of the at at a district
048or single students going to a single location a lot of that is contracted out because it would take it would it would take a full driver and right but just the escalation in this is correct is very high as I was saying a lot of the transportation these older Transportation contracts right right that's okay yeah plus CPI has gone up plus it depends you know sometimes we get a year that we have a few more schools that are added in and sometimes we don't but you know the transportation cost that has been a topic of conversation at the county level but also at the state level because everybody's experiencing this um the increase in the in the cost of transportation and uh I also wanted to point out that our transport ation Department um you
049know they really work with other districts so when we have students that are going to uh out of District PL places that they coordinate with other districts to save costs we do try to um in turn like we have a contract right now one with minola to take a student one with us to take one of theirs so right I know I know you explained that to me last year when I raised something similar um and then can you explain this HVAC that's in today's meeting there are two parts for the contract there's mechanical and there's electrical for the elementary school and all for the districtwide that I was saying earlier so yes it's for the air conditioners in the the three the classrooms in the three primary buildings plus the air conditioning for the
050um cafeterias of Stuart Stratford in the Middle School okay and then can you just elaborate a bit more on the health insurance I know it's coming in under budget this year or the year that's ending in June right right because it was projected to be up 133% but it will be coming in under that but then for the new year it's projected to be down 2% yes right and that's based on what your estimate for that's correct right okay so they're really but that's contingent on you negotiating the new contract that will start right based off of our our contract with the uh with our health insurance right so that will be to be determined right correct okay and then I had um one last question can you um talk about judgment and claims which
051is on page 10 and it was $450,000 last year and then in the New Year it's expected to drop to $1,500 we had a a specific judgment that we settled okay so this is just that's a oneoff it's not something that would reoccur year after year that's correct okay all right thank you you're welcome Chapman some Willow um when we were looking at this at first I was looking at the legal fees and you're like 15% but I think you guys are just trying to predict it better so I just wanted to ask a question in 2324 we predicted 200 about 270,000 we got to 372 this year we predicted 272 so either we you know predicted a little bit less do we know how much we've kind of spent towards it that you guys
052want to move it up a little bit um do we know review our actuals and and run rates plus we have increases in um retener yeah and and hourly that we take into consideration and we like I said we budget between two different codes both administrative and the other and in program so it's sometimes we will move between those yeah um because I mean it's a huge $100,000 you know just prediction wise so I do understand why that went up but of course um it just brings the question of I mean these are just retainer fees for everything legal you know that we have to do this doesn't include any lawsuits or anything like that it does everything all do we have discretionary funds do we have insurance like how does that work no it's
053it's that's covered in those same codes so everything is under that and that's the prediction that's okay okay thank you you're welcome hi my name is Vanessa damaso I live at 138 Garden Street it's not a budget question but it's a general comment can I share now sure sure okay so I just actually wanted to thank the school district um for all that you have done for my family over the years my um I started really our career here started in 2008 I had I have a daughter who had special needs and um I want to say that she's a fully functioning adult she was actually placed in an outof District placement so I understand some of what you're sharing um but that you know is a happy story um I have a middle daughter
054who is currently at a private school St Joe's and I want to thank you for sending those buses on time um and sending them over to us you know I know it's not easy so I just wanted to say thank you for that as well um and rounding out my roster I have a third grader and she's really what prompted me to come here um I just want to share with you the amazing experience we have had this year at Stuart School in third grade um I just wrote down some of the things that she comes home and tells me and I just want to share it with you so that you know that there is an amazing program um in third grade um so she is in Mrs Moscato's class um and um she
055has really had the best year so far um I want to let you know that she comes home and she asks me if I know that in books there is a challenger an adviser and a sidekick and then she proceeds to talk about all those pieces um she also just has this love of mystery books and she told me that you know did I know there was a red herring and that there are specific Clues and um I mean just adorable um and then you know the math program I know that you've heard like a lot of Kickback about the math program but I mean she is eight years old and she's using the distributive property to multiply twood digit by one-digit numbers and a lot of it she can do you know in her
056head and I don't think she's a special case I think that's a lot of AR kids um so um you know honestly there was a time you know there that I've been here a long time so sometimes I've been happy sometimes I have not but I have seen a an amazing change in the last five years in the curriculum and the rigor and um I'm also a teacher in a neighboring School District that is well respected so I know what third graders are expected to do and um I just wanted to tell you that you know statistics can be manipulated um but my third grader has had an exceptional experience here and I just wanted to thank you and let you know how positive we feel about it thank you have a good night thank
057thank you for the kind words I'm everybody up here appreciates them especially the people to my right so thank you there any other questions or comments okay there's no further business may have a motion to there's no further business to come before the board and the work session work session be adjourned and the special session be opened so moov all in favor I at this time the special session is now open and all members of the board are in attendance may have a motion to accept the agenda for March 11 2025 special session as presented so moved second all in favor I are there any questions from the board on the agenda n none to make more efficient use of the meeting time the Board of Education authorizes the use of a consent agenda as
058part of the meeting agenda uh as board members know if they want to have a motion uh or an item uh stripped out and voted on separately they can ask to do so at this time may have a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes Personnel matters E1 through E5 and business office matters F1 through F2 so move second all in favor I at this time we have one other resolution um be resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools the Board of Education hereby rejects the resignation of the employee listed in confidential schedule a and terminates the employment of the employee listed in the confidential schedule a effective March 11th 2025 so Mo second all in favor I I is there any new uh business from the administration from the board no
059new business feature Board of Education meetings Tuesday April 8th 2025 Actually March sorry there's March Yeah Tuesday March 25th 2025 that is a work session work session instructional part one instructional part one 8:15 here at the high school and the following meeting I just want to make it's a regular meeting but remember all of our meetings right now till we get the budget done we'll have a budget component too okay but that's a regular meeting we will have students we're going to do some recognition at that meeting along with the regular agenda I think we have one com I'm sorry uh one very very brief comment um I just want to thank the um the high school and obviously principal Stein grer for all of the work that uh went into the recent skit night
060uh senior skit night it was very very enjoyable thank you thank you for that and then sorry one other board of education announcement the one following um the March 25th board meeting will be Tuesday April 8th 2025 here at 8:15 p.m at the Garden City High School um if there's no further business people before the board may have a motion that the meeting be adjourned so move second all in favor I