001A motion that the board resume public session. Miss Manella, Mr. Reinhardt, all in favor? Vote is unanimous. We're now back in public session. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation andice for all. Hi everyone. Do we have any agenda changes? >> Yes. To personnel actions. Thank you. >> Guys, we get to start off the night with the exciting part. We have our tenure celebration first. >> I know that applause was for me. Okay. Uh, good evening, President Coffee, members of the board of education, Superintendent Ball, colleagues, and honored guests. My name is Michaela Parado. I'm the assistant superintendent for personnel and labor relations for Gates Chile. Tonight is one of my favorite responsibilities as assistant superintendent
002because it represents the very best of our work as a school district. This evening, we have the honor of recognizing educators who have successfully completed their probationary service and are being recommended for tenure. Tenure is not granted automatically, nor is it awarded lightly. It is earned through years of dedicated service, consistent professional growth, and a demonstrated commitment for a student's growth and development. In education, the early years are often the most demanding. Our tenure candidates have focused on meeting student needs. They've built strong family partnership. They've honed their craft as educators all while reflecting on feedback, accepting mentoring, and adapting to the challenges to challenges with flexibility and resilience. Through it all, they've demonstrated professionalism and a genuine dedication to students. Tenure represents more than employment security. It reflects the board's confidence in these educators
003judgment, integrity, and skill. It affirms that they have established themselves as trusted professionals who contribute positively to our learning community and uphold the standards of excellence that this district expects. I would also like to acknowledge the principles, assistant principles, mentors, instructional leaders, colleagues, friends, and family members who have supported these educators along the way. Give yourselves a round of applause. Yes, tenure is an individual achievement, but it is made possible through a culture of collaboration and support. To our tenure recipients, tonight marks an important milestone, but is not the end of the journey. With tenure comes both affirmation and responsibility. The responsibility to continue growing, to lead by example, and to advocate for students and for the profession. We're confident that each of you will continue to uphold these responsibilities with the same commitment that
004brought you to this moment. When I call your name, please come up to the front to receive your certificate and a small gift over at the table over there. When we are finished, I invite you all with your families and friends to the high school cafeteria where you can enjoy some light refreshments, take pictures, and celebrate. On behalf of the Gates Trillay administration, it is my honor to present the following educators for the board of education's consideration and approval for tenure this evening. Congratulations to each of you and thank you for your service to our students, our families, and our district. Okay, we'll see who followed the instructions now. who've heard the instructions. Sean Johnson from Neil Armstrong Leslie Muhamad Neil Armstrong L. Olivier Katone, Neil Armstrong, Bianca Pitman, Neil Armstrong, Stacy Titel, Neil Armstrong,
005Rachel Banani, Florence Brasser, Kelly Borsick, Florence Brasser, Lindseay Fitter, Florence Brasser, Vera Moley, Florence Brasser, Angela Rodriguez. Now, Florence Brasser, Kelly U. Florence Brasser, Brie Taylor Farnsworth, Florence Brasser, Jasmine Torres, Florence Brasser, Samantha Brule, Walt Disney, Nancy Deanio, Walt Disney, Danielle Shirley, Walt Disney. Elizabeth Caciola, Middle School. Trevor Dennis, Middle School. Jodie McKenzie, Middle School. Christopher Miller Middle School. Angela Brody High School. John Kaboot High School. >> Ashley Kakuzi High School. Cam Gormau High School. >> Carrie Kner High School. Katherine Sullivan High School. Okay. And from our administrative team, Rebecca Scott, Neil Armstrong, Andrea Kataya, Paul RH, and Sarah Mucino, District Office. Congratulations once again to all of our tenure recipients. How about one more round of applause for them? Okay. And now if everyone with your friends, family would like to join us in
006the cafeteria. We have light refreshments. We have a place to take pictures by building. Your family can take as many pictures as they like. I would take your stuff with you as you exit unless you want to come back and watch the rest of the board meeting. >> We are a pleasure. They might want to come back. >> They might. Yeah. >> Congratulations, you guys. Thank you so much for all of your hard work. to say a nice. Thank you. I didn't remember that many Thank you. Again, congratulations to all of you and thank you for your families and your staff for being here to support you. We appreciate all of your work. So, I wanted to take just a minute to really start with gratitude for all of the work of everybody in our
007schools and all of our families and all of our kids. We're reaching May and I don't know about those of you who work in education. But I I'm feeling that I'm feeling May. Yeah, I see you nodding over there. May where you've worked so hard all year and everybody's getting tired. Maybe not our our most patientselves some days, but knowing that all of the work that adults and kids and families have been working towards all year, this is the time where you do get to see some of those pieces start to come together and pay off. Whether it's all of the PS I don't know my kids are taking. Some of you guys might be taking the state test. Um opportunities for their sports games, their music, upcoming concerts that I'm not prepared about because
008the dates aren't on my calendar yet, which is my own fault, nobody else is. Um but just just really that gratitude of knowing how much it takes every day and no matter how much you love what you do that sometimes you just need that reminder that you're appreciated. So again, just from us here, we wanted to make sure that you know that we appreciate the work you do every day and we see you and we we thank you for it. That moves us on now to points of interest. Does anybody have any to share? Miss Mella? Um, last week I got to go as a chaperon with the uh Walt Disney graders. We went to RMSC and I couldn't believe how many kids had never been to the planetarium before. It was just great to
009see their excitement as everything's kind of flying through and just what a great experience for kids that wouldn't have had it otherwise. Um, and then I also was at the Walt Disney craft show over the weekend and as much as the craft show is great and it's great a fundraiser, I really love seeing people who haven't been in the district in a while coming back and all that they have to say about the school and all the improvements and everything. And there were just some really great conversations that really make me proud to be on the board. Thank you. Any other points of interest? All right. Did we have any meetings to report on? Any visitor comments? All right. That moves on to our public hearing for the budget. I just >> I hereby call
010the me the hearing to order. Apologies, guys. >> We only do this like twice a year. >> I'll get it by the next time. >> All right. Good evening. Uh actually a budget hearing is for the community. So, good evening everyone. Uh, thank you for having me here. Hi. Um, so yeah, that that's one thing uh a point of uh information for you is that a budget hearing isn't a presentation to the board. It's a presentation to the public. So, I'm here to share uh what we intend to do with the school budget going into next year. So with that, um the agenda for tonight includes our goals and priorities, uh the state of the state, expenditures, revenues, uh propositions, next steps, a summary, and then any opportunity for Q&A if there are questions. So,
011in terms of the budget goals and priorities, um it's similar to what we've been doing in the last few years is which we're um looking to maintain our current programming and staffing knowing that we're on a really good path right now to addressing um the strategic targets that have been identified in collaboration with the board of education, addressing things like academic needs and and mental health supports. some things that we've l luckily been able to fund over the last few years. Um even when our um co 19 federal funds went away, we've still been able to maintain a high level of support which is a point of pride for us budgetarily. And then increased opportunities for student engagement specifically at the elementary level. um noting that a large segment of our community uh being over
01250 uh percent economically disadvantaged don't get um opportunities unless we're providing them here in the school district. And so these things can be things like additional field trips um could be other extracurricular activities. We're looking to fund more of those types of activities going into next year so that we're sure that all of our students are having enriching opportunities um to engage with those types of experiential learning. Uh maintain efficiencies to better align staff and student support. Um, we have been creating various efficiencies in the district so we can continue to channel resources as much as possible and align them with things that we know are priorities of our district and then add additional staff to support um, student academic and behavioral needs. Um these um types of supports are often tied to um some
013of our students with disabilities and we want to make sure that we can continue to fund those programs um if and when needed. In terms of state of the state, uh the b the state has still not passed a budget. Um this is late in the game. However, it's not an area or a need for concern. Although um for the last few years there's been a late budget. Generally speaking, when looking at uh the state aid itself, which is what we need that state budget for, uh we build a budget based on the executive aid run that comes out in January. I'll go this way. Hi everybody. Um the executive aid run that comes out in January is that um typically that executive aid run is lower than the final aid amount that we get.
014And so we've built this budget acknowledging that lower amount. And so if there's any additional funds then we'll use our stop gap measures which are our fund balance and reserves which we um utilize through a board adopted policy and board adopted plan. Every year they approve a fund balance and reserve use plan that helps us leverage those um funds that are governed by general municipal and education law and can only be used for very specific purposes. And so what we do is is if state aid comes in a little higher, then we'll have less reliance on those reserves because we are um intending to utilize some of those reserves to help us balance our budget. Acknowledging that those are not forever funds. Obviously, there's a limit to how much we can use and should apply
015to a budget so that in any given year, if for some reason we have to depend on more of them or if for a long period of time we have a reduction in funding, we don't run out of those funds and suddenly have a huge budgetary gap. And so again, that's our stop gap measure on what we can use to help balance our budget. In terms of the proposal, 146 uh nearly.5 million and a 4.8% 8% increase. In terms of expenditures, it's we use a modified zerobased budget. So, what does that mean? Um really there's three ways that um schools generally develop budgets. One is a rollover budget. And what does that mean? That means that some schools will take the prior year budget and add a certain percentage and just roll it over. Obviously,
016that doesn't take into consideration specifically what needs are. The next um type of budget is a per pupil allocation budget where some districts will say we're going to take a dollar value and assign it to an elementary kid gets this much money and a high school kid gets allocated this much money. A lot of districts do use that type of a budget. The problem with that is that doesn't take into consideration the specific needs of every student, each and every student, and it doesn't factor um in equity. One of the challenges of a modified zerobased budget is it takes a lot of work on behalf of our staff. And so our budget process starts in early November. And these staff members are trying to thoughtfully think about what is our school community going to need
017knowing what we know today for things that are sometimes a year and a half or more down the road. So you're um developing the budget in no November, December, and then from there hopefully we get to a place where our community can approve it in May and then it gets implemented uh mechanically in July, but really starts with our students in September and then goes all the way out to the following June. And so it takes a lot of thinking, reminding um everyone in the room that a budget is a plan. It's not a promise to pay for anything. It's simply a plan knowing what we know today and may need um to be modified down the road depending on um circumstances like what students we have and what their needs are and how those
018needs may shift into the future. And so we've done a really thorough job of trying to identify what those needs are going to be knowing what we know today. And that include that's included in that $146 million. some highlighted increases um private tuition uh for students with disabilities. Um this category is on the increase because not just because we have students with disabilities and they have needs and significant needs sometimes but there are instances where we're unable to program for them in district. Um we are having some considerations relating to Boseies where we're having um we're having some of the Boseies programs that have traditionally been available. They're not available for things like staffing concerns at at Boseies is um there are some students that whose needs are significant enough that we can't find a
019Boseies placement. We can't program for them here. So we end up um sending them to a private school um in our community typically. Although that change is $638,000, these programs are not cheap. So that's not an incredible number of students with disabilities. Um but it is a big cost. Athletics, um we have wonderful athletic facilities as you heard in the last uh board of education meeting if you were um watching that or or in the meeting is that we um have great facilities um some of the best in the county and we're very proud of them. They're a huge point of pride for the district. is that it does take um some maintenance and so there's some aging um facility requirements that need to be addressed. An small example, if you were to go to
020the field um house um and look at the bleachers, the sides of them, all the side pieces are cracked and broken. Um those need to be replaced. That's an example of both a safety concern and a facilities concern. We need to address those things, but there's a cost associated with that. Um debt service Those are our That's our principal and interest payments for capital work. Um so essentially our mortgage payments. I'm looking at a $ 1.7 million increase noting and this is the important piece that this gets balanced out because a school budget must be balanced expenditures to revenues. This we have a balancing mechanism for this and that's state aid. And so we do get building aid back on our debt service costs and that building aid is helping balance out this increase in
021debt service. So although our budget's going up 4.8% um know that 1.7 million of that increase is tied specifically to this debt service cost and then we're getting aid back on it as well. So it's not simply a cost. There is um a small um net cost to it but it's very low. Um, in terms of facilities, operations, and security, the large portion of that is um, utilities. If you have a a home or rent a property and you pay bills, RG& right now, I'm sure you're looking at your bills saying, "What is going on?" Um, these prices are going through the roof. Um, they're astronomical. We have over 880,000 square feet of facility space here in the district. That's a lot to heat. That's a lot of lights. That's a lot of electricity. um
022our costs are going up too. And so although we um cooperatively bid electricity with some large entities in the Rochester area, which is um something that that we got connected to, which is great. It's still um going up um significantly. Uh BOSI services, these are not students with disabilities costs. These are specifically things that we purchase cooperatively through Boseies whether it's um supplies, materials, equipment, um services. Um one of the things to share about uh board of cooperative educational services is they they were created as a way that districts could collaboratively do things that maybe they wouldn't otherwise do on their own. And so the way that the state incentivizes us to do that at a higher rate than a lot of other districts because of that poverty that I shared earlier um is they
023give us aid back on those expenses. And so over the years we've been trying um diligently to continue to funnel expenses from other categories through Boseies. And so when we do that again we get over 70 cents back on the dollar. And so again, this is more of those types of costs that we're sending through Boseies instead of buying them just straight up through our general funds so that we can get that money back from the state. Some small examples of that are you can see these digital clocks on the wall. We purchase those cooperatively through Boseies and so we're getting aid back on those at 70 cents on the dollar. Um and then instructional salaries. We just settled um our teachers contract and there's salary percentage included in that. It's not 5.01. It's less
024than that. We did add some staff this year, a few staff members in the budget itself, anticipating some needs going into next year. And so the sum total of that is about $2 million. The the salary increases as well as the changes in personnel. So those are our major highlighted increases in terms of the uh so I will share this first is that the state requires us to break our budget into three parts. Every single school district in the state does this um little less than 700 of them. Um with that in mind um there's three components that we like to talk about. Um one is administrative. Um that's the smallest portion of our budget. That's all costs associated um with things to run the district. One small example, it's not a massive cost, but
025one small example is the upcoming budget vote. Um, that is an administrative cost to running the district. And so when we rent ballot machines and pay for pole workers, that's an administrative cost. And there's a lot of things like that that are not specifically tied to instruction, which is what the programmatic or program component is. Those are our instructional costs. And so those could be students with disabilities. Those that could be administrators associated with um teaching and learning. Again, um those are our programmatic costs. And then capital is our debt service principle and interest payments along with things like our security workers and our facilities staff. This is some breakdown of administrative components within the budget. You can see um those various cost outlined there. As you can see, the largest um increases in our
026instructional administrations and staff development. Um we have been um increasing support in some areas in that in that category. In terms of the programmatic budget, um obviously this is where we spend the bulk of our resources. One of the shifts that you see there is um computer assisted instruction. That's simply because of a shift in coding that we had to do. Um and then that teaching regular education that's tied specifically to those salary increases as we discussed earlier in terms of the capital component. Um this is again that debt service is the main driver and then a lot of that operation of plant is tied specifically to those energy costs that we discussed earlier as well as the maintenance of plant. Okay. Um in terms of our expenditure budget, we primarily um fund uh salaries
027and benefits in schools because we're a people business and the work that we do um requires a number of staff. And so uh that is the largest portion of our budget. And one of the inherent challenges of education is that when there are issues with revenue, you have very few places to go. Luckily, that's not the case for us. We have a very sound financial plan in place. And something again that we're very proud of is that um we're not in a position like some other places where budgets are tighter and they're having to cut staff. We're we're not in that situation. But that's really the only place you can go because when you talk about um the other areas that are important and necessary to operating a school district, not a lot of places
028to go. Revenue uh 4.8% uh not exceeding the cap for taxation. uh other things um small increases and decreases. Do want to take a minute to talk about the tax levy limit because it's a little different than what we've had in the last few years. Not in terms necessarily of the amount, but in terms of what's happening with it. And so when thinking about the tax cap, the tax cap legislation was put into place in 2010 um by Governor Cuomo and um It's been around for a while now and a lot of the language um for many years was that it's a 2% tax cap. That's inaccurate. 2% is a starting point. And so really what it is is if CPI in the prior year consumer price index which is an index of costs if
029CPI is above 2% then we start our calculation at two. If CPI is less than 2%, so let's say last year CPI was 1.5%. Then we start our calculation at 1.5%. So we get penalized essentially if it's below 2%. If it's above 2%, we're not allowed to go above 2% as a starting point. And so last year, a couple years ago, it was 9% was CPI and we were still capped at 2% as a starting point, which is a huge challenge for schools, especially if state aids tight because we're caught in between a rock and a hard place. We're not like a business that can simply increase uh prices when costs go up and pass that on to the consumer. We can't do that. Again, we don't have many places to go. And so this
030is um tax lever limit is a challenge for schools because we start at 2% and municipalities. Um is that um it was CPI last year in 2025 was um 2.63 and we anticipate it will continue to rise over the next couple of years is that we start at 2%. Then from there there's something called the taxbased growth factor that gets added in. And so this is where things are different this year is that typically this number is very small. Um hundth a thousandth of a percent um it's 2.43%. And so we'll get to talking a little bit about that when we get to the net levy increase but that is um a major factor in our tax levy limit calculation. Pilots are payments in lie of taxes. These are negotiated agreements between the county and
031businesses. The idea here is that um the industrial development agency entices businesses to uh build here and be here so that they can create jobs and bring in revenue from outside the region and pay people here um in uh helping our local economy. And so they get a tax break um when the county negotiates those agreements with businesses and entities, but those typically last about 10 years and over time they slowly phase out to zero. And when they're when they're completely phased out, then that property comes back onto the tax role and we stop getting those payments in lie of taxes. So that reduction is a reduction of those payments on the tax levy limit calculation because the tax levy is now going to pick up that cost and so the levy goes up by
032that difference. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. And then the capital increase, those are um construction costs and and things like that. A $19,000 difference in that. And so overall um tax levy limit is 4.8%. However, the important message here is that the true tax rate increase is 2.37 because 2.43% of that 4.8, a lot of numbers there, is tied specifically to new homes or buildings. um things that are new assessments in our co school community. And so they're going to be picking up that 2.43%, not everyone else who's already paying taxes. And that's the important message is um reasonable uh we believe reasonable 2.37% increase with CPI going up 2.63. So less than the cost of things that we pay for um is the um request for the tax levy increase. Again, there's some
033more facts and figures on that. Sales tax uh in anticipating an increase there. Again, some costs are going up. Um but there is some uncertainty in this category. So anytime that you buy something in the county that is taxable, the district gets a portion of that money. And so it's distributed across essentially enrollment in the county. And so we get a cut of that whenever you buy something. So if you were to go out and buy a vehicle, let's say, and you pay the taxes associated with it, a portion of those taxes come back to the district. Not every county does that, but we have an agreement um legal agreement with the county to do that. Um in terms of state funding, increase of $4 million or 6.71%. These are the main funding categories. Foundation
034aid being our basic formulary aid. So the state takes the 30 plus billion dollars and plugs it into a formula that looks at all the demographics of the districts across the state. Things like poverty and English language learners and students with disabilities and student counts and a lot more. Um and they take this very complex formula. They take all that um available funds for foundation aid. They plug it into the formula and then it distributes funds to schools based on those factors. Um we're looking at a 1.42% 42% increase, which is low given um the size of our budget and the um the needs that we've outlined and we're hoping that the state comes forward with more money in that category. Bosey's aid, again, this is aid tied specifically to um those expenses. And so
035we've been um slowly increasing that aid um to the point where we're estimating a 71.1 million um going into next year. Again, we're trying to funnel funds to BOSIES so we can get that aid back. Noting that um five years ago that number was $3 million. That's how much aid we're getting and now it's at 7.1. Uh excess cost aid. These are costs associated with our students with disabilities. We get aid back on their services and programs. Um these next two categories are based on our number of students. We get an allocation. So there's a dollar value assigned to um each student. Transportation aid, we get about 70 plus percent back on the dollar for every dollar that we spend in transportation. Uh we are anticipating some costs going down in that category next year.
036So we'll anticipate a slight reduction in aid. um building aid. This is again um we're getting an increase of $3 million in building aid, noting that we have um an addition of $1.7 million in expense. Thinking back to that debt service cost and then high tax aid is an aid given to us just based on some regional factors. A 4.1 million nearly $4.2 million um increase noting that some of that increase is being used to pay that debt service. So these are all the other areas that um we receive funding from and they're much smaller. Reminding you that a big portion of it almost a million dollars is those payments in lie of taxes and then a whole lot of smaller fees. U Medicaid being reimbursement being one of the larger ones appropriated fund balance
037and reserves. um it accounts for about 3% of our revenue and it's estimated to be about 3.8 million. Again, we shouldn't rely on them long term. Um but we'll leverage them based on the considerations given in any um given fiscal cycle. Appropriated fund balance of 1.7 million. We've tried to reduce this. Again, this is um money that's appropriated to balance the budget. And so what does that mean? It's money from the prior year to balance next year's budget. So, it's a balancing mechanism. In terms of um recommendation is that we don't exceed 4% of our budget in use of fund balance and reserves if at all possible. When you get above that um you're starting to become very reliant on it. And as you can see over the last two years in the bottom um
038section there we've gone from 3.31 to 2.62. This can go up and down slightly but again um we don't want to become too reliant on fund balance and reserves. Noting that those reserves up top um are used for very specific purposes. And so an example is the taxi reserve. Those are claims that are brought um to the county from entities who say that they've been overt taxed for many years in a row. And so these are legal cases. They're called taxertiori cases. And what happens is if they win the case, the district has to pay. And so even though we don't do the assessment, um we still have to pay back taxes to people if they're found to have been over assessed. And um we fund that reserve to the known liabilities as in the
039known cases that are at the county. So that reserve can only be used for that purpose. Estimated revenue budget breakdown. Uh we're nearly uh 5050 on property taxes and state aid. And then we get into the other categories. Overall revenue snapshot again it's 4.8. 8% or $6.7 million. This breaks out all of those conversation points that I shared into a nice little chart. Okay. In terms of propositions, uh two propositions on the ballot. The annual budget and then the bus purchase reserve uh use and the purchase of buses. Uh again, um as shared in prior board meetings, this year we're looking to save about $200,000. And this will be um an annual savings moving forward uh by using reserves to help purchase buses. In the past, we issue debt on the municipal bond market. And
040when we issue debt, we pay interest costs. We pay issuance fees like um to a bond attorney. We pay um about $20,000 to Moody's for a rating call. you know, there's a whole lot of expenses. It's about $200,000 a year that we're saving by um purchasing buses in this way, which is a a big win for the district. In terms of the board of education candidates, everyone is in the room. Um those are the five um candidates in ballot order. Uh tomorrow night, we will have the budget hearing and you can watch that um on gauge.org rg or sorry meet the candidates night um YouTube next steps are the annual budget oh that means that the show's over um the annual budgets on uh votes on May 19th the board election uh 6:30 a.m. to
0418:30 p.m. in the Spartan fieldhouse for more information go to gaury.orgvote g/vote. This presentation will be posted so you can check it out there. In terms of a summary, um again, we want to maintain what we're doing. We want to increase opportunities for engagement. We want to continue um to create efficiencies and um staff to our needs. With that, thank you very much. Are there any questions? Yes. Yeah, you could talk on the microphone. There you go. >> There you go. >> Hi, Mom. Um, no, you're not my mom. This was a privilege. I really like um seeing people do what they like to do. So, I've participated in uh the budget ambassadors in the past, and every time you speak, I learn something new from you. and it was just really great to see
042you do what you're good at and what you enjoy doing. So, thank you for this and thank you for sharing. Um, I do have a question about community schools model and how that seems to be growing in our district. We have a few schools and a few more from my understanding are opening in the fall and I'm wondering where that plays in. Do we get funding for that? Where does that how much do we get and how what does that look like? >> So, And I don't know if you want to share anything or you want me to take this one entirely, but yes, um we do get funding for community schools. Um that's the first answer. And yes, we are looking to increase um its use in our school buildings today. Um Angelina Pound
043who works in the student support services department and Dr. Joe Fantrosi, who's with Boseies and and helps us manage um community schools um was meeting with our middle school staff to talk about um implementation. And so again, we're continuing to build out um community schools in our buildings knowing that it's a definitely a need um as we look towards the future. Okay, any other questions? Um that's That's independent funding, correct? Yeah. Is there any portion currently in the budget or most a bunch most of it's right? >> Good. Yeah. Are there any other types of independent funding then besides community schools that isn't reflected in the budget that you can think of? I know that this is kind of a >> Absolutely. >> So there's You mean like grant funding? >> Sure. So most of
044the grant funding that we have in the district is through the federal government and so we have a lot of um federal funds that come in that regard. word the federal government. Where how does how is that going for um >> it's not >> okay? >> It's it's a separate fund that's independent of the general fund. So this what we talked about tonight is all general fund monies. >> Yeah. Yeah. State funds and that's part of our general fund budget. And I know this a little complex but then we have a separate fund and we have a number of different funds like our school nutrition fund as an example. that that runs independently. It's its own what they call a cost center. So um we get money from the federal government and the state um
045to help fund that program and it's run independently. So that's not included in the budget either. So no cost in this budget are school lunch costs um and a and a large portion of federal funds um help us with some programs and services that are not accounted for in this presentation. You don't anticipate any changes in the next year? >> We're holding out hope that those are maintained. >> Yes. Any other questions? Okay. And I think we're good. President Coffee, >> then I'm going to close officially our budget hearing. Okay. Can I have a motion to resume public session? Uh, Mr. Bowski, Mr. Long, all in favor? The vote is unanimous. We're now back in public session. That leads us now to our report section of the evening. We have our finance, facilities, and audit
046update. Good evening, President Coffee, members of the board of education, superintendent. Um, Mr. Bell and I are here to report on the finance, facilities, and audit committee held April 20th. Uh, the opening of the meeting was called to order at 506. The first topic was under audit. the internal audit claims report. Um it was an update on the third quarter findings were presented along with the progress of the accounts payable position. Um next the internal audit update. The finance facilities audit committee chose uh state aid as a focus area this year and that work has started this week. The independent audit update um will preliminary will start next Monday, May 11th. Um and representative Miss Christy Beach from EFPR group will be at the next audit committee meeting to um explain the engagement process of
047the independent audit and an update of the budget was given um sharing that no state budget was in place and that the board um intended to adopt and did adopt the budget on the 21st. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, President Coffee, Superintendent Ball, and members of the board. I'm Sam Bell, executive director of operations, and I'm going to discuss the facilities portion of our committee. Uh the first item is the external PA system. Uh this was a significant safety and security investment that was made uh by the district at the high school and the middle school and a concern was brought forth by a community member about hearing uh audible tones and the bells uh in their neighborhood. Uh we had some discussion about the need for all students and staff to be able
048to hear these uh notifications in the event of emergency and the outcome of uh our discussion was that I'm going to follow up with the vendor uh to see if there's any programming or adjustments that can be made will maintain that balance of safety and security plus uh I guess a quieter tone in the neighborhood as well. Uh our next item is uh the fire systems. Um the district has initiated the process of um obtaining quotes for our site fire systems across the district and all our buildings. Currently um there are couple different vendors that provide this service for us um and maintain that. Um, we had some discussion of some potential options and future considerations, including the opportunity for Bosey's aid. Uh, as Superintendent Ball mentioned in the budget portion, uh, by getting that
049Bosey's aid, we get roughly.7 cents on the dollar uh, to help us with that project. Uh, the next item was the 2022 capital project building brighter futures. Uh we had discussions about um some EV chargers that were placed over at the district office at the middle school in Florence Baster Elementary. Uh this has given us a larger EV footprint in the district as we move towards uh cleaner energy. Uh I provided an update at the district office as construction um the walls being drywalled and finally getting their first first coat of paint and coming to life uh in that newly renovated space. And then the committee acknowledged the successful opening of Spartan Park. Um, a lot of positive feedback was received and was made mentioned of and many thanks to the staff who were able
050to pull this together. Um on Wednesday, the day before we decided to call an Audible, uh Eva came up with the idea just based on weather concerns and it was going to be a soggy Friday and uh all hands on deck to make that happen and it was a great event as showcased with the dual rainbows at the end. Uh that made it onto our social media. Um next we talked about the 2025 future ready project. Um again we gave updates on Um the high school stadium, basically the fencing that's going in. Um we had utility work uh site markings put in and they have begun digging the footings. Um and we discussed the visitor side bleachers. If you go see that, there's a huge uh mound that has been removed uh get making way
051for the visitor section of the bleachers over at the stadium. Um that is all that I have for the report. Are there any questions? Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right, that moves us on now to our consensus item. Can I have a motion to approve the consensus agenda? Miss Littlewood, Miss Jennings, all in favor? The vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to approve consensus items C through J? Mr. Reinhardt, Miss Mntella, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. It moves us on to action items. Be it resolved that the board approves the tenure appointments listed on the agenda at the May 5th, 2026 meeting as recommended by the superintendent of schools. Can I have a motion? Mr. Bowski, Miss Mchella, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is
052unanimous. And again, congratulations to everyone for achieving their time here. All right. Can I now have a motion to approve attached corrective action plan for the 2025 2026 district's internal audit? Can I have a motion? Uh Dr. Richards, Miss Littlewood, any discussion? All in favor? Vote is unanimous. Can I have a motion to approve the terms and conditions of employment for the assistant superintendent of instruction effective May 6, 2026 through June 30th, 2029? I have a motion, Mr. Vanowski, Mr. Reinhardt. Any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. Congratulations. There we go. That's representing the individual, just anyone's wondering. All right. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the tenure agreement between the Gates Chili School District and the Gates Chile tentative, not tenure? We have a motion to approve the tentative agreement
053between the Gage Chilai School District and Gage Chalai School Nutrition Association that includes adjustments to the terms, conditions, wages, and benefits of employment effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2028. Can I have a motion? Miss >> Littlewood, Miss Jennings, any discussion? All in favor? The vote is unanimous. That moves us now to superintendent comments. >> Thank you, President Coffee. So, I'd like to congratulate the Gates Chilai Middle School students. Going to try and say this right. Raises A and Cameron M for representing our district at the National Civic Spellingbe New York State Regional Finals in Senica Falls. It was especially exciting to see Raisesa advance to the final round. Both students did an outstanding job showcasing their knowledge, leadership, and sportsmanship while highlighting the strength of our civics program. Congrats to them. Very exciting.
054Next, Gage Childai students recently represented our district at the 2026 New York State Skills USA Leadership and Skills Championships in Syracuse through the Boseis 2 Career and Technical Education Program. We're proud to say that five GC students meddled in the competition. Jaden Favasuli earned first place in plumbing and Bristol Cter earned first place in dental assisting. Ary Cox was part of a second place winning team in community action plan while Chris Brown placed third in precision heavy equipment operations and Dominic Quinland contributed to a third place teamworks finish. Congratulations to them all. Last Friday, the Gates Chilai High School counseling team helped seniors celebrate decision day with free cookies and a photo op to help them share their plans after college. Whether it's after high school, whether it's college, career, military, or any other opportunities,
055we're excited to see where these Spartans will go. Next, a shout out to the Disney Dragons who took home the win at this year's staff volleyball tournament. All four elementaryaries went head-to-head in the fourth annual event, all for a good cause with proceeds benefiting the GC Education Foundation and the GC Food Pantry. It was a fun night. And finally, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Sarah Mucino on her appointment as assistant superintendent for instruction. Sarah has been a valued member of the gates childlike community for many years and her leadership has had a meaningful impact across our schools. I also want to acknowledge the strength of the internal candidate pool and thank the administrators and teacher leaders who participated in the interview process that speaks to the depth of the leadership that we
056have across this district. Sarah's experience, relationships, and commitment to our work position her well to support the continued growth and success of Gates Chilai. Congratulations, Sarah. I look forward to continuing our work together. And that is my report. President Coffee, thank you. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion now to adjurnn our meeting? Miss Machella, Mr. Long. All in favor? The vote is unanimous. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone.