001What's really causing it? Okay, good evening everyone. Can we please rise for the pledge? >> [clears throat] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you for coming out this evening. We'll open the meeting up with public comments. And again, front-end public comment is for agenda items only and our [snorts] back-end public comment is for general questions. So, we'll open it up to public comment. You can rise, state your name, and ask a question. Okay, we'll close public comment and we'll move into our special presentations this evening. Appreciate those Leaders of the Pack had had to wait an extra month. I think we were snowed out on our last February
002meeting. So, tonight we have the Leaders of the Pack and we'll start off with the elementary school. [clears throat] Hi, good evening everyone. We'd like to invite Kyrie up here. Good morning. She's a kindergartner at our school. And um we have her teachers here. This is Mrs. Hayes and Miss Bilik and Miss Tryer. So, Kyrie. [clears throat] From Mrs. Hayes and Miss Bilik, they said that Kyrie consistently demonstrates excellent behavior and strong self self-control in the classroom. She follows expectations, makes responsible choices, and serves as a positive role model for her peers each day. Kyrie shows a wonderful attitude towards both learning and others, always being kind, respectful, and encouraging. She treats everyone fairly and helps create a welcoming classroom environment. When faced with challenges, Kyrie stays focused and perseveres. Her positive mindset and natural
003leadership truly make her an outstanding Leader of the Pack. Mrs. Canosa, your art um sorry, PE teacher. In physical education, Kyrie is a leader by example. She is always on task and enjoys the games and activities she's learning. Mrs. McCaffrey, your music teacher, says, Kyrie shows excitement for learning and always always tries her best. She follows directions, participates with a positive attitude, and does a great job singing, moving, and playing instruments. Mrs. Petroshak, your library teacher, said, Kyrie is attentive, engaged, and enthusiastic [clears throat] about reading. She has been a wonderful addition to our Husky family. >> [applause] >> Let me just get another one. There you go. Thank you. Kyrie, she can come around front if you Yeah, if you want to take a picture If you want to take a [laughter] picture up
004front, then There you go. He's heavy. Can we smile? >> [applause] >> Okay, middle school. Okay. All right, our Leader of the Pack is Hazel Perry. I would like to point out that I reached out to all her teachers and there were several teachers that don't have her that were like, "Can I contribute? Just let you know how great Um so, her health teacher says, Hazel is kind, motivated, and a wonderful student who always puts 110% into everything she does, including her wardrobe. She's willing to help others, offer suggestions and ideas, and is a great leader both in and out of the classroom. Um her family and career sciences teacher said they'd like to recognize Hazel. She's confident and friendly student who shows strong leadership in the classroom. Hazel is always willing to help other
005students, support her classmates in a positive way. She's constantly smiling, has a great sense of humor, and brings positive energy to the room. Hazel helps make the classroom a welcoming and enjoyable place for everyone. Her Spanish teacher also had great things to say. Um Señora Lovelace said, Hazel quietly leads by example when it comes to work ethic, courtesy, and conduct in the classroom. She takes her studies seriously but has a good sense of humor and is frequently seen with a smile on her face. Hazel makes an excellent Leader of the Pack. All right, this is junior Jude Van Cleek. Um lots of positive things to say about Jude's well-rounded being that he is. Uh Mr. Rizzo, Jude is one of those unfairly smart, ridiculously charismatic humans who somehow has an elite music taste. Clearly, the
006universe is playing favorites. Teaching him feels less like a job and more like trying to keep up with a walking highlight reel of good ideas and the greatest playlist ever created. Uh Miss Meyer, Jude is thoughtful, curious, and funny. He adds valuable energy and perspective to class discussions. His candor and sense of humor humanizes conversations and interactions that might otherwise be wrote. He's truly a delight. Coach Geller, uh Jude is the perfect fit for Student of the Month. I love his energy and attitude in class. I also love also love coaching him on the tennis court. He's hardworking, coachable, and inclusive of others. Congratulations. [clears throat] And Mr. Schott, Jude is a true leader in both concert band and jazz ensemble, dependable, responsible, responsible, courteous, and kind. A gifted and deeply musical drummer, >> [clears
007throat] >> he has elevated the quality of every ensemble he performs with. While his talent could easily lead to a professional music career, we know Jude will remain connected to music wherever life takes him. And he still somehow finds to deliver a mighty fine pizza from Randy's. >> [clears throat] [applause] [clears throat] >> Okay, on behalf of the entire Board of Education, we congratulate our Leaders of the Pack. Job well done. Uh if you'd like, you can leave or you can stay and listen to our budget presentation. >> [laughter] >> Well, I guess not. >> [clears throat] >> You're all set. Well, thank you for the great introduction. I know this is everybody's stage, but >> [laughter] >> So, good evening, everybody. Um tonight we will present the revised revenue and expenses for the 2026-2027
008school year. We'll discuss the short fall recommendations. We'll talk about the repair reserve proposition and we'll discuss due dates. So, as stated in our previous presentation, the state aid is comprised of two components. There's foundation aid, which is primarily based upon a formula driven, and then there's expense based aids, which are based upon the expenses we have through the prior year. I'm going to focus primarily on the high cost and excess cost because that's the only major number that has changed on this page. It's $150,000. And I'll explain. The governor's estimate of 589 989 is based on the data from the 2024-2025, which it has lower expenses and lower students than the 2025-2026 school year. The state will amend the estimated 589 989 aid to align with our actual 2526 school year expenses, but that
009will not happen until after our budget has been approved. So, this happens every we have expenses that are expense based. The governor uses basically an average or in some of the estimates for the prior year. Every school district goes, "Wait a minute, that's not solid enough." And then they look at the projections and see if they would like to use those. We did a conservative 150 cuz we feel that's a fair number that will increase in the high cost excess cost. And I have data to back that up from Questar BOCES and we've also vetted it through our fiscal advisors. That seems to be a fair number. Um any questions? Okay. That leads us to With the addition of the 150,000 to the state aid, our estimated revenue increases to 59,032,759. If there are no
010questions, we'll move on to the expenses. Well, with the expenses, my job has been last couple of months to look at the expenses, go through every expense line detail by detail uh see where I can cut costs. We cut off spending to the principals and admin and other departments. And with based upon that, we're going to look at some of the fund balance we have for this year. But in terms of 2627, we've looked at the numbers again and we went over the BOCES component. That seems to be the major issue on the screen here. We Basically, the major expenses are the result of vetting the BOCES proposed 2627 service requests. And in doing so, we realized we had reclassification of some students um from BOCES to private tuition. Thank you, Sarah. Um we had
011additional additions and deletions um that changed the BOCES number. It looks like it went down, but as you can see in student services, that went up by $69,000. That's just moving one or a couple students from one level to another, but we amended the expenses and that increased our expenses by 58,230. Questions? Okay. Desmond, real real quick, just a snapshot. >> [clears throat] >> What are the the highlights of the BOCES expenses? Well, the highlights of the BOCES expenses, most of the expenses I would say the biggest point is special ed followed by the CTE expenditures. The admin, we flushed out um some expenses that were impacting the school lunch fund. Uh where we had an additional $10,000, which we >> [clears throat] >> $10,700, which we felt wasn't appropriate. We challenged that. Uh there
012are other expenses that we have, I would say that are relating to other services um in terms of um I'm thinking of the top of my head. I can see it in my mind, just trying to get it to my tongue. Um basically, we have charges for like um WinCap that we have expenses in there for. Um we have charges for as I said, CTE and special ed. Those are the major drivers of what we have. And I can say >> on the on the revenue side, we we we get back aid on that. We get back aid on that. >> That's what that two two two million is? Yes, on the BOCES. That's what the aid on the BOCES is, that's what that is. Is the um capital project and a lease in that
013line item? No, no, it's not. Definitely not. We also get back aid and I've we've talked about this. We also get a little bit of a BOCES is set up that you spend and get aid on it. And if you have like a pot of money left over, they distribute that back to the districts. We've also included that in our revenue. That was about $400,000. And that's kind of average of what we've been getting over the years. Question? Yeah, I have a question, but it's on the revenue. Just a clarification, other revenue sources, is that interest on the bonds? >> [clears throat] >> That's Other revenue sources is interest that we have in terms of the cash that we have in our accounts and some of the interest that we have. Other Other revenue sources
014can be um we get prior revenue. Uh I just saw that between the 310 and 324, there was a $400,000 positive change. Yes, which was good. And that was at the last presentation, but I'll go over it with no problem. It's Once again, it's made up of the increase in interest. We have been looking at interest income at about over the years. It has been higher than that, but we've been very conservative. Right. I'm a little bit more aggressive only in certain things. And that was one of the items we increased it by another 200,000. So, there you've got a big jump in that line there. Thank you. You're welcome. Question? Okay. Um we've talked about expenses. So, that brings us to the change. Last At the last presentation, 310, I presented a shortfall of
015667,991. As of today, with the changes in the 150 in revenue and the 58,000 increase in expenses, that actually reduces our shortfall by 91,000 787. So, the question becomes, how do you fix that shortfall? What do you do? So, basically, we can go through We can either reduce supplies and expenses and equipment. We can cut positions. I've said I'm not a fan of cutting any positions. Um we can wait for the legislative increase to occur. We can allocate reserves or allocate fund balance. So, tonight, my recommendations [clears throat] are three-fold. We can either A, use the reserves. We can use the ERS reserve of 76,204. I use the ERS reserve because the ERS rate went from 16.5 to 17.6. We feel that was the most appropriate increase that we could use. I use 76,204 and
016approximately $500,000 in fund balance. Once again, closing the gap of 576,204. The second option is just using strictly fund balance. 576,204. The last option, if everybody can notice, there are X's on the screen and that's not because it's too small to put the number in there. That's because I don't know exactly [clears throat] how much the state will give us when the legislative run comes out. It could be higher, it could be lower. There is a conversation out there right now. The legislature is thinking about increasing the foundation aid from 1% to 2%. That would be about $130,000 in addition that we would get, which would reduce the shortfall even further. But I can't count on that just yet because the numbers are supposed to come out April 1st, but we all know how the
017government works. It will be sometime in May. Once again, we could have that out if it does come out in time where we have enough time to approve the adopt the budget, we could use some of that state aid money and add it to fund balance. These are my recommendations for the board to think about. Question? We have an assigned fund balance of 1.15 now. If we followed [snorts] plan B of 576, what does that do to the assigned fund balance in the following year? You and I are on the same page. So, let me hit the next button and go to this page. Gives us a breakdown of the reserves that we currently have on our books as of June 25. We've got three million ERS, 1.7 in TRS. We have a tax cert
018of 865,000, employee benefits and accrued liabilities of 942. Your capital reserve is at 3.5, which we've always wanted to increase. And you've got an unassigned fund balance of 3.6. The formula off to the right says unassigned fund balance. The way the state works is you take your proposed budget, you're allowed to have a 4% allowable unassigned fund balance, which would be 2.3. Our assigned fund balance is 3.6, which means we have a possibility of using 1.297 [clears throat] of fund balance. And I am requesting only 500,000. And this is before we finalize this year, which we possibly have We could have a you know, another amount of money going back into the fund balance. So, it could be I'm using part of this year's fund balance that would was that we'll get to fund back
019the fund balance, but I need something to close the budget. Does that make sense? No, my question was what does that do to the assigned fund balance in the following year? Would it be 1.150 still? >> No, we're not going to >> Or it would be 1.6, 1. >> 1.1 cuz that's assigned. That is what we actually say is assigned fund balance. The way this works here is that at the end of the school year, we're saying to the board and to the community, if we have all the revenue and expenses that we have, we've come up short, well, we're going to tap into the fund balance, not the assigned. The assigned has already been established as part of the numbers that we put for this budget. And if we assign more, If you assign
020more, then it becomes the number that we carry next year. So, to your point, if we have we have 1.15 right now, if we assign another 500,000, it would become 1.6. And that would kind of follow through. And that's something you don't want to do right now. >> [clears throat] >> You don't want to assign it cuz once you assign it, then you have to then take it back as unassigned. I prefer or recommend that you just use it as the unassigned fund balance at the bottom. Once again, it's a simple P&L or basic accounting procedure. You run out of money, I'm taking it from my little reserves. You've already assigned 1.1. Okay. [clears throat] Question? And that will remain 1.1 in the 27-28 school year when we're working on the 2028-29 budget. >> Correct.
021As compared to being 1.6. >> We did something similar last year where we um >> [clears throat] >> we borrowed basically borrowed from that that fund and then as money's came in we were able to basically satisfy that you know >> Okay. fill back in some of it. We didn't weren't able to fill it all back in but we were able to fill a good portion of it back in. Okay. Okay. Questions? Jasmine, looking at your third possibility which is all x'd out uh and and based on our our um budget planning we have to adopt by less than a month from now, April 21st I believe it is. Yes. So and we have a meeting on April 7th which we're going to discuss later if there's the necessity for that meeting or not. Mhm.
022But if we went with that scenario and the state aid came back with an increase that would reduce the amount of fund balance you got to apply towards it to Absolutely. to uh meet the reduction that we need. Um is that a doable thing putting us at the 11th hour at that point? So Yeah. That's my question because who knows when that budget is coming. We still need to see the state's final budget. I mean Right. Yeah. The interesting thing is >> So let's walk through that for a moment. We don't get that number right away and we adopt our budget. Oh, what what happens next year? As we get it the state will say this is the revenue that you're supposed to receive. We will get that. That will come to us. But now
023that falls into our bottom line as extra revenue that we got for that year helping fund out. So it's kind of a yin yang. You're actually kind of taking it out now but then replacing it back with hopefully the state aid that they're giving you and savings that you're going to get so it kind of washes itself out. Never perfect. Just a little bit more of balance. Questions? I I'm not a fan of pulling from reserves so I mean I like the second scenario just going with fund balance. I mean I have all those reserves. I've got Legally are we allowed to pull out of some of those reserves like the capital reserve? Can we pull money out as long as we put it back in? >> Not at the capital. Capital's Capital's very specific.
024Your ERS and TRS are specifically for that reason. If you have an increase in your TRS or ERS rates you're allowed to kind of pull from that. That's why I used a portion from the ERS not necessarily TRS cuz that went down. Um your tax cert we only have um something that's assigned specifically for a case that is out there for 115,000 so that's legally bound for that. Um the employee accrued accrued benefits that is just if everybody left the district how would we pay out everybody's salaries? That's just an accrued liability. But and um your capital is specific. So yes, you can use some of these reserves for but they have to fall in line with the purpose. Yeah, I mean the ERS that the cost went up. You have a reserve for that.
025I I don't know. I lean towards scenario one. Without additional aid. I just feel those reserves are a cushion for the years when we we're going to get a big hit where we need that reserve. Right. Yeah, that's a lot of That's a lot. Yeah. Keep in I'm fine with either one. Once again, if you look on the screen here this 1.297 you're using a major portion of that. The remaining portion will be bled into these reserves. Right. So and that's the way it works. We're filling them back in. We're still filling them back in. Once again, I've said it yin yang type of thing. You're taking it out of the reserves right now but you're going to put it back in the reserve once you're done looking at your your fund balance for this
026year going forward. And we make those decisions I believe in August. Yes, you do. Once we've got the audit done we go to the audit committee. The audit committee reviews all the numbers. Who our auditor is then say here's your fund balance. We go back to the exercise of it has to be 4% and then we allocate accordingly based upon the board's recommendations or requirements that they have for the reserve funds we put the money back into some of these reserves. And we can fully fund them or fund them appropriately to what the board is requesting. Anybody else? Which then saves for a rainy day. Any feeling as far as where we want to pull for Uh I I I like the option number two there. I'm not a fan of taking out of ERS
027for Even though you have 3 million sitting there? It's a lot of money. All right. Sorry, I didn't mean to speak over you, Don. No, you're good. It's fine. That's fine. Well, that being said we move to the another questions we move to proposition number two which is for the establishment of a reserve repair fund. The purpose of of the reserve fund for repair fund is to provide the district with a dedicated funding source for significant or non-recurring repairs to facilities and equipment. Um it is voter approval is required to establish and to fund the reserve. There is no time limit for the reserve and then you can keep it for a longer period of time not like capital that had to be set over a certain period of time. This has no limit. Um
028and that is similar to your ERS, TRS and all of the other reserves. I've recommended a cap of $500,000 for the funding. However keep in mind that that $500,000 if you need that that for the repair reserve it can be transferred to the other reserves or what most school districts do they transfer that to their capital. So you're kind of creating this reserve that's for repairs try to get Mr. Miller happy to do everything that we have to do for any emergencies but if not we move all that money I'm not going to go over there. We move all that money to the capital reserve which is where we wanted to build that capital reserve up. So when we do have these significant capital projects we have a bigger pot that we can pull from.
029Once again, it's moving money accordingly. Um there is a resolution on the agenda tonight for your review and approval and it is up to once again this is requires of voters approval to establish and to fund. So we're putting it forth today. So We don't need voter approval to utilize it. You don't need voter approval to utilize it but you do have to have a public forum explaining how you're going to use it. Even there's another caveat if you have an emergency what they consider to be a real emergency not just emergencies that think are emergencies but a real emergency you can use the funds immediately. Um but once again you'd have to then replenish them accordingly. And so informing the public is done at the public hearing. You can do it when we start
030off the agenda items we have a public forum and explaining that we're going to present. >> [snorts] >> So we're back to the calendar. April 7th there was a question on the table if we're really going to um have that. Um April 21st we have to have the board meeting is to adopt the 2027 budget and adopt the tax report card which we've gone over that has to be done. And then May 5th is our next board meeting which is the legal budget hearing. Um I don't know if there are any questions. Um I'm going to go back to the board on your budget balance recommendations cuz I think we need to have some kind of clarity here amongst the board members at what scenario we'll move forward with. Um The April 7th meeting I
031don't believe we're going to know where state aid's going to land. I don't think we're going to have a a direction at that point. Spring break's coming upon us and I think all our lovely folks up in Albany are going to take a break and they're not going to work on finalizing a budget at that point in time. So I I think we need some clarity from the board to move in a direction that Jasmine can finalize at some point in time and then wherever state aid hits after that then make the adjustments. I know Mike, you know, looking at the reserve and fund balance I I can go either way. >> I'll support consensus if you know, you've got four members here saying we really just like the fund balance only option. I'm not
032going to vote no to that. And I think what uh administration needs to know most tonight is that we are not interested in making any cuts to program. So as long as we have that I think that's going to settle our folks within the schools knowing that we're not coming after um program and positions. Um and I think some other districts are in that I know there is another district right now meeting. They're in a much bigger situation but if you remember we were in that similar situation a few years back. So as long as we know that piece the other thing we don't necessarily need to know tonight if you want to go with A or B just as long as we know that we're in that ballpark and then we can run those
033scenarios and that can be decided at the next meeting. The only thing that really needs to be decided this evening um [clears throat] other than are we going to do any cuts which I'm hoping it's not. And the second thing is are we doing the reserve? The reserve fund needs to be moved on this evening if we're going to establish the reserve fund. Going back to your mentioning of cuts I mean a few years ago we had deficits of in the millions and and necessity therefore cuts in and that we're we're talking right now of a half a million dollar $500,000. We have the reserves and fund and fund balance. We can utilize that and there will be no cuts to staffing and programs. So I think I think it's apples and oranges comparing 1.8
034million to 500,000. So I think that message the board right now has to make a I think that message just helps our faculty and staff and the understood are always sensitive discussions and there's two sides to that story. One is finances, the other is program and enrollment. You know, so if we're not hearing from the district that there's some overages in areas or folks we can't which we haven't. Program looks good. We want to carry over thing. On the expense side, this is totally manageable as Al said we've bridged much bigger gaps. What's going on in other districts are the results of their decision past decisions. The same is true here. >> [clears throat] >> We were at 1.5 at one point. Yes. And that was sleepless nights and lots of cuts. But we're not
035cutting services. We just trimmed down the numbers. You dug into the revenue as deep as you could find as much revenue as I said before analyzing in that regard. And [clears throat] we gave a very small increase in terms of expenses to the departments. We did do a zero base budget which probably is going to come just to put it out there maybe next year zero base. [clears throat] But we've had just increases in a lot of other items. But it was trimmed down to the best point. You know, any deeper than this and I'm just you have no fat. You have no wiggle room left in the budget if something should happen. Things go up and down. If you don't have some leverage then I think that it's really tight for 12 to 16
036months. >> But when I look at our reserves I don't see no leverage there. Am I wrong? If you go to the reserve slide there's millions of reserves there for various reasons. I understand. But I don't feel that we're not insulated with unforeseen expenses. Am I wrong in that? >> think you're wrong in that thinking. I think we're in that spot a few years back where those numbers were much lower and and I think that's what some other neighboring districts they were utilizing those funds down to a level that was not sustainable. And that's the big thing is what is sustainable moving forward and that's where we always have to look. It can't just be solved for today. It has to be solved for today and look to tomorrow to make sure that our decisions
037are not going to adversely impact the program in the future. Sustainability is very important. >> Yeah. And you know, when when your 2% tax cap when you go to that 2% tax cap and we know that's not 2% every year where whatever that expense comes out to be through the equation the state allows that's expensive, too. There's been some increases. Yes, we're doing capital projects, but I don't know if that's always the best scenario either because they represent increases to the taxpayer. And so it all has a part on the sustainability discussion. Thanks. And so I I think we've got the two subjects we have to discuss today budget gap and the reserve. So Jen, do you have any input on where you'd like us to uh move to balance the budget? I agree with
038everyone's line of thinking in not cutting programs or cutting staff and being as sustainable for the future as possible. So you know, one or two as we've talked through it you know, on one board with everyone's so far. Yeah. I'm the same. I'm fine with one or two. I mean ideally like I would love to get more money from the state so that obviously reduces what we're pulling out either from the reserves or the fund balance and I know if that does happen later on you'll do [clears throat] what you can to put some of that back, but um I mean in my opinion either the reserve and fund balance or the fund balance it's as Mike said it's pretty the same. So I'm fine with that. So you have a direction pretty much you
039know, which way to go with it. Which supports your recommendation? One or two. If the state comes up with money then it's all fund balance and you wipe out the you know, option one which would be the TRS reserve. Depending on what we get back from the state. Okay. All right, on the repair reserve what's your feelings? Have we ever had a repair reserve before in the past? No, I don't believe so. We established a building reserve probably 10 15 years ago. Somewhere in that neighborhood. We never had that initiated the building reserve which has been a benefit to the district because I think our last two capital projects have been tax neutral because of the that building reserve capital reserve. And I think that'll move forward even for our next capital project which what
040we have in there right now with we heard Bernie Donigan's office give us a scenario. It looks like the next project could be a tax neutral also because of that reserve. And what Guzzman had said earlier we established the repair reserve those funds can transfer over into the capital reserve if and when we have a next project. Right now it's an emergency fund for repair. So the discussion to take place for the establishment of the repair reserve under new business is happening right now, right? It's it's on our agenda. So if the board decide not to move forward with it then I'm not supportive of the reserve and I'll tell you why. It's just it's just more of the people's money that you're holding. There's any way that could be given back whether that's 3
041cents a taxpayer, $3, you know, whatever that is. Yes, it offsets and it's budget neutral, but ultimately the public decides on the capital project. It's just you know, when I look at that reserve list It's a lot of money that you're holding. But the reserves like you said there's certain things that you can use that reserve money for. >> If I open up the budget there's several lines there that say maintenance maintenance maintenance. Are those could the money go there? I mean we have maintenance lines in our current budget. I think the issue is there's more there's you we're exceeding the fund balance and what's left over and these are very good ideas on how to retain that surplus. >> [clears throat] >> And my you know, so I'm going to get out voted on
042this one cuz I think that a lot of people are going to think it's a good idea to establish a repair reserve. My argument is I believe that reserve money exists within the budget already under maintenance contracts maintenance contracts contractual lines. So that's Heather if you know, might have a different perspective all together and say this is why you're wrong like that. That's where I sit right now. I don't disagree with you there, but I think the perfect scenario this past spring or winter was the the water main break. Did that come out of funds that were in in repair reserve on not repair reserve, but in the maintenance and building maintenance line item. Of course it did. They came out of some other funds, but I think establishing this and this is my take
043on it. Did that? We might not need to use this for five years at all. We might need not need to fund it any more than maybe once. And if it does have some funds, you know, from from a fund balance we throw 100,000 in here. It's just a cushion to pick up any repair issues that fall upon us that were not budgeted for. And that was a perfect example the water main break. I think there could be other ones. >> I think you just said it was covered from within the budget. Absolutely. Absolutely. But I I don't think I don't think it would be a a foolish thing to do from the sense of we're not going to abuse it. Of course. You know, if it's true repair you know, a boiler breaks down
044we need a new boiler we whatever it could come out of this. Right. We don't as a board we don't have to fund this thing each and every year. Right. You can put a dollar in there. Absolutely. Put anything you want in there. It's up to the board to decide how much they want to put in there. I just put an object seed limit because I wanted to have some type of rails or some type of controls, but you could put five grand in there and just leave it there forever and a day. And to your point yes, we did find we have to find the extra revenues in the facilities line to cover those breaks even though you may have other revenue sources like insurance coming in to pay a part of it. They
045don't pay all of the expenditure. So now you're picking up a portion of that. Well, it could have been balanced out with maybe a portion of that repair money. But once again the repair account is what you decide it to be. It can be from and I've seen school districts having only $10,000 in there, $30,000 some have $100,000. It's up to the board. Once again you decide what you want to put in there and you decide when you want to use it for whatever particular repair that you consider to be repair. Um there was a question before what how do we know what is a repair? Well, that's up to the board. And the saying we need it for this particular service, is that a considered to be a major repair issue that you use
046the funds for or can we find it in >> [clears throat] >> the facilities line? And this is pretty much for the infrastructure. This is not repairs to um buses or anything major of that nature. It's infrastructure repair. limitations and what what it's tied to? You can set those limitations. It just doesn't have to. You can be once again just specifically for infrastructure. So, you know >> We can set the limit. Yes, but bus repairs have their own line specifically. We have that. All of the repairs we budgeted for that. Um other repairs we have you know, that are being through facilities. We've got that budgeted for. We can increase once again, it's up to you. So, going back to what Mike said. Mike said that if there's line if we have lines already under
047building and maintenance, right? And we pull from that then the purpose of the repair reserve is if it's beyond that, if we decide to pull from there as opposed to pulling from a building and maintenance line, what what allows us to pick and choose what lines to pull from? And then what is the benefit of having the repair reserve line? So, your your repair lines are in under facilities. [clears throat] You've got a certain amount of money that they're budgeting for, let's say for you know, buses and other types of equipment that they need. We've got that allocated and we're done with it. 4% 6% increase in terms of pricing that's going to happen. Yes, there's a little bit of cushioning there that we could use, but if something goes way beyond that line of
048repairs, then we're pulling it either from other lines that we have, maybe savings in or you could use this repair line. So, it's a choice as to where you want to pull it from. Either you're going to use it in your general fund, use those lines up and use that savings that you thought you'd have or just use this repair line that you've allocated accordingly. It's a matter of choice. So, again, it's the yin and yang. You're pulling funds from this one. It's either one or the other. And I would say if you have this uh established and again, we're not we were asked to bring this forward to uh so the board could make a a decision on this. Um the board would decide how much is going into this from what is left
049when we get to that August deadline. So, the not deadline, that August date. So, when you're determining what's going into all of the reserves, you would determine is there anything going into this this year or are we putting it all into capital? And let's say you get to 500,000 and you can't really put anything more in there because that's what the limit is that we've established then everything else would go into capital or you're getting ready for that capital project and we haven't used the reserve, you can move it all over to capital. Once you move it to capital though, it needs to be voted on through the capital project vote to utilize those funds. So. Or it could be given back. >> [clears throat] >> Or or it could be given back to the
050people. Yeah, if we don't expend it at the at the sunset of of the capital reserve, which I think is seven seven years, 10 years? 10 years. 10 years. No. No, that's once it's in reserve. Right? I mean, if you if you're in excess of budget, you can Uh I I thought I I thought you were talking about getting back to the people. Are you talking about the capital reserve? So, it is on our agenda. Wait, can we go back to this cuz I'm not following what Mike's [clears throat] saying. Say that again, Mike. I think Mike's trying to say that you could then reduce the tax levy limit that you've applied to the public by applying this extra reserve. Um you can do that, but you're starting on a little bit of a slippery
051slope when you start doing that. You want to make sure that you don't It's a little bit of a uh juggle because you're going to give it back one year, but as your tax liability or reserve goes up the next year, it may bounce them up a little bit higher. So, you've got to be very careful the way you juggle this. You want to give back to the community. I'm not against that. I'm a taxpayer like everybody else, but it's that delicate balance that you have to think of. Oh, yeah, I agree. I I don't I would love to give back to the taxpayers, but you have to be careful because if you like you said, it'll it could be you're giving back all this and then next time you're asking for all this. You
052have to make sure it stays somewhat consistent so that it's not as big of a burden to the taxpayers. And some school districts in the past have done that where they've given back and it's not good because they they give back way too much. And when they bounce back, try to get it back up, they're at a higher rate that they had to get back to that level that they needed. In fact, they had to break the tax cap in order to meet what they needed. That was a problem. You can do this, but it is once again the community juggle that you have to just kind of balance it accordingly. I would respectfully [snorts] kind of address that with uh our fiscal advisors and say, "Hey, if we do this, how can we juggle
053that?" Um I don't want to put that out there right now and I don't have all the numbers in front of me, but that's something we would ask them to do. Could we use some of this? Would it be something to that effect? But that's the conversation [clears throat] we'll have with them to present to you. Um moving forward, uh we're coming out of a project now. When would be a good time in the future years to maybe come out with another capital project? You are slated to have the building condition survey in 2027 30 or 2031. So, you're going to have some idea of what you need to have work on in 2027 and then you're going to kind of look out for 31. >> fund is 10 years? Yes. All right, so we'll
054still have an active fund as we go into >> The capital reserve is 10 years. Not the not the repair reserve. Capital reserve is 10 years. Yeah, that's right. So, we we just don't have to worry about, you know, that can sit by itself. And it's not going to be part of that next capital project. Correct. No, not to do with The money that's in the capital reserve it can be used for the next capital project. So, what I'm saying is what Desmond has said, this money, Joel had said it too, this money if it's not used we can roll it over into the capital reserve for a future capital project to help offset the the tax to the community. I think it's also important that this this vote that you're This isn't putting $500,000
055into that account. This is just establishing the reserve. The board would determine if there is any money this year to put into that account and that would be in August. This would just be to establish basically the account. Mhm. So, you you you can leave it as just on the books. It could be zero. But in August you make a decision if you want to or you don't want to fund it. And then you move on to the next year. And you can follow helping the community or you can put it into fund balance. Do what you need to do with it, but either way um you've seen in the five-year projection that at some point in time if we're not getting enough state aid, if state aid is not growing by the 1% 2%
056growth, we're not getting all the aid we think, eventually going to we'll start to tap in and have to tap in to these reserves. Sure. And so, yes, you want to fund them and you've done a great job funding them, but eventually you have to look at as the budgets go forward, how much do you want to just really tap into that reserve? Cuz at a point in time you know, my revenue and expenses are never going to match and I'm going to have to look at other revenue sources and I either want to cut services if you have some reserves available. Okay, we'll move it to our agenda resolutions for the uh repair reserve. >> [snorts] >> All right, thank you, Desmond. >> [clears throat] >> We'll move on to our consent items. And
057they are from EA1 to D.3. Uh as usual, take a moment to look through. If you want to pull anything, you have any questions, comments any clarifications you can shout that out. And also I'll pull a item out and vote on it separately or table it for future discussion. >> [snorts] >> I think I think they look good. I make a motion. Motion by Mike to move it forward and there's a second. Seconded by Tom. Anybody have any discussion [clears throat] clarifications needed? Okay, uh consent agenda items EA1 to D.3. Motion made by Mike, seconded by Tom. All those in favor? Aye. All opposed? Any abstentions? Prepare 5-0. Okay, and I just would like to uh introduce that in the audience this evening, we have Stevie Sekunda who will be a leave replacement at the
058elementary school starting in mid-May to the end of June. Congratulations, Stevie. >> [applause] >> Stevie is also a graduate of Highland, so uh I remember when she was here, I want to say two years Congratulations. Welcome aboard. Okay, we'll move on to our curriculum instruction or principal's monthly report. We'll start with the high school. Threw us off. That's right. Good evening everybody. Um in front of you you have a few different items on behalf of all the buildings um in appreciation um for board appreciation months which I believe we didn't get a chance to get to everybody. Um I know Ian is going to speak to that. I'm going to speak specifically just to the high school and then I know Andy will speak um on the middle school. So the trinket that you have
059in front of you is a 3D printed image from our STEM class with uh Mr. Witt. Um her and the students had designed that, printed that with materials here and from our 3D printer um with the with some of the wood engraver as well and just a little note there. Uh so thank you for everything that uh board does for for the schools, for the community and just our you know continued collaboration. So just a little thank you from all of us. Uh we appreciate everything. They made the tiles? Yes, the tiles and the apple >> we all thought they were probably we thought they were probably tiles. That's awesome. Pretty cool. Nice. Question regarding Mr. Ulster BOCES programs. Sure. Ulster BOCES programs are basically available to juniors and seniors, is that accurate? Or is
060it just seniors? Uh juniors and seniors. And in the past that are you aware of any juniors or seniors that were unable to attend where they wanted to go? In other words, are are we limited capacity and has that capacity been a problem for Highland? I think with the the new opening of the program, I think some of it was expanded uh to my knowledge. Um I think uh it depends on the situation when they come into the program. If they come in as a junior, if they come in as a senior. >> [clears throat] >> So different programs have different demands. Um so it really depends. Some come late to the game. Um I know we started that process uh within the last month or so with our 10th graders uh to get them
061to visit, show interest in three programs that they go to visit um and work with their counselors on those programs and trying to get in. There's a certain amount of seats allocated per component district. So for instance, Kingston sends a large population of students. Therefore, whatever their formula is, I believe they you know have some more seats. So or something, right? I got you. Essentially, every student goes in with two choices, a first choice and a second choice. Um and then they move through um their choices. Yes, has there been some difficult conversations where a student hasn't gotten in to their top choice? Absolutely. Um >> Right, I'm more concerned that they haven't gotten in at all. Uh to my knowledge uh I think it's very rare. Um but again, we have a lot of
062kids that want to get into those high demand um you know, hands-on type stuff. Electrical's very high demands. Um automotive, uh welding >> sure they can't accommodate all of the schools. I hear you. I mean So they do best they do their best. Uh there is movement and there is you know openings where different programs have availability and essentially [clears throat] it's it's waitlisted uh for some of those things. If something if somebody's really set on a CTE program. Okay. Thanks. Not a question for for you, probably a question in general and maybe somehow we can get you know the information back from uh leadership from uh Ulster BOCES, but being that all the component districts worked on a capital project for them. They're expanding or renovating Port Ewen site. We also approved the lease
063agreement to go to iPark 87. And now I'm hearing that there are some shortfalls here, not enough capacity, blah blah blah blah. >> [clears throat] >> What is BOCES doing to expand the programs or and employ more staff to expand the pro What are they doing? Are they just pulling from the component districts to funnel all this and not expand it? Just have a new facility because it's you know, it's golden. I I I I I I would like to see Dr. Schenker come back to this meeting again at some point in time and we need to pinpoint him on what are they doing to expand leader not leadership, staffing. From what I'm hearing it's not happening. We're probably status quo from when they were working out of the Port Ewen facility. But yet they
064spent 40 million dollars to upgrade new BOCES in Port Ewen and another I don't know how many millions of dollars for the iPark and the lease agreements and we're not expanding programs. Did the spots increase at all? Or have they stayed the same? I don't know those specific numbers and I don't think those numbers have really been specifically said. Um that's kind of like a notion that's out there that hey, we're in a bigger place like we [snorts] did. So yeah, I mean I I I I I understand like there's certain programs that are of high demand. So you would think after putting in money and agreeing to the money that those certain programs would get more spots or Well >> bigger It it sounds like hey, just increase sections. Not easy to get those
065specific trade instructors. >> important that we have like I'm sure they're working on it. Part of the work I heard a lot of good things about iPark. So just to add to that just a little bit. The facilities, yes. But our kids aren't being negative and all that, but having Everybody gets their by and large, it sounds like 99.9% of the kids who are eligible to go get their first or second choice. So we're not saying no to kids. So when you talk I had to you know, I hear heard concerns about capacity and you know, quality of choices is a whole another thing. But as far as capacity it seems to be meeting our needs right now. Yes, and I don't think it's this big grand increase because when we talk about sections, it's
066very different like a high school setting, right? We have classrooms where we can add a classroom, add a teacher. There they're in these, you know, very uh hands-on machinery and certain space they're working in labs, right? So it's it's not like they have the capacity to add a classroom, add a whole another automotive section, add a whole another culinary section. So it's it's the areas that are still whatever the square footage of the areas are. Understood, but the the way it was presented, it was as they were going to increase the facility. So they worked with the same amount of students attending out of that Port Ewen site. Now they've gone to a larger facility and they're still occupied the Port Ewen site. So why hasn't things expanded? >> Well, aren't they still in pro
067process? Aren't they still in their phases of construction, too? I think Yeah, but they're pretty close to being complete. Yeah. I think it's important that we either have Dr. Schenker come or I think board members can attend that annual meeting coming up on April 9th at iPark. And Yeah, yeah. the component districts will be there from across the county. That would be a great opportunity for everybody to get that answer. Which I know Lisa is going to demand that we know who's going to that meeting on April 9th because we need to get that number back to BOCES for April 1st. But I I again, if board members have not been to iPark, this would be an opportunity on April 9th for you to uh go there and and visit the facility and see what
068It's a beautiful facility, but there's definitely there's definitely some shortcomings. Yeah. Yes, I agree. I believe we were around um high 80s uh 2 years ago and this year we're close to about 118 between AM and PM programs. So um we've had an increase of students going in. Um >> [clears throat] >> you know, again You're going to see a heavy interest in the trades Yeah. nationally and so forth. I said something earlier. There was yes, something earlier that I found online of uh Mike Rowe, you know, like Dirty Jobs. Like he created this whole scholarship funding for the trades for 2-year programs or less. Um blue collar jobs and the scholarship money that he is getting for students going into beyond um high school is amazing. They talked about that program being nationalized. Real
069interest and paid by It's paid Fortune 500 Companies are putting in to give to give um the the trades and blue collar um industries getting more people into that and corporations, Fortune 500 are putting money into these putting money into these scholarships for those so yeah. There's 150,000 jobs that are vacant because they can't fill them. I know that from my past work. You can't find people. Um and then just the last thing I know I've taken up uh a lot of time with the high school report. Just want to highlight from my report um we had all of second grade from the elementary school up um bunch of the teachers here and heading that off is Miss Rizzo, uh Mr. Welch, um Miss Witt running an in-house in-district field trip that went very uh
070smooth. Uh so much uh that we were able to uh harvest enough sap to uh have a building-wide pancake breakfast tomorrow with that. Uh so it was really cool to see all the second grade classes up here with the teachers, um seeing the high school, seeing the process, getting outside, seeing a little STEM, seeing a little history. Beyond that, it was it was awesome and I know Jess Murray was here to highlight that for the first day. So, thank you to everybody that contributed to that. Kathy for bringing [clears throat] them up and Mr. McCormick coordinating with us as well. Thank you for being a good host. >> Yeah, it's good. It's a good time. That's nice. Great. It's good. Any questions? Thank you, sir. Thank you. Elementary school. Really threw us. Best for last.
071Did this come from you? No. No. No, middle school. Shameless, can't easy. That one's from us. That's from all our kids. Some that you probably can read. Probably some Some names you might even recognize on there. Might be a few. So, yes. Thank you, guys. And then, obviously, that's on behalf of all of our buildings as well, not just administration, not just us. All across the district, just thank you, guys. And again, tried for this a long long time ago and snow days and everything else kind of put us back a little bit. One thing that I just want to highlight and it's kind of not thing you put on a board before, but our Girl Scouts for all They come in at night, set up huge balloon balloon displays. We just celebrated autism awareness,
072I mean, I'm sorry, Down syndrome awareness. And prior to that, we did rare disease international rare disease day. So, they came in at night, did huge balloon arches, stars. They have made these like picture boards and so on and so forth, backdrops and everything else. And you know, first thing in the morning, the kids get to see this this when they walk in. So, I I didn't [snorts] know where to put that and so, I just wanted to highlight that that was kind of a cool thing that's done behind the scenes that just kids get to show up and see. And they get really excited about it. And And then, we're going to do one They'll be doing another for autism awareness, too. So, just wanted to highlight the Girl Scouts. >> It's a great
073way to give back, too. Yeah, that's cool. And like I said, the the kids walking in and especially like the little kindergarteners, you know, they're like really stoked. They're like They take their pictures and you know, so that's really awesome. So, I I just want to say thank you to them. Thank you. Any questions? Any questions? Thank you, sir. Best for last. Yes, that's right. Uh good evening, everybody. Uh so, yeah, the middle school we went straight middle school, which is like bribery, candy, you know, things that we try to do to it. Give the people what they want. >> Yeah, give the people what they want. So, hopefully you enjoyed that. I also color coded the peeps or we color coded the peeps. Thank you, guys. That's it for all of it. I know
074some of you hate peeps, but also so to thank and thank you, obviously, that yes, it was our contribution, but it's from everybody else. So, we really appreciate what you do. And you know, it's a thankless job. And we really appreciate it. So, thank you for everything. Um one I know updates, one quick highlight in my report. We had a really cool program that came Mrs. Bowman and Mr. Early, our gym teachers, came to us a couple months ago and said, "Hey, we want to do a mini golf unit and we want to build the mini golf holes." And I was like, "Yeah, that's great. Let's do it." And so, they teamed up with Mr. Conklin and his facts classes and Mr. Banks and his tech classes to like create mini golf holes. And they
075are super, you know, they're like with you know, whatever we could find in the basement. You know, but we did it. We had a mini golf tournament and it was a really great collaboration between three literally different areas, like very different areas of the school. And it's something that we want to continue next year and maybe make it more of a real like actually building actual mini golf holes that we can use in the future. So, be on the lookout. Um and yes, it was a really cool program. So, I just wanted to highlight that. I think Jess is doing a good [laughter] job on that. She was sure he did. So, but that's that's all I got for today. You didn't drill any holes in the gym floor, did you? No. No no power
076tools were used. Tape, glue. Or in the bricks. No. [laughter] No hammering anything in the bricks. No, I don't think so. Am I missing anything? No. No, we did not destroy anything, Mr. Early. >> [snorts] >> Yeah. Next year. Any questions for Andy? Thank you, sir. Thanks, folks. Okay, director's report. Any questions for our directors? Every meeting. I have I have one. Building condition survey. Are we looking to establish do one soon? We need to do one. Do we have to do a board resolution to hire a architect to do that at some point? Are we doing interviews? Are we using our existing architectural [snorts] firm to do that building condition survey? We are We are not using our existing. Okay. So, we should go out We could go with a uh invitation for interviews
077or we could put out an RFI. Whichever way. And that is mandated to be done, I believe, by next spring. It's on the portal. So, I'm not sure when to get started. All right. We do that. Anyone else have questions for our directors? [clears throat] Thank you, guys. Another job well done. All right, assistant superintendent, Dr. Boyd. Um so, one last plug for our Panorama Survey, which will close this Friday. We had our students take that earlier earlier this week and it's been out to families and staff. So, a few more days for people to fill that out if they haven't yet. We encourage everyone to do so to share their thoughts with us. Um and I know our principals highlighted a lot of things, but I do want to really point out some of
078the stuff that we're talking about and some of the events. We've seen a lot of great collaboration. We're talking about elementary school working with the high school, collaboration between tech and the PE department. So, I really just wanted to highlight some of those things this month that they're pretty special events that are very memorable for kids. And at the elementary school, you know, they can reply on the number of minutes that they had on the read-a-thon, but anecdotally, we've had some great stories shared with families. And some of these are shared at CSE meetings, some of them are shared at concerts. You know, when we see families, kids really bought into that for this competition. We saw a lot of competitiveness amongst kids and adults. You know, a healthy competition, but seeing students walk into
079scholarship concerts with a book in their hand because they're they're getting some extra minutes while they wait for an older sibling to perform was just really quite special to see. So, I just wanted to really highlight our buildings for putting on those events with [clears throat] the extra effort because it really does make a difference for our students and everybody. Um so, we have spring break coming up. Post spring break, we will hit the ground running. We have our state tests coming up. And ELA at the elementary school will be on April 14th and 15th and at the middle school on April 21st and 22nd. Our math tests at the elementary school will be on May 5th and 6th, middle school on April 28th and 29th, science at the elementary school on May 12th and
080middle school on May 8th. So, this does take a lot of coordination and scheduling. So, again, thank you for everyone for helping set those up. Our high school AP exams will kick off on May 4th and continue for the month of May. And lastly, updated kindergarten numbers. As of today, we had 96 packets out for our incoming cohort of 2026 kindergarten students. 54 out of the 96 have been returned. And next week, we will begin to send out our sign-ups. We can put out a sign-up for families to come in on that May 8th day for kindergarten screening for those families. So, we'll start those sign-ups and give families an opportunity to pick the time that they they bring their child in. So, looking forward to getting that scheduled and meeting our newest incoming students.
081Is that the norm that you you've you've picked up? You know, 100 packets and only 50% are returned at this point. >> Um yeah, so sometimes and then there's some follow-up. So, we know the families that that that took them out. Sometimes it's them gathering some of There's a lot of materials required that we we do have for families with proof of residency, birth certificates, health forms. So, and there's a big packet to fill out. We do try to streamline it as best as possible, but there's a lot of information that we need to have from families. So, we'll follow up with the ones that are out, but we are accounting for them to hopefully come on May 8th. Okay. And there'll be quite a few that will come in once we get that next
082message out that they're picking slots. Then that kind of kicks those other ones into gear to to get [clears throat] theirs turned in. And we'll get ones filtering from now all the way through September 8th. Any questions for Dr. Boyd? Thank you, sir. Superintendent. All right, so I mentioned it before, the Ulster BOCES annual meeting, the Expo meeting is Thursday, April 9th, 6:00 p.m. at I Park. We do need to RSVP to BOCES by the 1st. You know you're going to go, please let Lisa know so she can get that um that number up to Sheila. Uh our spring break does start uh at the end of school on Friday. Uh so Friday uh the 27th at the close of school and it ends on Sunday, April 5th. We will be uh welcoming students back
083on Monday, April 6th. And a message to that effect is going out to families. I actually scheduled it today. It'll go out Friday afternoon. Um we are in the beginning stages of our budget newsletter. I want to thank Jess Murray. She's our representative of BOCES [cough and clears throat] that does a phenomenal job on that every year. She's already been reaching out to our departments and our teachers to get those um those stories that fill that that blue newspaper. Um we all know that newspaper, right? Um and then uh Desmond and I will be uh we'll start uh creating the um script for our film or our uh video that we do every year. That has gone over extremely well. It gets a lot of hits and it reaches a lot of people that might
084not necessarily get out to a meeting or um you know, I can I can forward it out um to the community and uh it gets the information in people's hands. Um we will have copies of uh budget newsletters in all of our buildings and actual copies of the budget once we do adopt. So anyone that would like to come and see that, we'll also have it on our website. Um but that video kind of succinct succinctly in about eight or nine minutes gets it uh into a format that people uh take a look at and hopefully inform them uh so that they come out to vote in May. And that's all that I have currently. Okay. Any questions for the superintendent? Okay. We'll move on to Board of Education new business, establishment of repair reserve.
085Um we've had we had quite a bit of discussion earlier on. Um we're ready to move it to a um resolution and take a vote on it. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. >> [cough] >> Establishment of reserve repair reserve. Be it resolved, the Board of Education, upon the recommendation of the superintendent, hereby adopts the following resolution. Whereas, pursuant to General Municipal Law 6-D, the Board of Education is authorized to establish a repair reserve fund for the purpose of financing cost of non-recurring capital repairs to capital improvement and equipment. And whereas, the Board of Education has determined that it is in the best financial interest of the district to establish such a reserve to address significant repair needs without undue impact on the annual operating budget. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Education
086hereby authorizes the establishment of a repair reserve fund subject to voter approval with a maximum authorized balance of $500,000. And be it further resolved that the source of funds to establish and fund this reserve may include unassigned fund balance, budgetary appropriations, and other legally available sources as determined by the Board of Education. And be it further resolved that the use of such funds shall be subject to the requirements of General Municipal Law 6- D, including a public hearing and approval by 2/3 vote of the Board of Education, except in the case of emergencies as defined by law. And be it further resolved the Board that the following propositions shall be placed before the qualified voters of the district at the annual budget vote held on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026. Um I think this has to
087be established tonight because there is a 45-day Yes, they need to have it by April 7th. >> before it can be put on the uh If you're not having the meet well, even April 7th, it would be kind of close. We'd have to decide tonight. >> Okay. Um Can I have a motion? Motion by Tom, second by Janine. Let's do a roll call. Okay. When I just state your name, just say yes or no. Jan Becker. Yes. Mike Petaxius. No. Tom Miller. Yes. Janine Gimbel. Yes. Alan Barone. Yes. That's four yes, one no. Okay. All right. BOCES annual meeting and board members administrative budget vote, the following are the dates BOCES will have set on their calendar and for the board to be aware of. BOCES annual meeting, April 9th. Please RSVP to district clerk
088prior to August uh to April 1st, 2026. And the BOCES countywide vote is April 21st. That's the night of our our meeting in April 2026. Um Highland Central School District board candidate nominating petitions. As a reminder, petitions for nominating candidates for the office of the Board of Education, Highland Central School District are available at the central office between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, except for April 20th, which is 5:00 p.m. The deadline to submit the petition is Monday, April 20th at 5:00 p.m. No petitions will be accepted after that date. The following vacancies, which expire on June 30th, 2026, are to be filled. Term of Alan Barone and the term of Heather Welch. For any questions, you may contact district office or Lisa Shurneglia at or else Shurneglia [clears
089throat] at highland-k12.org or via phone at 845-691-1020. Best is zero uh zero then is for the extension 3021. Under miscellaneous, uh any correspondence, anything for the good and welfare of the district? Uh we also got to talk about uh the need for our April 7th meeting. Uh right now, I don't believe there is a lot on the agenda as far as business. Um The budget as it stands right now, I think we're pretty well Yes. set on the budget. So we needed >> a emergency or a quick meeting, we can have it at any time after that. Our next meeting will be April 21st, 2026. And that will be to adopt a budget and get a vote on uh uh the BOCES uh budget and uh whatever other general business comes up. So in your
090emails today, you got um a copy of the Ulster BOCES budget and will also be in my update at the end of the week just in case so that it's all in one spot. Um So that's what they will go over at the annual meeting on the 9th. Okay. Is everyone okay with uh moving just to one meeting in April, April 21st, unless there need be that we have to have a special meeting? No, I think so. Okay. All right. Uh anything else for the good and welfare of the district? I'll open the meeting up to public comment. Hello. Kevin Rizzuto, I apologize for my attire. Retirement got me out of retirement >> [laughter] >> Um I just wanted to thank the board on behalf of the HTA um for tonight and going into April
091and May, knowing uh that there's no budget cuts to our staff and position personnel is is always a uh is always a good thing and we appreciate everything that you're doing. So thank you so much. Okay. Anyone else for public comment? Okay. Need a motion to adjourn. Motion by Jan, second by Janine. All those in favor? Aye. Happy spring, everybody.