001good evening everyone will open the meeting please rise for the pledge pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you okay well we'll open our meeting up to public comment and first half of public comments for agenda items only so if you have any any questions regarding the agenda please stand state your name and ask the question okay we'll close public comment uh tonight we have our special presentation leaders of the pack and we'll start with the elementary school good evening everyone um we have here Lucas ballis is our leader of the pack he's in kindergarten um miss lazia his classroom teacher says Lucas consistently demonstrates a strong work ethic and a genuine desire to help
002others he's always focused eager to learn and he approaches task as determination and a positive attitude whether it's assist assisting classmates with their work contributing to group activities or choosing teacher helper as's job for the week Lucas shows kindness and patience making sure everyone feels supported his willingness to lend a hand and his dedication to to doing their best makes him a valuable member of the classroom community and a leader of the pack Miss Hughes your steam teacher says Lucas is a leader among his class when he visits during special he's always the first to show that he is ready to listen and learn being a great example to his classmates is not ntion for leader of the pack is well deserved miss mcaffrey your music teacher says Lucas is a wonderful music student student
003who always follows directions it is a true pleasure to have a music class Miss Petra sha your library teacher says Lucas is always a positive role model of first classmates and comes in with a smile he is a wonderful addition to our husky family and miss kosa your PE teacher says Lucas is always enthusiastic about learning and physical education and leads by example and is a positive classmate to his per [Applause] picture you want to start here perfect we repeat that a few more times Stay Stay position there you go [Applause] so our uh leader of the pack is not able to join us this evening but we are here to represent uh Keegan Taylor he is a sixth grader and just a few kind things that um his teachers had to say about him
004is Miss Mona perto his math teacher said that Keegan has proven to be an exceptional student in my advanced math class he's extremely hardworking and always eager to learn Keegan participates during class discussions and is willing to help others during class moreover he is able to consistently do well while balancing the demands of hockey on top of his school work that's where he is tonight keep up the hard work Egan I'll just read one more um from Miss CIS I've Loved getting to know Keegan this year Keegan is an amazing student he's always on task interested and enthusiastic he always has a smile on his face respectful and kind to everyone ke Keegan is truly a pleasure to have in class congratulations [Applause] I might suggest that tomorrow when you hand that to him if
005you could get a photo and get it to us so that we can include it in that would be great thank you high school so our March leader of the pack is Josh Bishop got a little you know fan club coming in surprising him here um so a few things about Josh miss trany or Miss Wiston your mad teacher said Josh is a such a genuinely kind person always ready to share exciting news that brightens my day his infectious happiness and thoughtfulness never fails to put a smile on my face over the years I've had the privilege of watching him grow into a mature young man and I'm continually impressed by his critical thinking and unique problem solving skills his approach to his ability to approach challenges from different perspectives just shows how much he's
006grown and developed Mr Tatum from English Josh was my student in both 10th and 11th grade and there's one moment that I think captures what I loved most about him in 10th Grade we made a video essay about a person who has been impactful in our lives do you remember this okay Josh made his video about his buddy Noah it was Goofy and funny but it was 100% genuine Josh is someone who values his friendships and someone who will show up for his friends when they need him he's been a model of character and consistency for four years here and even though this is just one of the long list of accolades he's aced over the years it is one that is welld deserved and cements his status as a leader and a role model
007for his peers congrats Josh Coach sopic Josh OT is the ideal of a student athlete excelling in both his academic and athletic Pursuits his unwavering dedication exemplary performance and positive influence make him a true role model and Miss Otis Josh is a strong language student he's easygoing but works hard and is kind to others and is fun to be around he will be missed next year and we have a little little change up we have a guest speaker coming in coach early is here to talk as well um hello I'm coach early I am Josh's track coach um reason I'm here is because Josh did something pretty amazing in the winter um so Josh had a phenomenal indoor season he ran a lot of great times went to State calls bossed it and um we
008thought a season was over I got a call two Thursdays ago that a runner had dropped out of the state meet so Josh was invited to go compete in this relay team at the state meet which was pretty cool very last minute it was two days before the state meet I got this call so I'm on the phone with him and his mom at 8 o'clock at night trying to figure out what we're going to do so we get him down there and in this relay he ended up taking first he won a gold medal at states he was on the fastest relay team in New York state which is a pretty cool thing something I don't think anyone's ever done in Highland history so we just wanted to come here and recognize Josh for
009all this hard work [Applause] we want to do one with coach early to we talked about the track sorry coach in there everyone just move over there we go now I'll get youall okay perfect all right whoever else needs to step in [Applause] okay on behalf of the entire Board of Education we congratulate our leaders of the pack job well done and one one little note now I know why Maryann Ingraham comes to all our meeting for this moment to see her grandson toce leader of the pack congratulations [Applause] everyone okay uh for the leaders of the pack and their families if you like to leave you're more than welcome to unless you want to stay and listen to our budg budget than welcome you're allowed to thank you anybody got a package perfect great
010so let's begin um good evening everybody tonight uh tonight's presentation will focus on two major items we will review the 2526 draft budget we'll go over the expense shortfall and the proposed budget shortfall recommendations and then finally we'll talk about the bus referendum proposal so at our last board meeting on March 4th I presented the revenue side and I just wanted to show this once again that the revenues have not changed at this point in time they are still at the 56 million 714675 however the legislative uh budget is still in review and by April 1st we should be getting a better number as to what the legislative side is going to do for the educational budget once that happens we'll get better Revenue numbers that we can look at going forward so let's talk
011about the b elh in the room the expense side at the last budget presentation on March 4th I presented to you a budget that had 57 m765 941 that left us with a a deficit of 1,51 266 we had discussions he told me to go back to my office work on making some cuts and that's what I did and I brought the the the expenses down by $440,000 656 most of those areas were salaries benefits as you can see here we did some student services a little bit on buildings and grounds I'm sure Pete's not here so I can say that with a problem um a little bit of equip hopefully Rich won't get mad at me but either way we brought all these expenses down by going back through the numbers as you asked
012me to do and scrub them and bring them down to a reasonable points now these numbers were basically just requ reduction we talked about salary adjustments vacancies and reclassification of salaries to utilize grants what that simply means is we went inside the system and I looked at all the vacancies we had and I trimmed some of them every school district has vacancies on their budget and basically it's just to align if we leave staff should leave we want to make sure we have enough staff there or positions that we can bring people on board in terms of Grants when I see Dr boy looking at me like that I cut his grants no we did not we just reallocated some of the general fund staff to the grants and one of them was Patrick fory
013to make sure that his ratios were a little bit higher inad of 20% maybe 25% once again we just recalibrated the appropriate money to the grants that would support the grants and we looked at some of the vacancies and um some of the overtime we also adjusted and those are the things in salaries unemployment benefits we did see a decrease in the TRS ratios but the ERS went up and we had some increases in our health benefits for those who have different types of benefit plans MVP went up 2% um nro went up um approximately 9% so we just made sure we when I looked at those items I kind of reduced those adjustments down I had done a High estimate on those benefits for example for one point I said it was 15% increase
014and I cut it down to 10% and then I got it down to something that's reasonable once again also taking into consideration those individuals that we moved around and the vacancies we got rid of we reduce some of the benefits um in terms of Bose's Bose's was an increase we are still looking at Bose's we've looking at some of the cost contracts by April 1st we should have a better hold on what the bow se's number are once again it's my job to kind of estimate high and then start trimming down down I did my best to trim down but I don't want to reduce the services that we have so once again I left B's kind of of an increase finally student services um what I did was I went into the different organizations
015that we have we send our students to looking at their tuition rates and doing an estimate of what the rate increase will be when on the state portal to make sure I had a variable that made sense instead of me just going oh 10% actually looking at something that made sense and we put that into the tuition once again just cutting down some of those expenses we got down some supplies and equipments and we just made some basic adjustments there and that brought us down by 44656 which was a fairly decent number and here we go here is the overall presentation we moved from 1,051 266 down to 610 610 it's a good number um and from there we decided well how are we going to attack that number how do we bring that number
016down how do we address that and this is what we have to address tonight we have three different recommendations for the board and they're in your package presentation number one or observation or recommendation number one would be to use our reserves now we do I did include in your package the detail of the reserves and how we determine the reserves and I'm just bring myself up to my speed the first one is the reserves recommendation we could use the ERS we could use the TRS and we could use a little bit of the tax sority you have this board has put together a healthy I would say reserve package or policy that we do every single year and once again I put it in your package so you can see those reserve requirements that you've
017established if we use some of the reserves we'll be using once again 300,000 from the ERS and 300,000 from TRS there was no magical number that I came up with in terms of why 300 I figured we've got half teachers half ERS let's just keep it clean but I'm just giving you the recommendation second recommendation would be for the ERS to be 200,000 TRS to be another 200,000 tax to be 610 and fund balance of 200,000 so the fund balance we say where's your fund balance coming from this year I believe we'll have some type of savings I will not like I excuse me I don't want to give out that fund balance number yet I still scrubbing the numbers I'm still getting some purchase orders from the principles won't say that out loud but
018um I'm making sure that we are kind of describing those numbers for this year I once again I think we'll have a comfortable fund balance based upon some of the savings but also based upon the additional Revenue we've received from the state so once again it's not just cutting your expenses it's also getting revenue from the state which we have gotten the sizable amount so that would give I would say 200,000 from the fund balance or option number three would be to take the entire 610 610 from the fund balance once again you've already setting aside 1,152 for the next year's appropriation this will be on top of that so these are my recommendations um once it will cover the 610 610 as I said before there are some bosis bills that were going to
019either come in high or low that may change the numbers a little bit but I think we've scrubbed this enough at this point in time for the board to make a decision of how we should proceed to cover the budget I also mentioned before that the governor has come up with her number legislation is coming out with their number so there will be an opportunity that other Revenue sources are coming in that may reduce the number we the deficit we have here a little lower but we would still probably have to make one of these choices yes so right now we put a million in of Applied fund balance and should we choose fund balance again that would grow that number to 1.6 moving forward it would be 1.7 it's it's currently at 1.1 right
020now point will be yes it would but you have the option as we go forward and look at our budget look at our Revenue that's coming from the state you don't have to always make that number 1.7 it's not a number that you're locked into you can change that it's what you appropriate it's your choice understood so we could have 1.7 this year and then have a better 25 26 looking into 26 27 better Revenue sources they're changing some of their criteria that may help Highland on other school districts get better Revenue where you may not have to have that appropriation number it may be down to half a million or I'm on the other side of the pie all the way reserves person it's uh you know we can make a decision but once
021again these are the recommendations and then we get to proposition number two the bus referendum um and everybody's packet not packet I didn't I didn't add it to the packet I did send out to everyone in email a breakdown of what we thought the bus was going to be our proposal have proposal number one two and three based upon the history and trends and we've come back with proposal number one which would be for five buses and one pickup truck for a total of $962,000 yes now I know that we had spoken previously about things that we were considering when we went through this we talked about um New York State recommended that there's a 10 years for buses to District to use this District decided to use 12 as their guide um the Suburbans
022and vans are still used as a 10e Mark um buses are regular um are regularly rotated to extend the life of the buses just like in any other vehicle you have you just kind of rotate the ones you have so we have 55 in the fleet we use minimum Le somewhere between 25 and 30 buses on average to transport our students and we then rotate those buses so we can get the best value and life out of them so we as I said the proposal that we presented out there would put five new buses into this proposal and one pickup truck that would give us a fleet of 60 and what I also presented to you previously was kind of a breakdown that would show over the next five years if we follow the trend
023of and I use the word lightly disposal these are the buses that are maxing out in 12 years doesn't mean that they're bad doesn't mean we're getting rid of them they just mean they've aged how and my grand kids tell me that all the time so I'm still functional um but these things are the buses are still moving along we still can use them but if we follow that Trend by 209 2930 school year we would be at that Mark where 25 buses on the road would be what we would have in our Fleet that are valid but we would still have older buses running and then by 20331 we would kind of fall under that line of 25 buses that we would need and that's why I think we made the suggestion of five
024buses on pickup truck once again the big issue is will the governor come through with her electric bus mandate all school bus all school districts are trying to struggle with that I think this will give us enough time for the next three four years to kind of a one determine where we are with the electric mandate two if we need to start implementing electric purchases we have some years to do that and three more importantly build our infrastructure and get everything we need so we can do that but we would still have the enough Fleet in our system to transport our students and have if we need if anything should arrive with that being said I'm sure there are questions um topics for discussion or going forward will be to guide the administration me Joel
025and the board uh addressing the budget deficit which one do we want to go with Reserve fund balance um and then the next step is board's meeting is scheduled for April 1st at that point we would should have better numbers from the state and then could give a better presentation in of what the revenues are if there are any questions I was curious U the grant monies that you're using to supplement in the salaries or what what exactly is the number we're looking at there I'm just should they disappear what we're looking at in the vulnerability about 3 to 400,000 I would say to would take that's a fair number so it's it's recoupable so did we have extra grant money that we could use that we shifted stuff in or did we get additional
026Grant fund we have what I what we looked at was when the salaries were put onto the spreadsheet that we have we would basically sort of appropriate a portion of the salaries accordingly to the grants instead of making it 25% we could make it 30% depending upon if we could max out the grant yes some of the grants grants have increased a little bit but not all of them so we're just kind of portioning the salaries according is justifiable within the grant so yes so have we maxed out the grants with what you've looked at and what you've Chang at this point we will be maxing out the grants without going too much into supplies and kind of tipping over that scale there so I guess my other question did we Max them out last
027year as well and now we what happens usually is you kind of look at your salaries towards and expenses towards the end of a grant and then you look at really maxing them out and you move expenses from the general fund into the grant to blow that out completely yeah I just want to make sure we're maximizing maximize I'm not leav concern with and should the grants go away I want to make sure that we're not left in a position where we we we can't recoup that money or we can't accommodate those positions corre so and it's it's important to to realize that only a portion of the salaries are paid that way we would never want to put an entire salary into a grant because that is not necessarily recuperable if something were to
028happen with them so yeah is uh is April 1st when we have to adopt the budget No noil 2 22nd the next minute thank let's let's go back to uh Bud budget balance recommendation and then we'll talk about that and we'll talk about the April 1st date my feeling right now is that we our next meeting is April 1st I'd like to push that meeting forward a little bit uh maybe to the following week April 8th only because we don't know if the governor is going to have her Budget on time for April 1 uh historically it hasn't been I know the Senate and the assembly both have their recommendations so they're they're a couple billion dividing the the three of them so I think we need that time to realize what the final budget
029from the governor is going to be and if that does anything to our our bottom line there getting going back to the budget balance recommendations uh I like to hear from uh everyone what your feeling is as far as if we have to utilize those three scenarios which one would you prefer we can make we could give Desmond that recommendation possibly this evening and then when the budget comes in however it it massages the numbers a little bit you might be able to put back in some of those areas and not have to draw as much so anybody have any feelings towards the uh three recommendations I have some questions if I can start with them um so we're already carrying over and and everybody who's been here for years knows this this is my
030pet peeve how we carry over every year you know it was 500,000 when I started on the board now we're up to 1.15 um we just keep increasing it so if we go with that option three now we're up to 1.7 I mean can you look at that budget and tell us our our current year spending that we're going to be able to carry over $1.7 million because if so I think we have a problem with what we have in those line items right if every year I'm saying this is my budget but I got 1.7 to carry over to me it just seems like we should be looking at that a little bit closer yes and we are so you're not carrying over 1.7 in this year that's a number that I would definitely
031say we're carrying over however you're carrying over a little bit you're carrying over a fair amount and where that fair amount comes from is once again you did get additional revenue from the state that's number one number two you did have some Savings in certain areas some supplies some salaries you know something contractual agreements went down we didn't really need to use you have that little bit of savings so if you looked at overall your biggest Revenue piece is the revenue coming in from the state and other Revenue sources and your expense savings this small number but combined they'll make a decent number to your fund balance to your point no we will not have a 1.7 and I do I've heard it before in other school districts that you are concerned about using your
032fund balance because that should be for a a rainy day and you want to make sure you have a healthy Reserve or healthy fund balance and that's fine then I would say look at your reserves I think your reserves that you've been allocating accordingly for that you could use a little bit you don't have to and then as you go forward and make more savings and more savings you can increase that fund balance where you can get to a point where you would feel a little bit more comfortable right so in terms of the fund balance carry over right if we go with that option three we're saying we're taking 1 seven from our fund balance right yes what do we have there uh without putting it out in the public I could give you
033those numbers okay um and tell you where the public that's usually finance committee type of discussions I have them I just would like to share it with you prob so in terms of the carryover um is that 1.15 that's absolutely the carryover right the 1.15 is once again a carryover that we've naturally put into this part of I would say part of the budget um calculation so yes it would be part of the number and just to remind it used to be higher we worked very hard to get it back to 1.1 and just so you're aware I don't have necessarily the retirements on the horizon for this year but over the course of the next three years this is this is the point that we were trying to get to this next year because
034that's when I have it's like 15 possibly folks that we're going to have to replace them but we'll be able to replace them at a at a lower at a lower rate so when we say use reserves um is there you know I know we're just throwing out amounts here you know around around 300,000 for each of them in that first option are there increases that we're seeing with those two line items that would justify us using those reserves yes you had it increase in your TRS rate went up uh I'm sorry your ERS rate went up significantly your TRS rate actually declined a little bit it went from down to 1.59 um from 1011 I believe so the the TRS is the only one that kind of went down but the ERS definitely has
035gone up and your taxor you know is the reserve that you put aside that can mitigate certain tax issues and we could use some of those funds also and if we use the 1.15 from the carryover um will we have anything additional to put into reserves after the end of this fiscal year do you anticipate yeah I know you don't know for sure but once again gone through the numbers very quickly looking at what we do what has gone through the districts I do believe you'd put something back into your fund balance for this year so you'll definitely add back to your reserve I to your fund balance and I can once again without through the public and go through the details I can show you where the reserve the fund balance is what we
036currently have but our high estimate of what the fund balance I think we have once again that's kind of a moving Target but at least show you these are the numbers that we've come up with as of today and then we can work from there yeah and I kind of just the questions coming for me I kind of relate the the carryover and the fund balance together because if we don't carry it over apply it to the next budget we're going to put it into fund balance so to me those things are kind of one in the same because it's going to be the same bucket at the end of the day um and that that's just where my questions are coming from and that's and that's a fair question and I've seen that before
037it's it's you know you want to make sure that we have enough in our fund balance as we go forward to ensure that when we go down further down the road we have something rather than taking away from it a little bit and then having nothing because we never know if we're going to have enough fun balance in any year going forward yeah really my concern ER is I mean we've we saw last year the fiveyear Outlook right and I think um the next few years just got a little bit harder each year and I don't think it was this year um that was our hardest year I think it was next year the year after but you know with you're saying there's retirements that could that could help it out a little bit but
038um it does also change our school Dynamic right you know so um and growth our growth factor still over one I think that's going to remain you know there's a lot of indicators here that are pointing in a good a decent Direction I think the positive right now looking at those three recommendations that we're not we're not tapping into any of our programs we're not cutting any programs I mean we're looking at taking Reserve to meet the the balance the budget or increase the fund balance uh take but we're not we're not impacting programs right but I think that's all choice I mean we could have done the same thing last year taking all from fund balance right I mean so so yes I do think it is a good thing that it's low enough
039that we can consider covering that Gap with one of the two but that is always a choice as well and I think you know absolutely and that's our choice tonight I mean we can direct the administra administration to go back and and look at cuts to to narrow that Gap right now we're not not necessary necessary right hey else have feelings of where you'd like to go as far as the balance recommendations feel free to email me I'm willing to give you I think it's important also to know that we're not necessarily tied to the 300 300 if it it's a little more in one A Little Less in the other you know this is just an example um you know so those numbers can be massaged somewhat so that's it's a little bit more
040from one a little less from the other and the balance of those Reserves is not shown that's just what's recommended to use out second there's a detail the totals of people what's exactly in your reserves so that would be enough that you have each one has then I think it's also fair to mention as I think Al mentioned it before both houses of the legislature their onep party bills look like they're really pushing for schools to get an an additional uh amount of fun fing so you know that would go right back into filling this void has there been any data that might fill in the word amount like um both hous 2% to 4% income don't quote me one of the houses from two they want to go 2% to 3% the other house
041it might have been that might have been Senate uh the the assembly wants to go from two to 2.9% um both houses want to put the brakes on the electric busing uh one wants to eliminate it completely I think that was the assembly with uh an assemblyman from somewhere Central New York has a whole other plan that he's proposing um the other one was uh allowing the commissioner to put delays in place depending on local issues so if so for instance if Central Hudson wasn't able to provide the power that we needed we could apply to her and she could put a delay in our area that type of thing the biggest thing is changing that that um I may say this wrong so correct me if I'm wrong the growth factor or the calculation
042to make us more like oh it's called the regional cost index that's what and what that is is basically um they broken up the state into certain sections New York City Long Island Westchester Hudson Valley and each one of those regions gets a one point plus Factor on their state aid or per pupil um um Revenue if we their goal is to move the Hudson Valley equal to I believe um New York City or Long Island which I think is at 1.4 metro area and we are currently at like 1.3 so that right there change if they do that they do that for Valley that's an increase automatically for all school districts because you're the ratio that they're adding on to your pupil um um cost per students that you're going to get reimbursed for
043is been multiplied by that of course New York City gets pulled out of there they get their own factor and then I think Island the factor but if we if that does pass it it adds Revenue to every school district that factor goes up so once again I think we're at 1.3 1.3 some sequence of numbers we go to 1.4 I was trying to look at what that would do in terms of Highland and for for our school districts but you have to dive back into the foundation nuts that's a formula that's arduous at can you bring up that slide more I wanted I want to know where board members you know feel about that and I will I'll say because out of the gates I was real you know uh hard against using fund
044balance and that's only because and if you're out there this is for you sue Gilmore we worked very hard to reduce it is so hard once you commit a fund balance number it's like baked in it's really difficult to reduce so the goal was to get it down to a million and we got it down what is it 1.1 1.15 as close as we could get so the thought of that going back up because that that's risk makes me nervous but yet there's schools out there who would apply the fun balance not think twice about it I just don't know if it can be regenerated you know that's a discussion but so that's why I'm all reserves and for me yeah the word Reserve I don't know provides an answer for me that's what the
045money's been set aside for but somebody might feel otherwise and I want or a 5050 I just want to make sure that every board member you know if you have a strong feeling I want to hear about it one way or the other me um would the reserve money I don't I don't think we need to go all the way to the 22nd before we adopt the budget because then only it's only good news that could come from the state I'd imagine is what it sounds like anyway no but if we go with the information from the state you know and I'm going with point of view we wait till we see what those numbers are as long as we have an idea that we're going with that shortfall should be less 300,000 250,000 we
046have a goal of how we want to address it that would make it easier once we're presenting it to you and I'm not saying that the state's coming back at $400,000 that's not what I'm saying but there will be changes to your Revenue sources that will impact this deficit how much I don't know um that's what everybody's waiting for until you know April a little bit after April for but it will have an impact here on your number and I'm being optimistic that it will be reduced that numbers at Le minimum um option two there kind of takes a a blend more from three or four different amounts the ERS reserves TRS reserves as they're set up uh this create any kind of situation within those funds that we should be aware of uh we
047have comfortable amounts left yes I believe you have in the in your the package that I gave everybody there are comfortable amounts left in those numbers so that if you did take you know this portion off the top it would not be a significant Dent to that number once again you've set up your reserve policies to kind when you get your fund balance you kind of put your money back into your reserves that was part of the policies that you set up so whenever we get a fund balance we've been allocating some of the money specifically to the res some of it's marked for those to the reserves and then flooding back into your fund balance so that's what I've been doing you know you go first to your reserves and then what's left over
048you kind of been dropping into the fund balance because that's what was set up here as part of the dial as as we move forward I like to reserve option one uh and like Joel said earlier it doesn't have to be you know equal equal you leave that up to Desmond to decide of how he wants to proportion that that amount there could be you know 400 200 uh but I I still like to to go with the reserves and the tax shirt not touch fund balance or add more fund balance at all so my recommendation as we move forward be uh option one I also leading towards option one I really don't want to touch anything with the fund balance um I'm not sure that I agree with the round numbers based on the
049the account but again that's up to you and so but I am leaning towards one as my recommendation as well I think I I agree with one I and along with else I think given what we see in the reserves I would probably shift that to a two3 one3 you know given the uh the proportions that are showing in the Reserve I gave the presentation just to keep it very cleanly rather than diving into some mathematical calculation that probably some you'll see yeah I you'll know what their anticipa are each so I think we've given Desmond a direction right now uh the April 1 of J I'm sorry I agree with option one and looking at the reserves here and it's comment about maybe not splitting it the way it's shown here but I agree
050well you'll know the future needs as you see them and I will take into consideration you know said um in regards to the ERS if that is coming down then we're trying to portion it ACC based upon some of the yeah I would just prefer to keep it in line with where we're seeing the cost take the reserves out of there because if you have TRS all of a sudden shoot up and now we took 300 and we're down to 600 now and we don't have the money in the reserves there it doesn't make sense that we used it when we didn't really see an increase exactly you'll see the oncoming what is the um just curious I'm sorry I'm asking more open-ended questions what's the theory between behind um pulling that tax seary that
051the theory behind that is that we have allocated funds if um an organization or an entity goes back to the county and says that we disagree with your number and then we have to give them some type of rebate or reinstatement um and we've been funding that accordingly and you have some guidelines that specifically talk to that in the in the package that specifically talks about how you should treat that tax at certain point in time it asks for you to kind of give it back to the general and I was just wondering if there's any that have full any areas that we were concerned about that have fallen off of that radar in which case it made sense to you a that's yes um last year there were some questions about certain entities who
052once to were challenging the um tax rates that they were applied by that that resolved itself we have some new pilots coming on board you know I've looked at the numbers basically what you have in your reserve even if those individuals didn't pay or didn't come through it' still have more than enough to shelter that so at some point um we could use the taxi to kind of circle back but I want to make sure that we have something healthy enough to right for off any type of tax issues that we have and once again I think that's that's one of the areas I could either bolster up or if we take it from the TRS I can move it into that line yeah just I guess just a similar thing like if there's some
053that have fallen off the radar that we're not concerned about certainly maybe we take a little bit more from there if there's more on there that we are worried about might not want pull so much from we've got a couple of issues right now okay but not enough that we we need to the balance you have okay as the others you'll have the vision of that so right um but once again ERS TRS as I said before ERS has uh gone up and TRS has gone down so you know we just kind of look all adjusted accordingly but either way these are just the kind of the categories where I could take it from and if I'm going to go with reserves I can get better numbers as we get better numbers towards May 1
054April 1st I know there's a lot of rules around these reserves but just to follow up on the point that the board member made that we take 300 from TRS and now that's 600 and you get an unanticipated expense that exceeds that can you can there be transfers from these funds from one to another if need be not even if public approval I will look into that I usually it's not necessarily the case what happens is as your fund balance for this year comes through we would move money into those buckets accordingly and then move balance into your fund balance so you're you're doing that Ma there's other ways to address that it's coming back in and there's nothing to say that we couldn't use the ERS one if TRS went way up right like
055there's no I just in my mind when I'm saving for something and if I'm using it I would like to use it for that purpose and kind of keep those aligned but that's just my my own exactly they don't need voter approval approval is our capital reserve can I ask just a side note um the capital reserve balance that you have on here the 1.13 just or 1.1 just curious is that after the capital project or is that before we used for the capital I believe that's what we used to set the new 10year um one up last year so that's after Capital Project's done we still have that in there yes so this was this wasal what was left if you remember last year we had a third proposal we could not use that
056funding um we had to put it into another 10-year um Reserve we if we didn't so we didn't use it we put it in we started that we opened it with that amount and now that money will just continue until the next Capital project that money as Al mentioned can't be used unless there's vter approval on it so when we go out for another Capital project we will say we're using and hopefully that dollar amount will be a lot higher that we're going to use x number of dollars from that fund to offset the capital project I just wasn't sure if that was going to go away with the completion of this Capital project but sounds No actually after this Capital project there'll probably be more money that goes into that because there'll be funding
057that maybe wasn't used up okay so is everybody comfortable with moving our April 1st meeting to April 8 just so Desmond hopefully the state will have we both have professional work oblation uh there another day that's convenient for not that week not that week yeah we're at the same conference ironically we're at the same conference week yeah come back Thursday I'm Gone the six or the I'm at conference the following week that's spring break I'll be so then the following week I'm going to get to the snow day give back but it would be the first day that we come back 2 but I mean that could definitely be planned if that's if we don't have a quum for right if we don't have a quorum for the eth your next option is the 22nd
058which is already scheduled yes so we'll do the eth just to get the information and we don't have to vote until Jen and Janine are back we have we'll have five okay we'll have AUM great we miss one we'll still have a quum so then there's no meeting on the first you're moving the first the eth yeah so Lisa will send something out on that tomorrow hope Governor will have some anwers just the record it was originally the eth and we moved it to the first back in the summer when we were setting the schedule and historically it's just historically we always move that first one because of the by going back to our proposition we need to adopt that yeah Mike mik one yeah where would you be on number one number one everybody
059um uh yeah on that going back to the bus proposition only have to pick ups electric though I would be hesitant to do electric if they're going to use it for snow removal I think it's with a plow I believe it's with a plow a pick up with plow my opinion is if you're not going to have a charger in place there's no point in have an electric one you're never going to have it charged enough to use it just my own personal experience but I want to see us we talk a lot about electric you have an opportunity to do some onsite research and development I see them all over the neighborhoods some people here might have electric vehicles I don't know what the big deal is to test one out but I'm just
060it doesn't have to hold up any discussion I'm just I don't think that costed out in that so that number would probably be higher than than what was researched okay unless you have do you have a clost of an [Music] electric I would suggest dipping your toe in and go hybrid look you guys are the on BR now I'm saying Annie up and nobody wants to Handy up I think well what's up I think at the last meeting we talked about Suburban if we were going to add a Suburban to you know the list of go electri but uh all right are we we purchased all vehicles from last year's bus proposition I believe we have I believe so I don't want to increase the amount if it's not planned on I believe there's always
061next year we can't wait till uh April 8th to approve a bus proposition we lose it it's got to be done tonight or special meeting prior to April 1st I think it did we need 45 days correct I just so I just got to get to the newspaper I'm good moving forward I'm on to two more years G everybody okay I got an extension proposition all right it's on our agenda towards the end to to vote that in we're all good on the proposition I just have one issue I apologize for April 8th it has nothing to do with Highland it has to do with my heavy foot um evidently I have a got a speeding ticket tr get it on time I post postponed it because of tonight and they gave me guess what
062day so I will do my best to postpone that otherwise if you don't see me after the you know to visit me sandwich you can't make this up can't um I will do my best to make sure get here and I will try and make that change but once again get time I can always try to pinch bat for you that night yeah sure I'll make the numbers put all my talking points there just tell them who you are he went in with his name tag think he was going to get yeah thank you for all that work moving on to our consent items uh EA e.8 to C3 and then we do have uh an addendum under Personnel for retirement full bus driver anybody have as usual anybody have any questions concerns comments uh
063want to pull any item out and vote on it separately have any questions you can shout them out support service and uh our uh business official superintendent did a lot of work on those change orders and um allowance to bement so they're all all within all accurate and all within reason so they're okay triple check all right can I entertain a motion to accept our consent motion by Heather second by Tom is there any discussion everyone's good all those in favor oppos so Carri okay our principal's report element two quick additions to my board report um first last week uh kindergarten went to up pack to go see a performance by the mermaid Theater Company from Nova Scotia and um you know when the kinderg garters came back they thought it was pretty awesome tried
064asking them like you know what what did you go see they did not convey good night Moon and Runaway Bunny but they did have a really fun time so so as you know little five-year-olds it was awesome it was huge and I was like all know what did you see they're like it's a huge this place is big I was um the same kids that they F the 1980s that we were in horse and Mony everything the 8S they thought everything was in black and white I don't know if you guys saw this interview with some first graders and kindergarteners they also said that the 80s um that there was horsse and carriages and I had a walk everywhere and that there was no traffic signs lights really 1980s huh so we did that for
065the 100th day celebration um and then the last thing is kind of more of a um joint announcement I guess because it's between two different buildings Miss Meer from the high school came down and brought down a bunch of students today um and they read and discussed Ramadan with various classes in the elementary school so that was it was kind of a both additions so does anyone have any questions keep them motivated long stretch here great thank you Ian yeah hi everybody um two quick updates the first one um today actually our sixth grade so Lindsay jard who's the librarian between the Middle School and High School um set up a virtual um uh uh Q&A session with uh it was Nationwide actually with author Alan Gratz who wrote the book Refugee which our sixth
066graders are actually currently reading um so it was really cool so they were all in the cafeteria um and he got to talk about his book his process um different things in the book and then he also took preent questions from different kids around the country um to answer about his book and his himself and his career so it was really cool the kids really enjoyed it um it took about an hour um and it was just a really really cool event so I wanted to add that and then the other thing is actually from all all three of the buildings which is um we talked about this in the past and there was an alert sent out but on uh Thursday at 5:30 we're doing a um information session for parents and for community
067members regarding the new mobile device policy in the district so I just want to pass one of these around for everybody um and again that's from all three of us so that I figured I those are my updates does anybody have any questions thank you thank you good evening everybody uh two brief updates um in your board report uh you'll notice that we had an elective fair for the first time at the high school um very successful um so one of my updates was a potential idea that came up um that Colleen and I are going to start working on we're looking to uh start a summer job fair uh for our Juniors and seniors uh and bringing local businesses to promote job opportunities within the community you know that's a Hot Topic the kids
068want to leave school with they summer job I know that that's a topic on social media so you know hopefully we can address that and have a successful uh summer job fair for our students um very similar to the elect Affair format so hopefully you guys will be seeing that in the future and then just lastly uh Colleen started on Thursday just wanted to give her kudos for jumping right in mid year um she's been doing excellent and has really kind of you know started getting comfortable and and really taking on Ro um very well so that's it does anybody have any questions about the high school board report thank you sir one question sure roll roll out of the new cell phone poliy yesterday correct first official yeah Monday y it was yesterday everybody
069around has been thinking it's Thursday but things went Smo yes so I I would say it went very smooth we had grade level meetings uh the Friday before um I know the district had made communication once the policy was passed I've also made communication directly to my families at the high school um you know we've been floating around the teachers have been great um talking about it in the class is leading up to really kind of help with that anticipation um and you know some minor growing pains and just things that we need to figure out and just things that were not expected nothing major um and it's also you know an interesting time for Colleen because she's also getting settled in but um other than that you know the feedback has been great for
070the most part and we're going to continue to monitor it uh see what's going well what may need work and just improve it real good buying on it yeah I would say for the most part that you know that I've heard thank you any other questions for the high school thank you okay our director's uh monthly reports anybody have any questions our directors are all sitting here so if you have anything shout out to them uh Captain we had it in your report uh you said how you were up to just about you got all your people back to work we had a couple longterm people that were out SI they're back yeah so we're looking good have two people in training we're very excited about that moment because we just voted you know on
071approving a re know that yep enjoy it while it's there yeah thank you U Richard reading your report um I noticed that um due to some concerns we had within our student body and one uh student board rep down here uh when we're having a discussion about uh Tech facilities in the high school here um you upgraded you listen then you upgraded some equipment and made things work for some of you know the high-end portfolios that people have to produce and be able to get out there to where they're going so thank you very much for that really appreciate it keep an eye on it okay anybody else yeah Rich can you just go into a little bit more detail about some of the network infrastructure I know you mentioned that the the um sorry
072the concession stand is all ready to go and that there was some upgrades done to the Press Box for the Athletics for spring so what what needed to really be done and are like we ready to go for the new field and everything for spring sports right so we had to make sure that the the fiber internet cables were ran to those both the Press Box and to the concession stand make sure that the switches were installed and that they were configured correctly wireless access point so that the people around in the stands and the concession stand can connect phone so that if there's any issues they can call so we just made sure all of that was set up and it's all working and we verified it was all up today you know the
073last little bit of that so on the old Press Box maybe this is a joint thing with Frank on the old Press Box I know there was like a camera for use of the for students to be able to you know dive into their account so they could use that filming for you know potentially going on to college to get recruited has all of that been fixed and is available for for use the Huddle is all and it's working and all that's good okay work the yes okay anyone else okay thank you to our direct um moving on to our stud rep um the elementary school 73 kindergarten registration packets have been sent out and 27 have been return and the number actually increased between last Wednesday when I was email and yesterday so another
074will go out to tell people to pick up the packets and them and the elementary school amazing job promoting um there are 25 classrooms participating in Junior Achievement and grades kindergarten through fifth grade the Junior Achievement program is an education initiative run by the Highland Rotary Club and they a huge thanks to the Highland gr for supporting Early Childhood scholarship and today actually hope Williams a Highland High School student went to the elementary school and did theater activities with fourth graders during their music class teaching Elementary School age kids musical theater as part of her Capstone project for Mrs sailor citizenship class she went last she went March 13th 14th 17th as well as today at the middle school the students have been excitedly preparing to harvest syrup in Dr Harris's science elective class on
075the HMS property so far they've used Dr Harris's botony knowledge to tap maple trees and collect the sap the students will be boiling the sap later this week to create some um and throughout the whole month of March students have participated in the celebration of national days earlier in the month students dressed in festive pjs for pajama day and fun clothes for cheese doodle and Mario days um they also got to sample cookies on Oreo day which would have been my favorite last week the students were able to engage in scavenger hunt around the building on Pi Day to try and find the most pictures of Pi throughout the building this celebration will continue until the end of March and should create many more fond activities uh at the high school the M United Nations
076Club hostes an all day conference on March 7th during parent teacher conferences they welcome students from olster bosies and Nal High School this event provided participants with the offing to seven loal leaders and hisorical figures while tackling International and issues members played integral roles in the conference of most organizers committee members and chairs the committee chairs facilitated three committees designed to Mir the real United Nations compete with formal procedures and professional attire delegates engaged in structured debates conduct thorough research and participated in strategic negotiations all in an effort to form alliances and draft peaceful resolutions um Club president sh Gonda and Club advisor Stephanie s worked Around the Clock together to organize this conference and it turned out amazing um for winter sports Josh Bishop went to States for attack and field we ended up
077winning gold representing the athletic Talent we have at Highland for wrestling Bradley got Quinn Jones and Jacob declair went to states in the division 2 Section n New York State Wrestling Championships and both cheer cheer and girls and boys basketball had um also in Sailor citizenship and action class liy Reynolds and Haley suin are putting together at work drive their Capstone project is about helping younger students be more engaged in reading and they've identified a serious literacy problem in America for many reasons that his children are not getting enough resources of learning disabilities or some just having a lack of desire to read and they researched and found an organization called the red bookshelf they're located in ALB and they take or new books and put red bookshelfs around the town for children and young
078adults tojoy Lily and Haley had a book drive where they put boxes in the Highland Elementary Middle School and high schools for everyone to be able to donate not any and help get a lot of books that they will be taking to themselves next Wednesday also in the CIA class Alexis bis continued Rachel Branda and Riley Klein's clothing project last year Alexis received innumerable donations from community members sorted through the clothing and put on the clothing all day also during parent teacher conferences but she didn't have to be at school um over 25 people that were in need were able to get closing and left clothes were taken by an organization called clothing for funding which distributes clothes for those um the Highland High School drama club is putting on the performances will take place
079in the High School auditorium on March 28th 27th at 7.m $10 in advance and 15 at the door other are free um and this is going to be an amazing production for catchy music and fantastic perform all I have any questions okay thank you Mr Zim good evening everyone I have two items to share with you uh first the next districtwide direct committee meeting will be next Tuesday March 25th at 5:30 p.m. in the elementary school library media center the meeting will include updates on Elementary School building level work and a review of the finalized 2023 2024 Equity report for more information about the meeting please reach out to Liaison Harriet Meyer at the high school next uh another upk update uh local preschools who are interested in participating in next year's upk program with
080the district must submit their proposals to the district by the end of March so far as of today we have received letters of intent from three local preschools two of which uh have been part of the program for the past two years the third preschool is currently preparing a proposal for submission and I will of course provide an update at our next board Ved meeting uh for the upk program and for all out there for all the parents out there are preschool age children be on the lookout for information in about our upk program for the next school year information will be going out in April as it always does and there'll be uh information about how to sign up and whether we'll need to do a lottery or not we'll have an idea of
081how many seats we can offer um so more information to follow soon any questions thank you Bill just wanted to ask I know in the past when we were first introducing the program there was the the pricing that was coming back was a little elevated has there been any nothing well I anticipate according to the governor's budget and what the state has released it's to be pretty comparable to what we were able to offer this year so nothing has changed at this point I I meant on the other side they're not requiring more than you're able to to offer no that well you mean the preschools yeah no but I think they choose they decide how many seats they can offer US based on that so instead of offering saying we have 40 50 seats
082for you they might say we have 20 to try to so we have no we we have no way of negotiating those numbers we don't because we don't really have any of our own funds going toward that so um but I will say this year um we offered 58 seats and only there were 60 applicants and we were able to get through and we didn't have a waiting list after after once it started so as opposed to the first year which we had 40 seats to offer in 80 applicants and there was a long waiting list so it's moments like that where I wish we had some element of negotiating seat right yeah but at this point no thank you thank you Dr boy uh we are in the midst of planning for our summer
083Services uh so we have students that do um get program programming and services uh year round uh so we'll be posting some of those positions uh for the summer and also putting in all of our applications uh to the summer programs for students that attend uh programs outside of our district uh today the state released some notifications and reports for indicators which look at disproportionality uh representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education uh some districts were identified and then they have to go through reviews we not identified in any of the areas uh so we are notified that of today uh and just finally Friday um this Friday is March 21st it is World Down syndrome day um as part of the um awareness they encourage everyone to wear bold colorful fun socks
084on Friday so we are encouraging there's anybody here that has any uh encouraging everyone to participate this Friday pair of those socks already we all might need to borrow some got enough any questions for Dr boy thank you superintendent okay so um my report's almost done because uh everyone reported on everything that I had on my list um but just a reminder the Ed Foundation dinner is May 9th from 6 to 10 at Indian Ridge again as I said at the last meeting we'll be honoring Jee Rizzo uh Fred Deo and Mary Beth Sasso the tickets are $65 a piece uh the information is on our Facebook and website and you can get tickets by calling Becky oody at 845 2341 1522 I gave Heather a copy or a couple of Gala checks already from
085table sponsors that uh went out to the um organizations that we work with I believe that's our legal council and it might be our construction management group I'm I think that one came in or that one's coming um so that's nice that those folks are are helping with that just uh great success at our two scholarship concerts this year um you know as everyone's aware we had to move our uh instrumental concert to last night and you could not get a seat in the gym it was uh probably over capacity and they just sounded incredible so kudos to our music department I don't have the final number of what dollar uh amount that they brought in for the scholarships um but as we uh mentioned at the concerts all of that money goes right back
086into giving High School seniors that are going into the field of Music um scholarships and I think the biggest thing that everybody's waiting for is what is the plan for the four unused snow days so I have a communication ready to go out uh tomorrow uh to the families and uh so right now we have four snow days if we don't use all four or if we don't use any before spring break then my plan is for Friday April 1st Monday April 21st Friday May 23rd and then Tuesday May 27 if we did I what did I say oh my goodness April 11th Friday April 11th this is all going to go out in an actual email though to the full community tomorrow if we do use one uh before the break then we will
087be in session on April ail 11th and we will take uh Monday April 21st Friday May 23rd and Tuesday May 27th and then it goes on from there if we use two days before the spring break then we will have Monday uh April 21st and Friday May 23rd if we use three then it will just be uh Friday May 23rd and this will all be written out for the parents so that they can tack it up on the refrigerator and uh if we do use any days before spring break I will send out another communication so if I had to make that call in the morning I would tell parents that you know today we closed but expect an email from me later in the day just to clarify what the give back days are
088we've never been in a situation where we've actually had four that we had to give back so um I guess exciting because uh folks get extra long weekend or break um and thankfully we didn't have any adverse weather that uh caused us to close to too many times uh to interrupt instruction during the school year so that'll go out tomorrow and that's all that I have any questions everybody good on the you snow days all right Board of Education we covered the new business unused emergency days and now we're going to the um policy regard to use of the new turf field that we had discussion last month we had a policy proposal presented anybody have any concerns regarding that policy and and if you don't you want to move it to a second reading
089and adop this evening we can well I know there was a lot of good discussion at the last meeting was there any did any of that result in any recommended changes or tweaks of the draft policy or no not that I recall I don't think there was any emails or anything regarding that not the minutes all right just a few minor word you know that was it nothing nothing substantial some word smithing yeah yeah any uh concerns comments is there going to be a fee schedule that's going to go in this policy with regards to the usage of the fields and or other things that might require I don't believe we we put our Fe schedule in the policy that CH not the policy because it's updated every year yeah re or reupdated every year
090um I think the biggest thing um for use of the uh concession stamp facil that we we're going to recommend when the letter goes out to each organization that it' be beneficial for them to get a board aler County Board of Health approval and then they don't have to uh hire any of our food service workers to supplement their staff I think the policy as we saw it was fine but I think one of the things that kept coming up was the uh the issue of insurance and I I know everybody here is tasked with a great many things but I would like to see us undergo a review of our insurance policies and so and insurance uh providers and maybe if we have to form a committee in order to do that we could
091do that you want to chime in sure so we have something just on that point um for the last meeting I decided to reach out to BU National and ask um to just stop by and have a conversation with me about the insurance that we have here and I've also reached out to nicer and ask them to kind of come by and kind of talk to us about our insurance requirements and then um we're going to work on trying to putting together some type of memo that talks about the insurance policy we had one year why insurance policy we have this year what were the major differences between the two and what caused some of the issues with the entities but we have um both organizations coming in here to assess the policy and tell
092us what we need with that down the line if we find that the the Criterion they're putting forth to us isn't a good fit with the district that we open up research okay I have asked them PL very plain poly saying um how do extra classroom clubs cover this what about um Varsity letter clubs what happens in this situation in that situation I want specific answers to my question rather than generic well they're in there show me in the policy if it's in there or if it's not in there and where it would be covered and if it is covered how is it covered and what would it cost so I'm making sure that they give me specific answers that I can give back to the board I appreciate that tremendously I think because what
093was becoming evident was we have neighboring districts that don't have these limitations and the question is what are their policies and why don't they and why do we and I I think sort of to be able to confront them with that and to also you know gain a better understanding I think would be I think just to be clear we don't know that they don't have those limitations we just don't know if they accept more risk than what we're willing to accept I think that's a valid point but I think it's one we should explore as well right I would say if anyone knows of examples of that let us know because that would help with the research just saying another District allows things to happen doesn't tell us what district can we call can
094we do some research so um you know that's an age-old thing is oh I know that they do in other districts well what other districts so that we can make that phone call and find out are they just taking on more risk and if the board is willing to do that then that's something that we need to have a conversation on about what that risk threshold is going to be I would just be surprised if a sitting board would knowingly take on an inordinate amount of risk knowing their boards may not know that they're taking on additional risks but we won't know that until we can actually call the district that is in question so we get the analysis we'll share the insurance requirements are not part of the policy that's that's a district requirement
095the policy what what's happening is our current policy is community use of school facilities is going to have the turf field use added to it right right neither one of them are going to talk about I said the policy was f i during the policy discussion it became evident that this was an issue we need get a better understanding I mean I'm going to say end result is the board has some can have some input into the insurance once Desmond kind of finalizing and brings it back to us that we can be a little if we want it to be a little lenient in certain areas but I don't think that's something the board wants to get involved in but it's always the board perogative no i' confront the actuaries and talk to them about
096it no no no you know get that far it's more of a discussion on what the general liability coverage is well that's what I mean and what types of you know incidents an act would love for us to put up the money to cover all possibilities but that's part of the negotiation of the policy is to say well I don't think that's reasonable if you want us to remain we have to have you know there's there's always play in these I'm going to hold the second reading um to have uh I don't believe legal has vetted this yet so we're going to have that added to our current current policy and have them V yeah it's time to come with a full draft Yeah if we're good to go then I'll have legal start working
097on this and they'll have plenty of time if we're moving so you got 24 hours if you have any comments to get back to Joel before he sends it on to Leal now we got some time well as we have it back by April 8 all right I won't send it until Thursday morning all right um under new business again uh School Board candidate nominating petitions uh are available currently uh they have to be back uh to lease on Monday April 21st 500 PM we have two vacancies uh to fill this year stop Lisa if we're closed that day you'll still be here to accept them so is the district office we had a meeting today with the district clerks and that was one of the things I was going to talk to you about
098is the central office open or closed yes it's central office doesn't get uh doesn't get snow days so I will be here not when we return them they if the weather is bad then we afford them that nice gesture yeah I will I will be here I okay okay I will be here the two vacancies this year are Janine Gel and Tom Miller the office for three years U and everything in the petitions I think are self-explanatory about 25 signatures and they have be back to Lisa Shia all right uh bus proposition what we discussed earlier I'll read it and we'll do a roll call be resolve the Board of Education upon the recommendation of superintendent approves the following proposition to be placed in the ballot at the annual meeting of the qualified voters of
099the Highland Central School District to be conducted on Tuesday May 20th 2025 shall the Board of Education of the Highland Central School District be authorized to one acquire five school buses and one pickup truck with plow and pay cost incidental there too at the cost not to exceed $962,500 is estimated to be the maximum cost thereof two expend such sum for such purpose three Levy the necessary tax therefore to be levied and collected in annual installments in such years and such amounts as may be determined by the Board of Education in accordance with Section 416 of the education law taking into account State a and four in anticipation of the collection of such tax issue bonds and notes of the district at one time or from time to time in the principal amount not to
100exceed $962,500 Carri under miscellaneous one thing I just need a motion yes we need a motion you're right motion to uh motion by Janine second by Ed thank you we got the roll aler County uh B's annual meeting if you're going please respond to leis 1 it's the students in the culinary program prepare a dinner and headcount is required I went to that bunch of years back it's it is an enjoyable event if you're interested let Lisa know uh anything for the good and Welfare of the district question um came up last year and um want to get it straight out for this year we've always always had a not really policy but an agreement that uh current Board of Ed members Andor former board V members could present diplomas to their children grandchildren um
101at graduation um I'd like to continue that and uh I don't know what kind of discussion we want to have about it what the parameters are but we can wait till next MO into it I just want to give you a little heads up have some thoughts and we'll you will put it together okay thank you just just quick history of what Tom is bringing up and it's been a standing practice for a good number of years uh my only concern is uh quite a few years ago and Tom will attest to it that um students senior students would request board members and it became like a somewhat of a competition see how many they can request to give out diplomas I know at one point in time Tom gave out quite a few I
102gave out quite a few some other board members at that time I think our discussion has to center around the current sitting board members and their children only and maybe uh retired board members can give out to grandchildren I don't think we should get into a position where we're allowing board members to just constantly give out uh diplomas because it does slow down the uh distribution ofs it does cause some anxiety amongst certain people because you got to make sure you get it to the guidance department where they can list it on the on the the list of of names are reading off that who's coming up and then we have to wait for someone to come out of the audience to walk all the way up and give out the diploma so keep that
103all in mind I I would be okay with it with curring with sitting board members and former board members uh to possibly their grandchildren but not you know neighbors or you know who's down the street or a friend of a friend I think we have to limit that we have to kind of make that policy not a policy but a standing commitment from the board we did in in the past have those persons that were chosen you know for that honor if they weren't already sitting on the stage as sitting board board members they put a little grouping of chairs off to the side so it made that a little bit easier again probably it's one of the few perks I think you want to consider a per to be able to do that and
104have that on so okay uh anything else for the good and Welfare of the district did we um just a question did we commit to a table to sponsoring a table at the Gala or we're just going to leave it as that was going to be my question to everybody on the board if the board wanted to I support it just okay I'll let everybody know how much the details thank you appreciate it okay anything else for the good and Welfare of the district I'll open the meeting up to public comment for General items okay we'll close public comment ask for a motion to journ um I believe we want to go into executive session for a short executive session to discuss um uh contracts salary adjustments motion so need a motion to go into
105executive session we will not be coming back out into General Session so everyone can go home uh motion by Mike second by Tom all of favor stay here