001good evening everyone uh we'll open the meeting can we please uh stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands indivisible andice for all I apologize ahead of time for my voice and might go in and out but I'll I'll bear with it we'll open the meeting up now to public comment anyone has any public comment for agenda items only in the front end please come up to the mic state your name and ask your question okay we'll close public comment we have a few special presentations this evening the first one being leaders of the pack I will ask the elementary school to come up first so uh just as they're getting ready to come up uh I just want
002to acknowledge that these leaders of the pack were chosen almost three months ago to join us at the January meeting and that got snowed out and then the February meeting and that got snowed out uh we were able to have our board meetings but we did not have these folks come out to be recognized so we are so thankful that the weather is with us tonight and we're able to honor these three individuals this is our forch mhis starting the this Isis a clh and instruction always heach Helmer your physical teer preped and E to participate he a smile his [Applause] ands ready look this way [Applause] culations m also resp and always s job [Applause] good evening everybody I would like toce first one missure of having in a row never ISP I know
003thought Rizo a teacher in her D College biology I would describe her as the ultimate crafts is kind court and motivated what makes is that she one of the students learns for the S of knowing if she's not onas learning works hard and earns good grades but she does of reward Mr Tatum English there are t of compliment things I can say about Kai but I think the thing that really stands out for me is the way she inspires herar whether it's by sharing an idea discussion priv sharing wrot at her help stud geted around being warm empathe she just goes about hers being her authentic self and that alone [Applause] other he has it on timer again on behalf of the entire Board of Education uh congratulations to all our leaders of the pack
004job well done our our next presentation uh Mr Murphy will come up and introduce two individuals who've been accepted to board state which is some honor to be uh introduced into so I ask Mr Murphy to come up and introduce the two candidates thank you Mr Baron good evening members of the board um Zachary and Michael can you please join me up here Zach right here Michael right here face that way so American Legion uh boy state is among the most respected and selective educational programs of government instruction for us high school students a particip participatory program in which students become part of the operation of local County and state government boy state was founded in 1935 at boy State participants learn the rights Privileges and responsibilities of franchised citizens the training is objective and
005centers on the structure of City County and state governments operated by students elected to various offices voice State activities include legislative Sessions Court proceedings law enforcement presentations assemblies bands choruses and recreational programs American Legion posts select High School juniors to attend the boy State program in most cases individual expenses are paid by a sponsoring post a local business or another community-based organization Michael Secor and Zachary hazer uh congratulations on being chosen to participate in boy State through the American Legion Post 193 here in Highland that I a proud member of this is a remarkable achievement that reflects your outstanding leadership qualities and dedication to your community boy state provides an invaluable opportunity to engage with peers from diverse backgrounds develop essential leadership skills and gain a deeper understanding of civic responsibility your selection is a
006testament to your exemplary character and potential to make a positive impact in not only your school but local community and Beyond Embrace this opportunity with enthusiasm and determination and let your participation in boy State be a stepping stone towards even greater accomplishments in the future we are incredibly proud of you and look forward to seeing the incredible contributions you will undoubtedly make during this experience and Beyond congratulations once again and best wishes for a very rewarding and enriching boy State program go in front of the podium one [Applause] more congratulations to Zach and Michael an honor well deserved our next presentation is by PBIS uh it's in regards to our cell phone survey so I would ask Mr Murphy to come up hi again uh so in the last several board meetings the topic of
007uh technology use and cell phones computers laptops Etc um has been something that we've been discussing and for tonight in response to those discussions we've asked uh members of the high school PBIS team uh to come talk a little bit about some of their fin ings and the discussions of work that they have done as well so Dr paf and Mr Ranon can you please come on up FL is all yours so thank you for allowing us to address you tonight and to tell you a little bit about what the PBIS team at the high school has been doing um just quick review um what the PBIS committee is sort of devoted to and by the way it's it's both of us as well as a a group of some other teachers our social worker
008um we try to focus on issues in the building that relate to school climate to setting positive expectations for behavior um in the past we've worked on issues you know for example planning freshman orientation so we bring freshmen to the high school every spring and summer to set expectations teach them is it okay if I don't use this by the way can you hear me okay um to teach them about school not so what you have in front of you is of stud do so I think I the first two questions C really you of also St to all know F help guess one last note things that next year we want to come up with some instruction that we can incorporate into things like oration come opul so we got this data about a
009year ago no this wasin the last oh okay very recent then very I think one of the comments that I had or some of the discussion that I've been heading up really don't have to do with you know I I understand acceptable use in schools we do have to also remember we're dealing with adolescence we're dealing with minors and they think they could do a lot of things but as we already had some admittance to they really can't right um you see I have a sign up here that says I stand with nicet the New York state union of teachers just put out an article in their periodical that really talks about all the challenges that students are facing they're burdened by these cell phones you mentioned the bullying I think you mentioned the word
010a lot I think at the last board meeting we made it very clear that we're losing a lot of time instructional time that we can never get back that these devices lead to students being off focused and off off task as much as we'd like to think that they still positively contribute and I'm sure that they do it's just when we look at policy and making decisions at this level and let me be clear the board didn't go looking for this Administration didn't bring this to the board faculty did right Dr Murphy didn't bring this to the board faculty did because it's a problem in the building so it is difficult and we've been going back and forth but what became I think vividly clear at the last meeting is that the loss of instructional
011time is great and we're the numbers that we were using at that time about 30 to 35 hours over the course of the year for an average student was really a low number so I appreciate the data it's in some ways inconclusive like a lot of the data we got so the board is still left with an ongoing discussion and I think a a decision make but I thank you for you know the value ad sounds like the progress the discussions um at education level is actually making some decisions and moving past that and getting on to instruction so I know we're going to talk more about that today but I did it's hard to get this article if you're not a member and I am not um so I got a copy and I
012cut it up I'm going to just share it with board members you can take a picture you might have access to this document but um you know it talks about all the toll on kids' mental health and educators are fighting back the amount of time spent on look the biggest words in your survey are social and media they're not any of your learning portals it's not Discovery learning it's not these things that we know that they should be accessing for school so that's the draw and that's the challenge in overcoming um this this tremendous loss this theft of instructional time thank you Mike it's not in our uh agenda later on to have further discussion with cell phone so if you want we can have that discussion right now and continue it for a little
013bit then go into our budget presentation absolutely I guess my question would be twofold um what I'm hearing is the policy if we establish a more rigorous policy it would give teeth to the to the faculty to enforce but on the other side a student handbook which kind of addresses the use and not use of cell phones is very important our superintendent gave us uh a couple copies of area schools and one from Valley Central is very interesting I read the whole thing if you haven't read the one from Valley Central and which addresses cell phone use in their student handbook so I think it's a twofold approach we address it with policy but it also has to be reinforce with the student handbook and and you found and freshman orientation you hit it on
014the head that's when you're really got instill in these students the dos and don'ts of of cell phones and you found that the approved use and the unallowed use the misuse in our code of conduct doesn't address it the same way VC does yeah anyone else have any yeah please let's hear from some other folks because I I did draft some policy and I'll I'll share a little bit of that sure enough I think it has to be multi-layered right so I think there has to be a policy I think it has to be reflected in the student handbook and then it also needs to be in the code of conduct so that it is in all three spots I think addressing it at freshman orientation is a great idea and I then think being
015able to kind of see what happens with that is important um I found it interesting in some of the data that there was not a lot of policy at a lot of the other schools a lot of it is just how to use it the does and don'ts in the student handbook and then some schools don't use it a code of conduct but um the but it was really the student handbook and being able to provide examples to the students of an appropriate way to use your cell phone versus not an appropriate way to use your cell phone so I think that approach and that's why I kind of I preferred Valley Central's uh way that they did that is because it does show you the dues and don'ts of usage of that and I
016think that's important this goes into theel ofy if we are asking students to do or change and so that's where they're kind of stealing my thunder I wanted to say thank you to pdis um I I we greatly as a board appreciate the input because we are a community and you're accessing Community Voices that we don't necessarily have access to and I think that what you're saying you know is is very much there's a difference between a dictatorship and a community coming together to form a society with societal rules and I think very much here we're forming a community in a society which everyone willingly ascribes to and that it's very important for us to recognize those voices and I I do thank PBIS for that um it sounds like we're we're all heading towards
017the same page of a cultural shift uh not that it it intentionally shifted into cult but I think like I mentioned in another meeting this is a relatively new thing we're going 20 years into this technology and it's just grown so exponentially in its abilities and the way it's majority of the apps are are designed they're they're actually technically designed to be addictive with minor points of gratification so they're actually rewiring our adult brains and our children's brains so I think I think it speaks to us as a as a as a community that we've become aware of this and the dangers it can present but we also want to be sensitive to um at what point we we don't want to feel like we're being dictatorial we want to strengthen the community so I
018I fully support what you're saying I think we have to hit all of those points I think we have to communicate it uh why we want this to be our culture and to me this is so positive what you did because it it speaks to the recognition even from the students of what we're seeing and what we're reading about in the data I think another aspect another layer Mike I I think I shared that article um that came out and parents don't even realize how they're contributing to the distraction and I'm I'm guilty of even my son right now in college I'll text him in the middle of the day hey what about this and he I'll get back Dad I'm in class you know and they're showing that this is parents are inadvertently because
019we love our children and we want to make sure they're safe or a doctor's appointment changes or the schedules change we don't think twice about picking up and texting them but they'll be in the middle of a lesson and we've now pulled them away from the lesson and it's going to take them 15 minutes to to refocus because they're adolescence so it's uh I I really do appreciate that we're becoming aware of this and we're trying to address it so I just wanted to say thank you to the PB for that as well I I I do believe that the text that you're talking about and all those policies does exist and I don't know I I don't know if it's going to make a difference certainly raising awareness maybe some training does um but
020I do believe all schools are wrestling with this issue of losing instructional time to the cell phone it's a powerful device we know it um the other piece that I'm concerned about is that students don't have the 21st century skills so when I'm hearing that you know the Chromebook isn't charged and bringing a device back and forth they have no problem bringing their cell phone I understand it fits in their pocket but really in the world of higher ed and in the world of work you're going to have a laptop or you know you're going to have a device that you need to maintain you bring back and forth you access things with it and um you know what I'm hearing are kids don't really have those skills to be responsible for that device and
021uh so I do believe there's a 21st century skill element here um the Chromebook doesn't need to be charged every night uh it's charged even at full use it can run 10 hours straight so you know for two days that thing should be able to run without a charge it's not as much of a barrier as it might sound um but I in thinking about how what would a policy look like because you're right this is new ground nobody has it they all have the student use of personal technology and we all passed it when eie 1 put out the template four years ago but here's the problem we know more now so the the the student personal use policy because what I was proposing was not a ban on cell phones in the school
022right it was a when you're in instructional time it is off your person and I'm going to read a draft but it seemed like we needed two policies in place that we would rework certainly the student use of personnel Tech personal technology but then we would also need a student use of school issued device so what does that sound like and I'll just finish this and then we could talk because look I can motion and I could bring drafts but if I don't get a second this goes nowhere but good discussion um if we get a vote and it goes down it goes nowhere but more discussion and you know you kind of have an idea where each board member sits but this is the beginning of the student use of personal technology which is
023a policy we have now this is draft the board seeks uh bear with me the board seeks to maintain a safe and secure environment for students and staff advances in technology have made it possible to expand the learning environment however in the past four years since this policy was first passed the board recognizes that instructional time lost to misuse of personal technology outweighs the benefits this policy puts forth the expectation that the use of personal devices is prohibited in all instructional spaces furthermore students may not have a personal device on their person during all instructional times devices must be stored in a book bag or other bag or other location set to silent so as not to disturb the student during daily lessons these policies go on and talk about instructional spaces and non-instructional spaces
024and we were certainly clarify um so we said that would work in tandem with student use of school issued device policy it starts the same way the board seeks to maintain past four years technology outweighs the benefit uh personal use of Technology outweighs the benefits this policy puts forth the expectation that the school issued device is the only device to be used in all instructional spaces so it does draw a very clean line we could talk about study holes we could talk about after school before school lunchtimes hallways you can access your phone just can't when the bell rings you put it away and you pay attention to your teacher for 42 minutes and if it buzzes it's not going to bother you because it's silent it's not buzzing around in your pocket bothering you
025this is the friction points day in and day out that steel valuable instructional time so those are my thoughts I'm prepared to take any questions talk it out further thank you Mike since you are on the policy committee um could you possibly share that with the rest of the committee and then disseminate it to the rest of the board for uh our next meeting and we can have further discussion yeah I don't I don't mind sharing it absolutely you got it anybody have any comments concerning what Mike just read and again Mike preface before we're not here to set this policy at our next meeting I mean this is discussion and hopefully we can implement this come September so uh we got a couple more months to work on it develop it and put it
026in policy and again from PBIS or faculty HTA HSA come forward to us with any of your concerns I mean and we'll you know we'll incorporate all that and have some discussion I mean this is a this is a decision that's going to be made by the board with collaboration with all the stakeholders involved uh it's not a one-sided uh decision anyone else have any comments okay every I'm sorry I don't mean to interrupt can you both turn on your mics just so maybe the public can capture a little of that I notice she's not miked [Music] up so um the two main sources of revenue that um our uh budget are the tax school taxes and um state aid and as many of you know we have um received negative St negative Foundation aid
027from the state this year um we are hoping that save harmless will return which will um help us gain some more of that Revenue we also used to receive a percent increase which um um been taken away from us this year but we want to make sure that the budget supports our um program the financial plan that supports the program so going into tonight's presentation we're going to discuss the revenue and where we found some increases where we could um go up in um we're going to have a discussion about the Balan expense budget um our revenues equal our expenses and that's where this year becomes a little bit of a challenge for us um we are going to talk a little bit about our Bose's expense budget review and the reductions in expenses and
028tonight Mr prer will also partner up of this so again um the two highlighted numbers are where we could see a change and where we did see a change and at the bottom of this presentation um where the link is also on our website is where you can reach out to the legislator to talk about restoring save harmless um as of right now there are no changes in state aid we are hoping with the legislative budget that we will see an increase with that um our Medica Revenue has stayed the same as well as our Pilots um taking another look into our other Revenue sources where we saw a Bose refund decrease we also spoke with um our Auditors and from that class they do believe that uh the interest rates will still be a
029little higher so we're estimating that revenue for interest income to come in a little bit higher for that um still planning on using our interfund transfer from Capital to pay for some of our debt service using the amount of fund balance so those are our reserves as last year um and our tax levy which um has gone to the cap but not over for the um total increase for 1.5 um so that um link that's at the bottom of that screen uh I want to thank the community for doing their part I do think that many of our community members have reached out they've sent letters to the legislators and to the governor uh that is a One-Stop link you send the letter and it goes to three places the governor uh your local Senator
030and your assembly person um there is no resolution as of yet but both legislative bodies have submitted their response to the governor's budget and both both of those legislative budgets are calling for Save harmless to be put back into effect and they're advocating for a 3% increase so for those that have been following along that does take us back to uh a previous presentation where save harmless would bring a small amount back but that 3% would bring a larger amount back and that's important to realize because what you're going to see tonight is our response to where we are as of today and as of today we can only go with what the governor's proposed budget is um but very hopeful that the legislature sticks to their guns and returns funding as they promised that
031they would be trying to do so currently with the um increase in Revenue um our draft is 54 M 59,4 but our draft expenses are 55,8 23476 which makes this a current difference of 174430 and some might be remembering that just at the last presentation we were at 1.86 right around there of a deficit between the two budgets um I would say that the slide that she showed earlier where that interest uh was added in that helped offset this number so that we could bring it down slightly um but this is the current deficit that we need to respond to it was 1.86 at the last meeting we were able to find funding to get us down to 1.76 and believe me we continue to look on a daily basis for other places to pull
032some dollars together uh so that that our response can be um changed accordingly SL okay so this next part um if you don't mind I'm just going to sit here because I think you can hear me better um the difficult part when we're doing uh any of these uh responses is the largest part of our budget is faculty and staff but as you might remember from a previous uh previous presentation we were taking a fstep approach and we were going to look at uh Administration we were going to look at supplies and equipment um we were going to look at mandated versus non-mandated courses course enrollments and class sizes so we've done that exercise we've done it multiple times uh Administration from the district level did it uh separately from the building level then we
033brought the building level administrators in and we had them do it again and then we compared our findings and came up with areas that we felt um although we none of us think these are great responses we are charged with the response of coming up with that 1.76 million um to change that that deficit and as as the legislature hopefully comes through with their promise uh we will be revising these SL these um responses that you're going to see here this evening so first we're going to talk about uh the response that we were able to um come up with from districtwide resources so first on our list uh we currently have a data administrator um that person is integral to making sure that our data is accurate with the state um but again as
034we said that this was going to be something that was felt across The District in all departments Administration was one of those areas so the impact on program is that our District administration and building principles will need to be picking up some uh additional tasks uh should that position remain part of the response a few years back we added a districtwide head custodian to help with the responsibilities with operations and maintenance in this response we will be removing that position uh so that we can uh recapture some savings currently we have a vacant custodian position that has not been filled for some time um we will uh take that out of the budget the funding for that out of the budget uh for this upcoming uh school year additionally we have had more than four
035uh bus driver vacancies for the last school year however after speaking with our transportation department um we do feel that although those positions are valuable and we need them um we haven't been filling them but we've been holding on to salary lines for those positions so we can't reduce the full amount because many of those positions are taken by substitutes or someone doing a double route or pulling somebody from a different department who happens to have a bus driver uh license so we do need funding to be able to uh fulfill the responsibility of transporting our students to and from school every day so right now the four of those 8 to 10 positions that are vacant we're going to remove to uh answer this response uh we currently have someone working part-time in our
036technology office Fielding phone calls from across the district we are going to have to go back to a system of uh messages being left or work tickets being uh left for our technology director uh and he will retrieve those throughout the day and assign the jobs to different members of the technology department so the office assistant would be cut uh we have programs Bridge PBIS sale and TLC those programs we feel are very important but we were able to find a way to fund them through title funds rather than through our general budget so those are amendments that we need to make to uh the way we've used some of our title funds in the past and we feel that this is a very small amount of money but it was an amount that we
037felt was going to be uh important if we were looking at the overall picture uh supplies and equipment uh some of you have heard me say this budget is not going to be balanced on pens and pencils and paper uh but I want to thank the administrative team who looked at every single budget line across the district and uh with the help of really our maintenance uh department they found some uh some lines that we are going to forego for this upcoming year to answer this budget response um but again for the most part those were small decreases uh in general budgets across the district we've done this many many years uh years ago when I was sitting at the assistant principal position at the Middle School uh we cut every line a couple of
038years in a row by 10% 10% 10% when you don't have a lot of funding in those lines to begin with we really decimated those lines and unfortunately when we roll the budget forward from year to year we have not really been recouping those cuts that were made years ago so yes we were able to identify a few there weren't a lot but it was enough to help us bring up a district response of $526,000 this is the part that hurts not that that doesn't hurt but as the former Elementary principal this part of the slide is ripping my heart out but again as part of the response we needed to look at everything we have one teacher at the elementary school who is retiring we plan to not fill that position so through attrition
039we were able to gain some funding uh we do do have uh a slight Bobble in some special education numbers currently we believe that we're able to cut one special education position at the elementary school but I caution us that that may be something that has to be brought back uh as we move forward we may need to find funding if our special education numbers grow um with the reductions in some class sizes we are able to uh we're able to see less classes taking regular physical education or general physical education so our physical education teachers at the elementary school will be uh taking care of the Adaptive physical education uh requirements um so that's a a half of an AP teacher that is also combined with that person who runs that um that job
040is also half a teaching assistant and that's going to show up later in uh another another section of this slide so we'll get back to that uh a few years ago just before uh Co and actually during Co we started looking at our academic intervention uh supports um we believe that these positions are still valuable however it's difficult when you're looking at enrollment dropping to say that we need more services in these areas than we had when we had a larger population so we looked at AIS math this would be reducing from three AIS Math teachers at the elementary school to two two is what the elementary school had for a number of years and actually at one point they had one and a half for many more students um so that's another response our
041AIS reading offerings uh we went during covid up to four teachers uh we had been at three for a number of years and when I first started started at the elementary school we had two AIS reading teachers again they're doing incredible work and I feel that they're extremely important but again trying to make this response come together we had to make some tough choices so reduction of one AIS reading teacher uh a few years back just before covid we started technology at the elementary school teachers went to these technology classes with their students and we feel that although we think it's an important skill that they have a standalone technology class we do feel that the elementary teachers are able to provide technology within their classroom uh so a cut of one technology teacher at
042the elementary school Just Happening uh yesterday we had this on the slide of a school monitor at the elementary school we did get a retirement it is not in the board agenda this evening because it came in after the agenda uh but it will be in the next board meeting so we do have a school monitor that we will not be replacing at the elementary school and that will reduce coverage in our attendance office and we will have to have other supports from the other office in place to help with that uh with that reduction one Elementary classroom Aid uh this will reduce classroom supports and three Elementary teaching assistance it is important to realized with the three teaching assistants that I'm speaking of here one of them is currently vacant uh a person that
043was a teaching assistant moved into another position a few months back and seeing what was happening with the budget we chose to uh not fill that position during this school year uh for the remainder of the year and uh we won't be filling that for the upcoming year for total cost Savings in the elementary program of $300 at the secondary level uh we again we looked at all of the class sizes we looked at mandated versus non-mandated so some electives are going to be uh difficult to uh manage here um but class sizes would increase in the social studies classes at the high school um we would be going down by one section one teacher uh e Ela this is uh actually an Ela position at the middle school so again some electives and uh
044electives would be in in Jeopardy here and class sizes for some of those English classes would be increased uh we have one full-time equivalent technology teacher at the middle school we will still be within our mandated offerings uh this would require our current High School Technology teacher would travel to the middle school for a portion of the day and some high school electives because of this uh decrease would be uh would be impacted but again all of our mandated offerings in the technology department uh at the middle school level would be uh would be kept intact uh looking at the next position is a half of an art section or section not a section sorry a teacher um again we will be still able to keep mandated uh and some elective offerings at the high
045school level uh it would also probably require some reassignment of Staffing from across the district we currently have four art teachers in the district we would be going down to three and a half so one would uh would need to to some of those electives NE uh here at the high school but each of the buildings would have a full-time art teacher uh music uh again a half a music teacher we will still be able to offer mandated music Across uh the secondary level uh and provide some electives but some of our individualized uh Coral lessons would be uh cut because of this um because of this cut in World Language we currently have A8 uh World Language French teacher um that would if we reduce that we would increase sizes we would be combining
046sections so right now at the middle school there are two first year two second year classes but those enrollments would have to uh merge together to make one section of first year one section of second year we would need a traveling teacher from the secondary or from the high school to go down to uh Supply those two sections to those students and then at the upper level it may may require some upper level French maybe French four and French five those would be uh a combined class but again we would not be getting rid of our French program again uh with just uh reductions of classroom supports we have two classroom AIDS from the secondary level two and a half teaching assistants from the secondary level and if you remember earlier on I talked about
047that half of AP from the elementary school the other half of that uh position is actually a teaching assistant so that would be uh would be reduced at this time as well for a total cost Savings of $561,000 at the secondary level so as you see today this total deficit reduction response equals 1,764 430 uh in reductions to balance the budget as it is today this is what we know today should the New York State Governor and legislative bodies agree to reinstate funding in the upcoming budget talks we will most certainly revisit this number at that time and make recommendations to the board of educations accordingly so um some of those topics for discussion for our next board meeting um we know that the current status um without the administrative um response is that 174430
048um we will still need to continue reviewing um special a placements we have our B service request that comes out April 1st um so that will need to be reviewed again um and we will also need to look at finalizing um these reductions um and our next steps I will continue to work with Dr Boyd on special ed placements um I will also be working with um Mr Miller to monitor fuel and gas costs for the 2425 budget as well the next are the two proposition that you will see um this is for the two propane buses which will be proposition one uh proposition two is for the new capital reserve and again just to reiterate from last uh board meeting the capital reserve that we currently have is expiring it does have 1.13 in
049the reserve we're going to transfer that money into the new Reserve um when it is approved uh so no additional money will be placed into it it's just moving in into uh the new Reserve to keep it open for uh the next 10 years can I ask a question about that yes should we not create a new capital reserve that money that fund expires and that money is returned to the taxpayer it stays there it can only be used on a capital project thank you and just a point of clar clarification and we will be reiterating this in every presentation that we mention about this because we don't want anyone confused there is not $10 million that we are putting in a reserve we are simply opening a bank account and transferring the old Reserve
050money to that account the board every single year determines uh at the end of the season so to speak if they're going to put any additional money into that Reserve what this does is it allows the board to save up to $10 million over 10 years they can't go over that uh but they don't have to fund it to $10 million either it's just a bank account allows us to go to that amount hopefully that's clear if not please let me know so that I can try to make it clearer but I don't want anyone thinking that we have $10 million that we're putting into a reserve today and this million just add to that the the purpose of the reserve is to help offset any capital projects in the future the last two capital
051projects we've had we established that Reserve nine years ago we were able to put forward two two capital projects to the taxpayers that were tax neutral because of the capital reserve the little bit of money that we put into that Reserve is able to offset the overall cost of of a proposition to the voters to make it tax neutral so there is a benefit there and again just like the superintendent said we can't confuse that you know there is 10 million there we can build up to 10 million the last project I I think we could go to 7 million we went to the last capital reserve we went nowhere near 2 to three million with it but that was able to offset our Capital project so it's a benefit for the taxpayers and this
052is just our budget schedule so as of as it stands right now our next um budget presentation will be on April 2nd or sometime in um April um the next meeting when we would to adopt the budget is April 16th um it needs to be um adoped by April April 26th to be submitted to the state um on the 29th at the last possible date does anybody have any questions just uh a quick point of information um the superintendent mentioned several times in the presentation that um enrollment has declined and uh cutting some or increasing class sizes is allowing us to kind of balance the budget just a quick piece of information I went back to 10 years ago March 4th 2014 our enrollment was students the last meeting March 7th I believe it was
0532024 10 years later it was 1505 we had a drop of 317 students in 10 years in the district so that kind of justifies a lot a lot that's being said with increasing slightly some class sizes trying to balance the budget for the board um our next board meeting is April 2nd it's a day after Spring Break um I'm sure the governors and the legislators and the Senators are not going to develop a budget by April 1st I did read that they are furiously working right now I read that that just before I came to this meeting on an update from uh nisba we get that thing that thing every day with all the different newspaper articles the Times Union said that they are feverishly working on this now but I agree with uh Mr
054Baron I do not believe they will have this done by April first so do you see us moving that meeting to the following Tuesday April 9th to allow our business official and administrative team to gaed together whatever comes about hopefully by then giving alany another five six days to develop that budget that we'll have more information and we can have a better discussion I like that idea because if we have to deal with some scenarios you know I'm sure that I'm not alone and I'd like to give some thoughts around what might be kept and what might not be kept so thanks yeah we have one on the 16th so we'll have 9th and 9th and the 16th and we can go one more we don't need the budget to be presented until the 26th
055that the drop that's the drop de dat we could still we can go three in a row if we had to hopefully we don't need so if things don't change we will move our April 2nd meeting to April 9th everybody's okay with that let things change and we can come back on the second and I guess one want decision make we made if we're going to have it on the 2 or the nth given that spring break is I think we're making it right now we can make it right now we can move it to the nth we'll move the meeting to the 9th okay everybody no we have to move forward okay looking at our consent uh items our consent agenda uh we looking at items ea1 to C8 again like we've done in
056the past we can pull individual items out and have a discussion or if you need clarification we could do that and then we'll entertain it as a consent agenda and move forward on it so can I have a motion to accept the consent motion by Heather second by any discussion anybody need clarification yes item three yeah so I just had a question on that Mr fiser or maybe it's um it could be facilities too the public address system up upgrades for 177,000 in our smallest building the middle school can you tell me is that an IP based system does any of the facilities committee know that's a big number for a PA system in our smallest building so okay just as clarification when these proposals this is going through State contract these two um bid
057Awards um what our sign professionals put the parameters together they put it out to to bid through State contract so all the components are bought through State contract those individuals like f uh fire alarm system upgrad it's uh fnf yeah they then bid out to multiple El Contra all right so I got you I don't want to hold it up I know it's all on the up and up it's just a large number but I know labor is the highest it's ever been trying to get components is very difficult if you could just get back to me on is that an IP based system or a y I will say that that is a negotiated price that they we were able to get down I was just going to say that yes both of those
058prices the reason they were not on the original uh back when we did the rest in the capital project we were trying to negotiate those prices down so that would mean that the bids came in were even higher than that yeah Mike if you look at2 higher they also bid on the fire alarm systems there and I think there's a much bigger number there um I know the numbers are shocking but I know what they're quoting for the PA system I've recently uh doubled contracts with twice the amount for smaller thank you that's a big piece thank you that's that's probably the piece gotcha all right anybody else have any other questions or concerns ready to move it forward all those in favor I opposed any extensions so carried you have any all right I
059just want to um thank two individuals our Middle School principal Megan curn for over 10 years of employment with the district moved up ranks um she's now uh starting a family and would like to spend more time with her family um Lindsay idell thank you for your three years of service to the district um we were in desperate need three years ago you stepped forward you went through all the training um and life does take us in different directions and uh fortunately you can move on to improve your quality of life for your family and we appreciate the time that you spent here in Highland so thank you thank you very much okay yeah nobody objected okay I missed it okay um our principal our principal report Elementary School first I'm losing it all right
060so this is obviously something that should have been done January February so here we are um the only addition I need to let you guys know about on the principal report was the kids heart challenge that I talked about in there um as of today right before leaving this community has done like crazy crazy things I can't even get over it um is $3,837 57 and we have crushed absolutely crushed our goal of like I think it was 10,800 I think was um our original goal and it keeps growing daily it's it's wild it's uh the next tier that like is the the next level that kids are challenged keeps telling us that you know they were like oh well you guys could potentially get to 15 I was like there's no possible way in
061this world that we're getting to 15 we're going to I mean we got days left this number is insane so um hats off to the community it's it's beyond it's amazing so [Applause] yeah all right so so what is it that you have to do now that you've raised all that money Association we can't Breeze over to the next thing um so what I owe again for this did I include this in here um I don't think I did so I owe a few things the kids got to vote um and the overwhelming response is that um I have to kiss a Lama so I didn't think there was any chance that there was a llama anywhere near Highland Apparently that is not a problem um so we're looking at trying to get one on
062campus so that we can kind of and I pretty sure that llama spit so this is going to be a a lot of fun um the other one is this is another one that kind of hurts that I'm getting there's like these paintballs that they make not like you know but they like these like paint sacks that they're going to the kids are going to be able to paint the principal so um yeah that one's going to be an it's going to be an interesting and then um you know and then there were some smaller prizes um like you know pizza parties didn't really get it um the ice cream parties all those things didn't quite come in as high as this uh I don't know I think next year we're going to have to
063put like the goal at like 20,000 or something like that and if we meet that I don't even know I'll have to do something crazy I guess yeah so um I guess I guess questions first and then I have another thing um the PTA president she was here here with the the baby she had something so like I'm on her behalf um they brought some stuff in so um I guess what we'll do is twofold I guess we'll do questions first and then we'll do the next step any questions for all right all right oh yeah so so Pi Day 3.14 um we did theme song Thursday and the eighth caller was Miss lochner who is beyond excited to come down and Pie me in the face so um she didn't do it lightly she
064made sure it it smeared and it got in the nostril and it was a lot of fun so she enjoyed herself um yeah a lot of fun all right so um because of January was board appreciation month um the students and um Miss Gallagher set up a um a thank you and so I'm going to roll this out real quick uh what it shows is a fingerprint of every single student in the building um and so the theme we went for this year was thank you for helping us grow and we have Miss Samuels coming up with some plants for you guys um so we're going to do a a growing theme and we'll hang this up in in your the executive we can actually hang that in the boardroom you might want to hold
065that up so you can get a really good picture with no you no you can't eat these my wife K it about a week it in a week got enough you can just leave that there and I'll I'll take it thank you do that I'll do that all right um so we'll get to the things in front of you but I do have uh One update so in L of a spirit week because it's already crazy time of year um PBIS had a great idea to do a spirit week on one day so we're doing that on Friday so there's you'll see the paper there's several options students can choose from they can kind of pick their favorite Spirit day and do that on Friday um so or they can try all of them at
066once so we're interested to see how that turns out um so I thought that was a fantastic idea from B so that was an update I had one other update too um so it was a little while ago it was actually Valentine's Day which is the day after our last board meeting where we presented um our our njs a couple NS students came to me and said hey we want to do something for Valentine's Day um one of their classmates in the eighth grade recently had a um a procedure done on their heart and um they knew that that student in their family was kind of raising money to the American Heart Association so they came to me and said we want to help um so they teamed up with that student we you know
067we kind of leaz between the students's parent and they brought in um red ribbons and the students uh they gave them out for free but took donations if students had extra change actually ended up raising $262 52 for the American part Association which we um teed up with the parents on so that was fantastic it was their idea I give them a ton of credit for it so I thought I did not put that in the report but I wanted to mention it because I thought it was really cool um so does anybody have any question questions before uh we get to the blue bags questions okay so uh you can open your blue bag so the these what is inside of them one of them is uh not student made as you'll see the
068other one actually was done um Mr Banks's eighth graders came up with a design for these they are student made uh so they are made with our 3D printer at the middle school in the eth grade te ology class um and are just a fun little uh desk ornament you could use them paper weight you can use them however you'd like um so those were designed by eighth grade students and they have the they have the board members names on them um and I think on the bottom it says do it say hdsd on the bottom yeah finally um so you'll notice some of them have like they had to pick some of the pieces out so again this is a student project so we're very proud of them Mr pazus yours is actually getting
069the end got cut off but uh it's uh so it was it was it was reprinting what I left for the meeting but I will have for you uh very soon and obviously I Got U everybody got some I don't know if you all like peeps but peeps in the Highland colors um some got blue some got yellow so thank you for your service we really appreciate it um and just a little uh token of our thanks for very welcome yeah local groups also staff member we had a bunch of Staff members from all the three buildings who came and uh uh collaborated with us and contribute their time also some people in our building this halfway did yoga so it was fantastic we really we really had a great time yeah yeah it was
070it was a fantastic idea absolutely thank you thank you good evening again all sensitive um so no additions just an update um a couple of meetings back I had mentioned that we had some bosei students uh that had taken part in a competition and I I told you I would get back to with their names and their places on how they did um several Highland students uh who attend the programs at olster Bose's career and tech center of Port Yan were among 35 individuals who earned medals during the 2024 skills USA Regional competition uh that was held held uh last month in February the event which took place in Goan on February 10th uh I was able to attend and watch our students consisted of timed trade leadership and community service contests that gave participants
071from across all areas the opportunity to showcase their knowledge in skills in 38 different work-based categories congratulations to Katherine Fitzgerald who took first place in cosmetology Jr Sophia Giani who took first place in prepared speech Carl Jacob havland who took second place in IT services Ava MOA who took second place in Aesthetics and benen OKO kados who took second place in Aesthetics model uh we're extremely proud of them so just a round of applause for all of [Applause] them I have uh two other very short items but before I get into those did anyone have any questions on the board report I just had a comment um and I really forgot about it at the last board meeting we were so tied up with other business uh but I had the opportunity Miss patus actually
072took me out and we went to see Cinderella the production here which was absolutely phenomenal so um I just want to congrat rulate the advisor and all the adults and students who worked on that there were so many it was a fantastic uh show let me add to that uh we had a cameo of our own uh student representative Le Grell who was in it as well so great job to all of [Applause] them so the other uh two brief items that I have uh again in following with Elementary and the middle schools for board appreciation uh which was back in January and then things got postponed a little bit uh PTSA up here at the high school wanted to leave a little sweet treat for all of you uh at your your chairs so
073you see those in front of you uh Mr Opitz has um also he's going to queue up something we have a a short video clip uh that we'd like to share uh some people expressing their thanks to all of you and the hard work that you do as a school board for our school Community um and I will uh tomorrow pass this along to superintendent Freer uh to share with all of you show appreciation to students school board I would like to say thank you to the Board of Education than I would like to say thank you to the board of education and thank you to the of thank you to the Board of Education [Applause] and Dr Mur did I did I hear correctly that you're celebrating today well Mike thanks for ruining my
074thunder on the last announcement uh yes you beat me to it uh I just wanted to say happy birthday again to Mr whose birthday is today so happy [Applause] birthday yes thank you everyone thank you okay um we have most of our directors here this evening so if there's anything you want to address to our directors feel free to do it good I just want to say thank you because we don't have anything to address to you which means you're doing your job well so thank you no I just wanted to say you know regarding sorry yeah regarding the um the budget presentation tonight because it does affect these particular departments and they you know everybody pitches in uh I just want toe appreciate the effort and uh the time that you all give it's
075not easy jocking around drivers it's not easy making sure the school buildings are all clean when you're not fully staffed and and many of these departments aren't unfortunately it's just we haven't been able to fill these because the job market is what it is so it does make sense to remove some of them that we can't fill before we have to potentially remove some that do affect actual bodies in the position but uh just wanted to say thank you it's not easy bye okay okay I don't want to just like get for a feel for the mic um so I'm going to start with the elementary school there was an announcement made over the loudspeaker acknowledging women's history month and Ramadan and they held a discussion about the book no voice too small to engage
076students in conversations about social justice activism and the power of individual voices created a visually appealing bulletin board that showcases the themes of no voice too small a suggestion box was planned to encourage students to share their ideas suggestions or concerns this will begin to emphasize the importance of student voice in shaping the school Community the group used this article cultivating a pedor of student voice from Association of supervision and curriculum development to explore ways to integrate the principles of student voice into teaching practices and classroom activities at the middle school modified Sports began yesterday and there's approximately 100 middle school students trying out for the various teams softball baseball lacrosse and track will all be well represented by eager seventh and eighth graders and we look forward to another fun and action-packed sports season
077the next Highland Middle School co-rec Dance will be placed on Friday April 12th for all the students grades 6 to8 and the last co- dance was in the winter which was a lot of fun so this one will certainly be no different spring is in the air at Highland Middle School staff and students and they love getting any opportunity to do their teaching and learning outside in our beautiful weather so don't be surprised if you see classes of students learning outside and enjoying the warm spring days at the high school um there was an all count Festival about two weekends ago with students from the elementary middle and high school playing at News high school we had two students selected for the New York State band Directors Association for the All State band and they
078performed in Syracuse they were Ariana Wallen who played flute and Sophia Caso who played clarinet the music department is now taking band in choir students to see Aladdin on Broadway which is tomorrow and this is another wonderful opportunity for students to see live professional performers in action and get a feel of where they can go from being in the music depart now um with our Taste of success programs last Thursday we had Dwayne's auto detailing giving a seminar about being business owners and participating in the community around 35 students had the opportunity to listen and learn and this Thursday we have the local Karate Dojo partnering up with Taste of success and two of Miss sailor CIA students to promote self-awareness owning a business and giving back to the community which brings me into Miss
079sailor CIA projects a lot of them are on the move and many of them are wrapping up our Civic showcase is April 30th from 6 to .m. at the Highland High School where everyone's progress and projects will be on display Shrea Gonda is doing her project on period poverty which is wrapping up as menal products are being placed all around the rail trail sometime very soon if not already camerona just um presented at the New York State social studies conference last Friday Daisy orz organized a field trip to Woodland ponds to interact with residents this was a huge success and they're likely planning another there are so many other projects on a rooll and I highly recommend that all of you try to make it to the Civic showcase to learn more it's April 30th
080once again from 6:00 to 8 here and those are all my notes so if anyone has any questions cool great any questions for Lily thank you thank you Lily good evening everyone um I'll be brief tonight we are um in full swing of annual reviews um so far we've had great attendance from our families which is always great to see as we uh put together our plans for next year uh the planning doesn't stop at that meeting uh those plans are finalized and then our office is putting out the uh C copies of those IEPs to parents uh getting those out as soon as possible for their review after the meetings uh on Thursday we had eight students from high school attend the career and services Expo uh put on by the oler county transition
081Council uh I'm going to be meeting with the teacher who went with them and some of those students to get some feedback uh one of the great things about the oler county transition council is they are always willing to hear the feedback uh because they want to make it better and more useful for students so uh we'll be getting some of that from the students to pass along to them for uh any improvements uh if there's any needed at all uh lastly at our last PPS meeting uh we began talking about all the summer programming uh for our special education students uh and specifically uh at olster bosis so olster bosies does host our students who attend there who qualify for the service uh throughout the school year who will go there of the summer
082uh and then they also take on some of the students who are in different programs and even in some of our IND District programs who require that summer support uh so we began that process uh and with the applications and getting all the information to them and then I'll be working with uh Miss mulik very soon on getting those routes planned for the summer thank you hello everyone I'll also be brief I have two items to share with you this evening regarding our upk program we have received proposals from four local agencies the upk committee is scheduled to convene upon return from spring break for a review of those proposals anticipating a positive outcome we aim to expand our capacity beyond the 40 seats allocated for the school year I will of course keep the
083board apprised of any progress at every stage of this endeavor next uh in line with our District's commitment to diversity equity and inclusion members of our administrative cabinet are actively engaged in a book study of biased by Jennifer Eberhart this initiative builds upon the momentum of our past two summer sessions during which we extended the opportunity to all interested District employees last week half of our administrative cabinet convened to delve into the speci some specific chapters of the book with the remaining administrators meeting to discuss the book this coming Thursday this ongoing dialogue underscores our dedication to fostering a more inclusive and Equitable learning environment for all three three you're welcome okay superintendent's comments okay uh again I'm going to be brief because I said a lot in the beginning um but just a reminder
084uh the Ed Foundation dinner is Friday April 5th from 6:00 to 10: p.m. 6 5 per ticket please call Becky at 84523 41522 I will keep that in my Friday update but we hope uh all of the board would consider coming out and supporting uh the Ed foundation and the honores that we are honoring this year at the last board meeting I mentioned our snow day give back it looks like it will stay that uh we will have two snow days to return to the calendar uh one and I actually put this message out to families so they are aware already um the first one will be Monday April 1st uh the second one would be May 24th which is a Friday uh Lisa I wasn't sure do we need an actual resolution for the
085board to adopt that or is me just announcing it to them okay very good uh spring break starts this uh Friday spring starts today I didn't realize that I thought it was usually the 20th or 21st but my calendar says today so must be because of leap year so happy spring and spring break starts on Friday at the close of school and runs all of next week the 25th to the 29th uh an issue that is coming forward uh that many schools are in our area are starting to Grapple with is the upcoming Eclipse so a few school districts in olster County have decided to close for the entire day because they had many more snow days left so those two districts are news and sties and as of this morning a few of the
086others are planning an early dismissal um so I wanted to some feedback from the board administratively we've been talking that if we go along and do an early dismissal that would be for our students to get them home so that they uh especially for our younger ones the eclipse is supposed to happen between 2 and 3:30 many of our elementary students are on the buses from 3: to 3:30 in that area that's when they load so they're on the bus during that time um our concern is you know we we teach students not to look at the Sun but they see the sun almost on a regular basis but this is like a once in a-lifetime thing telling them not to look into the sky we might not be successful with that and we wouldn't
087want to put any children In Harm's Way so um again we're going to look into that uh a little closer with what the rest of the county is doing um but it's looking like many will be doing an early release I looked at our number of hours uh so this would count as a contact day and we also need to look at the number of hours that we need in a uh school year and we are still within the hours because one of the things that we've done in previous years is we've cut some of our half days out of the calendar um but I would like to announce this to the parents sooner than later so they can make uh informed decisions for Monday April 8th we would stay here as a staff though
088and use the afternoon for professional development and so with the board's uh approval we'd like to move forward with that and get those plans underway for Monday April 8th or have any input I would I would like to venture to a early dismissal I support superintend just just a question that just a question for the the staff what would the end of the day be for the staff the end of the day would be their regular end of the day so they obviously we would take some time this is a once in a-lifetime thing I would allow staff I would encourage them to make sure they have proper glass wear or eyewear uh one thing we have know uh have found is that many of the glasses that are available on the market are not
089recommended so encouraging people to make sure they have the proper eyewear to go out and view the eclipse or wait to see it on the news that evening but I will leave that up to the staff they're adults and we can tell them not to look into the sky and if they choose to not listen then that really is on them but telling a fifth grade or five-year-old not to look into the sky is pretty hard to do I know I'm preaching to the choir here but is there any chance we can get educational packets to the families on things to do to enjoy the eclipse I do know that uh some of the teachers especially at the elementary level have been talking about the eclipse and have been planning things for students to do
090but uh we can talk to all of the administrators and try to get something out um but I was also planning on sending um in my email if we were to do this day to give Links of ideas for parents exactly in that link something for them to education at home any other questions for the superintendent thank you Board of Education any new business can I just um and I brought this up before but just uh I listen to Will's presentation about the two students that made all state but just trying to recognize those kids at abort mean as well that's a big accomplishment sure old business we had the cell phone discussion earlier on I think that was our only old business item um just a uh FYI to have uh three board candidates
091that are up for uh election on May May 17th 16th uh petitions are out so if those that are uh running again please pick up your petitions and have as many as you can sign them and return them to our district clerk and if anyone else is out there that's interested in this high-paying job please see Lisa and you can secure a petition and run for a school board position poy annual meeting and budget vote uh is Thursday April 11th 2024 it's the annual meeting so if I could just chime in that is the meeting that is held at olster bosies in Port Yan that's where our students and all of the culinary students from across the county uh they prepare food and a meal they act as servers uh and they it's really a
092wonderful evening it'll be also the night that uh bosies will present their budget to anyone that sticks around for that portion but if you if you can only come for the portion where our students are uh are serving and it really is it's nice for them to see us there so please let us know we need to have those numbers uh to Bose pretty soon I think ail by April 5th okay and the district W uh countywide vote will be on our meeting night of Tuesday April 16th it's another FYI anything for the good and Welfare of the district we open up the meeting to public comment could be general questions good evening board and superintendent Freer my name is Laura Finch I am a parent Community member and educ here in the district and
093recently each of my daughters had an opportunity to take part in the olster county music educators All County festivals both for band and Jazz all count and chorus All County happened as well and I wanted to thank the board and the district for continuing to support the students and the Educators in the music program this program serves students who may or may not be athletes or academics but who are certainly talented musicians if you're able to get to any of the concerts my daughters and the Other M musicians from a well- represented Highland received excellent preparation from the music faculty here at the school they practiced and prepared just like any athlete mathlete debater or other student who would want to make their teachers parents and District proud the girls were excited for and challenged
094by this opportunity and they carry fond memories of the festival weekends they continue to be motivated to excel so that they can be invited to return each year so I wanted to thank you again for fostering and supporting the love of music for my children um and all the musicians here in the district thank you thank you for those comments hi Board of Education uh superintendent frier I just wanted to say uh thank you to Mr frier for doing the work that he's done over the past few weeks I I can tell that it's weighed on him and his presentation today was definitely uh passionate and and truthful um so I just wanted to thank him for that um looking at that presentation as as as much as we say that their their their minor
095Cuts they are devastating to program um and I hope that you continue to look under every stone that we can possibly turn um to see if we can salvage some of these positions or all these positions I'm going to let you know what we're doing as a uh a local union um we have been active in this process in working with Mr Fier we've sent lobbyists to uh Albany to to petition the governor to petition our Senators we're going this Friday to a rally up in Albany or not Albany Kingston um with Senator hinchi um to again advocate for um state aid for the governor to turn over the monies that um each school should be receiving um we are going to if need be schedule with the rest of the presidents in the local
096area rallies up to Albany to push our government to get return of that money but I can tell you we are going to be working just as hard as you are to return that money um and again there is no better board than the one sitting in front of us to figure out how to solve this problem and and keep this family together because we have created something really special here um and I just wanted to say that on a side note completely different topic I got permission from my department chair um this I hope this doesn't spark any debate or any conversation we're going to do something unique next year regarding to cell phones at the board if the board wishes to to accept it or or um go along with it as as
097scientist we said let's run an experiment um so we met with the math department and we talked about our problems that we were having across the board with cell phones um and then came up with a kind of a solution um that keeps the autonomy in the classroom theu the teachers's ability to control what goes on in the six walls um um and what we decided we were going to do was buy the um the lock boxes that um student cell phones can go into um as a department Math and Science we all agreed that we were going to do this together as a group of teachers um so that way students couldn't pin us against each other um that way students couldn't you know identify certain teachers that weren't doing it and teachers that
098were doing it so we're going to be unified as a department um and we're going to have our students put those cell phones in that lock box at the beginning of class then depending on the board policy that goes forth during times of instruction when the cell phones are needed we would unlock the box and allow them to take out their cell phones and use the cell phones um an example I saw it the other day of a student using their cell phone appropriately and there are some students that can do it and there are many students that can't do it um but when you have good classroom management and good structured plans within your classroom you can use cell phones at limited time and I watched in my class the other day take out
099a cell phone and take a picture of a note that I had put on the board um that they wanted to keep for later so that they could translate it and that was a good use of cell phone at that point in time could they have done it with their laptop yeah they could have turned it around but it was in the moment moment um so that's something that we have decided as a science department that depending on what the board puts forth whether it's in the parameters of what you put forth that was going to be a solution that we would propose um and trial at furry year and if it works and other departments jump on to it that's great if it doesn't work then we go back to the drawing part write
100up another hypothesis and tried another experiment um but that's what we're planning on to do at this point Thank you thank you Kevin anyone else okay I ask for a motion to adjourn motion made by Tom second by Heather all those in favor nobody wants to say no I