001a budget meeting, budget development discussion, Thursday, March 26, 2026 of the Horhead Central School District Board of Education to start the meeting with the pledge of allegiance. If you'd please join me. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We do have one item for action under section two, personnel items for action. We have a we need an action vote on 202, the HR recommendations. Is there a motion? Any comments or questions on the motion? Okay, seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Any abstensions? Okay, great. Welcome to the district, Mr. Jordan. We will move to item three, the budget development section, and
002we have a budget update from the district administration. So, Dr. Douglas, I'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you. That coming up? >> Just waiting for the projector. There it goes. It's just about ready to start. So ladies and gentlemen, uh the audience and community, members of the board, tonight is I think roughly our fourth or fifth gathering on the budget. Uh as we go through the budget, uh this isn't in presentation mode. So we will do that real quick. There we go. I handled it. That's pretty good. I passed. Um, so as tonight is March 26, we roughly have one other meeting which is I think April 16th. It will be at the end and then we have to advance our budget by April 22nd. Tonight you'll notice uh in the budget presentation
003there hasn't been a lot of movement as there was in the previous um gathering. The reason being is we are still waiting on the state budget. The gap is still there, but it took into account everything from the last meeting. As Katie will inform, one of the things we're trying to do is start eliminating some of our tools. I can tell the board and the community we are confident that this budget will have no livelihood impact even with the gap that it has right now. We have some stronger use of reserves if we needed it. in worst case I don't know if we'll really need that but most likely uh we are seeing some changes in the foundation aid that will help us as well as we are waiting on the final decision on universal
004prek that could have a major change to our budget. So at this point uh we have to take the cautious approach but we are probably 90 to 95% optimistic we will close this budget gap once we have a budget done as well as we will use whatever tools we have. We would like at the end of this meeting to make sure that we're all set. No more ads, no more subtractions. What we have in the budget is the budget and then we will work on finalizing that for the 16th based on hopefully a on-time budget or at least maybe a little bit late budget from New York State and then we will work on the final number projections for tax rate as well as the percentage if that's where we can get the board to
005tonight. We will be ready and set for the 16th and we I believe are way ahead of most districts that are just really starting to beginning to get their budget out there. Uh but at this time we'll go through and we'll have Miss Bizetti come up present where we're at at this point. Right. Good evening. Uh so as Dr. Douglas has already alluded to um not a whole lot of changes um across the board in most areas. Uh state aid um at this point has remained um the same as what you saw the last time. We are waiting for the final state budget um to see what changes we need to make at this point. Uh so no changes uh made to state aid today. going to skip ahead to the change here. We did
006have one minor change to the tax cap calculation. Um this came under the capital exclusion portion. Um at the time the calculation was initially presented to the board. Our 2026 bus bond um had not been um put out to bid on the open market. Uh so the principal and interest were just an estimate at that time. Uh we have since sold that bond. Um it came in favorably. Um that was uh information was shared with you in one of the superintendent Friday updates. Uh so the capital exclusion was adjusted to reduce uh the principal and interest as we now know our debt service schedule. Uh so that was reduced by $21,000. So, the total allowable um that we collect through our tax um levy did go down by $21,000 and it is now 4.91% from
007the 4.95% we saw previously. Um item of note, just keep in mind that this figure also does not include any use of the debt service reserve. Um that's a topic for conversation that we will still hold off on for a later uh conversation. So, the summary of budgeted revenues again um no changes absent the um the one item I just mentioned with the adjustment to the tax cap. So, the tax items number did go down that $21,000. Um so, total revenues down the $21,000. Uh total percent change 6.56% down from 6.58%. Um, on the expense side, again, as Dr. Douglas already alluded to, um, we're still looking over the, um, every budget line, um, as we go through the process. Um, but as we reach this point in time, um, the the major changes do
008start to slow. Um, this is not uncommon. We've seen it in years past. Um, I think if some of you may recall a couple years ago, um, after all the ins and outs that we did one year, it netted out to a change of $2,000. So, um, that's part for the course of how things work out, um, as we work to finalize the budget. Uh, so a few changes, uh, just to take note here. Uh, salary and benefits, no change. Debt service, again, down $21,000. We did get our next run of our Boseie services. um after all the component districts um submitted their um their changes. So after we reviewed what we had received um our Boseies cost did go up by $73,000. Um again with all the ups and downs of the cost of
009all the services that we participate in that make up that $16 million. Um we're still vetting all of those coasters. Um there's a lot that goes into it. So, we're going to continue to review that number. Uh the other changes uh relate to the equipment, supplies, and contractual. That budget line um compared to last time went down $64,000. Uh the bulk of that was the reduction of the superintendent search, the $45,000 that the board opted to remove um based on the conversation at the last meeting. Um, and the remainder of that, um, you know, this time of year, we really look at our fund balance projection for current year. We use that as a tool as we build next year's budget to see where we're expecting um, this year's expenses to land, compare them to
010where um, we're budgeting for next year. Um, and then, you know, what we've heard from different department heads of what they're going to need, and start making some adjustments from there. Um, so starting to go through that exercise, you know, as you know, we have a a large multitude of budget codes. Um, but beginning that exercise, netting out some ins and outs. Um, there was a further reduction of $19,000. So, right now, budget expenditures um, again, compared to last time went down a little over $12,000. Um, so a little progress, but at this point we're just um kind of holding to see where the the state budget comes in at. Uh, so this is the chart we've been looking at um from the beginning of things we've included within the budget. Um, only change on
011this slide was the removal of the superintendent search. Um, one thing I want to point out, um, have a little extra conversation on is the transportation truck. Uh, there was a request from a board member and I believe you have the information now, um, to have some they do not. That's Julia. Okay. um to have some further information on um what our fleet of transportation vehicles looks like. um as we as we build the budget to understand um you know our fleet of trucks and and and the need to replace the the facilities vehicle as we do the the trickle down process of when we buy the transportation truck and then a transportation truck will be transferred down to facilities and then an old facilities truck is going to be scrapped because it will no
012longer pass inspection. So we did spend some time in the past talking about why the transportation truck was needed. Um, but I want to walk through a little bit to talk about why the facilities truck is needed and why we're we're not just scrapping another truck. Um, and I do want to make sure the board is clear, as I said before, that we do take the time to vet this process. I have said before that um we don't bring a list like this before the board um lightly um or frivolously especially in light of our current financial conditions. So we do review these things very thoroughly to make sure they truly are in need before we bring them forth. Um but as far as the transportation vehicle um there is um a fleet of these
013particular uh pickup trucks at this one that will be replaced. These are primarily used by the um maintenance grounds um staff that we have on hand for um a variety of uh purposes out on our grounds. Um from snow to mowing, keeping up with our athletic fields, um all the day-to-day work from the work order tickets that come in from our our employees. Um, these trucks are two-seaters, so sometimes our team doubles up, um, depending on the work, or sometimes they go out as singletons. Um, we have 10 building maintenance mechanics. They have a supervisor plus Mike Coglin. So, we have, uh, 12 folks, um, that use these vehicles. We have summer employees, 8 to 10 summer employees, um, that we have to transport around in these vehicles. Um, we have to be mindful of
014the fact with within these fleet of vehicles I that um if we have one that's down in the shop that also limits operations. Um, so in thinking about where these trucks go. So we have the number of staff that use the trucks. They go to our schools. Uh they go to our transportation department. They go to Hibbert Road. Um they go to our old fieldhouse. They go to Broad Street. They go to the Mil Street fields. they they are all over the place. Um so to not um have this trickle down of how we're trying to limit our purchasing of multiple vehicles and replace the truck in the manner that we're doing. Um this truck truly is needed and was vetted. Um which is why this plan was set forth the way it was. the
015pending items that we're waiting on. Um, obviously the final state budget. Um, every year we say this, we're hoping for the for something to be uh presented to us on time. Um, if not shortly thereafter. The big things that we're waiting to hear on um is what the state is going to do with the um the new structure of the prek allocations, if they're going to um include in the budget an increased allocation per student for our um our UPK program. Um if so, um that would be a big benefit to our UPK program. Um and how we budget for our our UPK program. Um and what would be supported by the grant versus what's supported by the general fund. Um, and obviously each year we talk about this, um, any adjustments they're going to
016make to our foundation aid, any adjustments that they're going to make to the formula, to the good, to the bad. We're never, you know, quite sure what they're going to to do with the formula. Um, there's some new Boseies um, programs that we can participate in um, that is beneficial to us. It will generate more uh, Boseies aid. Uh so our summer learning academy um is now something we can run through Boseies that's already the expenses are already in our budget but now we can submit through Boseies and generate Bosey's aid. So the expenses we already incurred for this year we can submit now to get aid for next year. So we're working on that process to calculate the aid. So that'll be additional revenue to build in for the next time. um our athletics
017officials is now also being run through Boseies. So working on the cost of that um once we have that number calculate the cost of the aid. We're able to submit the costs for this year. So we'll get aid on that for next year so we can add that to the budget. And then our high school ACE programming um is also something new um through the a New York State initiative that there's expenditures that we can submit for our ACE courses um that we can also get um Bosey's aid for that. So Tony is is working with with Boseies and the various paperwork and uh red tape that we need to uh complete to do that. Um and again once we have our head around that we'll be able to calculate our Bosey's aid and that'll
018be yet another piece of um aid we can add on the revenue side. So that that was some good news that we got from from Boseies and we're just working through the final calculations. Uh this time of year we're we um are working on finalizing enrollment data in classroom sections. And you know, as always, we're going to keep crunching away at um our routine budget adjustments, going through each line by line, um continuing those conversations with principles and directors um about their individual budgets and continue to fine-tune our our budget. So, all told, roughly our gap is still the same. Um, $8,500 difference, which I would say is relatively flat. Um, given everything that we've talked about. Um, but the work is still going to continue. And Dr. Douglas, if you'd like to wrap it
019up and talk about the remaining options we have. >> Yes, thank you, Katie. So, as you can see, the budget summary, the expenditures, revenue, there's still a gap of 576,226. You can also see the tools that we have uh announced with the ERS, the ABLAR, and the fund balance. Obviously, we have gap closing measures. We hear from the board, hey, no more reserves. and so forth. We will caution the board. We know where we could be comfortable at reserves if we needed them in worst case scenario. We do not necessarily feel we're going to all depending on the state budget. Uh but we would still, you know, that number one gap closing resource is really what we're waiting on right now and that could potentially have a major swing at that gap very easily. Plus,
020we have a lot of things that we've been working with Boseies on. As Katie mentioned, the ACE is brand new. Uh, most community colleges are having very much difficulty staying afloat. The state has come up with this idea that now we can get aid so that we can pass some of that cost through us to Boseies as well as the parents will now have to pay for a part of their credit like they did probably precoid still a wonderful deal but this is the state's way of trying to help the colleges but also assist the districts. So that's one thing. There's also a couple other things where uh we are looking at coasters, the officials and so forth. So those are all positives just as still too early on the revenue side. So we know
021that we're going to adjust. We do not feel that there's really any other budget reductions unless we find it through our final review. So at the next meeting, you'll probably see the reductions would be crossed off unless there's something that the board tells us tonight they want reduced. uh additional fund balance, we'll always use that until the last minute, reserve use last minute, but we are comfortable that we know we can close this budget at this point. Uh we still want to also make sure that we're developing the best strongest financial plan going into next year to also help the fourth year. Remember when we hit this, we said that it would take two to four years to rightsize from the healthc care and inflation issue. We are in the third year and we're finally
022feeling a little more relief. Still not done, but we're are we are in a better position and that's what we're hoping to maintain as we go into uh the final presentations on the 16th. So, those are what it is. We're hoping that the board will say with whatever was in this presentation that we've already cut out or whatever is included at this point, it's still a go. And unless we have a area where we can't close this gap, that would be the only time we'd re turn to see if we had to reduce any of the ads. As long as the board's okay with that, that's what we're looking for for the next meeting on the 16th. And we pretty much feel that if we have a budget that's close to being done, we will
023be able to bring you a fine and budget plan that balances this out and then works on a reasonable uh levy. This levy is the 2% levy in the state. Last, just so that you know, future budget meetings, Thursday, April 16th, high school auditorium 6 o'clock here, Wednesday, April 22nd at 5:15. That would be for executive session. Budget would start roughly like a regular board meeting at 6. And then we'd have budget adoption that night so that we can meet the statutory requirements for the budget as well as the election the next day. May 7th would be the potential public hearing and then May 19th would be the high school north gym. We will have to communicate out that we will need everybody's patience during a certain time of day uh as we have a
024transportation plan that has to go in through place and we are working to try to make sure no one is sort of displaced trying to get to vote. So but that is already being worked on by facilities the high school and the administration. So at that time that concludes our presentations. as we open the floor. >> Thank you, Dr. Douglas and Miss Misetti. Any board members feel free to, you know, ask questions if you have them. Okay. Um, thanks for all the information and the update. Of course, uh, I'm not in favor of any of reducing any further just like you had asked us to remark about. Um, but I was just curious, could you just remind us when is the New York state budget due and how do we kind of float through until
025we find out ex the numbers that are coming from there? I was just wondering if you could just remind us how that works. >> The New York State budget is due no later than April 1st. That doesn't mean they're going to get done by then. Hopefully, they will get done before. >> Right? If by chance that budget keeps going and going and going past the time that we must approve our budget, we have a plan for that as well. We probably use a little more reserves because we know the budget's going to adjust, but we have to go by whatever numbers we have at that point. And then if more comes in, it offsets what we use. So, you're saying that you usually turn to the fund balance even though we'reing that it will >>
026we had to fulfill something as we await for them to finalize. >> I have not heard that they're expecting it to go along, but you just never know when they may try to make soup in Albany. >> Sure. Sure. Thank you. Uh the other question I had, um you had remarked how livelihoods are not being affected by this budget, but I was curious to know if you have any numbers When it comes to is there any are there any staff reductions due to attrition from this school year to next and if so what are those numbers or where are they coming from or what level? >> Well there as we've mentioned throughout the entire budget process and the staffing there is reduction by enrollment through attrition. >> There is three or four at the school
027levels and across three retirements K through six. There are other things that as you look at it may come up, but no one that's currently employed would be being notified by us that their position is in jeopardy. >> Thank you. >> Of course. >> Uh thank you. So Tony said three retirements. C can you tell us what levels they're at? >> Elementary. Okay. And um I know we have a a policy that if we don't have a section and the child belongs in Gardener Road and they register, >> it's the April 1 deadline policy. Yes. >> Then we send them to another school. >> We have the option. It doesn't mean we do that. We look at the enrollment at that point so that we can balance and also not add costs to the budget
028after that point. So do you know how many children this year are is there any children this year >> until April 1st and then the determination >> in this current school year let me rephrase that in this current school year how many children not just hypothetically belonged at ridge road but because they didn't have that section when that child came in they went to big flats >> I don't believe any last year I mean we can look at it for our update. We aren't going to do it right now. >> No, that's fine. I >> will we will look and put it in our update, but I think it's very little. Uh some of the things with the changes, it does fall upon my decision at certain points if we can assist if there was
029an enrollment issue, but we really look at that between April and August 15th. Uh and we always tried to minimize it where possible. So these three retirements in the elementary would have nothing to do with the enrollment at this point. >> Not at this point. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Julie, >> thank you and thank you for the information regarding the vehicles. I just need some clarification on that. The last meeting there was talk about one of the vehicles and maybe I'm confused whether it be the transportation truck or the facilities cargo truck being more of a box style truck. Um, that would be like moving furniture from Ridge at center back over to Ridge and things along those lines. What vehicle is that? That's what I'm asking. >> The facility's cargo truck. >> It
030is the the It is the cargo truck. Okay. Cuz when I'm sorry, cuz when Katie was talking about it today, it kind of seemed like it was replacing the facilities vehicle. That's a heavy duty plow that's a two-seater that goes to the different fields and stuff. So, I just want to make sure I understand what we're approving. That's all. Thank you. >> Yeah. And and please, as the board knows, Julie, um we already have vetted this over and over and this is what we do need. Otherwise, we would not have put that up there on the board. >> I understand that. I just want to make sure I understand what we're approving. Thank you. >> I can I can I have you ask that question one more time just so I can verify it? >>
031So I just want to understand one of these vehicles that's up here is a box truck style. Correct. Like with a back to it and like where we can it's enclosed where we can move stuff without it getting wet. Is that correct? >> I believe so. I am going to let Mike talk to you more on that because that's not Yeah. So the cargo the facilities cargo truck is the enclosed truck that we are looking to replace as the 150,000 miles that is used by the courier to deliver mail and such to every building. It moves technology, technology supplies, laundry, all sorts of things to um all the buildings. And there's not any other enclosed vehicle on the list that you are provided that is of the same size and substance that meets the requirements
032of the vehicle that we're looking to replace. >> So, it's a van or a truck? That's what I'm asking, I guess, cuz on here it says van. Transit van50 transit van. Okay. which is much different than all the other vans on this list that are much smaller. The the doors don't open the same way. Like none of these vans fit the bill for the work that this particular van does that we're looking to replace. >> Okay. So, to be firm, this is the facilities cargo van, not truck that we're replacing for 64,000. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah, she could change truck to van. And then this is not the one that goes to fields and stuff like that that you're talking about. >> That would be above with the transportation truck that once they
033buy that a transportation an older transportation truck is being transferred to facilities for the purpose that I just talked to with the for the the grounds and the facilities. >> Okay. Yes. My questions came because I was wondering where we were buying a box truck from for $64,000 because they're way more expensive than that. So I just wanted to kind of question that. So now understand it's a van. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> And just so that you know, whenever we purchase, you can go out and look. You aren't going to get the prices we get because we deal with state bid and that. So we get a much better option as a government entity. >> Yeah, I know. >> Well, you say you had $90,000 in the budget already towards this vehicle? >>
034We had some money in the budget from last year. Yes. right >> right >> to cover the cost of what we're doing now. So it's not all new money being added to the budget this year. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Others please. Katrina. >> Um, so I noticed from the slides from last week to this week, um, this week or from two weeks ago, this the gap number is actually higher. >> Which one? >> Yeah, that it's up by like $8,000. >> Yep. That happens every year. >> So, explain that to me again why it got higher. What happens is we made a big swing. We got new numbers and we got new either expenditure numbers. Both as Katie said, Bosey's costs went up when you took out what
035we subtracted out and what we had to add in the gap grew by $8,000. It's not unusual each year about sort of our lull point once we've done uh all of the major refining. Now we're in our final stage of refining like the Boseis bill. Uh with the Boseies bill came some increased cost we're going through because unfortunately sometimes at Boseies the numbers we give and the numbers they put in miraculously change and they may be higher, sometimes they're lower. We have to go through and verify what we're requesting usually a second and sometimes a third time to make sure their bill is correct. >> So this is all related to Boseies. Well, not all of it, but that is part of the options and issues. >> Wasn't there something about the capital exclusion change
036that you said? >> Right. So, the So, to net out the two pieces, um the revenue side went down the $21,000 because of the reduction on the on the taxes. So, we had a $21,000 reduction in revenue. Um we did have $12,000 in savings on expenses, but that revenue loss wasn't you know, between the two. Um, the gap changed by $8,500 because we lost more revenue than we had savings and expenses, which is not uncommon. Um, to me, $8,000 on a $12 million budget. We're no still in an okay spot. Um, again, not uncommon for this time of year. In the past years, just for an example, >> we've had some times where it goes up by 125 200,000. Uh that's not uncommon. We're actually quite pleased that it's only 8,000 this year, but we
037are still moving in the direction. And the hard part is from our last meeting, which is the meeting we did last time, usually we're doing this week. So, we moved up our budget process by a week to get to this point. Now, what happens is we're kind of in that lull because we need the state budget to try to really finalize as well as once we get that our final prep over the next several weeks to get ready for that final presentation. >> So, what is the Did the tax levy stay the same? >> No, the tax levy slightly decreased. >> Yeah. Okay. So 4 point but it's still 4%. Um did you guys look at um using some of the debt service to >> We are not at that point yet but we will
038be. >> Yes. Because I just I don't um for the next budget meeting I'm not sure if I will be at that one. And I just wanted to reiterate again that I think that that percentage has to be below or close to what the public voted on last year. I think last year it was voted down at the 3% is what we had talked about and looked it up at the one meeting. But I think that it has to be close to where it was when it passed the second time. >> I think that's we are looking at trying to give once we know everything the best opportunity to make sure it passes. We are also looking at every other district around here where they're going to be at. We're also looking at our past
039history. Uh, one of the things that the board knows and the community has been very good about and we appreciate it is as long as we are at the 2% or lower, they have approved every budget with a supermajority even last year after a defeated budget. So, we will try to put together the best without making sure we don't impact our debt service for out years too. In other words, we don't throw everything at it and then not have tools for the next year. But we will be looking at that for the 16th. Definitely. >> Okay. >> Others, I would just uh two things for me. I know we still have three months left in the fiscal year, but are you starting to do any fund balance projections and do you have a sense of
040where that might come in or is it too early to say relative to, you know, typical >> actually start back in October. Um, we start them very early. Um, and I think our latest and greatest shows us um breaking even if not a little bit to the positive. which could which theoretically might give us a little bit more fund balance to use if we need that as a gap closing measure. >> It would be a discussion to >> Right. Right. >> put towards reserves if we had a surplus over the 4%. >> Yeah. Our our big thing and I think that's right is we will have some tools to use that we normally may not but we're trying to also build a stronger reserve and everything as well for the next year. So all of
041that will enter into our final discussions for the 16th. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> I think it would be helpful for me if it's possible as well in that final discussion when we reach the point where we are, you know, the district administration is proposing or suggesting certain amount of reserve use if it's different than what we have to just have a slide where it lays out the current reserve balances so we can understand you know how the res use will impact what we have. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Anything else? >> Any other board members have questions or comments about the budget prop uh presentation? >> Just to finish up, there's the dates for the public and the board and we will see you on the 16th. >> Okay. Thank you very much. So,
042that uh was the only substantive agenda item we had left. We're now at item four, motion to adjurnn. So, is there a motion? >> Okay. Any comments or questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Abstensions. Okay. Meeting adjourned.