001Good evening. I'm going to call the meeting to order. Welcome to the February 26th Board of Education Budget Development Meeting. We'd like to start with the pledge of allegiance. If you'd please join me in honoring America. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. just had a >> So we have couple of items of business before we get into the budget presentation under section two in the agenda. We have items 2.02 and 2.03 for approval. Is there a motion? Second. >> Any comments or questions from the board on the motion? >> I there's different places in this. Um I've written down. Am I supposed to talk? >> Yeah, please. Thank you.
002>> Um in the safety plan on different pages they refer to Elmyra police. Um, notify Amire police. Follow the Booth Education Center fire drill procedure. Riverside Avenue and Brand Park. This is just for our school district. Correct. I have the pages. Um, so if somebody could refresh my memory, this safety plan was put out for the public to review. And so we'll just >> it was it was um shared you know last board meeting uh and made available and then there was a 30-day period for which it's subject to review and then to be approved by the board. So tonight's the approval but it was shared >> okay >> a month ago. So, I apologize. I was just reading it this afternoon. Um, and so I don't know Tom if you just want me to
003give you these things of >> Yeah, if you if you will send in late or talk to me later, we'll go through it. But a lot of this is standard and we do have to cross sort of integrate our safety plans across many avenues and many agencies. But I've got Caitlyn, I've got Tony as and Mike as well that can at least respond to the questions once we know them. >> Right. Well, I think they're corrections they have to be because like for example, it says notify Hored Central Police Department. they're either Horseheaded's Village and when it's the fire department, it's not central. It's either the village or the town. So, I think they should be um specific on what they're said. Um so, those were my concern because I was concerned that Ammyra police
004should be notified when we went notify me police. I think we'd notify horses. So, I have the pages written down. Yeah. And things. So, okay. If I can get a picture of it afterwards and stuff, I'll get something. >> Yeah, I think we can if you submit those, we can still approve it subject to those kind of non appropriate >> substantive updates to be made. Any other Thank you to any other comments or questions? >> Katrina. >> Um, yes. along that line. Um, going through this document, when I clicked on it from the public website last night, what pops up on the top left hand side, it actually says Ommyra City School District. Yeah. And um, it's not on board docs tonight. When I click on it with the iPad, it might be different when
005I'm using um, an iPad compared to a laptop. >> But if you look at like 7.2.4 floor. Right above it, it says um Elmmyra bus garage VHF system. The bus garage is serving 63 mobile and three portable units. Are those accurate numbers? Um it's talking about the location of the central offices still being where is currently being the gym built. Um there is a section where on page 43 it says um the list should be customized by school. It is not customized by the school. Um the active shooter or intruder it says notify Elmmyra police. Um I believe that that's not what we follow. So, as I started to go through and read more of this plan, I started to realize that it is um not fully catered probably to our school district. I believe
006this is probably well, I believe it's a very important document because it's something that has to be given the 30-day notice and then it has to be updated yearly, I believe. And then there were some modifications. So, I will be voting no on this document. Um, and I think that we probably should um maybe get a committee to go and take a deep dive into this because these are the safety plans for the district and I think that they're very important. Um, I also think it's important to note that this same plan is something that we had voted on in the past and is already uploaded to the state. So from my perspective, I think it's really important that we receive documents well in advance. Um so we can have and and with agendas if
007they're going to be heavily loaded agendas that we get them a minimum of a week in advance so we can go through and read all of these things. This week we had a relatively light agenda so we could read through all of the attachments more thoroughly. Um, which is why I was able to take a real good deep dive into this today. Um, but it's very concerning for me and I will be voting now. >> If I can address, first of all, you're not going to be voting on anything tonight. This is going to be removed and held over. I do not know what the issue is, but I will. I would ask that board members had this well in advance of yesterday or today because it's been on there since last Thursday. that if
008you are reading it, please get your questions to us as soon as possible. That is what we would request. I appreciate the comments and questions tonight that we can look into. I have no reason why it's coming up Elmyra City School District, but we'll look into it and it will come back, but that would be what we expect from our board members. Thank you. So, it sounds like we need an amendment to the motion to with um >> withdraw or we can withdraw the motion and um update the agenda to remove item 2.02 and vote on only 2.03 and then we could carry that over to the next board meeting on March 12th for approval with with the revisions made in the meantime. >> Does it have to be approved tonight? >> No, >> I
009guess I get my hand I get my hand slapped. I ain't worried about fine. So I think was it your motion Christine? >> Yeah. So I I can I'll amend my motion to only the second item >> for for approval of 2.03 and then is the second >> I would second. I'll second that. >> Okay. >> Withdraw 2.02. >> So the only motion pending is for the approval of 2.03 appointment of impartial hearing officer. Are there any questions or comments on that item? All right. So, I'll call for a vote on item 2.03. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Nay. Any abstensions? Okay. Motion carries. The next item on the agenda is our budget development discussion 3.01, a budget development update presentation. So, I'll turn it over to the district for
010that. >> Well, we have it. You may want to adjust or just sort of not be you in the face. >> Okay. Thank you. It's very weird because it does come from horse. I mean, even in the in the web, it's still horses. >> Yeah. I mean, We're not in my room. >> Well, good evening. >> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Uh members of the board, our viewing audience, and those members that have shown up besides just our staff tonight. Uh this is our second budget update. We have given the preliminary budget overview that is regularly online so that everybody can follow along. I'd just like to re re-emphasize that we are the pretty much primarily only district outdoing our budgets this early as most of them will do it at the end of May
011and we will have be roughly almost done with ours by the end of the next budget presentation to do that work. and everything is a development and process off that very first presentation and that is always available online and as we update next presentation will be one of the bigger ones because that's really where the budget is fully in front of you with our departments and so forth and then the work begins because really our work begins when the state gets its budget done as well as Boseies gets their budget done and all the others give us final figures here. So, this is still a state in flux until we hopefully have a budget in New York State before April 1st and that way we can come and come back to you with a finalized
012budget that zeros out the gap. But there's a lot of work to be done and so these are just updates and discussions at that point. U so at this point I want to turn it over to my assistant superintendent for our business and operations, Miss Katie Bazetti to go over the update number two. >> Thank you Dr. us. Good evening. So, if it's all right with the board, um I'm going to uh zip through these first couple slides fairly quickly. Um it's the information we discussed last week. Better >> better. Okay. Um and then we'll get to the new information uh for this week. Um so the governor's proposal for 2627 uh the real crux of the information that we need to know here um is the increase for our district. Um at this point
013we have a increase of 3.4% in foundation aid for the horse district or $957,000. Um no proposed changes to the expense driven aids and there is money still included with an increase for the to maintain the universal free meals. Am I >> okay? You good? >> I can try. Okay, >> I don't project quite like you do. Right. >> No. Uh the one item we're still waiting for more information on, as I said last week, is um the proposal for the expansion of the UPK program. Um more information to come on that items still not included in the governor's proposal. Um the no funds for the prior year adjustments, no changes to the zero mission uh bus implementation and um unfortunately no increase to the capital outlay exemption. State aid figures where we left it
014last week. Uh we are looking at an increase of $5.3 million primarily due to that increase in building aid that we talked about due to the early aid filings uh for the high school in Ridge projects. As we talked about as our debt builds up, we uh step up our aid to keep pace with that tax cap calculation. Um, based on the information we have to date, we are looking at a um, maximum allowable increase to our tax levy of just shy of $2.5 million or 4.95%. At this point, this calculation does not you include the use of the debt service reserve. Just a reminder, the debt service reserve is a tool to bring down that the amount of the levy. It's a different resource to bring down the levy percentage. Um it is not
015an additional resource to uh close the gap of the budget. It's a tax levy tool. Summary of budgeted revenues. Um this also has not changed. Um total revenue increase 6.3% um or 6.3 million or 6% uh summary of budget expenditures. Again, same as last time, uh total increase of $8.4 million or 8%. Um and I do just want to take a minute to expand a little bit on what Dr. Douglas was talking about earlier that the the budget process at this point is in flux. Um and kind of talk about what the process looks like and where we kind of stand um at this point. Um so quick recap, budget process actually begins in the fall, October, November. Tony and I go around, we meet with every department head, um every director, every principal to
016gather information from them. Come January, we start our aid calculations, um start combing through, um close to a thousand budget codes, um things of that nature to start making adjustments where we can. At that point, salary calculations are done for contracts. Um, our debt service um numbers are reviewed based on the schedules we have from our financial advisors. Um, Boseies is actually just beginning to roll out its own budget. So, we have our first flush of the Bosey's budget. Um, so we're getting very early initial information from a lot of people. Um, the state itself rolls out its own budget very early in the process. Um so at this point we work with what we have. Um as Boseies fine-tunes their budget, state fine-tunes their budget, we in the business office are fine-tuning our own
017budget. Um frequently I will print out the entire budget, go through each code one by one, look at everything that comes out of that code. Um, I will often go to a department, hey, we need to spend a little more time specifically on your budget, set up a time, work with an go through it code by code, expense by expense, and see where things stand, see where we can adjust. Um, so there's a lot of moving parts. It takes a lot of time. Um, so just because this is the number we're presenting today, that does not mean we're going to see a lot of changes between now and April. So, last time we presented this list um of some key items that this budget includes. And when I say key items, um some larger items
018that we just wanted to kind of bring to the forefront to your attention. Um and I just want to uh make sure that you're aware and preface this conversation with that. Um when we bring these items to your attention, we don't do so um lightly or in a frivolous manner knowing that we do have budgetary constraints. Um these items come um after some conversations about um what's needed in our district, what our programmatic needs are, what our operational needs are um while understanding what our financial parameters are. Um these also come through various discussions with all sorts of groups within the district um such as department heads, our executive teams, principles, admin council, union leadership um in discussions with our superintendent staff chats to help compile this hear what and hear what people have to
019say. Um, so I just want you to be aware that when we present these things, we are mindful of the gaps that we have, the tools that we have, and how we can, um, close this budget gap. So, with that, um, I'm not going to talk about some of the ones at the bottom right now because they are the departments we're going to be talking about tonight. Um, but as far as claims, um, as I said last time, we're going to continue to monitor those We continue to work with our um healthcare consultants to um continue to come up with ideas on how to put safeguards on those and kind of best budget for those for next year. uh the three assistant principles. Uh Tony provided um information regarding the assistant principles um as a
020continuation from the conversation we had last year um and described the various supports this role can bring to the table, the sports to the students, the sports to the staff and its support with the district's initiatives. Um the next budget presentation will be on instructions. So he'll be discussing it more at that next meeting as well. Uh, one item that we floated out there, um, was the shift of the free three of the school lunch monitors back from the school lunch fund to the general fund. This was something that we did last year as an accounting measure um that we moved the lunch monitors over to the school lunch fund. school lunch fund has a a very healthy balance um where they could absorb the cost um of the salaries of the school lunch monitor
021to take some of the stress off the general fund. We talked about the sustainability of that with the school lunch fund um and how long they can continue to do that without that being a detriment to the school lunch fund. um we're going to continue to look at that, see if it's um viable for the school wants to do it for another year or if it's something we really need to consider um moving back over to the general fund. Maybe it's not three, maybe it's only one um but something we want to keep on the list to consider. Um the superintendent search um an estimated cost of $45,000. As I said the last time, it's the board's prerogative how you want to conduct the search. Um and based on that decision the subsequent cost to
022go along with it. Uh so Tony will be stepping up and presenting the technology department budget. So you'll notice a um good evening by the way. Um you'll notice a uh one change in this particular slide compared to others you'll see is the first line is equipment. In other presentations you'll see salary. Uh this department is only made up of very few individuals. They will be put in the instructional salary lines because they report directly to me and um kind of takes the focus on those particular individuals and puts them where they belong which is the instructional. So we do have members uh that are salaried from technology but they will fall under the the instructional lens. Uh so we start with equipment. Uh this is a majority of this money is going to be
023for our uh systems our let me get my brain set sorry our network switches um our network switches basically Bill would yell at me about we just plug and unplug things in in the room it's more complicated of course than that the variety of interactions to move data in their network throughout the district. Um these like anything else need replacement cycles. So that's what we see here uh as a main course here. We see a $14,000 increase to this line as we do have to have additional switches added for this particular coming fiscal year. Otherwise um that's the bulk of this some might think as I get down to the Boseies you'll hear me talk about equipment purchases on Boseies. The reason this money is not placed there is it provides flexibility for the district
024to move money and spend responsible uh responsible whether we transfer this because we might get Bosey's aid on it or get a better price through Boseies or we maintain it in-house because of what we're purchasing with the vendor might not go through Boseies. So, it's a pond of money uh set aside this particular um season for these switches. Uh main main purpose and again we have to upgrade those like any piece of technology in the district supplies and software. Uh you'll see a flat lining there just to kind of give you an idea where that um what monies are what's expended out of there. batteries, cords, monitors, cabling, keyboards, um some software that we can't purchase through Boseies isn't available through Boseies yet. Um our droplet, our character strong, um our major pulls from that.
025We're always on the lookout to find our software and to or just like the equipment to move it to a Boseies coaster if another school district uses it. And there of course we would want to use our posties but right now what we see out here is not adidable and we maintain that pop for those purposes. Contracted services are is our servicing of our interactive white uh boards and the contracted service to run our our boards that you see outside our schools. The the um the exterior signage or the primary for that small cost of 5,000 Boseies of course you see their largest number as presented in the last slide deck. is is uh the major increase here is due to the laptop purchases that we anticipate. I do want to take you through a
026historical journey uh during um I'll go back as far as Tom and I 1516 when we talked about CBT and increasing our our technology for those that were at the board at that time and moving our our funds and increasing our technology monies at that time slowly but surely so that we would end at an end point and be level. Bill and Katie and I and and district team, Tom, have been working over the years to make sure that we don't have spikes in our technology expenditures. It was predicted at one point because of that influx of money from Esser and the grant funded money that we might have one year spend a million dollars on replacement because they would cycle out in six years. You had to strategically purchase in, you know, your equipment
027through the years. And so you would not go from a $1 million one year to a $300,000 the next year, right? We wanted to get this line finally to a stable point to which it plateaued so that not every given year we're increasing this hundreds of thousands of dollars either way. All right. It was just going to be fiscally responsible in the futuring of our technology purchasing. And that's what you're seeing here. I checked back in our notes bill and it was uh 7 years ago we predicted we would top out at about $640,000 in our expenditures for laptops and associate equipment. uh we are leveling off at 512,000 due to the work of him and his team and how that works. So of that Boseies $2.9 million 512,000 of that is for the laptops
028which is an increase as you saw in the previous slide we expect that to be our plateau number give or take 100,000 moving forward from there maintaining our services in a six-year cycle. Also found within that uh Boseies line you're going to see our instructional software I was referring to earlier. Anytime another district or Boseies uses a particular software. We of course move our expenditure here to purchase. Um some of the bigger pieces that come out of this would be our Canvas learning management system. Adobe suite as a as a large purchase out of here. Edpuzzle um Edwear unique. some of our uh learning systems that we use with students. You'll see coming out of Vespos's instructional uh software. Also in that 2.9 you'll find uh operational software and hardware. So things that aren't directly
029to the student that could be our office CPUs, our servers as I talked our access points, um cameras, our our printer leasing um are all aspects of that Boseis coaster. And lastly, the operational software I was alluding to, day automation, school tool, Microsoft licensing, absolute board docs are all paid out of here. Again, Boseies is when whether by getting a good price or contracting um and getting a aability, we use that these lines to purchase and be fiscally responsible. Katie also alluded that you know ongoing conversations with Boseies, they control the contracts for multiple districts. they they are still working through contracts through some of the vendors I just mentioned. So they give us an initial what they think it's going to cost and as time goes on in the next month or two, they
030will solidify those contracts and we'll have exact numbers for next year. Likewise hardware, if anybody's bought a computer lately, you'll see an escalation of price there that we're keeping u an eye on. I think Tom has referenced it in previous uh presentations. We've talked about the idea of um inflated costs could be from tariff issues. Um what we're seeing right now is basically AI is requiring a lot more RAM technology and RAM unit um space. So cost of RAM the computer has supply is low therefore cost goes up or excuse me supply yeah it's the demand is high and we're seeing increased cost of 40% for one particular piece of that CPU. So that's we are finding vendors they're getting a little bit better but at one time they were only holding us to a
0317-day quote. Uh so the the quotes they were giving us were sometimes only good for seven days. So we're hoping that market um we try to build in a responsible amount for the replacement cycle to understand how much it's going to cost us. You saw the number at 172,000 additional. It's topping out at 500 12,000 I believe is the number for hardware. Um it's a it's a estimate right now what we're predicting. We constantly look at this. Bill and I just talked uh today about what what this looks like, what um our hardware replacement cycle is, how our iPad integration at the um primary level and what that might affect that 172,000. So that number is going to be home. That's not a final number, but that's a conservative estimate given current market conditions and
032our estimated need of CPU units for the for the district. Okay? But over the course of the next month, we will continue to hone that number. Lastly, out of Boseies comes our our land our lands, our our texts network that work out of Bill's office um um to uh support the network. That's a partial cost in that Bosey's service. A larger side that's unseen. It's the backside. It's your security management. We pay Boseies to maintain the security of our system. And knock on wood, darn good job. We we maintain a very safe network for our students and uh fishing scams are caught early and very little um because of that and that's a service cost coming out of this Bosey's line. Uh our VoIP network comes is an additional and um desktop the developers the
033help desk are all services that come out of that Bosey's line. So, of that $213,000 increase, you see um two significant pieces. The $172,000 is your um the the hardware, the CPUs for the student, as I said, that we are further honing. Um and the other piece is the um uh we have a software uh switch out we're doing. We we're moving forward with a different messaging system and there's a little bit of a different cost there. Um, so we see a slight increase maybe $8,000 when we change from one program to a more robust, better program that we are contracting with for next year. And the other third piece that comes out of that is our CIS cloud. Said that right correct, Bill CIS. Currently, our Microsoft Outlook, our one drives are not backed
034up very well. Um, a lot of industry and and school districts are making sure they purchase a backup for your one drive. So we are going to add money to the to the system um to buy our CISC cloud to back up teachers and their one drives as well as administrators. So instructional staff. So making sure that they're um if something goes wrong we have a backup. If the security doesn't hold, we're not held hostage and we have that backup. It's a it's a minor cost in the grand scheme of things but well worth it for the security. So um more to come as we hone those costs especially with Boseies and the hardware uh working with vendors. Turn back over K for facilities. All right. So salaries uh we'll talk about on a separate
035slide. Uh the equipment, you see um an $80,000 increase. Um a couple things happening in the equipment line. So you may recall last year um there was a plan to buy two trucks. Uh facilities needed a truck, transportation needed a truck. Um budget did not support last year buying two of the trucks. So last year facilities got a truck. This year, transportation is the one that needs the truck. Um, the monies that were held um that facilities used to buy their truck is currently being held right now in the facilities code. That money right now is being held in that code for the purchase of the transportation vehicle as part of this hopefully two-year plan to get both trucks. It's being held in the facilities code even though it's a transportation vehicle be because of
036the purpose of the truck because it does not transport students. it's not eligible for aid. So, it's held in a facilities code considered a quote unquote facilities truck even though it's used for transportation. So, the truck we bought last year for facilities was $95,000. The truck that we would want to buy for transportation is $80,000. So, again, part of that two-year plan where we wanted to buy two last year, we bought one. We're using those funds to buy the second second truck this year for the $80,000. A new request for a second vehicle coming out of facilities is um a van that's primarily used for our courier that goes around all of our buildings to deliver mail packages, supplies, etc. It's used four hours a day to go amongst our buildings to to make our
037deliveries. Um, it's also used for delivering um, ed support supplies, technology equipment, um, all sorts of things that we need to have within an enclosed vehicle. We only have two imposed vehicles in the district. It's this its van and our big white box truck that you might see driving around. This particular van, um, it's a 2015. It has over $150,000 150,000 miles on it. Um Jason, I'm sure might be making some faces behind you, but he um is constantly working on it in the shop. It is in need of repair constantly. It is streaming a lot of money and at this point, frankly, it might it will not pass near state inspection. Um so it is in need of replacement. Um if we do not replace it, um we do have that one box truck
038which is also used for other district needs. So, we will have um quite a hardship operationally for what we use these two trucks for if we're only down to one. Uh that particular truck is $64,000. So, we have about a $15,000 difference between um what's left over from the transportation facilities truck swap that could be put towards the purchase of this van. Um utilities. Uh Mike Coglin spoke to this um a little bit at the last meeting. Um we're continuing to monitor our gas and electric costs. Right now we've increased the budget by approximately 33% based on the data as we know it today. Um Mike and Dan Deloreum um watch this very carefully. Um we're waiting for some more bills to come in, some more data to come in. Uh there may be adjustments
039that will have to come to this code. Um but we'll make those updates as appropriate as the as the data proves otherwise. Contracted services um across the board. Uh we're seeing increases in um various contracted services, but specific to uh facilities ones that um really um point out there are elevator servicing, shredding, trash, time of materials, HVAC maintenance, and our fire alarm servicing. um supplies um primarily the increase in our cleaning supplies and BOS is the cost of the consortium that we participate for um the gas and electric uh cooperative bidding um that we use to get the best pricing for our um gas electric rates. Um so um all told facilities is increasing $587,000 or 11.7%. Uh salaries um honestly nothing noteworthy here. Um the facilities department is made up in total of 63
040employees um with a 2.4 24% increase um in overall salaries. Um the only change here is just what'sever in their contract as far as contractual raises. Uh next up I have the transportation department. Uh so same story, I'll I'll come back to salaries. Uh their equipment line, they have a very nominal equipment budget, $28,000. Um it's primarily held for any replacements of office furniture, equipment for the garage, computer hardware, things of the like. Uh fuel, uh you'll notice went down. We talked about this briefly last time. We had some great news with our fuel bid. Um pricing came in very favorably. We had some decrease in both our gas pricing and our diesel pricing and we were able to take advantage of um large quantity uh discount pricing. The the larger the quantity often you
041get better pricing um with the larger quantities that you bid. So really good news there. Um fuel reimbursement we are seeing a decrease. So those other agencies that use our fuel island uh for gas, we do invoice them to be reimbursed for the fuel that they use for us. Uh so the big decrease is primarily due to Almire Heights will be leaving our facilities. They're building their own and they're building their own fuel island. Uh so they won't be using ours anymore. So that's the decrease in um the reimbursement. Uh parts and supplies, we're seeing a decrease. Um, we are continuing to buy gas buses versus diesel buses. Uh, gas bus parts are much cheaper than diesel buses and we continue to build a strong tire inventory. So, we don't anticipate needing to buy as
042many tires this year based on that um, inventory on. And we have a um, slight increase in our operating costs. Um that includes things such as insurance software, um different licensings, um the Tyler Tech contract, Verizon, and and trash removal. Uh total transportation increase $586,000, 12.3%. uh the salaries that make up the transportation department, uh the directors in the clerical, um the drivers and the floating monitors. Um we did include the two that were part of the considerations on the list. Um since they're included in the overall budget, um there is an increase there that we should take a minute and talk about. Um, so when we developed the 2526 budget for driver salaries, the new bus routes were still under development as part of of the work of the redistricting. Um, once the routes
043were developed, uh, later in the summer, they all had to be put to back out to bid to the drivers per contract. Uh, so all drivers had an opportunity to review the runs and put bids in to what runs they wanted to have. Um, so at the time we made um best guess estimates on what those runs in the cost would look like. Now that the runs are finalized, we know who's driving what and the the length of runs. Um each run each driver um was calculated one by one. Um on top of contractual just normal contractual increases, the salaries went from 2.1 million to 2.5 million um based on um uality as of today. And you'll also see um an increase in the substitute training, extra pay, and field trips. And that is due
044in part of the the new runs being um longer based on the structure that we've had to create. Um, so as drivers take extra runs for whether they're Boseies runs or field trips or sports trips or whatever extra runs the driver may have to take, um, they're hitting the overtime threshold a little more quickly um, and gaining more overtime which caused the increase in that budget line. Um, and I believe we have talked about this in the finance committee, but I do want to make the point of it here as well that the calculation of bus driver pay is much more comp complex and complicated than um a standard contract pay. So, for example, myself, I have my salary. You look at my contract, my raise is x% mathematically simple. There's my raise. Bus drivers
045aren't as simple. You have to look at so many factors as far as their run, their hourly rate, their extra time, their the runs they do. There's so many other factors that go into calculating a bus driver pay. Um so a lot of time was spent going over it. Thank you, Ann. Going over them one by one and really putting our arms around what each driver is earning. um working with the transportation department for any clarity that is needed to really come up with a a solid budget number and with the roots now set. This is our new baseline so we'll have a good number to work with going forward. Um going back to the drivers and the floating monitors, I want to go back because we did include on that initial list the addition
046of two uh floating monitors. Um, I want to make sure we're clear that this is not a request due to the consolidation. Uh, these were, uh, monitors that we used to have several years ago. We used to have three. Um, and they were reduction, um, when the budget was tight. Um, we were asking for consideration of um, one or two to return back to the budget. Um, these, um, monitors are helpful for a variety of reasons. Um, not only do they help the students, but they can help the driver. Um, they can assist students, you know, if there's issues in the classroom, if there's issues in the neighborhood that they need to um, assist the student with and provide additional support. Um, if a p principal calls and requests and, you know, wants a student
047to have some extra support on the bus, but this floating monitor can be assigned on the bus. um floaters. These floating monitors are required to have uh their CDLs so they can drive a school bus as well. Um so if there's a situation occurs with a student um often times students have a really good relationship with their bus driver. So if there's a situation the the floating monitor can actually drive the bus while the driver who has that strong relationship with the student can actually help that student. Um but the floating monitor is um an a support that's almost a extension from the classroom where we have the help and supports in the classroom. It's a help and support on the bus. for a bus proposition. Um we will be seeking the replacement of eight
048school buses um in one of our SUV vehicles at a cost not to exceed $1.9 million. Um I want to point out that last year we did also seek um approval to borrow $1.9 million. We will only borrow what we need. Um, with pricing unknown, the tariff situation unknown, we want to make sure we're asking for a sufficient amount because we can't borrow more than what we've been given authorization for. So, even though last year we asked for 1.9, we're actually only borrowing 1.6 to keep our cost down because we don't need any more than that. So, we're going to ask for 1.9. Um costs are higher than what they were last year, but when it comes time to place the order, if we don't need the 1.9, we will not be borrowing the 1.9.
049And this proposition does not include electric buses, gas buses only. So, where we left it last time uh was a gap of 2.1 million. Um, as I said, Dr. Douglas has said, the budget is always in flux. It is my intent at the next meeting for you to see a different number than that 2.1 million. Um, a lot of work will be done between now and then to show you a different gap than that 2.1 million dollar figure. So one of the things we talked about at the last meeting and this is basically the basis of all presentations. Uh the only thing in next presentation will be the same slides except facilities technologies will be out and we'll put in instruction athletics. But no matter what you get to this budget some you already heard
050me say th the tools we have are only on the right. That's about it. I do not believe that this budget is going to need or the board should consider a tax levy challenge. And I don't want that out there long enough that people start saying, "Oh, well, the budget's got this gap. They're going to challenge again." I'm not planning on recommending anything of a challenge for this year. Ultimately, you can say as a board, yes, but I would prefer sooner rather than later that this board get ready to tell us whether they're either going to take that right off the board. We have to live within the mean. Um, so that's something I want you to think about between now and the next meeting because at the end of the next meeting, we need
051to have that answer. Uh the main reason is we need to give the community confidence that this budget is heading in the right direction and I do believe it is. The hard part is we still have many unknowns. Until the Bosey's budget can be finalized, we can't put final numbers in. They're always in a state of flux. Until the state budget is finalized, we can't put numbers in. We can't even take numbers out because they're in a state of flux. We've got prek money. We don't know if we're going to get it. If we get it, that gives a decision. And sometimes what happens is we may not know that the worst position we can be in is the budget doesn't get settled before you have to approve the budget. I think it's what May
052the 22nd and that was very close last year. So what happens is we've actually sped up the budget process this year. Normally we'd be going until March at the end. And I earlier said May just out of the popa. We plan on being done at the next meeting in March, which I believe is March 12th, correct? With the presentations and then it's just work getting it down to where we are. That work may be tedious and it may be slow depending on what numbers we can get. But we're always going to come back to this base and this I believe is what the board asked us to do from last year and we're continuing that this year. So ultimately to close this gap we're either going to have to use additional fund balance, additional reserves,
053hopefully get some additional money from state the state or we're going to have to make budget reductions. But I know no one ever wants to make reductions. And I'm not saying we need to, but there are some reductions we already see that we're going to put in to help bring that gap down. That doesn't necessarily mean it directly impacts somebody, but ultimately at the end, you're going to have to make some of those decisions eventually if we can't get it to zero. And I want the board to be ready for that because we do not want to be the last night saying, "Oh, let's add three $400,000 because we've got it. We've got to do this." And we said we had a three to fouryear path to get this budget back on order. Notice there's
054about 1.75 in ads into this budget and we're 2.1 to the negative right now. That's not a bad position to be with the tools that we have. But even if we bring that down and we've got more money, it doesn't mean spend at this point. So we want to caution. So really, we want you to think about that over the next couple of uh weeks and the presentations because the strength that we start to develop now will carry into the future years. So those are some of the discussions that we wanted to have uh present to you where the budget is. So any questions for Katie or myself or Tony? >> Thank you for questions for Dr. Douglas or please go ahead. Okay. So, the state aid that you're talking about that 3.4% increase um
055when we are looking at the summary of budget uh revenue is that included in that number that 53 million? >> Yes, >> that's the 3.4. Okay. Cuz Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that's what I was looking at. Um, and then I was comparing this year to last year and I had some questions. Last year the three assistant principal line was 265,000. This year it's 272,000. And then last year the floating bus monitor was 49,000 but this year it's $56,000. So I'm curious which numbers are accurate because both of them it's a different of $7,000. So I'm curious which numbers are accurate because last year it was going to be 56,000 for bus monitors but this year it's going to be 49,000. So it was like a decrease but last year. >> Yeah.
056Understood. Yeah. I'll speak to the assistant principal in first and then Katie. So the assistant principal is um there's contractual ranges for an elementary principal in that contract. So that those numbers range from I don't quote me but there's two numbers says if we're to hire under that contract between these two numbers or the superintendent can go outside that there's contract language that dictates where you start as. Um, so similar to other contracts saying here's the range to which you hire. However, if you're going to go outside that, there is a a clause for that. We can only make a best prediction on what that number might be. We looked at the contract and believe we probably pulled the three a conservative number on what we might pay for an experienced teacher that decides to
057enter into the ranks of educational leadership and put a number to it. Couldn't speak to exactly the math that went to the 265,000 you're referring to last year. I don't know if the ranges changes or it's just a an average we took of current assistant principles in the area. It's a nominal in the 7,000 and the 272,000. Um that would be the number might not come in at that. I will be completely honest. 272,000 for three people is a best conservative estimate of that number. It could be lower than that. It could be higher than that based on the qualifications of the person taking the job that is hired. A newbie is going to be different than an experienced assistant principal from another district. Okay. And then what about the uh monitors? >> Yeah, the
058floating monitors are based on the starting rate within the contract. Okay. Thank you. And then um when you were talking about in the technology slide um the salaries and then it was the increase um that is not included in the increase in the overall because you said salary lines are grouped in with the other salaries. So I'm just double checking that that's not it's not included in the 6.9% at all. Correct. I'm double checking that. >> Yep. >> Okay. Um, and you were talking about I kind of wish that when you guys go through each section, we could stop and then ask the questions about that section and then go to the next section. That would just a suggestion because I think it's helpful than trying to go back because in the moment you're thinking
059about your question and then it's hard to get back to what you were thinking of. Um, so you were saying about there's no aid on software, >> some software >> on some of the software. Um, and so that's that $93,000 >> part of that. Yes. >> Okay. I'm curious. Um, I guess I'm curious about what software that is exactly and if there's a way if there's any way that we could try to switch it and utilize other things. Oh, so not to use because their instructional software that are embedded with teachers use that have been built in programs and platforms to yank it out from a teacher and students right now would not be the there would have to be a a roll away and a roll in of a program. We but we chose
060these programs with with intent. So one is our droplet and other is character strong used with our social workers and our tier ones uh social emotional and behavioral interventions. Um they were just brought in the grant funded the sustainability came here. can see no increase from year to year with the intent of continuing to fund those two out of here uh out of this line. Know this that um every month I have conversations with colleagues in other districts through and Bosey's host it we talk is there any uh thing that people are looking to go to a coaster I'll ask is anybody using character strong yet because soon as you do we can get aability likely or a better price on that. So that's a ongoing conversation. There's other aspects to that that sometimes a
061vendor or software might not work through a Boseies and you have to direct contract with them. So we'll always probably have to have software costs in this line. >> Oh yes. Yeah. more so Katrina the Bosey's line there's an ongoing bills does a great job working with Tiffany Joe and Kelly to say are these programs we'll do a usage and we'll say okay this programs we got two teachers in the district using it can we roll it off for the cost per pupil right and we we've done that recently with a couple some that were in the teaching ranks remember um Safar and um it just went went by a Toolbox Pro was a popular one that people had used and we rolled out of that because fewer and fewer teachers used it at the
062same cost. It was a district license. So, we annually look at those and determine can we cut this out and do to what you're suggesting finding, hey, we bought this robust Canvas program. What you're using over here can be done in Canvas now. So, we're going to slowly roll you out of this over the course of a year and then remove it from the software code because Canvas now does it. We do it regularly operationally for any area but in this area that would be no different to find efficiencies for the district. That is really the operational part of us working the budget. >> Okay. Thank you. And um when you were talking about purchasing um the backup for the one drive, is this a subscription model or is this like a one-time purchase? It's
063a per user license. So for every individual you have backed up there's a cost >> and then can they increase that from year to year or is it this is the cost we own it now. >> Any vendor will it's a service that a contract is derived. So yes like anything else it could go up and down based on uh that the contract with the vendor. So, is there any way that you could um back up files with hard drives? >> We're talking about hundreds of terabytes. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we're talking about very large. Plus, the movement of that data, the switches I was referring to earlier and our and our servers there. There's no capacity in house for such a backup. Matter of fact, we've done a great job financially reducing the number
064of server space we buy on our H drive, iDrive, J drives, our OC's drives, moving all students in the last couple years over to one drive intentionally because it saved money. Um, and it's going to be a wash even now that we back them up because the cost was was ginormous. When you think about the number of videos or powerpoints or things that people save nowadays, think about our phones, it's a lot of memory. Plus, the retrieval of it is is also important. It's got to be archived and and quickly accessible. So, one drive did that for us. And now it's important that we have a we back it up with responsibility to key people, not everybody in the district. We understand it. It's by who really needs this. We know that teachers first and
065foremost and administrators need it. um students will not have backed up at this point, but it's something students >> students because of the lic they're free. >> Okay. >> Quote unquote free. Thank you, Bill. I forgot about that. >> Okay. I was curious about that. And then um to the facilities um and you were talking about the van that drives back and forth. Are we able to use one of the SUVs that are already over there that they transport students with in the middle of the day? >> Um, in a perfect world, sure. But with the needs we have with our students now, they're booked pretty much every day with student needs, so they're not available. >> Okay. So, in our purchase of the bus purchases, um, and I was thinking about this from going
066on the board tours, and the seats are kind of hard to like lift up with the SUVs. Um, I love minivans, so I was thinking maybe like doing a van anyway, and then maybe we could crossuse that van as the truck. >> So, to do, >> right? The proposition is for student transport only in order to get aid. >> Okay. Um, so you're saying that you basically only need $64,000 to purchase the new van, >> correct? >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure because there was I wanted to make sure >> possibly a little left with some carryover funds, but that's the that's the estimated cost of the vehicle. >> Also, the state contract. >> Okay. Thank you. And um I really do appreciate uh the work going into figuring out the salaries and
067the increases um from last year to this year. Um I had a question on the fuel. Did we get aid on that fuel back? So essentially, are we going to lose aid because we're spending less money on that fuel? >> Okay. you're out, >> but our transportation expense in general goes up. So, it's so yeah, we're not going to see a huge hit to our transportation aid because all the other expenses are going up. >> Okay. And um out of that 1.9 last year, did you guys expend all of that? Because you said you only would use what you need. Did we end up needing all of it? the borrowing. >> Mhm. >> No, we only borrowed 1.6. >> 1.6 in the end, >> but the proposition was 1.9 >> soon. Um >> Okay. >>
068But yeah, we're only asking to borrow 1.6 from last year's proposition. >> Okay. Yes. So, it was it ended up being a little bit. >> Yes. >> Okay. Only 1.6. Okay. And then um yeah, thank you for that presentation and that 2.1 million. You will let us know if that is truly the gap. Does that include a percentage increase already? Okay. So that it does include some increase to it, but this is um I don't I don't understand what you mean. your gap the 2.1 >> It has the tax levy in it. Okay, that is >> everything that you saw on the revenue slide, everything you saw on the expenditure side, that's what makes up the gap. So the tax levy, the state aid that we know now, everything that we know as of right
069now is included in that number. So my job between now and then is to see what else we can do in aid. I did get an updated aid number, for example, on excess cost aid, that will be an update. It was good news. Um, and going back and fine-tuning budget numbers, there's some good news to be had in there. So, that 2.1 number will change. >> If you recall, even last year, even the tax cap calculation changed slightly. So that's why these presentations are always draft until we get towards the end because it's going to it's it's like a living document and it's going to change. But our goal is hopefully that's not going to go up. One of the only ways right now that it would go up is if there was more ads.
070And I'm going to tell you, there's really no more ads that we're aware of unless something comes out of the blue or the state says we're going to give you less money, which I don't think they normally do from the governor's position. Um, but that's why it's live right now. And that's why the quicker we can get a state budget, the more firm that number will become. So, as we go over the next couple of weeks, we're hoping by the end of March, maybe we'll have a budget and we'll have a firmer number and then we've got roughly the first three weeks in uh April to balance it out because that's what we have to be. That's what our expectation is. So, it requires a 50% plus one vote within the community that has really
071regularly been above 60 if you're not challen >> Okay. But that is including all of those asks, the million, the principles, all of that is included in that 2 million. >> Yeah. And just a reminder, if you hearken back to last year's presentation, you started seeing the the ins and outs that I did for all the adjustments, that's what you're going to start seeing next week. So any adjustments I start making to the budget two weeks. Love to see you next week, but I'll see you in two weeks. Um that's what you start seeing in the budget. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Other board members, Julie, please. >> Thank you for the presentation. Um I just have two questions. First, the replacement buses. Could you refresh my memory if that means that we are retiring
072those eight additional buses or will those be eight like will we get eight more in our fleet? There's always a there's always a certain amount that are retiring out. We will get that in the next one. Uh usually it's about 8 to 10 each year. We've tried to balance it so that we're replacing out roughly and getting the same amount. Uh we're finally in that rotation where every 10 years our fleet should turn over. >> Thank you. And my second question is um for the superintendent search is that a budgeted expense for an external firm or is that through Boseies? >> That's an estimate. Boseies is free. However, I will have those conversations with the future board on whether or not we put this in as a placeholder because that board will ultimately decide and
073if they don't have the avenue, they won't be able to make a decision and they would have to figure it out. there's a way that the district can do it itself and be absolutely zero cost because we've got a wonderful HR department and the board will have absolutely 100% control of the hiring process versus also external search consultants. So that's a decision the future board needs to make unless this board chooses to say hey we're going to allow zero money there and the next board will have to do it for zero or we'd have to find the money in the budget. So that's precautionary that we put up for right now. >> Thank you others. >> I just wanted to say thank you. We are in a much better place this year with these numbers
074than we were last year. Um thank you. It's been very succinct and really appreciated. Thanks. And we we do appreciate that. But there are needs. We have to get through this right now. Like we said, it would take two to four years. We're in year three. There will be some things that will aid the budget coming in year, most likely year four or year five. That's just because staffing, we're getting old no matter what. And there will always be some type of turnover. We know in this district there is a major age turnover coming. Whether it's next year, we just can't be sure, but it's pretty pretty close at this point. Our next workshops just are our next regular budget board meeting. It's it's really just a budget meeting. We'll be on instructional athletics on
075March 12th, 5:15. We will start and have an executive session and start roughly about 600. Then we will have at that point really just the budget update trying to get it down to zero and direction from the board. I really would ask the board on his homework on that list if there's anything we need to remove from that list at the next meeting, please start thinking about it because we need that discussion. We can't wait until the end. And then once we get to zero, we're pretty much there. But we need to have a couple of those discussions towards the end of the 12th, especially on the challenge. We'd like to make sure we move that off the table is my recommendation, but I'll wait for the board's wisdom to tell us what we're going
076to do. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. That concludes the budget development presentation item three. So we are at item four in the agenda, which would be motion to adjourn. There's no other business for this evening. Is there a motion? >> Comments or questions on the motion? >> Okay, call for vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Nay. >> Abstensions. Okay. Uh motion carries. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.