001Good evening all. Welcome to the board of education regular business meeting. Today is April 7th, 2025. Can I please have a motion to open the meeting? Annie Michelle. That's everyone. Okay. Is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education enter into executive session to discuss specific legal, collective bargaining, personnel, and other matters in accordance with the open meetings law. Can I have a motion to enter into executive session? Teresa Kelly. All in favor? That's everyone. We will return around 7:30. Welcome back. Can I please have a motion to exit the executive session and re-enter the public meeting? Teresa one, Tom two. All in favor? That is everyone. Please all rise for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
002which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. emergency evacuation procedures. We have um signs in the back and the sides that say exit in case of emergency. And this is a smoke-free uh room district. No smoking is permitted. I'm going to move right on to the approvals. The board of education meeting minutes of March 25, 2025. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent schools that the board of education approve minutes from the meeting of the Huntington Union Free School Board of Education uh dated March 25, 2025. Can I have a motion? Bill second by Michelle. All in favor? That's everyone. And we have a few FYIs 2 through five. Any questions? Any comments? We'll move on then to the treasures report. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of
003schools that the board of education approve the February 2025 treasurer's report. Can I have a motion? Teresa, second by Tom. All in favor? That's everyone. And finally on the approvals is the warrants pop up. It is my recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approve the attached warrants which were certified for payments on March 26, 2025. Can I have a motion, please? Michelle. Annie second. All in favor? That is everyone. And we have some communications. I'll start off. Happy birthday, Mr. Kuzzek. Thank you. He didn't want anybody to know. The New York State Bar uh the New York State um the and NISPA I should say update last week reported that the state budget process continues to be moving forward and although a final agreement had been reached, school aid does
004not appear to be a controversial issue this year. So let's all keep our fingers crossed. Uh NISPA continues to advocate for proposed increase in foundation aid and funding for universal school meals among other issues. Um, I also uh wanted to announce that we're having a community cleanup on um April 27th. Uh it's it's uh right out of 1399 New York Avenue. It's in it's in partnership with the bid and several local organizations. The community cleanup gives uh students opportunity for uh community hours, community service hours, and we start at 100 p.m. on that Sunday. Any other board members? Um I'm sure that this will be repeated, but I just wanted to thank um Miss Musiel and and the entire um fine art and music department, Sandy and Janet and everyone involved in the district arts
005night. It was really a special night if uh I feel like it's getting bigger each year um and growing and um it was really neat. There was a lot of the honor societies selling things that they had created as part of a fundraiser. there were opportunities for kids of all ages to create um in in the spaces uh pillows and um little I don't even know what you call the like spider ear kind of things. Um and then there was a presentation of music by all of our district um music educators which was really fun. It was so exciting to see the kids watching their teachers perform. Um it was really heartwarming. It was a really wonderful night. And I would be remiss if I didn't pan uh h speak about the band pancake breakfast
006that happened this past weekend. It was a resounding success. And just a comment about in general the um the volunt the level of volunteerism in the band parent association is it's insane. Um, and it just it's so um I mean there people in attendance at that event that were just neighbors of people who volunteered and it just speaks to just showing up and and you know participating and really caring for your community and how that's sort of contagious and um I just am constantly in awe. I'm a new band parent uh this year and I just am blown away by the level of uh dedication there past band parents who don't even have kids in our district anymore attending. And then I know that there are several um scholarship opportunities out there for our seniors.
007Um but I did want to point out and thank um Dr. Harris um because of her volunteerism. She um currently serves on the uh New York Best uh board and because of her volunteerism uh they are offering a scholarship in her name. So if you haven't checked out the scholarship newsletter um that Miss Bonia so nicely puts together for our seniors um you should definitely do that. I know Xavier you're also donating some stuff too. So check that out. I just want to add about the the arts night I attended as well with Teresa. It was a lot of fun. The I think the best part for me was watching those younger kids see their teachers perform and they wave to them from the audience like like they're rock stars and they are rock stars.
008And then we got a little treat from our uh Mr. Cusack who performed as well. And I know the students, your former students were uh very happy, including uh Josie and Emily. I saw them uh cheering you on. It was it was a lot of fun. Anyone else? Superintendent. Good evening. I will try not to duplicate too much, but I do just want to mention uh being that the governor has not released the executive budget as of today, we are moving forward with our plan based on the preliminary budget release and we'll make adjustments prior to the April 22nd board meeting uh where we will ask the board to adopt the proposed budget if the updated executive budget is released by then. So, I just wanted to provide that update. Um, in the area of
009athletics, we are pleased to announce that we will have a varsity boys volleyball team for the upcoming school year, which will practice and play games at Finley. We've c we've added a camera in the Finley gym to film all home matches. So, we're excited about that. Um, we will continue with our combined gymnastics team with Oldfield, which really has been a great partnership. We do the same with our girls wrestling and swim teams. um when we don't have, you know, either the capacity, the facility, or enough students, we've been combining with other school districts. So, it really makes it cost-effective and we're able to offer those opportunities to our kids. Uh we'll be uh beginning our electronic exit surveys for our senior athletes. So, please be on the lookout for those surveys. We value this
010information to gather important feedback about our athletic programs. In the area of fine and performing arts, I would like to congratulate the cast crew and pit orchestra of Mean Girl Mean Girls. All three performances were extremely well attended. The audience was extremely complimentary. Um, thank you to Mr. Schwenderman, Miss Schmelter, and Mr. Zyon for all their hard work preparing the students for their performances. Kids were great. Parent volunteers were essential. Um, it was just a really great production all around. Um, I do want to acknowledge some students. I'm not going to acknowledge them by name because at the next board meeting we will be inviting students to come and uh be acknowledged. But we do have seven students from our art department that were selected to exhibit at the high arts exhibit and they will
011be acknowledged at a few at the next board meeting. Um I would like to congratulate um art student Estan Seiggoia who received an honorable mention at the high arts exhibition and his piece is on display at the Huntington Arts Council through April 19th. So please check it out if you have some time. Um, we also had several students accepted to Long Island's best young artists at the Hexure Museum and they will be acknowledged at a future board meeting as well. And again, special congratulations to Estavon Segoia who won the achievement award in digital art which was presented on Saturday, April 5th. Artwork will be on exhibit through May 25th. Um, as Miss Sullivan said, the pancake fundraiser for the HBD was amazing. Um, so many great parent volunteers, baskets, just a really fun time. Um,
012and the pancakes were were really good. Um, congratulations to all of our NISSMA participants this past weekend. And I did just want to mention coming up this week, we have our Huntington High School Honors Ensemble Concert on Wednesday, as well as a guidance workshop for grade 10, which is a virtual um, presentation this Thursday. Um, so if you don't have the link, you can reach out to the guidance office and I believe it's posted on their website as well. Um, I do just want to mention since the last board meeting, we have received some feedback about adding the tool two dual language classes at STEM for the upcoming school year in our fourth grade. Please note that this was due to a potential class size issue at Woodhull, which would have placed 29 students in
013a class and simultaneously the state had cited us for not offering a bilingual program at STEM based on our numbers there. Uh this is something that we've been cited for in the past and we were looking to be in compliance with state guidelines. So we felt compelled to offer the change. Um these factors are what required us to make the decision. However, if we do not have enough students interested in moving into the STEM uh dual language program for next year, we will consider alternate options for the upcoming school year. Um the Google form was shared with families who have third grade dual language students and it will be completed. I'm sorry, it will be closed this Friday. So if you have interest in sh and you'd like to share with us any interest, please
014complete that by Friday and then we will move forward based on the interests of our students. Um that being said, I do just want to mention that throughout our strategic planning process, we received many comments on the experiences between the programs offered in the two buildings. Um the difficult decision that an 8-year-old has to make regarding their intermediate experience and anxiety and stress that this has been causing to students and families. Um so these factors and feedback have influenced us to craft a plan that we've been working on um that we will be sharing at an upcoming board meeting hopefully in June. Um I am aware that when and when any change takes place particularly a change that may impact schools um you know people may have some feelings about something that they're holding on
015to or something that they really like at this current time. Um but the plan that we've drafted really we believe will provide all students with opportunity and access to all the great programs that we're offering at the intermediate level. Uh so we are hoping to plan to uh present to the community in June. We would then provide a survey to families and to our community to gather feedback based on the plan that is shared and then we would have a follow-up discussion at the subsequent board meeting. So I did just want to share that with the community and let them know it's something that has been on our radar and something that we have been working on um in in the in the background and we have received feedback over the year particularly again through
016the thought exchange that we have taken into consideration. Um before I end I do just want to thank Mr. Hender for all of his hard work on staffing uh for the upcoming school year. It is a a daunting task that takes months of planning with many different groups, directors, principles, chairs, everyone uh really in the district. Um a lot of time and energy. And I also would like to thank Dr. Harris for all the work that she's done on the budget. This process started back in July. I'm sorry, back in October, meeting after meeting, conversations with all of us, with some of us, many with just us. Um, but I do want to thank them uh for their diligence with staffing and getting our budget to the place where it is today. Uh, so I
017wish all of you uh an enjoyable spring recess next week and happy happy holidays to those who celebrate. Thank you. At this time, we open up the podium for public commentary. Public commentary is open to residents and employees of the Huntington School District. Speakers are limited to three non-transferable minutes per person. There will be a maximum of 30 minutes total for all comments. We will open it up again for a second public commentary towards the end of this meeting. Priority will be given to comments related to today's regular business meeting titled items for discussion and action. The public commentary is not intended to be a question and answer session with the board members or administration and speakers should not expect to engage in discussion with board members or administration. When you approach the podium, please
018identify your affiliation to the district, whether you're a resident or an employee. Use the form at the podium to sign in. Please refrain from naming any students or employees of the district and the microphone is available and like I said there is a second session of that if no uh comments we can move on. Okay. So I'm up again. Yep. So I am so excited to have this presentation tonight. Uh the video broadcasting program uh began several years ago after a lot of years of planning, a lot of years of discussion. um figuring out equipment, location, space, teacher, how do we get a you know a program started that is is a pretty uh big deal for a school district to have and uh we really found uh the right fit for this program when
019we found Miss Fiorenti. Um I know she's over there somewhere. So I would like to turn this over to her and she's going to present our wonderful students and our wonderful program. Here she is. There she is. Hi. Um, I'm Mrs. Kristen Temporino. Um, yeah, I got married over the summer. I'm so I know you got married. I'm sorry. I'm stuck with Fiorenti Temporino. I go by it all. Um, I've been the teacher for video broadcasting for the past three years since this program has started. Um I have some of my team members with me here today and we're excited to share all about the accomplishments and possibilities within this class. Um this program when it beame began 3 years ago had nine students. It was one class with nine students and we were tasked
020with creating this program and building it up. Since then in just three years the program now has over 50 students and is expected to grow even more next year. [Applause] um some of my team members that I have here today. We like to run the studio as if it's almost like a job. Um so here are some of my team members with me here to speak. Um some have been taking this class since it's start started. So it's their third year in the program. Um some are on track to take all four levels. So they started as a freshman and they'll take it all through um their senior year. And every single one of these members and beyond have helped to build the program over the past couple of years. Um I'm now gonna introduce
021um Casey who is going to actually be my intern next year. Good afternoon, Blue Devils. My name is Colin Lennon. And I'm Brennan Arian. And welcome back to the Blue Devil broadcast. And welcome back to the Blue Devil broadcast. And welcome back to the Blue Devil broadcast. And welcome back to the Blue Devil broadcast. Welcome back to the Blue Devil broadcast. Welcome back to the Blue Devil broadcast. and welcome back to the Blue Devil broadcast. It's going to wrap it up for this episode of the Blue Devil broadcast. Bye, Blue Devils. Bye, Blue Devils. Bye, Blue Devils. Bye, Blue Devils. Thank you all for watching. Okay. Hello. Good evening. My name is Casey DS Campos and I'll be interning for Miss Tempino next year and I'm very excited to work with her. So, video broadcasting,
022what are we? We are the news of the school. So, we help share important and fun information to our student body. Because of this class, not only do we have the amazing opportunity to work with incredible equipment, but we also have the opportunity to work with students and staff in the building. This class also teaches us a lot of skills like communication skills, on camera presence, um interviewing, questioning, um equipment use, uh video editing, and creativity. Now, I will pass it to Enrique and Graham to talk more about our equipment. Sorry. Hello, my name is Enrique Mancia and I've been in this program for three years. I've worked behind the scenes with the TriCastaster teleprompter and premiere. The tririccaster is used to make the whole broadcast come to life. It focuses using different graphics, different
023camera angles to make the whole episode. The teleprompter is a screen under the camera that helps anchors users read the script, maintaining eye contact with the camera. Premier is used to edit a whole video, making each video as perfect as possible. Hi, I'm Graham Gu. I'm a third I'm a second year uh video broadcaster and I work behind the scenes with Enrique. The cameras let us broadcast high quality footage, whether it be in a new episode or a package, and we could take the cameras home, film packages. We could take them to sports games and film packages. The microphones let us use high quality audio that helps us get our point across because you can't really have a video without audio. And the drones let us get unique aerial shots as shown in the package
024that we're about to show. Anna and Grayson to talk more about what this class teaches us. Hi, I'm Anastasia Sarduchi. Hi, I'm Grayson Dunn. And this is our second year of broadcasting. And we're here to talk about how broadcasting this whole class isn't just making videos and releasing them. So, me and Anna are both not going to study broadcasting in college, but has helped us in many aspects of life besides that, like learning about communication, teamwork, and confidence. For example, interviews. when we interview people, we have to walk up to strangers and start the conversation and everything. And it's definitely brought us out of our comfort zone. And from that, me and Anna have created Anna Tries, where Anna goes around school trying different clubs, activities, and sports. This is a compilation of all the
025videos of Anna Tries. Hello and welcome to the first episode of Anna Tries new things. Today we're trying football. Today we're trying color guard. Today we're trying computer science. Today I'm going to be trying to say people's favorite phrases in their own languages. Today we're trying wheel throwing. I'm here with Miss Margette. Hey, let's get this party started. [Music] I'm just so good at so many things. Wow. Now, we're going to send it to Lily and Joe who are going to explain how broadcasting has set them up for their college major. Okay. Hi, I'm Lily Michaelelsson. And I'm Jill Bachmann. We're both seniors and we are both going to college for sports media. This class was crucial in deciding our college major. And if we never took this class, we wouldn't know the options and
026enjoyment within this field. First, I'll be passing it to Joe to talk about his journey with broadcasting. Uh so for me, it all started when I was very young with uh my grandfather. He was a uh sports broadcaster for the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres. and uh he was the one who really got me interested when I was younger. And then uh I saw this class when I was signing up for classes in the 11th grade. So I decided to join it trying to see what it was about. I loved it. It inspired me to look more into the career field for this major. And now I just can't wait to go to South Carolina and build on what I've learned from this class. Now I'm going to pass it to Lily. Hi, I'm
027Lily and ever since a young age, I've always loved to talk. I've always been told that I was really good at speaking and good in front of a camera, but I didn't exactly know how to apply it. But I did know I wanted to have a career in that field. At the end of my freshman year, my guidance counselor pitched this course to me. And when I stepped into it the first day of my sophomore year, I immediately was comfortable and immediately knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I can confidently say that video broadcasting is one of the only classes at Huntington High School that has been proven time and time again to provide students with careers and real life career paths. So, I really wouldn't know
028where I'd be without this class, and I'm so grateful for it. And now, we are going to show you some students who currently are in college for this class and have been doing stuff with the class. Go for [Applause] [Music] it. And here comes the Panthers. Kick out three. Got it. So much. Hi, Wayne. Back to the from Wayne. All right. So, uh, first up we had right there, that was James Rosselli. He graduated two years ago in the class of 2023 and is currently at High Point. As you can see in that clip, he uh went pretty viral during March Madness for his uh I guess emotional uh way of broadcasting. And uh he was on uh a variety of different social media platforms such as Bar Stole, ESPN, and even on Good Morning
029America. Um he was the first ever High Point sideline student reporter to be on ESPN Plus, which is pretty cool. and he's done a variety of different sports there. Basketball, lacrosse, uh hockey, baseball, he's really done it all. And he wouldn't have been able to do uh what he did as a freshman at High Point if he did not take this class. And he still comes back to the class like every year since he's graduated to like give us like pointers on how to like make this career like truly a career path. Okay. So, two more original members of video broadcasting who are in college for it are Nicholas Slafani and he's attending Penn State University with a major in communications and also Renee McKeen. And Renee originally um committed to Syracuse undecided and after
030taking this class switched her major to TV, radio and film behind the scenes. So, that is my favorite thing about this class is that it really shows that this is providing kids with lifelong skills and careers. And we are going to pass it back to Miss Temporino. All right. Um, I just want to say thank you for everyone's support to be able to run this class and it grow and everybody watching it every weekly. Um, I'm so excited to see the future of this class holds. Um, for all of my past, present, and future students and all that they will accomplish. Um, this is our link to our YouTube channel. You can check out all of our past broadcasts and you can tune in every Friday at 9:40 a.m. for our uh weekly broadcasts. Thank
031you to our sports broadcaster. Who's going to win tonight? That's not me. That's Lily. Give that back to Lily. I do just want to thank all the students for being here tonight. Thank you, Miss Temporino. um you're doing a phenomenal job with our kids and providing them with opportunities that are real life opportunities that they can certainly apply uh when they leave us here in Huntington and hopefully come back like Jimmy does. I do just want to mention that um the logo that you have was designed by students in our art department. Um much of the funding has come from the board support in our budget, but also he has supported us. We've had grants support us. We've had bullet support to get that equipment for our studio with to get it up and running.
032So, I do want to thank everyone for the support with that. And also to mention that when we're doing the capital work in our auditorium for this upcoming summer, the video broadcasting uh crew will hopefully be running all of the cameras that we have for our events and helping to film everything when that project is done. and we really collaborated with Miss Tempino when planning it to make sure that it's the same type of equipment so that we can really facilitate a true real real life experience for our students in our own auditorium. So, thank you for everything. Uh so proud of this program. Thanks. [Applause] All right, Dr. Harris, it's your budget presentation. I was going to say Jared tries so he's going to give the presentation today. Yeah, sure. Thank you. All right.
033So, tonight's presentation is in the area of revenues as well as a budget overview. This is revenue at a glance. This provides all of the major revenue areas. Some of them are lumped together. There are individual codes that you will find in the draft budget presentation that is attached um every meeting. You will see uh at the very top the tax levy a little bit under uh 3.5 million. That's 2.99%. You will also see accounted here is state aid um with a 2.81% 81% increase uh a little bit under $900,000. Uh there is a slide where we will dive deeper into uh the state aid um allocation. Another area uh that will jump out to you is the inner fund transfer that is specifically labeled for debt service. That comes from the debt service fund.
034We have $212,000 still in that fund. It has to be used against debt. We are in our last year of debt payment. So we will be utilizing that in the 2025 2026 school year. Uh two things that you will see come off after that will be the transfer from debt service as well as the actual debt service payment itself on the expense side. And then you will see here an increase in the appropriated fund balance and the reserve use. Um I'm going to dive deeper into these in the next couple of slides. Uh so if you hold your questions, I'll get to the uh nuts and bolts of it and then we can discuss that further. So overall you will see a total uh revenue um increase of 3.69%. This slide provides the levy limit
035uh scenarios. It does show the 2.99 as mentioned uh prior. That is the current recommendation per the superintendent. Um I do think it's important to just show what the options could have been or or put it out there. Um we tried to be very conservative taking into consideration the community but also taking into consideration the needs and the supports of the student. Um so you will see at the 2.99 uh that leaves you uh utilizing an increase of appropriated fund balance by the 250,000 and uh the utilization of the reserves going up $774,056. This does show you at the different limit options how much you would be using from those different areas. This is a graphic just showing many years of where the school district has been in regards to appropriated fund balance and reserve
036usage. Um I will point out that in sorry I'm just looking at the same time. Um in the prior three years that we did utilize less and that is also because we had such large increases in foundation aid. That was the phase in uh we are not seeing those increases now. So to sustain where we are we are looking to increase the utilization here but the next slide or two will go a little bit further in detail. So I thought it was important to provide uh some notes here. I also have notes for myself. So I'm going to flip so I'm on the right page here too. Um so what you'll see here is the appropriated fund balance and then the different reserve accounts. Um one a one thing to note in regard to the
037appropriated fund balance that increase and that utilization really impacts the 2024 2025 budget. So behind the scenes we are doing um we are doing forecasting for where we believe we will be with fund balance and reserves. We do that every two weeks. uh that is not something that is shared until the audit happens because we like to make sure that we have the final numbers and presenting it to the community and everybody else but myself, the superintendent um and uh Mr. Sodto who is in the business office, we are running the numbers. We are reviewing it. So the increase is not something that would be harmful. The funds are available to do it based on where we project endofear fund usage to be. Uh the other item to note for reserves uh because you may
038be saying how did you come up with the numbers you selected here the piece for reserves is you cannot utilize more reserve than you anticipate in expense. It's not allowed per state and the auditors also will slap your hands. So what I mean by that is you'll see here Eblar is $197,000. In the event that Ebilar cost only 180,000, that means we only paid out sick personal and vacation time of 180,000. You cannot use more than that. So, as I reviewed this area, it was practical. Where do I anticipate this expense ending up that is allowed to be used from reserves? And then populating that information here. Um, I also put on this slide where the budgeted expense was because I think that kind of show you both sides like, hey, we're going to use
039some of the reserves, but where do I anticipate the expense to be? So, it seems appropriate. Um, lastly, I would state that total reserves shown is 1.8 million. This also does show those same reserves anticipated balance as of 6:30 2025 at being almost 17.5 million. It's important to note that this does not include interest for the last 3 to four months and it also does not include any funds that would be available to replenish the reserves. I don't make those assumptions uh ahead of time. I never want to overestimate where I believe those to be. That information will come out in October when the audit is completed with our updated reserve plan and a full presentation as we've done each year. Do I have any questions right now? I do also want to express that
040we do know that this is a temporary solution, right? Um we are discussing uh we have discussed with the board and we are working through working with somebody in the financial advisement to help with a long range plan which aligns really great with us completing a strategic plan to now have a financial plan to go alongside that provides a deeper dive into the state aid categories. Um, I always like to put the description there because everybody doesn't know all the different buckets of state aid that are given to school districts. Um, so you will see the increase in foundation aid, a slight bump in transportation aid. There is a dip in Bosey's aid. That is based on where they anticipate the expense to be. Fingers crossed. I hope that number is higher, but when they
041lowered it on our state aid run, I did do so accordingly in the budget. Um high and excess cost is deals with uh students with disabilities. Those are your high-cost Boseie students and your private placements. As you have more students seeking outside services, you anticipate those aids to go up. And building aid is based on just final capital project final cost reports being filed. We do have some more that are going to be filed. So my hope is that this number goes up as well. Is there any questions on this slide? I Bill. Oh, sorry. Go. Okay. Can't hear you. I mean, I can hear you. Oh. Okay. Given that the governor still has noted a final budget, how comfortable are you at this? So, two things um that occurred. One, we did receive the
042executive run from the governor and two, they did do their February database run. in that we did make reductions in foundation aid because foundation aid is really based on student enrollment. So you submit a report to the state in September uh between September and really December they're running things in the background trying to based on beds data and other things that are reported based on the conversations that were had with a couple of different school districts at a business official meeting. We started deep diving into where did the state say our enrollment was and where do we know it actually to be. We did make adjustments for that. So this number is actually slightly less than what was actually pushed out for the executive run. My hope and wish and what we are being told
043um is that this number should go up. Uh I will talk about it a little bit further, but I will mention here that in the event that the governor's budget uh so the legislative budget is finalized and pushed out to school districts prior to the board adopting, we will make adjustments. The adjustment is not planned to be in the tax levy. So, we're pretty solid on the 2.99, but if we're able to pull back on how much we're uh utilizing in appropriated fund balance and reserves, we will look at those accordingly. Dr. Harris, could you just talk a little bit about the Boseies figure? Um, that is not just CTE, that is Bosey's expenses in relation to a whole host of services that we use with them. Yes. Did you have a question? I just
044don't want to skip you. All right. Um, this is the same slide you saw two weeks ago. It feels like five days ago, but this is the same slide you saw at the last presentation. This goes through the different uh funds and reserve accounts. It also gives an explanation of why you may see a difference between the March 1st date and the June 30th. That's really taking into consideration the 2024 2025 planned expenses from those reserves. Um this chart will then be updated per 6:30 2025 once the audit is completed and presented again to the board. Any questions here? All right. So, these next couple of slides are going to go through the proposals. We'll touch on some program highlights. We will compare the 202425 adopted budget to the 202526 proposed as well as the
045three propositions. All right, the fun part. Um so the budget highlights um we are able to increase mental health and ENL supports. We are maintaining appropriate class sizes, electives and advanced placements. We are still able to support courses such as the PE choice and programs K through 12. We are maintaining MTSS, PBIS and RTI supports and so on and so on. Um the next two presentations we will do a deeper dive uh explaining some of those things and elaborating on additional supports, but really the things that uh are important to the district, important to the community are still included in this budget. And so I think we're on track with the plan uh for 2025 and beyond. This is a proposed budget at a glance on the expense side. So, this includes all of the
046major areas, salaries, benefits, other insurance, as well as you can see the dollar amount change and the percentage change. One thing I do want to note here, because I did bring it up at the last meeting, and I may have explained it in Ruby's world, it made sense. In other people's world, maybe not. Um, so I had mentioned at the last meeting because we talked about benefits, how we put out an RFI, so that's request for information in the area of employee benefits and consultant support services. I also mentioned that I anticipated certain cost increasing. That's not due to the RFI. That is simply due to our dental, which we had a two-year contract. We have to renew the contract and make a selection. like everything else in the world, the costs are going up.
047So, I anticipate that cost rising. The budget can support it. But I did talk about that and it was mentioned to me and I was like, "Oh, no. That's not that's not the way I meant to explain it." So, I did want to clarify. As you'll see here, the total uh budget for the 2025 2026 year is 157,892,675. That is a little bit over 5.6 6 million of an increase, meaning that is about 3.69%. This is just another way to display uh some of the same information you've seen. Um, one thing to draw your attention to is the 2024 to 2025 uh, tax rate per 100 assessment is currently 262 $262.17. With the proposed budget, it would be $270 $2701. So that is $7.84 per 100 assessment of an increase. Um we will do a
048deeper dive that kind of shows that what it means for uh the taxpayer on different uh assessed values that will be in the next presentation. Uh pretty much everybody stole my thunder on this one. Uh not much to say. Uh there is currently an extender in place through Wednesday from what I'm being told currently. Um just some items to make note of. Uh there is discussion still regarding the cell phone ban, but largely it is non-educational topics uh that include discovery reform, mask mans, and involuntary confinement. Um as expressed already, we are utilizing the numbers that we received in January with adjustments to enrollment. So, with adjustments in foundation aid, we will continue the budget development process uh and the approval process on schedule. If there's no update as of April 22nd, we will adopt
049as is and as already expressed. In the event that we do know of an increase in revenue prior, uh we will be looking at fund balance and reserves. If we do not know prior, it the funds just really fall to fund balance and then you plan accordingly the following year. Either way, you'll know when I know. So, as expressed, we'll have three propositions. Proposition one will be 157,892,675. Proposition two will be for the proposed capital project of $3,642,500. Things to note, we always like to note these things. uh no additional impact on tax levy or tax rate and the voters must approve the release of these funds. Uh the last proposition is the establishment of the new capital reserve fund. Uh the probable terms are 10 years and the ultimate amount is 15 million. Uh
050we did we were able to send out a budget flyer that provides a nice FAQ to address any hopefully most of uh questions regarding why districts do capital reserves, what's the benefit, how it how you can use the funds. So if you did not receive the send out through parent square, it is accessible on the district website under the budget area. All right, I'll see everybody April 22nd for budget adoption if there are no questions. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. We're moving on to curriculum and instruction. Mr. Kuzek, thank you. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approve CSSE and CPSC submissions as delineated. Grant motion Teresa, second by Tom. All in favor? That's everyone. And now personnel. Mr. Hender. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent
051of schools that the board of education approve personnel items on schedules 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, and 22. Can we have a motion, please? Annie. Second by Michelle. All in favor? That is everyone. And back to Dr. Harris. business, please. Okay, don't waste any time. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approve business items I through O. You have a motion. Tom, second by Kelly. All in favor? That is everyone. And we have three generous donations this evening. Um, the first is from the law firm Gabriel Morf would like to donate $2,000 to establish the Latino Legal Leaders Scholarship Fund to provide financial assistance and mentorship opportunities for a Latino high school senior with a passion for pursuing a career in the legal field. So,
052thank you for that generous donation. I believe that's Judy Marv's husband's okay. I was wondering if it was. Well, thank you. Um, and the second uh donation is from Alex Tine, who I believe is in the audience. Thank you, Alex. Um, Alex is donating uh labor materials to build shelving units and cabinets uh for the Huntington High School Drama Club. And uh he will build and donate the shelving units and cabinets for his Eagle Scout project for an approximate value of $838. So, thank you for that, Alex. I don't know if I'm speaking out of term, but that closet needs a lot of work. So, thank you. I was just going to say the same thing, Michelle. I'd like to personally thank Mr. Tine because that really is in need. It's going to help generations
053of theater and music students. So, appreciate it. And lastly, I'd like to thank the Washington Primary PTA for presenting a donation of $1,177.87. And this donation uh is in conjunction with the donation from uh Tanganger Deer Park which we accepted uh back in March to cover the cost of fabrication and installation of uh a new sign in at the building. So thank you for that. We open it back up for public commentary. This is the second public commentary. Same rules apply. All right. If no public commentary, we'll move on to comments by board members. Any final comments by board members as we close out our third quarter? Annie. Okay. I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the students who participated in the Latin uh competition recently. Um I just wanted to say thank
054you to Miss Fortunado for all of her hard work. Um we actually had um a really great experience there where the students nine seven freshman students placed first place. So we wanted to congratulate them on the job well done. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Motion to adjurnn. Kelly Tom. All in favor? That's everyone. Have a nice night.