001It is 711. We have returned from executive session to our public session. If you would please call the role. Miss Jordan here. Mr. Spicer is not here. Dr. Collins here. Miss Anderson here. Mr. Ryder here. Miss Fitzgerald is excused. Miss Corons here. Mr. Fitzpatrick here. Mr. Lamb here. Stand for the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have no action coming out of executive session, but I do have a statement that I would like to read. The U board trustees are duly elected officials of the Kingston City School District. The board of education does not have the authority under New York State education law to remove any trustee from the board for the conduct in question that I don't
002know if we'll have public comment tonight or not but the board that needed to make that statement. I don't see anyone from the public. So, we'll move to the approval of minutes. The minutes from March 19th. I'll make a motion to approve March 19th. Second. Any discussion on the minutes from March 19th? All in favor? Any opposed? The minutes from April 2nd. I will move the minutes for any discussion on the minutes from April 2nd. All in favor? that. So those minutes are both approved. That brings us to the superintendent report. Thank you, M. Anderson. Uh so our superintendent today is going I'm going to hand it over to Miss Carbon and she is going to do our 202526 budget presentation. Good evening. As you know, we still do not have a New York state
003budget, which I know in years past, some time ago, this was much more normal than it is now. In recent years, it has not. So it led to a very interesting budget season primarily because of the unknown changes in foundation aid and the only information we've received so far is the governor's executive budget which is drastically different than trends have been leading up to our district being fully funded by the old with that said I originally was going to leave this slide out because you've seen it at nauseium. Um, however, I left it for the community because where we are now, uh, the items in blue speak to what the process has been since we last came together for our preliminary, um, presentation on April 2nd. We have repeatedly looked for operational and programmatic efficiencies
004throughout our district to create savings but also to see where we could maximize state aid because a good part separate from from foundation a remaining of a portion of our state aid is expense based. It's more of a reimbursement based on different formula. So looking um where we can make things more efficient where we can we have certain programs that may have run a certain way for years. one way, but times have changed and things have shifted and we just had not looked under that rock yet. So that was part of our process repeatedly, wash, rinse, repeat and we have adjusted our revenues accordingly, those that we know and we balanced expenditures and revenues to what we have at this moment. And I say that in light of our changing landscape. So what is our
005new normal in this moment, April 22nd, 2025? As you know, our foundation formula remains uncertain. We don't know what the new formula is going to be when the budget is enacted. We know the governor's proposal only um gives Kingston City School District the minimum 2% increase, which is $1.35 million. However, we've also seen and I I know that you and various people have heard us speak about our expense based aids um being lowered by different ratios. So, I'm going to speak to that more because where we are at this moment is a combination of factors. It's not just the foundation aid that magnifies things. But in addition to that, there's been a trend of the factors that that give us our reimbursement on things like transportation aid, OC's aid, special education costs. Those have been
006shifting well for some time and I'll give you graphics to that. So the combination of impact at this point is really the things that we are looking at and facing. So we are working on the foundation of what our new normal is going to be and once we have the budget and the formula, we'll have a better idea of what path we need to take. So, in addition to the cost of inflation, the post pandemic costs of things like transportation and special education, they've increased significantly as you've been made aware over the past three to four years. Part of it um have been shifts in pricing, part of it changing needs, and we've had to adapt to that. And then although our co relief funds have ended, the needs that were identified for the supports
007that we put in place with the stimulus funds, they still remain. And as our mission saving states, we inspire, we educate, we graduate all students all the time. So whatever supports they need, we still need to make sure that we do everything we can to have those supports in place. And then also our elementary class sizes have decreased over time causing calling for a strategic realignment. So, it this has not been a a um oneshot fits all scenario in things that we've looked at and the things that we've identified, but we've been looking at all the issues, looking at data to make strategic and informed decisions. So, speaking to enrollment, this is just a graphic of Kansas City School District's public enrollment K12 from 2020 to the current year. So you see how we've been
008trending down. Why do I point this out? Because our enrollment, it affects both state aid, our revenues, but it also affects our class sizes. This is our budget summary where we are now and the budget being proposed for adoption even. So as you know, our current budget for this year is $231 million,5,000, excuse me. Our tax levy is 117 600,000 which was a 3.2% increase over the prior year levy. This year's proposed budget is $249 million522,500 which is an increase in our budget of just under $18 million representing a 7.76% increase. We've had significant increases like I said since I've been here. However, in those years we had revenue coming in and the first year we had such a significant increase. We had an increase in foundation aid that helped offset that. Our 2526 maximum
009allowable levy is $126,147,000 and that's a 7.27% increase. We are not proposing a budget that asks the community for a maximum allowable levy even though we don't have a an enacted state budget and a set number for foundation aid. As you know, district, the administration, you as the board, we take the community and their their needs financially. Um, and we are hoping and trusting that when the budget is enacted, there will be an increase in aid. And since we can't go back and adjust down, we're making an adjustment now, understanding that we're leaving about $356,000 on the table, so to speak, towards next year's revenues. But it's a balance that we feel is necessary and appropriate in this moment. So how do we balance this budget without knowing all of our revenues? The plan that
010we put in place requires an increased amount and increased allocation of some of our reserves in order to do so. If the New York State budget when it's passed does not increase allocated fund balance of 5.5 million is the same as this budget. service reserves. It's an increase from last year's or this current year's allocation slightly half million dollars using private reserve for tax reduction of $1.25 million from prior sales of buildings and using our retirement reserves and amount of $5 million and this reserve these reserves can be replenished from other reserves over time. So the controllers's office has stated repeatedly over the past several years that what they look for districts to do is to fund and use our reserves. So in this instant we are doing so we don't take it lightly in
011doing this but we feel it's important to a we have to present a balanced budget for adoption b not to make drastic cuts without knowing the full picture of where we are financially. We cannot know that without knowing for sure what our foundation is going to be. In past years when the U one house budget would come out, there would be an estimated aid run that would come along with that so that school districts could kind of estimate compare. This year for the first time since I've been a business official, which is this is my 15th year, that didn't happen. There was no aid run to come out with the White House budget. They did list the items that they were looking at and they were encouraging. But what that to me and many others
012is that there's there were there's work happening and conversations happening or have happened already since education not to be holding with the budget that they just don't want to put out yet which I do find encouraging because we still have demographics as a small city school district that require additional funding. So this is our budget summary where we are and the budget that we are presenting and requesting for adoption is needed. Some of the details behind that the major changes in our revenues state aid increase just to note this increase of $5.3 million is not foundation aid as previously stated 1.25 1.35 excuse me billion dollars is the foundation aid increase. The rest is because of our expense based aids that we get reimbursement for. So we've spent more in transportation. We've spent more in
013special education. We spent more on our BOSI services. So that nets an increase in aid and those those increases aren't always accurately reflected in the executive budget. I will um for later packets I realize I did not distribute it. I apologize. um a breakout of our expense based aids versus foundation aid. So you can see the adjustments that were made. Our tax levy increase as previously stated is not the maximum but that's an increase of $8.2 million. additional Medicaid reimbursements. As I previously stated, one of the things we've looked at over the scope of our district, where do we have opportunities, if any, to maximize reimbursements that we haven't before Medicaid reimbursements for certain services provided is one area. And the district has been working over time over this past year to realign ourselves so
014that we can take advantage of certain reimbursements for services that we are already providing our ser our students decrease in interest in pilot income. I'm sorry, that's a mis we had a reduction in other miscellaneous areas of revenues to the amount of $700,000 and then the allocation of reserves, the additional allocations. So that brings us to our revenue increase of just under $18 million. our tax cap calculation. Just as a recap, the five factors that really drive the tax cap calculation, our current year tax levy, where we left off with the 2425 budget is where we started for the 2526 tax levy. Then the tax base growth factor which is set by New York State the tax office CPI or inflation that is the only area that we see 2% in the formula. So no
015matter how high inflation goes, we can only utilize a maximum of 2% for the inflation factor, not for the tax cap or the maximum allowable le change in pilot payments and then our exclusions for capital andor retirement. So this is our calculation, our many steps that you've seen before. This has not changed since we were last together. The one thing I would point out is we did have an increase in the grow factor which is based on the number of taxable parcels in our district and New York State tax and finance they set this factor for each school district individually and separate from municipalities in the same area which I find very interesting but that's how the formula works our children's pilots the only place you'll see 2% in this formula and then our exclusions
016for capital our capital projects are both these capital projects and that brings us to maximum allowable levy of 126 million 147,48 an increase of 7.27%. Going back to our change in foundation aid our next portion of revenue that's significant for our district. When I looked at foundation aid for uh 2425 budget foundation a represented over 25% of our revenue budget. So it's quite significant. So as previously stated, the blue bars are the dollar changes going back from 201920 school year to the executive budget and the blue line represents the percent change. So you've seen how 2021 we took a dip co but then we were working our way back up to being fully funed according to the previous formula which did happen finally in the 2024 school year and then quickly last year fell off
017when the governor changed the inflation factor. So the small change in that one small factor that was not the entire reason for this dip. So I don't want to give that impression but for our school district it was imped just over a million dollars. And now here we are with the current executive budget. The same history just in written form. And just to look at our prior year averages, so our three-year average was actually just under 10%. Going back further, five years just under 8%. Our seven-year average was 6.6%. Our threeear average dollar increase was 6.6 million. So that would have been a whole game changer if that had happened in the governor's budget if we were planning with that amount of money. So some of the other factors relate to our revenue that we
018need to be mindful of and be aware of and consider when planning and we have been many of our wealth ratios have changed and they've shifted slowly over time and in recent years they've become more accelerated that shift. We honestly we look wealthier than we really are as a district primarily because of the increase in property values that I know we're all familiar with. also some shifts in income increasing with migration to this area with more communities from down state making more money but primarily the the property wealth factor apologize the orange bar represents the New York state average combined wealth ratio which is one so looking at these bars going from the 2021 budget to the executive budget this year 2526 we can see they're small shifts but these small shifts mean money. So
019these are combined wealth ratios. These ratios just so you're aware how they work. They're based on 2y old data for property value. So when you see so sorry where we were you see this dip in 22 23 that's really looking just before the the impact of pandemic um increases that we've seen and then we shoot up to 77.4% 77% and the in the back of the governor's executive budget has our wealth ratio at 85.3%. Which as a community we know that is not our reality dayto day but this trend does make an impact in our formulas which is why I mentioned it both for foundation a purposes but also our reimbursement aids and also even though we don't talk about it too often our eligibility on how much of certain grants we're eligible for based
020on poverty rate and green bar, this green line, excuse me, is our current what's called our Y to A ratio of the wealth basically and attendance ratio that's to our district. So over time, that bar, that line kind of trends down and then takes a significant dip. So this trend, even though it's been slow, by being slow, you don't really feel it until we take a significant dip. But if we looked at dollars and cents and with the size of our district and some of our expenses, it relatively quickly, especially more so than some of our neighbors. Our preliminary expense changes, salaries and benefits have increased $6.6 million and that's actually a net effect of um contractual increases and adjustments made in the district. Our Bose leases and deep stadium Bose leases specifically I park
02187 we start those payments next year that combination and then our portion of the kicks in uh this fall, excuse me. So, that combination is $1.8 million. Our debt service increase, transportation increase. We just opened up RFPs and also Miss Floyd has um re-evaluated some of our routes to see what what different configurations can be made to make certain runs more efficient, which has been helpful because that projection has actually come down since our previous uh budget conversation. Special educ and other contractual expenses, smaller things, for example, CKLA implementation that adding up to a net of just over $2 million, bring us to a total of just under $18 million. Going back to transportation, special education since they are significant part of our budget and have increased over time. This graph will be familiar to
022our last conversation. I've our proposed budget and just looking in blue at our contract transportation expenses and looking as I spoke to over the past three years in the spring of 22 the district went out for RFP for the first time in several years our contractor partners recognized that they needed to make some adjustments in their salaries what they're paying their drivers to adjust address the shortages so even though we went out to RFP for the first time in quite some time In that spring, we saw that impact the following year. In addition to that, just to jog your memory, in the fall of 202, we were um addressing shortage issues that impacted the district. Additional service had to be brought in. Actually, um a few RFPs in the year to address some of the
023shortages that we had. So, they carrying those costs over, they have turned it up. And what's also trended up, these are the dollars spent for these dollars represent students that we send out of district for special education services. Some of the students have to be transported quite a distance. So both have increased quite a bit over the past several years, past few years. What I've done here because visuals speak much better than me having this conversation is overlaying that wealth conversation with our green bar with our with the factors that go into how much reimbursement we get for our expenses. So where you see public excess cost ratios and private those are our special education and districts in orange and purple. I broke them up because um I wanted to give you a feel for
024the difference. Um public access cost would be mostly or any other public school that we send our students to for special education services but primarily that would be services. So now the purple for private those ratios have not changed. pretty flat. They're wildly more expensive. But what I will say is the tuitions have increased significantly. There was a spike in the 22 23 school year that we experienced just again just coming out of co. So even though the factors related to our reimbursements have shifted, we still were spending more as you saw in the previous graph. But in these other ratios, both of our public excess costs for our special education students not going to private placements, these ratios have shifted slightly. And even though from 60.8 to 56.5 doesn't seem like a big shift,
0255% of a million dollars is quite a bit of money. And then when you multiply that for what we actually do spend and then you look at the category of um expenses that we have to support our students, that kind of shift adds up very quickly and it's easy to sneak up on you when it's small like that. Then our transportation aid ratio 5 years ago 66.6%. We went up which was nice. We started sliding down 64.1% for this current year but Next year's ratio that's used which we don't calculate is 59.4%. Again another 5% difference in another significant expense area. So where do we go from here? We have a balanced budget that we are proposing for adoption. Thank you very much for your support and consideration. Our next steps continue the work that
026we've been doing to identify opportunities for strategic shifts for next year and plan for their implementation because we have a new normal as I've showed you pictorially and in my many words thank you for your patience but that's the work that we continue to do. So we are as we're wrapping up 2425 looking towards 2526 planning strategizing and then we will be implementing but also continue to look re-evaluate revenues and reserve allocations when the 2526 New York state budget is finally passed if you pass tomorrow. And then finally developing a new long range financial plan for K City School District based on our new foundation a formula once we know what it is and then also keeping in mind the other factors that I just brought to your attention. So part of that the restructuring
027of the foundation a formula the plan for a new long range financial plan was in the works for this year but as soon I don't know how many of you remember once the budget was passed last year they immediately announced after that that the Rockefeller was going to be done to look at foundation aid. So there was no point in trying to make a plan um for something so so significant as our foundation aid. But that is work that will be done once we have our new formula. And then as I stated an effective plan could not be made before this time but once the budget is enacted as we are working on our other endeavors and initiatives concerning our budget. We will also be looking for a revised long financial plan to to you
028all to see how we move forward with our new normal so that we can continue to inspire, educate, graduate all of our students all the time. Thank you questions. We'll start with Miss Corome. First of all, thank you very muchent over the holiday when everybody else was taking um for all of those people who are watching us at home. Would you please if we adopt the proposed and then let's say tomorrow or actually let's push it off to next week for um we get a finalized state once budget is adopted this evening. Um assuming it will be this is the budget that we have to move forward for the ballot. We cannot go back and change these expenses. But because what is being voted on is a total budget expense number. What we can adjust
029and will adjust are our revenue. So those reserve that we spoke to. Whatever is not needed, then we will start to those backs. But the expense budget, whatever is adopted this evening, is what must be presented on the ballot. Also, that's why we did not ask for the maximum allowable tax levy of the community. We knew we could not go back and make expensive adjustments. We positioned ourselves to help erase the impact of the tax increase. Mr. Thank you for this presentation. I didn't see it in here um and I haven't seen the line. What is the federal aid number that we are putting in as far as revenue? Federal aid doesn't go into this budget because it's our general fund budget. So that fund has to stay completely separate voted on. So So right.
030So there is no changes in federal aid that would affect this budget. That would be other other budgets or other explain that more so I understand it. So if our funding were if there were f like where we get federal revenue sometimes title too. So when the fund reports come to the audit finance committee and then move to the board one of those fund reports are all of our federal fund expenses and that's where all of our grant expenses and certain uh state federal and state um expenses and revenues are are housed and reported. But so if those were lower Yes. Wouldn't that impact this budget in that we would have if we chose to provide those services? Yes. So, it's not in here, but it could have an impact. Yes. Um, and then can
031you also just clarify? So there's no way that the property tax levy can go down. Like if we set it and then state aid is much greater than we thought and we didn't even want to move all of the money back from our um that that we're using from our fund balance. There's no way throughout the year to lower the property tax levy or refund fund. No, we couldn't refund. What the district has done in uh years past many times is we close out the year lower what is actually levy. So a tax levy is set but there have been several occasions over the years where the district applied u either excess fund balance no excess funds uh to lower the levy so that when people actually got their tax bills they were actually lower
032than what was originally passed in the budget. The district we just have not touted that um historically but it so we would we can never go raise it though but we could always tax lower. If we saw a much higher amount of state aid, for instance, we could, but the state aid that we would give would be for next year's budget. So, we would have to allocate at the end of this year, this year's funds to lower this year's levy. Okay? I mean, next year's levy, sorry. Unexpended revenues can be can be applied to the to the tax levy itself. So, it doesn't say tax levy limit number, but to the tax levy itself. Right. Got it. Okay. So you see actually in this presentation we have a tax levy where we have a tax
033reduction reserve. Those are those are unexpended um revenues from previous from previous years that have been put in there that help us to lower that. So the same thing again every August we look at that and so the number the levy number we can lower it if we have so if we have at the end of the year unexpended you know revenues we can reduce that overall number. And this year when we do it, I'm going to put it in outord which we don't usually. I want to thank you for the presentation of course and I want to thank you and Dr. Calino and everybody here in the cabinet because I know that it took a village to really take apart this budget and I know that it wasn't easy to do but I think
034that in some ways maybe it gave you an opportunity for your long range plan. Yes. to kind of get started and I really appreciate that because I think the taxpayers have to understand even though it's a big lift I think that every efficiency possible was applied and um so I think that I feel really good about that and I appreciate it. Thank you. And it it really was we've sat in many rooms many times going over the same files and documents and conversations and adding layers over over time. Mr. Lamb, I also would like to thank you and and and making it very simple to understand. I'm and this is not for this year, but I I question the transportation for special ed is so expensive going to these programs. Are we to a point
035that we should buy small at least small buses and do some of that inhouse? Because if if we had our own, number one, we're in control of it. And number two, I can't believe it wouldn't be cheaper than $1,000 a day to bus a student to a a program that's available. And I I I I would like to see some future looks at what we spend for that. Um just to see where we can cut that number. It was a huge like that slide when I looked at that. It's a huge amount of money and some of those buses have one kid on them. We're running a bus with one student on it and and I can't believe we can't buy a van, get a driver. I mean, there are little districts north of us
036that the custodians and teachers as a stipen drive. Salem school district, all right, the custodians all drive buses. So I if there's any way that we can bring that cost and supply a job for someone local within our district Dr. H thank you so much for this presentation to everyone who's been working really hard on this budget and that's been a ton of work. Um I wondered Dr. Palino and and maybe together Miss Carbon you could um describe some of the way so obviously this was a tough budget to balance so we don't know what the nearest state is going to be and we don't it seems as though costs are going up and so what are some of the you talked about efficiencies that you found and you mentioned specifically some of the bus
037routes that are being improved and some class sizes in the elementary schools that may shift based on declining enrollment. Are there other efficiencies that um the community can expect to see based on how hard it's been to to get this budget in place? Well, I think you want me. Yeah. I'm not sure who to direct that to. What's that? You start. Okay. So, I think I know you asked for others, but I think the the two that you pointed out are the things that people are going to see. And I think either M. Carbon's talking about our new normal. I think it's time we we introduce our community to the new normal, especially when it comes to transportation. You know, the transportation crisis caused the transportation the increase in transportation costs. Obviously, the bus driver
038shortage, all those kind of things. So, we have the service that we provide currently around transportation is unbelievably generous, right? There are going to be we did have to look to find efficiencies within that within those. We can't have school bus routes that are, you know, they have I have a 72 seat bus with 12 kids on it, 15 kids on it, 20 kids on it, 40 kids on it. I need to have seven, we need to have 72 students on that bus. And if that means that bus is going to go 15 minutes longer or normally that bus is going to go 15 minutes longer, our choices are just a one example. Our choices could be do that throughout the district. Okay, we don't have we have 40 students on the bus, but we
039don't have AP classes at Kingston High School. We don't have other extracurricular activities. These are things these are the kind of these are the kind of choices we had to make, especially when we're looking. Transportation was a big area for that. So, take a look. We we we won't be winding in through a lot of neighborhoods that we currently wind in from. People are going to have to walk out. Students are going have to walk out within the legal distance to walk and obviously grade grade level appropriate to places where there are bus stops. So a bus is taking a straight shot between you know between the bus depot and the swell not winding through here making stops because you might not believe this but we have six buses that serve the Mahar neighborhood right
040here alone. Six six buses that and you know we run through all over here that's six buses and those buses are 72 passengers with 26 kids on them. Not the ch not the chambers bus. Chambers bus is packed. I know that door. So these are things where you know I know I you we show our age when we say this but people get to walk to a a bus stop. We're not going to put people you know obviously you'll be very intentional about that but some of the changes in transportation I think we're going to see and we're going to hear about it. So I'm going to talk a lot about it over the summer when school starts and we'll be able to map that things out for people. But you know these are the
041choices we have to make. you know, what what are we what are we what are we investing in? Um, and we tried to find the most reasonable places to find efficiencies and that's what we did on transportation. When it comes to class sizes, we kind of first and second grade classes in this district last year that had 13, 14 kids in them. We can't have that. That's not efficient. And there's no research that says that's effective. So, we we cannot have that. So with a reduction in, you know, student enrollment and with a significant number of retirees over the last few years, we're able to make some of the strategic changes around our buildings where we can where we have those super low numbers. Again, we have title one funding that we apply to some
042of our to our title one schools that will utilize the little smaller classes in those schools than maybe in some of the others. We still think our commitment to 22 is is probably pretty solid, but 12, 14, 16, that's that's not responsible for the taxpayers. And again, like I said, there's no research that says it's effective for our students. So, these are these are the kind of things we're going to hear and we're going to talk about in September, not you, Mr. George. Um, but you know, these are these are things that people that parents and community are going to see kind of right away. Thank you. I just wanted to you gave Miss carbon a great background for why we're having to make those choices. And I I just want the public to recognize
043that even if it looks as though this budget is larger than in the past, there were a lot of choices that had to be made that were carefully made that saved jobs and programming and and services for our children. And I think that's a really important piece that anyone who's watching is we we there are no programs cut because of this, you know, in this budget. There are there are no extracurriculars, AP classes, college classes all remain. Arts, music, band, chorus, all those things remain. Our prek program remains. Uh we have actually also we've been in this budget we have we have added money for to improve security. So we we there are places where CKL and I ready we continue to support those those curriculum initiatives. So to a student who walks into the
044school district on September whatever day in September, their their their options, their choices and what's available to them will not have changed at all. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Ryder, did you have a question? I'll wait until later in the agenda. Okay. Okay. Mr. just quickly confirm to the public that we are not going to become sardies where you go to opposite ends of the street to go to what elementary school because class size is too small. We're not going to be transferring students just because of class size because that's that's an ongoing thing in some districts. The only ongoing thing is that that's a culture in some districts where they they re I I've said this I think I've said this to several of you before. there are districts that redistrict every year based on
045enrollment in those schools and that that's a culture we don't have. So no, I'm not I don't see that and looking at the numbers I don't see that being necessary. But what I do see being necessary is taking a look where we have you know this really small especially again it's the it's our K12s which makes sense right when we look at our reduction in our student population um that and our K enrollment is is low right now also. So making those strategic adjustments is is good for this budget, but it's also good for the future as we look at continuing that if that trend continues downward. That's, you know, this is how we're going to have to operate. The only other thing I would add about um to your question about things that people
046see are part of the RFP that was put out, we'll be using um school buses for our shows for our athletes. So our athletes will still be transported as seamlessly but finding a more cost effective way to do so and u we've spoken about elementary but even on the secondary level um Mr. and rest team worked very hard with our instructional leaders to find efficiencies within their buildings and they did uh they provided data as far as what's happening but also programs um for example nights nights was not going anywhere but in looking at it more closely certain tweaks because we realize we don't necessarily need everything we're doing because more efficient ways or more uh techsavvy especially with the introduction of one Chromebooks things like that have already been implemented in our programing so
047that we can do certain things a little differently. So, in looking at those efficiencies throughout the district as a team, because this truly has been a team effort, but also speaking to the reserves, um this buys us what I call the gift of time because we need this year to look at not just where things will land with the budget, but also with the shifts that we're making for the 25 26 year, what else is needed? But we've added uh the I Ready curriculum was implemented. Now we're doing CKLA. There are a lot of great things happening in our buildings on other fronts than to give them a chance to settle and see where we are this year to then mindfully move forward. So making too many cuts um without having all of our data
048if we could avoid it we felt was the best course of action. Any other questions? Thank you very much. I know this was a real bear of a job, particularly working blind, but we appreciate the efforts from your office and from everyone that contributed to and being mindful of what is good for our children and what is good for our taxpayers. Thank you. I have one district update since we met right before we went on break. Um my only addition up outbreak is to remind everyone at home and everyone here um that we will be back to school on Thursday. So Thursday and Friday of this week we are coming back to school. Other than that that finishes the school board or the superintendent court. Any other questions or comments for Dr. Palino regarding things
049that are going on in the district? All right, that moves us to the um board of education resolutions. And as you all know, tonight we are obliged to um look at the Boseies budget and their resolutions. So I I will begin with um BOE48 that is the election of Bosey's board members. We are going to do a roll call vote for each seat that's available. Mrs. Siri, are you ready? So, seat one um is a representative from News, Barbara Carroll. So, you want to do a roll vote for each one? Okay. We're just going to go around the table starting with Miss Coros if that's okay with you for each one of these. So, Barbara Carol, this person. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. See two uh from Ronda Valley is Lucy Vanickle. Yes. Yes.
050Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Seat um three is an atlarge seat and seat four is at large. Um I think we'll take each individual um well seat three is the oneear term. No, it's the higher whoever gets the most votes gets the gets the longer term. Whoever fewer votes gets the Yes. You are allowed to vote for two. But you don't have to, right? So, so we start with the Ellenville um nominee, Willie Bruce, Junior. No, no, no, no. Allison Dod from the Antiora nominee. No, no, no, no. No. No. Our own Suzanne Jordan from Kingston. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And from Newport, the nominee is David Thompson. No. No. Yes. No. No. Okay. BO E48 completed. That brings us to BOE49. So just I just I'm sorry. I just want to make
051sure we're doing this right. For the atlarge seats, we are recommending just one. Just one. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. BOE49 is the approval of the Bose administrative budget for 2020 2526. I'll move it. Do we need to move or No, we probably should move that. I'll move it. Second. Any discussion? All in favor of accepting the approval of the BOS administrative budget? I. Any opposed? So that passes. That brings us to our own uh Kingston School District budget resolutions beginning with B71, the notice of public hearing on budget annual meeting board of education election and the budget vote. I do need a motion and a second. Any discussion on that? Mr. Patrick, I just wanted to ask about one thing like towards the bottom. I've never seen it written like this. The board of education
052of the city school district of the city of Is that that is the official legal? We've had that conversation every year. Every every I think we have that conversation. It's an awkward reading. Yeah. Okay. All in favor of um BOE71. Any [Applause] opposed 71. We remind people that some of their voting places have changed because their wards have changed within the city. Um I think we need to keep that out there. That should be part of the process of of uh voting voting places and so forth. All right. B or B72 the 2025 2026 property tax report card. Some move. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? B72. Any opposed? Um B72 passes. Um B79, the adoption of the 2025 2026 school district budget. So second, discussion Mr. Ryder. So I'm going to support this budget
053because I appreciate all the work that's gone into it. I am very concerned as well as what Mr. Lamb said about transportation and I know we've had the request for the study that was done. I I've still yet to see it. So, it will be difficult for me in future years to vote on a budget without seeing what the study was and and maybe looking at moving forward in something else because it's been it those increases are not only with special ed but others are extreme. And we will still have an obligation as of right now by 2027 to go fully electric with our with our school buses. And with it in the hands of contractors, we're we're kind of stuck. So just I'm putting that out there now. I'm supportive of this budget. I
054appreciate all the work that's gone into it. I just would like to see it in the future. Mr. Le, I am also very supportive of the budget. My question is, if we were to we have until the 24th to pass this, correct? So, is there a chance we're going to have a state budget in the next few days? No. No. Okay. Not even meeting until then because I would like to pass the savings onto the taxpayer this year if we could. But that's Could we resend this vote and vote on the 24th? that I don't actually know the answer to that question at because they're not meeting tomorrow. But if they met on the 24th at 10:00 a.m. and passed the budget and gave us our foundation runs and it was significantly different, like I
055guess we could quickly ask our attorneys to find out if we could resend it. But I it's probably not worth delaying this vote. But I would just like to remind you that in the formula, the more we change the foundation percentage the more you have to come up with next year but you would have an opportunity to fill up the reserves which is to everybody's benefit going forward so I don't know if it would really change anybody's mind or not so I think that we are hoping that we get more money but I think it's not going to be tossed away it's going to be judicious fund balance which we okay um I also am um going to support the budget and I appreciate all the hard work done. I know that we have a
056board goal about ensuring fiscal equity across the district and we really don't have a way of looking as budget are formed of actually meeting that obligation. We tend to do it retroactively looking back But um I will support it. But again, I think if we could work with administration for doing something such as that going forward, it would be great. And the work that we've been doing through the RA will will provide us that opportunity. Dr. Collins, I would just like to again thank you for all the hard work and say I too will support this budget. Um and oh my gosh, I just You were just talking about that. What's that? You were just talking about that. I was just talking about how Okay. Can someone else say something? Give me a minute to
057um take a minute. Talking about transportation money. Well, it doesn't change the fact that I'm supporting the budget. Oh, I know what I was going to say. I was going to say that um I'm appreciating the conversation about looking for efficiencies along with the statement that Miss President about equity and and the RA that's is that right that we're doing in terms of looking at where our money is being spent and hoping that this actually shifts into a culture of of doing this in advance and as and always checking our programs for efficacy um along the way. Okay. I mean, I went to a nice board um presentation at the last conference in October that was very much about this and this idea of ways in which we can constantly be assessing the efficacy of
058what we're doing. And so budget time is a perfect time to be thinking about are we actually putting our money in the right places and does it speak our values? And this is the most I've heard because we're in a crunch. I've heard it talked about much more. So I'm hoping we're setting up a year of um just or a culture of doing this in the future. So excited. I'd just like to thank you for again for all the hard work and sorry I forgot what I Mr. Ryder. It's good that you did that though because you remind me of something so that I wanted to say earlier but just it is a little concerning that like it took us to get to this edge to realize or maybe we didn't realize but to push
059to not have 26 person buses driving around that can fit 72 like that that can that's the first I've heard that tonight when you mentioned it during that budget presentation and like I don't think that a that's not good for the environment and and b it's just not necessary. So, I hope that we're looking at all the routes and and really and should be even when we're not in tight budget times looking to make sure that what we're doing is efficient. And I think the increase in pricing made us look at that like right you were it was oh well parents wanted door to door and we were doing a lot of things that we just and especially after co we got kind of roped into that but yes this that's looking at those efficiencies
060for sure and then same just very briefly and the public needs to know offices were closed but these people were working on that budget the entire vacation. We need to thank you for your efforts on that. Any other discussion? Just a comment that I do want to say, I'm sorry, is that um I think some of the things that were said about how we managed to work through this budget this year was was a little different than we had in the past. And I think there was everyone sitting at that table, like you said, was involved and deeply involved. And there was yelling and arguing and even some crying. um as we pushed through this process and 5 minutes before the meeting I was dragged out by Dr. Olivet or Dr. Williams to tell me
061something else that they wanted to talk about about the budget. So no one has stopped thinking about this and I know Miss Carbon said earlier that it was it was a a total hands- on deck and I think there was a lot of different um work going on and Mr. Reinhardt's spreadsheets came in very handy throughout the process. Thank you all. So we need to vote. All in favor of B79, the adoption of the budget for next year. I Any opposed? So we have adopted a budget. Congratulations. And we have um B80 which is the appointment of inspectors for elections. I'll move it. Second. Any discussion on um election inspector? All in favor? Any opposed? And can I just say thank you to all the election inspectors. I mean, it's a long day and not
062an easy job and a lot of people coming through those doors and it's just and we had a very easy time filling them this year. We did. So, it was it was so we thank them for helping out the school district. It's a hard very hard job and it's a thankless job and it's an important job so we appreciate all those individuals we did vote right okay on the election inspectors I don't think we did you did we just did I don't people say hi and I clicked it so we can do it again if you're doubting it I remember moving it and secondy I don't remember voting but it's okay well why don't we make sure All in favor? Any opposed? Dr. Padalino jumped in on me. Tail end of the vote. Okay, that
063brings us to committee reports, I think. Yes. Beginning with policy. We have because we have we have a policy that first read and accounting of executive of fixed assets, excuse me. Is that in the library? Yes. Okay. So, we won't be voting on it until next year. Can we just change the name and fix the title? It's not. There's an I missing it. Oh, yeah. I when I when I Thank you. It's an abbreviation. That's and we'll be meeting um the second Friday in May of May. Yes. And teaching and learning. Sure. Okay. So, your board packet was full of attachments that were part of the teaching and learning presentation. So, I'm not going to be repeating everything that's in that large amount of slides. Ton of data. Thank you very much for pulling those
064data together and those slides together. Um, but I I feel obligated to get at least uh highlights real. Um, so we were covering the reason why there's so much to be covered or so much information is that we we met and talked about ENL updates, the special ed updates in response to impart the audit and restructuring of special ed department. um briefly touched on the global change um curriculum in light of our new board goal and then um barely scraped the surface of topics or revisiting some issues around or some some topics around CLA but to address first the ENL students and and that program um so we it's maybe useful to know how students qualify for ENL well first recognizing that our district services around 750 ENL students. It says students qualify for these
065services based on language questionnaires and interview by a certified ENL teacher. Then they're assessed for what level of services um using the New York State identification test for English language learners. Their score on this assessment determines how many minutes of instructional support they receive. Um but there's a lot of flexibility in how that's provided and that actually was part of our discussion was really learning about the ways in which either standalone or integrated formerly called push in and pull out services um work in each of the schools and also um thinking a little about how ENL interfaces with bilingual education which we'll talk about in a little bit. Um, so the district has ENL programs at KHS, Bailey, Miller, Chambers, Edson, GW, JJFK, and now Crosby, which is new this year. And Edson continues to
066host students who are zoned for grades of minor. So it's still somewhat a magnet for that. Um, we also have newcomer programs. I think everyone here is probably aware of this, but there are newcomer programs for students with interrupted or inconsistent formal education, otherwise known as SCY. and those are in our secondary schools. So those are usually sheltered kind of two period time frames with small classes and they're meant to integrate students into a school setting. Um but students should be moving through this so that only lasts about a year and then or no longer than a year. Um and then we talked just a little bit about what the ENL programs look like at each of the schools. Um and really they vary based on the needs of students and the certification of teachers.
067So for instance at GW a new shelter DNL program has been implemented to provide an hour of uninterrupted language instruction and it works with the monastery model of instruction. In some schools certif teachers who are certified for um Tissole or the teachers of English as a second language um they can also provide students um or provide services to students as ENL teachers might and so depending on what teachers or what school mode of delivering services may vary. Um we talked a little about how using um I Ready we're better able to track academic growth among L's and in both reading and math in this last year they're we're seeing higher scores and improvement over the course of the year that we haven't always seen before. So that's very promising. We talked then about the bilingual
068program and um the fact that this is actually mandated by the state. I don't know that everyone's aware of that. Um and it's when number of English language learners equals 20 or more in a grade four in our district um with 20 or more students with the same home language. So we qualify in large part because we have a high number of Spanish speakers um even though many other languages are represented in our L program. So the bilingual program at Edson as we know began in 2122. The first cohort is now in third grade with um fourth grade to be added next year. The goal is to move the program up to Bailey in 2026 2027, but details have not been worked out yet about what exactly that's going to look like. So hopefully we'll
069be able to deliver a little more some more details soon on that. Um, we talked a little bit about um, again the interaction between ENL programs or ENL services and bilingual and whether or not ENL students do better in bilingual services or benefit as much in bilingual classes, sorry, as they do with ENL instructional supports um, in the context of considering might we expand our bilingual model to more classes or other schools. Um the challenge here is that staffing and finding certified bilingual educators is really difficult. So even if we want to may be challenging. Um the special education updates are really the what many of those slides are uh related to and just to provide a little context. So there we did a special a special ed audit last year March, April and May
070of 2024 that was conducted by the Hudson River School Solutions. Um, we also restructured the department to now have a director for our district in district services and a director for our out of district services. Um, we have about 300 students that are out of district. Um, so now we're in the 30 60 90day sort of action plan resulting from that audit. And there are clear data points and successes that are laid out in a rubric inside the slide deck. I'm not going to read out a full rubric, but I will say that sort of the the the points of emphasis for improvement as a result of this um audit include administrative structures, the cse which is the committee on special education and nie processes, specialized programs and services, social emotional support for students, professional
071development and communication. So details again in the slide decks. Um classification rates in the district are growing in 23 they 23% in 2023 and 2024. Currently over 1500 students or about almost 27% of our students in 24 24 and 25. The state average someone asked that question is about 17%. Um and as I said we have 300 out of district students. um as just a sample sample of a few changes that are being made in response to the audit. So there's talk um they proposed how next year 25 2025 and 2026 we'll see an increase of the use of the integrated co-eing model called ICT which allows special ed teachers to teach an entire classroom instead of only students with IEPs. So the idea is to um even though this may be only for part
072of a day or for a particular subject matter um this allows for a partnership between teachers and allows um students to be um to be all students in the class to be taught sort of equitably across that class. Um maybe um it's the focus mainly is on ELA and math classes initially versus the full thing which is why I would call it a partial uh model. However, we're hoping because as all of us know from reviewing our data um we still have huge gaps with both our elves and our our MELs and our um identified students. So hopefully um with this model we'll start to see some of that change if we have appropriate both professional development planning for the teams of teachers involved. Right. So we just we talked some about how the district
073can leverage both these resources and just make sure and ensure adequate professional development so that this model is effective in the classrooms. Um we talked about uh or one of the other goals is changing the configuration of supports across grade levels. So for example, instead of having 1212 and 1211 classes in K through 4, um we might instead see a shift from 1212 and K1 to 1211 in grades 2 and three and 1511 in classes three and four. So where students can move um between these over time depending on how they're doing and with subject matter depending on their need and gain gradual independence in these larger classes is the idea. Um right the goal is to create a system where students can fluidly move in and out of special ed classes also depending on
074their progress. Um, so there was some a couple of very nice slides I encourage you to look at about making the process of classification and requesting services um, clear to parents, families who are looking to do that. Um, and I actually there was discussion with the committee that we hope that that slide or some version of that could be on our website so that families know exactly where and what to where where to start the process. and um under what timeline they should expect things to happen. So there's some efforts toward being efficient and communicating well with families. And then finally, just more trainings in general um to make sure that there's and already there's been trainings in IEP development. Some of this was in your your board packet. Um training in um the CPSE
075to CSE transition, so from preschool up into elementary. Um and the Medicaid you actually heard a little bit about tonight in the budget. So, they'll be continuing in the future to building on other um trainings, implementing bilingual special ed training, for example, professional development and inclusionary practices, creating a procedural special education handbook um and continuing to refine home instruction and homeschooling procedures. So takeaway is that the audit and the restructuring has led to a lot of changes to systems, processes, and outreach. And um it probably takes some time to iron out all the wrinkles, but there's more to come. Um we'll keep touching base on all of those changes. A very brief visit to climate change in our curriculum. really it's um is it's introduced to our students in grade five when they explore earth
076and space science and explored in more depth in grade 8 when students explore data related to climate change um and experiment as well as learn about potential solutions and play with data. The takeaway from this discussion really at least for me was that climate change is very siloed um and we might consider ways to make it more broadly integrated into different aspects of our curriculum. Um but for now this was just in response to our adding us to this our vote goals and for us to have a baseline to understand where what we're doing right now in the district. The next thing on the agenda which we really didn't get time to explore was about the um CLA curriculum and multi-grade classrooms. What we did learn about that at TNL was that the administration is
077meeting with um elementary schools and Albany to understand better how they incorporate CLA and to age classrooms both special ed and also monator. So understanding um how to move forward with that really by looking to those around us. Our next meeting is June 9th. Thank you. Any comments or questions? I was really impressed with all of the special ed. So congratulations to those of you that got the directors on board. I I thought it was very helpful and Haven't seen that in a while. We haven't actually now been out. So I think pulling that together again is a first step to um and it really ties to the communication issue. It's it's like a world of its own. Yeah. Absolutely. Mr. Ryder, I'm about to show my own ignorance, but so the integrated co-eing that
078we don't do that in any grade level right now or we do in like the high school and others. Yes, we do. or the elementary and actually I just I can actually make that explicit in the minutes though. So thank you. Yeah. I just near like my wife teaches in Beacon and they've done that like she's been a co-teer in other I just that she's been at the high school for okay 25 years and it and we even did it in the middle in the elementary school before I retired. So yeah, I think it exists. We're also just increasing the use of it in general. Would that be correct? Thank you. Thank you. Um brings us to our consent agenda. Are there any items that trustees would like pulled from the consent agenda? Um Mr.
079writer B77 which is the installment purchase agreement with those services77 and B7 P98 P um okay so with the exception of P98 B76 and B77 Seven. Can I have a motion to consent the consent agenda? Second. Any discussion? All in favor of the consent agenda with those three items pulled. I opposed. So those pass. Let's go to P98 first. If I could have a motion. Second. discussion on P98. Mr. Lamb, it's that time of year and I look at the list. I look at the experience and the wonderful careers that are we are losing this year and how much I hope they're enjoying the last year, their last marking period because that's was one of my favorite years of teaching um as I as I said goodbye to my kids and stuff. So, but the
080experience that these people have given this district is a huge loss to us and I wish them all well in the future and thank them for being here for our kids. Thank you. And Mrs. um I also would like to reiterate we have over 20 people on this list of retirements, many of whom I've had the pleasure of working with over the years and they are incredible professionals who have dedicated their lives to the students of our district and I just need to thank them for that and with them going I'm probably not going to know anyone like the schools. I agree some of them I actually hired. I know which that's kind of crazy. All right, if we could um vote on P98. All in favor? I. Any oppose? Okay, P98 passes. Let's go
081to B76. If I could have a motion. Discussion on B76. Mrs. Jordan, this is the award of transportation contracts and we haven't yet been able to get all the information we need. So, I'd like to table this for our next meeting. I'll second the table. All in favor of t tableabling B76. I Any oppose? Okay. So B76 is moved to our next meeting. That brings us to B77. Motion. I'll move it. Second. Discussion. Mr. Ryder. So just looking in the documents in in the board library on this um and I apologize for not bringing this to your attention before but like is there an urgency on this specific contract with olsteries for the purchase of these? Like when I do the numbers, I mean, unless there's a reason that we're getting a lot of value
082out of this contract other than just purchasing Chromebooks because they're over 500 each. So I I know they're doing some inventorying and others and if we don't have staff who that's possible for, but these are these are quite expensive. It's part of for I get buying them, but 1400 Chromebooks, the 1320s doesn't cost 686,000. Like that's just my like they're very expensive compared to what you could get on the Dell site. And I get that this is a large purchase, but I feel like we are in the IPA, we are paying holsteries a lot. Could you explain how we got the aid back a year and a robot purchase? Agreement, but also just in terms of pricing technology does work very closely on actually just to make sure that we weren't purchasing anything that was
083impacted or What percentage? Well, okay, that's fine. I'll drop it for now. Can I So, we purchase all these outright and don't lease them. Isn't there an No, it's an installment purchase agreement. So, basically, we we we rent them. we're paying installments and when they're when basically when we're done paying for them, they're pretty much we that's one of the reasons we're able to tell students to take them or we retire them, right? So there so we end up owning them at the end of the process. And I will say I mean I I look through the math letter so we can provide more if there's one thing that we can count on Mr. Tomick to be doing is making sure he's getting exactly everything and the best at best rate on the on things
084when he's when he's making these purchases. So there's I do have to tout his acumen in those areas for sure. All in favor of accepting the B77 the installment purchase agreement with Holster Bosei. I Any opposed? One opposed. Okay. I think we've covered the cassette agenda. We do have a couple of donations. Yes. Board of Education generally generously accepts the following uh donations to Edson Elementary School from Edson PTO. A donation of books valued at $347.50 to the Robert Graves Elementary School from the New York State Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation. donation of $1,000 and to Ernest Meer Elementary School a donation of $334.99. So, thank everyone for those generous donations. Thank you. That brings us to old visits and items for old visits. Mrs. Jordan, I just want to thank um Dr. for starting
085our student recognition. And I'd like to say they've made wonderful selections because I just noticed that three of the students that have been presented here won wonderful accolades to state. So congratulations to them and any other old business new business. I move to create parent engagement standing committee engagement. We have a motion. Can you repeat that? To create a parent engagement standing committee of the board of education. Do we have a second? With no second, that will not move forward at this time. I move to a DI. Do we have a second? With no second, that will not move forward at this time. Any other business? We have no one here for public comment, I don't think. board member announcements. I don't have a board member announcement. So, if anybody else does, but I do
086have a promotion. So, [Music] um if there's no announcements, I I would like to move that we move back into executive session for the purpose of seeking legal advice because I think that was something that we didn't discuss. And so if there's a way to get our attorneys back, but um I I can explain more now, but I would rather explain it in in executive session if I could get a second. I think it's timesensitive. The question is the legal advice. I kind of on the side asked Dr. Pina if it was possible if he could get that back and he thought he could. I mean on the phone I'm okay with I couldn't hear what you were. It's it's for the purpose of seeking legal advice, but it's timesensitive legal advice, and I I
087don't want to really get into it more because I want to talk about it in executive session. So, he's asking for executive session um a return to executive session. So, we have a motion and we have a second. All in favor of returning to executive session. Any opposed? Okay. I do have one announcement. Okay. Just that Oh, are they on the line? It's just that I wanted to to say that uh a few of us were able to go to Boseies for their open house and see some of our Kingston students and lots of other Olster County students and it was a lovely evening and it's always very inspiring to see the kids in action and um just congratulate them all and thank them for including us. That's a nice night. Mr. Lamb, we also
088should recognize um some of us were at the honor society inductions at Kingston High School which were beautifully done. Um it was a wonderful ceremony celebrating our kids and I was very happy to see what was done for them. Yeah, sorry to miss that but the two events occurred at the same time. So, okay, we are moving into executive session. Let me just get Thank you all for being here on your uh day off.