001[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good evening everyone I'd like to welcome you to the March 19th budget planning session of the ltown Board of Education may I please have a motion to convene the meeting James can I have a second Christina all in favor 1 two three four five six six right thank you uh may I please now have a motion to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing regard discussions regarding negotiations and Personnel phis thank you hand all in favor 60 thank you we will return at 7:30
002please note that we will recite the Pledge of Allegiance when we return to open the planning session thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] e good
003evening everyone I'd like to welcome you to the March 19th planning session of the ltown Board of Education may I please have a motion to reconvene the meeting Maryann second Peggy thank you all in favor 70 uh tonight we're excited to welcome Brandon Lane a student from MacArthur High School to lead us in tonight's Pledge of Allegiance uh Bren if you want to come up to the mic and I'm going to ask everybody to please rise for the pledge all right please rise Viet to me I pledge allegiance to fly of the United States of America and to the Republic forent one nation under God and eligible and liberty and justice for all [Applause] thank you Brandon I'd like to please ask everyone for a moment of silence to remember all those serving our country
004at home and overseas thank you uh superintendent winch am I handing this meeting over to you at this point for recognitions I I believe that's uh a very good possibility yep we um just so that we don't have to have people wait for the uh special meeting we are putting in our uh recognitions right now um so I am going to ask for the board to uh take their usual spots in front of the tables up there and we we have some uh wonderful recognitions to do tonight so uh as we kind of stage ourselves over there I'll come on over and start talking about who we're recognizing [Music] okay uh so we have a variety of recognitions to make tonight and so we're going to first start off with um a wonderful recognition uh
005from sulk middle school so at this time I'd like to welcome up Mr John zagon principal of so Middle School good evening everyone on Thursday February 13th a middle school student experienced a choking incident during lunch while attempting to drink water from his bottle recently a trend has emerged where students puncture a hole in a bottle C invert the bottle and apply pressure to create a water spray effect in this instance the bottle cap unexpectedly came off and the student accidentally swallowed it causing him to choke he immediately stood up clutching his throat and without hesitation teacher Kim Welsh Kim raise your [Music] [Applause] hand Kim Welsh jumped into action and performed the Heim lick maneuver on the third attempt the bottle cap was was successfully dislodged thanks to her Swift and decisive response a
006potentially serious situation was averted couple of notable facts just three weeks prior Kim Welsh has had completed a first aid course taught by our fellow teacher at sulk John poock where she reviewed and learned how to administer the heick maneuver and remarkably despite having suffered a broken risk during a ski trip with her colleagues the week prior to the incident she did not hesitate to intervene and save the student Kim Welsh Kim Walsh's quick thinking and training made all a difference in this emergency highlighting the importance of first aid preparedness Kim congratulations great job [Applause] you come this [Applause] okay we are now going to move on to our validator and salutatorian recognition and so we're going to go in alphabetical order so first we're going to have Mr John Kasha principal Division Avenue high
007[Applause] school first thank you first I'm going to introduce our salutatorian Miss Jennifer Chen would you like to join me up front please [Applause] good evening everyone it's a privilege to stand before you tonight and recognize an exceptional member of the class of 2025 our salutatorian Jennifer Chen has earned this distinguished honor with an impressive GPA of a 102.6 523 her academic Excellence dedication to service and genuine modesty have made her an inspiration to all who have had the pleasure of knowing her Jennifer's path is not defined just by her achievements but by the meaningful moments she's had along the way she's especially proud of her first in-person Science Olympiad event as a junior where she and her teammates went into a competition with no expectations but just the desire to have fun and give
008their best and showcase their intelligence to her Delight she meddled in wind power at Valley Forge at the Valley Forge Invitational a moment that symbolized both her dedication determination and the Joy of unexpected success since then she has continued to excel in Science Olympiad earning fourth in Optics at regionals 10th in Optics at the Dick Smith online Invitational and finishing fifth in Optics and second in wind power at Yale her skills in tenacity also helped the physics Olympiad team plac fourth overall in regionals Beyond her academic and competitive Pursuits Jennifer has shown a deep commitment to serving her school and Community as a member and officer of the national art Honor Society she helped spread creativity and kindness by making Valentine's Day flowers and painting banners and school events excuse me in Key Club she
009took on a leadership role by organizing impactful events such as Memorial Day walk blood drive light the night walk renaissance fair and the Kanas food drive with the lown youth Council she played a key role in planning events and bringing Joy to the community her heart really shines through a work as a peer leader where she consistently checks in with her younger peers offering support and guidance she also participated in the sads Club mindfulness Workshop Middle School promoting mental wellness and empathy among younger students as you could see Jen has become uh the advocate for all of our students at Division Avenue high school and we're very proud of her but her success is deeply rooted in the gratitude for her family she's incredibly appreciative of her parents Jean and Jing first generation immigrants from
010China whose sacrifices and unwavering support have shaped her path she holds a special admiration for her brother Jonathan who helped her navigate the American education system and showed her the ropes with patience love love and care tonight we're also honored to have her grandfather Fen with us celebrating this special moment and as Jennifer embarks on the next chapter of her journey we are thrilled to share that she has been awarded a full scholarship through questbridge to attend Hamilton College where she will study Applied Mathematics with the goal of becoming an accountant or an actuary with a sharp intellect strong work ethic and compassionate Spirit we are confident that Jennifer will continue to Excel and make a meaningful impact on the world we congratulate Jen on this wonderful honor tonight [Applause] congratulations I also want to
011uh thank and appreciate uh division Avenue's two exceptional assistant principles Mr Curtis and Mr Fazio uh joining us [Applause] tonight next I would like to invite up our valedictorian VD [Applause] Patel it is truly an honor to stand before you tonight to recognize this extraordinary young woman whose dedication and and compassion have made indelible Mark at Division Avenue High School our valedictorian vid Patel has achieved the highest academic distinction with an astonishing GPA of 105.0 641 but beyond the numbers it is her character her leadership and her unwavering commitment to serving others that truly Define her success throughout her time at Division Avenue VD has embraced every challenge with Grace and determination a president of the student council is what she is most proud of sorry with that okay she is Led with both vision
012and heart vid often speaks of her pride in being part of the decision-making process what she calls quote where decisions come alive at student council whether organizing spear at night spearheading the food drive or pouring her creativity into homecoming V's tireless dedication has strengthened our school spirit and made lasting contributions to our community outside of the classroom V has demonstrated a remarkable work ethic through her internships and professional experiences from tutoring at Kuman math and reading Center guiding students with patience and encouragement to her role at as a clerical worker in the Lev toown dental offices hold on where she learned the value of precision and organization she has consistently shown maturity and responsibility her time as a stem Camp counsel revealed her passion for mentoring and inspiring young minds while her participation and the
013hopster summer science research program showcased her analytical skills and intellectual curiosity mastering statistical analysis and conducting meaningful research on eating disorders V's leadership extends into countless extracurricular activities as Vice Captain of Science Olympiad co-president of ke club and a student leaon to the lown Board of Education she has balanced academics with service leading by example and inspiring her peers whether mentoring freshman as a peer leader promoting kindness to the division ambassador's program or celebrating Unity through the diversity club and World Language Honor Society she has shown true leadership about lifting others up she's shown that it is about lifting others up yet through all of her accomplishments V remains humble and deeply grateful for the support of her family she often shares how her parents comedy Ben and Rajesh Kumar have been her Guiding Light
014they have instilled in her the values of hard work focusing on the process rather than the results of philosophy that has clearly shaped her remarkable Journey with ironically outstanding results not to be forgotten is her loving Brother Jay who has played a huge role in supporting VD throughout High School V have shown us that success is not just about Personal Achievement but about using your talents to uplift those around you you've left a lasting Legacy at Division Avenue high school and we cannot wait to see you do extraordinary things once you graduate when she does graduate she is going to be looking to go to Stony Brook University where she plans to study biology or Neuroscience on a Premed track with her unwavering determination curiosity and Compassionate Heart there is no doubt she will continue
015to Excel and make a profound impact on this world we congratulate VII on becoming the valedictorian for the class of 2025 congrat congratulations okay so we are going to do a uh a photo here with the vator solor we're also going to invite up our assistant principals from Division Avenue Mr fazo Mr Curtis uh so let's do some fos you guys can come into the middle e and just as a as a comment um we did put the uh Banner the photo backdrop in the back uh so if anybody wants to take photos with the principles or whatnot afterwards by by all means please feel free to do that uh at this time though we're going to call up uh the principal of MacArthur High School Mr Joseph Shen [Applause] and he's going to bring
016up his assistant principles as well uh we have uh Mr uh Terry Ryan and Mr Sam mooy as one last comment uh for those of the plaques we do have the boxes the plaques came in so make sure you take them your name is on them uh before you leave thank you Mr winch good evening everybody and before I begin I'd just like to also congratulate the valedictorian and salutatorian from Division Avenue High School all the very best of luck which I'm sure is going to be a very successful future for you both congratulations to you and your families at this time I'd like to welcome up Katherine tion from MacArthur High [Applause] School okay the MacArthur High School's class of 2025 salutatorian is one amazing and incredible young lady throughout her four-year tenure at
017MacArthur she has obtained a plethora of honors accolades and accomplishments her overall weighted grade point average is an astounding 10285 she is a yep worthy of Applause she is a four-year member of our principal's high honor role four-year Platinum Renaissance scholar symbolizing academic Excellence member of our math and National Honor societies and is an AP scholar with distinction in addition she was an integral member of both our Science Olympiad and mathletes competitive teams and was the recipient of the prestigious renia medal as a result of her exceptional performance in math and science along with her top tier ranking in the class if that wasn't impressive enough she is also an accomplished musician as evidenced by her remarkable performance on stage at the illustrious Carnegie Hall where she was named first award winner for traditional instruments
018Ensemble as a result of her expert playing of the now I practice this Guang how was that good all right the gang which is a Chinese acoustical instrument I would also like to mention that despite her busy schedule she has been able to carve out time to volunteer as a tutor to elementary school age children in English and Mathematics at the New York tutoring center located in Flushing Queens I recently had a conversation with popular English teacher Mrs Wellen Ruther regarding the special young lady and she immediately lit up as she recalls several essays that stood out from her class and gushed about her exceptional growth as a writer highlighting a deeply moving piece that she wrote which showcased her remarkable ability to convey complex emotions with honesty and depth she also noted that Beyond
019her academic Excellence she is a compassionate and driven individual who inspires those around her I am extremely proud to celebrate her achievements knowing she will continue to thrive in all she pursues certainly an accurate assessment by Mrs Wellen Ruther she is attending New York University in the fall and plans on majoring in Neuroscience as you could see this is one incredible young lady and please join me in congratulating the MacArthur High School class of 2025 salutatorian Catherine [Applause] tion congratulations I'd like to ask Melody to now please step up next to me please when I think of this uh when I think of the mccartha High School class of 2025 valedictorian words like determination passion meticulous and ambition immediately come to mind as with our salutatorian this young lady has also amassed a Beyond impressive
020resume over the past four years she has obtained an overall weighted grade point average of a mindboggling 104.0 and is a yes another worthy Round of Applause and she is also a member of our math trim and National Honor societies four-year member of the principal's high honor role a four-year Renaissance scholar earning Platinum Status which symbolizes overall academic excellence and is an AP scholar with distinction in addition she is an elite member of our highly reputable science Olympic team where she has been captain for the past 3 years and is the first mtha student to win both gold and silver medal awards at the state competition during her junior year she competed in the Long Island brain b competition and in concluded the highly contested tournament as the 2024 champion and as a result was
021awarded a summer intern ship at the renowned Feinstein Institute for medical research in Manhasset she also conducted a bioinformatics research project at Stonybrook University where her manuscript will be submitted for publication in a breast cancer Journal coupled with her profound intellectual ability she was also selected to represent MacArthur High School at the prestigious Hobie leadership seminar her sophomore year and was chosen to be a peer leader this past summer where she served our SCH Community as a role model for our current Freshman Class someone who has worked with her over the past four years and knows her best is science research adviser Dr David fredman and he had this to say regarding this phenomenal young lady she is a young woman whose academic achievements are matched only by her infectious infectious enthusiasm for learning she
022is humble compassionate and kind and possesses a sense of humor that lights up and any room she simply makes this world a better place good job Mr well stated Dr fredman and one other thing that I may that I think may be worth mentioning maybe it's a big deal I'm not really sure you may have heard about it so I'll let you decide so here it is she recently competed in the renowned regeneron science Talent search national competition earned a spot as a finalist meaning she was one of the top 40 science research students in the entire country then was invited to continue her competition in Washington DC where she presented her research project to various committees over several days and the end result was that she is the only levitown School District student ever
023to finish in the top 10 in the nation in this prestigious Talent search specifically six place and won an $80,000 prize so yeah the more I think about it it isn't a big deal this is a huge deal so while she was already accepted into MIT she is still waiting to hear from Harvard and Princeton universities and she plans on studying Applied Mathematics in the fall ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to announce that the MacArthur High School class of 2025 valedictorian is Melody Hong [Applause] congratulations e e e okay we are going to move on to our next recognitions and so uh tonight we are honored to recognize our PTA volunteers uh for our ptas for our PTA budget committee and our food service committee members uh these individuals spend an inordinate
024amount of time uh without compensation to make a real difference for our students teachers and staff whether it's volunteering on committees organizing events fundraising or supporting school programs uh their hard work helps to create a Better Learning environment for everybody um PTA members trade hours of their own personal time with family and friends in order to make a difference in the lives of students staff parents and community members our schools are stronger uh because of their involvement and we truly appreciate their dedication um it has been said that nobody can do everything but everyone can do something and please know that from all of us here in the ltown school Community we greatly appreciate the something that you all do for our kids so on behalf of Lev town thank you for your support uh
025for giving your time to our schools for giving your time to me because we spend a lot of quality time together um but honestly it really uh goes without saying that we really couldn't provide the education that we do and the um the environment and the experience without what our PTA does so uh many thanks to all of you and now we're going to call you up to receive your certificates so so we're going to first start off with PTA presidents and then the um the budget committee and then uh Mr Fab is going to do Food Service okay so see if I do this right here you ready there's a lot you might get called up more than once because as I looked there like 10 people and you're on like 30 30 lists
026so as as you well know is a lot yeah yeah yeah okay all right uh lown PTA council president Kathleen pedrick thank you for all that you do first vice president Michelle [Applause] seagull second vice president Karen Martinez thank you Treasurer Rebecca mccraig thank you recording secretary Lauren lingi out here all right no Lauren corresponding secretary Christa Hill immediate past president Beth Lions thank you so much for all that you've done Abby Lane PTA president Rebecca McCrae am I saying it wrong is it McCrea McCrae am I getting it close that's good all right you like that okay Abby Lane PTA president Janine Quigley thank you so much I hope the bus has been better this year oh good okay yes that's it Division Avenue High School uh president Christa Hill okay East Broadway president
027Jennifer [Applause] oampo East roadway president Andrea Coleman you garders Avenue PTA president Andre [Applause] dequal carders Avenue PTA president Alisa Emirates [Applause] thank you for everything leer Road president Diana [Applause] Schnabel you very a that's how we roll here ler Road president Alexandria kabalo thank you Norths side PTA president yiz cyprian cypriano sorry no yiz okay Northside president mirinda UL now s MacArthur Sharon Levy s MacArthur Jackie Schultz SEPTA Justine Bruno thank you so much except the president Diana Mar marog what did I say MGI anyway you knew I was going bad bad places with that almost but thank you so much Summit Lane Liz [Applause] Escobar Summit Lane Kim Alvarado and Wisdom Lane Lauren Sika [Applause] no four budget committee this is an exciting one I know everybody's saying I God I wish I
028was on that committee all right Lauren Sika Wisdom Lane Kim Alvarado Summit Lane Diana snobble leer Road you got to come back yeah yes you were on it and just think if you don't know you're on it you will know you're on it now for next year right hold oh yeah I didn't give you the pile it's in that is that the one is it over here no no it's over here okay yes North Side yise cypriano Garder Avenue Andrea D Pasqual is it B all rightall all right all right all right barely can say your original name East Bradway J [Applause] Campo sulk Middle School Jackie Schultz Martha High School Sharon Levy Abby Lane Janine Quigley Division Avenue Christa Hill thank you and the chair person Michelle seagull we're going take a group photo
029with all of you so we all got a kind of mush in here so you got to come on from Over the side could do before we do the food service okay at this point I'm going to ask Mr Fabiano or assistant superintendent for business and finance to come up for our food service committee yes I'm going to have yeah uh actually uh I'm going to invite up uh our co-chairs of the uh committee Linda doich and Kim vpy uh to present these Awards to our food service committee [Applause] members our food service committee members are the following um Council representative is Janine Quigley Abby Lane School is Loretta Rolan East Broadway is beia adamis I don't see any Garder Avenue Teresa henchel Lee Road Jennifer treza uh Northside School Nadia Connors Summit Lane is
030Jen lote sock Middle School Kristen Crystal Ryan wisdom Middle School Eileen Lynch Division Avenue Susanna Galina MacArthur High School Diana Murphy and our student representatives from MacArthur are Brianna [Applause] Quiroga thank you from Division Avenue is Alex Healey uh so Middle School two students Johnny nestler and kuchi and Wisdom Lane Kalinda Chong and our Board of Education member is Michael [Applause] papis has certificate in there back on not in here oh okay he has one okay okay um just wanted to make a comment and because I know not everybody's able to make it um because the cafeteria is already cooking food for tomorrow and so they're out testing it as we speak but we do thank those that could come uh we are going to take group photo we have a phenomenal Food Service program
031here I will tell you that the central office team as well as board members when they're available eat in the cafeterias once a month with the kids and I will tell you the food and Mr could vouch you here Mr Aina yeah what what were you telling me you had yesterday was it yesterday nachos right like nacho Supreme like we had I think it was a burrito bowl is that what we had like it is amazing food so like thank you to everything that you do to and that you do to make that happen because I do think we have one of the best food service programs out of any District in the United States [Applause] honestly e e e I didn't hear was next oh okay yeah okay uh we are going to now
032continue uh with our budget planning session and I we're going to change things up a little bit right Mr Fabian we're gonna have uh Miss Gadis go first right so if uh Mr titel if you could bring up the human resources uh presentation we're going to do that one first go out of order tiny bit and so um we are really approaching the end of our budget development cycle which started way back in pretty much November December uh Miss Gadis tonight is going to be presenting on human resources basically our staffing for this current year as well as the future so uh Miss GIS why don't you take it from here thank you um good evening everyone I'd like to begin by expressing uh my sincere gratitude to the Board of Education superintendent of schools
033Mr winch the entire central office team our directors our principal and our guidance chair people of their invaluable support in developing our staffing plans your dedication ensures that we have the necessary resources and Personnel to provide a high quality education for all of our students as you already know we contract with bosis every few years to update our District's demographic study this study is conducted every two years and since the last update was in 2003 we are scheduled to have a new one one completed in the near future to conduct this study bosis utilizes this cohort survival technique which projects the district's enrollment patterns over a 10-year period this method methodology relied on three key data inputs actual enrollment by grade from 2013 to 2023 grade byg grade retention ratios for each transition from grades
0341 through 12 over the same 10-year period and projected kindergarten enrollment cohorts based on the number of live births in Nassar County which with additional consideration given to births within the district's 5 years before each projected year the cohort survival model accounts for various Community factors that influence School enrollment including number of births and fertility rates in and out my migrations transfers to and from non-public and chared schools population fluu fluctuations and Resident family characteristics this approach provides a datadriven foundation for understanding enrollment Trends and planning for future Staffing and resource needs as reflected in this chart in the Lev toown School District births peaked in 2008 in the years that followed birth numbers generally declin lines fluctuating between 411 and 470 notably 2020 saw an unusual unusually low birth rate at 4111 which suggests
035a smaller kindergarten cohort for the upcoming 25 26 school year as of last week we had 43 kindergarten registrations at this time last year we had 492 a difference of approximately 90 kindergarten registrations to date as it is only March kindergarten registration is ongoing and we are expecting the Gap to narrow this summer however the increase of birs as seen in this St chart in 2021 indicates a potential Rebound in kindergarten enrollment for the 2026 2027 school year while year-to-year fluctuations exist the overall trends in birth suggests a decline in long-term enrollment that is not substantial compared to Peak years can I can you just go back for one second yeah so one thing I wanted to just mention is that you know this is through the studies that bosis does and you know we
036always question about like how accurate is this information and Mr G sat down and I sat down for a while to kind of look at District district current enrollment to see if there was any sort of numbers that would match like for instance if you see 2015 that's a bit of a spike year and when we were analyzing our data in the district that actually is reflected in our current enrollment in elementary school where that those that year of births in 2015 we have a higher than average number of students in whether it's fourth or fifth grade now fifth grade so fifth grade so while it's not 100% of a correlation there definitely is uh we have our own internal data that would indicate that there's validity to this so like Mr mentioned like we
037definitely don't know right now in March if our kindergarten will be lower than usual but if what happened in 2015 holds true then we would see a lower kindergarten class of course right now we can't really plan for a lower kindergarten um enrollment but obviously we are holding our numbers pretty steady and there may obviously be some um you know I guess fewer FTE needed in kindergarten um because that those decisions will be made really prior to the end of the year but unfortunately after the budget adopted yes how do we focus uh or calculate moving in families oh new entrance yeah well we we looked at the historical data from the past two years and the I do address it in another slide so the average new entrance over the past two years over
038the summer was about 120 is the average number coming in over the summer that excludes kindergarten um but I do address that in the the next a few slides what does this tell um tell us so according to the study the population with in the Lev toown school district is expected to remain relatively stable due to the absence of new residential developments with with no large scale housing projects planned the district does not anticipate a significant influx of new families however the study the steady turnover of existing homes approximately 500 to 600 sales per year year according to the study continues to play a key role in maintaining the district's demographic balance as it allows for younger families with schoolage children to move in and preventing a sharp decline additionally enrollment in non-public schools remains
039relatively low with roughly 3% of District students attending private or parochial schools this marks a significant decline from 2007 when 7.7% were enrolled in non-public schools overall while the district is not experiencing substantial population growth the combination of steady housing turnover and declining non-public school enrollment indicates that levitown student population is likely to remain stable in the near future looking at the Historical and projected enrollment data for Elementary grades we see some key trends shaping the district's student population over the next decade keep in mind the shaded areas are the peak enrollment for each school and the district based on the chart total Elementary enrollment peaked this school year at 3,16 students after this peak enrollment fluctuates slightly showing Peaks and dips across individual schools but remains relatively stable and are not expected to drop
040dramatically instead a steady trend of minor decreases is projected likely influenced by birth rates and housing turnover now looking at secondary um shifting to the middle schools and the high schools projected enrollment based on the study again the shaded areas show our Peak enrollment like the elementary schools our secondary enrollment peaked this year with 4,020 students while the chart while the chart shows fluctuation in our secondary enrollment our overall enrollment projections remain relatively stable over the next few years this is a a visual that um we did incorporate it incorporate into the presentation it is a nice visual for you to see out projected enrollment you can visually see the initial increase in enrollment this school year followed by a very gradual gradual decline and stabilizing by 2031 32 and 2032 to 33 this trend
041suggests a relatively steady student population with very minor fluctuations it is important to note that the incoming kindergarten class is smaller than the exiting 12th grade class and this trend is projected to continue so right now we are at about 504 kindergarten in this current year and our seniors are at about 581 the project enrollment Trend charts we just reviewed are generally aligned with the year-to-year enrollment change um in terms of overall Trends if you look at the chart which shows our actual numbers this year and our actual numbers which are projected for next school year you will see a decrease of 100 students in the 2526 school year so this is these are our current note um current numbers in our power school system as stated earlier kindergarten numbers are predicted to be slightly
042lower but it is important to remember that registration is still ongoing also as I did mention earlier um to Mr papis historically when looking at the past two years we have seen an average of 120 new entrance over the summer excluding kindergarten and an additional 175 entrance during the school year going to make it I'm sorry sorry to throw you off like that um just realized that that's incoming we do have uh students exit as well like what you know so the when you look at the um the data the average for the past two years we had um we had people exit but the number is 93 so that net change is 93 new students when you look at how many left and how many are coming in so the average is about 93
043new students thank you you're welcome the purpose of highlighting this is to emphas ize that while we are currently down 100 in numbers we must be prepared for that late those late registrations and those new entrance based on these historical patterns looking at our current 2024 2025 District staff instruction our teaching and support staff this year is slightly larger than last year due to the peak enrollment that we saw in the chart as well as an increase and special education students moving into our district as you can see we are currently at 699 teachers and support staff members for the 2425 school year and 159 teaching assistants our administrator numbers have have remained constant at 50 um D can you click on the 50 for the 20 for the 2025 2026 school year we are
044making some adjustments to our administrative team while the total number of Administrators will remain the same we will be reducing the number of assistant directors in special education by one to add an assistant to the superintendent position additionally we will be eliminating the curriculum associate position which will transition into a director role these administrative changes will allow us to bring one of our teachers on special assignment back to the classroom as the new positions will absorb the associated responsibilities so while we are making some administrative changes our total number of Administrators stay the same allowing one teacher on special assignment who is doing some roles to go back into the classroom um uh for budgeting purposes okay the 2024 2025 dist District staff n instructional this is our current non-instructional staff for the 2425 school
045year currently we are we have 607 non-instructional staff members which are inclusive of full-time and part-time employees and we are not anticipating any changes to this number at this point so our total staff when you add them up is for this current school year is 1,515 Staffing overview of 2025 2026 what is driving our staffing needs in the 2025 2026 school year Staffing meetings between central office our principals directors and guidance chairs are ongoing with another round of meetings next week these ongoing meetings ensure that we meet the needs of all students while maintaining fiscal responsibility as part of our ongoing efforts to optimize Staffing and ensure efficient resource allocation we have implemented a modified structure for our staffing meetings this approach allows for more in-depth conversations with principes and directors enabling a comprehensive review
046of course offerings student requests student enrollments and staffing needs a key focus of these discussion does include class size as well as identifying potential retirements which allows us to fill vacancies through attrition whenever possible adjusting Staffing by either not replacing retirees or allocating existing staff rather than hiring new employees this approach helps manage costs and optim optimized resources at the elementary level we do continue to adhere to establish class-size guidelines of 20 students for grades K to1 24 students grades 2 to 3 and 26 students in grades four and five additionally special education um special education Staffing remains contingent on the outcomes of annual reviews which are currently in progress these reviews will help determine appropriate support and placements for our students as you can see on this chart we are down some sections in
047our general education Elementary classrooms at this specific moment however as we are anticipating more kindergarten enrollments as it as in registration does continue over the next few months and we also are anticipating new entrance also while we are currently down sections in general education classrooms as you already know we are up sections in special education for next year currently our 2024 25 secondary sections while Staffing meetings are still on occurring we are working closely with directors and principal to maximize our resources while maintaining a high quality um education currently our FTE and on the secondary level is roughly around 250 for TW the 2526 school year we are planning the following proposed Staffing changes for the 2526 school year with our new financial literacy graduation requirement underway the projected enrollment requires the addition of a
048full-time business teacher to strengthen IND District services and reduce Reliance on outsourced providers We are continuing to transition occupational therapy and Physical Therapy Services to District employed staff this includes adding one occupational therapist and one physical therapist allowing for greater continuity of care increased collaboration among our staff and cost efficiencies so we currently have one occupational therapist and we budgeted for an additional one as well as a physical therapist in response to the evolving needs of our student population we do need to add new special education classes for example we do need to add an additional 612 class and 8812 class as well as the three sections of 1211 kindergarteners that are coming in this number however is subject to change additionally as mentioned earlier we are restructuring restructuring that special education um Administration um
049where we are eliminating one assistant director and adding an assistant to the superintendent do do you know how many um how many of the these sections we already have currently like the 611 um I believe and I may be off I think we have about nine 612 classes this year coming in but I will have to confirm those numbers the special ed class is what we currently have in 612 sorry there were nine this year for 612 I told you and three for 812 that was question Jackie I'm sorry did you say that we have the 612 and 812 did you say there's three sections of a 121 one kindergarten is coming in okay okay um also it is yes how many 1211 kindergarten students do we have presently in kindergarten presently how many sections
050I have that number just give me a second um I thought I I thought I had that number I don't but I will get it back to you and how many kindergarten uh students do we have registered right now we had I believe it was 403 as of last week okay thank you you're welcome Jack I got a quick one the uh 612 and the 812 CL is that ele Elementary Middle School High School actually I just um looked at it before the presentation the 612 I believe is at Salk and the 812 is at wisdom thank you you're welcome wow Jimmy's getting okay with the conclusion of the federal covid ARP grants certain Staffing adjustments are necessary specifically kindergarten classrooms will revert to having halfday teaching assistance aligning with prepandemic Staffing structures so as
051you remember during covid we did increase um Tas in our kindergarten classrooms to full-time using ARP Grant funds but now that the funds um have ended we are going back to pre-pandemic times um we have ALS we had half day kindergarten completely which is ridiculous I know right oh yeah we we had full time half day kindergarten all the way around for quite a few years oh yeah yeah and just as a as a comment cuz I remember we um we were instructed when we received the federal Co funds to not put staff in there because of this fact of like once you put staff in there you have to either bring them into your budget or you need to eliminate that staff and so we had added because of the fact that we knew
052that the pandemic had really affected our youngest kids the most at that time um the board was very much um supportive of actually drove the um request to have them move to full-time at least during the first few years to make sure that the students had the instructional support that they needed because in many districts now they don't have Tas in kindergarten classrooms they have AIDS or like a half day Aid and just as a remember AIDS are great um we we love our AIDS but AIDS from a from a job description standpoint do not provide instructional support only teaching assistants can do that and so while this is a half day model it's still robust much more than actually most other districts because it's teaching assistance as opposed to AIDS can I ask a
053question um as far as our inclusion classes are we going to have inclusion next year in every building on every grade level if needed what are we doing with inclusion we generally do that as you know that's always well that was something that we fought for too with the full day kindergarten when if that comes up as an issue where that's not possible we will bring that to the board's attention before decisions are made but but we're still doing yes correct okay great thank you you're welcome um I do also want to add one more um uh proposed change we have all um we have also are have adjusted or are thinking about adjusting our staffing and our transportation department replacing a retire a retiring dispatcher with an assistant supervisor of transportation to improve operational
054oversight and efficiency is so we will be repl um a dispatcher is retiring in and instead of hiring a dispatcher we will hire an assistant supervisor of Transportation so our FTE won't change and what would the assistant supervisor's duties be I would say the assistant supervisor would be really an assistant to our current supervisor Reeves um you know what we found was that the way that it works right now with the current dispatcher that we have she's phenomenal um but she really does more than what that job is she really is is kind of acting as an assistant supervisor um so basically there are sometimes in education where um we we people go well above and beyond the job title and then as they leave you realize that you know what that job isn't really
055what they're doing and so the size of the district that we have we have the I think the largest uh School District transportation program in nesso County um that I think they need and we spoke to M re about this an assistant for her that's actually designated assistant um especially when she's not here things like that so they the assistant would be doing a lot of what the current person was going to retire is doing but the person that's retiring is going well above and beyond what the job description is is it a competitive title not competitive yes it is a competitive title it's a tested title yes so is there an active list right now there is an active list um and this person is on the list well we are interviewing we had
056we had one response so if we don't um if that person declined LS we would have to go provisionally so we don't have anybody inh house on that list no okay okay yeah I'll all right I U Miss GES can I ask a question yes okay so there's um a lot of special ed talk but also enl can drive a lot of our staffing and I know that it fluctuates and I know um you know there's there tends to be more that um a lot of registration August September October um and those can you know cause some challenges um can you I don't know if you want to do it here or after but because there was again a lot of special ed mentioned but I'm curious what is the impact with the enl population
057here is it growing and how are we um addressing that Personnel from a Personnel perspective well the the enl program is growing um and with our current program we do not have an increase in FTE at this point um in regards to our enrollment yeah just I want to comment on a little bit because as you know we've been expanding our enl program to various buildings right originally we only had it in certain buildings as the years have gone on and that population has grown and in the desire similar to what you mentioned in regards to ICT classes of having students in their home buildings we've tried to open up enl programs in um almost all of our buildings so I believe that we have them in nine of our 10 buildings right now um
058the biggest one that we opened recently though was at gardeners where we're transitioning I think this year it's K And1 is this year it's K And1 um and so we have added staff I think we added enl stuff last year and I just think right now also yeah mid year so like I think right now we're we have enough cushion to absorb but yeah it is very likely then next year that we'll be back at the table saying okay now we're at a point where we need to add more which building doesn't have enl I believe ler Road beat you you beat me to it yeah ler Road sry and I One More follow question Le Road student go to East Broadway for youl if yes what is the model that we you are we
059we should be co- teing the 180 minutes and pulling out is that how it looks what we're doing across the buildings it's okay yeah right now they they generally push in during small group instruction and that's how they deliver their time with the students correct M Dr Z Hest what was I thinking um I would been I would have been in trouble tomorrow um no I did you want to discuss anything at all about the you know or is that is that no ac across the district I mean we're in compliance with that we have um as I said in my last presentation we are making some shifts at the fourth and fifth grade level um with how we're delivering that because we're changing the small group model um this coming year but we do
060have a combination of pushin and you know pull out services to support uh we did make adjustments in how um the numbers we're going to align more with our special education model of how many kids at the elementary school are in an enl section uh with genn students and that is how we were able to maintain uh not needing additional FTE because we were able to allocate those resources in our expanding in buildings like leer Road where we're excuse me in in uh East Broadway where we're expanding the program so yeah yeah just the fluctuation I know can be a challenge with FTS and programming all thank you for thank you addressing that since since we're talking about the enl do any of are any of our schools coming closes in there like that threshold
061where if you have a certain amount of students within a certain grade in a certain school that you have to offer the bilingual programs Miss Ortiz and I did look at that because we uh earlier this year because we were getting close in a few places but we haven't yet met that threshold but she does continue to monitor that in case we have to move to more of a bilingual uh instructional program yes you're welcome just going to go back on something do we keep track of how many uh residence 123 Main Street Leber toown how many have nonfamiliar units in they as rentals I I you referring you when you say non-familiar are you talking about like that choose two families in multi family share the same address but not the same not nonfamiliar
062yeah uh we don't really track that I would say per se like like if you say tracking like kind of like that we're looking at it we we don't we don't well if you are own a home in leown and you're managing the property you're making repairs and you're actively involved in the rental that's considered a business and the rentals supposedly 3 to 5% homes in leown a rent I don't know how many are to you know mother daughter things like that that doesn't mean anything I'm talking about when your the landlord is renting a house out to Mr Jones and uh Mrs Smith and there's two there's two people in that they have St they have children in school they're paying one tax and we're taking care of two families um that's actually a
063business and there are ways you can say you have to pay business tax you know we are you know every we're homeowners here but if you're renting your house out to two families and the three criteria they have to meet they should be paying a business tax and if it's 1% I think 3% I actually did the math here um where heck did I do it's on this page somewhere here um if it's if it's 12K in taxes and business brings it up to 24K so 12 * 12 is $144,000 per year that's that's a lot you know for the rental they the person usually brings in um rentals in leown between $2500 and $33,000 for half house so the person is making a ton of money MH on us it be $12,000 for the
064year um that money should be the school should be getting some of that money yeah no I don't think anybody disagrees with you that that everybody should be paying their fair share which is what you're saying is that if you're renting out and and it's it is obviously that is to make money then it should be designated as such and therefore paying the higher tax rate because you're renting it out to multiple families i' had spoken to Bob Cohen about that and those for listening at home he's our our general counsel um he said really there's not really much the school district can do about that other than um like petition the the town or the county to get involved you're exactly correct with petitioning the town of Hamstead and the county to change the
065to change the ordinance or the restrictions of the homeowner that I don't know if you'll ever see that you know uh there's a lot of stuff involved politics there's a lot of stuff involved in order to get that done I don't know if you'll ever see that they already changed the amount of space a building can have in leit toown and reduce the the amount of Green Space they have you can have a house I believe 5T from your neighbor's house right now you can expand your house out and they've built two or three mcmansions next to me they call them you know yes but they're not addressing the rental properties they're not addressing that I but the thing is you're going to see more of that happening there's a house on my block five
066bedrooms five baths full basement I can't imagine a family that large but it could be I grew up with seven kids in the family that would have been a nice house to have but I I could imagine that house is going to be rented to several families I think also we have to keep in mind that like like so in families like I think it's family can be different like you have multi Generations in your home also so that can create shifts and like how many people are in the home how many people are then in the in the schools then also because not every family is just like two parents you know two. three kids and you know you're allowed to have you're allowed to have a parent a grandparent uh moving your house
067and you can make a two- family house if it's that um but there's there really is no I don't think there's any Jimmy you might know this is there any rule against renting the top of your house out to another family not not mother daughter house I think there is right yeah legal to the best of my knowledge legally in the Town of Hempstead you're not allowed to do it but they have been overlooking it for a lot of years and the ltown Property Owners Association has they they've spoken about this numerous times they've been to town board meetings about it um once again I like I said you would have to petition the town board and the zoning com uh commission to change the restrictions that's the only way you would be able to
068get tax dollars from people that rent where their kids go to school well it have to be declared a business the problem is that town of Hemstead is the one that enforces code violations in a house and if you're going to have them that the least amount of your tax bills in Town of Hempstead it's only maybe $5 $600 a year so to put two people watching a house for a week I I imagine that cost you maybe three years worth of tax coming back in you know it's they don't they don't collect that's not your a major collector of taxes Town of Hempstead from uh on your tax bill so that's really the main problem I agree anyway throwing that out i' like try and think it out of the box sometimes but get
069put in the box that's a good conversation to have um so the um but our budget drivers for the 25 26 budget in addition to normal contractual obligation there are several other factors uh driving our budget as mentioned on the previous slide we are adding staff to critical areas to accommodate our new financial literacy graduation requirement meet special education needs and support the transition from outsourced service providers we are also adjusting budget allocations to better reflect actual costs in areas such as alternative education and substitute teaching based on an analysis of our historical expenditures by refining these allocations we can ensure that funding is appropriately distributed to support operational needs recognizing the ongoing challenges in securing substitute teachers we are increasing the substitute teaching rates to better align with the county average this adjustment will
070help improve Staffing ability and ensure instructional continuity When teacher absences do occur additionally we are introducing uh teaching assistant um teaching assistant substitutes as previously discussed which will enhance support across classrooms where needed finally we are allocating funds for cafeteria monitors in our gen General budget currently all cafeteria monitors are part of the C fund which is the school fund um the school Food Service fund these salaries will start to be removed from that c fund and now put into to the general budget Mr Fabiano can you just comment on why we're doing that yes uh several years ago when we were cited for having uh excess fund balance in the C fund uh we began to take a look at um you know some of the operations and we realized that um some of
071the operational charges weren't being charged to the seaf fund so the cafeteria monitors were budgeted in in the sea fund to better reflect um the profit and loss in in the cafeteria fund uh and at this point we've we've drawn down that we in compliance with the allowable fund balance uh and um there's uh the C fund does no longer has to have that fund balance brought down so we had to bring them back to the general fund did they increase the amount that they said that you were supposed to have in the C fund now like you're supposed to have more or something well since that time uh now they've now they've kind of changed uh the rules uh prior uh it wasn't 4% like it was in the general fund it was actually
072a different measure uh and the measure was 3 months of your average expenditures we spend about uh $300,000 a month in the in the cafeteria fund uh so the fund balance limit was uh about 900,000 uh they've now gone to 6 months so they've they've essentially doubled that and so by bringing them back to the general fund it will allow us to help build that fund balance back up and still be below the new um s guidelines all that you it's just allocation of funds yes yeah okay because most of the time having a teacher in the uh cafeteria no it's it's just it's just the uh it's just the uh monitors okay it's usually a combination of teachers and monitors yes okay therefore the 2025 2026 budget as you can see is 141,142 which
073is approximately u a $6.5 million increase or a year-to-year change of 4.8% can I just I just wanted to make a comment about the hiring of an additional occupational therapist and physical therapist I do think it's a good idea for a district to do that because it does create more collaboration amongst the related service provider with classroom teachers or with each other and if you need to do like a consult or something for for the OT that's also really beneficial for all the children so I think this is a really good step in the right direction so thank you for that thanks plus I I think it also adds the accountability and the Integrity of the program on the yes of the program and I'm just going to mention that that was at a board
074Direction so that was uh a directive earlier this year and so we did incorporate that in uh based on the board request so now miss GIS was this your first presentation to the board it was to my first presentation to the Lett toown board yes so thank you thank you thank you for all those who came to support I appreciate it okay um moving on we are going to now transition over to Mr Fabiano for our final uh budget presentation for right yeah yeah this is more this is more but this is good this is good more this wraps it all up go ahead Mr Fabiano e so's plan adoption and um as required by our own board policy we have to update our 5-year budgetary projections and then finally a look at the uh
075the final draft of the budget uh that you will be asked to adopt tonight and just for those that that this may be new for realize that many of these things are required presentations through our policies they they that is correct all right so the we are uh as the superintendent mentioned we're we're heading down the home stretch right now um uh we uh had the final we had the final presentations tonight I have to submit a property tax report card uh tomorrow uh following the adoption uh April is full of just some technical requirements for the business office I didn't put them up there uh but then we see the in may we return for a uh the budget hearing uh and then the budget vote is on uh May 20th so um uh
076we are heading into that final home stretch looking at the uh looking at the ballot as I destroy this clicker um like I said um uh um we have uh it's actually going to be a two-sided ballot we we tried our best to to keep it to one side but because there's so much on it and some of the verbiage is a bit long uh we had to use uh both sides uh the back of the ballot is going to be reserved for the two ltown uh trustee seats that are up and the three ltown Library trustee seats that are up for election um uh so items two um uh we start with the ltown uh budget uh that's standard uh we have a capital reserve expenditure proposition uh we're going to talk a little
077bit about a little bit more about that when we talk about the the capital plan uh this is allocating money from both the 2023 capital reserve uh as well as appropriated fund balance to authorize an additional $22 million uh to be transferred to the um uh Capital fund uh for use for additional projects um this this uh this V voter approval for expenditures is required uh but because the money is coming out of a capital reserve there will be no impact to the tax levy uh if this proposition uh is approved uh the third item on the ballot is going to be the sale of the Seaman neck building uh hopefully that does not come as a surprise to anybody uh at this point uh couple notable items on there uh uh when we get
078I I'll I'll talk about it when we get to it and then finally we have the established of a child safety zone uh which we had talked about in uh in some previous meetings and we'll we'll talk a little bit more about that and then uh we have the ltown library budget as well so moving on uh the capital reserve expenditure proposition uh I guess I got a little bit ahead of myself but there it is it's an authorization uh to be able to spend uh an additional $22 million $18 million is coming from the 2023 capital reserve that funding already exists uh we're seeking voter approval voter approval uh will uh qualify the uh the projects for building Aid uh and at this point uh building Aid uh is in excess of 50% uh
079so it is a it is a very good return uh on our investment um and uh as we look at it much of the work is needed so um and we'll get into that a little bit uh further uh additionally like I said because this money already exist from prior budgets uh it does not affect the uh it does not affect the tax cap calculation or increase the tax levy uh whatsoever um sale of the Seaman's next school um uh we are we are uh in contract right now with naso bosis to sell them uh the Seaman next School uh couple of couple of noteworthy uh items there uh the amount uh which is listed in the in the in the proposition uh is 7,21 2016, uh I think it's important to note that uh
080bosis did uh bid uh above the appraised value or above Market uh by 10% uh so uh we feel that we got a we got a a good price for that um and um so uh if the sale is approved on this proposition it just authorizes Le town to sell it to Nassau bosis Nassau bosis has to get voter approval to purchase the building uh but their approval comes from a countywide uh vote and it is uh it is anticipated it has to happen within 180 days it's anticipated to happen uh in a Tuesday in October of this year so hopefully that gets wrapped up uh the other item to note is that we are selling the building and the land that the building is on but not the entire property uh we are in
081the process of getting working with Nassau County as well as the town of Hemstead uh to subdivide that Pro property and we will uh retain uh the ball fields that are used primarily by uh LSW Mike can I ask a question about the like the money that we make from selling it so like what happens to so when we sell it we get money so like what happens with that money because it says funds will go into a tax stabilization fund I don't know what that means yes so maybe someone else does but iide yeah so sounds fancy and good but so so the CH the Challen The Challenge from a from a budgetary perspective is we this year will be receiving in lease payments from nas soos's $950,000 if we sell them the building
082we're getting significantly more than that but we remove a $950,000 revenue stream from the budget so how do we how do we replicate that so you know at least for you know the upcoming decade uh which is what you're allowed to keep a tax stabilization for it got a 10-year life what we would do is we would deposit the money in there we would invest it um you know in in in basically um CDs uh and be able to draw on that uh and what what the what the plan would be is that we would kind of feather that Revenue stream out we would use slightly less each year so that when we got to the end of the 10-year period we wouldn't have a million doll Revenue item fall off the budget but we
083would have have maybe $100,000 Revenue item and we'd have to make that up um somehow uh but I think the other thing that's important to note is that that work does that building does need a lot of work and the estimates vary uh our building condition survey probably put that number at about 10 million Bose's has estimated that that number is closer to 20 million but even if we use the Lesser number we would likely either have to draw that out of a capital reserve or borrow that money if we would to borrow that money um uh $10 million borrowed over 15 years which is what we would we would do uh would come to about $800,000 a year in debt service payments so if we were to keep that building long term we would
084no longer be able to just collect the revenue side we would have to start paying out so from a from a financial standpoint it really did make a lot of sense uh and um you know this is not something new I don't know how many of you realize it but Bose has been has been in that building and leasing it from us for for about 28 years now I think it was 1997 uh that they initially got in there so uh it it really does seem to make a lot of sense the other the other component to that is now bosis has the ability because they own it to invest their own money and there's a lot of things they want to do um that even if we fixed up the building wouldn't meet all
085their needs so um that's where we're at I just have a followup two things 97 I graduated high school so I'm a little upset that you just said it was 28 years ago sorry about that that's fine just want it's really little harsh um that's number one um so number two so if we were getting revenue of 950 and I think you said it but I might not have processed it because numbers are not my strength um you're going to we're going to over the 10 years go down so that way there's only 100,000 let's say that we have to make up but with everything going up and with FTE going up and special ed and all this isn't can what is my question I don't really know but that yeah that that is the
086challenge right um I think that that part of the issue is what Mr Fabiana mentioned is that for the last so many years it has been really a $950,000 revenue and we have not and Mr camarad could probably comment on this we' we obviously try to be the best landlords we can but we're going to invest the most money in our active buildings not in the buildings we lease and so there's work that needs to be done there that we are not really interested in doing but at some point as all of us who live in homes know it catches up with you where you they have no choice but are going to have to do work and so um while yes we are going to have to figure out ways on how to what
087did you say feather feather it out I mean never heard of that before it's pretty cool I was thinking of like 80s hairstyles but um but um if we don't if we don't do this now we're going to have to make another decision which is going to be how are we going to pay for all the enhancements that need to take place at that building to be able to occupy it and so um this was the I think the better of the two decisions because at least we can invest the money interest rates are very high right now we'll make some money on the money that we get for our residents and then yes we have to over the next 10 year period figure out how we're going to account for that loss of Revenue
088yeah I support selling it that's not wasn't even what I was thinking I and I totally understand that I'm just curious like what is the long-term plan I guess for how you're going to go from having Revenue to having this account to now in 10 years the money will be gone so I guess that's what's what's the long-term plan is I guess the question that I was formulating and I totally support selling it we don't for all of the reasons but now this is the situation we're faced with and I guess that's it so do we have a 10-year plan to mitigate the the loss of the revenue as well as you know having to scale back over these years yeah I don't know that we necessarily have like a 10-year plan of like saying
089this is what we're going to cut all those 10 years I think you're kind of asking like what what how are we going to make up for that lost money over 10 year period you know like I I would say we we have done uh as the years go on sort of like Mr cadis mentioned before like we change the way that we we're doing Staffing this year just in regards to our staffing meetings our analysis of Staffing we actually already have added a sum project for us on Staffing um because every single year we have to kind of look at everything again because our expenses are outpacing our revenues in general right and so you can see that from our budget to budget is higher than our our our tax levy is right and
090as much as we got an additional amount in state aid all combined the money we're bringing in doesn't really equate to the you know the the expenses we have and so every year it's a it's a conversation about what are we trimming what are we doing have made that comment about kind of trimming along the edges so that we don't have to make massive changes like let's say a satum has or Amityville were they're talking about closing buildings um but this is this is another one of those puzzle pieces of okay you know now this really when you think about $100,000 a year let's just say right over 10 years is is right be that what like $700,000 a year right over 10 years is yeah so that and that's what I meant by Feathering
091it we can we we can replicate uh the lease payment you know or were maybe $100,000 less than what we were getting and then do that each year uh o over those 10 years but but again we it's also combined with that cost avoidance we won't have to budget uh $800,000 in debt service over the next 15 years now we haven't had that expense because we've chosen you know a different path but that would be coming so while you may while the revenue stream may be declining over that 10year period you also have have to factor in that eventually you would have had to have picked up an $800,000 expense that the sale of the building will allow you to avoid does that make sense yeah it all makes sense whatever it is it just
092eventually we need to have we're going to have less Revenue regardless of the reason or or how or why so as long as we're being proactive yes planning for it and so it's not like oh whoops we yeah yes Mike um if the subdivision or the sale doesn't happen is bosi still going to stay here or are they're going to be still looking for another place uh and next question add on to that if they decide to stay we're going to be on the hook for a lot of repairs that they say need to be done 20 million in theirs 10 million in ours that's well that was I it was an additive so we we estimated it was 10 they estimated 20 but like I said I think they were much higher because there
093are other things that they want to do that aren't you know necessarily Shoring up the building they just wanted better you know uh uh classrooms inside uh the the the the first part of the question you know I I I I don't really know there's not a lot of space out there uh you know as as you know you know we we're we're talking about finding space for upk bosies is out there looking for space I you know if if if they have to to continue leasing the building uh I think we would have to have a different conversation and they would want some commitment from us and possibly they would partner uh to do some of these work we would do the work for you know sealing the building envelope the masonary the roofs
094uh uh and and and uh you know the the HVAC systems and then they could do the work that would enhance the building and allow them to offer those programs uh but I really you know based on everything we've seen there and they're in a you know there's waiting list for kids right now and so bosis would gladly you know pick up any rooms they can I don't think they would give up the building if they could not uh purchase it but that's that's really just my opinion I also fear that uh Laura Lane is we're going out the same path with that because we have a lot of repairs that need to be done on Laura Lane and eventually they're going to say reduce the rent or uh fix it yeah know and that
095could be these are Revenue stream that could dry up because of and I I think that because we've been renting it to a steady customer um you don't really look to say oh this needs a new roof this needs a new floor you know they're not complaining so you don't do anything yeah you know I mean our guys these are 7 this is a 75y old building 76 year old building right here um this it looks fantastic our guys do a fantastic job on it I remember when I had the uh the knee scooter I could go down the hall one push and smooth all the way down the hall you know a lot of fun almost roller skates but this building's taken care of um if you're not taking care of a building like
096I said if if you are renting a house out and you're in here for 28 years by the way uh Christina if Sea's neck have age as well as you did we wouldn't have this problem okay okay um a that was nice and it was on public on the rec everybody heard it that's good um anyway for I lost my train of thought now go ahead what was your what was your answer so uh there was still a question in there uh uh so no I I I I agree and and and I you know some of the things that you you mentioned about having a plan we're going to be talking about updating our five-year Capital plan so I think we've gone you know in the last few years we've taken a we've taken
097a big step towards trying to plan these things out uh you know Co really put an interruption in our ability to get uh projects approved up at s and and and to get the work done uh but we really came back very strong uh and we're going to be talking a little bit about updating the 5year capital plan and so then we have we should be G giving considerations to to a school like Laurel Lane where you know we do have a budget for that in The Five-Year Plan and we do have to start talking about it uh and and and where it fits in the priority list that's not a conversation for tonight we just want you to update the 5year plan and look at where the money that you've already authorized us suspend
098has gone and how much remains from that uh but when it when it comes to like when you when you talk about the inside of this building the inside the this building as as as well as all our other 10 buildings across the district these these buildings are in the condition that they're in not necessarily because the capital projects that we've done uh with outside contractors but for our own staff that there does I mean I know we can mend them all the time but Craig's here tonight I mean the these places look the way they do uh because of because of his team 100% agree thank you all right uh moving on um okay uh proposition four uh the establishment of a child safety zone um uh child safety zones are are are lished
099through uh the education law and uh basically it allows us to adjust our transportation limits without going out for a fullblown vote on changing them wholesale so right now elementary middle schools it's uh 3/4 of a mile high schools it's a mile and a half but occasionally exceptions have to be made uh and in this case if you have an area of the district that is deemed unsafe I.E having to cross exit and entrance ramps of a of a major Parkway the Southern State Parkway uh we can we can say that we feel this is um that you know this is um uh warrants consideration to allow transportation of those particular areas uh so that we we can transport our children safely to school without doing an over without doing a complete overhaul of our
100transportation limitations so um uh as you know uh the um as you know you authorized a study to be done uh fiber fundamentals uh is is is is well underway with that uh we did superintendent and I had a conversation with him today uh it appears although the data the report hasn't been finalized and submitted to S uh he feels that based on the preliminary findings that this will qualify for child safety zone uh and the benefit of that is if it does qualify for a child safety zone uh we will get Aid back on on those runs so um whatever whatever cost estimates and uh that we have and the proposition does uh does state that we anticipate that it would increase Transportation cost uh by up to $25,000 uh I would say that
101um you know once this once the transportation Aid kicks in uh the state would cover approximately half of that um and so the child safety zone that we're talking about uh is defined by the boundaries of um uh south of the Southern State Parkway but north of Jerusalem Avenue uh east of wour Parkway uh but west of wour Avenue and then also um you know and as you know we did this back in 2009 uh what we called the t-section for whatever reason uh this area lean Terrace this little uh loop right here uh was left out so uh we're also including this area of lean terce which is really part of the t-section this is Al this is known as the dsection so if the voters authorize this we can begin transporting uh these
102students uh to both uh uh to both Sul and MacArthur uh and it will be uh Transportation Aid eligible and any questions on the Child Safety Zone before we move on the cost is 25,000 yes what does that include uh that includes uh two shortterm I I I I I think uh I think danana said there were two 4H hour runs that would have to be contracted with we transport you actually got numbers from them uh and again depending on our staffing levels there's a possibility we could do it inhouse with just paying some driver overtime the the differential between those two isn't isn't really great um uh it it would be a little cheaper if we could do it inhouse so we're hopeful you know we we we we have we have uh bus
103drivers um uh we have contingent bus drivers in the budget we're hopeful that we can get them and then we would do it inhouse if we if we could thank you okay all right capital projects update um so each year we we've been we've been updating our capital uh projects plan uh basically what we're doing is we're trying to remove the projects that have already been approved by S that have been awarded and that are underway uh so that we're you know we we know what's we know what's upcoming and what we plan on doing next so um you know one of the things you know we we've been uh we've been adding more things to the district strategic plan so the long-term success and sustainability of the district uh we need to uh we
104need to address the critical issues uh by taking a look at this uh and and and planning it out so uh this year uh one of the changes uh s made was that all school districts had to submit their building condition survey all 700 school districts uh the same year uh they uh they put they put districts on a 5-year cycle our year was up this year and we submitted a building condition survey um some people use the building condition survey and the 5year capital plan interchangeably they're slightly different uh the building condition survey is really the universe of all projects that the district would have to take uh uh would want to take care of eventually The Five-Year Plan is more focused on what's obtainable in the next few years uh both from a
105you know a physical work being done as well as you know the ability to fund it you know we could put a 5-year Capital facilities plan of $200 million there but we just we don't have the mechanism to do that you know in the absence uh of borrowing which you know we are we we continue to try to avoid um you know as as and put that off as as as long as we can um and so you know we're still we're still in that zone we still have money that hopefully the voters will approve uh for the projects that are upcoming um so um wouldn't it be more time efficient if the state allowed us to put those missing stuff in the fiveyear plan instead of doing a separate plan for it uh a
106build well the uh did you want to speak at at all about the building condition survey Craig um okay and and so and so as he walks through the buildings he's just listing everything that he sees that we need to do The Five-Year Plan is now what the administration and the board's priorities will be based on what you know what's most important to us now and and obviously uh taking into account how much money we have available now to do it so uh you should have received and in your budget binders there's really uh the the plan is in two parts there's the executive summary uh that was developed by the district and and and John Gilla Architects uh and the second part of that is the worksheets that you've grown accustomed to uh that
107list all our projects by building and um so what I what I'd like to do now is just just take a look back um you know it's it it it's hard to believe that uh and this is my third cycle uh during the first cycle uh we put the referendum up that was the $56 million uh capital reserve referendum uh uh that was put up in in uh in May of of 23 uh that that money has been deployed uh in addition to that um as we look at what we call it sources and uses of funds the sources of funds for capital for for our Capital fund uh was that referendum it was the energy performance contract that money came from a lease financing which we closed on uh last summer uh that work
108is already begun uh We've had three years worth of transfers of capital uh $3 million a year that gave us 9 million uh smart school funds is is part of the capital plan there was some leftover money prior to covid that like I said we really wasn't deployed because of uh because of the pandemic uh and then uh there's some grant money there uh 600,000 half of that was for the cheerleader room on the other side the uses of funds um uh approximately $36 million went into what we call sealing the building envelope that's roof repairs uh masonary uh then we had the public address and fire alarm system project uh which were well underway uh again the energy performance contract same 15 million uh that you see above um The Wisdom Lane uh project
109that's going on there which includes the roof the lockers the track and field the lighting in the tennis courts uh again is is underway uh security upgrades face 2 uh that was the uh internal card swipes as well as the uh lockdown buttons um and um uh some other miscellaneous projects that we've been able to do with the capital fund was to air condition uh all the classrooms uh that came in at uh that came in at about $1 million which is extremely efficient uh again because our facilities Department installed them all and and ran ran the electric uh except for uh uh a couple of couple places where panels had to be put in but primarily it was all in-house work so at this point from that allocation that that that sources of funds
110of 84 million there's there's slightly over a million dollars left so it's important that we get a new infusion of money and that's what the capital reserve proposition will do what I will say is it it's just my practice there are a couple of projects up there that are uh well on the budget uh especially the public address and fire alarm systems uh we were wed out bids and we're projecting that that project I have listed up there 17.2 million it's probably going to come in closer to 15.2 million it would return that 2 million I'm not showing it as uncommitted capital funds because we're in the middle of that project and I don't like to acknowledge that we had that money to go to other projects until we close that project out because you
111just don't know you open up a wall and you have a problem so until that project until those final cost reports are submitted uh we're not going to we're not going to say that but I will say that uh that the the the bids that have come in and the projects that been awarded have been have been uh favorable to the district and we remain um and we remain under budget which is a good thing Mike yeah I'm sorry the uh the grants that's where you uh stated the cheerleading facility came from yeah that they're small but I listed them just to just to account for everything so primarily they were two the $300,000 from Senator Thomas for the cheerleader room and I think the other big one was uh we have 250,000 uh to
112uh refurbish the uh baseball field at wisdom so that project we we we've been we've been holding that money we didn't want to do that while we all that other work was going on so that that project will get done uh while we're doing the other field work where did 250 come from uh that came from the county John Freddy fantastic what was the cost off hand if you don't have it now can you can email the cost of the cheering facility 300,000 right on the head we we we we we didn't want to leave too much on the table so uh yeah awesome I think I I think the last purchase will be a ping pong and this summer they're going to start the stuff at wisdom the track and field and the lighting
113and I'm sorry track and field of wisdom is going to be started this summer they've already they've already yeah they fenced it off and they they're doing the grading what what what what how how far have we gotten well I have to take a right by there okay come on man we don't wait we don't fool around here this is a real deal man I see Mr V happy we all are okay um so this is the uh this is the updated um uh 5-year plan uh it it looks a little pale I had it colorcoded but it wasn't copying well so we uh we removed all the coloring uh again uh you know one of the things and and I just just just to notice and to tie back to our our conversation about
114Seaman's neck we've now removed it and we're showing zero there for seens uh because you know that that is the benefit of selling it that we no longer have to allocate money in our Capital plan um whether we were spending the money or not um any any any questions on that okay um all right another uh so if there are any uh again there's a there's a a motion tonight to accept the fiveyear plan um we're not committing to anything tonight uh there was just there's a lot going on so we didn't want to get into into that but in in an upcoming meeting uh we will put out a proposed list of projects uh there there's very few that we've already committed to I I think the division library was one of them uh
115that was just we just couldn't get it in for this summer uh so that that was kind of a hold over uh but you know there's there there's a few things there uh you know and what you know one of the things that was just recently added uh you know we're looking at um you know we're looking at potentially a parking lot expansion over at wisdom to kind of help support the additional Athletics Fields you know we've heard you know we've we've heard that you know congestion can get bad on that road and so we're adding these facilities uh and it's just going to potentially make it you know uh that situation even worse so we've we've allocated money in the in The Five-Year Plan so that was something that was added but again we'll
116come back and and and and have and have a more in-depth discussion about that and put together a pack page uh for gillo to send up to the state excellent um this uh the 5year uh budget projections again this is part of our own board policy um this is something that the state controller did look at uh to make sure that we were in compliance uh we do have to do uh long-term uh budgetary projections uh you know there's there's uh it it is a really good exercise but there's not a lot of insights that you can Garner uh from these exercises and the model because you know you You' probably getting fired and me saying it the model is only as good as the assumptions we make and the variables are dramatic and and
117just you know just to kind of demonstrate that uh you know we put up uh we've put up two separate plans one I call the base case uh scenario and the base case scenario is the tax levy uh goes up by 2% right the 2% tax cap we get the uh rate of inflation growth uh state aid goes up by two everything goes up by 2% uh and you say well if you have a balanced budget and everything's going up revenues and expenditures are going up by 2% why am I seeing red on the screen why is there an imbalance in the first year that continues to grow and the reason is one the the one line that we can't grow by 2% is the appropriated fund balance and the use of reserves we can't
118continually increasing increased reserves because at one point we're not going to generate the surpluses that allow us to replenish them and so we have to be careful so you know in that line uh you know you have to say that you can't you can't increase the appropriated fund balance as a matter of fact again anticipating some of the things that uh that will be uh forthcoming in the in the controllers report uh we did seek and now we've done for two out of the last three years reduce the Reliance on appropriated fund balance uh 3 years ago it was at 11 million we brought it down to 9.9 this year's budget is supported by $9.6 million in appropriated fund balance so again another example why you can't just grow that line at 2% so you
119know a $262,000 budget shortfall next year if that's all we had to deal with you know that's certainly manageable and we would find a way uh and then moving forward uh again that is if if that's the only thing that couldn't grow by 2% uh we could work with that but when we look at and and this more and we're this is more likely what we're experiencing it's very difficult to grow the revenue uh uh our our biggest Revenue line the tax levy by more than 2% without exceeding the cap and sometimes we do like this year we're proposing 2.94 but remember that additional nine uh nine uh uh 94 basis points is in funding program it's going to The Debt Service on the energy performance contract so anything you get above 2% isn't really
120going to fund your budget per se uh when we go and we saw it in in Jackie's presentation tonight salaries are up by 4.8% if we just grow salaries by 3% and and benefits by 3% um and special ed by 3% uh you see how quickly those uh the budget comes out of balance and how it continues to grow so just having uh just having cost outpace our Revenue growth by 1% over the next 5 years would lead to a cumulative deficit of over $50 million which is more than we have cumulative in all our reserves so obviously this this is not a case that that could happen um so uh but it is not it but it is something we are experiencing I think I I I skimmed over the slide we called it
121the 303030 club we've had in the areas of uh Transportation uh special education and health insurance premiums we've seen a 30% increase over the last 30 uh over the last three years in those three areas alone so to make an assumption that costs will increase by just 1% over o o over the um allowable Levy limit uh is not really a stretch of the imagination any any questions on on on the projections yeah didn't want to leave on that note just a reminder though like when Mr Fabiano started with that it's it's all about there it's as good the it's as good as the assumptions are so like for instance the tax levy is not 2% this year it's going to be 2.94 the state aid increase we got was closer to 7% um you
122know what I mean like so it it the problem is it's hard to make the projections say like well this is what's going to happen but what it does paint I think is that picture I've said before now I think probably every budget presentation is that we have to continue to look and something that Mrs Lang brought up about the revenue from bos that like it is every year that we have to look to see okay like where can we make efficiencies this year um where are we going to cut around the edges this year because if you don't and you say nah things are fine now this is never going to happen you know like you don't want to be in that place or anywhere near that place and so we have to make
123adjustments every every single year as we move forward so that we are you know getting closer and closer or really further and further away from those bad bad red numbers so that's what we continue to do um I can't predict out 10 20 years what's going to happen but um like I said I I do think that um you have to take it for what it's worth like Mr Fabiano said that it's not it's as good as as the assumptions are that are made within [Music] it all right so um really um now just just focusing uh you know on the final budget considerations for this year um so uh it this year was it was an intense budget development process this about the end of about a six-month process that begins in October uh
124we've been presenting now for about 3 months um uh you know the importance of of transparency and and and putting out uh all the options uh you know what what we're raising the money and what it's going towards um uh choosing to avoid issuing additional debt um and um implementing plans to reduce uh cost overall I'll what one of the examples is the addition of the of the PT and OT uh we contract out a lot of that uh certainly we could do it cheaper in-house um so uh you know not not not to not to rip off an idea but we're we're we're we're thinking about implementing dose which is the Department of school efficiency so we are we are yeah no you know that it is an ongoing it it is an ongoing
125uh requirement uh you know to really try to you know keep cost down uh at every turn so um just the changes that were made overall we started up at uh at $278 million uh was our initial uh rollover budget uh and through this iterative process we've been able to cut about 3.3 million out of that bringing the budget to budget percent increase uh down to [Music] 4.8% uh and the changes that were made from the from the last uh budget iteration um uh we reduced uh some of the positions uh Staffing adjustments uh which reflected uh the enrollment projections that uh that Jackie spoke about earlier so uh uh that was there uh and then we did take a million dollars out of the transfer to Capital that reduced both the tax levy limit
126as well as the proposed tax levy uh we are still below the tax levy limit so it is a tax compliant budget uh and then uh we we also reduced uh the application of reserves from the previous budget uh it is still up slightly uh from the prior year we're up by about 260,000 but that's more than offset uh by uh a reduction in the appropriated fund balance so I think we are demonstrating that we are trying to rely less and less on um um on surpluses to fund our budget uh and um that really just really brings us to uh to the end of the process our tax our tax levy our proposed tax levy uh under the limit would be 2.94% right now the number reported uh in the in a uh controller's
127website for Nassau County uh is at is at uh 2.74% so we're slightly higher than the average but again remember uh we did take on uh a million3 worth of uh lease payments for the energy performance contract will which will pay dividends in Prior in in subsequent years just not now um and um the budget vote May 20th 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. please get out and vote any other questions yeah I have a a concern the two page ballot um I have concerned about the candidates being on the second page can't you change that and have the candidates on the first page with our budget and have the library candidates and their budget on the second page I I we to to put the I'm sorry to put the and and the library candidates
128um we we we certainly can ask the question uh we can't what what what what I don't what we I don't think we can do is actually squeeze it all on the on the first page because it was like trying to read the New York Times from across the room you just really couldn't make out uh the font size but we did I don't I don't think we considered uh I don't think we considered that so we will be on the phone tomorrow with Mara Harvey from uh and ask her the question um yeah I have concerns and no it's it we we we uh we did not think of it the Board of Ed candidates I don't um it's a good point you bring up to me he wants to be able to have
129the Board of Ed candidates on the same side as like lewn budget put the library and the right on and then the library on the other side the problem is Jimmy and I were talking about this before if our candidates are on the second page you have to turn that page over to look for them and if a new person decides to run for the board they'll have that group that will look for them because they know they're running so I think it's a disadvantage to our existing sitting board members no I think it makes sense for continuity too right have everything for like the school district on one side everything for like the library on the other side so I think yeah you know van Vanessa is already on it because now you're you're
130texting Marin let's get this done that's like time in a half for us night differential for for attorneys that was the only concern I had other than that it was a great presentation thank you mik thank you for um getting the levy under 3% I don't know I don't I don't know a lot about budgets but I do know that that's really important so I just want to say that it is appreciated from this board or at least for me yeah just as a comment as you know when we were first starting the process we the the levy could have been as high as 3.57 um and I know the board at the last meeting had a lot of concerns about that number for our community and so we did go back uh kind of
131and relook at every number again and we're able to bring it uh it's actually I think is it a little bit less than last year or no is around the same what is it it it I it's the same rounded I think it's the same 2.94 uh I I was it okay yeah it's it's the same it'll appear the same on uh six positions and I'll give up my $600,000 how generous and the trips we we just can't we can't have an even number no so Mike and I leave byebye I have to say uh I want to re just tag along what Jen just said I'm very happy that we got this to 2.94 I think it's a good number I think we're not slashing and burning here but we're not also burning the
132taxpayers you come in too high people will see that and you end up getting a no and if you get a no and second no vote you're done you know and that's that's something that could take a decade to repair from this is a good budget um I wholeheartedly support it and I think uh we're in good shape thank you thank you everyone else is okay thank you Mike thank you to your whole team also yeah I just wanted to say what uh Miss massina mentioned which was to thank you to the entire business department um I know Linda Do's here as well so thank you for all of your efforts it is quite a task it is a tremendous budget uh to our administrators and our our teacher friends as well who are also
133very uh supportive with brainstorming ideas for cost savings and so uh and to the entire team we spend a tremendous number of hours deliberating on budget so just thank you can I please have a motion to adjourn the planning session maryan that was fast and second is Christina all in favor 60 meeting returned let's move on to the special meeting do I have a motion to convene the March 19th special meeting of the Lev toown Board of Education thanks Peggy second James all in favor 60 please note that Phyllis Dalton is excused from tonight's meeting we're g to move to the agenda the first item is 3.1 which is a budget transfer do I have a motion mtion to accept item 3.1 on the agenda Mike second Christina any discussion all in favor 60 move
134to 3.2 which is schedules do I have a motion to accept item 3.2 on the agenda uh Peggy second is Maryann any discussion all in favor number 60 fantastical uh the consent agenda do I have a motion to accept items 4.2 through 4.23 on the consent agenda James thank you second Mike any discussion you good all in favor 60 action items new business we have gifts to school we have 16 new Scholastic books to be donated to Jonas eul Middle School from Scholastic Book Fairs at 925 Grand Boulevard and Deer Park New York do I have a motion to accept item 5.1 with thanks Christina second Peggy all in favor any discussion just thank you very much go ahead y uh before miss m is very excited to adjourn the meeting uh I just wanted
135to mention two uh two things we had uh many many many teachers on the schedule tonight for uh tenure um we do not we do not have our celebration tonight that will be in May uh but one of those individuals are sitting at the end of the table that is Mr Fabiano so yeah right yeah they were they were going to pull it after the uh hourong presentation but um but they still agreed to discussion um just LED with the 2.94% jump would have been happy to the last slide um and then also I just wanted to share that the um Board of Education night also did approve uh the retirement incentive and when we talk about the fact that you know like I think what Miss Lang mentioned about your 10 years of what
136are you doing to cut costs and what Mr Fabiana mentioned about the 5year projections the incentive that we did that the board approved tonight with um you know negotiating with Lut and with alsa uh is one of those mechanisms by which we are looking to lower our staffing cost which as you saw in the presentation is one of the biggest drivers and so we are hoping that that will help us to um you know absorb positions which reduce costs but then also do not affect employees in the district so many thanks Mr Coffield for all of your help with NE that and for the board supporting it all right thank you very much um without further Ado may I please have a motion to adjourn the special meeting thanks Maryann second Peggy all in favor
13760 meeting adjourned thank you everybody e e e