001Hello. Hello. >> Hello. >> No. >> This one. This one's working. >> Hello. Can you hear me now? Ah, perfect. Before we begin, I want to just thank the string quartet. Thank you to Kathleen Kato on violin one, Ian Fishman, violin 2, Mrs. Underh Hill on viola, Eric Matern on cello, and Elias Vanderos on bass. Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you. Welcome to our May 6 monthly meeting. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um, if there are no changes, I would like a motion to accept the minutes of the April 28th meeting. Miss Kelly. Second. Miss Aragona.
002All in favor? Two abstensions. Okay. Thank you. Mr. CS, the art gallery. The Burn Sideman Gallery is proud to present the final exhibition of the school year, celebrating the exceptional work of the Limbrook School District's 2026 ASA all county student artists. This distinguished showcase highlights a selection of artwork from students in grades K through 12 representing each art teacher and school across the district. The Art Supervisors Association all county designation is a significant honor awarded to students whose work demonstrates outstanding creativity, technical skill, and dedication to the visual arts. These students exemplify the highest level art of artistic achievement within their respective grade levels. Their inclusion in this exhibition reflects not only their individual talent, but also a strong commitment to artistic growth and expression. On display is a diverse collection of artwork spanning a
003wide range of media including drawing, painting, photography, and mixed media. From observational drawings and paintings to works exploring personal and social themes, the exhibition captures the depth and breadth of artistic exploration taking place throughout the district. This culminating ex exhibition serves as both a celebration of student accomplishment and a reflection of the art programs within Limbrook schools. The Burns Ciderman Gallery invites the community to experience the creativity, passion, and hard work of these young artists whose achievements set a standard of excellence. Congratulations to this year's ASA all county artists. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kuns. At this time, we'll close the regular meeting to begin our budget hearing. Mr. Press. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, happy to be here tonight to present um for our final time the uh proposed well actually at this
004point it's the adopted 2026 27 budget. Um, the board of education adopted the budget at their March 11th meeting. Um, so we're going to go through the presentations tonight. It is um very much similar to the budget work session presentation with a few um additional um slides in here. So that shows how we present the budget um as part of the three-part budget that the state requires us to do. Um I think what you'll see as we go through the budget is um this is a fiscally responsible budget. um one that preserves programs that we have built, continues to support the profile of the owl uh and adds programs uh requested by the community to allow the continued growth of our students uh from K to 12. Um and to that end, um here's a
005listing of the priorities that um guided us as we put together the budget. Um I think if you know the the theme here uh really ties things back to the profile of the owl. um we are trying to present opportunities for our students um to succeed while they're here uh and when they leave us and go off into the world. Um so I'm going to because we've gone through this and things are largely um the same from the last presentation, not going to go into as much detail, but if you do have questions, please feel free to stop me along the way. um in putting together this budget and trying to um meet the programmatic priorities, we we did have ourselves some challenges. Um as we've talked about along the way in our budget um
006presentations and meetings, um we are seeing in terms of some of our largest areas of expense increases well above the rate of inflation or or CPI. Um, medical insurance rates, as I'm sure everyone here in their personal lives is seeing, uh, have been increasing, uh, at large rates, well above the rate of inflation for years. U, we had a rate increase of about 9% for our active employees here in 2026. Um, we're budgeting for a 10% increase going into uh, next year. We have seen double digit increases in the past. So, we feel that's a reasonable number. Uh in terms of some of our Medicare coverage, those rates have gone up anywhere from 8 to 22% and we have a smaller program that we offer to a smaller group of our employees. Um and that
007those premiums have increased 50% 50-0 over the last two years. Uh transportation is going up due to increases in in rates. Um but also the addition of uh eight new schools that we have budgeted for, eight new non-public schools um in there. And what we're seeing is we're getting kind of oneoffs, maybe two students going to these schools. Um, and so instead of having kind of some uh economies of scale when you have multiple kids and we pay for a bus, when we're sending one kid to this school, two kids to the other school, we're paying for vehicles um at very um high rates. Um Bosey's transportation is increasing due to an increase in number of students and increase in the transportation rates themselves. uh both these tuition and related services um for out of
008district placements are going up um the rates themselves are going up four and a half to 5% uh and then we're seeing an increase we've budgeted a net increase of eight students to both these out of district placements uh and our general insurance through nicer which is our largest um and our general insurance provider for the district not medical but this is insurance that covers the district um we're budgeting an 11% increase for next year which is in line with what we've been seeing over the last few years. Um, and utility rates, I think, as you're all seeing, you know, not just here, um, are going up as well. So, lot of challenges here, um, to, uh, some of our biggest areas of expense. In terms of staffing, um, we've got four new positions in
009the budget. Um, only two of them are new positions that we're adding next year. The first two positions that we've show here were positions that were added due to need after we adopted the budget last year. So, we had added a a new business teacher at the high school um due to increased demand and we didn't have the staffing to um provide the courses that the students had requested. Uh and then at the kindergarten center, our enrollment increased after the budget necessitating the um addition of another section. Um for the 2627 school year, we're adding a teacher uh at West End. Um this is tied to one of our programmatic priorities, which was to maintain uh equity in the uh class sizes at the elementary schools, particularly at the K to2 level um to keep
010those classes uh smaller for our youngest learners. Um we're also adding to the salary side of the budget an occupational therapist. Um this would be the fourth one that we've added over four years. Uh and in doing that, we've reduced our uh need for contracted occupational therapists. So there's the trade-off there. Um and we think it's better for our students to have a district employee providing those services and it certainly helps with continuity of programming. Um so into the the the budgets for the departments and the buildings. Um superintendent's budget is flat. No change there. Board of Ed a slight decrease. Um, we recognized a savings in advertising cost um that was offset by uh an increase in the software we need to comply with new um voting requirements in our curriculum instruction and assessment
011area. Uh increase of about $171,000 there largely in Bosey's regional certification. Um that encompasses a large amount of the services that we contract um with Boseis to provide for us. Um that includes arts and education. It includes some of our um instrument lease purchases and things of that nature. Um we we tightened that budget up for 2526 needed to kind of um bring that back in line with what we're actually seeing. Um we're seeing an increase of 55,000 in tuition and tutoring due to uh new increase in tutoring needs and an additional tuition expense um offset by a slight decrease in um charter schools of about $15,000. I do want to note um the bullet points as you'll see in these slides, they don't add up to the variance. Um what I'm doing in the
012with the bullet points is just trying to point out some of the the larger um changes in the budget. There's other changes in there um that just would add up to the the variance that you'll see on these slides. in our personnel, transportation, and student support services. Um, we're looking at an increase here of about 21% about $682,000. Um, large increase in our non-public transportation, as I previously mentioned, eight new schools that we're budgeting for. Um, and then contract renewal at CPI. Um, also an increase in Bosey's transportation that is due to a net increase in students plus a 5% increase in their rates. Um and then increase of about 8% in indist transportation uh due to additional runs special programs and renewing the contracts um at CPI or the rate of inflation finance operations
013and information systems. This is the business office um increases in Bose's occupational education um uh expenses. That's our Barry Tech and our CTE skills program. Um our essential data processing um fees are going up as well. Um health expenses for out of district students are increasing a little bit. Uh and some of the um admin fees at Boseies um as well. Um there's a slight decrease um in our overall insurance while our the nicer insurance is going up. Um we're recognizing some savings in our excess um workers compensation coverage. So overall this budget is going up about 4 and a.5%. debt and interf transfers. Um, not a lot here. Debt service, this is the, um, seventh year of a 20-year debt service. Um, there's slight variations year-to-year in that, but not really anything notable. Um,
014interfund transfers, we're increasing our contribution to the food service program by $10,000. Um, despite um, the meals being free to students and families, um, came with increased cost on our end of of additional staffing. Um and then our equipment which is a lot of our equipment which is in need of replacement facilities and security. Um not a large change here. It's just under 2%. Uh the change here largely due to net increases in uh utility costs uh and some increases in equipment codes. Uh among which is uh we we have a van that we're using currently for the food service program that needs to be replaced. It's well well past its useful life. Uh in terms of capital projects in the budget, we're budgeting um $900,000 for replacement of the running track at South. Um
015that track is uh 12 years old, past its youthful life. Uh and despite their best efforts, Mr. Seda and his team uh have been patching it for years. It's just it's it's beyond um really the point where we can continue to patch it um and have it still be safe. So, it's become a tripping hazard. So, um we've included that in the budget here. Moving on to the schools themselves, our elementary schools, um overall budget increase of about 6%. This is um again this is largely tied back to the increase in uh club offerings at the elementary schools. We increased the budgets there. That was in response to feedback we received from the community that there were not enough um club options offered to students at the elementary level. Um also there's increases in transportation
016due to additional field trips and the increases uh of those buses due to CPI or the rate of inflation um at our secondary schools. Um it's a it's a combined the increase there is due to um transportation as well as contractual increases in um activity salaries and supervisory assignments. uh special ed overall the budget's up about 5% or around $376,000. Um we're seeing uh you know a sizable increase in our Boseies tuition related services. Again, I mentioned that earlier. That's due to the net increase of about eight new students um uh in outof district Boseies placements. Um increase in transportation of 455,000 um due to new schools and routes plus increases in those contracts due to at the rate of inflation. Um a lot of that is offset u by decreases in our out of
017district public and private tuition. Um that's due to a number of factors including students coming back in district, students graduating, exiting the program, um or students moving away out of district. Communications and technology, uh an overall increase of just under 12%. Um the $125,000 increase there on the top line we're talking about. Um we have a lot of cameras throughout the district. Um and and a lot of those got added around the same time, those cameras, and this might become a recurring theme. We have things that are reaching the end of their useful life. So, cameras that are not clear anymore uh and are not really helpful when we're looking at them. So, we've started a regular replacement cycle. So, we're not um you know, every 10 or 15 years spending an inordinate amount of
018money replacing cameras. Um so, we're going to start this regular replacement cycle there. Uh we've got about 51,000 in telephone expenses. um to replace equipment there as well that needs that that's kind of end of life. Uh and then on the instructional software side, uh about a $40,000 increase due to uh year-over-year increases in software license uh and the implementation of AI resources for students and teachers. Um, in that budget, we're also including additional um swipes on external doors around the athletic areas um to allow us to have better security and control over who's accessing the buildings. Skipped over page um athletics and health increase here is about 11%. Um this area was hit hard in our current 2526 budget. A lot of reductions that were made there by our athletic director, Mr. Martellotti um
019to help us get the budget in line for the current school year. Um so a lot of this increase is putting back in the approximately $100,000 that he cut out of the 2526 budget um so that we can actually start to purchase things um that are needed to run the program. Um so there's an increase in intercolastic supplies. Um there's contractual increases in salary. um increases in transportation. Again, that is due to um the renewal of contracts at the rate of inflation. Um there's athletic equipment and then contractual increases in our athletic supervision supervision rates. Fighting performing arts. Um again, we've got some old equipment um that has uh that that's constituting a safety hazard. So, we're looking to replace some stage equipment and coral risers at West End. Um and then there's an increase.
020This is this is a good thing in a sense an increase in equipment repair um and musical instrument rental um because the program itself is growing throughout the district and and it's it's the the level of participation has increased uh and then an increase in transportation again due to um contractual CPI rates but also um additional participation um when the band goes you when our athletics teams are successful and go to playoffs uh like the football team um the the bands go to perform form in support of them. Uh and there's a cost associated with that as well. U guidance and counseling. There's a net decrease here. It's largely due to us realigning some of the expenses that belonged more appropriately in special ed. Um that was our career training program. Um but no otherwise
021no significant changes here. Special programs. This is our summer playground, summer school and adult education. Um is a decrease here. uh we had started a new program for summer 2025. So we increased our budget um in anticipation of a larger participation than showed up. Um so we're realigning those costs. So that's why you're seeing a decrease here. Um, I do want to point out uh that the summer program rates um we are increasing those for summer uh uh to $350 for for the district residents and $380 for those who are not um in the district. That's an increase of about $50 over the current year rates. Uh in terms of salaries and benefits, um we're looking at increases in both areas of about three and a half%. Um this is on the salary side largely
022due to contractual increases but also adding uh into the budget those four positions that I mentioned um previously. And on the benefit side again the 10% budgeted increase in health insurance there is about $850,000 and then corresponding increases in social security tied to increases in salaries. Um increases in Medicare reimbursement due to increases in the Medicare rates themselves. um increase in the ERS is pension costs are are tied to increases in salaries. Uh and then we're actually seeing a sizable decrease in TRS pension costs because the rate um the mandated rate for our contribution has gone down um quite significantly. So summing everything up here, this is our total budget um summary for 2627. a budget of 115,248 and uh,000215,248,293. It's a increase of about $5 million or 4.63%. Um, so the state does require
023us to present uh all school districts to present uh this three-part budget summary. Um, everything prior to this is we present the way um, Lenbrook has has done it historically. Every district presents their budgets in their own way, but um in order to be able to compare apples to apples, the state requires all districts to present this three-part budget summary. And those three parts are um administrative program and capital. Um program is the largest um expense um grouping out of this three. Excuse me one second. Sorry about that. Um the percentage distribution has stayed fairly consistent over the last years with 76% of the overall expense going to program which is where you'd want to see it. That's the educational program. Uh 9% to the administrative um portion of it and 15% to capital. And
024we'll go through those areas in a little bit more detail here. So, our administrative budget, um, board of ed, central admin, special items, and things like that. Um, the increase in, uh, percentage increase there year-over-year is about 3.37% or about $331,000. Uh, in terms of program, uh, again, this is the our educational program for the most part. Um, we're looking at an increase of about 39 million or 4.69%. That's the largest driver of the uh the overall increase in the budget and our capital budget um which is facilities and operations and debt service and expenses related um to that including our our transfers um going up 5% or $840,000. So that's our three-part budget. Uh in terms of how we plan to pay for this, um we have a few slides on that. So the
025first slide here, our local revenue projection. So some of the various costs that we um the revenue that we take in for things like um adult ed fees and summer playground, um health costs for other districts and things like that. Um really that's remaining unchanged. Um the pilot number, this is something that we're going to touch on when we talk about the tax uh cap calculation. Um that number is up about half a million dollars and that um we'll explain why that's really important later. Um our interest income staying the same and our use of reserves um also staying the same. So overall our net local revenue projections about $9.3 million. Uh in terms of use of reserves, uh our ERS reserve, we're increasing that 100,000. I'm sorry, we're not. We increased that 100,000 last
026year. So that's staying at 1.7 million uh and 760 from our TRS reserve, 350 from workers comp uh reserve and uh 18,000 out of our employee benefits reserve. So the use of reserves has remained um unchanged in the current year budget. And that's I do want I want to point that out because that's important because as you see here um over the last several years we've increased our use of reserves to help fund the budget with a big increase in 2425. You see those red bars are the level of increase. The increase last year was much smaller. Uh and we've held that level um flat. Um so we're where we're at and I've been saying this consistently. Um we we we've raised the use of reserves um to a point where I'm comfortable, but I
027I'm I'm a little uncomfortable. Um but this is sustainable. We really can't go um higher than this um I think without um creating additional risk. So we made a conscious effort to keep our use of reserves um the same going into next year. Uh another way that we are funding the budget is through uh state aid revenue projections. Um so we are one of the I guess fortunate ones. Most districts are currently seeing a 1% um increase in their foundation aid um based on the executive budget. The state has um not seen fit to adopt a budget yet um even though budget was due April 1st and school districts have to include state aid revenue in their budget projections. So um we go with the best information we have which is what the governor proposed.
028So, um, we've gotten a, you know, a healthy increase, um, in foundation aid going into next year. Um, our transportation aid actually has gone up because our expenses have gone up. Transportation aid is an expense-based aid. Um, so our expenses have been going up over the last few years and as a result, we get more aid. Um, but additionally, um, our aid ratios, um, which are used to calculate the aid have also increased. So that's contributed there um to an increase in transportation aid of over a million dollars. Um Bosey's aid has gone up as well. Um and then our building aid, which is another factor that's important in the um tax cap calculation, that's gone up about $600,000 um because we've closed out some um projects that uh actually the project um here uh
029the bond project at the high school. So, um, overall we're looking at about $24 million of state aid. That's an increase of about $2 million, um, over the previous years. Um, we carve out the universal prek um, state aid here because it doesn't go into, uh, it doesn't go to help fund the big budget that the community votes on. This money goes into the our F fund. Um and uh that goes and really that's flowth through money that goes out to our um community organizations that are uh operating the district's UPK program. Um that number there 1.19 million is based on again the governor's aid runs which um included an increase in the rate of funding per student. Um currently the state pays $5,400 per student. They're looking to increase that to $10,000 per student.
030um which if that does end up in the budget, I I think will um make the program a lot more attractive and affordable to community- based organizations. $5,400 is really which and it had been $5,400 for a number of years is is not sufficient really um to cover the expenses of a prek program. So in terms of our tax cap, we're we'll walk through the calculation here. Um and we'll I'll point out some of the key kind of factors here. Um we start with the the last year's budget, in this case 2526. Um there are two factors that get worked in here. One is this taxbased growth factor, which is the growth in the taxable property in the district. Um fairly insignificant for us um this year. Um, we back, I'm sorry, we add in
031the current pilots. So, you see current pilots for 2526 about $4 million. Um, we take out some of these exemptions. Um, it gets us to an adjusted prior year levy. Then we factor in that 2% that News Day likes to splash on their cover. Um, that's where the 2% comes in. Um, sorry, I did have some animations here. Sorry. All right, there it is. Um it's it's not a the tax cap is not 2%. 2% is one of the factors. Um and then if you see down at the bottom the 26 27 estimated pilot receivables, it's about 4.5 million. Um and that's a minus. So, we're just deducting pilots from the formula and that gets us with the bottom line there, 78.5 million, which is actually um before we build in the exclusions is actually
032lower than the 2526 tax levy. And that's a direct result of that pilot cost. The pilots are subtracting 500,000. That's pushing us actually to a negative. Um that's why we've been talking about this formula. The formula is a little wacky. We use a different word um in our in our last meeting. Um I'll use wacky this time. Um so we take that 78.5 million, we roll that forward, and then we add in all of these exclusions. So debt service, um capital projects in the budget, that's the 900,000 for the south track. Um there's a Bosey's exclusion. um those all are added in. That increases what we're allowed to levy. And then the building aid here, again, another deduction similar to the pilots. Um and that's that increase is about $600,000 over the prior year. So
033that has the effect of pushing down um our our tax cap, the allowable tax levy limit. Um which is currently u 79.6 million. Um that's an increase of 752,000 or 0.95%. So that is our allowable levy limit. So when we look at the proposed budget, $115 million. Um when we add together the state aid revenue, the local revenue that we talked about, um we uh projected that we're going to apply fund balance uh of 1.525 million, same as last year. That adds up to 34.8 million. um our with our when you add in our allowable tax levy um that gets us to 114 um 448 293. So we're short $800,000 in that situation. So what we uh have proposed in in terms of the budget that the board has adopted um is a uh uh
034proposed tax levy of 80,447 925 um which is $800,000 above the allowable levy limit. So 1.97% tax levy increase. So less than 2%. Um uh just want to be just point out what's on the slide here. This proposed tax levy now requires uh a 60% supermajority passage rate um for the vote um in May. So when we go back again and look at our budget uh proposed budget 115 million um with our total revenue at $11448 when we uh that that was the difference. Now, we propose the levy amount that is $800,000 over that allowable levy. Um, gets us to a balanced budget. Um, importantly, what we want to point out here, this is a 10-year history uh of the of the district, the levies that we have proposed, 1.97% um is below the 10-year
035average for Lindbrook. Um, and the other point we wanted to point out here is in 2324, again this ties back to the the the vagaries of the tax formula in 2324 because pilots payments had fallen off. So they had decreased that has an effect of po pushing up the allowable tax cap. Uh at that point it was over 4% and the board at that time um made the decision that um there was enough revenue coming in from increases in um foundation aid that there was not a need to tax to that level. Um so the levy that was proposed was $1.5 million lower than it was uh allowed to be in that year. So 1.5 million um you know there was a a decision not to raise that um that in the tax levy then
036um we're making the decision now that we we need a little bit of that back. Um so we're asking for a 1.97% um levy increase for uh 2627. In terms of Long Island and the district uh uh the county as a whole um these are our neighboring districts. their proposed tax levies. This is based on property tax report cards um filed with the New York State uh controllers office. So, we are um my little box. There it is. Okay. Um you can see where we stand with our neighboring districts. Um we're the 14th lowest proposed tax levy increase in Nassau County of the 56 school districts. Um, and we are in the bottom 25% of all 124 school districts uh on Long Island where the average is 2.59%. Um, these numbers for those who were
037paying close attention are a little different than what we presented in March because um districts even though they filed their tax levies um by the March 1st deadline with with the state um you're allowed to go back in and change things. So, some of the districts have changed um their what they're proposing for their levy. Uh so, that's our budget. Proposition one is the budget. Uh proposition two is the use of our technology reserve. Um this is something we do every year. Um this year we are proposing the use of $560,000. um that is used to um purchase um equipment that is needed such as interactive boards at the high school, um classroom desktops throughout the district, um middle school uh laptops for students, as well as a continuation of our wiring projects. Um this
038time we're looking to um replace the network wiring at North Middle School. Um this is taking money from our reserve. uh this comes at no additional cost to the taxpayers. This has no effect on the tax levy. Proposition three is the use of our facilities reserve. Again, we do this every year. Um the proposal this year um is to uh use money from our facilities reserve funds um to uh purchase some property um right next to the high school here to construct a fitness center. Um we did a a presentation and Dr. Lynch did a presentation that um is on the district website um if you want more information about that and we talked about how that would affect the educational and the the physical education um program. Um in that proposition as well is
039the replacement of three rooftop units here at the high school. Uh again, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but we've got um these units on the roof here that we've been repairing for the last several years. they have reached the end of their useful life. Um it's a common theme throughout a lot of this. So, um we're looking to replace those. At North Middle School, um we're looking to spend some funds to um split the tech room to create additional uh instructional space there. Uh also at North there's some heating system um pieces that need to be repaired and replaced. And then at West End, um this is the beginning of um what we're looking to do throughout the district is replacing old and in the case of West End, inoperable PA
040systems. Um this become a it's a safety concern specific especially at West End. Um but we're seeing issues with the aging PA systems throughout the district. Um all of these projects here we discussed with our um with our facilities committee. Um and these are the projects that they prioritize for um getting done. Um, I do want to note that for the PA systems, we have applied for um, funding, grant funding um, through Congresswoman Laura Gillan um, for PA systems um, that could possibly cover the costs throughout the entire district. The reason why we're starting at West End is because, as you can see, these are um, they're costly projects. to do one of these in every in all seven of our buildings would be uh something we could not put into a single um budget
041or the use of funding from um reserves when we have these other needs. So we are hopeful that we get approved for that grant and then we can um talk about replacing the PA systems throughout the district. So again, just a quick um budget summary. Um the proposed budget $115 million. Um the budget to budget increase just over 5 million or 4.63%. Um our proposed tax levy 80,447 925. Again, that is uh above the allowable levy limit. So we do need a 60% supermajority to pass that. But the levy to levy increase again only 1.97% below our 10-year average um and way below the um increases seen throughout the rest of Nassau County and Long Island. Um last day to register to vote May 13th. Um if you have not registered to vote, call up
042the main office. Uh Mrs. Moran would be happy to talk to you, get you the information you need. Uh and the allimportant budget vote is uh on May Tuesday, May 19th. Um I do one last slide here. Um just in the event of a contingency budget, um if the budget uh fails on May 19th, the the the board has some options. Uh they can propose the same budget, they can propose a modified budget, uh or they can go straight and adopt a contingency budget with a tax levy increase of 0%. Um, you know, again, if the budget uh fails on May 19th, uh, there is the option to put the budget up for a vote a second time in June. Um, if that is what ends up happening and that budget fails in June, then
043we have to go to a contingency budget, that means a 0% tax levy increase. And there are a number of other restrictions on our spending as well that would kick in. um a 0% tax levy increase would mean we'd have to reduce um the the budget by about $1.5 uh million dollars. Uh and that with that I will open it up to the board if the board has any additional questions. >> So before the board speaks I just like to thank Mr. Press and his team for uh another extraordinary job of putting uh the budget together. I'd like to thank all our budget managers. Uh, and I just want to tell what I view as the story of this budget, kind of the thumbnail if you want to know what's really going on because you're
044going to read about us in News Day. You're going to hear us on News12. I had the uh I was in my doctor's office on uh Monday and you get to hear the loop of News12. Those of you that go to doctors know exactly what I'm talking about. The same five stories that come up again and again. And we were the stars on one of that cycle. uh because what they're saying we're doing not inaccurately is quote unquote piercing the tax cap. Uh and I think when you look at the budget that Mr. Press just expressed, I kind of want to talk about what it's really doing. Uh so what are we really adding to this budget? What are we really asking the community for? Uh when you really look at it, uh we are
045there there we already put a teacher at the KC and we want to put one more teacher at West End. That story begins last year. So last year we had a great opportunity to save money and the way we did it was with a retirement incentive and we took 17 positions out of our budget uh through attrition. So we didn't have to lay off any staff that some of our neighboring districts do have to do. So we we saved 17 positions uh to the the tune of $1.8 million and that helped us balance this budget. We want to keep Lindbrook Lindbrook. And everyone who has been in this district for a generation or more has had K through2 class sizes capped at somewhere around 23 or 24. By board policy, we can go higher than
046that. This community has never wanted its youngest learners to be in such an environment that is larger than that. And in order to do that, we have to add a teacher at the KC and a teacher at West End to keep Lindbrook Lindbrook. And that's our ask. We also are going to asking for something else that's already in acting. Uh we asked you what you wanted to see from your school system and that's called our profile of the owl. Loud and clear. This community said, "You're doing a great job when it comes to the academic stuff, but where are the kids learning real life skills? I want my kids to be able to be employed. I want them out of the house. I want them out of the basement. I'd like them on someone's payroll
047at some point. So, could you give them some real life skills?" And in answer to that, we added a whole extra business teacher um to to the budget. And what these kids I I I don't those of you that were at the uh business honor society uh last week or two weeks ago, miracle of miracles, 16 and 17 year olds shaking people's hands, looking people in the eye, learning how to interview, learning how to be uh just, you know, how to succeed in the world. That's the ask. That's really what what this budget is about. As I said in March, we don't have a budget problem. We did the hard work last year. Last year were the cuts. That was the hard budget. This should have been the easy budget, but it wasn't because of
048the tax cap formula. So, there's one, it's almost a throwaway line from Mr. Press. I just want you to kind of underline what he said. If without exclusions, the state would have us take money away from the levy. we would have to cut the levy. We'd have to survive on less money than we did last year. And then with exclusions, we get that up to the whopping 0.95%. Because that's our allowable levy because of the way that the the pilot formula works. So we have asked you traditionally for somewhere around 2% for the last 10 years, some years less, some years a little more. We're doing the same thing again this year. 1.97%. The 14th lowest levy in Nassau County, the lowest in our quadrant, but it just happens to require a supermajority this year
049to keep Lindbrook Lindbrook. That's our ask this year. We had really good news in News Day uh today or yesterday. Uh and I just think this is a testament to this community. Uh there is a rather important rate called chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is basically when kids don't want to come to school. Lindbrook is amongst the lowest chronic absentee rates in the entire county of Nassau. Some districts Yeah, that's absolutely well done. So at the high end, some districts have a 49% 35% at a neighboring district, 32%, 31%. Lindbrook is at 7.5%. That is, you know, who are our peers? Garden City, Sioset, Great Neck, East Willist. Let's keep Lindbrook Lindbrook. That's what we're asking for. We happen to need a super majority. Let's keep Lind Brooklin Lyn Brook. And with that, I opened it
050to the board. >> I just want to start by thanking Mr. Press and everybody who worked um throughout the district so hard on this budget. And I think it's really important um that we note the transparency through this entire process um that everybody has provided the conversations that have been had throughout this process here regarding the budget. Um the healthy reserves that we have here and how you really are fiscally responsible and you really take note to make sure that those are there. So if there are emergencies or you know if a roof starts leaking, we have the means to fix that. And you know, even looking at something like the track, we keep it until it's useful life, but safety comes first for our students and we have to repair those things when that
051happens. And I think it's really also important to note that the 2% tax cap is not 2%. You know, it sounds like a great headline. When Cuomo put that in, we knew it was going to become a problem for school districts over time. And we're at that time because it's not 2%. And people really need to understand. So we ask that you get your neighbors out and explain to the people who aren't sitting in this audience today so that they understand really what us piercing the cat means. We're not even at 2%. >> Thank you. >> I'll just uh join in with what Mr. Denino said and thanking Mr. Press for the incredible job on this and also Dr. Burman and Dr. Bleis and Dr. Lynch because it's a team effort. A few points. I
052mean we're going to be like Dr. Lynch said on News12, "We're going to be a news day for piercing the tax cap." What the story they should be running if they're being honest and being fair and not just trying to generate clicks and views would be the following facts. We're coming to the community with under a 2% increase ask. We're under 2%. So, using the traditional 2% tax cap, we're under that. We're coming to the community with the lowest increase we've come to you guys with since 2022. We're coming to the community below our 10-year average of 2.02%. We're coming to the community with our fifth lowest tax raise in the last 11 years if you include this year. We're coming to the community with the third lowest tax increase ask of any neighboring district.
053We're coming to the community with a lower tax increase than the Nassau County average and the Long Island average. There are districts that were listed on slide 36. If you want to put that back up, you see us, we're all the way at the top as amongst one of the lowest. There are districts on here that are coming to their communities asking for 3.21%, 2.69%, 2.61. They're not piercing the tax cap, but us coming in at 1.97, we are. And again, that's because of the crazy formula that New York State set out. It's not because Lindbrook is raising more than neighboring districts. These are really important facts. When I look at this budget and I, you know, I see all the numbers that Mr. Press put on the screen, the one thing that jumps out
054to me is, and I know because we've been working on it as, as a group, there is zero fat left in this budget. It really is trimmed. Every single dollar that's not necessary is trimmed. The programmatic priorities are keeping class sizes where they are, having sufficient offerings for the kids in terms of clubs and after school. The things that we can't control are the things that are driving this budget increase. And again, it's a really low ask. It's it's under 2%. And I feel like I'm defending what what should sound like a high increase. It's actually a really low increase. But the things that are driving that are things that we can't control. Transportation is running rampant the cost, but we can't do anything about that. There are kids who are in the district who
055we are legally obligated to provide transportation for. We can't do anything about that. The transportation costs have gone up locally, statewide, and and nationally. We can't do anything about that. Um the number of kids who were required to transport to other activities or to other schools, that's gone up. We can't do anything about that. The other things that have gone up, look at the insurance costs, right? Not just for property insurance, health insurance. Insurance costs are through the roof. We have absolutely no control over that. And I do know that our administrative team is doing everything they can to negotiate. We're getting the lowest rates possible. Bosey's costs have gone up. Costs of benefits have gone up. Um special ed costs both both in terms of the costs and the number of kids have gone
056up through the roof. These are things that we can't control. Many of these are double-digit increases that are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, you know, these are things that we can't control. We've cut every inch of fat from this budget. So, you know, I really hope the community ignores the headline of Limbbrook Pierce's tax cap and looks at the facts that I just rattled off because those are really the facts that should be reported. This budget should pass at 90%, not 60%. Uh, I don't feel the need to reiterate what my colleagues have said. Um, you know, we've talked about this for months now, and it's a it's a tax cap formula problem. It's not a tax levy problem, but I I do want to um just repeat something else that Mr.
057the press shared and and he talked about the facilities committee and that the facilities committee worked to kind of put together those priorities for proposal three and we brought them to the board um and the board agreed with those proposals. Every single one of those is a health and safety issue. when when the when the facilities committee works on figuring out where to invest our capital we have told uh Dr. Lynch we have told Mr. press. We are prioritizing health and safety of our students. So the PA system that is about safety in an emergency. Um the heating system that's about the health of the building. The AC systems that is about a healthy learning environment here in the high school. And the um the athletic complex um that's about students health and safety also.
058It's about creating and allowing this district to perpetuate a physical education program that is built on lifetime fitness habits um which we all know improve social emotional learning. They improve students abilities to feel connected and uh vibrant and alive and and we want to be able to provide as good a program for that for our students as we can. So, the, you know, the the facilities committee brought that to the board and and are now bringing it to the community as a true health and safety um initiative for our students, and I just wanted to to put my two cents in on that. >> Okay. Uh I just want to go back to the tax cap for a few seconds because as a long-standing board member, I I can't explain how aggravating this whole narrative
059is. Um, the tax cap is is just this fictional tool that politicians have made up to beat their chest and say we're doing something to keep things under control. You can see right here, we're asking for 1.97%. By some mythical math, right, we're only allowed to ask for 0.95%. But all these school districts who are asking for more, none of them are piercing the tax cap. How is that possible? How are we asking for 1.97%. We're piercing the tax cap. They're asking for all this. Baldwin's asking for 3.21 and they're not piercing the tax cap. What what kind of madeup math is this? You know, like where's the story here? So, when News Day and News12 put us on a loop and talking about we're one of the districts piercing the tax cap, we're 14th
060lowest out of 56 schools in Nassau County. Yet, we're getting the bad press. It makes no sense whatsoever. There's no story here at all. Where where is the story? And and like you know, Mr. Luna said, costs are not fixed. They are variable. Are any of your costs in your homes at this time going down? Nobody's is. All costs are going up. So, we're not asking for an an egregious amount. We're just asking for the basics to cover our costs. We're asking for an extra $800,000 on the $115 million budget. That's the new story. It's not much of a story. Six of our eight uh six of our eight last eight levies were lower than this. It's lower than our averages. We we're being the same fiscally responsible school board that we've always been. And
061and here's the issue in all honesty. I was on this school board in 2023, 2024 when we had a 4.5% allowable tax cap. We could have asked for 4.5%. But we said as a school board, we don't need that. We don't need that much. Why would we bang that the the taxpayers over the head like that? It's not fiscally responsible. So what did we do? We asked for 2.6% 6%. And we left $1.6 million on the table because we said in 2023 24 we don't need that. We don't need that much. Well, now this year we're saying, "Hey, we need half of that back." And we didn't take it when we didn't need it, but now we need it. Not because we're doing anything wrong, but because, you know, the state's telling us that we're
062over some mythical limit. That's it. We're asking, we're doing what we've always done, which is be fiscally responsible, right? What's what's the what's the expression? Uh, no good deed goes unpunished. Well, if this doesn't pass because of the 60%, we're damn well being punished for no good reason whatsoever. And, you know, I'm sorry if I'm coming off aggressive right now, but it is frustrating because we do everything right. Every dollar in this budget is accounted for. Look at our financials. I sat on that audit committee. You know, they do a phenomenal job of accounting for everything to making sure that the students get a quality education and the community members are well represented. All community members, whether they have or don't have students in the school, right? We're just trying to do what's right. If
063if the local news wants to run a story that we're piercing this mythical cap, go ahead. But if you do a deep dive, you're going to see what we're doing is what we've always done. Put forth fiscally respan responsible budgets. And you know, it's slightly annoying that we have to get a 60% passing rate at this point now. So, we hope people come out and vote because it is a little more challenging, but we we tend to, you know, pass budgets at high rates, higher than that. So, hopefully it's not a big deal. But, you know, truth be told, just come out and vote and do what's right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else comments? At this time I would like to open the microphone if anybody has anything to say only regarding the
064budget. So that concludes our budget hearing and we will now reopen the reg. >> Oh please come to the microphone. Just state your name. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Wesley Nicholas. Uh just I came in a little bit after 7:30. I'm not sure if it was covered in regards to the afterchool program as far as the budget. >> Not yet. We're going to get there in a little bit. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. >> All right. >> Okay. We will now reopen the regular monthly meeting. Um we'll start with report from trustees. Jackson, >> thank you. So, I know at um last week's meeting I shared a lot about what was happening at the high school, but um I reached out to the elementary school principles and in first grade at West
065End, students are thrilled to welcome three new hermit crabs into their classroom. I've been told that this is becoming a favorite part of their day, sparking curiosity, responsibility, and lots of excitement around observing and caring for living things. First graders also have an upcoming field trip to the firefighters museum on June 10th. West End is also hosting a their multicultural night on May 20th. The evening features West End Proud Owlp Proud fashion show where students and families walk the carpet dressed in traditional cultural attire celebrating their heritage. Families also volunteer to share food samples and artifacts that represent their cultures. On April 17th, Waverly Park hosted its abilities fair where students rotated through interactive stations guided by Waverly Wonders and parent volunteers. Students explored and experienced a variety of challenges. This event allowed students to
066grow their understanding, empathy, and appreciation for diverse abilities within the school community. Throughout April, the Waverly Park Student Council hosted their Super Mario Penny Wars, which raised money for autism awareness. Additionally, the Waverly Park Student Council blood drive is on May 12th. >> Thank you. Does anybody else have anything to report? Okay, I'm going to turn it over to you, Dr. Lynch, for old business. So all business that were not the childare uh pro part of the program. Uh so uh we had a uh issued an a request for proposal an RFP uh as part of a a process. Uh really the process started a year ago uh where we were looking at at our child care provider and uh the board is going to entertain a motion tonight and I'd like to turn it
067back over to the president. >> Thank you. So last year um we held a meeting with parents regarding concerns um with the before and after school program and based on these concerns as Dr. Lynch said we requested proposals to evaluate other options that were available. So we as the board followed through with this and we used parent feedback um reference checks as part of our review process here. In December, we had sent out a family survey and this survey showed significant concerns um regarding consistency among the locations with communication, homework, support, safety, enrichment, and the overall structure. The data that we gathered showed that there was not the same experience at all of our locations. And as a board, we said we need to ensure that all families in every one of our buildings are
068having access to a consistent, wells supervised, high quality program. And we carefully considered the cost, but that wasn't the only factor that's important in this decision. So, um, scope, which you'll hear about in a little bit, was not the lowest cost, but as a board, we determined that scope provided the best overall value. um looking at its staffing model, their on-site leadership, their communication plan, their structured programming, homework support, their inclusive approach, and the reputation that they have. So, we understand that costs for child care matter to families, they matter to us as well. Um it was crucial for us when making a decision to select a provider that offers a safe, consistent, and high quality experience for all of our schools, not just some of our schools. So that's why we as a board
069support moving forward with Scope for the 2627 school year. Um Scope's going to have a parent meeting. It'll be anformational meeting on May 11th at 700 p.m. right here in the cafeteria. Families can come at that point to learn more, ask questions, and speak to the actual scope leadership. If you can't make it that day, that will be pre-recorded for you uh recorded for you so you can watch it at a later time. So, at this time, um, I want to wave the reading of the resolution 2605G11. It's been posted and it's here where we're adopting scope education services as our new child care program. Can I have a motion to wave? Uh, second, Mr. Murray. All in favor? Thank you. May I have a motion to adopt resolution 2605G11 as our new child care
070program beginning in September? Mr. Colin, second, Miss Kelly. All in favor? Thank you. And at this time, I want to open the microphone if anybody wants to speak regarding the program. Okay. Thank you. Um, moving on to we have no new business, so I'm going to turn it over to you, Dr. Lynch, for your superintendent report. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, so you monthly I give a bard goals update. We just had our April meeting a week ago. Uh and I think everyone on this board can tell you uh we saw the profile of the owl which is our main goal in living color. Uh we saw our students creative and critically thinking. We saw them involved in social emotional learning. We saw them involved in real life skills and we saw them involved in
071global citizenship. And I think it's time for me to shut up and the kids to do the speaking. That's I think what Dr. Blecha said about me. I don't want to think it was something like that. Uh but I really nothing better though. There could be nothing better than seeing our our kids one who was Mr. Bowler and we're going to talk a little bit more about Mr. Bowler's uh presentation. So uh could you do a little off the cuff about your 250? I thought you know what I'm going to shut up and let him talk because he's much better than I. >> Just like an overview. >> Sure. >> Okay. Um so this is a project that's being done um by the high school. It's um a walk that will start at North Middle
072School and will end at South and it's in honor of America's 250th birthday. Um and it goes through historical events. There will be different stops on the walk and it goes through different historical events that have happened through US history that have led us to the 250th anniversary. And it's but I believe it opens May 23rd and we'll have a little kickoff the day Memorial Day weekend. So that's s, you know, as you know, we we that's Saturday. Yes. So we have a a big Memorial Day parade right down Merrick Road on the Monday. So there'll be a kickoff at North with a band and uh really just uh just the way the community has and and Jackson and his friends presented at the village board and they were wonderful. Um the mayor and the
073village board were beaming with pride that uh you know this level of patriotism uh in our uh in our town. And then another great side thing that I don't forgot to mention, Mr. Rosi and I met with Art Matson who wrote the definitive guide to the history of Lindbrook. Uh he's our village historian and there are going to be some uh special Lindbrook history of all you know there's a revolutionary war battle uh at the Rockville Cemetery like I just hadn't known that before. So there's just all sorts of cool stuff happening. I just again the community embrace of this project is just wonderful. Uh so uh that's just just wonderful. Did you have uh so uh and then if Dr. Bleus you have some curriculum updates for us? Thank you, Dr. Lynch. So, since
074our January presentation, there have been several changes to our dual enrollment proposals. First, uh we actually decided to pivot from aligning our senior English options from uh Nassau Community College over to LIU. Our seniors will now have a choice between potentially earning six credits from LIU for college intro to literature and college ideas and themes in literature or taking AP English literature and composition. In addition, while we were speaking to LIU, uh it came up about our social studies classes. So, we decided to also align our government and economics classes as well. So, that is a new change we had not uh discussed previously. So, uh, similar to the English, our seniors will now have a choice between potentially earning six credits from LIU for introduction to American politics and introduction to microeconomics or taking
075both the AP US government and politics and AP microeconomics. If you have a student who is a member of the class of 2027, you uh and you'd like to hear more details about these changes, the high school sent you a link uh to a virtual meeting on May uh 12th at 7 p.m. I'd like to thank Mr. Cersei and his team for offering these new exciting opportunities to our students. Uh pivoting here, uh the second part of my report, um we administered the 3 to8 assessments. We attempted to begin the computerized ELA assessments about three weeks ago. Unfortunately, day one did not go as planned. Uh the state issued a uh day off basically for everyone as the uh vendor did struggle to uh allow everybody to sign on. Thankfully, by the next day, the
076issues were rectified. I'm happy to say that with the support of both our technology and instructional technology teams, we were able to successfully administer the remaining assessments. And this year, approximately about 70% of our eligible students sat for both the ELA and the Mass State assessments. Thank you. >> And Capital Projects, Mr. Press, you just reported. I don't have anything new. >> Um, nothing new since uh since since last week, we did have our kickoff meeting. um you know there's a bunch of uh submittals going back and forth so things are are moving forward but we are looking forward to um things getting started probably some of the work will start in June um early June. >> Back to you Mr. President. >> Thank you. At this time the floor is open for public comment.
077Okay, seeing no one at the microphone, I'd like to ask for a consent agenda on resolutions 2605C1 through C3, 2605NC1, and 2605G1 through G10. May I have a motion, please? Mr. Lunar. Second, Mr. Plasky. All in favor? Thank you. Um, may I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? Miss Kelly. Second, Mr. Cullen. All in favor. Thank you. Um, just some reminders. The budget vote and election is Tuesday, May 19th. If you are registered with the Nassau County Board of Elections, you are registered to vote in the district election. Individuals may register to vote only for the Lindberg election if you are not registered with Nassau County. And you can do so in the district clerk's office Monday to Friday between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. And the last day to
078register to vote is May 13th. We will also have registration on that date from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the high school conference room. So, please contact the district clerk if you would like an absentee ballot or an early mail ballot application. And the polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. on May 19th. Voting is at the high school in the small gym located on Carpenter Avenue. Um, our next meeting is June 10th. I would like to have a motion to adjurnn. Um, Mr. Murray, second, Mr. Paskky. All in favor. Thank you. Have a good night, everybody.