001All right. >> Good evening and welcome to the Monday, September 15th, 2025 regular board of education meeting for the Marcela Central School District. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Right. Our first um item on the agenda is to appoint our new board member. um resolved that the board of education of the Marcelus Central School District hereby appoints Kelly Rosser effective September 15, 2025 and continuing until the board's next annual meeting and election on May 19th, 2026 to fill the unexpired term that was left vacant due to the resignation of Joshua Matusk on August 6, 2025. Can I have a motion? >> Motion,
002Sean. >> Sean, second >> second. Erica questions or comments before we vote. I would just like to thank Kelly for joining us and uh filling in Josh's spot. We really appreciate we're grateful to have you with us. Thank you. >> All those in favor? Opposed? Carried. And at this time, we will ask that Colleen helps us with the oath of office for our new board member. I'm I'm going to administer the oath of ceiling boardman. Remember to for Josh Tusk Hill, you have your card there. If you could just read the oath and we'll recite the card. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of
003board of education for the Marcelus Central School District according to the best of my ability. >> Well, thank you. Okay, moving on to item number three, recognition. Yes. So, we have uh lots of recognition tonight as you would imagine. So, I do want to just give a huge shout out to our staff, our community for an amazing uh opening day. Um we had our opening day first with staff. And so, one of the traditions that Michelle Brandner started uh was to recognize people's years of service. Um, so this is just a shot of our u our individuals or staff members who have been here for 25 years. And so we have photos of five, 10. We didn't have any 15 this year, but 20, 25, and 30. Um, and it's just a great tradition. And
004um, as you can see, people were super excited to be up there with their their 25. >> Um, also just to give you a sense of our opening day with staff, we had student performers. So on the left hand side was some of our first and second graders. Um and they sang the song if you were around in the 70s and 80s. You remember the Coke song um I would like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. So the first and second graders roped around our staff who were seated um held hands did all sorts of um just amazing like unifying messages um and it was incredible. I think our staff was touched. And then on the other side, we had eighth graders through 11th graders um who are part of the ukulele
005club that Audrey Msiano started um and they did um the Bruno Mars song, Count on Me, like one, two, three. And so, um every year we give something to our staff. We usually give t-shirts, but this year we shifted to mugs. It has our Marcelis motto on the front and on the back it was count on me like one two three and that's really our message to students to each other that you can count on on me. And then of course uh opening day with students was incredible. Uh all hands on deck. Uh it was just a a wonderful day and um students found where they needed to be and uh were delighted to be back at school. Uh another piece of recognition I just a congratulations to Ella Hake. So Ella was named Wise
006Financial Literacy Ambassador Award winner. So this is a national honor. Uh students who scored 95% or higher on the exam are are designated as such. Um and in addition to the certification exam, Ella actually had to do an application process where she had to write an essay. um and she received a scholarship. Um just an incredible uh feat especially um she is a a new ninth grader. >> Dean, can I just add to that really? >> Please do. Yes. >> Um so one of the commitments that comes with the scholarship that actually earned um and one of the reasons why she earned the scholarship was that she made a commitment to share her wealth of knowledge in money management and financial literacy with our school district. Um, so one of the things that she's going
007to be working on is kind of an action step or a next step is to create um essentially like a series of uh we're going to roll them out as like a money Monday slides um where every Monday we're going to roll out a new uh financial literacy tip or a piece of advice or some kind of challenge to kind of gamify it and get um not only the student body but also the staff members within the district uh kind of on board to keep this conversation going uh in service of you know just promoting lifelong financial literacy starting at a very young age. >> Thank you. I saw our uh our accountants that are here tonight to present with a little theme in their eyes wondering who this is. >> So um this also
008is just something I'd like to highlight and um around mid August I got a call. This is one of the advantages of being um associated with the most as a board member. I received a call from Lauren Kosan, the president of the most, who said there's this opportunity for kids. Do you have any kids that want to uh be part of this? So, the tone truck is, and you see it here. It's a 22 wheel 80 80,000 lb laboratory. Um, and it has an ion robotic bronoscopy system and a Da Vinci robotic um surgical system. So it really is designed to just sort of show health care professionals and students about the newest and greatest um in health care and with robotic cutting edge surgeries. So last Friday we had students who went to visit
009the tri. So you can see them here um and then you can see them actually getting some practice in what it's like to do robotic surgery. >> That's awesome. And so just a huge thank you to Krauss Health for, you know, they reached out to the most and then the most um fortunately reached out to us. And that's it for recognition. >> Right. At this time, we'll move on to item number four, presentations. >> So just to give you a sense of how the DMS auditorium project is coming. This is a view this morning. The seats are in. Um there are endcap seats that are um arrived actually a little bit earlier than we expected. So we're expecting those to go in in the coming week. Um we are on target and dare I say
010Ryan maybe even a little bit ahead of what we thought we would be. But um everything's been painted. You can see the carpet there. Um a little bit of a closer view of the carpet. Here's the carpet in the aisle. They're still working on the lighting on the um carp carpet edges there on the aisle. Um a closeup of um the lighting and soundboard. There was really essentially nothing there before, a concrete slab. So, it is a huge improvement. Um and this is sort of a little messy, but this is the behind the scenes of that. And something else I want to just highlight, I don't know if you noticed, but that is a brand new curtain as well. We have curtains that are new. The previous one was a maroonish red. So, um I
011just think the green is incredible with the matching seating and the rug. It it really is an extraordinary um you know, extraordinary work that they did and it is definitely back to its grandeur uh when it was first erected. So, it's incredible. >> And that's it for my presentation. on the building principles are just going to report out on their opening day. Um, and then I Mike McCulliff is on vacation, so I will do uh his portion for seventh and eighth grade, but we're going to start in order. Lauren, I'm going to have you start for KCH. >> We're gonna come closer. Perfect. >> All right. So, I'm going to start with you and what I'm going to do is I'm going to share a quote that all three of us are going to touch
012on. Um, if you are walking through our building, you're going to see it on our walls this year. And the quote is, "I care about you, therefore I expect a lot from you." Um, and this quote, thank you. I appreciate that. Um, this quote grounds us here at KCH and here in Marcelus. Um, and reflects the heart of hope. Um, so we hold high expectations for ourselves and our scholars because we care about each other. Um, and every effort, every program, every celebration is really centered around serving our scholars, our families, and our community. Um, and with that, we had an amazing start to the school year. We welcomed a ton of new UPK and kindergarten families into our building for our open houses. Then we had our welcome back night, which we jointly planned
013with our PTO um, picnic uh, celebration, which led to an incredible turnout. Um, we were cut a little bit short by rain, but I think everybody got ice cream and food before that happened and it was much better than the bugs that closed us early in the night or the year before. So, we're on the right track. It was an incredible night. Um, and then the first day of school was filled with hugs and laughter and high fives. If you were anywhere around KCH, and you may have noticed in the um pictures, we had bubble machines, we had a balloon arch, we had music playing, and most importantly, we had all of our staff out there with enthusiasm and positivity, and that great view into our children as well. Um, and then that obviously boiled
014over into our buildings. Our rooms were filled with laughter and learning, and our educators found incredible opportunities for students to connect and collaborate and start building relationships in their classrooms. Um, and we've been off to a great start ever since. Um, they've been learning the KCH pledge and going over expectations and um, we've had a lot of fun in the process. Um, I'd like to talk just for another minute about our goals at KCH. Um, we've centered them around two tenants of the strategic plan. One being the student um, experience and the other being academic excellence. I'll start with academic excellence. A couple things I want to highlight. Um we piloted at KCH the math I Ready benchmark last year, the diagnostic benchmarking and we're fully rolling out the um ELA and math this year.
015So we're excited to continue along that journey along with our peers at DMS um to continue to make informed data informed decision- making and refine our RTI process. Um the other thing I'd like to highlight is we have eight classrooms and an RTI teacher piloting the benchmark advanced ELA curriculum. And again, we're excited to get their feedback along the way this year as we look to make an informed decision on our next steps for ELA curriculum. And then another thing I wanted to touch on, a goal of ours was to continue to ensure that the field trips that our students go on are not only fun, but are aligned to some of our educational goals. And so this year, kindergarten through third grade will be visiting Green Lakes as part of their um program aligned
016to our New York State standards. and they're going to work on animal adaptations, doing some engineering around erosion prevention that's happening there and all the amazing um geological um events that took place to create Green Lake. So, we're excited to offer that to our students. Um and then to close out for our student experience, two things that are not brand new, but that we're continuing um this year. One is our positivity project was our which is our social emotional learning. Um and that is um how we how we start every single day. What our teachers do in their morning meetings and then every month we have a celebration of two characteristic traits. Um and what teachers do is nominate their students. That'll be why they're nominating. And then we give out student awards during our
017our front of their peers. Um, another thing that we add on to that is I personally message each parent that that their scholar receives the award and I share with them not only congratulations but also what their teacher shared about their student as to why they were nominated for the award. So, we're going to continue that this year. Um, and then the last piece is the Mustang Spark program which is our extracurricular after school programming. We piloted one fiveweek session last year and we're hoping to do four or five of those this year throughout the year. So if anyone around the table has a hidden hobby or talent that they'd like to share, when you see the email come out, feel free to sign up and we'd be happy to have. So that's that's it.
018>> Excellent. So that brings it to me that and I thank you for giving me an opportunity to stand and tell you about how um awesome really it has been to help our students back into DMS Intermediate. Um we also had the 27th and the 28th we had families on campus, kids dropping off their um school supplies, meeting their teachers, just being just it was like bursting with energy and excitement on those couple of nights. Um and then um having the kids in the building, there's absolutely nothing like it. You might imagine summertime is a little bit um quiet with the exception of a bang here and there and then our custodial cruise disingling and then rebuilding those classrooms. They're amazing. So there's really um a lot of excitement and energy with the kids seeing
019their friends um meeting their teachers, reconnecting with one another. Um and we see some real glimpses of how truly terrific our kids are. Um, in the cafeteria, they roll their sleeves up. They take the brooms and the dustpans and they'll begin to help the staff clean and get ready for the next lunch. The kindness on the on the um out on the playground, you know, they invite kids in who might be new to our community and encourage them to play along. So, that just tells me that our students and our faculty and our staff are really being intentional about laying that foundation for our kids. um not only academic but also with those character traits that we we really want to see our children um adopt. Um so we also have the I care about
020you therefore I expect a lot from you. It's pervasive. If you come into our building you'll see it hanging in the hallways in the cafeteria in our classrooms. Um it helps ground us and guide us not only in conversations with our children but also with our colleagues. um we really do expect a lot from one another and um and that is Brian will tell you a little bit more about that thread that really does tie the the whole campus together. So um I also was looking at um the uh the blueprint for excellence and kind of having that guide me with some of our initiatives this year. Lauren and I are really being intentional about um having a seamless experience for our kids. K6 and in K8 where we can do that. So the assessment
021um in data driven instruction we have completed the I already diagnostic uh for math in our building. We're beginning ELA this week. Um and we are also piloting the benchmark advanced. We have six classrooms piloting the benchmark advance. Um the teacher feedback has been very positive on both of those. We've learned a lot these past couple of weeks with the I Ready Diagnostic. Uh but those tools do align with the strategic goal of using rigorous curriculum and frequent assessment to inform our instruction. So we are now looking at some of the data from the math um diagnostic. Uh we're looking to close gaps to help create extensions for those students who are ready for some extensions and to deep dive in deep take a deeper dive into standards. Um and we are um excited for
022the ELA to begin this coming week. Um we'll do the same thing with the ELA. We'll take part of that the data and and really develop plans target our students. Um our social emotional our counseling team in partnership with our um with our classroom treat teachers have crafted a really robust seal schedule. Um it is centered on the positivity project. Again, there's alignment with KCH. We'd like to have that common language, K6. It will help to make our celebrations more meaningful. We also have a quarterly celebration where we recognize our students. And then our PTA takes it one step further and we have quarterly P2 breakfasts where we invite families to come in and help celebrate with our kids. So, we're really intentional about having that common language for our students K6. And this year,
023um, just looking again at the, um, the blueprint for success, um, I really wanted to give our kids at the 46 level, we kind of feel sandwiched in, and I think sometimes we feel a little bit like the middle child. I really wanted to give those students some agency and a voice. It came to me um, through an experience I had with some of our kids, our fourth graders last year. You would have been so proud of them. He came into the office, stood like this, scheduled an appointment and then proceeded to pitch me on an idea of the Mustang Culvers and that just proved to me that we have the foundation at at DMS. Our kids want to be involved. They have terrific ideas and I think with some encouragement, they'll be able to
024just fly. So the the Mustang voices uh will meet throughout the year. Um it will be four six students during lunch. Um they'll meet with me and um really just try to make the school something that they are excited about, something that they want to come to and something that they've some ownership in. So thank you. >> Yeah. So I'll start um I guess maybe with a little story about the origin of our poster here. And I feel like Lauren and Gaffy gave me a lot of unnecessary credit because I had nothing to do with any of this. uh we're all sitting around uh actually over the summer in an administrative meeting talking about goals for the year and what kind of things we wanted from the year to come. And one of the things
025that kind of permeated through that meeting was this idea that we care like you know in our mission statement like we treat these kids as if they were our own. And while as much as we humanly possibly can, we try to make data formed decision-m um but the reality is that we live in the real world and the real world of public education is sometimes uh soft in the sense that you don't always have hard numbers or datas to roll off of. Um so we kind of created a governance uh very specifically at the high school where we're going to treat the kids as if we're our own and our our data or our measuring stick against that is like you know most of us are all parents. It's the work that we do day
026in and day out. good enough for your own children? If your kids, your personal children were the recipients of that lesson that you delivered today. Would it be good enough for them? If it's good enough for them, then I can hang my hat high that I did a good job in the classroom. Um, the quote you see here is actually a line that Mike McCulliff came up with in a meeting. You know, he, you know, as we were talking about this concept of, you know, taking care of these kids and pretending they're our own and and really treating them, you know, giving them, you know, that tough love that they sometimes need. And it's and it's because we care so much that we can expect so much from them. The easy thing to do is
027to let them go. The easy thing to do is to not care and just let them flounder. And the reason we don't is because we care about them so much. So this was actually a quote that um that spawned out of that meeting. It is not mine at all. It was my propels. I just took his words and I decided to make a poster out of it and then printed a billion copies in there every day. So, a lot of the goal work that we've done at the high school actually started on June 9th of last school year. Um, so June 9th last school year was the first day of reach exams here at the high school. Um, and since that moment, it has been non-stop. You know, now we can really dive into the
028data. Boom. We start looking at Regent exam data, AP exam data. Uh, bulk of my summer has been spent working with teachers, unpacking their test scores by standards. Uh and really we're framing this from the vantage point of asking three questions when I sit down with the teachers and we're reviewing the test data is you know where are we doing well and the definition of well is like you know so we have this amazing data that we get from the city Rick that compares individual teacher test performance by question by topic or standard against the entire region which is a network of 39 area schools. So we can see where we are, you know, kind of beating the competition, so to speak. And we use that really to identify like these are the areas that
029when we go back to like the lessons that we taught back in October or in November or whenever that lesson was, like it's working. The thing that you did during that lesson, it is creating retention in the kids, let's not disrupt something that's working well. Um, but then on the flip side, we look at where we're getting beat, you know, and for me, I also make the assumption with the staff that like we're marelless. Uh, when when we compare ourselves to 39 area school districts, I have an expectation that we are at least in the better half of that conversation. So, if we get even by a little bit, I'm going to take a little offense to that on a personal level. Like, if I'm looking at my own data, uh, because, you know, I'm
030a competitor of my soul. I I want to do well and I want to do well anywhere I can. So any place I can identify where I have gotten beat. Uh we're going to put that unit under the microscope. Put that day that lesson the lesson that I taught back in whenever that ended up creating less than optimal performance on my test. I'm going to take that under the microscope either when I did the original lesson or you know maybe in the preparation months uh or the review leading up to it. But it allows us to kind of spot and identify where things are going well and maybe we shouldn't exhaust our effort and our resources into improving things that are working well. But then we're going to really identify the places where you know
031we're going to get the most bang for our buck. Um and then when we can and as much as I try when we build our master schedule I like to have teams of teachers. So by that I mean you know we're intentional about having more than two or more than one human teaching a regious level course. I've got a team of algebra teachers. We got a team of geometry teachers so that they can really learn from each other. So the third question that we ask is what can we be learning from our problems? Where is my test performance data doing better than Laurens and where is Lauren doing better than me? And then I'm very much of the belief that some of the best professional development happens keep inhouse. Uh we have a vast incredible
032staff here of incredibly intelligent and talented people who want to be the best. So really all we're working on doing this summer is just pointing them in the direction, winding them up, and letting them go. Um, and then with that, we're going to try to measure some success. Um, I'm very much a personal believer in the concept of marginal gains and this idea of being 1% better every day. And if we make little changes and we make them consistently enough, we will reap the benefit later. And Tucker, I do look past like the mathematical construct of like if you're 1% better every day, that grows exponentially. But the human caveat on that is actually logarithmic. So we have to, you know, keep going. Yeah. Can we? Yeah. Yeah. Right. >> Um, so so we we
033have a lot a lot a lot a lot of work to do and it's going to be ongoing throughout the entire year. Uh, and our team of teachers is kind of positioned basically to enter this year with that exact mindset. You know, the work that we do is going to be good enough for my own children. And I'm going to be able to be very intentional about the things that I'm going to do day in and day out to make sure that the results that come at the end of the year didn't happen by accident. Um, so that's a lot of the work that we've done and will continue to do throughout the course of the year. Um, in terms of opening the school year, there are a lot of moving parts to opening a
034high school with between, you know, the 453 kids that walk through the doors on day one, you've got another 53 kids that start at their Boseis CTE programs on day two, and then you've got another 19 kids across seven different Boseis programs that also start in their full day placements. Uh there's a lot of moving parts and I think the absent of some illtimed construction scheduling in town. Uh we had a pretty flawless open to the school year. Um once we got past the, you know, the that construction component, um which I'm told has been better recently. Um but no, it's been it's been a remarkable year and I truly lost so much sleep this summer just thinking about the nightmare that was going to be the management of cell phones in high school this
035year with our new cell phone band in place. And it has been the most refreshing thing you could ever imagine. Like walking down the halls, chins are up and not buried in phones. You know, you walk into the cafeteria, your kids are talking to each other. Uh study halls, forget about it, man. Study halls are places where kids are doing work. There are like old school paperback books that are being read for fun. Uh, it is a wild and crazy new world of high school and it is incredible and I can only start to begin to talk to you about those things and I would like to invite my man Tucker up just to give a little bit more insight into the student experience and then tuck maybe you can even show off that new
036Christmas present that you're going to get here very very very soon. >> Oh, I'd love to. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, I talked to Mrs. Charlotte, Mr. CV before this and I thought I'd highlight two things that I really realized were impactful with the cell phone law and that was what Mr. CB said connection in the hallways and then the lunchroom. You got a lot of laughs, a lot of people, you know, smiling, waiting in line, they're not on their phones and that that part's been great. And then engagement in the classroom personally, I don't know if it's cuz I'm a senior and kids are getting more comfortable, but I'm sure the cell phones being away definitely helped. hands are up more and it's always more fun to be in an engaged classroom where everyone's participating.
037So that I'm very grateful for that. And then here we are with our our new cell phone pouches. >> Can we get a 10 seconds? >> I would love to. So I have my phone in my pocket right now. And so before that I either, you know, write a sticky note with my name on it for my ID in here and then loud Velcro opens it up. We unfold the pouch and then the phone smoothly fits right in there. It'll be velcroed back up and it's in the bag for the day. It's as simple as that. We don't have to worry about it for from 7:50 to 2:21. >> Thank you. Thanks, Steph. >> I'm going to just give a little, you know, Mike McCullik would be so sad that he's not here to hear
038Brian's uh, you know, attesting to the fact that that is Mike McCull's quote, but um, he just wanted to highlight that again, a great start to seventh and eighth grade. Um we had um previous to starting we had a seventh grade orientation and um kids got to just to test out their lockers and we had parents who were helping. It was all hands- on deck to to help our seventh graders learn the lockers. Um we had an amazing openhouse curriculum night last week. Um again, it was so fun just being in the hallways and helping parents find classrooms and and where they're supposed to be. Um Mike um really wanted just for us to highlight um continuing the work on character education with our students. Um as well as you know focusing in on the
039values in our uh strategic plan really pushing those with students so that they know what they are and live by them each day. Again, Brian and um Lauren and Kathy highlighted our quote. Um and one of the things that uh is a big focus is really focusing in on career exploration and soft skills. So the seventh grade students right now are the cohort, the 2728 cohort who will start with the new graduation requirements. So, um that's where we're really trying to focus them and help build just that soft skills and understanding um pathways and really their own agency um which is going to be important as we launch the portrait of graduate um and the pathways uh from New York State. So again, the cell phone ban at 78 has gone very smoothly. Um, I
040will tell you anecdotally, I have stopped kids in the hallway and um, I've had kids say, tell you the truth, it's awesome. Um, so I think generally speaking, I think kids are almost feeling freer that they're not, you know, attached to these devices throughout the entire day. >> I think there's value, too, that it's the law, you know, that it's New York State law. It's not Yes. So, those are some of the conversations that we've been having, too. It's kind of out of our hands. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> So, our next presentation, we have um our auditors here from Rosen St. Moore. They're they actually spent a big chunk of the summer with us um and business office going through all of our books. Um and they are here tonight to report out
041on their findings. It's not going to be nearly as exciting as you guys are really active. Um, well, thank you for having us, but as you mentioned, my name is Jamie Galanty. This is Caroline. Um, and as you did mention, we ours worked up because we actually have our own Marcelus along with us, right? Caroline graduated from Marcel. So, we're always looking for um the map. We love it. Um but anyway, we were here for a lot of the summer. So, um we're here just to do a high level overview of what we do as your auditors. I know that's a very scary word. Uh but if we go ahead and our next slide here, you guys should have a packet in front of you, a folder. So, inside of that folder, there's a quick
042presentation we're going to go through and then there are some draft copies of the financial statements that we audit with. There's a couple of copies in there. There's a really big large one that is called the single audit reporting package. So what that includes is your districtwide financial statements and your single audit. So that is we are required to audit your federal grants. So some of the federal grant programs you get funding for. That's a whole separate audit that we have with us. And then the last smaller capet is the extra classroom activities or your student funds. We're going to briefly talk through those tonight and then any comments that we have. So the first item is required communication. So we can issue this in a letter format. We always like to get in front
043of our our boards and our clients and just talk about, you know, what we do as auditors, what are our responsibilities? So, um, in the opinions, if you ever read through the drafts of the financial statements, the very first sections of all of our audit opinions are the responsibilities. So, as your auditors, the only thing in those documents that you have that we take responsibility for is the audit opinion. So after going through all of the data, all of the context of uh clients and support all that data, um that's management, the business offic's responsibility with your board oversight and then we give an opinion on it. So that's all good news. There's there's nothing that's changed there. Uh in terms of our timing, as you mentioned, we come out twice during the year. So
044we come out in June and we do some planning. We sit down with the business office and we look at those federal expenditures that I mentioned and we figure we figure out which one we're going to be testing this year, which program uh based on qualitative and quantitative factors. We look at um you know, were there new bonds, was there new cash accounts? We we do some planning there. We make a plan. We look at the extra classroom accounts and then we come back out after June 30th, usually around the end of July, early August time frame, and really dive into the books and records once they're closed and completed. Um, that timing is consistent with the timing that we've always done. We were actually moved up a little bit early this year to coincide
045with Tony's retirement. Um, and as always, it was a very smooth process. The business office is very wellrun. Joanne, um, Tony and Don, the team is is um, a welloiled machine. They know what to expect. They give us everything more than willingly. Um, and we really appreciate it because we ask for a lot of information. So, um, we appreciate their readiness, especially in the summer, um, to get this taken care of. The next item is significant risks. I know that that seems like a scary uh little statement there, but what that really is is we're required to tell you that we plan our audits around uh significant risks that are inherent in every audit that we do. It's not something that the district did wrong or specific to the district itself. So those risks are
046improper revenue recognition. So that's making sure that all of the money that's received or that's earned by the district, you know, whether it's for state aid or property taxes, anything that came in for 2425 is in the right bucket. Um, and that's something that we perform a lot of procedures around to do so. And the next is management override and internal controls. Something I'm sure you've all heard and are familiar with. You know, we want to make sure the district has controls in place, segregation of duties, processes, and so we do certain tests and procedures to look at codes. So the great thing is we didn't find anything that we need to bring to your attention or that had any additional risks. So this is status quo best case scenario. We didn't have any difficulties
047or disagreements. The books and records that you saw all year long, that's the books and records that are in our financial statements. There was one small adjustment that was a a change on the state report at a very last minute. Um it was very small. Uh and the district is happy to make that adjustment. But I think you should have some confidence to know that books and records that you see throughout the year are what we're auditing and we didn't have any changes. So that's great. Um there were no significant changes to the accounting policies that the district has. There was one new policy that was implemented this year. There was a new standard Gazby 101. It was for compensated absences. It basically changed how the district has to look at and value compensated absences
048for employees of the district. It wants the new standard wants you to look at your employees and categorize them on who is more than likely to retire. And there's a couple of different methodologies. The district chose to look at age groups. And for example, anybody over 55 is eligible to retire at any time. You know, we should be including their compensated absences. So the district worked together to create a methodology based on age groups um to determine what that pool should be. So the impact to the financial statements. So last year the compensated absences was just about 600,000 or so. This year that actually jumped up to about 1.3 million. So it's a bit of a more conservative approach. What the goal of it is is that you're recognizing it more steadily throughout the years
049as opposed to big swings of years when you have large groups of people retiring who have maybe acrewed tons of balances. are spreading that step. So, um no real um significant impact there and that's for the governmentwide financial statements. Any questions on the required communications? And so now we'll start looking at some numbers for this year. So the auditor's opinion is unmodified which means it's positive that specificates scenario. If it were to be any other opinion, you would have heard from us by now because it wouldn't be something that we would drop on you tonight. Um so that is very good. So you have um cash of about 4.5 million and then 3.1 million that is restricted. Um as far as reserves um you are have about 2.99 million and you are required to have
050under 4% of your um fund balance and you are at 2.33%. So that's great news. We have a lot of districts that go over that 5%. So that's really good to be on for that. So decrease in fund balance general fund of about 3.3 million and that can seem like a high number but we did want to draw a couple of um notes from this. So there was 2.7 million that was transferred to the capital fund for the capital outlay which is just the construction progress and that uh shows up as an expense in the general fund. That's why that number looks a little scary. But there was also about 712,000 that was transferred for the new van assist. And it actually ends up being weak factor that we had about an 86,000 profit in
051the general fund. So that was good news. So we went from now 3.3 million positive 86. So that's why we wanted to mention that. So these were two large planned transfers and expenditures of the district that were intentional. the the 2.7 million that was funds that were already set aside and allocated. So while it shows a significant loss, that's that's really not the case. It's just a movement this year. So then as far as the net pension liability, um this is where we kind of get into a lot of accounting talk and if you have any questions about it, let us know because we sometimes forget that this is not something you see every day. So there's something called teachers retirement system and then employee retirement system and they usually um kind of coincide with
052each other. If one is considered a liability, the other one usually is. This is the first year that I've seen at least that actually one is a liability and one is an asset. And what that means if the district or the system were to shut down tomorrow, it's either what you would owe to the system or what you would receive back. So an asset is a good thing. So it's good that one of them is and then the other one is a liability. And those fluctuate. I know during COVID they were both huge liabilities. Then they swung back to assets. They just kind of go back and forth and it's nothing that the district can control. It's basically a number that's given to you by the state and you report it. So just so ERS
053was a 1.9 million liability and then the TRS is a 2.4 million ask. Okay. For capital outlay expenditures there was approximately 3.4 4 million and that's just with the ongoing capital projects. Um in the big financial statement supplemental schedule number six is a really good schedule of all the different projects that are ongoing. What expenses have happened and then what revenue is covering that. So there was about 2.7 million for the 2021 capital project and then about 472,000 which relates to buses. So that's what makes up that 3.4 fourth and then the decrease in federal expenditures of approximately 520,000. A lot of that is um COVID grant spending. So those wrapped up as September 2024 was when they officially ran out. So there might have been, you know, a couple months um from July to
054September, but it's kind of um anything that was left over until those have ended. Any questions on those? So now diving into the federal a little bit more. So we do something called a single audit where we look at the federal expenditures and we pick a program and that's um ones that maybe are higher risk or have the most expenses to it and we kind of really dive into that program. This year the major program that was tested was special education and that was last tested in 2019 because of COVID funding. It was deemed higher risk. So that was our focus the past few years. This year is kind of more of a normal year. So we looked at IDEA and by looking at those expenditures of 402,000 we got about 40% coverage over your
055entire federal expenditures. So when we look at those we look at about allowable costs, we look at the reporting for it. We look at budgets. We look at a whole bunch of things and we actually issue two opinions. One on the compliance and then one on the actual costs. And then something to draw your attention to is that um the threshold has always been or at least since I've been doing it is 750,000 and next year it'll be going up to a million and this year's your total federal managers was 1,90,000. So you're right on that pus where next year you might drop off and not need a single audit. You won't even have to hear about federal programming at this level. Um, but it just kind of depends on how many goals and different
056clubs. And then extra classroom activities. This is your student clubs. So, chorus club, drama club. The opinion for this is modified for a scope limitation. Cash receipts. It's just the nature of the fact that it's kids handling cash. You probably hear us say this every year, but we can tell you what's in the bank account, but we can't tell you what should be there. It's just the nature. So, we issue this for all of our school districts. It happens every year. So, it's not something specific to the district. And actually, when we do our testing, we don't usually run into any issues. We don't have any problems with, you know, advisors not filling up the paperwork or missing funds or anything like that. But just something to know. And just to touch on that, so
057what that school division means is we can't get comfortable over cash receipts of the district. You know, to really get to that level, if you think about how a business operates, you know, you would have support for all of your deposits and your transactions. You would have ledgers with every you know if you hold a student dance you have your tickets numbered one to 100 and you have a record of who you gave them to and the level of detail that would be required and you do have a lot of cash and transactions changing hands it's not really tangible and auditable from that part so this is standard across all of our districts and so um what I think the main point is here you have new students coming in to these clubs every single
058year who are taking on these responsibilities you have new adviserss coming in every year and we look at a cross-section across all of the clubs it's not just the big ones that we focus on. We have hazardly pick and we look at a transaction of receipts and dispersements and from what we're able to see the clubs are following the district's policies and I know a number of years ago if you've been on the board for a while that was a very specific area that was focused on my internal audits and the district worked really hard to um ramp up those controls and procedures and so they're still working and even with you know COVID and through you know the transition of students we're still seeing that you guys are doing the best as you can
059with like the catch that you have. So I think that's important to know for all that was any questions on the three audits. So the last item is if we had any significant efficiencies material weaknesses we had to record a lot of entries to adjust books and records to to actual results we would talk about them here. We would have a formal letter to issue. We don't have anything of that nature as I mentioned really. We have one small adjustment. So the books and records are accurate in what we looked at. Um what we did have is the district maintains fixed assets and those are outsourced to Boseis and our recommendation is uh that periodically those fixed asset transactions as they're incurred are sent over to Boseies and then the reports are sent back and
060reconciled. So we've come a long way with this process over a number of years. Um, but what is missing is oftentimes both handles a lot of districts. They'll send those reports back and we will get them uh and we'll say where did this expense go or where's this project or something might be missing or they miskey something or you know and then we have to go through the process of reconciling the reports and time again the adjustments and so we think if periodically throughout the year that was something the business office was taking a look at uh that would avoid that at audit time. Um, so the only reason that we had an an adjustment or something that we had to go through with success of this year is Tony was so proactive in his
061retirement that he sent most the reports too early before the year ended before all the expenses were incred. So they had to just be rerun to include those. So I don't anticipate that we would see something going forward but it's just something that you know we are looking at and that was all we had. Uh, honestly it was a great another great year. Kevin was great to work with um and look forward to >> Couple things I do want to just thank Jamie. Jamie came um for our opening day with staff to meet with um advisors of clubs so that she could review all of those policies which is you know really good practice. Um, and one of the things in when they met, I I always appreciate because Tony would always say that that
062we have a pretty tight budget. You know, the the expense and the revenue are are really handinand and we don't build a lot of fluff in our in our budget. And I think you commented on we did a really good job last year sticking to that. Yeah, I think you know there's a budget tax schedule that's required in the financial statements and as a taxpayer uh or you know somebody can look at that and say you know you're spending the money that you're budgeting you're you're not having huge reserves to you're not putting money away or having excess fund balance you are managing the district as a business and and doing a great job of that. So, while I know it can be scary to see that you're under the 4%, being over the 4%
063is not necessarily the what you want to be that what your plan is. So, >> I like to thank that Jamie and Caroline too that coming in this summer um you know, it really was impressive to see our or my office at least really jump into action and get all that those documents for them and them uh being so willing to come out early and do that for us. Uh Joanne, Stephanie, and now Katherine do a fantastic job. And it's not just them. It's actually It was pretty refreshing when I've only been here two and a half months. But it's not just the business office. It's everybody else that has that same mindset. It really is. Uh nice to see that the teachers really care about what their budgets are. They're very mindful of it.
064uh the department heads. It's it's amazing coming from outside inside to see that Tony has kind of spread that around the district and everybody really has that mindset. It's it's really nice. >> Any other questions for >> Thank you. At this time, we will move on to residents comments. Public expression at the board of education meetings is encouraged, and a specific portion of the agenda shall provide for this privilege. In most instances, the board shall reserve judgment regarding questions and concerns that are brought to the board's attention at a board meeting, as it is typically not prudent for the board to make instantaneous determinations. In addition, many issues that are brought to the board's attention do not require a formal determination by the board, but instead are most appropriately addressed by the superintendent of schools
065or persons designated by the superintendent without further board action in accordance with board policy 3220, community relations. Do we have any residents comments at this time? Right. Moving on to item number six, business. First reading of board policy resolved that the board of education approves first reading of the following board policies. You can see them listed there before you. Policy 4240, administrative latitude in the absence of board policy. Policy 4250, use of committees. Policy 4260, evaluation of the superintendent and other administrative staff. Policy 40 through10, superintendent of schools. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. Amy >> second Jen questions or comments before we vote. >> So one of the things that um I've been doing is going through our oldest policies and so if you notice looking at these four they have not been
066reviewed since 2000. So in going through the policies, I also look at Erie 1 um which is our policy service to see what their recommendations are. And so what's before you is really part of that recommendation. So just to go through them, 4240 um can can really be retired altogether. It's um it it's assumed that the administrative staff is going to do what they need to do faced with a situation in absence of board policy. So there's not a policy that's needed for that. Um so that one is recommended to be retired. Um use of committees is really just a a little language change that's recommended. You'll see in red. Um it's really just a simple um change to that again in a lot to be in alignment with Erie 1. Uh 4260 there's really
067no change that again it hasn't been been reviewed since 2000 but there there's no recommended change for that one and the board moves forward with the superintendent's evaluation. Um and the superintendent does the evaluations of administrative staff. Um, and then really the last one, 4310. Um, again, just sort of cleaning up the language and making it more concise. So, nothing really, um, of substance in any of those changes. It's really just trying to make sure that we're continually going through our policy manual and updating the oldest ones. [Music] >> Any other questions or comments before we vote? All those in favor? I >> opposed. >> Carry. >> Moving on to approval of 2025 2026 code of conduct. Resolved that the board of education approve the 2025 2026 Marcelus Central School District code of conduct. Can
068I have a motion? >> Motion. Erica. >> Erica. >> Second, Sean. Second, Sean, questions or comments before we vote? You can see the draft there, the 2025 code of conduct. >> Yep. So, we don't always have to change or alter our code of conduct. This year, we did specifically because of the distraction free schools new law. So, we had to make sure that we're in alignment in our code of conduct. So, there's just a tiny bit of language change that aligns with um the new distraction-free schools um law. If you recall the last meeting, we called the hearing and then um once uh the board approves tonight, it will go on our website as no longer a draft of the official code of conduct. Um in addition, I send that on to New York State
069as well, the education department. >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. Item 6.3, authorization to execute MOA between Marcellus Central School District and Marcelus Administrators Association. Resolved that the board of education authorizes the execution of the attached memorandum of agreement with the Marcelus Administrators Association. You can see that attached there. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. Amy >> Amy. Second. >> Second. Kelly. >> Kelly. Questions or comments before we vote? So, um, our director of technology has always been held by board policy. You may remember, um, it's the same board policy that our business official and and Mr. Montgomery is held under. Um, and we're shifting that position to the MAA, Marcelus Administrators Association bargaining unit. So, that is what is before you. It's a simple agreement between both parties. Um once you
070approve that tonight then um next meeting I'll put on that policy to retract the director of technology on that policy. >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. Okay. Item 6.4 acceptance of 2024 2025 external audit. Resolve that the board of education accepts the 2024 2025 external audit report. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. Jen. >> Jen. >> Second. Erica. Questions or comments before we vote? >> So, this was really the presentation that was just done. Um, it's now accepting that report. >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. All right. At this time, we'll move on to item seven, personnel. Approval of personnel items. Resolve that the board of education approves the following personnel items. You can see them listed there before you. 7.1 through 7.11. Can I have a motion? >> Motion.
071>> Justin. >> Second. Amy. Questions or comments before we both vote about any of those items before you? just uh you know I want to give a shout out to Pam Springer who we see is retiring and Barb Rawlings is going to retire in December. Um we actually have a handful of people who are starting to put in their their paperwork. So we we will have quite a few retirements this year. Um but always it's always sad when we get when I get that letter of retirement. I I my heart twees a little bit. So, um, again, we're happy for our retirees, but, um, you know, sad to to see them leave. >> We certainly appreciate all their hard work and dedication. Yep. >> The other thing I want to just point out, just so
072that everyone has an understanding of of this, um, the bus driver, so 7.1.9, you see the drivers and bus attendant hours. We do this every year at this time. So, um, Jackie Kierce, our supervisor of transportation, she she does an estimate based on her computer system of what the routes are going to be and the hours of those routes. So, the bid what you see there is bidded that is what was put forward the drivers and they the drivers bid on the routes based on seniority. Often the most senior want the most hours. Um what happens then in October is Jackie does an audit to make sure that nothing has changed. So things can change based on you know a student um doesn't take the bus or goes to a different school. Um so what
073will happen in October is you'll see this again with those hours corrected. Sometimes the hours go up and sometimes they go down. Um, but just to give you a sense if you didn't remember from last year, this is something we see every year. >> All right. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. >> I do want to just point out Brian, I just want to give you a shout out. So, Brian is here. He is the JB soccer assistant coach. So, he has been helping. You may or may not know Tyler has been sidelined a little bit. So, um Brian has been helping out with um JV soccer and we're grateful to to have him um helping Tyler out. So, thank you. >> Okay, moving on to item number eight,
074consent agenda. Approval of consent agenda items. Resolve that the board of education approves the following consent agenda items. You can see them listed there before you. 8.1 through 8.8. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. Sean. >> Sean. >> Second. >> Erica. >> Yep. >> All right. Questions or comments about any of those items before we vote? All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carry. >> Uh, item number nine,formational items. Yeah. So, um just to uh put a couple things out there. Um we are planning on October 1st an FBI presentation around internet safety. So, social media and internet safety and um Brian Stevie and I met with uh the FBI agent Marty Baronssky. Um Andy Wilmont is a police investigator. He wasn't able to be there, but he will be on October 1st. So the
075plan is that they are going to meet with seventh graders, along seventh graders, eighth graders, and then um bands of 910 and 112. And so um the presentation is about 40 45 minutes. We will send information out to families this week so they have a uh and certainly families can opt out if they want. Um it really is so timely right now with um the scary things that are happening on social media and trafficking. And so this is the work that they do day in and day out. And they have seen, you know, kids like we have here in Marcelus who think they're talking to somebody that really is not who they think it is. Um and that evening at 6:30 we are also going to do a parent presentation. So, all of that information
076we're going to get out hopefully by Wednesday. If not, certainly by the end of the week, um so that people can put that on their calendars and parents who want to opt out, they certainly can. Um we'll have that information uh in that uh notice as well. Um and then the other thing is just again to put on the radar, OCM Boseis um has not they as you can imagine OCM Boseis has a ton of facilities. If if you know about Boseies, there's many different facilities. They have not done a capital project uh to improve their facilities since 2000. And so they they really are at a make or break point right now. They must do some capital project to to make improvements. And um so next uh meeting I it it may be me
077or it may be a representative from Boseies are going to just do an overview at our October 20th meeting um just to show some of the things that they must do. So many of our students enjoy the programming there. So um it it will be an investment for Marcelus. It's it's nominal. It's not much. Um but every school will be part of funding that capital project in a in a very small way. Um but certainly I will put that out there whether again it's me or someone from Boseies that comes to do the presentation. Um just wanted to put it on your radar October 20th. The vote for that is November 19th and so all of the component districts um will be able to go and vote um at those Boseies locations. Again, that information
078I will share um more specifically October 20th. >> At this time, we'll move into executive session. Resolved that the board of education hereby enters executive session in order to discuss the superintendent's 2025 2026 annual evaluation and to discuss matters