001Good evening and welcome to the Monday, April 7th, 2025 board of education meeting for Marcela Central School District. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we be we begin, I h would like to make a motion to a amend the agenda. We have a request to add an item to tonight's agenda. Um I would like to ask that the board entertain the following motion. Resolve that items number 6.1.7 be amended to include the appointment of Lauren Soul as a modified girls lacrosse assistant varsity coach for the weekly compensation of $556.50. Can I have a motion? Amy. Second. Katherine motion car. All those in
002favor? I motion carried. Okay. So, we will move on to uh this item number three. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Item number two, recognition. Yep. So, before we do that, I did want to just take a minute um just to express our um sadness and our thoughts to the Central Square community. I don't know if you've heard, but um last week they had a 12-year-old girl who um got hit by a car right in front of the middle school. and sadly um we were just notified today that she passed away. So I do want to say her name, Anna Marie Manin, uh 12 years old and again um our hearts are with her parents but also the entire Central Square community students and staff alike. So if we can just take a minute to remember her
003express So, moving on to recognition. Um, I do want to just highlight um we've had some great success uh this year with um our family, career and community leaders of America. So, um, last week, you may remember we had, um, Liz Milikin, who oversees this club, as well as Diana Joselyn, one of our seventh eighth grade science teachers, um, took students to the state competition in Cal, New York. Um, and eight of our Marcella students qualified for nationals in July. So, just to give you a sense of what it's like, uh, students competed in topics such as personal finance, uh, interior design, job interviewing skills, repurpose redesign, and apparel construction. Um, and all of our students did very well in all of their uh, competitions. This is every student. And then these are the eight
004students who qualified for nationals and they will head to Orlando in July um to compete nationally with this organization. And so just a shout out to those individuals, Juliet Sly, Sonia Davidiser, 10th graders, Sophie Smorl, seventh grade, Addie Kinsley, 10th grade, Sophia Lowwood and Charlotte Stac ninth grade, Nelly Humson, eighth grade, and Maddie Carver, ninth grade. So, um, just kudos to not just those students, but Liz Milikin and Diana Joselyn who have done just amazing things with with that group. And then I do want to just uh give a shout out to Jen Hatterson. So, last week, Wednesday, was our third grade concert. And um, these are just a a cute couple photos. Again, compliments of Lauren Masa, our principal, sent these to me. Um, and again, just what a what a great event and
005so much fun for our third graders. They did an outstanding job. Um, and just from the pictures, how adorable they they look. So, thank you, Jen Patterson, for just extraordinary work with uh our third grade students. That's it for So, at this time, we will uh move on to presentations. Yes. Um, so I do want to just uh give a shout out to Ryan Reeler who's here tonight. The transportation bus wash is now open and um you can see our some of our drivers and transportation workers in front of the bus wash having some fun with their own little ribbon cutting. So um I think they're all glad that it is now open and um thank you Ryan for doing all that he did to uh ensure that it was done well and properly. And
006then I do want to just I think the last meeting I commented that um we did receive bids for the DMS auditorium work and um the bids actually were higher than we anticipated and so um I think our initial instinct was let's let's hold off. Um this time of year is typically a challenging time um because a lot of contractors are already on jobs and so bids do tend to come in higher. Um so we initially um thought well let's just wait until November. We um consulted with our architect and we were advised not to wait because costs could be even higher uh in November. So we are moving forward with the auditorium project. Um and so you'll see those bids tonight uh in in um the business under business. And then the other thing
007that I just want to report on is our projections for enrollment. Um, and just sort of giving you an overview of of what we've been doing. And Tony's going to sort of expound upon that when he gets into his budget update. Um, but next year for the 2526 school year, um, we will have 54 students in UPK. If you remember, we have three classrooms of UPK and um we are mandated with one teacher and a TA to we can only have 18. So um we have three classrooms of 18. We were committed to that um when we first started the program. We started if you remember um with one, we then added a second classroom and now we're really at our max just with the the facility of KCH. So we have um 54 students
008in UPK. uh there were a total of 67 who entered the lottery. So um really challenging to call people and say, you know, you're on the wait list, but you you didn't get a spot. Um so again, we're excited that we can offer the program and and that's the enrollment for UPK next year. Kindergarten currently we are at 79 students. Um that changes as you could imagine. It fluctuates as we get closer to June. um even honestly at the end of April we'll see that uh tick up. Um what we're doing and you're again you'll see it tonight when Tony reviews the budget update. Right now just as the numbers stand 79 students we we have it this school year six kindergarten classes but with this number we're planning to go down to five um
009and then move one of those kindergarten teachers to the first grade spot which is dean pluses. So again, we're able to make that cut through attrition. If that number all of a sudden skyrockets and we have to add a class, we obviously will do our do the right thing. Um but for the time being, that's what our our plan is. Jean, what's your the scale there to like what would kindergarten have to go to? I think above 95 somewhere in that range. Gotcha. Yeah. And and at this point we're we're below it considerably right now. So, we'll we'll wait and see. Um, this has happened before, Bob can tell you, where we've planned for five and had to add one in in August. So, um, we'll be watching that closely. And, like I said, we
010we'll do the right thing by our kindergarteners. First grade we have 103 students. Second grade 115. Third grade 100. Fourth grade 105. Fifth grade there students. And then you can see that drop off 93 students. Those are the students that are currently in fifth grade um and moving into sixth grade next year. And then just to again give you an overall sense of our enrollment, seventh grade we have 96 students, 8th grade 104, 9th grade 107, 10th grade 89, 11th grade 124, and 12th grade 100. So you can see there's a that bubble at 11th grade where um those are really what our typical numbers were years ago. And so again, Tony's going to review um you know, how we finally ended um you know, in a good spot with our budget, but we as
011an administrative team worked diligently to identify cuts that we felt weren't going to impact programming. Um as well as, you know, cuts where it was what I consider sort of low hanging fruit. Um, so we we really worked hard to do that. And um, it's never easy to to make those cuts or to not replace somebody, but um, I I think we've landed it in a in a good place for this district moving forward. Um, just again making sure that we are um, putting the district in solid footing and and fixing this a structural deficit. And so then Tony is up. Sure. I'm I'm going to stay here if you don't mind. There are only a few slides. Um so, uh so the first one, we recognize this slide, but we've we've changed something. We're
012now down to this last section. We're no later than approximately April 15th, the board will adopt the budget. And what the board what we're asking the board to adopt tonight is a number. Okay. So, we we when we started this process back in January, we reminded you that you're you're simply voting on a on a budget, right? So, it's a moment in time where uh based on the information that we know today, uh we've constructed a budget that we think will work uh very well for the community and our students. Um so, uh but there's, you know, there's that caveat that because it's a budget, things may change. So, as Gan had just mentioned, it's possible that kindergarten enrollment may uh spike higher than um to a number that's higher than our current staffing can
013support. So what that could potentially mean is that uh July or August and you know as Jean said this did happen with Bob I think it at least one year maybe two uh where we we're at this point of the budget process and we felt like we could do without one uh kindergarten position by the time July rolled around we realized that that wasn't going to work. So uh and that's okay we can manage those things. Um so our budget is built with some flexibility. I was just talking with Amy briefly earlier about some scenarios why uh why that conservative amount that one and a half million dollar appropriated fund balance that's what why that's there for just in case expenses. Um so uh you know so I've gone on again about that concept of
014just a budget. Um so if we can go to the next slide uh just a reminder as to where we started and this this is really at this point uh sort of an important image to um to uh look at for for just a just a sec. So, back in uh November and December, if you remember at the start of the budget process when we first talked to you in January, when we develop our initial draft, we're we're uh taking a snapshot of what the what's currently happening in the district, assigning a price tag to it and rolling that that price tag forward to next school year. That's all you're looking at here. I want to keep that very simple for all of us that the numbers that you see on the top under revenues
015with some assumptions about property taxes and uh state aid um are used to construct our revenue estimates and then on the bottom that's where as I say we roll forward what we're doing this year put a price tag on it. Um so that's in a nutshell what you're looking at. We don't really need to get into the weeds about what makes up some of these numbers. Um and so if we can go to the next slide with with that image in mind at the very top at that that moment in time rolling forward next year we start with an initial estimate of 43,231,000 on expenditures and 42,65,000 in revenue. So, so again just reminding you we we used some assumptions to build those those uh values and we started out with that initial budget gap
016of $625,74. From that point, starting January 27th, our administrative team and Gan work very very hard to to eliminate that gap. In fact, uh we asked them to work a little harder this year when we when we get to that second slide. I'll speak to that in a moment. Um this was not an easy task. Usually when we go through this process we recognize that there are some variables that are going to help us considerably deal deal with that budget gap of 625,000. That was not entirely the case this year. We did have some retirements and we'll talk about that and how we were able to reduce through attrition, but we had to actually go a little bit further than that. It's never ideal to have to do that, but uh your administrative team did
017that and I think they did a great job. Every in every discussion that I was part of at least it was always about keeping any reductions away from kids. So we don't want to affect the the experience of our students uh or you know or our children and I think I think they were able to accomplish that and eventually mitigate that budget gap. So, just to work down through a few of these items, some um I'll I'll speak to each one. The incident IQ help desk software uh self-explanatory uh for Eric and his team to manage any um anything that our staff needs in terms of IT support was run through that uh promise zone was a program that we started out with this year for some uh student support services that just didn't work
018out as well as we had hoped. So we're going to move away from that next year. Um we did need to increase uh costs or estimated expenditures for substitute coverage uh both our custodial and clerical areas areas. Um if I were to look back I would I would I expect that in both of those areas we've gone over a little bit each year. Uh so this this was the time to rightsize those line items and to budget appropriately, hence those changes. Uh the same with custodial summer help uh that we we have overspent a little bit recently. So we again decided to rightsize that budget. Um the next two line items as you can see the dollar amounts just about equal each other. So we currently for this current year we subscribe to central business
019office support services through the OCM Boseies. The individual who has been supporting us for the last two years announced that she's retiring effective May 30th. And so that along with my transition out of the district, we thought it would be an ideal time to bring that role back in house. there are some additional responsibilities that I've assumed you know during my time here and you know and even added some to that list and so it's it's the appropriate time to remove those responsibilities from me with with the transition to Don so that person will will help to support those needs um plus in addition to continue to perform the same services that were performed by both seats the uh teaching assistance this is when we get into some of the more difficult uh decisions that
020were made. Uh the first that are listed there, the 3.0 FTE teaching assistance. That's this is a moment in time uh that our director of special education, Carol, who determined that there were there were uh no longer there's no longer the need for three teaching assistants to support our students with disabilities. So that's either kids are exiting out or they've changed programs or um I think in at least one instance that it's been determined the child no longer needs that support from that teaching assistant. Um so in that with those three specifically uh th those were able to reduce through attrition. Uh the next two lines uh both in the library and in our inschool suspension room. We're not sure just yet whether those reductions could occur through retrition uh or possibly through layoff. It
021all depends on what happens with staffing between now and September. And I've got to tell you that we in the last two years we've hired a lot of TAs. There been a lot of transition or people securing other jobs. So, you know, so I I'd be going out on a limb to take a guess whether those reductions would be through attrition or through layoffs. just not certain at this time. Uh the next is a reduction through attrition RTI services at KCH and I think Lauren um has come up with some other ideas and ways to provide those same uh services either through RTI teachers or through other means. It's not my area of expertise, so I'm not even going to try to speak to it. Um the uh next reduction in uh elementary this is
022that one going back to our scenario with kindergarten. Uh this is you know we've put it on the list that would be through attrition with Mr. Claus's retirement and um so hard hard to say whether whether or not we will need to fill that position but as of now we're going to assume that we do not need to. Uh the FTE 1.4 4 FTE for fizzed. Uh we do have a retirement at our high school uh in our high school fizzed department. Plus, we've carried a a point4 FTE fizzed teacher. There's a there are some uh supports that are needed for adaptive physical education that if we were to go back a year ago, the conversation was that we really needed to maintain that point. 4 FTE position. They've been able to make some changes
023to address that. And uh so at this time it's deemed that that's no longer needed. Uh athletic trainer uh so Mr. Free has been able to find uh that support through either one of our existing staff members or uh if that existing staff member is not able to provide the support we need. I was speaking to my counterpart and they they uh um fill that need entirely through uh Syracuse orthopedic specialists. Uh so there are there are in fact I think with um Miss Bowman's um leave of absence while she was completing her uh student teaching that we're able to fill uh her absence with those folks. So So there are some options there that Mr. B has worked around. Um 37 FTE art. We did enjoy uh the services of one of our recent
024retirees this year. it's been determined that we're able to uh manage our needs with um without that individuals part on a part-time basis. Um custodial maintenance there this is going to might be a bit challenging to manage this reduction. So I put in there custodial andor maintenance. So Mr. Refiller uh myself and Micha are actually getting together tomorrow. We we know we can manage it but uh h exactly how it's going to be managed right now we still need to determine that uh we did have an individual in our copy center who had resigned back in I think December and so we decided to move away from use of a copy center and transition back to Boseies providing our more um large volume printing needs. Uh that's that's exactly where we're at about eight years
025ago. So we're going to go back to that structure. And the the very last item there is we had a a retirement that was announced after the January initial budget. So we did realize some breakage from that person's retirement. Almost done. Uh we did have some miscellaneous adjustments. Most of these are just minor minor tweaks. I I if you don't mind, I'm going to only speak to the last four. Uh the others are are fairly self-explanatory. Um so the building condition survey, that's a one-time ad. Uh well, I should say it's a one time ad every five years. So we we're required to conduct a building condition survey with the help of our architectural uh firm. And so they're going to come in and do a walkthrough of our district to just to confirm that
026there are no structural deficiencies. um which is a a small chunk of what they do. On a larger scale, they're going to do some additional work to help us plan for our next uh building project, which the the vote won't occur until December of 2029. So, ways a ways from that happening, but this is the time to identify what needs we have throughout the district through that living condition survey process. So, one, we're we're doing it because we're required to. Uh two, we're going to get add some additional support from them to help us with that planning of the next project. Uh the next two I had mentioned at the previous meeting that we had some some um I guess I'll call them time shifts with the the delay of buses uh being received by
027the district and also then the payment for those buses. So, we're we're essentially doubling up on paying them for buses because of the delay from the uh 2023 bus purchase. So, that's those two items are in tandem there, the 114867 and uh is reflecting the the payment of debt for those buses. And then the um adjustment to the tax levy limit is capturing the local share that's associated with the purchase of those buses. And then the very last item and this is where um the administrative team was was um uh the their challenges were were made even greater by u reducing our reliance on the use of appropriated fund balance. So I'll tell you very simply that we're our our budget this year is very very tight. we have um in all likelihood we would
028end this year with a deficit of uh say $2 to $400,000. So uh that sounds like a pretty large difference, but on on a $42 million budget uh things can swing that much. And so um that if we were to continue with this the level of um use of appropriate fund balance of of just about 1.9 million, we'd likely be in that scenario every year where we're going to operate in a deficit uh structure. So um so as you know as I leave it's it's just the right thing to do to set our budget straight. Um we started using that level of reserves about uh five years ago and then COVID hit and so our finances were such with the influx of money from the federal government that we weren't realizing the impact of this
029additional reliance on reserves. So we do need to pull back. Uh so that's that's an explanation that last item. So with all those changes that we just went through, we are now at the point where we don't have a budget gap any longer. I can't thank uh Jean and you folks and our administrative team enough. This was um my second most difficult budget ever. If you go back to 2009 2010 with our the collapse of our economy, that was really bad then for this district and the district I was at. Uh this this is um you know I would say was second place to that. So not not as not nearly as bad but still very difficult. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to item number five, residents comments. Public expression at the
030board 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 or 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? Moving on to item number five, business uh adoption of the 2025 2026 Marcella school budget. Whereas the Marcela Central School District Board of Education has developed a
031budget for the operations of the district for the 2025 2026 school year. Whereas the annual budget hearing meeting is scheduled for May 12th, 202025 2025. Resolved that the board hereby adopts the budget developed in the amount of 42,338,563. Be it further resolved that the following proposition be placed before the voters on May 20th, 2025. Shall the board of education of the Marcellis Central School District be authorized to expend the sums set forth in the total amount of 42,338,563 for the 2025 2026 school year and to levy the necessary tax. Therefore, can I have a motion? Motion. Sean. Second, Erica. Any questions or comments before we vote? All those in favor? Opposed? Carried. Moving on to item 5.2. District board policies up for revision. Result that the board of education approves the following board policies being
032placed for revision. You can see them there. Policy 7241, student directory information. Policy 7240, student records, access and challenge. Policy 7243, military recruiters access to secondary school students and information on students. Can I have a motion? Catherine, second Justin, questions or comments before we vote? So, just to give you um an idea of why we put this up for revision. So Bob is our data privacy officer and um he's encountered a couple things and sort of alerted me that if you look at the date that this policy was last revised was 2015 and so um in addition to to that we we've also had um you know the military reach out and it just made us pause and and look through our policies and recognizing that these really needed to be updated. So, I did
033go to the Erie 1 policy manual and and um really put the suggestions in here um that they recommend again um based on their you know updated policy and and legal advice. So, that's what you see before here. I purposely did not put it on here for for first reading yet because I think um what we'll do from here is work with our admin team to look through and comment and then it gives the board extra time because these are pretty meaty to really look through and ask questions. So um the next meeting we'll put it up for first reading but it'll give you some time to study and ask questions before that meeting. Great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor? Opposed? Carried. Item 5.3, acceptance of proposal for completion
034of renovations at the DMS auditorium. Resolved that the board of education accepts the attached proposal from Bellow's Construction Specialties for completion of renovation at the Dryburn Middle School auditorium. You can see that information right there before you. Um, can I have a motion? Amy, Becca, Erica, questions or comments before we vote, this is what you were referring to before that it came in a little higher, but the architect said to move forward. I think we've run a risk. Yeah. Um, if anybody has been in that DMS auditorium lately, it is an incredibly beautiful space, but it is it is wearing very quickly, too. In fact, Tony, I don't know who we were with, but somebody sat down and I I almost felt like the the seat was going to break on them because it just
035it's really in need of repair. And as you know, the longer we wait, the worse things get and then the repairs become exponentially more expensive. So, um you know, consulting with our architect, that's why we're forging ahead. It certainly is beautiful and something we want to preserve. Yeah. All right. All those in favor? Opposed? Carried. Moving on to item number six, personnel. Approval of personnel items. Resolved that the board of education approves the following personnel items. You can see them there before you. 6.1 through 6.7. I have a motion. Catherine. Sure. on questions or comments before we vote on any of those personnel items. All those in favor? Opposed? Moving on to item number seven, consent agenda. Approval of consent agenda items. Resolve that the board of education approves the following consent agenda items. You
036can see them there before you. 7.1 through 7.3. Can I have a motion? Motion. Justin. Justin. Catherine. Questions or comments about any of those items before we vote? Just to highlight that overnight field trip is for FCCLA students who are going to the national competition. All those in favor? Opposed? Carried. Moving on to item number eight,formational items. So um this week, Mr. Sy and I are going to be putting um out to students the application process for um student board of ed members. So students will be seeing that by the end of this week and they'll have about you three weeks to complete the process and and submit their materials if they're interested. Um, if you remember, we're targeting current 10th and 11th graders because they will be 11th and 12th graders next year. We're
037looking for for one student. So, um, I'm sure it's going to be a difficult process to choose, but um, you know, again, what an accomplishment for that student who will join you at this table and awesome to hear their perspective, too, once they're the table. Do you anticipate that they'll join us in the summer or I'm shoot for July. Okay. You know, as students are busy and working, we may not get them in the summertime, but they'll certainly be welcome to join us during the summer months. Um just another highlight on May 8th I um I had this vision to do a speaker series here in Marcellis and bring speakers in and um I you know would hope to to continue that next year. But I was able to get um former mayor John Curtain
038is going to come on May 8th at 7 PM to the Driver Middle School to give anyone that's interested, community school members um uh just an overview of the history of Marcelus schools. So he does that for the historical society. But um what a wonderful thing to do for our families who are new to Marcelus or they have younger kids to hear right from him um you know the incredible history and uh when I spoke to him I I want to make sure that we do it at DMS just because much of that history is is in that building. So um just to highlight if you're around May 8th 7 p.m. um Mr. Curtain will be doing that for us. And then one last reminder petitions are going to be due. Um, we have three
039board seats and those petitions are due on April 21st at 5:00 pm. And that's it for information. All right. At this time, we will we will enter executive session. Resolve that the meeting in public be adjourned and an executive session be convened for the purpose of discussion of personnel and the discussion of contract negotiation. Can I have a motion? Amy and Erica. Gotcha. Okay. All those in favor? Opposed? Carried.