001Good evening everyone. Today is Monday, March 24th, 2025. Thank you for all coming to the Marcellus Central School uh district board of education meeting. We will begin um with our public hearing. But before we begin, if we'd all stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. 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 with liberty and justice for all. We'd like to welcome Don Weber here tonight. Don um as many of you know uh will be our future business official when Tony officially retires. Um and Don will be here um just to help um give some context to the different tax exemptions um that are are up for discussion tonight. And Tony, I don't know if you want to
002start or Don's gonna head right into the uh No, I think I think you did a great job introducing Don. Don, if you're comfortable. Sure. Go ahead and get started. Thank you. I see everybody again. Uh so we've talked about this two times. Now there are three property tax exemptions for school districts that many school districts are talking about adopting this year. There's changed income limits for the senior citizen and dis disabled persons exemptions. Um there the second one is veterans exemptions. Many towns allow that already. This u cases does not apply to school districts. You have the option to adopt if you wanted to. The third one is a a 10% exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers. So we started out um with an analysis I guess of the fiscal impact from the
003senior citizen exemption and disabled person's exemption. I kind of put those together that go together those two exemptions. On the left hand side up here is the previous income limits since 2006. That was the maximum New York state would allow. Um two years ago they gave localities the option of increasing to those on the right hand side. It's a sliding scale exemption. So property owners who were to go up to the maximum who made under $50,000 a year as a household would get a 50% exemption on their school tax bill. If they made between 575 and 384 they would get a 5% exemption. So it really depends on the household. Um, it's important to note that because this is an exemption, the school district will still get all of its school property tax revenue. You're
004just kind of shifting the burden around. So, we're not going to get less money. We're just changing paying it. So, essentially, you're increasing the tax rate for everybody else. Along with this exemption, there are some options you need to consider in your resolution if you decided to adopt it. New York State changed what is considered income. Not only did they increase the income limits, but what is what is called income under the law has changed. It used to be everything was income. You found money on the sidewalk for county. Now they changed it to your federally adjusted gross income. Um but by default IRA distributions are subtracted. So a property owner who was had a gross income of $100,000 but half of that was IRA distributions would qualify for 50% exemption if you don't adopt
005a local disable reason I mentioned it is that the county exercise that option as as has many towns and the thinking at the county legislature was that really this exemption was intended for um you know folks who are close to poverty, not people who are bringing in $100,000 a year because they pulled a bunch of money out of a, you know, an IRA. So, something for you to decide. Um, also previously because these income limits weren't allowed to be increased at the state level for many years. Over the years they tacked on little options like the option for property owners to uh reduce their income by unreimbured medical expenses. This is a very burdensome task for both the property owners and the town assessors. Seniors have to reapply for the exemption every year. So they
006would come in with potentially shoe boxes full of receipts and dump them off the assessor's desk and try to subtract them off their income. So it's it's burdensome. So I would say I would recommend that if you are going to increase the income limits and you allow this deduction already. Go ahead and get rid of it. It's it's hard on property owners. It's hard on the assessor. It just makes sense, I think. Um, so this chart here is an attempt to to recalculate what the school tax rate would have been in the fall had this exemption in place. And we can do that because the county already adopted this exemption. So we know all of the folks that had this exemption on their town and county tax bill. So if we just recalculate said, well,
007what if they had on their school tax bill, what would have happened, right? And the chart tells us we would have lost $6.4 million in assessed value, taxable value across the whole school. And the next page will tell us what that will do or what that would have done to the school tax rate. So we're going to raise the same amount of money would have raised the same amount of money, 22.275 million, but the total taxable assessed value of the district would have been lower. So, the school tax rate would have been higher by 8 cents. But what does that mean in real terms? Property with a full market value of $100,000 $84 in taxes. $200,000 property 16 $300,000 $24. So, you're just redistributing that tax across everybody else. This is an as this is
008an attempt to estimate for what is how much money is really getting shifted around. It would be about 107 $17,600 being shifted from the folks who are getting the exact are not. Uh so uh that's senior assisted disabled exemption. The veterans exemption pretty much in the same analysis. Some things to note here. Um only two school districts so far in the county allow the veterans exemption. So it's not been widely adopted. Not many school districts allow it. And the two that do allow it at a very low level and they cap it at like $6,000 in excess cap. So it's not a significant it's not a real generous exemption for schools the property owners do already gets this exemption on their town and county tax bills. So, uh, the way the exemption works on the
009left for county town purposes, that's the way it works right now. The wartime factor, the veterans are during a period of war, we get a 15% exemption up to a maximum of 36,000. So, they cap it at 36,000. In West Tennessee, I mentioned they cap it at six. So, it's 15% or $6,000, whichever is less. In almost every case, $6,000 is less. So, since there's an additional 10% um exemption if the veteran serve in combat and an additional exemption of half of their disability rate if they're a disabled veteran. So 100% disabled vet will get an additional 50% exception again up to the the ceiling that you um so the county offers uh the exemptions on the left up to the 36,000. If you were to allow or were to offer the same exception that
010the county does, the school would lose $24 million taxable assessed value and the tax rate would have gone up almost 30 cents. So, same thing. If a house is a house worth $100,000 would pay $31 more and $31 more for each additional again because the tax rate is low enough. We're not getting less money just and this would shift around cost. the bourbon shift to other taxpayers would be about 400 $400,000. Uh the third exemption is an exempt a newly adopted exemption or newly allowed by the state for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers. This exemption replaces the previous one. Uh the previous exemption was only a $3,000 $3,000 of assessed value while firefighters or ambulance workers assessed value. So not super generous at all. Uh because of that, most volunteer firefighters didn't even bother with
011it. They took the income tax credit instead. So it's kind of hard to know how many firefighters qualify without getting a list directly from them. The new exemption allows a 10 10% exemption. Um, this is supposed to help with recruitment and retain of volunteer fire. Uh, really only had 37 of the current exemptions in the district. And again, I I suspect there's more. It's just that folks weren't taking it, so we don't really know what the impact is going to be. But given the small volume or small population of folks, I don't think it would be very impactful. Um, so this would we would lose uh about 875,000 taxable value be a little over a penny increase will cost $100,000 house about a dollar a dollar for every$100 and the total cost would be just
012under 15,000 um with that exception. One thing you want to have if you do decide to go ahead with that one, you have the option to decide how long a volunteer firefighter or ambulance worker has to work in order to qualify for it. Maximum is five years and a minimum is two years. So the county about two years a lot of towns that are adopting it are going years we're trying to entice people to join the fire department having to wait five years. I just wasn't super generous. You also have the option to choose and you must specify between whether or not allowance exemption to the unre unremarried surviving spouse of a firefighter died. So you won't specify that. Thank you. So at this time the purpose of the public hearing is for the board
013to hear from the community um just any questions, any concerns um so that it can kind of inform their decision before they move forward with any resolution um to to move forward with t any tax tax exemptions. So if anyone has any questions, any comments, this is the time we'd love to hear. Well, I guess uh I'm not sure how relevant this is to what you're talking about, but um Trump gutting Department of Education, I could foresee, you know, some severe cuts going on. And I think it would be of you to get ahead of this and try to plan for different contingencies even though it's impossible to know how it's going to fall out because uh ultimately there's going to be less budget for every school around the country because of this. I'm I'm
014assuming so you know like I used to work kids disabilities for 15 years and so that's near and dear to my heart. So, that's an important thing for me. I mean, I got two basically normal teenage kids, but I know that that is a very vulnerable population. Um, and also immigrant kids that are coming here. You know, what does that mean in terms of like ICE, I know there's a lot of open-ended things, but uh I think you should be thinking about these issues and trying to come up with uh policy or planning even though It may make you too vague or too soon to tell what's going on. I've lived in countries for 17 years, some of which were dictatorships, and this is looking a lot like this is happening. So, I'm telling you
015that this is a really important thing and I'm very very concerned about this and I live here. Department of Education my concern at this moment for you too for all you. Thank you. We are keeping our ear close to the ground and reading everything we can read to learn just impacts. Um so rest assured we are we are paying close attention to to make sure that they're in in good. Any questions or regard to the exemptions and we went over this but just to make sure to clarify. Um so these are each individual provisions that are being offered as options. So one or two or three of them. Correct. So it's not all right. So each individual one you can adopt choose adopt or not. If you did they would actually qualify for more than
016one. Yes. All right. No one has any other questions or comments. Okay. Well, at this time then we will proceed on with the the regularly scheduled board of education meeting. Um starting with recognition. Yes. Thank you. So um we have lots of recognition tonight. And um the first thing that I want to just highlight and here are a few pictures that really don't even do um the career fair that we had last week on Wednesday the 19th um for grades uh 8 through 12. These pictures don't even do it justice. It was quite an incredible event. um Tyler Cooper, Brian Stevie, and so many members of this community came out to um interface with our students so that our students could hear firsthand about different careers, different possibilities. Um many students were able to ask
017questions about how did you how did you end up in this career path? What's what was your education? What steps did you take? Um and so you can see some of the pictures from the gymnasium on the outer part of this slide. Uh the inner part um there was a a panel, a careerfare panel. And so again um we had many different careers that were part of that panel and we had students from 8th grade all the way through 12 participate and have the opportunity to ask questions of anyone on the panel. Um, and as you might imagine, our students asked amazing questions, very insightful. Um, just a day that made us all proud. So, kudos to Tyler Cooper, Brian CB. Um, and you know, again, we're we're all sort of in service of helping
018our students formulate their passions and figure out what they might want to pursue after they leave our schools. And then just another recognition um our uh seventh and eighth grade science teachers um particularly Megan New House launched seventh grade Mars project. So this is a project she does um each year with seventh graders and it's really project- based learning. They have to do research on how could you survive on on the planet Mars. um and students did a presentation um the night before, but then the day on Wednesday the 19th, they had judges come in and give them feedback and ask questions. Um so it was just a fabulous event. And um our students I I will say learned so much, not just on the content, but how to present, how to interface with adults
019um and again just lifelong skills. So kudos to our seventh and eighth grade science team. And then finally, and I will say I'm wearing my basketball shirt that this is this is the Marcelus boys basketball shirt that I wore all weekend. I did wash it, but um just incredible. First time our boys basketball team achieved the state championship. And um I will tell you, I was at both games this weekend and I just I have goosebumps just thinking about it now. It was an incredible win. Uh if you could have been there, if you were there, you saw our boys persevere under incredible pressure um to come out with the win. So just an incredible um incredible event this weekend and kudos to our teams. I just want to show you here are some of
020our youngest fans. Um just awesome. And here are some of our older fans with with their chest painted. But um it was a amazing turnout for Marcelis. Um it just gosh makes you really proud to be a Mustang. So um thank you to all the coaches, the players, the parents. Um it was it was a great weekend. And um so I'm going to shift into presentation um at this point. So, I do want to just sort of um alert everyone out there. Uh in the springtime, I did do um a presentation just sort of with an overview of um what is coming down the pike in New York State for um graduation requirements. And you may remember in the spring I talked about the blue ribbon commission um that New York State launched to sort
021of research um really sort of this next wave uh of students and education. And so um New York inspires is really the plan that um has started right now. It's it's in implementation right now um to transform how students will achieve diplomas. And um just to I will send this out um via parents square. Um but just so people can kind of see there are four transformations. And so New York State is looking to adopt a portrait of a graduate. What does a graduate that leaves a school district in New York State? What is that comprised of? What does that student look like? What skills do they have? Um defining credits and learning experiences. So um really sort of thinking how can we um create project-based learning experiences for students uh instead of just regions
022exams. Uh so you can see there suns setting diploma assessment requirements. It's not that the regent exams will go away altogether but there will be alternatives for kids to show what they know and what they've learned. Um and then uh moving to one diploma. So right now you or may not know there are all different types of diplomas. There's a local diploma, there's an advanced diploma. Um the New York State is moving to one. And so over um just the next five years, there will be a transformation to um what's expected in every cohort. And so right now um the 2024 2025 2026 cohort those are our um basically our seventh, eighth and ninth graders currently. And so that transformation they will start to see um students in uh sixth, seventh grade and fourth uh
023and lower that transformation will be in full effect by the time uh that they reach high school. So, um, again, this sort of just gives you a sense of the, uh, implementation of all of this change. Uh, right now, uh, New York State is in that planning year all through this summer. And then they will slowly start to, um, think about how the portrait of the graduate will be phased in as well as prioritized um, uh, learning standards. And then you can see over on the right hand side, fall of 2027 to the summer of 2028, that's when they'll move to one diploma. They'll some set the requirements for regions exams. Um, and then redefine seals and endorsements. Quite honestly, to some extent, this is being still built by New York State. So really, this
024is sort of an overview. We really won't have a good sense of what the nitty-gritty will look like. um probably likely until the fall of this year into next year. Um but just to give everyone a sense of what's coming with with New York State. And then the other um thing that I do want to just highlight, so our career exploration and egg um sciences building again is wrapping up. It's getting close to um its final stages and being able to be turned over to us. Um, Saturday, May 31st, we have an official ribbon cutting that starts at 9:00 am followed by a pancake breakfast. And um, what I'd like to do now is just give you um, a sneak peek at uh, a video that we have created just to give the whole community
025a sense of um, what this whole facility will be about. So, let me get that started. Hello and welcome. I'm Jean Charlotte, superintendent of Marcella Schools, and today we are here to introduce you to an exciting new chapter for our students and our community. We are proud to provide you with a sneak peek of our brand new career exploration and agricultural sciences complex here at Marcelus High School. At Marcella Schools, we are committed to preparing our students for success in an everchanging world. This state-of-the-art facility will provide hands-on learning opportunities in agricultural sciences, which are more important than ever as we face global challenges. From exploring sustainable farming practices to learning cuttingedge technology, students will have the chance to gain realworld skills that will set them up for future careers and lifelong learning. Whether they
026choose to continue their education or jump straight into the workforce, this complex will be a key stepping stone. We are beyond thrilled to bring the career exploration and agricultural sciences building to the Marcela School community. This facility puts us at the forefront of some of the most exciting changes being endorsed by the New York State Education Department. As the landscape of our educational system and graduation requirements seek to evolve within the next 3 years, this facility provides us with the flexibility and adaptability to not only keep up with the coming changes to public education, but also positions the Marcela Central School District as a leader in the career exploration space that has been established as a long overdue priority in the state of New York. And as future talks of regionalization continue, we are positioned
027to become a potential hub for both career exploration and agricultural education for not only our own Marcellis students, but also to serve the greater Fingerlakes region. The Marcelus agriculture program in the career and technology education department offer a variety of courses for students. We start with an exploratory course in sixth grade and students end with a capstone project management course in 12th grade. The Marcel's agriculture program provides a technical endorsed pathway approved through New York State. This is a sequence of courses that allow students to pursue a variety of areas that they might be interested in. The agriculture facility at Marcales will allow the agriculture department to expand its course offerings. Over the next few years, the department will grow to include new courses and potential technical endorsements in the areas of entrepreneurship and business
028management. These will provide additional experiential opportunities for diverse graduates. In addition, the Marcelus Agriculture Program was awarded grants to construct an unheated high tunnel and an orchard. These spaces will provide additional opportunities for hands-on project-based learning. Our KCH students are really looking forward to collaborating and engaging with Mr. Kellian and Mrs. Eaton in the agricultural instructional spaces. This is a really unique and special learning opportunity and experience that we are proud and excited to give our students. I think it will ignite connections crosscurricular and empower our students across various grade levels. Here in the kitchen is a flexible space where students create value added maple products along with taking what they grow in the greenhouse and get to create different foods. We saw students we use the space to learn more about product management and
029development. And now we're in the sugar house. This is where we'll take sap collected by the students from our sugar bush and make maple syrup along with a variety of other products. Our students will have the opportunity to run their own small business while working with local professionals. This is our wood kilm. The wood kilm will be operated by students in a number of classes to dry lumber that they've milled on our horizontal bandsaw. Students will have the opportunity to work with a number of wood species and incorporate them into the projects. The kiln will allow us to quickly dry lumber so students can work with the lumber from tree to project all within one course. This is the shop and this is the horizontal band saw where students can build lumber and then they
030could later use that lumber for their projects they want to do. Besides milling, this space will be used for a variety of experimental based courses including business development, small engines, building trades and carpentry and woodworking. you know, I've been in the trades for 55 plus years. And um when I was younger, I literally uh was taken by the shop teacher um in 9th grade to the night of the parent teachers uh conference. They asked me to work in the shop. And I'll never forget that where all the parents would come in and ask us to I operated all the different tools. And you know, that's something that's missing. That's something that's missing. And I've got to say Marcelus with Gene Charles and and Joe Killian and the whole Marcellus school system, their passion is to
031at least uh allow this buffet, I call it a buffet, uh this lifestyle of the trades being presented for kids to I I hope choose. Right now there's, you know, I did a little bit of homework here and there's $1.7 trillion in student loan debts. And right now there's $7.6 million job needs right now, not in two weeks, not in a month, not in a year that are needed right now and carpenters and masons and electricians and plumbers. And they're good paying jobs. And I'm not downplaying education by any means. I love education, but make sure you're doing something that you love. And again, Marcela Schools is putting this buffet out there so that you can taste some of this stuff. Say, taste some of the trades. And I'm hoping and praying that some of
032you kids, students will will realize it's a great way to make a living. I love what I do. I'm 75 years old and I'm still doing it because I love it. It's a great great way to make a living. Thank you for being with us for this sneak peek of our new complex and we hope you'll join us on Saturday, May 31st at 9:00 a.m. for the official ribbon cutting followed by a pancake breakfast. We're looking forward to seeing you then. That was our premiere video. Again, I think it's helpful for our community just to be able to see um what exactly is in that facility and how we plan to utilize it. So, that'll go out on uh social media starting tomorrow. Great. So, the next uh Tony, I think Tony is up with
033the budget update. So, we only have a few updates for you tonight. I'm gonna slide over here if you don't mind. So um you'll see I'm going to recognize a couple slides from previous meetings. So we want to want to uh maintain this the same uh structure here for meeting to meeting. just remind folks we're in this window of time where it's it's sort of like Disney World where you go there, you're all excited to get there and then you wait in line forever before you and so that's the that's the window of time that we're still in this February April window where um we're still working on solidifying our estimates to the expense side of the budget even oursis programs we're still in the midst of finalizing what services would utilize through Jean has
034been very hard at work with the entire administrative team uh because we we still are are in a in a deficit sort of mode where we have this budget gap to deal with. So they've been very hard at work trying to identify areas where we can reduce hopefully in most instances through attrition. And uh and last but not least, we're waiting for the state uh legislators to finalize their budget. That's the very very last piece usually in the budget timeline is the state adopting their budget. We have received uh one house budget bills from both the Senate and Assembly which both indicate are both seeking an additional 1% increase in foundation aid for districts that are held harmlessly like Marcel. So that would certainly help if that does happen. And then the last uh I
035would say the last big component to the state's budget process is the potential for uh even students of Marcelis to be entitled to a free lunch next year. That's something we have not been able to enjoy because of our relatively high wealth in comparison to the rest of the state, but the governor did propose that that um that that provision would be available to Marcelus next year as well. We're still very hopeful. will jump in the audience. You mentioned concerns about the federal government that that the way the tide moves, I guess, with the federal government, the things that they're doing could also have an impact. Even if the New York State were to support free lunch for all kids, that federal activities could ultimately impact that. So, so it's as I as I started
036out with, yes, it still is very much awakening at this time. Um, just again a reminder, we started with an initial gap of $625,000. Uh, before I get into the an update on where we are at budgetarily, uh, where that gap number sits currently, I just wanted to, uh, share with you that we there is a has been a revision to our tax levy limit calculation. And, um, I'll try to be succinct here as why. So last year if everyone's aware of this electric bus mandate and because of that mandate many of the bus manufacturers refocus their e efforts on manufacturing electric buses and not so much diesel buses. So the result was that from the time we order a diesel bus to the time that we receive it is about a year and a
037half today. Used to be four to five months. It's now a year and a half. And so that disruption from if we go back to May of 2023 when the voters approved the purchase of buses May of 2023 almost two years ago we're still waiting to receive all three buses. We still haven't received them. So that that creates a sort of a hiccup in how we borrow money. We can't we we really can't borrow money until the expense is is uh we can foresee the the incurrence of an expense. And so so that creates a disruption in the the timing of borrowing which also creates a disruption in the uh a factor in the lower right hand corner of this wonderful sheet that you see here titled capital expenditure. So long story short is that
038we are um the buses that were voted on in May of 24 those are now we're being told should be should be received of those buses by June. So what that means is that we can foresee that expense plus the expense of May 23. So the local share for the purchase of those buses now falls into the tax levy limit calculation and it was approximately I think it was $114,000. So that changed our calculation and moved it from 2.95% levy increase to 3.46% increase. So full disclosure, we we do need to post this on on the screen and make you folks obviously aware of our tax cap calculation. So this is now the final figure. It's at the very bottom as I mentioned 3.46%. So where are we as of uh today? So, if we
039were to find our way down this list, when we get to about midway reduce 0.4 FTE physical education teacher, that's where we were left off on February 10th. The next four lines were are decisions that have been made since then, since February 10th, where we intend to reduce a 1.0 custodian one position, 1.0 FTE response to intervention position type is one position. Those three you'll notice on the right are by attrition. Uh the fourth reduce a 1.0 FTE athletic trainer that is a reduction in four. So that's a a person who's currently employed who would be laid off. You can see here the next two lines actually the next one line next study next line captured debt service associated with the May 24 bus purchase that's what I just finished talking about tax cap calculation
040then the other um the next line reduce appropriated fund balance that that was been sitting there since February 10th and then the last line is ties to capturing a debt service. So the the third from the bottom we have to add that expense in our budget. The last one is as I mentioned the tax levy limit uh adjustment going from 2.95 to 3.46. So after all that being said our current gap where where we sit today is about $400,000. So that that is a number that we still do need to address and as I mentioned earlier and her team are working on that. Uh we are hopeful that when we come back to you at your first meeting in April, I think it's April 7th, that by that time we will have a budget in
041place for you that folks will be able to uh does anybody have any questions? Jess, does the increase in uh potential increase in the one house bills, the foundation aid, would that get us significant closer or is it quential uh that's about 90,000. So an additional 1% would net us around 90,000. So, so yes, it would it would take a pretty good fight 400,000. Um, and we are we are hopeful, but I I if I if I could make a guess, I would share with you, but I Thank you. Right. Uh, moving on to agenda four, resident comments. Public expression at board of education meetings is encouraged in a specific portion of the agenda shall provide for this privilege. In most instances, the board shall receive reserve judgment regarding questions and concerns that are brought
042to 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. Are there any resident comments? Okay. Moving on to business 5.1. Uh it is resolved that the board of education approves the attached resolution establishing the propositions to appear on the ballot at the 2025 annual district meeting and election. And we need to take a vote um by person. We have a motion. Motion. Amy, a second. Second, Erica. Thank you. Okay. Um, can go around. Christine is absent.
043I'll see myself. Uh, Catherine, we're going right individually. Yeah. Sorry. You know, this is typical. We see this, you know, each each year the library um is, you know, they they obviously use school districts. They have to to um be able to um levy their taxes for for library services. And then um you see the buses, we're purchasing four um buses and um there there will be four that we dispose of because of age and typically those go to auction. Tony, I think you said when they go to auction it might is it 300 uh each bus might net to around 6,000 today per bus. Okay. So much less than where we're where Let me where you may be confused. So um so right now you're establishing the propositions to be on the ballot. Yes.
044And we're not voting on the budget at this point. You're just so in the the budget component for the school, you're just authorizing that the proposition for the budget app if you're on the ballot. Okay. You uh aren't voting on what that number will be until April 7th. Okay. Yes. Okay. So, Katherine I Josh, I Justin. Hi, Erica. Hi, Amy. Hi. and then myself I nos. So [Music] car and moving on to 5.2 2. Uh, second and final reading of board policy. Uh, result of the board of education approves the second and final reading of the following board policy which is you can see there policy 1210 board of education nomination and election. May I have a motion? Motion. Justin second. Second. Katherine, thank you. Any questions on that? That's just the the student board
045member edition, right? We had to update our policy to allow for the student board member that's going to be required by law starting July 1st. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Moving on to 5.3. Uh, authorization to execute amendment to the tax collection agreement. Apologies. uh resolved that the board of education authorizes the superintendent to execute the amended tax collection agreement the town of Anadaga. May I have a motion? Amy and second Josh. Thank you. Any questions on that was um we were making that change from the retirement. Right. If if you remember, Elaine Potter retired um last year and we shifted um where um our residents can pay their taxes because there wasn't anybody that we could locate locally and um we can't do it in the district office because we have students in the
046some school districts they have a separate district office without students. So um it poses a real security issue to have people coming into our our district office which has students um you know in in the building. So, um, we contracted last year with the town of Anadaga to collect, um, our school taxes on our behalf. And, um, I think, and Tony can can sort of, um, elaborate on this, but, um, I think it was more than what they expected, the number of people that, um, come in in person. And so, they're requesting for the from 2025 to 2027 that we increase $2,000 for them to to do that on our behalf. Thank you. Any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Moving on to 5.4. Authorization of settlement with Tuscarora Golf Club. Uh is resolved that the
047board of education approves the attached settlement agreement with the petitioner Tuscora Golf Club Incorporated for a reduction of equalized assessment value. May I have a motion? Motion, Erica. Thank you. Second, Katherine. Thank you. Any questions on that? All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Okay, moving on to personnel. 6.1 uh is resolved that the board of education approves the following personnel items. You'll see there's three there. May I have a motion? Motion, Josh. Thank you. Second, Katherine. Any questions on those three personal items? Just, you know, a shout out to Rick Belo. He is the Z teacher at the high school. He's an institution in Marcelis. So, just we're excited for him. As you can see, he wants to come back and sell. So, we'll be glad to have him in that capacity. we still get to
048to see him and interact with him, but um just a beloved teacher and coach and um we're excited for him in his next chapter. Uh all in favor oppose car. Okay, moving on to uh approval of consent agenda items. As a result of the board of education approves the following consent agenda items that is 7.11 through [Music] 7.16. May I have a motion? Motion. Thank you Amy. Second. Oh, Erica. Thank you. Sorry. Any questions on those? Okay. All uh all in favor? Opposed? It's okay. All right. Yeah. So, we just have a few information items. Just a a note that our 2526 school calendar was approved by the board on March 10th. Um that was sent out via parent square to all families, but it's also available on our website too. Just I know people
049like to plan their vacations ahead of time. It is available now. Um, another just a information item, um, the Chamber of Commerce, um, is doing a logo contest. So, putting it out to our students and any student, any grade level who wants to develop a logo for the the Marcelus Chamber of Commerce, um, they will take all of them. They they're looking to have those by April, um, and then decide which one they're going to choose. But what a great what a great opportunity for our students to um you know have have that logo if if it's theirs chosen. Um just a fantastic opportunity. So um if you want more information on that um you can reach out to either um the mayor Chad Thark or myself and um I can give you that information.
050And then the next thing that I do want to just I'm going to ask um Mr. Montgomery, our assistant superintendent, who oversees uh the professional development for our teaching staff. Uh just to give an overview, we had a half day staff development day last Wednesday, the 19th. Um and then we have another one coming up on March 31st. And um Bob will just sort of give a a little bit of an update on uh the work that we're doing with our staff. Sure. So while our students enjoy some time away from their studies, the teachers continue on. Uh so here are just some highlights from 319 and then some that's coming up on Monday. Our ELA team is continuing to review ELA curriculum. So we're now down to two wonders in benchmark advance. So that
051team is about 15 people from UPK through grade six along with RTI, one of our L teachers and special ed. We also are um continuing our work from August of 2024 and that's under the multi-tered systems and supports also known as MTSS. So our teachers this on Monday will be working with a liaison from Boseis to learn more about MTSS and how that translates into um their practice at tiers one, two, and three instructionally. In addition to that, Mike Dingman, who also is a Boseis employee, will be um working with sessions with our teachers on the responsible use of AI and how it can streamline their prep work and also um their workload as well. Our grade level uh departments are working on goals that they established this year. Those can range anywhere from aligning
052curriculum vertically and horizontally to um redoing assessments. We had secure secure messaging training. So as a data privacy officer to transformation our transmission of information back and forth from the district to other entities. Uh we put into place some training for our key staff members there. Our special ed work under Cara Lux is going to be working on case management and transitioning for IEPs. We're also involving in a wellness hour uh this 31st. So the teachers will have right now they have a choice of golf cookie decorating March Madness shoot around in the gym with coach updike uh some walking and some book club uh pieces and exchanges and recommendations as well and that'll be an hour. In addition to that um some of our teachers are going to the Museum. They're supporting a countywide
053day on the 31st. A lot of districts have that office of professional development. So they offer that. So some of our teachers are going there suicide prevention training and awareness for educators. We have a team going there on the 31st as well along with um our I Ready. It's a benchmarking and progress monitoring system. Our goal is to have a system that is just for K8 students, one system versus the two that we have now. So we're continuing that training and piloting there as well. Happy to answer any questions if you'd like. Sure. All right. Anything else? Good. All right. So, at this time, uh, we will be moving into executive session. It is resolved that the meeting in public be adjourned and an executive session be convened for the purpose of discussion of employment
054history of a particular personnel. May I have a motion? Motion. Josh, thank you. Second. Second, Justin. Thank you. All in favor? All opposed? So carried. The time now is 6:51.