001Thank you for joining us tonight. Uh let the record show only Mrs. Toll is absent. Oh, I think I'll still be today. Uh we'll call Mrs. Toll. Please stand and join us for 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, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Does anyone have any questions or have there been any changes to the agenda? Uh we added the presentation of Nicole Nilesac Nilesac and then approve her appointment as a senior typist. Okay. Does anyone have any questions on the agenda? I'll do that. Mhm. I'll get a motion to approve the agenda. I'll move. Okay. I'll second. Thank you. All in favor? I vote
002aye. Opposed? Motion passed. >> [clears throat] >> Has anyone signed up from the community for comments? I did. Um for open community comments. >> At the end? Mhm. Okay. And we'll catch you with at the end. Have you Have you ever spoken before? Yeah. Did you really? I just want to make sure you realize that the the beginning part is for agenda items and the ending part is for non-agenda items. So, if you want to speak now >> items? What? Non-agenda items. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that you signed up for the right one. Yep. So, we have two presentations. The first one is Agrobuzz. Are we expecting anyone else? Nope. Okay. All right, Board of Education, I'm really excited to present to you our Agrobuzz crew or part of our Agrobuzz crew,
003I should say. So, Mrs. Lochner, who you know, is one of our ag teachers and with her to talk to you about Agrobuzz is McKenna Breen, who joins us from Sodus, Mitchell Short, who's Marion Marion one of Marion's own, Marion's own >> [clears throat] >> and Cody Chandler, who recently joined us from Red Jacket. So, we've got a great representation here for you and they're excited to share some of the great things happening in Agrobuzz. So, my name is Cody Chandler. I recently joined the Agrobuzz program from Red Jacket. Uh another person who recently joined was Emily Rodkin. Uh she's from Blue Hill and then McKenna and Jake from Sodus. Uh I'm really excited to dive deeper into the Agrobuzz program, learn more about FFA and all that stuff. While we have it up, Cody,
004can you tell us what that picture was right here? That's me holding the ferret when we were doing that's uh Wasn't it um Ag literacy Ag literacy And then some of the classes that we take throughout the day are intro to ag and plant science. And then some of the different things that we do in these classes are plant care, plant of the day, pest control is like some of the things that we learn about. And then we also do a lot of floral work, especially before our competitions. And and intro to ag we will do SAE work and then with plant science we took a trip to Cornell's um research facilities. [snorts] And then we also do things like making wreaths for people to take home or to sell. And then we also maintain
005the courtyard and pick berries to make jam. Mhm. What is SAE work? She's going to come back to that. I will come back to that. [laughter] So, we also have an animal room in our classroom. We have We do it with other community partners like um Cracker Box and Sodus. Um we've fostered bunnies, guinea pigs, and many more animals. We take care of them and we also have the FFA day where it we pretty much bring all sorts of farm animals like cows, horses, goats, eggs, maybe. I >> [laughter] >> But it's also really fun cuz then you get to show the public that we can we know how to take care of these animals not just at home but at public. >> [clears throat] >> And then a big part of what we do
006is FFA and it's been in in the school for about four or five years, maybe. And we do different things like different trips, um nationals, states, which we are going to state soon in May. And then some states in Cobleskill. Certain things that we do is also community service work like in some of the pictures you may have seen back there, we went to Cracker Box and we will help out with trimming bunny nails or cleaning stalls or anything like that that they may need us to do. And then we will do competitions like LDEs and CDEs. We do have FFA day and FFA week which we bring just different FFA based things into the school like we'll hide around cows. I'm sure some of you guys noticed the cows around. Um and then we
007do different fundraisings fundraisers, sorry. Like we do our meat sticks, our shirts, um different flower sales, fruits, cheese, and many different things like that. Uh and you guys hear a lot from our FFA members, um our regular Marion students, but I think the kind of cool part thinking about here is that already our Agrobuzz students are fully like in You can see McKenna's already wearing an official dress. She is an officer. Um Cody went with us to the Finger Lakes Invitational. McKenna's competed in LDEs. Um so, they're already getting the full FFA experience that our regular Marion students are getting now. Uh we took trip to SUNY Cobleskill a couple weeks ago. And we we got the chance to do a college tour. Um I was one of the members of ag mechanics to compete.
008Um McKenna did milk products and evaluation. Um we learned a lot about uh like what we can do to improve in our competitions and um we practice at home or at school. Um Yeah. And then back Going back to our SAEs, um personally my two SAEs are like the What are the effects of fetal growth restriction in lambs? And then my other one is um the difference in growth between laying hens and meat birds. Uh my SAE is around welding and mechanics a little bit. So, one of the projects I've been doing on is my old [clears throat] tractor I got over summer two years ago that I've been working on. Um I've been making yard art, selling on our fruit stand. And that's about it. Uh my two SAEs are about ag mechanics. I
009recently went over to Monroe Tractor in Canada to talk to them and see if I can maybe get an internship. And then my other one is with Jake um to do landscaping. And then different things like we also have other members that will We get bunnies from Cracker Box and try to help them get adopted like we take the ones that have been there for the longest time. And Ainsley has is now working on Sally, but in that picture is Blanco and he got adopted. And then Jenna's also working with bunnies. And you can see We also have people that do goats here. Everyone loves the goats. >> arrived today. And they're very cute. [laughter] They are very cute. Um and then another SAE too since Austin's not here, he's working um on grain harvesting.
010Uh this is him working on his SAE in the fall and then he and Mitchell are working on a research one and what are you studying? Uh it's about how different types of fertilizers like uh it affects um corn growth. So, basically, which fertilizer will grow or make the corn grow the fastest in the short shorter time. And then, in the next few years, we will have a program expansion for all schools around the region, which we already kind of have, being that we have Cody and another member, [clears throat] Emery. And then, obviously, we attend Marion all day, and then we have our ag tailored classes. This year, it's only ninth grade, but next year it will be open to ninth and 10th graders. And then, they get the 2-year 2-years from CTE certification
011um in two pathways. And then, with the program expansion, you'll get the um unique agribusiness and large animal opportunities as we expand. Uh what's to add? Would be more opportunities for state mention this year. Raising livestock, our annual banquet, which is on May 31st, save the date. Yeah, you'll receive invites. We um Sun- Was it Saturday or Sunday that we did the egg uh Saturday. Saturday at Cracker Box, we did a uh egg hunt with them. Um food science, agribusinesses, ag mechanics, college, environmental science, ag literacy, and elementary day. Um lavender festival, and much more to come. >> [clears throat] >> Any questions? I didn't forget this time. >> [laughter] >> I I have a question. You mentioned you sold like the wreaths. Do you have sold Do We don't sell the wreaths. The students
012get to take them home with their families. Got it. The wreaths? We we do not sell the wreaths. I thought we sold wreaths. Sorry. [laughter] Actually, I still HAVE MY WREATH. SORRY. WE DO not sell wreaths. >> have products [clears throat] for sale? Um we have looked into it before selling. Um we make wreaths, and we also make um like the candle centerpieces. Um but there was conflicts with existing fundraisers that didn't want us selling those products. Okay. Any questions? Yeah, we sell them. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Two of you came from other schools. Were you nervous coming to Marion, or were you welcomed in, or were you welcoming, or were you like I How was the transition in? How was the transition in? No hate to Soda, but I definitely like it a
013lot more here. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, she guys were very welcoming. And at first, it was like just a little bit weird, but at least I had Jacob with me. And, you know, he made it a little bit better just cuz I knew someone. But, yeah, it was Amazing transition. Well, from coming up from Red Jacket, it's definitely smaller than Red Jacket. Um uh very welcoming. First day, Mr. Rogers, before he uh left, um helped me with my schedule. Helped me find everywhere where I needed to go. Um and then Mitchell helped me. Mitchell, Austin, and Jake helped me find my classes cuz I had two classes with uh Austin and Jake. So, very welcoming. I I'd say that. And hopefully, I have another friend at Red Jacket who's trying to do welding
014also. Um hopefully, I can steer him towards over here to get that full [clears throat] ag path. Okay. So, you're willing to refer us. >> [laughter] >> Thank you so much. >> Really great work. It's really really good. Yeah. Of course, thank you FOR COMING TONIGHT. HARD TO FOLLOW UP, BUT WE HAVE A BUNCH OF DISCUSSION AFTER THAT. >> [laughter] >> GREAT. You're welcome. >> [laughter] >> They were good. Sorry. I'm hoping you can top it, but To top it in what way? Yeah, keep cuddling things. We have a spelling We still spelling. It's water. It's not my water. Thank you. It is water. >> [clears throat and laughter] >> All right. >> [laughter] >> So, we will get started with our um budget presentation. We wanted to give the board an update of where
015we are in our budget development. So, we'll go through a lot of information. So, just some check-ins around revenues and expenditures, um the legislative budget priorities. And probably all of you are aware that like New York State has not actually passed their budget yet. So, no on-time budget. So, we'll be basing our budget off of predictions of what we think will happen. Um we'll talk a little bit about true value tax rates, um a more in-depth look at the expenditures in specific areas of the budget. Um we'll have time for a discussion of the board budget, so the board can give input on the direction you'd like us to go. We'll talk a little bit about contingency budget and what would happen if we needed to go to a contingency budget. And then, we just
016have a update of the next budget dates. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Walker and Mr. Kellerhouse to walk you through this. So, we basically have two sources of revenue for the school district that we can increase. Uh one of them is the foundation aid. The governor's budget had a 1% increase, which is amounts to a little $94,000. And the other is our uh tax cap levy, which we're looking at going out at cap at 2.48%, which is $169,000, giving us just a little bit over 260,000 in new revenue sources. Um unfortunately, our expenditures are fast outpacing those. We have a healthcare increase of 14.5%, and that's for active employees. And our legacy healthcare for people who are retired, we're looking at $292,000, which is already above what our new expenditures are.
017Uh that's due to a 40% increase in Medicare costs and the 14 and 1/2% for anyone between the ages of 55 [clears throat] when they can retire and when they become Medicare eligible. Uh wage increases are around 4%, and then we have increases in inflation and half of all of those things. So, [clears throat] as Dr. Lloyd mentioned, um some of the things in the legislative budget that are being considered is going from a 1% increase to a 2% increase in the foundation aid. That would give us another $94,000. Uh they're also looking at making some additional changes to the foundation aid formula moving forward. Um they're looking at putting $2 million into a teacher pipeline to help with some of our teacher shortages that were everyone's experiencing right now. Um some of the big
018things that would directly impact Marion money monetarily would be the changes in UPK. Right now, we have different pots of money that UPK comes out of. They're going to combine that all into one, as well as increasing the per pupil cost 10 grand for each person as opposed to I guess it's over nine right now. Uh we're looking at a $10 million set aside for an AI literacy grant. Um they're also looking to allocate $18.6 million into a uh fund to help pay down prior aid claims for districts that weren't fully funded for a while. And we're looking at $100 million to help support the zero emission school bus um transition period. We're looking at improving uh the support infrastructure and actually purchasing the buses cuz they're significantly more expensive than our current gasoline and
019diesel fleet. Um our actual true value tax rates have decreased since 19 of the 1920 school year. And that's because the assessments of property values are outpacing the tax cap increase. So, our tax cap increase is going up 2.4%, and houses are increasing at a much rapid a much more rapid pace, which means that the true value tax is how much you pay per $1,000 that your house is valued at. So, it's gone down about $8.19 since the 1920 school year. Um we're not going to have the actual uh ones for next year because they don't come out until July at this point in time. Um but, it's a 36% reduction in the actual tax value. And the trend will continue to increase as the housing market continues to expand exponentially faster than our tax.
020All right. So, let's [clears throat] take a look at each area. Uh so, the first area is the administrative piece, and you'll see that um the Board of Education is flat. Um you look under the district office uh on the left-hand side, you'll see some of the rationale of why the changes are there. So, contract services uh we're increasing for financial and auditing. Um we had a legal cost shift that went from a BOCES line. We we used to subscribe to BOCES for some of our attorney fees. That's getting shifted to regular contractual. And then there was um some breakage. Um somebody's retiring soon. I don't know who that is. Um so there's a little breakage there and then also um there's a little breakage with the uh superintendent secretary. That's a That was a
021new newly filled position. Okay, so for facilities, some [clears throat] of the main culprits here, uh if you have a noticed the past two winters were a little bit harsher than what we've been experiencing in a while. So our snow removal uh costs are have increased because it's based on per trip that they come in um and they assist with the elementary, the high school, as well as the bus garage. They do the main areas where our crew will take care of the sidewalks. Um we also take care of some of the main areas during the day if especially on some of those heavier snow days. Um utilities, everybody's small aware of utilities. That has gone up dramatically, especially uh the months of January, February, and March. Um so you can see that the that's
022where that red is coming from. Uh on the increases. Uh general support and education, uh so we had a staff reduction in the district office. Um basically we had uh eliminated one position. Um that's where you see some savings there. Um and then you'll see an increase um in the BOCES line and that is because we had some grants, the community schools grant, which no longer exists. So we're able to subsidize that uh through some BOCES through BOCES. Uh special education and student support, uh you'll see a lot of movement here as well. Uh so we're bringing [clears throat] back some of our special education to self-contained classrooms within the district itself. So that has impacted um our salaries, right, for the need for additional special ed teachers as well as um TAs and aides.
023So that's where you see that significant increase. However, you'll also see a significant decrease in our contractual services uh through BOCES and consortiums because now all those students those expenses gone away and they're coming back into the district. Uh transportation, uh the big one of the big things to notice here is that uh again snow removal uh for the bus garage underneath the upkeep of bus garage, you'll notice that the that's gone up uh about $10,000. That's the main culprit of why that's gone up. Uh also salaries are, you know, little Oh, the one other thing I'll point out is um just so everybody's aware, uh for transportation, virtually every every aidable dollar that we spend, which is almost every expense in transportation, we get back roughly 78 cents on the dollar for the that
024money is spent. Okay, um I think we visited this before, but I think it's a good reason to show what's happening with the budget. So this just shows the history again of um some of our retired health care. But one thing that I I really want to point out is you'll notice from '25 '26 to next year '26 '27, we have almost a $300,000 increase, which is all of our new revenue. Um That's the one thing that I wanted to point out in that slide. And here's the overall budget when you combine it all together. So we have a total budget uh increase of 5.34%. Um if you look at just operating expense only, which means you're removing the debt service. So the debt service decreased a little bit. Um so our operating expense is
025at 5.75%. So what's the bottom line? Well, the bottom [clears throat] line is um we've made some reductions through attrition, which equates to about $261,000. Um we got service. So now is the time before we move on to like thinking about our talking about like what happens with contingency budget and then the next steps for the budget, we wanted to like pause and get the board's feedback to answer any questions the board might have, um to talk specifically about the SRO position Rich didn't highlight it on his slide, but the in our budget that we've presented, the SRO position is not included in this budget. So that's something um for the board to talk through and also um if the board is interested in us in doing any budget revisions in terms of additional position
026cuts behind that beyond that 261,000 that are due to attrition, again, you know, we're trying to put out what we feel is a fiscally responsible budget, but also knowing Dr. Tim's was just here and presented to us and he recommended a much bigger reduction than what we're proposing. So this is your chance if you have questions, we're happy to answer them um and then any direction you want us to go. So I have a question, but not so much getting rid of additional positions, but is there anyone that we do hire that we could hire through BOCES instead of just hiring direct? And save money that way. So that wouldn't work for our teaching positions. Uh we do that currently for like our cafeteria services director. Um I can't think of anything like that I
027would anticipate us hiring that would be able to be a BOCES [clears throat] position, but that's certainly something we can like Or is there a group we could ask, could you move there for 3 years while we're figuring this out while we're treading the waters of health care right now? A group? Like the whole group. Those who work in cafeteria or teachers aides or is there a group? Oh, oh. Well, the thing with BOCES is while we're going to do it We don't want to cut anyone. Yes, that's a great cut anyone. That's a great need to make some kind of a change so it doesn't cost as much. Yes. The issue it's not an issue, but like the reality of a BOCES employee is by the nature of using someone as a BOCES employee,
028they have to be a shared employee. So they can't work full-time for Marion and be considered a BOCES employee. Um Yeah. The the other piece to that is that they are a BOCES employee. So we do not have any control over they could reassign them. Um and then typically the when you're talking about shared services, so when the past uh we used to have the data coordinator, we used to share that through BOCES. Um we have the uh computer services assistant that was shared through BOCES, which is now one of our cuts, reductions. Um And food service is another one. Um Outside of that, you really don't hear of too many other shared type positions through BOCES. Could we talk to them and say, what else can you offer us? Cuz we can't be the
029only people in this position. Mhm. Someone else has to be asking, even if it's minor online thing that that they do for another school, does that count? Like can we get creative with that? We can try. I think the struggle will be then they no longer are a Marion employee. Do you know what I mean? So >> And you would have to be able to figure out how you could share somebody's time and still get the time that you need to meet certain needs. But like just again going off my lane trying to think through things. >> [clears throat] >> Can we talk to BOCES about providing food service? Is that a coaster that they could look on to provide? Well, food service isn't part of the general fund. Uh those employees are. The employees
030are billed for the food service, so we have to reimburse BOCES. So they come out of the yeah, lunch fund. Okay. But just like a group like something like that, is there a group of people, I don't know even Our mechanics. I think I I Mechanics, I would say are rough. They're tough because you want someone that knows your vehicles and what was done on it. You don't want to worry about who's in there that day versus not in there that day. Mhm. Um I don't know I don't know if there's anything like that, but I just know the more we funnel through BOCES, the more BOCES aid we get and the less it comes out of our local and we can increase that BOCES aid. We keep every service, we just have more income
031coming in. Cuz ultimately that means we have to cut less staff over the next several years. I think Yeah, again, the challenge would be technically you would still need to like reduce that person. Like they they just aren't Marion employees anymore. They're BOCES employees and then they're >> pay for their service. You know, there's still cost there, but you get certain amount of aid back on the BOCES cost. Yes, and we like also can't necessarily guarantee that BOCES [clears throat] would hire our people. our people or that they would always be assigned to Marion, that they would then you know, be able to be assigned in any of those districts. >> And we go to them and say if we want this to be like a 3-year agreement and they're coming back. We don't like
032we need your help to make this happen, but we need you to not do your normal. There are like they might have to run through you. BOCES but they're our employees. We want our employees. We want to say. >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, I I mean, I'm always willing to like talk to them. I that's just not how they operate. I would guess that's >> them have operated, you know. It doesn't mean they won't. Some of them just not a best. Maybe. Still have the issue of they would have to be shared with another district. We can't keep them full-time. I'm not saying there's any group that we can do this with, but it's a thought. Cuz yeah, looking at our numbers over the over the next 3 years, that $261,000 cut doesn't do it.
033No. So, the like recommended reduction this year was 1.3 million. Obviously, we're very far from 1.3 million. So, again, that's why like we don't have the SRO position included and like we feel like right now because of timing like it's attrition that we're using to like have these reductions, but certainly like if the board feels like we need to increase that reduction, then we can come back next meeting with some other ideas, but next meeting is when we would have to approve the budget. So, that's why we're looking for our feedback now. So, as it stands now, the cuts just be through attrition. Mhm. And that is for just the rest of this school year or So, it would be >> [clears throat] >> these are positions um that like for example, one of our
034elementary teachers is retiring and we're not going to refill her position. Um we have two aides that actually those positions um we didn't refill. They were like people who left mid-year and we didn't refill those positions and we won't refill those positions next year. Um similarly, when Nadine retired and Sandy got her position, we haven't refilled Sandy's position. Um and then the BOCES part-time computer services support, that is something that um between Dave and our senior computer services assistant, they feel like they can handle the tech department. So, our other that's a reduction of a BOCES employee's time working with us. What about Nadine? Through BOCES. Uh they don't currently share they don't that's not a shared position through BOCES currently. Like they only have specific positions that they offer. Uh that's not one. We
035could look at that's something we can look at sharing certainly. I just don't know that BOCES would handle it. I don't know if we can make it work. I wonder from like a teacher perspective if um if if if teachers where they are in their seniority um know that over the next couple of years there's a good chance that their position might be cut. If they know that and are able, you know, to take advantage of other districts that are hiring. Like I saw recently that Webster has their probationary positions up now, you know. Um I don't know. I just I would I would have appreciated knowing that. Mhm. There was a there would be a good chance that I might lose my job. Yeah, and I think that will be like that's a conversation.
036I think thinking ahead to next school year, I think we need to have like a community-wide conversation with like all the stakeholders about what's the direction we want to go because, you know, in looking what at what Dr. Tim's presented, like we can get through with this plan that we have for this year. Then as we look further ahead, it gets more and more difficult and like then you have to resort to more and more drastic measures. So, I think really it's going to involve all of us like having a community-wide conversation with staff, with parents, with other community members to say, "Okay, what direction do we want to go?" Because really like the options are the same as it would be to think about closing I guess any like budget gap. Like you have
037to think of that either from like what can you do with a tax levy or what can you do in terms of making reductions. >> Right. And like we've talked before, certainly we would look at every area like supplies, equipment, all the things, but as you can tell from our budget, like the majority of the district's budget comes from in costs related to staffing. So, How and the other question I had was it was mentioned the expansion like of the Ag Ag program. [clears throat] How how do the programs that we have now um that are so successful, how does that look um as a projection in our budget as far as those programs growing and having other districts take part in them. So, we currently um Ag program operates on like a tuition type
038of basis. You'll have to refresh me. Maybe around $22,000 a student. 24. $24,000 a student. Um similarly, like we would as we like continue to grow that programming and hope to like operate as the CTE satellite location for BOCES, that would also be like a tuition-based uh programming for students. So, those are things we can like look at projecting out depending on, you know, how many students we get. So, about four students in that program is about $100,000. Is that 20 Is that all our district money or do we have to or does BOCES take a cut of it for administrative? I I will say that, you know, 2 years ago when we were in similar circumstance and we knew it was coming because of the federal [snorts] funding ending and then the curveball with
039the save harmless the district was very very thorough and thoughtful in terms of how they handled that. Um unfortunately, we did have to make cuts then, but we notified everybody in February. And in many cases, they had jobs by April. Um and when these sort of cuts happen, the districts let other districts know say, "Hey, if you're looking for these type of positions, please, you know, give our employees a look." And again, that all depends on like what direction the community decides they want to go, right? So, if people feel like I personally feel we're staffed pretty tightly to our enrollment, right? Like there's not a lot of space to make reductions without cutting programming for students. So, and that's just the reality, right? So, if people are opposed to that, the solution to that
040is getting people to agree to override the tax cap. Like you You know what I mean? Like there's and that's I think a difficult conversation of like you're left with two great or not great answers to your issue, right? Like nobody wants to see us like reduce programming and opportunity for kids and certainly nobody wants to like pay more in taxes, but you know, that's something that like we'll have to have I think like a real reckoning with as a like that's a big community-wide conversation that needs to start next fall so that by the time we hit this time next year that we know what we're going to put out is what the community is going to support. >> Right. Are we missing a special ed position in the attrition for the high school?
041Oh, because of our retirement from last year? Not yet um because we haven't finished like we're still the building our schedule for the junior senior high. So, we don't know 100% for sure yet if that's a position we really like wouldn't need to fulfill IEP minutes. >> Okay. >> And the reality is is this is the budget. So, we don't need that position. We don't have fill that position. We just don't spend that money. Then that money could be reserved to spend the next calendar year. So, there's always the risk of trying to reduce our expenses so much that then we have large cost students moving into the district and we don't have the money to pay for that. Cuz once this budget is approved, it's approved. So, we have to have some flexibility in
042there. And Dr. Tim's made a very strong point of reduce expenses, not necessarily your budget. Because you need to have reserves to pay for all the unexpected expenses that are going to come out. Um because What was it? How much did we pay to fix a lift or replace a lift? It's like to repair? Yeah. 106,000. Which is 300 to replace. Yeah. But that was still $106,000 we didn't have budgeted that had to come from some place within the approved budget. We're not allowed to go back up and ask for more money. Can I ask a question? What What was that lift? We You can ask later. Um how much? Um but it's just one of those things like so, if we don't spend it, we don't spend it. It's not like we as a
043district are of the mindset we spend all the money we budget for. Like we've never done that way. We put it in reserve and we pull it back out out of reserve when we need it. So, it's more important to cut the expense than it is to get the budget line items uh perfect right now. And we're we're kind of in a position where we're like you said, getting ourselves through till next fall when we have to have the more serious reckoning conversation. So, getting this approved is not we're not at a point where we have to talk about, okay, where can we trim down and what are we going to have to get rid of in this budget necessarily. We could I think like if the board said to us tonight like we want
044you to change that number from 261 to 361 or 561, then it's our job to go back and make that happen and come back next meeting and say, here's the budget we're having you vote on and here's, you know, what's included in it. Because that doesn't come close to what Rick Tim's said. Right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Neither would 361. So, there's really no You're not You're hurting yourself for You get $100,000 out of your budget faster than you spend it. Right. Which is And the sooner you get it out upsetting an entire community. The sooner you get it out, the the less the long-term impacts are. Uh then the less cut you have to do overall. Right. But ultimately I mean, I'm not interested in going any higher than what you guys have already projected.
045I think we're I'm okay riding this ship out and seeing where we end up. And I think >> that extra 1%? >> [laughter] >> Yes. Hopefully we'll get to actually vote. >> almost to the 350. But I do think like that's one thing that I love about this community is like I think this community is a community of problem solvers and people who are willing to like lean in and like come to the table to like figure things out and that's like my hope for next fall that people will like come in and have it be a collaborative process for us because this will not be easy by any stretch of the imagination. So, I think like the more we can mobilize the collective to like come in and problem solve this and think about,
046okay, what are our priorities and how do we reflect that in our budget? Uh that's going to be the most important thing. Well, then there's no way There's no way the community is going to override the tax cap this year. No, and I think like that was a clear piece of >> the reassessment plays out and people actually see what happens to their taxes. Sure. So, we know we're we're going up 2.58%. as a whole. But that's going to impact every person every homeowner different depending on how the value of the property changed compared to their neighbors. And I think that's such a big unknown right now and a big lack of trust in the process that there's zero chance of this year overriding it this year. So, by not by not adding the SRO,
047we're you know, basically that's $120,000 we're not adding to the budget. Um so, it seems like a logical step um and it does give more time for planning. >> [clears throat] >> Like I'd hate to rush and say, we need to cut another $200,000 out of the budget and you got a week and a half to figure this out. Good luck. Um we're going to make the we're going to make a wrong choice somewhere in there and that doesn't help anybody in the long run. Right. Yeah, and I think it's important that I know I feel like I am feeling like we are throwing around a lot of numbers and we're looking at this like a spreadsheet and a budget, but we're playing with kids' futures and people's livelihoods and I don't want to I
048don't want to make the wrong choice. >> play Yeah, like like gloss over the, you know, profoundness of that. So, I'm not interested in making any more cuts than what you guys have already provided. I think we stick together like you said and our community will rise to the occasion when it's time. But notifying as soon as possible so that Yeah. and prepare. Yeah, absolutely. And I think like I do genuinely think that like the scope of what we need to do moving forward based on that five-year projection, like we need to genuinely start in the fall to start thinking about like how are we going to manage this moving forward. Put the numbers out there we got from Dr. Tim's. Like they need to see >> [clears throat] >> what that actually looks like.
049Because when you look at those projections, there there isn't a choice but to do something. Right. I just keep Someone has to see those health care numbers and know and realize people cannot afford health This isn't Yeah. reach. Yeah. That's a common theme around the country. It's one of the biggest topic is the increased health care There's the rural schools association, the national one that they're having six virtual meetings and obviously one of the big topics is health care. And I know a lot of people think New York costs are high. My daughter went to the doctor in Ohio. Over $200 more for the appointment than the similar appointment costs up here. I'm pretty sure I signed up for that six-week course or the six session Like it's not It's not just a New York
050problem. Like Right. Like what we're actually paying out of pocket [clears throat and cough] to the doctor on the same plan is $200 more for a visit. So, it's I I have to believe in the next I don't know how that functions. I think it was a half-hour appointment. It's expensive. It can't It's not just us like you said, it is nationwide. Someone has to see this and fix it. Or the whole nation goes down. I mean, they can't be what the only other option is. Yeah, but we can only control this. Right. I I think where we're at right [laughter] now is justifiable and I I think we can justify this decision now and I just think as early next year as the conversation started, it has to start. All right. Well, I think
051we're if you're the board's comfortable with that, we're comfortable with that and we can move on to talking about contingency budget and kind of what that means. So, contingency budget um if the original budget gets voted down, the district is left with two options. We can either go out for a second vote and we can use the same budget or we can trim it down or you can go straight to a contingency budget. If you go out to a second vote and that vote goes down, you automatically go to a contingency budget. Um as pointed out by Dr. Tim's, a contingency budget adds a significant [clears throat] more um I fiscal stress to the district because of the limitations that it provides. We're going to talk about it in a minute. Um we also looked
052at the numbers and a contingency budget would mean a loss of a million dollars over the next five years to the district in increased tax revenue. That's what we'd expect for next year really because Um so, some of the things that go into a contingency budget, uh you can't buy new equipment. Um there's no bus purchases, which is going to put us behind trying to get our fleet up and running so that we can not have to buy electric buses as soon. Uh there's no capital outlay project, which means our buildings aren't being kept up as well as they are. Uh the administrative percentage cannot increase over the previous year. Um and there's no increase in the tax levy. And the loss of the 2.48% levy this year would amount to a million dollars in
053time of five years. So, it's a significant loss to the district if we end up going down that road. And as you can see the difference between the budget we're proposing and a contingency budget is about $250,000. Um the next steps at our next board meeting on April 22nd, uh the board needs to vote to adopt the budget. Um then on May 5th, there'll be a budget hearing at 6:00 in the library and then followed by the Board of Ed meeting. And then on 19th, we'll have the vote at the elementary from noon to 8:00 p.m. Does anybody have any questions either about contingency or our next budget steps? I will also say the 22nd, our next board meeting when the board adopts the budget, will be Rich's first day of retirement. So, Rich will
054not be with us for that. Uh but Kyle and I'll be here and walk the board through that. He'll be good to go. >> [laughter] >> That's your one-day retirement. No. >> [laughter] >> All right, thank you. So, we added to the agenda to talk about the tax waivers for disabled veterans. Um we talked about it. We couldn't remember if we had completely closed the circle on that. Um so, we're going to bring it back up. I remember we were saying we weren't going to do it because we what it could roll into. Snowball into. Does anyone remember that conversation going differently? It's all It's changed. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. ask is what was that I read that change like two or three times and I'm like, I still don't really
055know what this means. So, now it's it's no longer The board has nothing to do with it. It's and it's mandatory. Right. Which means that it's between the town assessor and the disabled vet. And then once the town is if it's approved, and it's very difficult to get approved. It automatically goes on the tax rolls. Yeah, so there's no more like there's no more choice. Right, down to the vet. >> [clears throat] >> That's what I was gathering. >> pretty strict parameters. They have to be 100% disabled with significant events. Like it's probably a small pool of of veterans, but Probably a couple, two or three in our district overall. Right. I wouldn't begrudge them the benefit. All right, so we have now closed that. Yep. Do any board members have any reports or discussion
056topics? Okay. We'll move on to our student reps. This is Mia. Um I mean, it was spring break. We didn't really do much in school, but uh the choir and band kids went to Disney. Um we got a chance to perform at Disney Springs in front of a lot of people, which was fun. And we all did a choir workshop with Disney cast members and the choir Disney cast member was actually a graduate from Marion. So, that was really cool to see that they came from a small town and worked their way up. Um in terms of sports, um a few of the track people went to nationals and so did Zach and for wrestling and they all did great. Um spring sports are starting soon. Some games started. Some games keep getting postponed. Um
057and the juniors and seniors are starting to sell donuts to help pay for prom. So, if you're interested, talk to a junior or senior student. And yeah, that's all. How was the prom? It was good. It [clears throat] was fun. Not that many people, but not much you can do when you're a class of 37. >> [clears throat and laughter] >> It was good. Fun time. Thanks. After movie. Our best to you. Back to me. I have a very short update, just one agenda item and that's the Marion bicentennial celebration. Um so, just so the board is aware, um we're going to have the a celebration for the town of Marion's bicentennial on April 15th at the elementary school. Um that's when they're going to do the mural dedication and the Pomeroy marker dedication. So,
058of course the board is more than welcome to attend. Right now we're planning on around 1:30 and it'll just be short, like 1:30 to 2:00. Um so, we um will have the town supervisor will be there to speak. Um Teresa will share a little bit about the mural and like describe what's on each panel of the mural. Um kids will have the opportunity obviously to see the mural and to hear about and see the marker. Um and then we have the historical association has put out a little like bicentennial newspaper. So, all the students will get a copy of the bicentennial newspaper and our um high school Knights Cafe students have made cake pops, so everyone gets a little bicentennial cake pop treat as well. So, um you're more than welcome to attend, but that's
059uh hopefully something fun that's on the radar to celebrate the bicentennial of Marion and the importance of what has been happening in our community. That sounds pretty exciting. That's great. Here we go. Really quick. Uh so, the financial report uh the bottom line is essentially the same as the last financial report. There was a little bit of movement in increased expenditure, but there was also a little bit of increased revenue, so the bottom line basically didn't change. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve? I'll move it. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Abstain. Motion passes. two step up Don't like it. All right. Administrators. Um in terms of things that are going on in the educational office, um working on our planning, you know, it's really
060April, but um that's a part of it. And also just there has been an uptick in the amount of um professional development surrounding the Board of Regents agenda around New York State inspires. So, continued information about portrait of a graduate. Um there just recently was a webinar specific um with additional information about personal finance requirement that goes into place next year. So, they finally released the educational objectives that have to be met. And so, now um going through looking at what we currently offer compared to what we're required to do to see where we need to add things um additionally. So, it looks like most of can be invited into things we already have. We just may have to um add a little here and a little there to make it a little bit more
061substantial, especially at the um commencement level. So, the 9 through 12 requirements. Um also, I got the opportunity to attend um the Smart Futures conference at BOCES um right before uh spring break and AG Giuliani was brought in as the featured keynote. He specifically um spent time talking about how to turn any unit into a project-based learning and assessment opportunity because that really will be um New York State is not getting Regents rid of Regents exams. That's going to be one measure of how students can um demonstrate their proficiency in not only the portrait of a graduate skills, but their academic but there's going to be other ways. And so, districts are going to have to do problem-based assessment. Um and so, it was just a really good foundation of of ways to think about
062that and how to use AI um appropriately um in terms of of how we're going to have to shift because students are going to need to know how to utilize AI. Um and that will be one of the components they're going to have to demonstrate is their ability to do that, but how to not cheat with AI, but to use it specifically. So, um he talked about um that it's not about the product that you create, it's the process that you use and you can't AI can't help you articulate the process that you use. It can help you create the product and it's not about the product, it's about learning that happened to to get to the end result. So, that was very beneficial. Um and then upcoming to kind of play off of that,
063New York State is having a middle level high school specific um guided everyone in the state will get the same information at the same time. That's a a new thing that they're doing, um, about, um, performance-based, uh, learning and assessment in in terms of what the state is going to be expecting, um, as we move in that direction. So, um, and then there's also another state training coming up about, um, doing and looking at your math curriculum, what the state expects you to be thinking about in in terms of making sure your math curriculum PK-12 is aligned to their, um, best practices. And then also, I'm excited. I told Ellen this the other day, I was supposed to go to a Visible uh Visible Learning conference. John Hattie was coming from like Australia and he's
064like the guru of all educational rockstar people like on the planet right now, but he couldn't come cuz he had a a blizzard. Um, so he's coming. I can go and I'm part of a small group of people that I asked to have lunch with him. So, I am very excited to have lunch [laughter] with John Hattie. So, That's so cool. The educational geek in me. I appreciate your educational geekiness. Um, so for special education, we're continuing with annual reviews. There's 53, um, CSE meetings this month. We have two current CSE referrals at the high school. Both of those have been referred by their family members. There's three current referrals at the elementary school, two referred by family and one by school. And for BKCs, we're at about 3,500 right now. And, um, here's a
065good one from this month. Uh, always like it. I tell staff when they send BKCs to be very specific, right? What are we specifically identifying? And so, this is a student who sent one to a teacher, um, to Mr. Shue. Mr. Shue's one of our PE teachers. He gets a lot of BKCs. He also sends a lot. So, this student wrote to him, "Your light participation." So, light participation, remember he's a PE teacher. So, your light participation to even out the playing field helped make the game fun. So, I thought it was very specific that he only lightly participated. Probably he would have like dominated the game if he actually participated. >> [laughter] >> He's, um, a very positive BKC sender. That's it. Um, at the elementary school, we have our parent-teacher conferences. The spring
066one's coming up this Friday, so it's a half day. Uh, actually before we went on break, we had the K-2 musical, which was a new experience for me because we didn't do it last year and it was super cute, like so cute. Um, really great experience. We should always do it every year. I wish that like more of our teachers could like come over and see it, too, but I don't know. I don't know how to make that happen. >> [laughter] >> But I know they wanted to, too. But it was wonderful. So, I'm really glad that, um, that we brought that back. State testing is starting at the end of this month. Um, we'll have ELA testing the last week of April and then we have math testing the first week of May and
067then the following week is our site fifth grade science. Um, at our grade level meetings, so I meet with each grade level once a month, we're going to we're starting to talk about next year. I've already started to kind of plan that stuff out. I always frame it in like hopes and dreams, like I want to know what their hopes and dreams are, but I can't make them all come true. Um, so we're having our hopes and dreams meetings, uh, this month. We just ended our month of, um, our character trait for teamwork, so the teachers are submitting their nominations for our teamwork, um, recipients and we started our month of courage, so it's really going to be about having the courage to try hard things. Um, and oh, we actually had a visit from
068another district to see our integrated UPK program. And, um, to quote one of the administrators, they said, "Wow, your teachers are amazing." Um, it was really cool because we, um, had a teacher, a brand new teacher in there, too, who like all these administrators walked into the room to like watch her present, uh, to the kids. She knew that they were coming but didn't know when, so it was they did a wonderful job. I mean, you have some students that, um, they're young and they're in an integrated setting for a reason, so the teachers do a great job with them and including them in everything. Uh, lastly, I just want to say thank you to the the, um, the board members who did the read-alouds. I know that's like an uncomfortable thing, so thank you.
069I do appreciate it. Anyone that still wants to do it, you're still welcome to. Awesome. Um, a lot of what I've been working on is BOOST related, so our like after-school programming that is like tutoring, mentoring. It's up and running. We got it up and running in like February. It started and we've slowly grown and I feel like things are starting to really get moving. They seem to be having like building a good sense of community in that little after-school program and that's going well. It's like steadily growing and we hope to continue to grow that throughout the rest of the school year and into next school year. We have defensive driving or driver's ed up and running, um, and that's an exciting thing to be able to offer. And then most recently our night
070quests got up and running in March, so we've had, uh, fun with florals. Mrs. Lachner, who was here with the ag students, she led one. Um, board game fanatics with Mrs., um, Goodman. Culinary Quest, which Amber helped with as well as, um, Mr. Madison. And then we Mrs. Buckles ran volleyball and I just finished up or most of got through part of, uh, smoothie lab, which was a messy adventure. >> [laughter] >> But if you worked over break, you got to sample, which was fabulous. >> [laughter] >> And so, the next thing that's coming up, um, part of our BOOST program program is starting some Saturday events, so we'll be having our first Saturday event on, um, April 25th. And, um, it's like got a wellness health and wellness theme and so, our smoothie lab
071students will also be offering their samples there in case you missed them and weren't working over the break or weren't here. [laughter] Um, but that's we're currently planning that and that looks to be an exciting thing. Um, then some like boring things I've been working on like claiming for BOOST, so you have to like submit your expenses to draw down the funds and so, that's a learning experience cuz well, we've never done this before. And, um, working on helping write, um, some new grant applications as well. So, we've got a couple things out there that we're hoping to hear from. And most recently we did hear that we were awarded, um, $13,000 by ESL for summer activities. So, now we'll be, um, looking at how we're going to be implementing some of those activities. Um,
072so at the junior-senior high school, we're having the ELA state exam next week for the seventh and eighth graders on Tuesday and Wednesday. So, we have a lot of things finalized for that, um, and have just a couple things left to prepare to get ready for those days. And other things, we're in a lot of like I call it like a preparation stage for this month. Um, we are finalizing our students round table lesson where students are going to NES on the 21st to work with the sixth graders on soft skill lessons. And then they'll be doing the same here in the ELA classes for seventh and eighth grade. We are finalizing our elevating student voices project that will be showcased at the Youth Summit at BOCES and Bailey Graham, um, is going to be
073providing opening remarks for that day, so that's really exciting. Um, and then we've received our teacher recommendations for our next group of web leaders, so we'll be starting the process for sending out applications, um, and determining our next group of student leaders for next year. We are, uh, it's always when you get back from spring break, like, here we go, [snorts] the end of the year is almost here. So, um, we're prepping and getting ready for those end-of-year activities. A couple of invitations to our board members. Our senior decision day will be on May 1st. We'll have an assembly at, uh, right after arrival, so like 7:50 in the morning. Um, and that's a pretty neat event that I would love to, uh, welcome you to. And also, our spring showcase will be on May
07413th in the evening at 6:00. Another great event. So, mark your calendars. Congratulations to Ashley Osborne for being recognized for the 2026 Martin Luther King Jr. Student Service Award. Congratulations to Aaron Meyer, who was honored with the Superintendent's Award at Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES. Congratulations to Shawn Meyer, who was honored by Senator Helming for junior leadership. Our, uh, Casey mentioned our driver's ed has been going really well for the 10 seniors that, uh, selected to participate. And a big shout-out to Mr. Scott Kingsbury, who runs that program for us. Uh, two students have passed their written permit test here at Marion junior-senior high school, which is a new thing that we're offering. So, congrat or congratulations to them and thank you to Mrs. Ajello for running that. Uh, Lid mentioned spring sports are in full swing.
075Catch-up test soon. Disney trip was a huge success. Lydia said more than I can, but thank you to Mrs. Main, Mrs. Guck and all of our chaperones. And upcoming dates, on Monday we have our spring instrumental concert, Tuesday and Wednesday state testing and then the bicentennial ceremony on Wednesday as well. So, tech department, our ticket report in the last month, we've closed 62 tickets, which did include a week at spring break, so that was kind of handy. Um we did uh just submit our 3-year tech plan. Um every 3 years we have to submit to state ed kind of a vision of what technology looks like in Marion. Um we submitted it, it was returned, was approved within less than a week, which was really really handy. So um that was done and out of
076the way. Um and we're kind of right now kind of preparing to make sure we're ready to support both buildings when they're doing the CBT or the computer-based testing. Um tends to go really really smooth, but we just like to make sure we we have spare devices and people where they need to be and just ready to support that. But yeah, getting ready for the end of the year. All right. Next up, policy review. This is our second reading, so we'll only voting at time. Did anyone have questions on policies 7580 through 7690? No? We have a motion to approve? I'll move it. Thank you. Second. I'll second. Let's put it to vote. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion passes. Consent agenda items are next. Anyone have any questions on nine items,
077two were new tonight? No? What happens to the buses once they become surplus? We auction them off. Okay. Um I know we have traded buses in in the past. Yeah. But it trend has shifted. Used to be more lucrative to trade them in. That's why we went with the auction route. All right. We like money, so Any other questions? Was there a question? Okay. Can we have a motion to approve? I'll move it. Thank you. Second? I'll second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion passes. We do now come up to community comments. You said you have spoken before, so you know the 3-minute rule, no names. Sure. Or you want me to read the No, I'm good. Okay. You do either of those or I'll stop. That's all right. >> [laughter] >>
078I appreciate the time to talk. My name is Eric Potter. I'm a proud community member. Both my daughters go to this school and I care very much about this school district. Um Marion does a lot of things very very well. I mean >> [clears throat] >> we have a state champion in wrestling. We have a great music department. The FFA is the one doing well. We have a great music department, offer our students a lot. It's shocking to see what in the short time that [snorts] I've been a member of this community, 10 years, how our enrollment numbers are dropping crazy. Um we're down about 32% in 10 years in enrollment. Home uh homeschooling's up 15% up to 80 students and that's growing. Um this is a business. This school is a business and you're
079losing your customers. You even have faculty members now that are pulling their students out of the school. So I'm concerned, obviously, the community might not be. Based on those numbers, the school's hemorrhaging money and putting band-aids on gunshot wounds. Um I think you guys are delaying the inevitable or going out of business, basically. I was in all the meetings with mergers. Um now there's talks about alerting the community in the fall. I think we should do it now. Um there's a lot going on and I feel bad for everybody that's making these tough decisions, but it's even worse to watch it happen with zero dialogue with the residents. Um the community's losing trust in this district. That's that's what's going on. The students, some of them are at the end of their uh their career
080here. Some are just beginning. Some are in the middle. Um and I think if we don't figure this out, I mean with the enrollment numbers, they're your customers. The more customers, the more money you get from the state, the federal. And that's a tricky slope because a lot of people are losing confidence in the public education system. So Palmyra Christian Academy's putting a third addition on since COVID. Get people are willing to spend money for their kids to get education. You know? You can't tax your way out of it and you can't cut your way out of it. You got to You got to figure it out. Otherwise, nobody here will have a job. So I mean, Northville had to do it. Holmac had to do it. Climax-Scotts had to do it. Galesburg-Augusta had to
081do it. There's a reason they're all hyphenated. They ran out of money, so that's all I wanted to say. I'm very sad that nobody's here, you know? We do stream, so we do have We do stream. No, I know. I mean people are busy. I mean there's a lot going on. Spring sports are going on. I have two students that are doing sports and extracurricular stuff. I get it. Um but I don't know. I just want to say my peace. I think you guys do a great job. I think we have a tricky situation, but you know, the money's going to run out and then you're going to have to make a real difficult decision. I know my 3 minutes are up. >> [clears throat] >> Healthcare's expensive. Maybe you guys could look into self-insuring
082up to a a certain dollar amount. Um Thank you. You know. Whatever. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you very much. >> Yep. Thank you. All right. We have a motion, please, to move into executive session for the specific purpose discussing anticipated tenure appointments and the personnel. I'll move. Thank you. I'll second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion passes. We'll be moving into executive. There are no students, so we don't have to excuse anything other than media. >> [snorts] >> Thank you.