001Yeah. >> Good. We'll just wait for Mr. Petta to return. There we go. >> No, go right ahead. >> Call this evening's meeting to order and uh start with the pledge to the flag. 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. >> Okay, thank you very much. Uh welcome everyone and uh we're going to uh start our meeting tonight with uh availability of the board for comments from the public or press if there's anyone here for that reason and I'm not seeing anything happening there. So we'll move on to uh information and reports from board members and we'll start with uh Mr. Andrew David and his uh student exeicio report. So, um
002I met with the uh junior high student council and um here are the notes and uh concerns that they had. Um so on the first thing um the the junior has a uh student council has a lot of uh involvement with the students. They have uh at least 20 members showing up to every meeting with um up up to 35 with with um I believe it was 28 showing up to the meeting that I was I was there for. Um the a lot of them are there to participate in the uh setting up pep rallies and dances and they're very very involved uh overall um and even more so than I'd say from what I see from the high school student council. Um the pep rallies especially have seen a major increase in involvement in
003both teachers and students with up to 75 students participating at the last pep rally. Um and the and teachers from more than just the uh core participants including uh guidance counselors and Mrs. Jared herself as the uh student council adviser. Um the one one of the major complaints that that they did have was um about the locker rooms and specifically uh either rumors that were spread or um just the general chaos I guess of um middle schoolers when left in a room generally unsupervised when under um subs. Um, uh, one student I talked to who had who was a ninth grader on the track team actually mentioned that, uh, it was almost an extreme lack of care from the substitute teachers that were monitoring the boys locker room. Um, I have brought this to both
004Mr. Burke and um, Mr. Holiday, the administrator at uh the junior high. And um it it's being handled, so there's not a lot to worry about, but um it did come up in our meeting. So um the student council elections are actually very involved. Surprisingly, the um the students create campaign videos, posters, um they um encourage other students to vote for them and the entire school is involved unlike the high school student council. During advisory, they share um a presentation with um videos that the student council elects have um put together and recorded themselves as well as um Google forms for every student to fill out um making sure that not just those who are super active get a voice, which I think is something the high school should probably consider. And um but there
005were a lot of um a lot of members participating in this election with I believe it was five for um vice president, two for president, two for secretary and three for treasurer. Um which is uh a lot more than we see at the high school actually. And um I believe our uh a couple of roles often run unprotested. Um and if if you wish I I I am able to share uh the videos put together by the students but um a few of them were very embarrassed by the thought of me presenting it to the board. So um please ask for that individually. Um, another thing that they uh found very helpful was the advisory. At the junior high, you get about 25 minutes at the beginning of the day for um clubs, activities, um
006like getting to know other students, uh bonding, um as well as um announcements from the teachers. Um they have social emotional learning activities which are basically just um for people to help regulate emotions, uh organizational skills, um different methods of learning that might be helpful to different students and as well as like video recaps for the building which have uh interviews um interviews of sports. And in the future they would like to include interviews of clubs and extracurricular activities. Um the student council has also taken on um creating a video for uh anti-bullying. It was brought to their attention by an anonymous eighth grade student who wanted to write a script that they would uh produce. This is um the recap video that um that was shown in one of the advisories as a uh
007in the form of a newsroom interview um that was created by the student council. You can skip through a little bit. Oh, that's not uh this slide was not supposed to be here. That that video was supposed to be the end. I believe you have to be in presentation to view it, but >> Yep, that'll for but that that was just the uh video that was shared in all advisories one of the days. >> Okay. >> Any questions? >> Uh quick question. >> Yeah. >> On your last >> the one before last slide you have direct club there. Is there a reason for that? >> Oh yeah. So, um the uh the slides that are presented at every um at every advisory. Um there are different actions that are going on in school like the
008um uh positive recognition ceremonies and as well as auctions which started out as a uh one of the teachers providing dollars which were just cut out pieces of paper that um the students could earn and then use at a classwide auction. And um but it has expanded to the whole school where um different teachers will bring items or the school will provide items that students can uh bid on every week. And so um the week that Mrs. Jared was informing me about, they had a $20 direct subs gift card for auction. Were you surprised at the uh level of activity and enthusiasm for the student council at the junior high? >> I was impressed to say the least. >> So, >> well, thank you. >> Anything I'm sorry. Anything that you saw that you feel
009like the the high school student council could kind of emulate? Um I think the involvement in the the tasks that I um that the high schoolers try to avoid say um setting up for dances. I know setting up and take taking down is often a a task that very few of our student council members show up for. And from what Mrs. Jarrett was telling me, a good portion of the students actually show up to help decorate for these dances. and and the elections. Elections are pretty cool. >> I was just going to say thank you for reaching out to the junior high. I think that was a wonderful idea and really to see the connection and maybe as you say high school can learn something from them. Very good. Well, it's also good because other
010without a report like you just gave, we would really have no idea um of of what's happening with the junior high student council. Um doubtful that we would have much of an idea what's going on here at the high school either, but uh um your um bringing this information back to us is really very helpful. Andrew, um, why do you think that they have a greater involvement than the high school does? Do you think it's who the advisor is or do you think it's because it's just a more cohesive group of students or what what was your take? Why are they more successful? Um well I think it was more of the the culture in that classroom with the uh with the adviser. Um it's much more like you want to be there, you want
011to be involved versus at the high school people are just there to be with friends basically. I notice a lot of people sit in groups and chat during meetings versus uh trying to help uh provide information or ideas for say the spirit week that happens and uh or ideas for the pep rally, but >> they they were just more um just more happy to be contributing to the conversation. So maybe they maybe the students felt more engaged like their that their voice was being listened to and their ideas were being considered. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I I think the uh the high school has it more set up as a uh a presentation with a bit of a Q&A. >> So there's uh the vice president and presidents at the front give a speech
012or go over some slides and they ask for recommendations. Versus at the junior high, everyone sits at tables and then Mrs. Jarrett will announce something. The different officers will say their piece and then everyone can contribute to the conversation at all times. Any other questions for Andrew? >> Thank you. >> Really interesting uh report. Uh we'll move on now to the policy committee report. Uh Mr. Monroe is not here. Is there a member of the policy committee that uh could just walk us through that uh the notes? >> I think those are other duties as assigned. So um we had a good policy committee meeting. We reviewed policy 5551, the allocation of title one part A funds. That was a review only, no updates. Policy 5570, financial accountability. That was also a review only with
013no updates. 5571, allegations of fraud. Again, another review only, no updates. We did look over current policy 5574, which is Medicaid compliance. The law has changed now and we are looking at possibly recommending a recision of this um at the next board meeting. The uh the policy now is required if you have a million dollars or more in Medicaid recoup. We don't um even under the current policy of 500,000 we're not there. The reason that we would possibly be would be recommending a recision is there are some um aspects of that policy that we don't don't currently do and I don't know how we would do some of those. So again, if we don't need it, it's probably a time to get rid of it, but we'll bring that back at the next meeting. Policy
0145580 was reserve funds and again that is a review only. Policy 5620, our fixed asset inventory and accounting and tracking review only, no changes. We did look at an Eerie policy number 3220. It's not one that we currently have, but was asked um at one of our previous board meetings to take a look at and that is the use of um assistance animals. We looked at the Eerie one policy. We also looked at four schools locally that have it. all pretty much the same based on the Eerie policy. We decided not to go further with this one as it is a matter of law with Americans with Disabilities Act and let the law stand and rather than create a policy >> and I believe those are all that we talked about. >> Any questions for
015Mr. Burke on the policy committee notes? Okay, I'll we'll move on then to uh the president's report and uh >> if I can say something that facilities uh >> sub commmittee met Monday I don't have to report we didn't create any report but we met because we saw a presentation of the two uh two good vendors and the board four of us here so the subcommittee was there and the administration team was there and also Deon Gavin Rean was there to listen to that presentation about the turf the type of turf we could have to replace the current turf and we have two different vendors and we looked at the options and there's good options out there. So, we are waiting for the for the bid the RFP to go out and then we'll see
016the price. But in the meantime, it educated us on what to look for and what to select down the road. So, it was a two-hour meeting we had Monday, this past Monday. Okay, that's it. >> Any questions for Rober? All right, we'll move on to the the president's report in that case. And uh I've just got a very uh very brief um report on uh the legislative meeting uh that uh trustees Poretta and Murphy and Mr. Burke and I uh all attended on February 27th at Boseis. uh Senator Steek, uh W and Walzik and Assemblyman Gray and the chief of staff for Assemblyman Blankenbush were all there. Um the discussion uh revolved around um essentially six legislative priorities that Bosey's leadership feels uh are in need of uh additional consideration um in the state budget.
017Um, they include revisions to the foundation aid formula, full funding of universal prek, uh, more money for capital outlay projects over $100,000. Um, the workforce shortage uh, issues that uh, the region is experiencing and how the legislature could assist with things like housing incentives and uh, easier interstate certification, transfers, uh, that sort of thing. and civil service law uh improvements um as well as the need for additional funding for special ed services. And the big issue of course uh that they saved till last um was discussion about the the zero emission bus mandate. Um just very briefly on on these u issues, I feel like we have a lot of support from our local legislators. Um there seems to be uh quite a bit of agreement that while it's great that foundation aid is fully
018funded, it still doesn't help rural schools as much as it should because of the outdated nature of the um foundation aid formula. Um there seems seems to be agreement that if the state is going to mandate universal prek, it should be fully funded. Um uh an increase in allowable capital outlay spending is really needed so that we can do um regular maintenance of school buildings and and not have to rely on uh every five or six years when we do a capital project. Um, and of course there is full agreement that the EV bus mandate needs to have major tweaking or a slowdown in the timeline or some sort of different approach u something to allow time for technology to catch up with the transportation demands of rural schools. Um the attendance uh was very
019good. Um there were four of us from our district there. uh most of the other districts uh in the Boseies were were represented um and uh the lot of good uh back and forth discussion on some important um funding issues. Um I certainly um would love to have anyone that was there um that maybe took better notes than I did um talk about anything that that they took away from the from the session. Trish, Kevin, >> you've summed it up nicely and there's probably not much any of our legislators can do about it because they're on the wrong side of the aisle. True, too. >> We'll find out somewhere late in April likely when the >> dysfunction comes to rest what we're going to get. Okay, that uh that ends my report. Um so we'll
020move on to reports from administration and I'll turn it over to Mr. Burke. >> So we're going to change the order just a little bit with Mr. Hagget's permission. Um so Mr. Lincoln, I apologize if we could put transportation up first. So Mr. Room, I'm going to ask that you present. Um, the reason I'm doing this is, uh, our transportation director will probably be back in the office by 5:00 a.m. in the morning and probably on the phone with me at 4:30 talking about snow. So, like to get him in and out and uh, so he's fresh in the morning for us. So, this is Mr. Jacob Room, our transportation director. Could Could you could you please move closer to the microphone? I don't know if it's on even. >> Can you hear me? >>
021Yes. Thank you. >> Do a general overlay of our department. Uh we have 42 vehicles. 30 of them are Msina Central School vehicles, 66 passenger buses, and we have six state aid aid buses. Um, three traverses now. Actually got two brand new Traverses just came in. So, the van is going to be replaced. Uh, we have a shop pickup truck and then we have two handicap units, uh, 66 passenger and a 30 passenger. Overall, we have four buses for this for Msina for spares and two for state ed for spares. Uh we have 55 employees now down there. Uh 28 bus drivers. We have one float bus driver. The other one has moved up into a position. We have three mechanics, two 12-month and a 10-month. a secretary, a dispatcher. Um, and she works 3:30
022to 5 most of the time and then Raiders night she works till 7. Uh, we have 20 bus aids and we have a subd driver, but he's currently in Florida. Uh, there's 17 fixed routes in the district. There's four fixed routes on the reservation. There's one PSPK bus. There's two Pot Stam ABA buses. One Canton, one Agensburg. And then throughout the middle of the day, we have 11 buses running back and forth to SUAT Tech. These these numbers come from sheets that Tracy keeps track of. Um, this is from last year, so it should be close to similar. Uh, we have we do about 3 to 4,000 miles a month for the district buses. Uh, 3 to 3500 for the state ed buses. We do about 48,000 miles for the district buses yearly and 42
023for the reservation buses. The shortest runs are 15 to 20 miles a trip. The longest are actually I see one that's about 88 miles a trip. We average 38 to 45 um no during a month transporting them for Msina district kids. We do about two to 3,000 for the reservation kids. the this it's kind of interesting to me but February is the lowest for ours but October was the highest and then for the uh state ed same thing March is the highest but February is the lowest we average yeah 95 to 100,000 kids a year in that 10-month time. The district is 122 square miles. Goes from Chasefield, Chase Mills to Northfor to Brazier to the territories. The territories is about 19 square miles. Our oldest bus is a 2018. Um our newest are 20
02426s. We just got five of them. The highest mileage is 93,000 and the lowest is 1,700. Uh the state ed ones, they are older and they have a little over 100,000 on our two spare ones. They're all diesel. Uh the cost of a bus several years ago was about 100 grand and now it's up to 170 without options. And that's a diesel. It's not a It's not the EV ones. Uh we try to keep a seven-year turnaround. Uh if we go past that, we get a lot of rot in the bodies and the back and everything. And DOT doesn't like that. We've added a few options. They're all safety feature options. We've put safe light lights for the school bus and the stop signs. They're very bright. uh double handrails going up. Uh the steering
025wheel, we move the controls back to the steering wheel because it's a lot safer for the drivers functioning. Uh there's a light over top of the dome or the entryway now so the kids can see getting on when it's early in the morning. We have integrated car seats so they just pull down and you have a car seat built into the school bus seat itself. All headlights are LED now and we retrofitted the whole fleet LED as well. And then if you haven't seen them, the red with black lettering, it makes them look really nice. the cost uh we all know it's going up but from my experience being the mechanic and then moving over a fuel tank they last five to seven years most and they're they've gone up $1,000 uh alternator now over
02618 $2,000 $1,800 $100 and then breaks. Used to be able to do a whole bus for about 800 bucks. Now it's close to two. And appreciate your time. Uh questions now. >> Yeah, Jacob. Um when we're talking about tires on the buses, each bus has each 66 passenger has six tires, right? >> Correct. Okay. So, um about how often now do you replace the tires on the diesel buses? >> They go anywhere. It depends on the route. >> Yes. >> So, the the steer tires really wear out quicker than the drive tires. >> The drive ones will go about 30,000 miles pushing it. The the front ones maybe 10 to 15,000 miles, but they tend to chop. And so then we have issues. That's why we got the balancer and the tire machine. >> So
027if we went to a EV bus, about how long would you suppose that those tires would last? >> I the studies aren't out there enough for the EV buses. Yeah, >> they don't weigh they don't weigh too much more than a regular bus. Uh they're a little over 30 and a regular is 29. So that I think the biggest thing would be the steered tires the same. So I couldn't honestly tell you without having them for a little bit. >> Okay. Thank you. Are are you seeing increasing fuel costs now or are we locked into a state contract that is sort of mitigating the the spike in in gas and especially diesel price these days? >> So the the gas fluctuates that one fluctuates but the diesel were locked in. >> Okay. When when does
028that come up again? >> Beginning of the new year. July one. >> July one. Okay. probably uh expecting to see a pretty big increase then, huh? >> Yeah. And a delivery a uh we normally get 5 to 8,000 gallons delivered at a time. And from what I can remember, it's about 20 grand for a load. >> And uh I had one other question. Do do you have any idea what accounts for the fluctuation in student ridership in varying months? No, I I honestly don't. >> That's interesting. >> Yeah, I thought that was an interesting thing as well. >> Uh you mentioned a um the price for a standard bus. >> Yeah. >> Um I believe it was type C. Uh what are non-standard buses and like what would the different costs be? Do you do
029you know off hand or >> so the what I mean by standard is just bare bones. No accessories anything like that. That's what that's what I mean by a standard bus. Um there are type B's and type A's. Type A's. We just got rid of a couple of those type A's because they're not as safe as the type C. The type B is basically that 30 passenger wheelchair bus that we just bought. And that one was actually more expensive than the standard ones. So, um how you you gave a range or you know a typical cost um $170,000 for a brand new standard bus. Now, with the options and things for safety and whatnot that you're putting on the buses that you're ordering to to be put on the buses, um how much more than
030that 170 is that >> for this the options? >> Yeah. >> So, the double handrails is a grand. The lights are maybe five to five thou 500 to a thousand somewhere in there for the lights to be added to the door into the f to the fenders. Uh it really depends on the setup and the bus company sometimes works the options in safe light is now or the one that we we switched to. They're now a standard option. You can't change that. And I I personally like them myself. That's an expensive one. If you wanted to retrofit a bus, just the stops, the school bus signs, it's three grand. The whole bus stop signs in the front is five grand if you wanted to retrofit one. But and Paul, there's some other things that that
031we add on as well. So, we are now putting luggage racks um on all of our buses. And the reason we do that, we have those compartments that are underneath. And that's around I think a six or $7,000 option, Jacob. >> Yes. >> And we do that because anytime we take a sports trip, that equipment should be stored underneath for safety reasons. And that just we're we're making that universal. Every one of our buses now, we're ordering it that way. Um it just makes our planning of what bus can go out on on a trip that much easier. We are um some of the other safety issues like Jacob talked about those double handrails, the extra lighting, the LED lighting, it's that much brighter so hopefully people can actually see and not pass red lights.
032Heated stair treads. Um the black, believe it or not, the black that's around our flashing lights, that's an add-on. It's not a lot, but uh again, when you have that black around the flashing lights in the front and back, it makes it more visible. Um, according to the safety standards, we also put white rooftops on. I think that's about an 11 or $1,200 option. And the science behind that is especially during the summer months, um, anytime really from May through October, it can lower the temperature on the bus 10 to 11°. um which again without air conditioning on the entire bus makes it that much more manageable for the students. All of our new IC buses, our international buses also automatically come with air conditioning in the driver's compartment. So the first couple of seats,
033if you're lucky enough to be one of those kiddos who gets to sit in the front, yeah, you got nice cool air. Um, our new buses also, um, if you've ever sat on a bus seat for the driver, you would freeze on your right side and melt on your left because the heater was at your, um, bottom of your left leg, and that's the only heat the driver had. Now, it's more automotive where it's actually up in the dashboard and along the floor. So, again, more even heat for the driver, and that's a standard. But, we do try to add anything that's on that's a safety. Yeah, Trish, it's not funny unless you've driven a bus >> um in the winter time um and and you and you melt your leg. But uh so those
034are things that have been fixed. And again, it's a lot of the safety issues things that we do. The double handrail sounds goofy, but when you're a four-year-old trying to climb that and you're making sure you've got handles on both sides, we tried to add it, I think, to a couple of our buses a couple of years ago. It didn't save us a whole lot by doing it as an add-on. Plus, we also have the liability that we're the ones who bolted it. So, let the let the company do it pre-order. We get state aid on it to about 90%. Um, so a lot of extra safety features. We've also talked about changing out our tires. Jacob, I can't remember how many pies we were. Was it 10 ply versus 12 ply or something like
035that? >> So, we're switching them from uh 10 Rs to 11 Rs. the size their size wise and what I've seen because two of the state ed buses have uh they have 11R tires in the Kendras. They actually we haven't had to put a single set of tires on them since we've got them. And they have 50 to 60,000 miles on them right now cuz 10RS really the only ones that use them are school districts. 11RS are on all your heavy trucks, your dump trucks, everything like that. So you have more options and they're they're better made. So that's what we're trying to switch. >> The one thing Jacob didn't talk about tonight is we we are regularly DOT inspected. Every bus has a regular inspection with DOT and our pass rate um with our
036mechanics down there. We're in the high 90s on a regular basis, if not 100% on our pass rate. So again, making sure that the buses that we put on the radar on the road are mechanically safe and sound for our students. Any more questions? >> Thank you, Jacob. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. All right. If we can move then into just an update on our budget planning, where we are currently. When the governor put out her proposal, um the cap or the floor for foundation aid was established at 1% in her executive budget with um with that information, we were looking at about a 1.32% overall increase. our foundation aid um dropping from last year in terms of the the value of that increase. You can see there that we would be looking at
037a total state aid package of just slightly over $53 million based on the governor's um initial budget proposal. On our next slide, I'm going to take a little bit more of an optimistic approach, keeping that keeping in mind that the floor is applying to over 400 of the 700 school districts. Both one house budgets have a 2% floor, which if that's our um if that's where we end up with, you can see that we have a little extra growth in our state aid to uh now about 53.36 million. That is the bulk of our revenue. Any questions on those two slides? Okay, as we move on to the next one, our preliminary budget expense increases. And again, these are all preliminary and we are getting close now to the point where we will have that
038finalized budget for the board by April 20th. our total salaries increasing by 1.258 million. Based on that, then our social security, the FICA increasing by 96 and change. Our rate of contribution to the employee retirement system will be up 45,570. TRS 96,000. Our workers comp, we have a 2% increase on that this year. We are seeing positive um numbers with workers compensation. So our growth will be 5,433 and our health insurance consortium. We have agreed at this point that we will see a 6% increase on health insurance premiums which is great information because it's a couple percentage points lower than the national average. So we're still trending well. That will end up being a cost to the district of $934,568. Our total just on the these types of increases related to personnel, 2.4 million. Again,
039Chris, if you go back to that last slide, please, the the state aid side, this is where things begin to get tough when our fixed costs on employees are going up 2.4. before, but our foundation aid and our state aid formula is going up 771,000. We can see that we're into that potential where we are going to begin using some of our reserves and some of our un unappropriated fund balances in the future. Moving to slide five. Each year we work with our administrative team, both instructional and support to determine what are the requests for next year. And these are some of the highlights that uh the finance committee has considered and we'll be moving forward with these. This year we are looking at doing summer school in person um for our core classes. So
040our algebra, one of our sciences most likely um global and English and possibly one other that'll cost about $50,000 to do that in person. For the past number of years, we have not budgeted um in the actual budget for our music instruments or for upgrades to the auditorium. We've done it through forward spending with um leftover monies. Not a real great way to fund some of our most important projects and our most important work. So, we'd like to put that actually in as line items for the budget next year. And I see I'm sorry. Learn to lead is another one. And that is a mistake with that $25,000. I will correct that. I believe that should say 7,500 um is the learn to lead program. Again, that's not been budgeted in the past, but it
041does need to go there. We've been doing it for a number of years. I believe next year we should be able to partner with another school which would then make us eligible to go through a coser which would make it boseies aidable. So that cost will actually be an 80% reduction um with a state aid after that increasing our curriculum and instruction supplies by 5,000 and increasing um the total mentor stipend by $2,625. under special education strategic budget request. There will be some additional changes, but not to the overall bottom line. We're going to be reassigning how we do some things. Um reconfiguring some of the titles that we use. But for next year, what we'd be looking at is one of our classrooms that's a 1211 currently does not have a teaching assistant. It
042does need one. It's so we're going to be converting an aid position to a two to a TA position and that costs an additional 16,000 just on the salary for that. We're also looking to bring in um an occupational therapist and that'll be about a $100,000 cost. We do believe that we'll be able to um reduce that overall impact to the budget due to the idea that we'll be replacing some outside sources that provide occupational therapy. Now, under the facilities at the three elementary schools, each one has a floor scrubber. They are getting old and starting to break down. The original request for for three of them. We're not able to fund that at this point, but we will do one this year with a strategic plan that we'll try to hit one um each
043of the next three years and get those replaced. the supply side here, $113,000. That's going to look like an astronomical number, but a lot like the band instruments, we have been purchasing our supplies not as a line item in the budget, but through forward spending, which again is not a real great way to be planning to purchase tissue paper and toilet paper. So, we're going to put that in as a line item so it's there for future years and we don't have to rely on unexpended funds to do that. We are doing that this year, just so the board is aware. Um because I know one of our board members has to live with this every year and his own job. We're going to use spend down money or forward spending this year to buy
044for the 26 27 school year. May and June of next year will actually be using this 113,000 that you see here to purchase for the 2728. I always want to be a year ahead. We get on that cooperative bid, but that way we're not waiting in July for supplies to come in that we need for cleaning um that school year. So again, we are putting this in the budget. We're taking it away from forward spending. And the next one, trash removal. Right now, we spend just under $50,000 with our contract with the village of Msina. The village of Msina has notified us that they will not be able to do our trash removal um beyond next year. So, we are looking at other trash haulers. The first bid that we have um for this shows
045an increased cost of $70,000. So, it's it's a major increase to our overall budget, but we have to do it. Um, and I understand why the village Msina is getting out of that business. It is a cost loser. It's a cost for them. Um, they're not recouping through that revenue that they gain. >> Did we talk to them about giving them more? I did because my feeling on this is basically if we're going to pay a private contractor 70,000 more, I'd be just as happy to pay that to the village of Msina if it made their um you know if it was a benefit right to the village and I don't think that they're willing to go there. I'm not sure. I think there's a number of factors. Um, one of them might one of
046them might be I think they may need a new vehicle and that's not an inexpensive proposition to get a new trash vehicle. Um, and it might also be on the personnel side as they try to trim their budgets and and live within their means. But I did offer and uh so this doesn't affect residential, it only affects the commercial pickup with the dumpster arms. But yes, I did offer that. Roar. I'd much rather do business with the village of Msina. Um, okay. On the athletic side, Huddle, it's our camera system. Um, it's an additional $2,500 for next year for the rifle team. Our rifles that we use for that, those are air rifles. They are getting old and Gavin is trying to do a slow replacement of those. and I believe that's for two of
047them. He's being very optimistic on the increase of cost for officials, thinking that that might only go up $1,000 next year. We anticipate an increase and the ice rental of 2,000. And our girls wrestling program, which was rather successful this year. Um we had, I believe, three athletes go to states. We are proposing that that become um an official sport next year. So the 6575 would be for the coaches um for that program. So again, another good problem to have with uh student participation. The next spending item is a recommendation that we have a second SRO. Um, and again, sticking with that same cost of about $150,000, just to make sure everybody understands, we are looking at four 66 passenger buses next year. These are diesel. They are not electric. So, I can put everyone's
048mind to rest on that. That cost is 757,638. These have already been reserved, hoping that the budget passes and that we'll be able to do that. We have to reserve our buses sometime usually October, November. Um so we stay in the queue to get those for the following year. So those are in our name at Leonard Bus Sales. Um the next part capital outlay project. So through facilities we have looked at a number of different aspects and the recommendation is that we do asbestous abatement at JW Liry. We will be removing um floor tile that is that contains asbestous. We'll begin that process. It's probably going to take maybe two to three years to get rid of all of that flooring um at JW Liry, but that'll be a major burden off the district's back
049once that is done over the next couple of years. Um and then that replacement is taken care of. That will really limit the amount of asbestous materials that we have in our district. that right now is our um our biggest single item is the flooring at JW Liry. So really pleased that we're able to uh get that taken care of. Our total draft spending plan and some of this is now change. So right now our to total draft spending plan is 78 million. After our facility I'm sorry after our finance committee meeting tonight that number is going to change a little bit. We'll have that number for you. Right now, that's a $4.9% increase. As of today, that required a $4.9 million fund balance. Actually, I should say as of yesterday, $4.9 million fund balance
050appropriation. We've been Mallerie, our business manager, has been looking at the revenues and updating those not so much on the state projections, but really on the actual revenues that are coming in. So, that this is always real time stuff. we're only able to give projections on revenues and what Mallerie was able to do is to really look at our revenues that are coming in right now and make a major modification. Um, so in our revenue for this year from state ed, we're looking at about $4 million in extra revenue that our projections were not showing. And again, these are based on our actual numbers, our census numbers, our high cost numbers, and um, our Boseies numbers. So again, we're anticipating more. that's also going to trickle over into next year. So, when we talk about
051$4.9 million of appropriated fund balance, it's going to be significantly less than that. We're also still in the process of making cuts to our budget. So, before this morning, we were actually anticipating probably about a $3.9 million appropriation by the time we got done with finance committee. It's going to be less. And even though we're appropriating it, we don't believe we're going to need it. It's always important that I remind everybody there are areas where we have insulation in our budget. Some of those areas will always be special education. We cannot predict who's going to come to our school and what services they're going to need. So, I like to have and I think we have somewhere around a million or a million plus. Um, it sounds like a lot of money on special education
052that we don't anticipate spending, but we also didn't anticipate spending some of that this year as we needed to hire new aids to meet the needs of our students. So, again, we need to make sure we have insulation there. We also have some money set aside for equipment. We don't know what equipment is going to fail, so I always like to have extra money there. Extra money on utilities. That goes without saying um right now. And even on our health insurance like to have a little padding because we don't know who might go from a single plan to a two person or who might go from a twoerson to a family. And every time you make that jump up it's 10 to$15,000. Um and if somebody goes from a single to a family we're now
053talking about 20 23,000. So again we like to make sure we have spots in our budget. Do we have other areas where there's insulation? Not as much. But those are our four big areas. So when we talk about anticipating that we're going to have money left over at the end of next year, we're still anticipating that. It's hard to predict though how much be left at June of 27, but we do have some padding in there for those unexpected cost. Um it would be malfeasants basically not to be prepared for a special needs student um or a breakdown. So we have to have that. Again, um we remain committed to have another budget with a 0% tax increase. And at this point, there's absolutely no recommendation and no need to go out beyond 0%. Uh
054I have a question. What does it mean when you like dip into the reserve for the school district? What what effect does that have on the district? >> I'm sorry. Could you say that one more time, Andrew? Um oh uh what what does it mean when you dip into the reserve for the district when you um you mentioned you're 770,000 over um like where does that money come from and what effect does it have I guess on on like >> so so with reserves >> so reserves are basically our savings account and they're earmarked for certain specific aspects um so for example with our capital project we have two reserves. I think it's two reserves that it totals about $15 million. And when we do our capital project and we have to start paying that
055capital project in 2930, I think 2029, we'll start paying. We're going to take some of that money out of that reserves to pay off those bonds. So that way we don't have to ask the taxpayers. So basically, we dip into our savings account that we put away. Um we also have other reserves for um another one would be for teacher retirement system. So if we saw a really big increase in TRS, we could pull some of that money out and not have to go back to the taxpayer to ask for it. So it's our savings. Um when we start dipping into our reserves and into our unappropriated fund balance, it means less savings. And one of the things we have to be very careful about is while we have a very very healthy reserve account
056and fund balance, it doesn't take many years of actually using 2 million, 5 million, it grows every year. So unless you bring our B, we have to continue to try to bring our budget closer to in line so that our expenses don't overly exceed our revenue because if we do that and we keep doing that for a long time, we will not have reserves. We will not have an unex we will not have a fund balance. So the past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. Um, I think Mallalerie and I have had a few sleepless nights trying to figure out, okay, how do we not actually have that $4.9 million appropriation? Um, so we've made lots of adjustments. Like I said, I think we're down to really 3.9 and then with what she found
057today with extra revenue, um, or I shouldn't say extra, actual revenue, we're in a much better spot. Um but again I I think our finance committee is very much aware that there will be a time we have to use it but we better have a plan um so that we don't use it all up quickly. It is it's a rainy day account but you can't have many rainy days. >> Did that answer it Andy? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Sorry. >> So you're spending your savings to exist. Yeah. >> And your savings go away and you don't have them anymore. Yeah. >> They don't replenish. That's in a nutshell >> what it means. >> Yeah. Um and then so the um I guess the like money that goes to the capital project that might decrease
058if you were to dip into your savings say multiple years in a row. So with the so with a reserve so if it's a capital reserve for capital project we can't take it out to pay for salaries or for diesel it can only be taken out to utilize for capital funds. So as we use it it goes away and really every one of our reserves almost all of our reserves have a shelf life. So like for our capital projects our capital reserves typically they have a 5year shelf life. So you can keep it active for 5 years and if you don't use it then you could reallocate that money to a new capital reserve. So you can roll it over but it takes it takes authorization by the board and by the voters to create
059those. Um in the past couple of years actually since co this board has done an outstanding job of taking a lot of that extra money that was coming in through co monies and creating a lot of reserves. So again, we're sitting I think it's I think it's right around 15 million just in building capital reserve. That's a that's a fantastic number. Um so again, when we're talking about an 80 let's call it an $80 million project, we're going to get say 90% of that back on state aid, we're responsible for around 8 million. We've got plenty of money to cover for that. And every year all of those monies are also earning interest. Um again, this district was one of the ones at the forefront investing that money um in a different manner at an
060interest rate that's almost double what you can get commercially um through any local bank. So again, I think our district, you know, under Mr. Brady, this board, Mr. Broulette, um and now being carried on has set us up in some really good financial position by not spending all that extra money that was coming in and setting aside for today. So, >> thank you. >> I see that we're asking for 150,000 for an SRO. Is that That's for one more. >> That's for the That's for one additional SRO for the year, >> not for two. >> Right. So, >> the other one is already covered. >> Right. We already >> seems like a lot. No, 150. >> I'm sorry. >> It seems like a lot at 150K. >> It does. And you know, these are one
061of and it's always important to talk about why that's $150,000. So the SRO is with us the majority of their work year. Um so that covers the salary, the benefits, it covers, you know, all the benefits. So the FICA, um the payroll taxes, all of that. They've established that. What we also don't have is we don't get we don't get dinged for the police vehicle that our SRO has and we know so we don't have to pay for the car. We don't pay for the gasoline for the the police vehicle. We don't I shouldn't say that it's all incorporated. So, the police vehicle, the um the equipment that the officer has, the annual training, the uniform, all of those things that go into the officer, it's all covered in that 150,000. So, again, it sounds
062like a lot, but if you compare it to what a teacher costs, it's pretty close um in terms of just the the salary and benefits. And then you throw extra all the training and all the others that go in as well. Um, it's pretty close. It might actually be a little bit lower than what some of the other schools are paying. You know, some schools have contracted with the county for a St. Lawrence County deputy and their costs are very, very similar to ours. >> Do we have a need for a second officer SRO? >> I'm sorry. >> Do we have a need for a second SRO? >> Do we have a need? Absolutely. Um, as of earlier this week, our SRO has had 1,100 interactions with students just this year, and we still have,
063you know, about 27 or 28% of the year to go. Um, the SRO is frequently in demand trying to determine which how to triage. Am I at the high school or am I running over to Jefferson or am I at the junior high? Uh, this afternoon he was here dealing with a situation until 4:00. um which without him we would probably not have had a as good of a resolution as we did. Um there is a a letter that I'll be sharing with the board over the weekend where um a student is talking about a career and in the main body of that letter discusses um what our SRO has done for for the individual and basically you'll notice that in this letter the uh the individual student is talking about pretty much the path
064that they were on which was not a good path and now this student is looking at a career in law enforcement and it's and the turnaround is all due to officer Flynn and the student is extremely pointed about the impact that officer Flynn has had. So, when I look at what this what Officer Flynn has cost this district over the past two years, if we say it's a total of 300,000 since he joined us in March of uh 24, $300,000 for him compared to possibly a 20-year incarceration for this student. Yep, it's worth it. um the number of im the impact that it has had on our students when we have students asking for the law enforcement officer when you have parents asking um it's like our it's I'll say it again it's our probation
065officer as well um who's assigned to Msina it's unusual um students have opened up to our SRO in ways that just are unfathomable and the difference is being felt. Um even families are asking, you know, for for his help. He's also been extremely instrumental in u helping getting greater ties with PAL. Um, we've got the boost program, which is a daytime program for students who are attending three to five or who are on out of school suspension so that they actually have a place to go during the day and working with trusted adults with counselors and he makes frequent visits over there checking in on them. Um his day here usually ends around 3:00 and uh the village is good to allow him overtime so he can then spend another hour or more at PAL
066every day with these kids. Um it's just it's phenomenal the impact that he's making. >> I believe in Mr. Flynn and what he does. I know him and he's a good guy. But I feel like what you're saying is what some a therapist would do. and I see that we hire a therapist for 100k and we're investing 150k for a SRO. That's why I don't see the value. And I know we need more aids and we get two or three aids for that price. So I believe that we should have therapists to support those kids, but I don't believe that we should invest in SRO. We're not in this safety or security business. Our mission is to educate the kids and we have a police force in town. So I don't know why we should
067pay for that. So I don't agree with that. But I'm the only one voice. >> I think it's pretty important. I mean, I talked to a lot of schools and driving around with what I do. We're underst staffed in that area compared to most of the schools. There's schools our size around the north country from Lewis County up to here that have one in every building, not just one that does five buildings. So I I think in looking at how other people operate with that, I think it's important that we find a place for for them in our buildings and for a lot of the reasons Mr. Burke just said, but not only that, I mean, police officers presence makes a difference. Makes a difference for kids and how they view them and how they
068grow up with them. So I think when you put that aspect in with everything he just mentioned, it's invaluable to to our district and our kids. it it it is really expensive. But one thing to note is that with our SRO uh and with a second SRO, we have active physical law enforcement officers. Uh so they have a law enforcement vehicle on campus with them. Um, and that's different from some of the other uh from some other schools uh who do have uh school resource officers um but they don't have a law enforcement vehicle and uh they they don't actively work on a daily basis with the local law enforcement. So, um I I think that's a real benefit for us here in Msina. And just to address what you were saying about AIDS in
069the school, we actually are a little overstaffed with AIDS. So we're always looking at, you know, how is that impacting students. So I think that, you know, being part of the finance committee, we really have discussed that. So, if it's a concern that you have, I I understand. But I just wanted you to know that we have really looked at that, too. Any other questions on the budget? Um, one last thing and we heard it at rural schools conference earlier this week. There is a major question mark around when the state budget will be passed because of the high holiday holy days that are coming up and whether or not the assembly and the senate will actually be in session, if they can even come close to an agreement to do a vote. Um, the
070the thought would be we'd either have one a couple of days late or perhaps as long as a month late. So, we're going to be operating a little bit here in the dark. You're probably going to be asked as a board to uh to approve a budget, I'm I'm afraid, without knowing what the state aid numbers are. So, we'll stay on that conservative side of of the 2% and uh and not bank on anything further. And if it comes, great. Um but it's not looking like it's going to be a an on-time budget this year. >> I think it was a month late last year, wasn't it? >> Yes. >> The good old days. Yes. Okay. Shall I move on? Next couple of items. Um, you are going to be asked to approve an outofcountry
071field trip for Night and Grade 4 to Upper Canada Village. Also, a bus utilization request from PAL for uh March 20th to the Msina Arena. And that's a one-day or one-way trip. They're just going there and then they'll be picked up by their families. And finally, a disposal of declaring a surplus a 2019 Dodge Caravan. We have used that for pupil transportation. And again, we're replacing that with one of our traverses. One of the other things I should just mention, it's going to be another action item. I'm sorry. You'll be asked to approve a SRA resolution. Um, and that SRA is for the capital outlay project to do the asbestous abatement at JW. and Mr. Haggett, I believe that's all I have. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Burke. Uh we'll move on now to recommended actions
072and uh start with the consent agenda items. Uh, is there um are there any items that uh any board member would like to have pulled from the consent agenda for further discussion? >> Okay, hearing none, I would entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? All in favor? Okay, moving on to our individual items for action. Uh, we have uh approval of a memorandum of agreement with the St. Lawrence County Board of Elections. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? All in favor? Okay. Next is approval of the out of count out of country field trip. >> So move. >> Second. Questions or comments? All in favor? Okay. Next is the approval of the bus utilization request from PAL. >> So move.
073>> Second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? Okay. Um approval of the disposal of the surplus item. >> So move second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? >> Okay. Um and approval of the secret resolution. >> So move. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? And this is it's just an it's an environmental um form basically. >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Um all in favor? >> Okay. And uh next are is resolution number one which is a paid administrative leave. >> So move. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> I thought that that was not going to be on the agenda. No, it needs to be on the agenda, but that one had an end date. >> The date was >> Yes. >> the 6th of March to the 18. >> Question answered. >>
074Mhm. >> Okay. Uh we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Okay. And resolution number two, another paid administrative leave. >> So move. >> Questions or comments? All in favor. >> And uh next we'll move on to personnel action items. And Mr. Burke, >> I recommend approval of action items listed as numbers 1 through 35. >> So move. >> Second. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Okay. >> I also recommend approval of action personnel items numbers 36 through 48. >> So second. >> Any questions? All in favor? And we have one more uh item for action, a resolution for a sick leave allowance. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? All in favor? And no, nos, no abstensions. So, uh that takes care of our uh business on the
075agenda. Um we'll now move on to new business. And if uh anyone would like to bring up items for um discussion in a future at a future meeting, now would be the time. I think we should have an discussion about the EV mandate. I think we need to get facts and figures together to um either support it or to not support it because of financial reasons. And I think it needs to be delineated to the public what the financial impact could be if the governor doesn't acquies to push the date the mandate out. As I understand from the transportation department, this will be the last year that we can order diesel buses and we will have to start replacing our fleet with EVs if the mandate of >> without a waiver. Right. >> Without a
076waiver. >> There is a waiver uh possibility. Is that correct, Mr. Burke? >> There is a waiver. I will be applying for it at some point over the course of the next year. So, right next year is a waiver year automatic for everybody. After that, we can apply or we can really apply anytime for an extra two-year waiver. It goes by a point system. I think we're going to qualify for those points um to get that waiver. If we don't, then yes, we do have to begin purchasing electric. Um to Trisha's point, I think the governor is coming out and you know, she's she's publicly talking now about extending the runway. I think that's her term. You know, not eliminate the mandate, but give more time. If we look at what the state of California
077did, they have a very similar process, but they also recognize the challenges for rural schools and they have put in five-year extensions and I don't believe there's I haven't read that there's a a number of a limit of the number of extensions. So, there's some common sense approach. They've extended the runway in California and as the governor is going around the state, she is now talking about extending that runway. Um, now whether she's talking about zero emission buses or fossil fuel heat for new construction, I'm not sure, but she's recognizing I think the affordability that seems to be a common theme of the governor right now. I think now is the time that we support the governor in that approach. Extend this runway. Um, she's up, I think, for a real battle. Both legislature, both
078h both both houses have indicated not real interested in extending that. They they like some that are in power, like the law as it is, and don't really see a need to extend that. And if we their feeling is if you extend it, we're never going to change climate back to what they feel it should be. I think if we go out and we publicly, you know, in your letter to, you know, if you want to do some mailings, I think now's the time. I'm taking a little different approach from what I may have been saying before, but let's support the governor if that's really what she wants to do is to extend that runway, especially as it relates to zero emission buses. Give her that support that she needs um to hopefully get that
079done um with, you know, the folks across the street. I think it's important, Trish, too, that we keep talking about the cost. the cost. Every study that schools have done, you know, the ones that have jumped into this, it's not great. Um, we're talking more than three times per mile the cost just to operate the electric bus. That does not include, you know, the actual additional cost of infrastructure or the cost of the bus itself. That's just to run those buses. Those are real dollar figures. And you know, especially in a community like Msina where we get a certain power allocation, our residents are already feeling the crunch of what happens when we exceed that. And we know that we're, you know, there's a proposal, right? I think it's been approved that our rates are
080going to go up again. Um, just with Msina Electric, the impact of adding a fleet of 40 electric buses over time, that's only going to cause more local heartache. So, I think we can talk about all of those things and be very fact driven, but again, give some give the governor perhaps some support in this endeavor that she's taking us down. Um, you know, now is not the time to fingerpoint about why that law is in existence, but hey, if we've got a major politician saying, you know what, I'm listening, folks. Absolutely. Let's, you know, I've given her my letter. I'm supporting her 100% with this. Um, I'll probably write another one this week saying thank you for the runway. Make it as long as you can. Um, and you've got our support. So, I
081think that's really important coming from the north country if we get some more of that out there to the governor that Yeah. Thank you for doing this and keep up the fight. >> Do you send one on the behalf of the board? >> I send it on my own um as a district, but I think board members, if you're willing to sign on to something, now's the time. And maybe send individual letters as well. Um, >> I'll sign your letter if you if you want more to aim on it. >> Okay. I'll I'll work up a draft and you can either sign it as a group or we can each do our own individual. Um, but I do think it's important. We've got some traction and we didn't have that just a couple of weeks
082ago. >> That's good to hear because when we went to Lake Placid, the um legislators there were not thinking that that she was going to budge at all. Right. So, I'm glad to hear that there's some movement because it was not communicated at that time >> that this was going to be a possibility and also it was communicated by Senator SE who said those waiverss are not easy to get. >> They're not. They won't be. And I think also, you know, Senator Ste is taking and again, not to play politics here, but Senator Ste is also saying, "Okay, let's see how we can work within that law." And that's what we talked about the last board meeting, right? If I had to have an electric bus here, there are routes that we could do that
083on. I'm not real willing to take it out to the territory, which is one of my longest runs. Up on some of our streets here. Yeah, I think it could work. So, you know, let's find where there's compromise. It it'd be kind of nice to go back to the 1980s and 90s where we can actually discuss and have compromise as opposed to it's either all or nothing. And I I'm hoping that's kind of where the governor is trying to lead us um in Albany to get to. So, you know, if we can encourage both sides of the aisle to come together and say, yes, environmental concerns are real, we can deal with that, but so are economic concerns. And how do we come to that compromise? And it's a little bit like what you folks
084do here every month. Rober, you're a perfect example tonight, right? We have civil discourse. We discuss our ideas. We share our feelings without being disagreeable. So I think if we can approach it that way with the governor and the legislative leaders once again Msina will be setting the example. Those bus were designed for the city and here it doesn't make sense. It helps clean the city not emitting diesel in the middle of the city. But here we have long roads and it's it's not good to have cold bus like this on the road long roads. >> And this is from a man who drives a test. >> He admitted he doesn't drive it in the winter. He did admit that to me. >> Yeah. >> Well, there's a reason. >> Yes. >> If you would
085like, I could do some research and provide a part of my presentation on arguments for and against electric buses. I'm sorry. Could you say that one more time? >> Uh, if you would like, I could provide arguments for and against on my next presentation uh for electric buses. >> Yes. >> I think we might have a future mechanical engineer who might come up with a uh a better system to have a hybrid on a bus. Um, >> so if you could kind of fasttrack your work on that, Andrew, we'd appreciate it. >> On a different subject, Pat, not Pat, sorry, Paul. I uh when the panic pandemic hit, we had to turn around and keep the student at home and we gave them laptops. I just realized this week that we the first graders are
086working on Chromebooks, second graders, third graders, is they're behind a screen. How how long are they behind a screen? And is that good for them? Can we look into that and see if it's really worth it to have I mean does it have to be all student? I don't think kindergarten kids have computers but what about first graders? Do they really need them? Second graders maybe we could introduce them later and have them work on paper and pen and eye contact and not look at a screen. It seems like we're encouraging the families to be behind a screen at very early age. Um, I will say that I think uh especially young kids now will have access to screens either way whether or not we give them access to Chromebooks. So, but there are definitely
087a lot of studies that show adverse effects of loss of screen time. >> And if they start at fourth grade, for example, to have a screen, would they be behind that much? Can they recoup that time in a few weeks? I don't think it's that complicated to operate a computer. The benefits of exposing them three, four years of behind a computer is not I think there's more detriment. >> Well, as long as New York State has um their state tests online starting in third grade, kids have to know how to uh do keyboarding. We started them in kindergarten. We had no choice. I mean, that part of it, they need to know, they need to be able to get around a Chromebook. keyboarding wise, >> knowing how to type is a very important skill. And
088um from a lot of my friends that are in college right now, they notice that many students type with just one finger and don't actually know how to navigate a keyboard correctly. So, >> but do you start typing with the correct keyboard at at the first grade? I don't think so. >> When did we start at Trinity? >> Kindergarten. So your five fingers on the keyboard and Kagata I >> I vividly remember the orange skins covering the keyboards. >> I started later and I don't think I was behind but nobody was be there was no computer before >> I will say I understand what you're saying and we talk about that we want students with teachers and we want books in their hands and pencils. So um I agree with what you're saying. the other
089side of it is exposure. Um, New York State does have digital fluency standards at those young ages. Um, so it is it's about um using them in a timely way to engage students to practice to have that exposure um but also limit it. So what you're describing is is what we want the majority of our time um being. We're actually having conversations right now at the elementary level um using I Ready. Uh you know about a decade ago that was the huge push in our region. Get students on Chromebooks, have them using I Ready. This was how they were going to make so many gains. Um and it's certainly a great tool. It's a it's a great tool for our benchmark assessments. It gives us data to drive our instruction. Um but the conversation is
090do we want them necessarily on the computer for those lessons? And so we're we're talking about that, right? It's um the thing with technology, it progresses so quickly and it's an ethical question. It's a philosophy. It's a belief system of of um how much do we use it, when do we use it, how do we use it. So, we do have those conversations. Um but just also understand there there is um requirements from the state as well. >> Sounds like we're on top of it then. >> Well, Roberto does I mean I couldn't agree more. I >> but we did our teachers and our students an incredible disservice during COVID for many reasons and >> no >> we had no choice but we swung the pendulum so far one way that everything became computer-based and
091it was two years ago when we sat with high school students and when you have a really top-notch student say why do I come to school when it's all on Google classroom >> I'll tell you what that you and I were in the same group, right? And that was a gut punch to both of us. What we forgot to do after CO is to give our teachers permission to teach, to go back to being human beings and to teach. So, we're really trying to get there. There's a happy medium here and I think we're swinging back that way. I I shared with my colleagues at the superintendent's table that yeah, we're a onetoone school, but we don't send Chromebooks home. And the look on their faces was, "Wow." And I said, "Look, not only were
092we losing them, but we're also trying to de-emphasize that that's our only source. There's other there are other ways to learn, and it's personto person." Um, and you can see some of the wheels spinning. I don't know if any of the other schools will start to fall in line with that. Um, but again, we recognize that there are reasons for having the Chromebooks or computers, but there's also reasons not to. And again, it's trying to find that happy medium, that balance. So, but we did not do our teacher ser good service by, hey, you're released. Go back, swing back a little bit. And we're we're working on that. The last thing that I'd like to bring up is I brought it up last time about the um seniors and the survey and everything and then
093we did get a communication that said that uh the high school was interested in having the reception as we did last year and um I'm wondering if maybe we could get together as a group. So the high school principal, the maybe somebody from the guidance office, uh, etc. And then have a small group talk about where we are and where we want to go with the future. >> Yeah, Mr. Oliver is working on getting his team together and as soon as I get those names, I'll serve. I think there were four board members that wanted to be part of that. Okay. >> We'll come up with a time to meet. Absolutely. Yep. I hope to get that done before spring break. >> Okay. That way we can also start talking about the senior tea and
094you know if you want to make any changes to that. >> Yeah. >> So which is being met with a lot of excitement again. So that's good. >> Okay. >> And I think there's also a lot of excitement too about moving away from life track and taking ownership oursel. >> Okay. >> So you'll let us know. >> I'm sorry. >> You'll let us know. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. That hap. Okay. Okay, thank you. >> Anyone else with uh future agenda items? >> Okay, we have no one here to make comments uh to the board from the public or press. So, uh I would entertain a motion for adjournment. Exactly. >> Should we say that there's going to be a play uh at the high school here pretty soon? >> Did we say something about it? No.
095>> To invite >> Oh, I I I we certainly can. Um >> I could I'm not the uh the school musical >> is coming up. Uh exactly when? I'm I'm I'm not involved this year personally, so I don't know the details intimately. March 27th and 28th. And uh I think th those are two evening performances. Or is there a matinea? >> There's a mat on Saturday. >> There's a matinea on Saturday. >> 1:30. >> So uh m MCHsmusical.com. Is that correct? Get your tickets >> 27th and 28th. I would now entertain a motion for adjournment. >> So move already said >> second. >> All in favor? >> Have a great night and get your musical tickets. >> You as well.