001Great. Okay, welcome everybody to our April Board of Education meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order at 7:05 and please have everyone stand 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. Okay, so we'll start our meeting off today with a presentation by our assistant superintendent, um Ms. Donnelly, to discuss the uh budget. Okay, good evening everybody. Just going to give a second so we get technology and lights going here and then I will start. Come on up. Okay, just Okay, as the screen is coming up, uh I will talk you through the first slide. So, tonight, uh we're just going to go through a quick
002presentation. It just summarizes our process that we started back in October and November in the office and uh have had several meetings with our budget committee, uh which brings us here tonight. So, we're going to talk about our proposed expenditure budget, our proposed revenue budget both for the 2026-2027 school year. We're going to look at the three-part budget analysis. That's a requirement of the state that we present the budget in the three-part budget analysis. We'll talk about what's on the ballot and what happens if the budget is not passed. And just as a side point, um I have this up on the screen, but tomorrow morning I will be emailing this to our PR company and they will put it up on the website. So, anybody that wants to look through this, um, you know,
003after the presentation, you know, it will be up on the website tomorrow as well as this recording of the presentation. Uh, so our proposed expenditure budget budget for the 2026-2027 school year is 44,283,243 dollars. That represents a 3.86% increase as compared to last year's budget and is a 2.53 tax levy increase that partially supports this budget because other than the tax levy, there are other sources of revenue. The 2.53% is in compliance with the tax cap formula, which I filed on March 1st. So, as I mentioned, we are required to report the budget by the three components. The administrative, which it I mean, really talks about all the expenditures with the school board, the superintendent's office, the business office, the district office, all the things that are involved in planning the the school, um, operations
004and making sure all the programs are running. Then we have the program. Again, this is always our largest portion, which it should be because this is why we're here, and those are all the expenditures that go towards the schooling of students, curriculum instruction, technology, food service, legal services, et cetera. And last, the capital, uh, which is as another small component of this. Uh, this is keeping our buildings in in good condition for staff and students to use, uh, our debt service, operation of plant and maintenance. And again, it's important to note that the majority of our spending directly supports classroom instruction and student services. So, there's a little fun pie chart that shows that. Again, that big green area is the 70 74.75%, which is our program. And the key drivers of our spending include
005contractual salary and benefit increases, special special education services, uh, transportation and facilities, and of course, inflation and mandates that are provided to us that we must comply with. Next up is our revenue budget. So, as you can see here, the largest share of our revenue budget is our local property taxes. What we do uh in calculating what the tax levy will be is we take into account what our expenditure budget will be, and we look at all the other types of of non-tax revenue that we receive, and then we come up with our tax levy. Um it's important to note that the state aid that I'm using in this presentation is represented as the January 2026 state run that we received from New York State. I'm sure as you've heard in the media that the
006state has not adopted their budget yet this year. Um they were supposed to adopt it on April 1st. They're a little bit late. Uh we hope to see it soon. Um but what's usually in the state budget when it's released is a an aid number that's a little bit higher than the January number. So, I feel confident using the January numbers as a conservative number, and we hope that we'll get a little or a lot. It would be lovely, but a little bit more money in that next run. So, Marie, if you're getting more state aid for 2026-27, could you change the budget after that after this? I mean, what happens if it's What happens if some reason we get another $100,000? Well, I would look to probably >> to the Could you give it
007back to the taxpayers? And lower the levy? I could lower the levy. But you can't do that once you send it up to the state. Yeah, because what you're adopting tonight is the expenditure budget, not the revenue side. Another might look to consider would be maybe reducing our reliance on the reserves a little bit. Uh because I'm just saying, if you're getting more state aid, that's Yeah, we got more state Yeah. change the number. >> change this number because you adopt the tax levy in July. Okay. You're welcome. So, as I did with the expenditure budget, I like to be equal and put the revenue budget in the same type of format, and you see there the large green section is our uh property taxes. Um we are required by law that both sides of
008the budget have to be balanced, so our revenue number has to equal our budget number, otherwise uh we're not allowed to adopt that budget. And again, as I mentioned earlier, all of our documents, uh presentations, are on our website as well as the recordings of our presentations. Uh we will uh now, you know, once the budget is adopted, be sending out notifications, we'll be sending out our budget brochure, which details our budget. Um and then we have the 6-day that comes out, and we are also required to provide budget materials, which will be on our website and in all of our school buildings, so that if anybody wanted to review those, uh they could. So, what's on our ballot? I just simply included here the language that's on our ballot that shows proposition number one,
009which is the voting by our taxpayers on the budget. Um what's also important to note, there will be additional propositions, which I didn't include here, but they're for the Central High School District. So, as you know, we are component district, and we have our students feed into the Central High School District, so a portion of their budget uh will be, you know, included in on our so that you can vote on that as well. So, what happens if our budget doesn't pass? Um we put this initial budget up as per the timeline, you know, so we put it up in May. Um the state designates the third Tuesday of June if there's going to be a second vote if the budget were to fail, and what the board is then, you know, allowed to do
010either to put the same budget up, they can modify the budget and put a different budget up, or they can go to adopt a contingent budget. Um if you were to put up the same or a different budget and that failed, then you would automatically adopt a contingent budget. And the contingent budget really is is requires a tax levy that doesn't exceed what we had last year, so you see there I noted our tax levy from last year was $26,894,878. With a contingent budget, that is the maximum amount we are allowed to levy. And any contingent expenses would not be permitted. And we'll talk about that in a slide or two. So, this would be our contingent budget. Again, you see the increase would only be 2.26% and a 0% increase in the tax levy.
011So, there are a lot of requirements that come with the contingent budget that are dictated to us by New York State. So, I put up here some examples of things that we are not allowed to fund with a contingent budget. Any new equipment. So, if we were buying a new snow blower because our snow blower is really on its last leg and it's been very costly to repair it. We can't buy a new snow blower on a contingent budget. So, we have to keep throwing good money into repairing a bad snow blower even knowing that that's not the best course of action. Um program expansions are prohibited. This would include new programs or staffing increases. Um you know, we do have in our budget proposed uh to add a technology teacher. If we had a
012contingent budget, that would be something that we would have to take out of the budget cuz it's not an existing position. Non-essential maintenance, any capital expenditures expenditures except if they relate to health or safety. The public use of our facilities and grounds. So, you know, we do have a lot of organizations that use our facilities like community organizations. We would either have to charge them or not let them use our property. Elimination or reduction of non-required subjects and classes. Uh any support services that are non-mandated, which would be like mental health, you know, that those type of support services. Or non-mandated summer programs. You know, we do run a lot of great summer programs for our kids, but unless they're required by law, a contingent budget would wipe those out. And then of course staff
013reductions and class increase class size increases would be additional things that would could be uh taken out of a contingent budget. So things that are allowed to be in a contingent budget on the list you see before you legal obligations, expenditures authorized by statute, items necessary to maintain the educational program, preserve property, and ensure the health and safety of students and staff. Uh so you can see um you just it's a it's a lot of things we'd have to consider um but the contingent budget does limit the program that we can provide to our students. I like to remind everybody at the end of my presentations that we do have the budget vote and trustee election coming up on May 19th at the North Merrick Public Library. Uh we hope you all get out and
014vote and thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay, thank you Ms. Donlon. All right, moving right along our superintendent's report. Thank you Mr. Corona, welcome. So good to see everyone. I hope everyone had a lovely spring break. So theater arts before we left for break, we had a wonderful um show theater arts Alice in Wonderland. A great weekend, great two nights. The students did a fabulous job as well as all of our faculty retirees and staff that participated and it's amazing how each year the show just gets better and better. Uh so spring is here people and finally it's beautiful outside. Uh so what does that mean? Kindergarten orientations are coming up. We have our spring concerts um not too far away and yes we are off the Friday before Memorial Day. Thank you
015to the Board of Education. That uh notification went out before the break. Um so I think I heard the roar um when it was sent out. So uh hope everyone enjoys their long Memorial Day weekend. And our next Board of Education meeting is on Cinco de Mayo. Um why you may ask? We usually always have our meetings on the second Tuesday of the month but due to the publication of our 6-day notice uh we have a timeline to follow and we need to do it a week earlier. Uh so put that in your calendar and I will now turn it back over to Mr. Corona. Right. Okay. I would like a motion to approve routine agenda items 4A through 4C. Motion by uh Mr. Luciano, second by Ms. Keen. All in favor? I. All in
016favor. Perfect. Motion carries. Uh public comments on agenda items only. Do we have any? No comments. Seeing none, we'll move ahead. If I please have a consent agenda for agenda items 6A through uh the HC, right? 6A through 6J. 6J 6J first? Okay. Motion? Motion. Uh motion by uh Ms. Kaminsky, Miller yes. Second by not a long time. Maybe you should turn your Motion so I could see it. All in favor? Aye. Unanimous motion carries. Okay. Uh personnel action report. Uh can I have a motion to approve the uh PAR report? >> Motion. Uh motion by Ms. Cain, second by uh Ms. Moran. All in favor? Aye. Okay, so in that action right there, we have welcomed someone to our district. >> Yes, we're very excited uh to introduce and announce our new principal of
017Old Mill Road School, and I know she's here, so please stand up, Ms. Megan Dixon. Welcome to North Merrick School District. And congratulations. Um our process was extremely thorough, efficient, and you should congratulate yourself for rising to the top. We had a lot of talented candidates, and a big thank you to all the staff, faculty, parents, and administrators who participated, and communication will go out after the conclusion of this meeting to the Old Mill Road faculty staff, and the faculty and staff for the other two buildings, Fayette and Camp Avenue, as well as our Old Mill Road families. So, a big welcome to you, and we're so excited to have you here. Excellent. Congratulations and welcome. Okay, moving right along. I'd like a motion for items 8A through 8C. Motion, Ms. Miller, second by Ms.
018Moran. All in favor? >> Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Um moving on to the reports. So, there is no high school report this month because our high school meeting is tomorrow night, and that'll be the same thing happening also in May. So, in May, I'll give the April report, and then in June, I'll give the May report. But, I do believe we have a PTA council. There we go. Ms. Cain. >> PTA's awesome as usual. So, Camp Avenue uh uh recently held game show a game show event, which is by far the favorite for all kids, where they competed in trivia, hula hoop, dance-off, and more. Their spring auction is this coming Thursday at Moka's, Thursday, April 16th. Last book fair is a buy one get one and it will be held on April 23rd. Spring
019fling is on May 1st. Plant sale May 8th. And the talent show is scheduled for May 15th. Um all the PTA meetings for Camp, Old Mill, and Fayette are on April 22nd next week. Fayette, for International Day of Happiness, which was held on March 20th, we had a News 12 meteorologist. All of the students enjoyed learning about different science experiments and using the green screen. Uh staff appreciation week is the week of May 4th. On April 21st, uh the night to connect fundraiser will be at Kid Stop in Merrick. Um mention Fayette and a portion of the sales will be donated back to our PTA. Bingo night was on March 26th. Uh PTA is very appreciative for the parents, excuse me, well, for the parents and the kids, but for the staff who called the
020bingo numbers. They volunteered. So, that was a great night. Old Mill Road, on March 19th, we celebrated Happiness Day with Jester Gym with a Jester Gym assembly. We had our first tacos and trivia with over 80 attendees participating. It was a huge success. Food was purchased from the block shop and PTA provided the trivia. And uh currently working on a Pat's Farms uh fundraiser for plant sale. Great job. Do they have a date on that plant sale or no? They're just working on it? >> Yeah, we're work They're working on it. But, I don't have a date here, so. All right, that'd be great. Oh, cool. They're working on um May 1st. Mr. Pest. Cool. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Carter, buildings and grounds. Hi everyone, it's great to see you. Hope you all enjoyed your
021time off. Well, you guys didn't probably have any time off. All right. I did. Um, well, I just I'm going to go over the projects we did over the break. We had a lot of time to get some things that we can't normally do during the school year, during, you know, while kids are around. So, we replaced the giant water heater at Camp Avenue, which was a big project. It was a much needed. It was 20 years old, so before it breaks, we replaced it and we added some controls to it, so it'll be more efficient and you'll also have hot water when you actually hit the faucet, not 10 minutes later. Um, the main entrance at HDF was painted blue. I hope everybody likes the new color. I think it's great. It's the school
022color, so looks really great. Our guys did that work and, you know, good job by them. Uh, they came out a couple of beautiful days and got it taken care of real quick. Uh, we also did uh, pruning of the trees, the sycamore trees in the front of the building. Uh, not only for the health of the trees, but for the safety of folks, you know, just so that there's no limbs breaking, you know, that's one of those sycamores tend to break in windstorms, so we like to keep those healthy. Uh, we installed a new manhole at the fuel oil tank at Old Mill. Very sexy project. Uh, you know, everybody's very excited about it. I heard a lot of people talking about it online. Um, the operable partition at Old Mill, the gym partition
023that folds, we were able to get that repaired. We were looking at a really big bill. A guy came up with another plan and enacted it and it worked out great, so that worked out really well. All the playgrounds were tilled, you know, the wood fiber, we till it over and then we survey it and see which ones need more wood fiber. So, not only does that uh it makes the the wood fiber last longer. It creates the cushion that we rely on for the safety of the children. And then we'll in a few weeks we'll be installing at three of the playgrounds we'll be installing some new wood fiber just to get things back up to where they ought to be. And what just one thing I want to mention that we do after
024every break is we flush the water throughout the buildings cuz the buildings sit for 2 weeks. Not a lot of people using faucets and stuff like that. Kind of gross to go into a building and just turn on, you know, 2-week-old water. So, the Saturday and Sunday before we reopen, we flush all those faucets so that you get fresh water, no rust, no sediment. That's in keeping with the the lead in water thing. You know, that's that's where you get lead in water is when pipes sit stagnant. And we want to prevent that and that's part of our flushing plan. So, just food for, you know, information for people to know that we are on top of those types of things. Can I just ask the um Of course. the the the turf field be
025Yeah, I was going to ask that also. Turf field's doing great. I have not spoken anybody in a few days. The the the concrete was done in the dugouts. The fence, the back posts are backstops are going up right now. And then after that the stone goes in and the turf carpet goes down. I'm hoping to have an answer tomorrow. I reached out to them. I just haven't heard back. This is their really busy season. And hoping the weather stays like this so we can just knock it out. But it is going well. It's going great. Everybody's doing a really nice job just like Camp Avenue. Same crew, literally the same guys and they're doing an amazing job. And again, we want to thank the the Little League for that donation. Amazing donation. I mean,
026So So happy to have that. And they were working over break. Yes, they were working over the break. Yeah, the concrete got poured as well as the backstops. You know, the backstops had to stop the concrete and then hopefully the backstop and the fences get completed this week and we can get some turf down. Yeah, I drive past it every day. But like you and Mary and we're looking at it like, "Hey, what's happening? What's going on?" Great. Uh Miss Long, do you have any communications? No communications. >> No communications. Okay, moving right along. Board of Education, anyone have any unfinished business or new business they want to bring up? Here we go, Miss King. >> be talking again. I I apologize. We have four we have SEPTA is obviously our uh district PTA. Um
027and um I just want to say we have a an ice cream social at the beginning of June for SEPTA. So I I'm sorry I didn't mention that when I did my other reviews. Okay. And we'll do it again in May. Thank you very much. And no new business? Okay, great. I have a motion to adjourn. Motion by Miss Moran. Seconded by Miss Miller. All in favor? Aye. Motion carried. Thank you everybody. See you in May. Thank you, Samaya.