Special Board of Education Meeting 04/07/2026

001For those that are able. 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. >> [snorts] >> Can I get a recommended motion to approve the April 7th 2026 special Board of Education meeting as presented? I'll make a recommendation. I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Dr. Erlandson Ian. President Peck, members of the board, members of the community, welcome to our uh hopefully final budget presentation uh for the 2026-2027 school year. Again, seen this before, hopefully it's sinking in. Our theme across our district is we want to be a world premier school district where our students are future ready and they become productive citizens once they leave our school

002system and we want to continue creating a culture that fosters uh collaboration and innovation and our our call sign is hashtag premier Rondout Valley. And with this budget, I'm proud to say uh all of our offerings are remaining the same for our students. Uh we're still offering all of these wonderful and innovative programs with our new Envision Squared curriculum, with our Amplify CKLA new ELA curriculum, our Fast Bridge data screener, our Data Mate assessment system that gives us real-time data on student performance, our special ed programs, our CTE offerings, AP classes, dual enrollment, uh UDL, um the Writing Revolution, all of our academic exit programs are still being offered for next year in this year's budget, next year's budget. And our student well-being, too, we want to educate the whole child and we have our

003digital hall pass system we're still funding, our Go Guardian system. Uh we're rolling out a brand new social emotional learning curriculum that we're really excited about going forward. Again, our award-winning award-winning music programs, our related service providers, our athletics, our unified PE, after-school clubs, our school counselors, all of these important criteria will be funded in next year's budget. Okay, so um as compared to last time that we presented this number at the top has decreased. We're going to talk more about that as we go through. So, we're proposing our expenditure budget at $82,093,525. Uh we're still recommending the tax levy go to the cap, which is still on a 3.82% increase and that's a 1.7, almost 1.8 million dollar um increase to our revenue. Um we're also going to the state aid has not changed,

004the governor has not approved the budget yet. And so, our revenues minus our expenditures gives us a gap a little bit lower than what we started with, that $4.4 million. We're proposing to utilize more reserve more fund balance than we have in the past. Um we've taken a deep dive and looked at everything and we are going to increase our utilization of fund balance almost the same level as what it was this year. And then our appropriated reserves is increasing as well. So, we're going to talk more about that a little bit, which gives us a gap of zero. Questions about this slide? Okay. Here's our state aid numbers. Like I said, these have not changed, the governor hasn't approved the budget. Um if they are to change when the governor does approve the budget,

005all we're hearing is that the foundation aid may go up a little bit. If that happens, we'll utilize those funds going forward. So, we'll do the same thing and reinvest in the next year. Um I want to point out, it's important to know things that we don't control is the foundation aid, things that we can control are expense-based aids, so our BOCES aid, that's money we receive back based on utilization of BOCES services. Um high tax aid is one that stands still, never changes. Software, hardware, that's uh in conjunction with our enrollment and um our free and reduced lunch application numbers, so those those change year over year. High cost, those are our students with special needs that may need to um receive services, same with private excess costs. Transportation aid, you'll see is is

006uh increasing by a lower number than usual. Um we do a lot of work behind the scenes with the transportation department to make sure we're using our transportation in an efficient manner. Our building aid is going down a little bit. This is a reflection of the iPark project. So, the BOCES um improvement that they're doing at the iPark um facility is coming in a little bit under budget, so we're not borrowing at the same level that we thought we were going to have to. Um each component district, so ourselves, you, Paul's, all those are going to be utilizing that same um borrowing. In the end, we have about $372,000 to cover that $4.4 million dollar gap we had in the first slide before we uh created fund balance and reserves. When are we expecting um

007the final state aid? Is it May? Early May? Uh I think it's due by April 15th um at the governor's side of things. Last year, I think it went past that date. It's week of May 7th or something. Correct. Yeah. Uh they do a lot of work. I used to work in the division of the budget, they do a lot of work behind the scenes, they're there weekends, nights, 24 hours a day trying to make uh agreements behind the behind doors. So, it's a lot of work and they're still working up there. Okay. Notes. Okay. This is our comparison of our levy over the past um few years. We again are going to go up to that 3.82%. I just want to reiterate, an increase on our levy does not equal the increase on your

008individual taxes as a homeowner in our district. So, we increase the levy amount, but that gets distributed evenly among all homeowners in the district. So, your individual increase may be less, may be a little bit more, it really depends on a lot of different factors, equalization rate, assessed values, uh assessed values of your neighbors, things like that. Once we adopt the budget, we'll put together a little slide that gives a better picture of that. She's got excellent Uh earlier I talked about utilizing a little bit more in reserves. So, um we're going to use a little bit of unemployment reserve and we're going to increase the amount we're going to use EBALR equals employee benefit accrued liability reserve, can only be utilized for retirement um benefits. So, we're taking the cost of the two incentives

009that we put out, taking it out of the general fund and paying for it with our reserves. So, that decreased that amount of those expenditures year over year. Hey, sorry, Tabitha, can you just remind me with the capital reserve? Mhm. It's 7.8 bucks. We allocated funds already that haven't yet moved in there. Is that correct? Correct. At the closing of our bud uh of our audited financial statements in November, the board took action to um put whatever was remaining above 4% into a reserve to replenish. I don't have that figure cuz I've been working on all the [clears throat] other things, but when we go on the road show and we talk about those things, I'll definitely give a better update number. Roughly, is it a million or something or A little bit less than

010a million. Thank you. Yep. >> [clears throat] >> Questions about our reserve or current reserves? And and sorry, one more comment on that. Is that the place we want to be putting that that whatever we would allocated or is it not too late to take some of that and put it into any of these other Because that was funds remaining from the 2025-2026 budget, I can't leave >> was applied there. Exactly. And we uh the board made took action in June to utilize funds left over at the end of that year for specific purposes. So, um I don't think we have a lot of funds still in working capital this year. But moving forward, we would recommend putting those extra funds um over the 4% in our different reserves to build these reserves back up.

011It's a healthy capital reserve, to be quite honest about it, we have almost 8 million, maybe almost 9 million when it's all said and done. Now, I will say that that helps to relieve some tax pressure, too, for individuals. So, utilizing a capital reserve reduces the the pressure on an individual taxpayer when we go out for a capital project. So, we like the balance of the things that um we have coming down the pipe, for certain. You used uh some of the reserves for the capital this capital, this new capital. $4 million uh reduced the amount of taxpayer uh share. Yep. So, that was utilized and approved by the um community in December. As our biggest selling point with that $20 million capital reserve, is it didn't affect the taxpayer because we used $4 million

012of that out of the capital reserve, which eased the burden on the taxpayer with that $20 million capital project that was approved last December. You might not be able to answer this, but what is what is a healthy reserve for a district our size for each of these categories? Like are we by by taking more out of them are we still within the range of healthy? Are we putting ourselves at risk? I mean about $13 million in reserves, which is probably closer to 14 once we allocate the amount of money. It's healthy. Would I like to see more for certain? You never know what's going to come down down the road, right? So I lived through the holdback of state aid payments during the pandemic 20% of the aid wasn't going to be paid out.

013Only way you can cover that is by using reserves. That's unexpected, unplanned loss of revenue. So having money here to help satisfy those things are important for the unknown things. We just don't know that may be happening. So there's there's ways in which we can utilize these funds if we ever need to in emergency. So it's better to have more rather than less, but it's really just a balance. What can we sustain as a district? What can our taxpayers be okay with? And we don't want to be over taxing. And we're replenishing those by putting a surplus from the current fiscal year's budget into next year. Are there other things that we're doing to replenish? >> The surplus that were the 3.1 almost 3.2 million dollars. That is what I'm expecting us to have in

014and excess at the end of this year by cutting different spending, right? So we froze all spending as of January and everything that comes across my desk or through the superintendent's desk is looked at. Do we really need this? Can we wait? And things like that. So we've been pinching our pennies as we go just as anybody would in their home to try to save money to use to alleviate that pressure on the taxpayer in the following year. But we're reducing that every year. Increase of 2% on your expenditures is not a large increase when your average contractual salary increase is 4%. So we're really trying to balance as best we can, but we have to be cognizant of those things that we don't control. Conversation. Any questions about our reserves? Our current reserves? So

015this is our um This is our line by line, but it's organized by different categories. As you can see based on those incentives, we are going to see a decrease year-over-year in our salary expenditures of about $500,000. We were able to successfully negotiate with all the bargaining units to see everybody move to the higher co-pay insurance plan, which is yielding a savings. We still have an increase in our health insurance though of a million dollars. And then our contractual expenditures are also going down because we're reducing a BOCES service, which we'll talk about in a few minutes. As I said, we're looking at a 2% year-over-year expenditure budget. For reference, 25 to 20 2025-26 is budget increased from 24-25 by 2.32%. So we reduced our increase by 0.32. So what I was saying earlier with

016the contractual obligations of you know 3 to 4% and our budget only going to 2%, we're really trying to be really fiscally responsible. You know, as we continue working together to try to not only save it on expenses, but also try to create more revenue streams too through grants, which we're which we're going to get into. Any questions about our proposed expenditures? Extra? So these were just some positions as we as we spoke about in our last presentation that were a part of the American Rescue Grant. If you're not familiar, the American Rescue Grant was afforded all school districts across the state to cover expenditures during the pandemic. And here at Rondout, the district had a plan to spend this much in just one year out of this grant for these positions. So when we

017were looking at the budget, we kind of just were taking a look at these types of positions and analyzing whether we wanted to continue or or not any specific decision. Questions? So strategies to preserve staff, can we talk about the teacher retirement incentive about almost 890K, the paraprofessional incentive, again that's 240,000 that saved, that shift to the higher co-pay plan with $650,000 savings. Thanks to board member Rylowitz, we're looking at pursuing a grant that he shared with us, extended day and preventing school violence grant. We could potentially have a revenue stream of $450,000 over that five years. But again with the collaboration of the teachers union, the CSEA, the administrative union, we we really came together and came to to work collaboratively together to make sure these strategies were employed because the last thing we

018ever want to do is is reduce staff. >> [clears throat] >> Sorry Dr. Scudera, how are you learning about new grants that are available through the state? This just so happened they this is what something that they the state just put out. They don't put out these grants every so often, but it was like a a one out of like like five years they they put this out. So the we are partnering with BOCES, a grant writer to get this grant up and running. It's due in mid-April. We're meeting with them tomorrow to get the legwork going and we anticipate submitting this grant. Hopefully we may not get all 400 That's the max we can get, but we're anticipating at least some of the funding because we are a good candidate. We're we're rural. We

019don't have a lot of a lot of industry and our our revenue streams are limited. Do we have someone at BOCES who's helping sort of monitor grants as they pop up that could be good for us? Like yeah? Yes. So when we met with her, we we we talked about those types of things like the the needs of the district. Can you look and tell us if there's any other grants that could fit this need or this need? So we did. We do a federal grant. We get our title one, we get IDEA, title two, title three, title four. So we get those grants as a revenue stream, but anytime there New York State puts out grants or there's federal grants out there, we will be pursuing. Because we know our revenue's going to be

020kind of stagnant in the next couple years unless the funding unless the state aid funding formula changes, which we don't anticipate doing. So we kind of know what our revenue's going to be, probably increasing 380,000, 400,000 dollars every year. But with our expenses millions and millions of dollars, that's where there's your gap, right? So we're going to try as best to kind of pursue as many revenue streams as possible so we can you know, we're going to have a gap every year, but we don't want to have you know, a six eight million dollar gap. We want to try to have that gap really contained so we can you know, fill it without doing you know, reductions. We can fill it with attrition. We can fill it with resignation. So here's our budget of attritions

021and we've added the from the paraprofessional [clears throat] retirement incentive. We've added those teacher aides and teacher assistants that took advantage of it. So this hasn't changed from the last time we presented. We have an elementary teacher at Kerhonkson that is retiring. So we're doing attrition per enrollment. Another elementary teacher at Kerhonkson. See the savings there. Not showing that position uh due to enrollment. We have a reading teacher at Marbletown. Um that's attrition. We're we're having an internal transfer from Marbletown to Kerhonkson cuz that's where the need is for a reading teacher. We have an elementary teacher at the intermediate school. We're not filling. That's a retirement. So due to enrollment, that will be an attrition. We have another elementary teacher at the intermediate school that's retiring. We're going to fill that position with an

022internal transfer from the district. We have a special ed teacher from the intermediate school that's retiring. So that gives us an opportunity due to enrollment to combine our self-contained classes in Marbletown and Kerhonkson grades K through one. So that will be one class next year. We have a special ed teacher at the junior high school who's retiring. We can we don't have to fill that position based on enrollment. We have a director of curriculum position that we're not filling cuz we've reorganized the district. So we're not filling that position. We have the intermediate school principal. You know with reconfiguration, we're going to one school, one best school, one principal. We are going to hire an assistant principal, so there's breakage there. So that's the savings with the intermediate school principal. The teachers aide at Marbletown

023is retiring, so we're not filling that position. A teachers aide at the high school is retiring. We're not filling that position. A teachers aide at the junior high school is retiring. We're not filling that position. A TA at Kerhonkson is retiring. We anticipate not filling that position, but CSE meetings are still taking place, so we don't know yet. We do know that with these three teaching assistants retiring at the intermediate school and Marbletown, we know that we have to fill these three positions. So there's going to be breakage. So we anticipate these three employees coming in at step one and that would be the savings. So our total savings with budgeted attritions is 1.3 million. That's why it's very imperative for us to really take a hard look when we know we have a retiree

024that is potentially not going to be with us next year. It's a huge savings to the district. If we can be really creative and strategic and fill these positions strategically with the staff that we have. It's a big savings. Any questions about our budget and attrition for next year? And the next slide, again, this is what we don't want to do and you know, this is this is you know, a painful slide because we do the last thing we ever want to do is reduce staff. That's the last thing we want to do at Rondout, but in order to balance the budget, we had to take a look at positions across the district. So, what we're recommending with reductions across the district based on expenditure projections is a math coach at BOCES. We don't want

025to fill that next year. Again, we can we we can get that service through BOCES. A point for speech position that's district wide. We want to reduce that next year. A point three business teacher at the high school. We would like to reduce that next year. An assistant principal at the high school. We want to reduce that for next year. A behavior analyst at Kerhonkson that serves Kerhonkson and Marbletown. We want to reduce that next year. An instructional coach that services the intermediate junior high and high school. We're recommending to reduce that position next year. Again, this hurts. It's not something we want to do ever want to do, but for us to balance our budget and still offer this the programs that we have for students and to be mindful of our taxpayers, this

026is what we're recommending to do to fill that gap. Any questions with our reduction slide? And this is hope we're hoping to cuz we had to move some funds to save positions into from our fund balance and our reserves. This is going to how we're going to try to recoup that that those funds. We're looking at administrator substitutes district wide. We're really going to hone in on that and make sure those are very going to be very limited next year. Only in emergency situations what we may allow admin subs. But with us at the district office, with people at the district office, we feel like we can help support the schools if there's not a principal or an assistant principal available. Athletic chaperones are also that could be a savings too. We're going to be

027try to be creative with scheduling those next year. That's going to be reduction based on need. Non-instructional substitutes as well. These are big budget line items. We're really going to try to take a deep dive to have savings for these next year so we can preserve staff. Same thing with instructional substitutes district wide. I will say we're looking at our data, our attendance rates are up this year, which is great. So, we are spending less and less money on substitutes. We want to keep we want to keep that strategy moving forward because that's a big budget savings. I think we spend almost a couple hundred thousand dollars on substitutes every year. So, that's something we want to look at and be strategic about. Then of course, we're we're pursuing the school violence prevention grant. We're

028hoping that brings in revenue. We could purchase our SEL curriculum with that. We could purchase our safety technologies and we could also fund our SROs through this grant. Any questions about our anticipated budget line reductions for next year? Um I just am very appreciative of you looking at this as a big picture expenses that we can't always foresee, but over time can add up. So, I do appreciate you taking that a look at that and trying to tighten our belt in that way as well. Um All right, so that and the outside grant for our SRO salaries to offset that I think is a really great idea. So, I appreciate it. It allows us to keep that safety component, but also doesn't um we don't have to choose between that and another position. So, I

029really appreciate you doing you guys moving forward with that. >> This hurts. We're just we're really trying to minimize our reductions. Yeah. I just also Um just I agree with Nicole and I really appreciate this and I also want to name that this means this means there are some folks, mostly sort of administrators that are taking on some more and doing some coverage and maybe taking on some more responsibilities, which I appreciate. Um the athletic chaperones, will still have athletic chaperones? But like can you just tell me a little bit about that? It doesn't mean we're the these things will never be happening. It just means that you'll be covering them in different ways. >> Administrators, you know, and you try to be creative with with scheduling and you know, with with people that that

030service chaperones, but you know, the the building administration, you know, their supports. We're going to have chaperones just in what capacity and how can we how can we be fiscally responsible and also have the supervision at these events as well. That's where we're going to be try to be strategic and creative with that. >> [clears throat] >> I think it's great. And the fact yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, just the fact that you had the two-hour delays right for program development. What is that? Professional development. Professional development, right? That was during the instructional substitutes, right? Yes, instead of like pulling in substitutes to cover classes while you know, the building does you know, curriculum mapping and looking at data and and being really strategic as with their with their lessons and making sure high quality teaching

031learning is taking place. That's why we did those two-hour delay schedules so we don't have to bring in subs you know, during the day. We can have that PD happen with those two-hour delays and that's really a lot of the money comes from. It's not like teachers are calling out. It's the teachers are there. They're just doing other things besides being in the classroom. They're doing professional development. They're they're they're getting their students ready for the Regents test with or the state test or developing benchmarks. They're developing common sense. They're doing a lot of work. Right. Uh it's just like they're they're doing it, but there's there's more more professional days that we're spending a lot of money on. So, we're trying to >> great strategy to do to do that. Do you have any

032other questions? Yeah, for the school violence prevention grant as you said it's over five years, right? So, it's like less than a hundred thousand per year. So, I do I want to raise this again. I know we talked about it, but I do want to think about how we are if we got it, putting that forward to be more of the SEL curriculum and really using data to look at how we're spending on the on school safety because our SRO salaries are significant and a hundred thousand dollars is not a lot for school safety so we can keep putting that more towards some of the other things. I think we should really There's also opportunities for federal grants too like our title four grant there's a safety component to it. We don't get a lot

033of money in that grant, but we can use some of that money towards like SEL and safety. But we are rolling that's that is a focus of ours is the soft skills is if is teaching the whole child. We know how important that is with being college and career ready and that's why we're rolling out a K-12 systemic >> I think it's so important that we're rolling that out and I know one of our board goals is around safety and we're committed to looking at data to make sure that we have the right programs in place to support student like not just physical safety, right? All aspects. So, we want to make sure that we're really thinking >> Emotional psychological safety are our top priorities. Yeah. Just a So, I agree with what everyone else

034said. I appreciate you guys being creative here to try to find ways to reduce. In the past, we also did look at overtime. Um are you also looking at that as well? Find a way to reduce there. Yeah. So, um the strategies that have been put in place prior to Dr. Spadaro and I getting here have yielded positive results. So, we are going to continue on that strategy and continue keeping that at over. I think one other thing I don't think it was mentioned we mentioned it, but we talked athletically about increasing uh when when we have events here like whether Ulster Community College or there are section nine tournaments that we would increase our uh payment right for that and the fees for that. Was that looked into at all or For the facility

035use? Yeah, facility use fees to increase those fees as revenues to that, you know. Yes, that's something that we will bring to the policy committee and the board as a whole during our rework. We usually set those those rates then. Okay. Absolutely. Any questions about the slide? So, you can see positions across the district with attrition and reductions. At at Kerhonkson, we have three attritions, two teachers and one TA. At Marbletown, one teacher, one teacher's aide. At the intermediate school, we have three attritions, two teachers and a special education teacher. At the junior high, a special education teacher and a teacher's aide. At the high school, a teacher's aide and a reduction in the point three business, PPS, student services. One reduction, a behavior analyst and a point four speech pathologist. And then the district

036office, you see the four um Well, we have one one attrition, one reduction, one vacancy and a reduction of an assistant principal and systemically across the district, the instructional coaches serve all schools. So, we we put the instructional coaches down here. So, this is with the new proposed budget with the incentives with putting money from fund balance to fund some of these positions, taking some money out of our reserves. And again, to try to recoup that money, we're going to go after those strategies as I talked about it previously. Any questions about how we spread out this across the district? So, how's this going to affect class sizes? That's I wrote on everyone's mind. Uh at Marbletown, the kindergarten numbers uh this year are 22. We're anticipating them to be 21 next year based on

037the three-year average. Now, this is a projection. These things could change. We're projecting. Just like the budget's a projection. These are all projections. So, based on data, based on looking at historical numbers, we're anticipating that number to be around 21. Grades 1 through 3, uh this year's class size average is 16. That will go up to 19 projected because we are reducing one section uh in grades two. At Kerhonkson, you see the kindergarten numbers are projected to go up one. Uh grades 1 through 3 right now are 16. Those class sizes will go up to 20 because we are reducing one section in grades two and in grades three. The intermediate school, grades four, uh class size right now is 19. Anticipated for next year is 22. Uh why is that? Because we are reducing

038a section in grade four due to a retirement. Uh the intermediate school, grade five, currently is at 19. Now going up to 24 projected because we are reducing one section in grade five. And the intermediate school, grade six, will roughly stay the same. There won't be a reduction cuz we're doing an internal transfer uh to fill that position uh for next year. And these are still all within contractual obligations. Any questions about how this the impact on class sizes? No, I just think that we have to watch the numbers for the projected uh elementary level. That's all. Uh you know, smaller is better, you know, at that level. You know, we can always, you know, see increases at the high school level, but I think at that level we got to want to really hone

039in on that a little bit as you see. Uh you know, we're having people move into the district so on and so forth, you And this isn't the end all be all. Say, for example, we have an influx of students and we're hovering around this contractual obligation, school will take a look and we may have to Someone would we have to bring someone back on the payroll list or we may have to, you know, post that position. Exactly. So, this isn't the end all be all if numbers change. >> Right. And all the kindergartens have aides. Yes, all kindergarten classrooms have teachers aides in them. Do we take students after >> Teacher aides. No. No. No. What date do we keep? Um what what what date do we stop enrolling or is there not a

040date? Do we Is it sort of an ongoing thing? Is there a deadline for You want to talk about kindergarten? Sorry, I can hear the the original question. I'm sorry. Um is there a date in which um a child can no longer be enrolled for the school year? Is there like a deadline or is it just ongoing? Okay. And kindergarten registration's happening. It's just started. Started. I think we have I think we have 10 so far. And as I heard, it was around So. Hoping that number goes up. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> When do you see the biggest wave? I would say we usually see a push and Chrissy may want to speak to this too, but I feel like we usually see a push when we first post that it's open and then I

041also think we see another surge as we get closer to the opening of the school year in August. Well, we usually see another push then, too. And teachers also AIS teachers also push into the classes too in kindergarten. So, you may have that if the you know, the the the math AIS teacher will push in and do small group lessons. The reading teacher will push in and do those those lessons as well, too. Uh cuz they're more pushing at the kindergarten level. I believe they don't start pulling out for AIS until first grade. So, there's support. There'll be supports there for our for our for our little ones. Any other questions about class size projections? I have a few questions. So, I'm looking at them looking across the row, but if we're looking from kindergarten

042to what it might be next year, right? Like the jump for students from the previous year to the next year could be significant. Right? So, so I'm looking like diagonally. So, student like students right now in second or third grade, right? They might have 16 kids and then they're let's say third grade and then next year they're going to a class of 22. I'm thinking about the teachers and I'm also thinking about the student experience. I'm just wondering how we're going to mitigate for ensuring that there really is differentiated learning happening. We're not going to have instructional coaches to support. So, how are you going to how are you ensuring high quality instruction is happening and students are getting what they need? I know it's a really big question. >> I'm sure. And and the

043focus with the reconfiguration next year, the focus from, you know, the administration will be our our expectation is you're going to be focused on high quality. You're going to be an instructional leader. You're going to be focused on, you know, giving giving coaching and giving feedback and looking at data. And are you giving them that support as well? Like are you providing that professional development to the school leaders so that they're equipped to handle this the shift? Yeah, myself, Ms. Hardesty, my whole cabinet, and we meet monthly with with our principals. We look at data, we go over trends and patterns, and we're and we're there for support. The expectation is, you know, here's where our students are and this is where we need them to be. Yeah, I think we really need to try

044what's happening, especially in fourth fourth and fifth grade given that those grades have been that jump from the elementary schools has been challenging. Really? Yeah. Any other questions about our class size projections? All right. So, with all those shifts, all those moves, all those attritions, reductions, we still have 75% of our budget is made up of program um and 10% and 15% for our administrative and capital um as we presented every other time we've presented the budget. So, even though we did all those things, our focus is still on our program and our budget is reflective of that. So, these are lumps again like categories. Um instruction is not just salaries. That is inclusive of materials and supplies. Textbooks, computers, um any other contractual things, professional development for teachers, all that is included in this

045number here under instruction. Same for pupil transportation. This is inclusive of our contracted transportation with the bus company um as well as salaries, uh materials and supplies, fuel we order and purchase. Um other transfers is going to be um what we put into our cafeteria fund in case um our reimbursements are a little behind schedule as well as uh funds to support the federal grants because we don't receive those funds until we spend those funds. Um and then the employee benefits as it applies to pupil transportation salaries and instructional salaries. Overall, 2.2% increase year over year in this program category. Uh the capital component of our um of our budget is not um not our capital project. This is our uh facility maintenance um and our debt that we have and transfers for debt and

046then the employee benefits as it pertains to operations and maintenance. I also want to say that this is not just salaries and operations and maintenance. This is also electricity, fuel, um materials and supplies, dirt for the baseball fields, um salt for the snow removal, plow trucks, gasoline, all those things are going to be sitting in those operations and maintenance. Principal and interest, this is strictly our debt. Again, we're seeing that decrease because we don't have to borrow as much for the BOCES project as we had anticipated in years past. And then the employee benefits as it pertains to our facilities department. A 1.49% increase year over year. And then our administrative budget, uh central services is not just salaries. It also includes our legal fees, um our auditor fees, our umbrella insurance, which is our

047liability insurance, um paper purchases, things like that. Instructional supervision is not just for um administrators in buildings. Uh it's not just salaries. It's also their professional development, their materials and supplies for the buildings. Um graduation, moving up ceremonies, all those things are going to be in this budget line. Curriculum development is also not just salaries. That is our professional development programs, textbooks ordering, instrument repair um contracts, things like that. And then the employee benefits are tied just to the salaries in those different categories. And we're seeing a year over year increase of 1.36%. Um we showed this before. This is just our cost per pupil. We want to keep an eye on this as we move forward. We're doing things to try to decrease this um so that we're more in the middle ground. This

048is how much it cost to educate a student um at Rondout, just our students. It's inclusive of just the cost to teach them. It includes things such as uh salaries, but it also includes uh athletics. It includes um extracurriculars, things like that. Does that include transportation? Transportation to and from school. That's it. Only for our students. No out of district placements are included in the number. Uh no uh students that come here, no special education students who come here are included in those numbers either. They would be included in the school that's their home school cuz we bill for those students. So, only Rondout students. But [clears throat] it would include all of our special education teacher salaries. Yes. Um I mean, I think it's clear that we're a really well-resourced district, so I just

049wanted to acknowledge that. Do you know what's driving our our student costs up compared to these other districts? Um it's our enrollment. Uh our enrollment's down and our operating budget is up. So, this is a comparison of how many students we have that are aidable and how much uh our expenditures are as it relates to educating a student. So, operating They call it operating budget. And that segues into this next slide. Enrollment Our enrollment is a concern. You know, it's been a concern uh over the last 10 years. Uh we have a 343 decrease in student enrollment over 10 years. I mean, that's a school uh that's bigger than Marbletown. Uh that's bigger than Kerhonkson. And it's about 20 students less uh than the intermediate school. It's bigger than the junior high school projected for

050next year. So, we're losing students. And when you lose students, you're going to be um losing funding. And uh that's kind of our dilemma right now um with with 343 students decreased over uh the last 10 years. That number tied to the dark foundation aid. And of course you've seen this. We did add the historical declining student enrollment with with staff enrollment. And we want to make sure we're we're kind of in line with our student decline um along with our with our staff enrollment, too. And we added the administrative unit uh enrollment uh as well to the number of administrators we have. And again, we want to match what what was happening earlier with if we have a decline in student enrollment, we have a decline in staff enrollment. Of course, what happened here

051uh was COVID and the American Rescue Plan. So, we decided to add more positions to help uh during COVID. And but we also had a decline in student enrollment. We tried to right-size the district a few years ago to match our student enrollment with our staff enrollment. And then myself and Tabitha, you know, this is our second year together uh doing uh our budget. You know, we had 74% of the of the community pass the budget uh last year. And we're we're hoping that we're trying to be fiscally responsible uh to our taxpayers moving forward, but also to make sure we have those innovative programs that we offer students and minimizing uh staff reductions. That's our goal. That's going to be our goal and our challenge uh to offer these amazing programs, minimize staff reductions,

052and to be fiscally responsible uh to our taxpayers. Um do I want to point out what's included in the 200, but this is just >> Got to be. pulling out. So, um when you're looking at the staff numbers here, staffing include is just inclusive of those student those staff that are directly related to student education. So, it's going to include thing um individuals including the superintendent, the assistant superintendents, teachers, um social workers, things of that nature. The only employees not included in this 200 200 number figures is going to be our clerical staff, our crisis intervention counselors, and our um custodial staff. And that's just uh that's that's the way the state divides it up. We pulled out the administrator just so you could see, but it's included in the 215. So, it wouldn't be

053230. It's still 215, but 15 of those are our administrators. So, that's just I just want to explain the the graphic. We're just showing there's a decline in an administrator just like there's a decline in staff. Thank you. So, budget forecasting, we don't want to just plan for next year. We're looking for 5 years from now. Where are we going to be as a district? Are we going to be fiscally responsible 5 years from now? And when you look at uh this chart vertically, you can see our biggest expenses uh to the district is salaries and health insurance. And we're budget forecasting over the next 5 years to see where we're going to be uh with our projected salary expenses. This year we're at 32 million one. Again, with the attritions and and with the

054strategies we're doing, that number as you can see is decreased. We'd love to decrease that expense every year [clears throat] uh moving forward. But we're projecting that's going to increase every year uh due to contractual obligations. So, at the end of uh 2031, we're projecting in 5 years to be at over 4.2 million uh with our salary expenses. With our health insurance, uh we always budget between 6 and 8%. What really threw us for a for a curveball this year is it went up 16%. So, that's usually when you when you budget, you look at historical data. That one really threw us this year for a loop. So, we're still budgeting at 8%. We're hoping it doesn't go into the double digits again moving forward. But again, looking at that last number, that number adds

055up to over $6 million in expenses. And when you look at our projected revenue, remember what I said earlier, we have to find ways to generate more revenue to balance our budget and to have a decreased gap every year. It's uh projected to be at around 10 million. So, even with all of the strategies we did and the attritions uh and and and the resources that we're using, we are still looking at a deficit in 5 years from now only looking at salaries and health insurance of 217,000. So, we still got to do a better job moving forward of really honing in on these expenses and trying to reduce them as much as possible because the last thing we ever want to do is not fund the district and be in the red. Okay. So,

056I just want everyone to realize this isn't just a one-year uh concern. Uh but there's going to be a gap every year. We just got to make sure we're minimizing that gap. We got to be fiscally responsible. And we really got to focus in on cutting expenses. There has been a gap every year, right? This year just was higher and Well, 3 years ago it wasn't that high. And last year it was four. This year it's six. So, now now the gap you showed us in the beginning is almost the same as last year, right? Last year we had a $4 million gap. Which we plugged completely with reserves. So, going forward is the idea that we are reducing that gap and continually replenishing our reserves so we're filling it just with that and also

057looking at attritions and those two strategies. Our budgetary strategy uh attritions, resignations, more more revenue streams. Uh that slide I showed earlier about trying to be creative with with grant funding. We're looking at administrator substitutes. We're looking at um substitutes across the district. These big budget line items that really stand out to us. What can we do to really try to minimize those? We're always going to need subs. We're always going to need people. But how can we be strategic and minimize those big budget line items moving forward so it doesn't cut into our expenses. Any questions about our projected revenue and expenditures? And again, this is just you know, we have more items. You know, have to talk about the capital and the instructional three-part budget. This is just looking at our biggest two

058expense items is salaries uh and health insurance. So, our goals moving forward, again, we want to minimize the impact on student programs. Uh you know, we want the budget to be passed for 2026-2027. Uh that'll I think I believe it's May 19th is is the date uh for for the community come out and vote. We want to minimize reductions moving forward. Uh we're going to continue with looking at attritions, resignations, and any internal transfers to right-size the district moving forward. We're going to continue reducing expenses like I just talked about to minimize the gap. And the third goal is we want to be fiscally responsible to all of you and your our taxpayers. Uh our levy only uh uh decreased from last year 0.34% from 2025. It was at 4.16 last year. It's only at

0593.82% this year we're going out for. We only had a 2% budget increase from 2026. It's a 0.32% decrease uh from 2025. So, we're going to continue these trends moving forward. Any questions for us? Any questions for me? Thank you so much, Dr. Spadero and Ms. Begin. I do have questions. >> Oh, sorry. I'm so sorry, Ms. Begin. I thought I Um no, I just want to acknowledge that these are really hard decisions and appreciate how you listen to the community and the board. Um and I'm also just curious like that the class size slide is still sticking with me and I'm just curious where like is that I know these are all within the contractual obligation and say things with class sizes. We're not asking teachers to do anything that they're that is not

060in their contract, but where do we want to be as a district? Like do we value small class sizes? Is that something that we want to work towards again? Is this kind of like a fix for this year? Is it something that we'll reassess next year, I guess? Yeah, absolutely. Any anytime there's projections, we always look at it, you know, key year by year changes. Obviously, we want to we've been doing a really my my second year here with I've not heard any complaints about class sizes cuz I think we're doing a good job of trying to keep those class sizes class sizes as as low as possible, you know, and any strategies we can do to do that, you know, we love to. We we changed the the instructional delivery of um fourth fifth

061uh this year to to teaming and and and sixth grade um being departmentalized. So, we're trying to think of creative ways to keep the kids moving and try to keep the class size sizes down. We have new curriculum. We have our our our UDL, you know, universal design for learning. We're trying to, you know, create those strategies to do some small group instruction so it doesn't feel like, you know, you're teaching 24 or 25 kids, you're teaching, you know, kids in six to eight in small groups. So, we're trying to come up with really creative ways uh to if we have higher class sizes, still get the the best delivery of instruction. Yeah, I also wanted I really appreciate the work that's that's gone into this in this phase compared with last month. I'm I'm

062feeling so much more comfortable that this is more of the direction that sort of makes sense for Rondout. Um two pieces, one that's still lingering for me of course is is the fact that we have two two SROs and two armed security guards and why that isn't something that we might look to cut just in terms of one of those positions um and maybe have a shared SRO for the um high school and the intermediate facilities. That's still something I'm thinking about and um something I'd certainly want us to look at for next year. Um and then the other that this is sort of a question. Um so, those teacher aids that work in the library, can you just talk a little bit about um um how that how that will be covered. Um not

063having just having We will have a full-time librarian in each school, right? Um but taking out that teacher aid, what does that mean in terms of the role of those librarians in terms of access um for teachers and students and also I think testing accommodations happen at least in the high school at the library. Like how will that work? Yeah, sure. At the elementary level, you know, we had to make a decision. We could either uh have a shared librarian cuz one of those of the librarian at Marbletown retired or we could uh open up that position and fund fund that position cuz you know, we share services with music and with art. They're shared across the elementary schools. So, we made an an executive decision to you know what, let's fund that position cuz

064we know how important the librarian is, you know, in a school and also the potential of fourth grade moving back to the elementary school. So, we want to make sure every school have a full-time uh librarian. And then with that and then going to the new A through uh F schedule six-day cycle at the elementary level, um they're going to see students and teach classes. They're not going to teach them as much because instead of teaching them in a five-day cycle, they'll be spread out over a six-day cycle, which will give them more opportunities to do, you know, the duties of of, you know, take care of of the library. And uh you know, it's hard but this is a decision that we didn't, you know, we we always knew it would have an effect,

065but we want to make sure the effect is minimal and we're going to be strategic and and maybe we could have uh TAs or someone to help the librarian out with checking and checking out some teachers. Just be creative with the staff that we already have in place to help support the librarian cuz we know how important the librarians are in our schools. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Spadero I have I have I can speak I can speak to that. We'll do that. Yeah. While Dr. Spadero's getting um the the timer up, um thank you everybody for coming. Um I know it's getting warm in here. It's quite hot in here. Um a reminder of public comment three minutes. Uh please don't use personal names. Um Speak slowly though or we

066are taking notes. We're all listening. So, I do appreciate and again, if I I I I quickly went through the names and I feel like I got them, but I always get nervous that I mispronounced a name. So, I do apologize. Um I have first up Let me know when you're set or Dr. Spadero. Um I have Bianca Ferris. Yes, I am. Hi, I'm Bianca Ferris. I have two kids in the school district. I'm also a teacher of some of them. Um I think a lot of acknowledgement has been made of the administration here, but I think that the teachers and the staff staff and the professionals and principals principals should also be acknowledged for the monetary hit that they're taking in their pocketbooks, you know, for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but um for their health

067insurance plans and what they're going to lose. Um I was looking through what they're going to lose the high co-pay, um the class sizes that's going to increase. They should also be acknowledged and appreciated. Um I'm angry that they have to do that. I think they're selfless that they did that. Um but I I understand why they did it to keep their, you know, colleagues' jobs, which hasn't been mentioned. They did that. And so, I think there should be some acknowledgement of that. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I just have group name is high school library. Oh, is it um I think I said I didn't say your name. Oh, Tara? Tara Sorry. I apologize. Tara Cibo Edmond, I'm the librarian at the high school. Um as a school library media specialist in my 21st

068year of teaching, I'd like to echo what will be said by my colleagues. I have never done this job without a full-time library aid and to do so going forward would irreparably damage the programming that we work so hard to build. As of May 5th, I will have been at the high school for 11 full years. In that time, we've expanded the library program to offer instruction and support to every single department in a tangible way. Without a full-time aid, much of this work would have been impossible. Our library would have been closed for countless hours while I fully managed the space materials or while I prepared and delivered instruction to students both in and out of the library. What role does the library aid in a high school play? While ensuring students and staff

069are welcomed, assisted, supervised throughout each day, I can provide instructional supports that go far beyond books in books out. In the world languages program, I play an integral role on the Seal of Biliteracy team from providing instruction to every Seal earning student on research in their target languages to dedicating time and space for their presentations every April. This program has been so innovative that Seal Coordinator Victoria Robertson and I have presented at state and national conferences. In the English program, I sit as a member of the English department participating in instructional goals from research in the AP and college grade to instruction on media literacy and information access at every grade level. In the social studies program, I have taken on digital citizenship lessons, which expanded the 12th grade government and economics courses and the

070ninth grade global courses and joined the Seal of Civic Readiness Committee, which is more than fitting since I served on the original New York State Education Department Committee that developed the statewide Seal in 2019. We created dedicated lessons that explore a host of civically engaging research topics necessary for our students to build their citizenship and involvement. Sorry, I'm trying to speak fast. For our science programs, I become an evaluator for the science research course as well as leading the students in peer-reviewed research skills. Students regularly seek me out to provide individualized research support for complex science topics well above the typical high school level. Seniors who participate in WISE receive numerous research and media literacy literacy lessons in the library lending leading them to further more successful projects. Many of their presentations occur in our

071space as duty for and after school WISE workshops. I would point to any single one of these as a premier example of a vibrant, valuable media center. And these are just a handful of the projects, programs, events, and collaborations that we have cultivated at the library because we have a librarian and aid team that ensures equitable access every single day. Thank you. This is terrible. I I'm the um librarian at the middle and junior high school and I really appreciate that you all asked me the question about how removing the aids will impact the library programs because the um the moving to a 6-day cycle really impacts like doesn't make a big difference at the middle school. I don't know if the eighth grade is on a fixed schedule and the high school 6-day cycle

072would make a big difference at all. So, that kind of 6-day cycle switch doesn't help with the lack of an aid. Um So, um what I wanted to suggest right now it's we're losing four library aid positions and I wanted to suggest that you keep two of them with one aid split between the elementary schools and one split between the middle and high schools. And um it was suggested at the last budget meeting and again in the ceiling that act that um staff with extra periods could help out in the library to keep the doors open. Which implies the library aid is just bodies in a room. Um but the library aid is not like assigning someone to fill up the bathroom duty or hallway duty. Uh library aids are highly trained. They spend years

073learning the library collection systems and they have training with the tools of library duties but their knowledge and experience are essential to managing the library collection efficiently. And as a librarian, I can only do my job because I have a trained library aid there. And given how fast the world of information is changing right now, I mean I joke that every time I teach an information literacy class it changes cuz the world of information has changed and so it seems a really bad time to decimate the library program, limit students access to these experts. Library aids mean that me as the librarian I'm available to staff with students all day. Without a library aid, I would be forced to do those things and I books don't need shelving, right? And books don't need covering and

074repairing. All of that stuff I'd have to do and that limits the time that I spend with students. When you cut a library aid, you don't cut the work but that work is still there. And library aids also mean that the library is accessible to staff and students throughout the day even when I'm teaching a class. Library aids mean the library can offer individual support to students too. When I'm up at the desk, you know, the library aid is up at the desk checking out books and I'm moving around the building with the individual students and helping them find the just right book or encouraging them to maybe try something a little harder maybe move away from the graphic novel section. Without a library aid, I'd be stuck behind this. I wouldn't be working one-on-one

075with students and that's especially important with reluctant readers who struggle with reading. Um and in the middle school having an aid also means that the library can host building wide events that really generate so much fun and from students especially students that don't think of themselves as readers. We have scary stories, we have a poetry cafe every year, we have book fairs and these events can get students excited about coming to the library. Any events like that would be impossible without an aid to manage the space. So, I'm just asking you to consider not hobbling our library program especially right now given that everything's going on in the world. I think our students deserve a thriving 21st century library. Brian That opposite of what I just said. Is that your name? That's chicken scratch. Badly.

076All right. I did write a whole thing this time. Last time I just kind of made it up in my head. And uh I think some of my questions were actually answered during the presentation. But [clears throat] one thing that I couldn't help get out of my head was it's this thought of looking at the high ticket items and understanding where those need to be cut or what needs to be cut of those but some of the high ticket items uh not only haven't been cut, they've actually increased. So, central services in the previous budget was listed as increasing by 3%. Now it's 3.3%. And administration overall is 10% of the budget which is significant to me. A little over $8 million. And um so they're asking a lot of, you know, the bargaining units

077to cut staff and faculty and cut their benefits and we're losing, you know, 15 people. I know five are on the list of, you know, potential cuts but overall it's about 15 people which is a lot. Significant. And even with all those cuts, I'm not seeing any cuts on the administration side. I'm not seeing, you know, if you know, mention that it's not just salaries, it's legal fees and paper and supplies. That's still a significant amount. $3.4 million for central services. You're talking about you know, cutting, you know, that 3.3% is what? I don't know. 30 something thousand which is multiple positions that are being impacted. You know, salary positions. Um and I don't know if raises are included in those. I assume that they would be but uh I don't know if anybody's noticed

078but the economy is pretty much in shambles. I think things are not getting better. There's uh car inflation, you know, across the board with everything. Other expenses are going up. And so for, you know, the administration and that ticket themselves raises at the expense of other people's salaries and jobs. You know, it's just a lot. You know, it just doesn't seem right that they're doing something like that. Uh The other piece that I did want to mention is, you know, I've been fairly successful in my career. I've been working for 25 years as a software engineer in private sector. And it really comes down a lot to I have to justify my existence to senior staff. Because these days I'm submitting paperwork weekly that shows what my value is, what is my ROI to the

079company. Am I providing more value to the company than it costs to run the program? And I'd like to see that sort of accountability here, you know, particularly with the administrative staff and that's what we're doing so that we can see that what is the value that's being provided there versus the value that's being provided by library aids and teachers and interesting. Is the voting Um when did this district start putting in such a low value on kids with special needs? I'm just really curious. I have three kids, two of them have disabilities and one of them doesn't and it seems like every year I'm here because you guys are doing something that isn't seeming to be right. Um we're talking about kids with special needs, the most crucial people that we need to be

080offering supports to and you're nickeling and diming. Meanwhile, you all are sitting there with water bottles that our tax dollars have paid for but you're threatening library aids and speech teachers. It doesn't make sense to me. It just seems like this district has a running joke of special needs kids are like the lowest of the low. And you either do it with the budget, you do it with, you know, not offering them the same services in the school. You even did it with special olympics this year. Like you guys couldn't even coordinate special olympics with, you know, the fifth grade band concerts. So, you're literally telling families like mine who have kids with special needs saying that our kids have no value right now. And if you guys are more worried about your salaries than

081a teacher. I mean your package that you're getting just in benefits $46,000. How many teachers or teacher aids can we fund just with your benefit package that you make? And that's concerning. You you've been here for two years. And if we cut that, you can hire actual teachers that could really make a difference in our district, in my kids district. What scares me is you're taking away speech positions, you're taking away teachers who are overseeing like my son's ability to be able to feed himself and instead of you offering more services, you're just going to stack that onto another provider. What is that going to do? That's going to cause burnout. That's going to not prepare these people to be there for their students. I mean I just don't understand. You want people to come

082to this district and you want people to monopolize our community. Like you're cutting away the services that brings people to this district. When I first started in this district, Round Rock was like one of the top notch schools for kids with special needs. Now people are leaving because you don't seem to care or put value. I mean the fact that you couldn't coordinate a schedule properly. Like it it boggles my mind how and I mean I am looking at you too because this falls on you. Like 100% like the fact that you guys couldn't look at a schedule and say, "Hey, you know what? These kids who only have one thing a year to look forward to is special olympics and you've basically taken the opportunity for parents to be able to go there and

083support their kids because you couldn't coordinate a schedule, and because you were too bothered on spring break to actually follow up with emails? And instead you're telling me that I should go and talk to other teachers. And everyone all they're doing is this. Pointing the finger at everyone else. Do you know who's the one that's screwed? My fam. And every other kid who wants to participate in Special Olympics, or who wants to participate in band, because you don't hold value. Yes, I know my time is up. You keep looking at the clock. That seems to be your priority of this meeting. Instead of listening to what people say. And I know I haven't been to many meetings, and I think we before you, trust me, that's for you. But it it's the audacity that you

084guys don't seem to have the common courtesy or the respect to sit in those positions that you were elected to and do what's best for the community and our kids. Earn the $206,000, please. And the extra $46,000 that I think you get on top of it. Please. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. My name is Kathy Turner, and I have been a library media specialist at Rondout Elementary School for the last 27 years. Thanks to the long-standing commitment of both the administration and the school board, our library program is vibrant and highly utilized. I believe that you may all be under the misconception that this is solely due to the certified librarians you have working in each school. Please don't misunderstand that Rondout Valley certified librarians are essential, but they are half of what makes

085our libraries great. The second half of our department is the four highly skilled library aides that we work with on a daily basis. I'm here tonight to speak directly about why a library aide is essential at the elementary level. Having an aide in an elementary school library isn't just extra help. It directly improves how well the library serves students, teachers, and the overall school environment. And here's why. Number one, more individual support for students. Young students often need help finding books, using the catalog, or simply choosing something appropriate for their reading level. An aide can work one-on-one while a librarian teaches or manages a class, making the experience more personal and effective. Number two, better literacy development. Aides help reinforce reading skills by guiding students towards the right materials, encouraging reluctant readers, and supporting early

086literacy activities. More adults in the room equals more opportunities to engage kids with books. Number three, smoother class management. Elementary classes in the library can be large and energetic. With an aide present, one adult can teach while others while the other helps manage behavior, transitions, and questions, leading to a more productive learning learning experience. Number four, keeps the library organized and accessible. Libraries require constant upkeep, shelving books correctly, processing new materials, maintaining systems like circulation and cataloging. An aide ensures the collection stays organized so students can actually find and use the resources efficiently. Number five, supports technology use. School libraries are often tech hubs. Aids help students log on to computers, troubleshoot basic issues, and assist with research tools, allowing the librarian to focus on instruction rather than constant tech support. Number six, increases instructional

087time for the librarian. Without an aide, librarians spend a lot will have to spend a large portion of their time on clerical tasks. With support, they can focus on teaching research skills, digital literacy, and collaborating with teachers. By the way, I've also been added to my schedule typing classes for every student in grades two to five. Supports special populations. Students with different learning needs, ELL students, struggling readers, or those needing extra guidance benefit from the additional attention an aide can provide. And number eight, strengthens strengthens the overall library program. With adequate staffing, libraries can run enrichment programs, reading programs, and special events more effectively. These things often get cut when staff is reduced. In short, an aide helps transform a library from just a room with books into an active, supportive learning environment where every

088student gets the help they need. I implore you to see that each of the four libraries continues to have the support of the library aide that's necessary, even if that aide must be shared with another building as a cost-cutting measure. Thank you for your time. Good evening. I'm Rob McDonough. I'm the president of the RVF. I want to thank the board for listening to your staff and community at the last meeting. I'm thanking you not just for listening, but for truly hearing us. And for taking steps to make real and meaningful change. Increased transparency, uh good board discussions, putting the meeting documents online a day in advance, adding timer for public comment. Um 28 cuts are now down to about 13. The RVF sees that you have heard us and and that you're showing. So,

089thank you. Um cuts in public school cuts in a public school are always painful. But tonight's end result is the culmination of thoughtful and strategic reductions. This could not have happened though had the last meeting not taken place and you hearing from your staff and your community, and then taking their thoughts into consideration when making decisions is it's essential in building a partnership. It's essential in any democracy. I also want to thank Dr. Spadero for the hours he put into this budget this new budget tonight that he put in last week while we were all out on spring break. And for collaborating with me during that time. Since the last board meeting, Dr. Spadero and I have met several times, and they've all been positive meetings and productive. We both committed ourselves to working as

090a united team moving forward. So, I want to thank the board and Dr. Spadero again for hearing your staff and your community, and it really does make a big difference when you take input from everybody and make strategic uh decisions and thoughtful decisions. So, I mean, no cuts are ever, you know, a good thing, but I really appreciate the thought that went into the cuts that are in the end result tonight. So, I want to thank you all. And that's it. Thank you. Good night. Thank you, Dr. Spadero. Mr. President Pett. Next on the agenda is a MOA of the Rondout Valley health insurance change agreement. Recommend motion that the Board of Education of the Rondout Valley Central School District, on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, hereby approves the change in MVP health

091insurance plan uh MOA by and amongst the Rondout Valley Central School District and individually the Rondout Valley Administrators and Professionals Association, the Rondout Valley Federation of Teachers, Paraprofessional Unit of the Rondout Valley Federation, Clerical Unit of the Rondout Valley Federation, and the CSEA uh pursuant to the terms and conditions of the agreement, that the Board of Education hereby authorizes the Superintendent of Schools to take the necessary steps to uh implement the change in the MVP health insurance plan offered by the district pursuant to the agreement as presented. I'll make a motion. I'll second. Any discussion? Just a thank you to all the the bargaining units for agreeing to this. And um you know, obviously I know it's an increased expense. It it actually impacts me personally as well. I have a a wife who works

092within the district. Um but the fact that we were able to save positions through, you know, the collective bargaining, thank you all. Really appreciate it. Um I'd also uh I I echo what Chris says, and I and I also want to um thank everybody that has been working on. I know there's been a lot of questions back and forth, and I do feel um I I think also uh I'd like to to thank Kim McEvoy, um there with uh out of Tabitha's office, who has really been uh a big part of it as well. Um so, thank you, Ms. McEvoy, for your for your help. I don't know if you're in this room. Sorry, I can't see the everybody around. Thank you for listening. I just want to let you know I have a lot

093of empathy for current district employees who are going through this budget process. And I've been a former of the job in in just a week of education in 37 years. I I it's very difficult. Uh One of the things I've always wanted to uh talk about though was uh is is our retirees, okay? And I asked that in collaboration with the Superintendent and the union president that our uh retirees are being affected by uh the changes in their health care. Uh as well as uh present employees. Uh What it it it puts a lot more stress on uh our retirees. I just want to make sure that they have full understanding and are aware of their options down the road, uh and that we advertise uh for them these options, and that we have meetings.

094Uh and you had mentioned that we will be able to come together and and have some meetings down the road. We have a benefits fair in the works right now that will allow students and our retirees to come and find out more about benefits online. And when is that? We're working on a specific day, but I'll have it in June. Oh, in June. Yeah, it's it's a coordinator of a lot of different things. So, we don't have a set date yet. I mean, you know, as you get older, you're going to use your hospital aid, hospital aid you're going to use your co-pays and deductibles and all that stuff. So, that's why it really affects where you hire your aids more more than anybody else. I have great concern for that. You know, that they

095understand the changes that are occurring and how they can best put themselves in position to, you know, get the right coverage for each individual person. All those in favor? I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Next agenda is the budget adoption. Recommend motion that the Board of Education adopt for the 2026-2027 school year in the amount of $82,093,525 as presented. I'll make the recommendation. I'll second. Any discussion? I just want to mention about Did you start the talk? All three of us. Oh, yeah. Why don't we start down there and we'll move up? My question is, we're talking about the library aids and it's been mentioned that if we could keep two of the library aids and they be they they go to the full school. Um we can't do that if we adopt this budget, does

096that mean that all four aids are going to be cut? Well, I think two of the aids are retiring retired, so they're retiring. So, basically we're not going to fill the We're not going to fill the position. That's So, that that leaves us two aids that are going to be cut and there'll be no aids. They'll be reassigned. They'll still have jobs, they just won't be in the library. Can I ask a question? Just to Sorry, Pat. Just to feedback. My understanding is tonight we're approving a dollar value for the budget, correct? Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that as you guys continue to move forward and look at options of different scenarios that you could not necessarily make those changes at a later time. Is that true? Okay. All right, if that's the case, yeah.

097>> Right, we're adopting the dollar amount. Okay. Not the plan. Correct. We adopt the dollar amount of that this is the proposed dollar amount. Because if you in our in every year our budget's always fluctuate, right? People need need to sign, we have different people coming in. Like that's So, that's Right. So, it's we're we're adopting the the dollar amount of the tax levy. And sorry, can you just clarify for why it's important to do this night? Why you're asking the board to adopt tonight? Yeah, thank you. So, we want to adopt this tonight so we can go out and start promoting this the community. Gives us more time to go to all of our communities, I think all of all five voting communities to get more information out to our taxpayers. I was going

098to speak about the library aids also. And I was just going to note that um that reducing one SRO, I think, you know, would funds a few library aids. Something like that. Yeah. I mean, I think the armed security guards um the expense is lower, it might not funds quite two, but it might get close. And I think that's a conversation worth having. Is it a conversation we can have? Because we keep asking the question. Like can we discuss that right now as an option? Is that something we can look into? >> That's something we'll look at. I don't We make it that I don't know when the grant is going to be awarded. The grant can cover other things as well, right? So, this would be additional savings. So, the grant is kind of

099separate, but the grant is not just for for physical school safety and SROs, it's for curriculum, it's for multitude a lot a lot of different things that fall under safety. So, I just like I I want to have the conversation. Could could we get the numbers like of what that could look like? Like at our next The grant you're talking about No, the the two the two I mean, not Wait, this this is the We know that this number's not going to change. We're just talking about Right, like some some >> we're voting on the number, but in terms of how we're getting to that number, to me based on what I'm seeing, reducing one SRO allows us to keep the library aids, which sounds like a value add. We still have the SRO on

100our main main campus. We're not losing that physical safety component. So, it feels like a win-win to me. So, I really would love it if we could actually have a conversation about that and look into that as a viable plan. Because I haven't heard that it's not viable. Does anybody disagree? I mean I disagree. I think we pushed really hard for having SROs and officers at every school. Um I think that's a good plan. Safety of our students is is top priority. Um so, getting rid of one of these um SROs or armed officers is is I think it's a bad idea. What about those positions? Anyone else have an opinion about it? I'll say again, like we committed as a board to looking at data about this, too. So, Dean and I totally hear

101you. I know you guys fought hard for this last year and I also care about our students' safety and I want to I want to see data that backs up that that justifies the expense. So, I think that compromise that was made, right, was not to take the money out of our general fund so that we could ensure that we are going to keep the most positions that we possibly can in that program the min- the minimal amount. So, the grant was supposed to alleviate us that, you know, that we did address it. I feel like by looking into finding alternate way to fund it that wouldn't impact negatively impact our program. So, I understand that can fund our FCL curriculum, but we already are doing that in our general fund. So, that money when

102we initially discussed it was for to fund the SRO. Because I do find value in the SROs. They are trained specifically for the purpose of keeping our school grounds safe. Um in this day and age, I do think keeping our I do think it there's value in that and if we can find a creative way to fund it, which I think there are they're trying to do. So, if that's the case, I do want that money to go to the SRO and that way we still it did it took that piece out of the equation if we get the grant. So, it's not Yes, we're adopting. It's not SRO or library. It's we're we're getting that money from hopefully getting that money from a different source. But I thought it was that was only Correct,

103I might be wrong. I thought that was only like $100,000 a year. I thought it was like 400 and some over five years. So, you can use as much as you want in year one, right? So, you can fund the positions. Maybe you can't fund it in year four or five, but at least it fills a gap for right now. >> For two years. Or three you can fund two SROs. No. >> Right. Well, it was one SRO's position we were talking [clears throat] about. Oh, okay. Cuz cuz we were talking about not being able to fund one of those Okay. initially. So, that was in my mind it was one of those positions we would not eliminate if we could find other sourcing. So, I I think it's a mistake to say that it's

104SRO or library. I just don't think that's fair. I just think it gets us more money. I don't personally understand the reason like we have one big campus here, so I have a hard I understand what the SROs do, their value add to our our school. I guess I just don't understand the need for two on this campus, especially when we're dealing with a major budget gap. It's two different schools. We have over 1,000 students on campus. I mean, we have We're going to keep We're going to keep one at each elementary school. We have 200 Right, 200 kids, so I I think Demi, I I originally had the same thought, did we really need two, but I think now that we have this revenue stream coming in that's going to cover it that's separate

105from our general fund. I can't see why we would get rid of an SRO that is providing the safety for for our students here on the campus. So, Well, would we consider an armed I mean, I I think that there is a distinction at least with a lot of folks I've I've talked with in terms of an SRO versus an armed security guard, would we consider just uh removing one armed security guard and keeping both SROs and an armed security guard? >> We're still leaving a school without You're going to leave a school I don't think you're leaving the school without someone. I think How would you do it with three You have four schools. We have we have one campus here. We have the high school and the intermediate high school. And I would

106say that an SRO could handle this campus. And then we would have one SRO move to either Marbletown or Croton and have an armed security guard Yeah, I would dis- I would disagree that one person could handle the same campus. We have over 1,000 Do we have any data in terms of what SROs how they're spending their day and the types of incidents that are happening? I know that they don't I've heard that there is no interfacing with students, right? If they really are I think they are in available to make sure that the facility is safe. I think that they're >> Yeah, I think we've kind of gone through this in the past. These These are things that were told to us in the past about what they're doing. I mean, I probably wasn't

107on the board, right? Yeah, it was this year that we talked I mean, I've seen a job description for a >> of the year that we talked about >> about the job description? Yeah. Yeah, I saw that. And I said at the end of the year there would be data for us to see and every There's not a lot of data we can share regards to the Well, maybe it isn't something we can share publicly with the board. They wouldn't share names, but I think I'm assuming they're keeping a log and there would be some kind of data as to what they're doing. It might also It might change my perception for sure if I had a sense of how the time is being spent in a year where we're looking at cutting positions, you

108know. So, you're willing to cut a position without seeing that data. Well, I I I haven't seen it. I've been asking for it for a while. I don't know, but no, I haven't seen the data. Maybe we'll see it towards the end of this year. But you haven't seen it either, so and I mean, your your assumption is we need them. My assumption I think My assumption is we don't. Fair. That's fair. Yeah. Agree to disagree. Totally. But it's like we're not going to We're not going to agree on this. It's fine, but I I do want to just say that it I understand the grant covers the funds, but it does It would then free up additional set of funds. Like it's not like It didn't, and that's why we were able to Right,

109but we got another an additional like beyond that, you know what I mean? But Sure. It's not easy. It's really hard, and I Yeah. Can we >> Again, we're getting out of the conversation. I mean, we're we're adopting a a amount of money. Right, so the the adoption is the amount of money. So, can we Can can uh you and Isabella and your team can you just take a look at what it would look like to to fund that strategy of two aids shared between four buildings just to see what or at least have have those numbers to see if that's a possibility. I mean, they also said to me that it, you know, we're still working on CSE needs, right? So, a lot of those teacher aids that we're talking about are going to

110be assigned to a duty like a position that would be cut at the end of the year because of the cut. It could be that that we don't need them out of with a student and then we could potentially So, there's there's options. Right. And if a person didn't lose their job, they're still a teacher aid, they're just assigned Is it assigned to the library? And what can happen and what can happen at any given day is if someone's freed up because of one two, you know, someone they have time for whatever reason. The principal can say, "Please go support the library." Right? And then hopefully it can work out where there is more support being provided throughout parts of the day. I just don't think it's black as white and white as kind of

111thinking it might be. Is that accurate? Well, then also you guys might realize that it's not working the way that you thought and we might have need to say, "Hey, we have to hire someone." Right? I think budgets are meant to be a guiding point, but it's not a hard fast rule. Uh but we know we've had fund balances at the end of the year like three or four million. So, there is some cushion within our budget if the need arise that that that there was something that needed to change. Yeah, and we also want to think of the long term, too, because you saw our five-year budget projection, so we have to be mindful of that, too, that we don't want to be refunding positions. We also have to be mindful of, you know,

112what's it going to look like in three, four, five years. I think safety is our top priority here. I think that's our number one goal in this district. I think we we came in together to make sure every school uh was was safe. Uh not only physically safe, but students are emotionally safe, psychologically safe. It's like a three-pronged uh focus, and I support uh having uh the SRO two SROs in our buildings, and I support having our security guards in our buildings because, you know, we always expect the expect the best. We always plan for the best, but you just you never know what's going to happen out there. And uh I will always recommend and support having uh a security personnel in each of our buildings as my time as superintendent. Well, I think

113it's also important that we look at the library aids as specialty. They have they have training. You just don't take somebody who's an aid and throw them in a library and expect them to do the the job that a specialized library aid does. So, I think we really need to look at that, and if if it means having two that work in the four libraries, um if that can be done, fine. If we can keep all four, even better. And we'll definitely take a look at that. All those in favor of adopting the the budget number. I. I. I. Pose. Motion carries. Recommend a motion that the Board of Education approve personnel report recommended by Dr. Foster superintendent of schools as presented. Make a motion. I second. All those in favor? I. I. Any opposed?

114Motion carries. Uh Rondout Valley grievance settlement. Recommend a motion that the Board of Education of the Rondout Valley Central School District upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools hereby approves the grievance grievance settlement with the CSEA for the class action grievance filed on January 2nd, 2026 upon the terms and conditions of the attached settlement agreement, and that the Board of Education authorizes the superintendent of schools to execute the agreement on behalf of the district and to enforce the settlement terms. I'll make that a recommendation. I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Recommended motion to adjourn the April 7th, 2026 Board of the Board meeting as presented. Make a motion. Second. All those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? All those in favor? All those [clears throat] in

115favor.