001Okay. Welcome to the February 4th board of education meeting 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, the first uh item on the agenda is set the agenda. I'd like to make one adjustment if we could discuss if you want. I'd like to move the public comments after uh reconfiguration presentation. I think that that maybe some of the answers some folks have might show up in that presentation. That might be helpful question more questions. Does anyone make >> motion to accept the agenda with that change? >> Motion to accept the agenda with that change. >> Second. >> All any more comment on that? All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay. So, we'll
002we'll move forward with that. Next item on the agenda is a consent agenda. Resolution 055 2025 approving the items on the consent agenda. Motion >> second. >> Any discussion on the consent agenda? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? [clears throat] The consent agenda is approved. So public comment has moved down a couple. We'll go directly to the financial report with Mickey. Um so everything is saved on the share direct like always and there are a couple of larger budget transfers this month this this week. Um the first one is for the CPSC class as per one of the contracts that was approved ago. I forget exactly which one it was. Um another is in relation to FH Boseies our occupational education courses. We ended up with twice as many students taking the
003marine technology course than what was expected. So >> that's this is the first year of that, right? Green tech course both. >> Yes. >> Um unemployment insurance. Our claims were a bit higher this year than in the past. And then um the last one is for the last big one was the for some midyear reorganization of staff within special ed. So we just adjusted budget codes to >> break the resolution. >> Yes. >> Resolution number 056 2025 look at the current budgetary transfer report as presented for the school business executive. Motion please. Second. >> Any discussion on that? All in favor? >> I opposed. The resolution is approved. Um the other thing I wanted to talk about is I attended with um Joe Phil the joint governing board of the Franklin Essex Hamilton Boseies Health
004Insurance Consortium today. It was our rate setting meeting and after all the presentations the vote and voting the consortium settled on a 22% increase in health insurance premiums for next year. >> Nikki are you able to give us an estimate of what that cost could be? I don't have a final figure yet. I was trying to work on it when I just got back, but um it it's looking like it'll be just under two million. >> So, we're looking at >> 22%. It's right on the bottom there. >> So, 22% we were talking 1820 before it's 22. >> That's about $2 million increase on top of what we would have paid normally. on top of what we're paying now. >> And we're not getting $2 million increased state hour. >> Right now it's 77,000. >>
005Yeah. >> 77,000's our increase. >> Yes. >> Did they talk at all about next year? Because there was some talk about could see a similar thing next year. >> They talked about next year a little bit. Um the financial advisor explained that this 22% is expected to be more of a oneoff. It will obviously depend on expenses if they increase like they did this year. Um but this will give us a flat budget and then next year it can be lower again. Not low like we're used to seeing low, but lower like not in the 20s. what what what's a typical increase in this? So, I've only been on the consortium for um a couple of years. And from looking at their historical figures, uh normal increase prior to three years ago, I think they
006said, was in the two to three range because they have a reserve fund which is specifically to help stabilize the rates, which it has done. But now the reserve fund is so low because they were not increasing rates high enough that we had that big jump from last year to this year and then an even larger jump from this year to >> What was last year's jump? >> Uh 12% >> 12% last year 2% this year, but we're probably not going back to two or 3% next year. >> No. No. It'll be like 10 >> 10 12% this year, >> right? >> And that'll be on top of an addition too. Correct. >> Anything else? >> No. >> Thank you for that. >> Okay. Uh moving on to old business. Uh any capital project update
007plan? >> We're on hold until spring break with our work. Last board meeting. We approved the additional isolation work. Um they're looking at scheduling that now. Also, we approved a while ago the backflow preventtors. We're going to try to work on those two at the same time. If we have to drain, we have to drain. If we're draining the whole system, we might as well. So, they can't they don't have enough time to do all all four areas, but I'm hoping to get a couple of those done over. >> So, naturally, all all plumbing problems happen in the winter, right? When when it's cold, >> right? >> It actually does. and the repairs to uh the freezer at Bloomingdale that they've held. We're good to go there. >> The repairs have held and we're waiting
008for >> But nobody's cold. Nobody's cold. >> Well, they might be cold, but >> but not not because their heat isn't working. >> Okay. Thank you for that update. Next under old business is uh the district facilities planning reconfiguration presentation. Um, I think we got a PowerPoint on that. Do we not? >> Okay. Thank you. >> And Justin and Nancy and >> I did send it to you so you can follow along. Mr. >> I'm sure I cannot. >> Thank you very much. All right, I've done my best. We might need a little reorganization, but do what I can. So, good evening. Uh, I know many of you, but not all of you. I'm Diane Fox and I'm the superintendent, and thank you for being interested in this topic and being here tonight. So, can
009you hear me? Okay. So, tonight I'm presenting the restructuring proposal and my keyboard is missing. Gina, do you have it? >> Oh, yeah. You want it? >> Here you go. I'm going to try it. >> Thank you very much. We spend a lot of time on what looks like not a lot of words, but every year we review it and we build our goals off of our mission statement and our vision. Our mission is to educate students with the goals of being productive members of society. And we envision a safe district and a secure place for our students to learn. We also have budget goals. Our job is to be a steward of the funds that are given to us both by the state and federal government and all of you every year. So our
010budget goal is to the adoption of an accurate balanced budget reflective of actual and anticipated student counts using appropriate amounts of assigned and unassigned fund balance and to provide opportunities for students based on the budget principle to preserve educational opportunities. I don't know about you, maybe you came because there's nothing you love more than 10th grade English, but most of our kids come because they love the electives, they love the sports, they love the musical, they love all the things that are part of the educational experience. So, we try to preserve that in our budget looking at the cost effectiveness, addressing programming needs and tax sensitivity. So who are we as a district? Unfortunately, we are a district losing population. Our highest total enrollment was in 1995. We had almost 2,000 students here in the
011district. And you can watch the steady decline. In 2024, we had 1,037 students and as of this year, we projected that we would have a,290 students. So, our decrease in student enrollment is actually happening at a faster rate than we anticipated that it would. >> What do you attribute that to? >> Oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna get there. Hang on. Thank you for asking that question. Ask it again if I don't really get there at the end, but I think I will because I I have a lot to say about that. So, one of the things I hear about online all the time because I do watch Facebook. Sometimes I have to breathe, sometimes I have to drink while I'm watching Facebook, but I do watch it. And one of the things I hear about
012is all the Homeschooling everywhere. It's because everybody's homeschooling. So, I want to look at homeschooling. What I know our numbers because we have to keep track of what's happening in the district with homeschooling, but what's happening in our neighboring districts? Do we really have that many more homeschoolers than our neighboring districts have for homeschooling? In a way, it would make sense because when I got here, I was surprised about how many people actually homeschooled in Sarinac Lake compared to Beakman Town or Sarinac. It was cultural here, right? They weren't protesting anything. They This was before the whole opt out movement of state testing. People just genuinely believed in the concept of homeschooling. So, I just thought when I'm hearing how all our kids are going to homeschooling and that's why they're not here, what does
013that really look like compared to the neighbors? So Gina did some deep digging for me in beds data and the percentage of homeschoolers versus the percentage you know based on the number of kids in the district. So we're 3.96 bigman town's 3.57 Lake Placid 3.76 Peru 3.95 Tupper 2.49 Sarin 2.62 and Malone 5.19 with a lot of Amish and Menanites. So I think that changes their number. But we are we are certainly not far off the mark from any of there. Our problem is not homeschooling, right? Our kids are not going homeschooling. We we don't have that many and we're comparable to the neighbors. So then I'm like, okay, well, I also read that all our kids are going someplace else, right? They're not coming to the district. They're going to other schools, tuition, all
014that. So that's actually something that the non-public schools have to report to the state are their numbers of kids that they have. So uh this year we have 98 students and this includes St. Berners. So we have 98 students that are going someplace else. Most of them are going right down the street to St. Berners. But there are a couple that go kindergarten program at St. Agnes, the Christian school, North Country School. You know, we have a few spread out. Last year we had 109 and the year before that we had 103. That's not an unusual number for a school district that has non-public schools in its boundaries or it's a 15 mile transportation. So it doesn't actually have to be in your boundary. It just has to be within 15 miles of you. So
015it's not that the kids are out there and they're homeschooling or they're going someplace else. They're they're just not there. So, we've talked a lot during this process about equity. We have to make sure that our youngest learner in UPK has equal access to opportunities for success in school as our senior super senior who is back for a half a semester because they did not graduate on time. And every student in between needs equal access. Doesn't mean the same. It just means that they have what they need to be equitable so that they can be successful in school. We have over the years created a threepronged approach to that. We are a fullervice community school. You should be very proud of that. I don't think you realize how unique that is uh in New York
016State for a rural school to provide what we provide the 21st century programming where your kids all do after school activities, field trips, uh we're not allowed to call it daycare, but those of you who send your kids to the two-week program so that you have coverage when uh we're off school or Lunar New Year is coming up on Tuesday. I think there's programming on Tuesday so you don't have to take all these odd days off. That all runs through our community schools. It also through our community schools. When there's a fire, we reach out. We make sure families have what they need. We have a loss somewhere. Housing, we can't provide. We wish we could provide housing. And I'm going to talk about that in a second to answer your question about why do
017I think this is, but we we are unique. But that levels the playing field. And we're really not talking about socioeconomic because you can have a lot of money and have a houseire and not know where to turn or you can be told tomorrow that your job is going away. They're going to move you. So this isn't about the halves and the have nots because we take care of everybody whether it's a long-term issue or a shortterm issue. So it's really about social justice and it's about how we integrate our academics, student support, family engagement to support the whole child. We have spent a lot of time on curriculum. It's not fun and glam. Don't tell Melissa this she's here because she thinks it's glamorous and it's always the first thing that people want to
018cut when a budget is tight. But even though your kids love all the extras, they're here to learn the academics. And when you have a building or multiple buildings, you need somebody who's overseeing that we have a really strong curriculum. If you've been around for a while, you know, um not that many years ago, we were identified and did all sorts of extra work and we were um uh remember what we're called, but we've been a target district for a long time. So, which means our kids were on the edge, right? Our especially with our special needs students, they were not performing as New York State said they should perform. One of the ways we have fixed that and been a district in good standing for the last couple of years, it's really the work
019on curriculum and creating a cohesive UPK through 12 curriculum. And that is what our help helps our kids when they leave us, whether it's into the workforce, whether it's into college, even if you're going to the workforce, you're learning something new at at 18, right? And that's what helps our kids be successful when they leave us. And the third thing we've embraced, it gets a bad rap, but the third thing we've embraced is diversity, equity, and inclusion. Um, because it really means more than what the news would like you to think what it means. It really is about a unified program so that it's consistent access to academic interventions, enrichment, special education, socioeconomic supports. Our kids are all nervous Nellies these days. They all have some anxiety. is by allowing those options to be equitable
020across our district for all of our students. And then we get to talk about the financial overview. We've looked at what our goals are, what our vision and mission is, what we set out to do, and how we set out to do it. And this is like I'd like to go to Disney World and stay at the Polynesian so I can ride the little boat over Disney World and then I look at how much it's going to cost me to stay at the Polynesian. And maybe it's okay that I stay at the Best Western and take the shuttle bus because there's no way I can afford to stay at is it the Polynesian? Anybody go to I have never stayed there actually [laughter] the Polynesian. So this this is the reality on which we have
021to do our work. I want to go back our budget creation is what we talked about. It's decisions based on data programming changes driven by enrollment and student interest. We direct our resources to the most significant student needs. We budget with possible state and federal impacts. That's always a big thing the last couple of years. It's you all know it's in the news all the time. Um and we'll be back there again because they've only passed the budget through September and so that that's going to influence us again. We're going to be budgeting without really knowing what our school year will look like because we'll be back at the table again before then and preserve educational opportunities wherever possible. cost effectiveness, addressing programming needs, and tax sensitivity. And I have said this, if you've been
022to any of our budget things or you look at it online, I am like a broken record. This is how we build our budgets year after year after year. So, here's where we are. We are in need of some money in order to maintain programming for our kids. We have to look at all the things that we do. We should look at the data that we've got in front of us. Preserve what's important for our kids. P preserve our educational work that we're doing. And we have to in we're going to see two million for our insurance. We cannot hire our non-instructional staff because they can work for Deina for more. They can work for Jimmy Williams for more. They can work for Jordana Malik for more. They can go to North Country Community College
023and make more. I cannot hire a custodian because I don't pay them enough. So, I have four custodians tonight cleaning this entire building and I cannot continue with that. we've got to pay a living wage and unfortunately we're in Sarinac Lake where onebedroom efficiency is 800 or $900 a month right so so I've got CSA negotiations coming up any minute I'm waiting for them to send me the letter we've got some highcost insuranceances and then I think Vern was here two meetings ago I don't know about your electric costs but our electric costs here in the district are going through the roof and we really don't know why we're not using more electric. It's just costing us more money for the electric that we're using. So, we don't see any of that decreasing. So, we
024could save some money with the closing of Bloomingdale Elementary somewhere around $600,000. will not be a firstear savings because there will be some costs incurred in all of the changes, but that's a savings for every year. I do want to just put this out because people will be telling me about how they expect to see a decrease in their in their tax rate. Everybody loved the idea of the tax cap and a limited amount of money that schools can raise taxes. Here is the other side of the tax cap with the tax cap is like 16 different figures and you have to start with a base figure and the base figure you start with for your tax cap is last year's uh t last year's budget. So if you do not go to the tax
025cap meaning if I if the tax cap is 2.8% 8% and I say, "Oh, this year we're going to do 2%." That means every budget for the rest of the time that this school is in existence and the tax cap is in existence, my tax cap will be lower than what it could have been because I'm starting with a lower number. And that means the next year I would be starting with a lower number in the next year. So the tax cap is a double-edged sword. And I I live behind the Best Western. I pay these taxes also. I get it. But I really cannot in good conscience not go out to the public without going to the tax cap because I tie the hands of the people who come after me for years by
026not allowing them the opportunity. It does not allow for eb and flow like it used to. Before we would say we need 4 percent, we'd go out for 4%. We need 2% we'd go out for 2%. The tax cap really doesn't allow that because if I don't go to the tax cap, then nobody be everybody beyond me is shorted than at that point if they need it. What we have done by going to the tax cap is we have created a lot of reserves. Just because I can go to the tax cap doesn't mean that we just willy-nilly spend the money. So what we have done is put a lot of reserves together. Capital reserve, transportation reserve. When I first was here, we had to borrow for our buses. Now we actually pay them outright,
027so there's no debt incurred for our buses. We're saving for electric buses should they come down the way. But that money is being safeguarded and tucked away. So if there are costs that come, we can smooth out those those cost increases, but we have to always be conscientious of that. The other thing we've talked about is a single bus run. And the question comes to be, well, how much is that going to save you? And so I'm not sure there would be a huge financial savings from going to a single bus ride. our drivers. Uh many of them drive toward the health insurance. I'm sure you've heard about the shortage of bus drivers. Um and we love our bus drivers and I understand why they work and what they work for. So even though their
028time may be shorter, we we cannot run school districts without without bus drivers. So the cost really is in the insuranceances and the other costs. I don't see that changing. Um, and I have some bus drivers who this this is uh after they retire, before they hit Medicare, right? This is this is where they're and I'm thrilled. And if that's you or your parent, please tell them. We would love them to drive for us. Come and we'd be happy to see them. But we have others who do it to pay the bills, right? This is their full-time job. And and I realize we have both. So, as part of our non-instructional uh negotiations, we're actually talking about creating a a dual position where they would drive and then have a another position in the district.
029So, they could work up to a full eight hours a day, which is actually more than what some of them work now driving. It would just be a a combination position. But, there are really good reasons to think about going to a single run. And so, here's here's the secret. I get up at 5. I'm usually awake at 4:30 and I work all day. So by the time I get home after a meeting or at when I get to home early and there's no evening meeting, there's nothing I enjoyed more than putting on my night in my robe and hanging out at home. And in the bad weather, I wait until Dave or Dana are calling me and texting me to say all the buses are back. Right. We have some of the worst weather
030in New York State and we have buses on the road. And so simply the lessening of the liability of having two runs, buses on the road so early and for so long and into the evening and putting that in a single bus run, the liability alone would be cut in half. Also, our buses only last about eight years. Not because the engine, everybody buys our buses because the engines go forever, but DOT is very particular about rusting of our buses. They run right now a little over a 100 miles a day is the average run for a bus. So, wear and tear, time on the salty roads, all of that uh may get us a little extra time out of our buses. And we're going to I don't think the electric bus it's a crystal
031ball and you could say that woman didn't know what she was talking about but I don't think electric buses is going away. I think it will change a little bit. I think the timeline might change but electric buses are coming and we're also watching our electric rate spike everywhere. So the idea that electric buses are going to save you a lot of money is really not true. They're $450,000 compared to our 150,000 diesel bus, so they're very expensive. They will not stay on the road any longer because it's the body. It's the chassis that's actually the problem. So, it's not it's not the engine. So, we're going to get eight years out of a an electric bus at $450,000. Our aid ratio is about 50%. So where we get 75,000 out of the 150, we'll
032be getting 200, which means it'll be costing us instead of 75,000 out of our community pocket, 200,000 out of our community pocket for every bus. And because we do 100 miles a day, right now buses are about a 100 miles a day and they say not to go past 80. You know, you should never drain them all the way down. And that's on a good day. That's that's flat roads at 65 degrees. So now we put minus30 on a snowy road up and down the hills where we are. And so our buses would have to charge in the middle of the day. What is the most expensive time to draw electricity but between 10:00 a.m. and 2 p.m. And we would have to draw fast because there's different rates at which you can charge. And
033we would have to have a fast expensive draw. By going to a single bus run, we now cut our bus runs down to 50 or 60 miles a day, a drain. We wouldn't all need to have a a midday charge, but if they did, it would expend that out by two hours, cutting down pretty significantly on the cost of recharging those much cheaper to charge them from midnight to 5:00 a.m. So, there's a lot of reasons for the single bus run. Uh kudos to the bus department. They're they're here. They have all your kids on a bus run. They can they can tell you within a few minutes of what your time would look like. Um and nobody would be on the bus. Well, I can't say that the longest routes would not get longer.
034I think there's a concern that going to a single bus run, the kid that's on there for an hour and five minutes is now going to be on there for an hour and 50 minutes. And that is absolutely not true. that our longest, our farthest routes actually decrease because now we can go right there, pick up and come right back where now we have a lot of doubling back, different things that are happening. So the roots are done. They work and we still don't have overly crowded bus. They're done with every student riding every day. But doing the math, about only about 50% of our students ride two days or more a week. So yeah, when you think that that drop off is really crowded, there's a reason you think that more and more people
035are dropping their kids off and uh we see that on our buses. So So that's really it's not about it's [clears throat] not about the savings. It's not going to cost us any huge amount more, but the savings really is in all the other pieces as to why a single bus run works. And I've heard a lot of people worried about uh putting our youngest on the bus with our older kids, but that is not unusual. St. Bernard's rode for years and years and years with our high school [clears throat] kids. It's only in the last few years that that has changed. So we we have a long history of K through 12 on the buses together. And we have a lot of monitors on our buses. Our buses now have three cameras with audio.
036It's hard to get away with anything that goes on on that bus because the we spend a lot of time watching cameras and they're very good. So, there's that. I think it's important we talk about our community a little bit. Here's the reality of our community. And the question about why do I think that is is this graph right here. Um Josh shared with me somebody's quote who said uh the invasion is over and we didn't even know we were invaded. >> So we have a lot of retirees. This is a beautiful I live in mid New Jersey. I can sell my house for a lot of money and I can come to the Aderondex and buy a nice house. Our fastest growing population is our retired group of people. They can afford to live
037here. I've been part of uh the town of Harriet Town's reassessment meetings. The average single family home in the town of Harrietstown is topping over $300,000. So, who can buy that? I can't buy that as a starting person with two young kids and paying daycare dues. So, the people who can buy the homes are the people who are the retirees coming from other places where their home has some value and they're moving in. Here's where it gets tricky. This is my This is my soap box. Sorry. But I talk a lot about the four-legged stool. A growing community has to have employment, housing, child care, and a social network. It's a long winter here. If you don't have friends to hang out with or somebody to go to a carnival with, and you're not part
038of the law the lawn chair ladies, you're not staying. This is not fun to sit in your house at 30 below every day. So, we need all of these things. And we have people in this community working really hard for employment opportunities, working really hard for additional housing, hard for child care, and hard for building a safe social network for all people. It's all being worked on, but it's all being worked on in silos. So housing we hear a lot about, but if the average house is $300,000. Where am I going to work and my spouse work that we can afford two and a half times our income is a $300,000 house. So the number of employees and the largest employers in 2012 versus those same employees today, the largest employers are decreasing their employees.
039So I could have all the housing stock in the world. I don't have a job to go to that I can afford to buy a house. This is a really interesting statistic for us. We are a place where people want to be. In fact, only 67% of our houses are occupied fulltime. So, we have 33% of our houses are either short-term rentals or we have a lot of properties that have been in somebody's family forever and they don't want to sell it, but they don't live here. I hear that all the time. Oh, yeah. My grandparents live there. We still have the house. I'm like, why don't you sell it? Oh, [laughter] oh, we love it. Right? like I got a family that would like your house. They're like, "No, we don't want to sell
040it. We love Sarin." Like, "Oh, I spent a lot of time there." Which is humbling. And they're right. It is lovely. But this is typically 5%. If you look at other parts of the state, it's usually about 5% is vacant. And we're at 33%, right? It might a lot of it too is second family I'm sorry second second homes uh short-term rentals and a lot of pro we do have some ghost properties but that's usually what makes up the community 5% is the ghost properties that isn't really what makes up our ghost properties are in somebody's family and they don't want to sell it they don't want to lose their connection to our And here's here's the economic reality. So income within our school district per capita is 36,000. The mean household income is just
041under 70. So, it's expensive to live in the north country. Uh, just talking with Carol Lee. She's not here tonight, but she was talking about how she doesn't usually run her furnace. She uses her pellet stove, but it's been so cold that she turned her furnace on uh for $3.99 a gallon oil. And she was only going to have 100. She's like, I don't know, 275. Is that a typical number for Yeah. And she said, I'm only going to put a hundred a 100 gallons in. Right. It's $400 to fill your oil tank. So, so it's expensive. You need snow tires, right? I live down state. I can get away with all weathers. Here, I need snow tires. So, if you're a median household income of 69,000, how am I buying a house and keeping
042it up when the house I'm buying is over 300,000 and the new interest rates are four and five and six%. we can't afford what we've done and then add two kids to that that you now have to pay for daycare and you make too much money for daycare subsidies, right? There's no way to put all of that together and make that work. And those of you who are doing it, kudos to you because there is a lot to it. And our poverty rate is about 14%. which is uh a little lower than Franklin County overall, but it is even with New York State. So, I think uh the state calls I know the state calls us an average school district because our land wealth is so high, but the wealth in our community is typical
043to New York State. Uh and it's hidden. It's hidden when you drive through because you see all the free houses on the lake and you know you're like, "Oh, it's so pretty here." But we we are actually a pretty typical community as far as the needs in our in our community. They're just not as easy to see. So, all of this comes to as to the the big question of why do I think we're losing kids? We're not alone. It's happening all through the Aderand Deck Park. all of the school districts um are losing kids, but it really is because we've become a wealthy playground and and our housing stock is such that we people can't afford it. Uh and the ability to be a two wage earner household where both of you are working
044in a job which you're making what you should be making. Does there just aren't economic opportunities? economic opportunities are shrinking. So, one of you is undermployed, right? Somebody's here for their professional reason and then somebody else takes another job but living someplace else, they would make more money because they could get a job in their profession. Here, they just get a job. You It's pretty typical for a two income earner. So our job is to attract and support families, high academic programs, showcasing our student success, welcoming inclusive culture, transparent communication, and partnerships for enrichment. And we try hard to do all of that. The community welcomes and sustains the families by affordable housing and child care, job opportunities, essential services, diversity and inclusion, and infrastructure. And the idea is that we partner. I hear a
045lot about the field. So let's address that elephant in the room. Why did you spend all that money on the field? So who's coming to buy our houses? Who can afford the houses? People coming from other places. What do they have all over the state? That is just an expectation in those school districts. They have turf fields. Right. I have the choice of living in Tupper Lake, lovely, but I can buy twice the house for half the price and make the trip. Or I can live in Lake Placid where all my friends know of Lake Placid, right? Lake Placid comes with I live in Lake Placid now. Oh, I know where that is. Oh, that must be beautiful. Or I'm going to live in the middle in Sarin Lake, which is kind of a pass
046through, right? Like if you're if you're not from here, you don't know how beautiful it is when you go out on the side roads. You're just traveling on 86 going from one to another. What what can I offer families that says it's worth twice the price to live in Sarin Lake? I can offer them a quality school district that looks like we are up to date and we care about our kids. And every student in this district will touch that field. Over 50% of our kids play a sport and they will play a sport on that field. And the money spent on the fort was that the onfield was that money that was tucked away for a specific purpose. So I hear you when you're like what are you doing talking about closing Bloomingdale when
047you built that field buffed that money could not transfer that is not Could I have done something else with it? Yes. Could I have used it for uh keeping the building open? No. That is not the use of that money. So you could argue with me all day long that that was terrible spending money. Well, we can't argue that I should have spent it on Bloomingdale because that wasn't an option. So, you talk about what you think. But there there's the thought behind that. And if you've been here, there is nothing more than that fun than a Friday night game and watching our middle schoolers having the experience of being dropped off. And if you own if you have middle school kids at your house, you know you and every other middle school parent was
048down at the downhill grill or at the river or was somewhere having dinner on that night of the football game. Your kid was here and enjoying the experience of middle school and you were out with your significant other enjoying a nice dinner knowing that they were in a good spot having a good social experience. So, there's a lot of layers to that and that is part of propping up the whole community and feeling good about who we are. So, that's why I think we're losing kids. I just think that it's unsustainable for a family to move here to get the jobs that they need to be a professional and to be able to buy a house that that they can afford that is not a terrible fixer upper. Um, and there's there's a lot of
049pieces to that, but I think it's fixable in a lot of ways. I'm not a I'm not a doom and gloomer. I just think we need those silos to come together and work together on it. That's what I think needs to happen is the all the groups need to come together and have conversation. So, there are reconfiguration proposals coming up for the board. We looked at a lot of options. We looked at no changes. We looked at creating a hub at Bloomingdale. UPK1, K2, 56. No changes is really not an option. It is not equitable for our our kids to have a small group in one spot. And it's not equitable to them because the minute they needed any kind of service, they had to leave their safe spot and go meet a whole new
050group of people in the middle of the school year. They needed to come for special ed services. They needed to move to Petroa. So it's not equitable on either end of that. So no changes was not an option. We could create a hub at Bloomingdale. The problem with that is it would expand transportation because even now a big problem we're having with UPK is we have families who have daycare where we do not have a bus that runs from Bloomingdale to their daycare center. So they've had to reconfigure their day in order to leave in the middle of the day to get their child to get their child to daycare. So in order to make it a hub would be a significant increase in the number of bus routs we would need in order for
051that to happen. And timing becomes tricky. If we we would need two transportation runs, but we need at least an hour in between the start of the school days and kids would be transferring all over the place to get from one to another which slows down that bus's ability to go out for the next run. So it would actually expand the time we would need between runs >> picking us all over the board. So and it would be a full complement of special area people. We would need to add a special ed teacher. We would need to add a psychologist. We need to add OT and PT. It's it would not it would not be fair to say, okay, we're going to put all our UPK ones here. What happens to the child that needs
052special ed services? Right? Well, you can't not get them. So we would have to have a full complement of special ed services there and atro. So the cost of doing any of that does not fit. Third thing we looked at was prova UPK5 leaving the middle school 6 through 8 high school 912 and closing Bloomingdale could be two runs or one run. We're going to need to rightsize our staff. our our number of kids are are decreasing. That means the number of staff that we need is also decreasing. And I've spent a lot of time across the table. Last year I had to do it across the table from people saying, "You're excellent at what you do, but you're a low man on the totem pole and I I need to send you uh out
053because we we can't afford it." That is a terrible thing. And the problem is when you have the same certification 7, 8, then 9 through 12, there's travel time in that. Like why not just why not just have kids uh staff travel between the two? Well, because when you go out tonight, you might have to scrape your car, right? So travel is a whole period that we give off of instruction time that now becomes travel time. So in the contract it's for 7 through 12 it's two prep periods and a lunch. Now I give up a travel period. So out of a nine period day, four of those become non-instructional periods, right? It really starts to cut into what we can offer kids because those are periods that we cannot offer electives or other classes.
054So then we came to the Prova UPK6 and the junior senior high 712 and transportation to 11 run and that is what I'm recommending. There are some board resolutions and I think what had been lost in this conversation is that we're also really closing the middle school because it has an SED beds number. Um we're reconfiguring that but at the SED sees us as having two schools. We have the Provoba school and we have the middle school. So we have to report out that the middle school is being reconfigured which means that STD number is going away which means we need to use the language that it is being closed also. So the this are board resolutions I brought forward tonight. There's no voting tonight. Um just so that everybody is aware of them. Uh,
055and we'll talk about the timeline in a minute. The second one is to reconfigure the grades and turn Petrova into a UPK through six building. In the high school, a 7 through 12 building. And the third one is transportation. We've had a lot of conversation with our school attorney over the wording and whether we needed a transportation resolution. And the end of the day, we said we want to tr be transparent, put it out, make sure everybody knows it. I don't want anybody to feel like we're slipping it in while we're having other conversation. So, let's do a board resolution. So, those are all on the agenda. So, you can read them. I'm not not going to read them to you. So, the next steps, February 6th and 13th, the notifications will be in the
056Adorendic Daily Enterprise. I'm also required to send a letter out to all of our local officials um letting them know that we're doing this work and this vote is coming up on February 18th. There's a public hearing um which will be at 6:30 in the high school, not in this room but downstairs in the auditorium door number five. And then on February 25th uh is when we anticipate that it will be back in this room and it'll be a regular board meeting and the resolutions will be voted on. Yes, >> I do um I do want to address a little elephant in the room because I feel like um there's a lot of conversation over how this was a done deal. This was a done deal. And I I normally uh love it when it's
057not totally me under attack, but I do feel like there's just some misunderstanding on how all of this works. And I want to take just a minute or two to clean it up. >> So my job in my contract is that subject to board approval, I organize and reorganize the administrative and supervisory staff, including instructional and non-instructional personnel. in a manner in which the superintendent's judgment best serves the district. And then the board of education school boards are responsible for the admissions, instruction, discipline, grading, and as appropriate classification of students attending the public schools in their districts for the employment and management of necessary professional and support staff and for purchasing, leasing, maintaining, and ensuring school buildings, properties, and equipment and supplies. And I've heard a lot about how this is a done deal and
058uh that it was all predetermined and all of this was for show. And I think what's happening is that we have two different groups. Well, I'm I'm a group of one. I think that's okay, math teachers, right? You can have a group of one. I'm a group of one. And then we have a group of seven. And we all sit at the table together. So, in my opinion, yes. The decision at the end of the day is the decision where I started that it should be UPK6. It keeps certifications together. It makes equity for all of our students. It brings our curriculum work with all the teachers in the same building working together, seeing each other every day. In our 72, which is where our reductions are going to be coming, we can do them
059through attrition. We can offer a lot of electives this way by bringing in our our staff because they're not equally um number of occupied periods right now. It keeps our kids with all sorts of opportunities. That's my job to have a plan, right? It's my job to see the whole district and to have a plan of where we're headed. I always say this is a big ship and it does not turn on a guide. So we have to know where we're going because it takes a few years to get us there. We cannot just education is slow, maddeningly slow for anything to happen. So we have to always be thinking ahead. So the answer is if there's somebody who thought that this was where we were going, it was me because that's my job. If
060I couldn't tell you what the options were going forward if when we are watching the decrease of students year after year after year, I should have been fired a long time ago. Some of you think I still think I should have been fired a long time ago. But the point is that's my job is to understand what the options are and what I consider to be the best option. So, I brought that option to the board of education and the board of education said to me, "Thank you very much, but we want to hear from everybody else." And I feel badly because one of the things drives me crazy about the way we're it works is that this darn board of education never wants to vote on anything the first time you bring it forward.
061So I was like, "Well, we want everybody to know we're talking about it." So everything is a month before we get anything moving because they want to be transparent. They want to hear from people. And I feel like somehow we have gotten off the rails here in that I brought this proposal forward and they said, "Thank you. Now we want to hear from everybody else. Let's put a committee together. Let's give people an opportunity to come and talk to us. Let's I want prove it that these are the only options available and yours is the best one and so they have spent a lot of time meeting with all sorts of people in front of them and we have been searching for alternatives and if they had an alternative they would have taken it because
062they do not always listen to me although I can't understand why. Uh sometimes they think that something else and they're usually right. um is it's not it's not um my way, it's their way. So, I just want to mention that uh I don't know, somehow we've gotten terribly off track and somehow it's been that they're all they're all done and they have spent a lot of time asking people to come forward. So, thank you for that. Tonight, I have just one last thing I want to close with. It's going to tell me I'm all done there. I'm all done there, Gina. I'm sorry. I have one last thing I want to just [snorts] talk about and then I promise I'll get out of the way and you can ask this box. I love this box.
063I just want you to know that we are very official here in the district office. And this this is our box in our records room for permanent retention. And I've spent a lot of time in this box for different reasons over the years. But this box is full of deeds. These are deeds to all the old school properties that the school has had over the years. They date back into the 1800s. and they're really interesting. It's been it's been a little journey for different things that I've had to look for and we've been in this box to see all the different schools that used to make up this community. All the little one room schoolh houses, all the transfer of properties for different things. Um, and I I think about it when I look at
064these beads and I'm always digging for something and it always takes me five times longer than it should because they're really interesting. But there there's a whole box, but I'll just stop there. But this is hard and I say all of this and I I was in Sarin when Katyville closed and it was my home base school and I loved that school. And this was back before we locked our building. So the parents would come outside. I taught kindergarten as my first full year there. And it was a real problem because the parents would all come at 1:30 to chat outside my room. [clears throat] And the minute the first two parents showed up, my day was done with kindergarteners, you know. So I had to be it's like could you could you maybe talk
065in a nice weather outside the door and not come in because they loved each other and they would meet in my room like they would meet to pick up their kids and they chitchat and so I do not approach this with a cold heart about how you feel about I've been in your seat although a teacher my daughter went to Bloomingdale I'm sorry my daughter went to Sarak to go with me so my daughter was part of the move. I was part of the move as a teacher. I know how this feels and the connection that you have to the school. And I pulled out the deed box because think about all the people that came before us. All these tiny one room schoolh houses that were so connected to the community and people from
066the 1800s have had to make some decisions about do we keep that one room schoolhouse or do we combine with the neighbors and there's a huge pile of that like this this is painful but it's also what happens in education right we have to move forward forward. Education keeps changing. Our needs of our kids keeps changing. The dynamics of our communities are forever changing. And we are we are another deed in the box, so to speak. All these people before us made brave decisions and decisions that were hard. And we're making a decision that is very, very hard also. and people who come after us 10 years from now or 15 years from now things will change again and there'll be another group in this room as we talk about the change in education. It
067is painful and it is part of what happens in education and we [clears throat] have to be as brave as the people who came before us and look about what is really factual not how we feel. We get to we get [clears throat] to do that too. But in the decision making that we're doing, we have to look at the facts and do what's best for our kids. >> And I and that what's best for our kids is to provide them as many educational opportunities as we possibly can. And this is how we can continue to do that. And we do that really well in Sarah Lake. And we want to be able to continue to do that really well as long as we possibly can. But it does sometimes mean making some really difficult
068choices. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> So now we'll uh move to uh public comments. Before we go there, do have some rules for public comments. Um the board of education encourages public participation on school related matters at board meetings. Board is here to listen during this period of the meeting. Persons wishing to address the board to state your [clears throat] name and organization. If you're in the back, it would be helpful if you came up to the front if you want to speak. Um we generally grant about three minutes to [clears throat] address the board. Um one of the reasons we do that is so everybody gets an opportunity to speak. We ask that people conduct themselves in a civil manner. Uh the board cannot permit a public uh session discussion involving
069individual district personnel or students. Let's avoid that. Persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual district personnel should present their comments and or concerns to the board through a written statement. Um public session is generally not a question and answer period. So we will likely listen tonight. If you have a request for specific data or information, uh, Gina, our secretary and superintendent, um, they can get that information to you. I will note based on the topic that the public hearing on the 18th is 100% interactive like the previous two were. We held one in Bloomingdale, we held one at the auditorium. So that in that opportunity, um, the board will interact with you. Um, and as will members of the committee, um, they'll be there as well. Um, so the board president has the right to
070discontinue any public comment which violates this policy. Um, please share with us your thoughts and we'll do the best we can to get you information that you're requesting and I'll encourage you to come to the uh the hearing on the ad for a more interactive uh forum. So with that, who wants to be the first one up? Yes, sir. be only a home. I understand all the stuff with cops and declined population. I get all that. >> I am going to ask you the board. >> We can't hear you up here unless this is being recorded. Step up. That'd be awesome. So, I'm gonna ask you as a board and maybe your subcommittee, did you guys ever think of keeping K through three there, talking to NCC or Canton ATC about opening a trade school
071on the other side of that building, have them take over 50 to 60 to 70% of the cost of that building to keep it running. Was that ever discussed? an option out there. >> So, I don't think I could comment on uh what the options are going forward because I think they're open, but we've had a lot of people make some suggestions. Certainly, that has a lot of merit. >> Okay. I I just think that my other question is this is a little troubling. Is there an exit plan with that building? >> I'm not sure what >> is it just closing? What's Did you try to think of something to do to it? Put it up for sale, whatever. or is it just going to close and sit there for 5 10 years? >> So,
072we we've said this at several meetings now. We have zero intentions of selling that property. >> Okay. >> Put that >> ain't it ain't going to be sold. >> Not by this board. >> Okay. I do wish the board would take a look at opening part of that school as a trade school and keeping the K through three there. >> You know, this may help solve a lot of questions because certainly when you get to the point, the next step is what to do with the building. Um people have freely been sharing a lot of ideas. Some of them uh sound great uh and may be viable. Some uh are illegal to do for schools. Um but there will be a phase two at some point and my intention would be that uh the board
073would not unilaterally make that decision. We will want input from all potential interest. We may have another hearing out at the school >> for that for that purpose. >> And JP, those are things that we've talked about. So, >> yes. >> Hello. My name is Deina Thirstston. I'm the town supervisor for St. Armond and Bloomingdale School is located in my town. I personally moved to Bloomingdale 35 years ago specifically so that my son could attend Bloomingdale school. I've been blessed with two sons. Both of them were able to attend Bloomingdale school from kindergarten through fifth grade. Uh then they both attended Petrova Middle School and they graduated from the high school in Sarak Lake. Um, I was accepted to be on the buildings and facilities committee that the Sarin Lake school board formed to make
074recommendations to the school board. During our first meeting, we were all given a large packet of information and we were tasked with reviewing all the financial documents, class schedules, bus schedules, and tour of each of the buildings and finally to make a recommendation to the Sarin Lake Central School Board. uh as to what we felt the best use of the facilities would be. Um I attended the meetings where more information was given and ideas were discussed. Um and the Senak Lake school board decided to hold public hearings about the future of Bloomingdale School before we were able to finish our meetings, finish reviewing the documents or make any recommendations to the Cernick Lake School Board. I checked my calendar. We actually had five more building and facilities committees meetings scheduled before that happened. Um, in
075January, we were informed that the school board had called the public hearings about the future of Bloomingdale School to be held in the second week of January. I was stunned that the school board had called for the public hearings before the committee could make any recommendations. The committee was told the time frame had been hastened um due to a requirement to inform the state by March 1st. However, during the meetings, we were told over and over again that this was the most important decision that the Sarinac Lake School Board District Board had considered in decades. And if this is truly the case, then slow down and give it until next year so that the buildings and facilities committee could actually do the work that we were tasked to do. An article published on October 12th,
0762024 quoted Justin Garwood as stating, "Diane Fox has said several times that Petroba is currently at capacity and Bloomingdale has empty space." On April 12th, 2024, an article in the Aderondac Daily Enterprise was had quoted Justin as saying Petrova as busting at the seams since it holds both an elementary and middle school. What changed in those two years? In truth, nothing. Petrova is bursting at the seams. The buildings and facilities committee members were given tours of Bloomingdale Elementary, Petrova, the middle school, and the high school. During the tour of Petrova, I was shocked at how cramped many of the classrooms were. There were desks crammed together in several classrooms, and I could not help but ask myself, how can this possibly meet fire code? I have completed some research into the space requirements the school
077districts have for all classrooms. The calculation is 20 net which I'm sure you all know. This means the square footage of the room divided by 20 equals the maximum maximum occupancy for those classrooms. Shops and vocational spaces are 50 net and assembly and cafeterias are 15 net. Has the school board completed a review of all of the classroom sizes at Petrova and the high school to determine if the classrooms meet the current New York State requirements for occupancy? Governor Hokll has recently announced that universal prek will become mandatory. Has this the board considered how this will impact the classroom spaces at Petrova if Bloomingdale School were to close? I've also been researching the new electric bus mandate and I have found that the electric school buses weigh between 12 and 15 tons. The diesel buses
078weigh between 10 and 12 tons. The increased increased weight of electric school buses may make them unable to cross some bridges and culverts in our area. The school district is the Sarinac Lake Central School District is the largest in geographical area in all of New York State. We also have the most extreme cold weather in New York State. National Grid does not have the infrastructure to support electric buses in the foreseeable future. Additionally, the expense of the electric buses for our area is astronomical. A regular diesel bus, Diane told us earlier, it's between 100 and 130,000. An electric bus is 23 250 to $440,000. When the electric school bus was mandate was created, it was believed by the time the mandate went into effect, the technology and costs would be more attainable for our schools.
079And just to clarify, the new the rule is right now a after 2027 all the buses that you purchase have to be electric and by 2035 you're supposed to be all electric. That that is my understanding of it right now. >> However, there are several waiverss available. >> Exactly. Here we go. Um so [laughter] thank you. This has not come to pass and this past week I've been discussing this with Senator Ste. There are several bills in this Senate right now to push back the timeline. There are waiverss that the school district can apply for to show hardship regarding the electric school bus mandate. Has the school applied for these waivers? Has the school board conducted a study of all the bridges and culverts in our school district to see if electric buses can even
080be used on all of our bus runs? There are several bills in the Senate right now requesting that the governor pause the electric bus mandate until the cost of the electric buses comes down and the ability to provide the infrastructure needed improves. The electric bus mandate should not be used as a reason to close Bloomingdale School. During several of the committee meetings that I attended, the services that were supplied to students at Bloomingdale School were mentioned and Diane mentioned them again today. It was stated repeatedly that students with special needs could not be accommodated at Bloomingdale School as they could not share a provider for services. This statement makes no sense whatsoever. For decades, service providers were shared between Lake Kby School, Lake Clear School, Bloom Bloomingdale School, and Petrova School. There is no reason
081that services could not be shared within Bloomingdale and Petrova. Over the past few years, I have received many calls from parents who wanted their child to go to Bloomingdale school only to be told that they cannot because they need services and they're being told Bloomingdale was at capacity, forcing the students, the parents to send their students to Petrova. While it's understandable that some services may not be available at both schools, the most bas basic services have been supplied at both schools for decades and that could continue. Last week, I received a call from a woman who had recently purchased a home in Vermontville. She and her husband recently welcomed a baby boy and purchased the home in Vermontville so that her child could attend Bloomingdale school. She was distraught at the thought of Bloomingdale closing.
082I have heard from several parents that their children at Provo do not bother to go to eat lunch because they don't have time and that the age group mix for the lunchtime isn't working right now. We know affordable housing is a program a problem in our area. There are over 70 new homes about to open in the next few months right here in Sarinac Lake. The Sarak Lake Village is working on a 10acre parcel near Will Will Rogers for new housing. The Lake Champlain Lake George uh regional planning board was just awarded a $5 million grant for new housing. I reached out to Beth Gillis to see if we can get some of that housing in our area with the grant funds that they were awarded and the answer was yes. New housing is coming
083and with it new families in order to attract more people to stay and live here, raise their families here, send their kids to school here and have a great place, a great school to entice them. One of the things in Dian's slides that she had up here about all the things that you need to entice families is great schools, which we all know Bloomingdale is. We all know Bloomingdale is. It's a gem. The statement has been made that closing Bloomingdale School would save about $600,000 per year. The Senac Lake Central School District budget is 38.1 million. 600,000 represents 1.57% of the entire district's budget. With new housing coming, new revenue comes. The thought that saving less than 2% of the entire budget can only occur if Bloomingdale closes, is not true. Closing the newest school
084in the district, a true gem, a place where parents want to send their kids, where teachers want to teach, is a travesty. Several times there have been emergencies at Prova or the high school that required moving those students to Bloomingdale. For example, Diane talked about it in one of our committee meetings, the asbestous removal. You had to have a space to move those kits. What does the board have planned for future emergencies if Bloom Bloomingdale were to close? Diane mentioned how to get people to stay here. We need to have space for more kids to get them to want to be here. Closing Bloomingdale eliminates that. If in 2024 two articles and the Aderondac Daily Enterprise mention bursting at the seams, that's not going to change. By closing Bloomingdale, you're creating more of a problem
085and less of an opportunity for people to come here and raise their kids. If your job is to have a plan moving forward, we haven't seen anything and like JP said about what would happen to Bloomingdale if you closed it. It I I just feel it's not right to even be discussing it without having a solid factual plan in place. I'm I'm very upset as a member of the buildings and facilities committee that our timeline was rushed. We had five more months of meetings that we were supposed to get through to be able to meet and and discuss this with this board and I'm very distraught that all of a sudden, oh, we have a new go a new a new time. So now we have to change everything. Your own buildings and facilities um
086study that was done for the school did not recommend closing it before 2728. So, I don't understand why we're in a rush. If this is the biggest decision that the Sarinac Lake Central School District Board makes in 10 years, I beg of you all to slow down. Let's make the right decision. Let's give the new housing that's coming in opening this summer. Let's give that a chance to work. $5 million coming in from just awarded. I know it takes a couple of years. We all know with grants it takes a couple of years for new housing, but there's housing coming and I just feel it is very shortsighted to close Bloomingdale when we have an opportunity to move forward and entice more people to come here. If we have the gem of the school district
087is Bloomingdale School. We all know it. Why are we all here? We know it. We live there. We love the school. I don't even have kids in the school. AND I'M SO MAD right now. I could scream. Okay. But please, please wait. Wait. I also wanted to point out one other thing. Diane, you did make a boo boo on your presentation. You didn't have Aderandac Correctional Facility, nor did you have Raybert Correctional Facility. Both of them are increasing their staff. >> New York State Police >> and the New York State Police as well. Thank you. So there, you know, I understand that >> share their figures with us. >> Okay. >> I I Okay, that's that's fine and that's fair. And I know you can't cover everything. I get it. You know, you guys are
088volunteers. The school board is a volunteer position. >> Thank you for mentioning that. >> It is thankless. It is. God bless you all because this is this is heartbreak. I mean, I have been up nights. I can just imagine how you all feel because I feel sick, you know. I I feel sick and I I I'm sure that this is heartbreaking for you, too. But I am just asking you to give us a couple more years to prove that this the population can come back because once you close it, that's it. That's it. And for $600,000, come on. You know, we can find that somewhere else. We can. And like you said, you are putting money aside for capital projects, right? Come on. Please give us some time. We've got more housing coming. We need
089to have the space for people to come. They want to come. We know they do. You see it? Every How many PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK DOES ANYBODY KNOW OF A place for sale? A PLACE FOR RENT? EVERYBODY KNOWS. >> This is not the place. >> Thank you. Thank you. [applause] So, wanted to cite my books in the paper. The reason I said those statements that the trouble was busting at the seams was because it was an impetus for us to begin talking about what we're going to do about it. And if we are to follow Diane's recommendation, it also comes with moving seventh and eighth grade out of there. So, I just want to make sure the implication is not that we're going to bust it the seams more if that happens. And I again want
090to say I I love our Bloomingdale teachers just like I love our our Prova teachers and lost in this a lot and people talk about how great Bloomingdale is. I agree, but so is Petrova and those teachers deserve our respect. I went to Prova. I taught at Petroba. My first principal was Josh Dan. I send my kids to Petroa and my profession is education. I have a PhD in this area. I would not send my kids to a school I didn't believe in. So, I appreciate the passion and I'll kind of be make sure my quotes are in context as to what I was saying when I was quoted in the paper. >> Please know I meant no disrespect forward. >> Thanks. >> Did anybody else want to go ahead me? >> No. >> All
091right. It's okay. I can be hurry. Um, so for the people that weren't here last time, I did, um, have an idea that I sent to the board. It was about shared space as well, like JP said. U, my idea was that shared space also came from UBK along with St. Bernard School is talking about some new money that they received. So, they have money, we do not, as a parent. They have a little bit of a space issue, though. Traditionally, they don't have a ton of space. Fun fact, we have space. >> [laughter] >> So, shared space. Um, and I know I have three minutes. I'm pretty darn good at this because I come here more often than others. I wrote mine down. Um, I was reminded at the last meeting, there's a time
092to talk, and a time to listen, time to watch, and a time to read the room. I did write my notes down like I usually do, but I took note of the faces on the board. And unlike some of the opinions of the public comments that I've seen lately, I did not see the expressions on faces in front of me that everybody's mind was made up. To the contrary, the minds were not made up that I could tell. And to be perfectly honest, it gave me hope. Now, I'm not sure if giving hope to somebody like me is a good idea for you guys, but either way, the majority of you said that you wanted the public to show up, so I came back again today. There was a separate comment that I found the
093most impactful and it were words they were strong enough that I wrote them down and I wrote them down twice actually. The superintendent said at the last meeting that she intended at this meeting and I partially quote to make a formal recommendation to close school. That was the quote that stuck with me. The comment hit pretty hard, but she was being very honest and honesty and transparency is what we all need right now in a situation like this. So, I'd actually like to thank her for that because it also showed me that her mind is made up and that motivated me. I wrote and rewrote my response to that one comment probably a dozen times. But here's what I've settled on. As a taxpayer, a parent, potentially a future grandparent, and a community member, I
094formally recommend that you hit the pause button. I understand there's a deadline in place from the state of New York that it's March 1st, but I formally recommend that you do not choose to close school this year. Delay it at least for one more school year. I put on a paper what I and others believe it's an entirely feasible idea to share this space. Take some money from somewhere else. That's what you ask from the Bloomingdale community members. So, I ask for time. Time to bring the community together with the board to turn our ideas into workable solutions for all parties in the district. I also think we're bursting at the seams. I trust that fresh leadership coming in with a new superintendent will be the next best step to make these ideas a realistic
095possibility for the future students of our district, all of the students for our district. And after that, bring it to some sort of a vote, perhaps in a similar to manner to what we did with the turf field. And if we're talking dollars and cents, then let's really talk about it. We have a little saying in Bloomingale, put up or shut up. And I promise you, as sure as I'm standing here now, the other people that came with me today, they understand what I'm talking about. So, I really, really mean what I said the last time. I'm hoping we can all work together. I really do. All of us. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Anne Campeler and despite what the enterprise
096may report, I do not live in Bloomingdale. I am a fifth generation attorney practicing in the North Country. I'm a mom of three young boys and I feel fortunate to raise them in the community that gave me so much, Sar Lake. I have no personal or emotional ties to Bloomingale school. I am a rational thinker that enjoys solving problems. I drafted and circulated an online petition after reading a local mom's plea for written letter submissions to the board to save Bloomingdale School. I know that most parents are overwhelmed with jam-packed schedules, making it hard to find quiet time to sit down and write a formal letter to a school board or to find child care to attend a school board meeting. I saw an opportunity to help, so I drafted the petition based off my
097own personal experiences, suggestions, and concerns. As of tonight, 355 people have signed this petition. At the last schoolboard election, 519 voters showed up at the polls. Your constituents are speaking, and we're asking you to listen. One, slow down. There is no imminent threat. The board and committee commented on the accelerated timeline. This is self-imposed. Yes, the state wants to know where students will be educated by March 1st, but there is no requirement that our school board makes this decision prior to March 1, 2026. Give yourselves and the community time to create a comprehensive plan that analyzes all factors, solutions, and consequences. How can you honestly compute the cost savings of closing Bloomingdale School when you have not decided its next purpose? If a renovation or addition is required at Bloomingdale or Prova, are we really
098saving taxpayers money? Give us the necessary time to acquire reliable data and brainstorm potential solutions. Two, be transparent. The purpose of the educational impact statement is to summarize the facts, research, and make a recommendation to the board. The committee did not come to a conclusion. The version available on your website only lists the elements the statute asks the committee to consider. It does not provide the community with any facts or evidence to support a conclusion. If it was a writing assignment given by our very talented teachers, it would receive a failing grade. You simply missed the mark marked. Three, procedure matters. New York State Educational Law Section 402A requires the committee to file an educational impact statement with the school board. The version available to the public is unsigned and undated. I attended the January
09928th schoolboard meeting where no motion was made to accept the unsigned, undated version for filing. Is there another version? Was an educational impact statement ever filed? Have you followed the statute's filing or notice procedure? Four, you plate us with the exception of today. Your meeting agenda places public comment before topics we all wish to discuss. You ask us to attend the meetings, to email you, to call you, but you do not actively listen or allow us to actively participate. You say your mind has not been made up, but before letting us participate in the February 18th public hearing, you place three resolutions on tonight's agenda, all revolving around closing Bloomingdale School. Once again, procedure matters. Five, stop and think. What are the consequences of implementing these changes? The psychological studies I've read in the last
100two weeks conclude that thrusting change on students in seventh and eighth grade results in low self-confidence, poor educational performance, and negative social interactions. What I've heard from the board is this transition would be easier on the staff because their teaching cert certifications are K through six or 7 through 12. Are we really placing higher concern and weight on few teachers potentially having to move to a new building over the 200 plus students being forced to relocate? Moving our seventh and eighth grade students to the high school will affect the well-being of our students for generations to come. Today, I stumbled upon shocking data from govsaries.com that showed our administrators between 2024 and 2025 received payraises ranging from 7.3% to 17.2%. 2% while the Lake Classic Central School District's administrators saw only a.1% to a 4%
101increase. Our budget problems are not caused by Bloomingdale School, nor are they solved by rushing to close the school. We appear to have a spending problem. Lastly, and probably the most disheartening, we have lost face faith in the superintendent and the board. There are many individuals in our community that would jump to help if called upon. We have stayed quiet, believing that as elected officials, you have our kids' best interests at heart. Please think rationally and realize rushing this process without completing your due diligence is simply irresponsible. We need solutionoriented leadership. Our new superintendent, the one responsible for the ramifications of restructuring our schools, should play an active role in this process. to us. This is not just a simple $ 38 million business. These are our kids. These are our families. Please take your
102time. Thank you. [applause] >> Hi everyone. Uh my name is Leanne. I am a resident of Bloomingdale. >> May I have your last name please? >> Backro. Yeah. And uh I have not been involved in this discussion since the beginning. I did not grow up in Sarinac Lake. I'm one of those young families that you want to attract to this community. I moved here from rural Vermont, much more rural than uh Sarinac Lake and I've experienced this in my own home community in Vermont and I can see the realities. Budgetarily, it's tricky making these choices. And when you look at the numbers, it's hard. Hearing today though, that $600,000 to run Loomingdale School and how much of a drop in the bucket that is and what a pause could actually look like for our community
103to be better informed. As a new mom working full-time with twins uh in kindergarten, it's hard to make these meetings. It's hard to hear about them. Thank goodness someone sent something to me. So, I learned about it and I know I need to take some onus to jump more into the process and it's something that I'd like to continue to do. But time is what we need for our community to rally and learn more about this uh to become more involved to help with solutions. I think our future and all societies especially in the US is going to come through collaboration, right? figuring out new complex ways that are going to streamline some really wonderful cross community collaboration. Have we considered looking at our elders in our community, our senior citizens who are also in
104dire need of social connection and how much our elders can do with our youth. Have we thought about making space for them in Bloomingdale School? Um, so that's another suggestion that I'd love for us to consider as a community. We have we bring our elders more into it and give them a space within the school as well. Uh but I just encourage that we pause, give our families a chance, give Bloomingdale a chance and this economic hopeful uh change to have more housing. There's a lot of people I know in my age demographic that are now just having kids. People are having kids later because it's so expensive. I had mine a little bit younger, but many of my friends are in their mid30s and are now just having children. Give us a chance. give
105us a pause. What's it going to hurt for another year or two to really investigate this deeply? There's no fire yet. We do have to be proactive in planning for the future. Give the future a chance here uh to get more involved. So, thank you [applause] all. [applause] Hi, I'm Ray Sty. I'm a senior citizen. I live in Miguel. I'm not a public speaker. I don't have anything written. Um, old guy observation. Education has fallen. One of the main reasons I feel too many kids, not enough teachers. Leave Bloomingdale open. Get your teachers where it's you're able to do one-on-one teaching. You said that we were failing in education. Is it because classrooms are too overfilled? There's not enough time for a teacher to spend with an individual. You have Bloomingdale, a gym. Use it.
106Utilize it. It's paid for. 600,000 38 million. Come on. Drop in a bucket. We could be top rate. You could advance the education of all our kids. Why? white thrill door. [applause] >> I'm Adam Reynolds. I live in Bloomingdale. I'm going to beat the same dead horse everybody else is beating. It's $600,000. Earlier in this meeting, we talked about a $2 million increase in insurance, and that wasn't that big of a deal, but yet this 600,000 that you'll save is worth closing the school. I I it's it just mathematically to me does not make sense. Um, and the only other thing I want to say is you're saying that the the decision's not made, but yet as you were um describing it, you were feeling sorry because you know that the decisions already been made.
107That's why you're trying to make it justify it to us like, "Oh, it's okay. Other people have had to do this. Other No, the prove everybody wrong here. prove everybody wrong and prove us that the decision wasn't made and you are going to give it a chance because mathematically it doesn't make sense to close it. And then the other thing about saving money on buses, we all know that's that's a joke. You ain't saving money at all. There will be no saving on that. Um and that'll be all. But thank you. [applause] My name is Adam Mayville. I wasn't really planning on uh coming up here tonight, but with everything going on, I figured I would. Uh we talk about, you know, closing Bloomingdale School, having to let go of teachers, all this other stuff.
108How many teachers at Bloomingdale School are young and if they lose their job, because that's one of the professions that people come to areas for. if they leave or get fired or get let go, how many are going to leave the school district and how many more students are we going to be out because they're parents? And on top of it, 600,000, like Adam said, it's kind of crazy when you talk about 38 million. It's it doesn't make sense to me. And I grew up in Bloomingdale. I went to Bloomingdale school, born and raised. I still live there someday. I do plan on having a family. And I was hoping that my kids could go to that school someday, too. And I I am building a house at one of those school houses that you
109talked about the school district sold. I am renovating one of those places. So I understand. But at the same time, I would drive my kid to Bloomingdale school every single morning to make sure that kid went to Bloomingdale School. That's all I have to say. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> Uh, I'm Jonah Trembley. I'm also a Bloomingdale resident. Uh, one of the things about going at the end is I'm going to repeat a lot of things, but I did just want to highlight that we are another young family that moved to Bloomingdale and the school was a big part of our decision. We grew up around Cranberry Lake, went off to college and came back and wanted to stay remotely close to the area. And we put in for houses in all the towns, but
110we really wanted Bloomingdale because we want our son to have a similar school experience to what we had over at Clifton Fine with smaller classrooms, getting to know friends, teachers, small community, all of that. and then move on to Sarinac Lake and get much of the same similar things. Uh the dollar figures just don't seem to make sense with the savings. And I've been in the back the entire time, so I could have uh seen it incorrectly, but $600,000 seemed to be the maximum savings, which means it could end up being significantly less, which I believe was around $95,000. So much like everybody else, let's just take more time. Let's uh come to the correct decision. Thank you. [applause] Anyone else? All right. Thank you uh for those folks that spoke. Uh next item on
111our agenda, reports. We'll begin with the superintendent report. I just want to mentioned under new business was the 267 district calendar just notification that that will be coming for the next board meeting. We'll vote on it in our first meeting in March a little later this year. We spent some time as superintendent some final decisions. It's a bit of a tricky calendar, but it sounds right. >> Okay. Thank you for that, Diane. Uh to our administrative reports, Josh. >> I said two things. Um our OAS class is going to lobby day in Albany uh with Tori on the 11th. So, we have seven students going down for the whole day. Pretty excited about that. And then uh our engineering class is partnering with Keem Valley and a school in Germany to come up with some
112solutions uh at Norse Titanium. Um and our kids are doing a great great job. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Josh. Brian. >> Yeah, just a couple things. Um being Winter Carnival, you know, it's always a highlight in the elementary schools, uh for our kids to decorate the downtown business windows. Uh it's always fun to walk through town and and see your kiddo on some funny float or floating through the air. Um that that's that's a a cool opportunity for our kids and we we are in the middle of that now. Uh our second grade classes spent the day at the Olympic Center uh visiting some of the venues uh on January 29th. They learned some of the history of the 80 Olympic games. They visited the Olympic Museum, did some virtual tours. Um so
113that was a big hit for our second graders. and the Aderondac Mountain Club visited our fourth grade classrooms this week to provide a free lesson for their upcoming snowshoe trip to Hart Lake on February 19th. So, this is a threeseason opportunity um for our students to go to Hart Lake and and learn about the surroundings in three different seasons. >> Thank you, Brad. I'm Melissa. >> Um Zach's going to share a little bit about what we're specifically doing uh right now. But in um in addition to the professional learning cycles, a big part of the work uh coming out of MySpace is focusing on our coherence and connection. making sure staff aren't experiencing our next ready classrooms, our uh K12 uh writing alignment, learning habits, standards, curriculum mapping, vertical and horizontal alignment, portrait of a
114graduate, DEI or MTS work, reframing behavior, etc., which is all work that they're doing, but not seeing it as separate new things, but as part of one aligned system. So for example um our DEI work is embedded directly into our next ready classrooms through shared expectations around belonging student voice inclusive materials and respectful discourse rather than standing alone as a separate entity and next classrooms itself is our main vehicle for meeting the portrait of a graduate expectations which our students deserve and by carrying those attributes into daily classroom practices through explaining and critical thinking collaborating, persisting through challenges, tackling diverse perspectives and working with parent purpose. Uh this is the approach that keeps us working uh moving forward and it's very important that we do so in a way always as much as possible. That's
115always our intent that respects and supports our teacher creativity and expertise. That's all. >> Thank you Erica. Well, this past Sunday we were ice fishing on Lake Colby, and I'm proud to announce that we quadrupled our uh fish catch to a whopping five. [laughter] Uh and we will be joining AJ from Battlefish Charters once again on Tuesday the 17th at Moody Pond. We can't wait to see the friends of Moody Pond, see us all out there uh enjoying their beautiful, beautiful pond. and also invite all of you to our upcoming Saturday academy which will be hosted right here at the high school on this uh very floor uh Saturday March 14th. The theme is maple and shamrocks. And while there will not be Lena the lizard lazy lady here this time, we will indeed have
116maple cotton candy and uh the sky lab star lab will be right in this very room and uh the whole floor will be filled with opportunity for learning and fun. >> Thank you Jenny. >> Uh last week Bloomingdale participated in the great kindness challenge. It was a great week of themes and activities and it ended with of course a parade because you always have to have a parade and uh schoolwide kindness assembly. This Friday we'll have our monthly assembly and awards. Our student council will be running the meeting. So they're very excited. On Monday we're going as a building to the ice palace for our visit. Next Thursday we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day by having a schoolwide pancake breakfast and we have 17 family members coming to do all the cooking and serving. Um the
117following Thursday, if you can believe it, it's our hundth day of school. We also have a joint elementary uh family movie night hosted at Prova this month. Um this week also was the beginning of our 21st century third quarter programming and Eric and I were talking and we're like no wonder we're so tired. We have 24 after school programs running with approximately 250 students participating. So 21st century is just a gift to our district and so many students are able to attend after school programming. >> Katie, what was when was the pancake breakfast >> on the tw Oh, Nancy, you want in? >> Well, yeah. >> Okay. The 12th. >> The 12th. >> 8:15. >> Are you eating or flipping? [laughter] >> All right. Thank you. Um, student reports. So this week was national school
118counselor week. So we thank all of our school counselors. And then winter carnival is coming up. So the seniors that are on court will have their cremation bands on Friday. >> And then last week we had a schoolwide assembly and there are 200 students on honor roll and 70 students pass regents in January. And then next Monday there's an Essex County musical festival and a stable for band and chorus. Thank you. >> I do think Mr. Dan didn't bring that up, but I I think we should acknowledge our students and staff with the January regents for ELA. Would you mind just touching on that? >> Sure. Um, this year we decided to uh have our English regent exam in January. Usually have it in June. The English Regent exam is a a culmination of 9th,
11910th, and 11th grade. And so we offered the uh exam in June or January for the first time and we had over 80% of our students uh pass the exam which is which is a good number and out of the 88% I think we had 80% uh score a level five which is which is the which is the highest uh highest grade. So kudos to the the kids kudos to THE [applause] >> OKAY, board committee reports. Nancy. >> Uh, well, first I was asked by Joe to read Amy Spicer, who was our middle school, uh, administrative report. She said that on Friday, January 23rd, we welcomed Alice Leoo, the reality check program coordinator from the commercial tobacco use reduction network to the middle school. Miss Leoo delivered three grade level presentations in the Provoa Auditorium
120focused on nicotine tobacco products including vaping and how the tobacco industry targets and manipulates consumers into addiction. Presentations were developmentally appropriate and aligned with our ongoing work around student wellness and prevent prevent prevention. There we go. They provided students with accurate researchbased information and reinforced the importance of making healthy choices. We appreciated the opportunity to bring this free program to our students as part of our commitment to keeping them healthy, safe, and ready to learn. Second, uh congratulations to our middle school math counts team on the successful regional competition this past weekend at the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing in Platsburg. The team composed of Key Vanett, Meadow Nashet, Ellie Henderson, and Tommy Gelord took home second place honors in the team competition, advancing them to the state competition held in Albany, New York on March
12114th. In addition, the following students competed individually representing Sarinac Lake. Simon Langden, Allison Statlander, and Grace Zel. >> Thank you. Uh, congratulations to all students who competed competed last weekend. Thank you to Miss Bard and Mrs. Benoy for leading this group and good luck to the team at states. Um, and I had one thing that I just had an idea and I don't want to put anybody on the spot, but I've been in trying to keep track of all the questions that are being asked in some of the comment letters. you know, I'm keeping a a document going of all the questions. Some of them repeat, some of them, you know, uh I heard again today or new ones today. I'm trying to keep listening. wondered if if we might be able to do a
122like a FAQ and put it on our website with those kinds of questions, you know, um the ones that we we've been we've answered as a district, you know, in person at meetings, but you know, having it written, it might reach more more individuals. So, that was just a thought. And I know it's more work, but I think it would might be work that is well spent. And I think that's all. >> Thank you, Nancy. Justin report. Uh, Zach, >> I checked in with Melissa, director of curriculum and instruction. Uh, she said we're in the middle of our third cycle of teacher professional learning connected to next ready classrooms. In session two, teachers sorry, focus on strengthening student writing by helping students strengthen their ability to explain their thinking. This current cycle builds directly from
123the work and shifts attention to the learning habits students need in order to do that kind of work. Perseverance, productive struggle, precision, and collaboration. Did you get that right, Melissa? >> You did. >> All right. Teachers are taking ownership already trying small practical shifts that give students more responsibility for thinking, iterating, and supporting one another. As always, their work truly reflects the strong, thoughtful, and caring practice happening in our classrooms every day. That's it. >> Thank you. >> Um, my big exciting thing is that we are taking kids to Albany to meet with legislators. Wednesday, next Wednesday is uh, NISBO. Those of you don't know, that's the New York State School Boards Association uh, annual lobby day where the school districts of New York State hit the legislators with force. Um, we have confirm meetings
124with Dan Steck. I am waiting for times from three other legislators. Um this is our opportunity to sit down with them and talk about what is important for Sarap Lake. Um as a rural district this is really big deal. So tomorrow I am meeting with them to talk about the ask which is I've had a crash course in the last three years on how to make the most of the 20 minutes maybe 30 minutes if you're really really lucky with legislators. Um on Friday I have the capital conference which is uh NISA's breakdown of the governor's proposed budget. we go they go through the analysis and specifically how the budget as a whole affects each district and affects the the things that are important to districts to schools. Um after that um I will kind
125of have a better idea of what our concerns are and what's coming up in the budget the uh governor's budget that is really going to affect us and decide over the weekend what's important for the kids to talk about. Um, we kind of have a rough idea. Um, Zach has put together a fantastic legislative brief that looks at some of the bigger pictures. Rural school districts are not as well represented as the public as the uh, city school districts. Um, we are in area six, which is just north of Albany and kind of goes to either side of the state. Um but the big just to give you an idea the big five are uh Syracuse, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, and New York City. They get extra they get extra representation. Um out of this area
126there are school board there are boards of school boards where members go and not only do they have the Sarinac Lake voice, they would have the regional voice. and they actually get to the point where they're so big that they have people working for them to help lobby for their districts. So, this is why I have pushed and pushed and pushed and I am so grateful for Josh for making this happen that we need kids to go. We need more people to go because there are more rural districts than city districts and we have to be well. So, as of Monday, we'll have our marching orders. We're taking Zach's legislative brief that looks at stuff like housing and taxes and those big things. And one of the big questions that's coming up is well those
127are things we can't control. No, they're things we can't we can't but we have to start making noise that those are things we that they need to control and we need that help and we know. So, um I am this is this is what I got on the board to do was to get kids interested. And I for the record, um I want to put this on the record and if I cry, I apologize. I'm a mom that cries on the board. So, in the 2025 2026, the total voters for our district are 12,897. I'm going to say that again. 12,897 potential voters in the Sarin Lake School District 20 for the 2025 school budget vote. 519 voted 2024 2025 was a big year because it was mature field. 1,478 23 2458 2022 23 516
12821 22 475 To give you an idea we are all about I'm going to take the turf field year out of the mix 0.04% 04%. Not even a half of percent of the potential voters in the Sarinac Lake School District vote. I'm going to say that again because I don't think everybody is getting this. I have griped about this for three years. 0.04%. We need more help, okay? We do the best that we can. We do not get paid. What we need is we need everybody to come out. You guys that have come out to break today are fantastic. You've come out and you've talked to us. You need to go home and you need to tell everybody that you know in this district, five towns, three counties, um 12,897 voters, everybody needs to vote.
129Everybody needs to have a say because every child in this district matters. Every child and every vote matters. And we are here. We give up the time. We run I've run three times in four years and it sucks. I'm gonna be honest. I posted on my Facebook page today, this is how you want to run for school board, run for school board. Come and see what we know. Come and see this right here. Just to give you an idea, this is the part of the education law. This is just part of it. This is what we deal with every day and we have to know. So when we say these are the decisions that we have to make and that we are hamstrung and this money is in that bucket and we have to have
130so many kids here and we have to do this for teachers and it's right here all of it. I didn't go to school for this. I'm a kinesiologist by training and I'm a vocal poster. We do the best that we can and I just want to reiterate the fact this is what we're looking at. If this district really matters this much, if it truly matters this much, if all our kids matter this much, 12,897 versus 59, >> Mark, [applause] can I ask for a question about that? >> No, I'll get you after. Um, Mike, >> okay, I've got one report. I was invited in the Shelley Woods government class yesterday as part of their uh unit of local government to speak uh how school boards operate and so went through procedural things and found students
131to be pretty receptive to uh understanding how their daily life uh is is governed from perspective. So, I found that to be a great experience. Many of you know I taught that class for 15 years. So it's like let go the whole week to go back in [laughter] and do a little bit of that. So I'm grateful to Mrs. Wood and her students for letting me come in. All right. With that we are in need of an executive session for the medical financial credit or employment history of particular person matters related to employment employment motion suspension dispensation. Did I get a motion to session? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in >> favor? We'll give a brief on each of those shots.