001people in that home one problem away from a crisis. The blow hire, the um running out of fuel oil, they don't expect to run out of fuel oil. They live close to the bone and are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Um one one problem away from a financial crisis. And when we look at what that really looks like, Essex County is behind, Franklin County is in front. So people who are live who are single or cohabitating with no children, 37%. This is Essex and Franklin counties. This is information is not available directly for the school district. Um married with children is 21%. Here are some really important statistics. single female headed households with children. Same number whether it's Franklin or Essex County, 78% are Alice families and single male head of household
002with children is 65% of families. So, I'm going to change up gears a little bit, but I want you to keep that in the back of your mind as we continue to talk about some pieces of our budget. We're going to talk about the three-part budget. This is, oddly enough, the only part that New York State says we have to present. Doesn't really say very much, so we have to add to it. But I am now doing my required budget presentation with the three-part budget. uh 4% of our budget is our administrative uh current capital makes up 17% and programming makes up 72%. I'm going to actually flip to the next slide because the titles don't really talk too much about what's in each part of those components. So administrative is the business administration, all
003the district office stuff, central store room, insuranceances, bosses, administrative costs, curriculum development, and then the supervision and salaries connected with those parts. Capital is facilities and buses, the purchase of buses and again the salaries uh of those people who work in facilities and uh our bonding for construction and then programs all of our teaching programs for students with disabilities a through boseis technology district transportation services interesting the buses are a capital but the programming is actually the service of transportation, student support, and all the salaries and benefits that go with that. Breaking down our budget just a bit farther. What actually uh makes up all the different pieces of our budget and I'll just let you read that inner fund transfers. That's an important one. Sometimes gets a little confusing because inner fund transfers also
004includes our food service. We are required by New York State to make our food service whole. We're very proud of our farm to school and our local purchasing. Um, however, the cost of lunch that is reimbursed by the federal and state government or in years past uh by students buying lunch does not actually cover the cost of lunch. So every year we need to put in from our general operating budget whatever uh covers the cost to make the cafeteria whole. It also does include some small transfers into our reserve accounts. You'll see that our tax levy increase is 4.43% while our spending increase is 2.14%. There's a lot of pieces to a budget for a school district because there are a lot of moving parts. And so our job, if we look back to what
005we wanted to do and the purpose of the budget is to provide students with maximum educational opportunities. And we have over time come to a three-pronged approach in order to do that. Um, we want to make sure that every student has access to meaningful, highquality educational experiences. So, we quietly embraced a threepronged approach to educational equity. And it's grounded in our commitment to supporting students and focuses on removing barriers, creating inclusive learning environments, and promoting high expectations for every student. So the first step of that is our community school initiative. A community school model provides integrated supports that meet the full range of student needs, academic, social, emotional, and physical so that all students, regardless of background, have a fair chance to succeed. They also foster strong relationships between educators, families, and community organizations. just
006come to one of our Saturdays or visit for our 21st uh 21st century activities after school and you will see that um you can't attend ready for school and not be proud of what we do for our district families. So ultimately a community school helps level the playing field by ensuring that every child not just those with access to outside resources has the support they need to learn and grow. We started our community school initiative in 2018 and by now we take it for granted. It's just the way we do business. But it's important to see it for what it really is. It is unique in a rural community and a testament to our connectedness to our families and communities. The second part is having a guaranteed viable curriculum. It's identified as a primary factor
007influencing improve student achievement. The goal of any curriculum is to articulate what students should know, understand, and be able to do in each discipline. It should also support teachers in knowing how to achieve these goals. As we near the completion of our initial curriculum mapping, we are already seeing tangible benefits. These efforts are not just theoretical. They are driven by the hard work of our teachers who are demonstrating innovation, collaboration, and commitment to student centered learning every day in their classrooms. And the third part of the approach is diversity, equity, and inclusion. Educational equity means an intentional focus on analyzing and diagnosing the impact and design of the design and implementation of policies on underserved and marginalized individuals and groups and identifying and eliminating barriers. At our March superintendent presentation, I use an example of
008the rug game. And I thought everybody knew it, but I think it's my years working at summer camp where you would put down an old rug and your group would have to stand on the rug and then you'd start rolling up your rug and they'd still all have to fit on it as it got smaller and smaller and they'd have to come uh to an agreement as to how that was going to happen. So that is not what we do with diversity, equity, and inclusion in our district. We have plenty of rug to go around. Diversity, equity, and inclusion in Sarin Lake Central Schools is about inviting the students that sit on the buddy bench waiting for somebody to come and play with them to come and play with us and teaching them the rules.
009Our playground is large enough for everyone. [Music] So, I want to talk a little bit about the educational opportunities that we actually offer. So, I'm on Facebook and I'm on I was just talking to somebody today. I'm trying really hard these days not to go to bed and scroll or I'm up till 3:00 a.m. But that doesn't stop me from going to bed and scrolling like many other people. And I hear a lot about how well they're just graduating kids and not necessarily center but just this idea that kids are just being passed out and we're not doing our thing. So I think it's important as we talk about the budget and we're asking people to support our budget that they understand what they're supporting and what that budget supports. So, let's talk about what's
010happening with educational opportunities um with our middle school students and career and technical education pathways. Our middle school students can leave middle school with three and a half credits towards graduation. And we hear a lot about the importance of career and technical education. So 43 almost 44% of our juniors participate in BoseCTTE programs career and technical education. And because we offer some new vision courses which are only for seniors, you'll see that almost 59% of our students participate in career and technical educational opportunities. We're very lucky. We have Cara Mun who is teaching new visions right here at Petroa Elementary and Josh Marlo uh proposed and was accepted to provide a new marine tech program which will also be happening right in our district. So students from uh Long Lake, Temper Lake and Lake Placid
011will come to our district to participate in those programs. But our kids will either stay here for those or they will go to Boseies for their CTE programs. It costs us a lot of money as a district. Our district taxpayers support that. Next year's bill for CTE programming is estimated to be 1.4 million. So, we put a lot of money behind CTE programs and the importance of supporting our students uh who may have other choices than to be collegebound or may do this as they're deciding what they want to do when they go to college. We also offer a lot of opportunities in our high school for college credits. You'll see the list here. Fact, Mr. Phil is here with us tonight and you offer a course that provides college credits. So, there's a there's
012a lot going on. Um, our students can leave us uh loaded before they leave. And we have a new opportunity that has just come up. I cannot I cannot share it tonight because it's so new. The press release has not gone out, but we actually will be adding to this list for next year. Also want to talk a little bit about the 2024 testing results for 3 through eight and the regions exams. I know that's difficult to see, so I'm going to just hit the highlight. So, I always talk out of both sides of my mouth when I talk about this because this is not the end all, but it does compare us about it does compare us to um other schools that are like us. And a lot of times we're cons we're compared
013to other FEC's districts, but they aren't really us. When you look at our size, our uh number of special ed students are free reduced. So there's a list here on the screen that is actually 12 districts that are comparable to our district and all of those factors. And when you look at where we are with our 2024 3 through8 regions exams as a whole, we are actually three out of 12 and we are not too far out of second place. And that is really a testament to the teaching that is happening in our 3 through8. This doesn't happen on its own and it is definitely an improvement over the years. We also should be very proud of our graduation rate. Mr. Dan and our high school teachers take graduation very seriously. Uh it is not
014a gift. it is earned. Um the metric reflects the culmination of years of effort and it does sometimes take a village to get a student across the graduation stage. Sometimes pulling the student, sometimes pushing and sometimes we all have to carry that student across the stage. But the work still has to be done by the student. So, we've talked a little bit about our two parts of our budget. Um, and we've talked about what we have for um accomplishments in the past. So, let's take a minute to talk about what lies ahead. And here's a bit of a reality check. This is district enrollment starting in 91 through 24, which was last school year. The highest total enrollment since 1991 was in 1995 in 1,910 students. District enrollment this year, 1037. That's a decrease since
0151995 of students. And that's a decrease of 46% of our students over the 30 years. And declining enrollment affects more than just the number of students in our classrooms. It has a farreaching consequence for our district's fiscal health, staffing, educational programming, and overall community vitality. Many education funding formulas are based on per pupil enrollment. So fewer students means less state aid. Even with fewer students, expenses like building maintenance, utilities, and administrative costs remain constant. And with fewer students, it becomes harder to justify full-time positions in specialized areas and lower participation number makes it harder to sustain competitive and diverse activities. Really families believe a dis if a family believes a district is shrinking or losing resources it can discourage that family from moving to the area. So we don't want to do anything that further
016accelerates the cycle of decline. However, um this slide makes it pretty clear as you to the number of students who are entering our district and the difference between uh our students in 12th grade and the number of students in kindergarten. We projected 60 incoming kindergartens for next year. Right now we are sitting at about 45 because of our robust UPK program and just a connection with the community and the community providers. We're pretty confident that there aren't 30 students waiting for us out there who have not enrolled. Enrollment has come and gone. Um, there's always a few people who register over the summer. The largest we ever had in my 12 years here was about 11 kindergarten students. So 45 + 11 is still a significantly small number of kindergarten students. So if we had
01760 this year, we have 60 and 26 27. you'll see that our anticipated uh student count would be down below a thousand at 965 students and there is a good chance it actually will turn out to be lower than that. So with the financial realities of the situation that we're in and with the realities of the declining student population, we have had to make some difficult staffing choices. I did leave the uh 2425 decreases in staffing. Just as a reminder that every year we have tried to keep up with the changes that are happening and the increased costs in other areas and we've tried to decrease staffing through attrition. Unfortunately, we just weren't able to do that this year. So, we do have uh quite a few decreases in staffing, some through retirement, some through
018resignation, and we do have some who are exercised. The last part of our budget revenue are reserve [Music] funds. Reserve funds are being used for two purposes this year in our budget. To purchase buses as well as helping to balance the budget. I want to just take a minute to discuss this misunderstood part of the district's financial picture. So, reserve funds cannot simply be moved during the middle of the school year in case you should end up short or you need to purchase some big piece of equipment that you didn't know you were going to need when you put your budget together. But they have a really important um point to them. They're an opportunity to save for future needs. They help us to maintain a stable a stable operating budget. Um they also help
019maintain a stable tax levy. They boost our overall fiscal strength which means when we go to borrow money for capital projects, we can borrow at a lower rate and they do supplement the limitations of fund balances. So currently right now we're using our reserve funds for the turf fields project and the purchase of buses without borrowing. No problem. There is a potential future use and why I've been asked a couple times why are we continuing to put money into the reserve funds when we are in the middle of a financial crisis um and have to make some big choices because electric buses are still staring us down. And so we've got to have some reserve funds for electric buses. Even if we get grants, even if there's there's money out there, it won't cover all
020of the cost for electric buses and the changes to the infrastructure that we're going to have to do. So we have continually put money into our reserve accounts so that we're ready to go. It's not whether we agree with electric buses or don't agree with electric buses. We want to be ready if they're coming. and they would be such a hit on the local budget if we had to budget that in in a single school year uh when it came to pass that we didn't start with them. We want to make sure we have some reserve funds so that we can meet the requirements um in our in our budgeting. Fund balance is always tricky because we want to continue to have enough fund balance that we're healthy and we're prepared for a crisis without
021uh keeping too much of a fund balance. Fun balance comes from all sorts of different places. Um the last few years when we had COVID funds, we were able to put away some of our CO funds so that we had them continuously for the couple years past when they left. But uh fund balance is also any money that's unspent at the end of the school year. So we never want our taxpayers to feel like we are just taking extra to keep it. Um we try to spend all of our money um judiciously and sometimes we have some funds left at the end of the year also from that. So how do you balance that out? You'll see last year we chose to use some of it. We do not anticipate that we will have significant
022fund balance left. We will not have significant unallocated funds at the end of this year to put into our fund balance for next year. We're going to use approximately $1.8 million of the unassigned fund balance to offset the taxes. And we'll use 324,000 with taxpayer approval for the purchase of two buses out of our transportation and maintenance reserve. There are assigned fund balances and we can establish reserve funds to act as a fiscal buffer. That's what we talked about and we're going to look at these a little bit later because they have to be re-uped every 10 years. Um or they they just sit and wait to be used but can't be added to. We'll talk about them a little further. So those are our reserved And we also have an assigned fund balance and
023that fund balance does not have any particular use. Um we really use that money to offset the budget. So with all that, let's talk about vote. The annual meeting and budget vote for the board of education is uh Tuesday, May 20th. We have changed the time. We used to start at 7. We are going to start at 8. So 8 to 8, 12 hours. Come and see us. But just note the time change to 8:00 a.m. is the start. It's right here in the uh high school auditorium uh entrance way. Door number five here at the high school. And in order to be counted, if you have an absentee ballot, it must be received by the district clerk no later than 5:00 p.m. on May 20th. So get those in. The ballot is full again
024this year. We have the first thing on the ballot is the annual budget. Second thing is the proposition for the transportation uh buses and that asks that we be authorized to purchase two student transportation vehicles. They're really buses. Don't know why we have to word it that way. Um proposition two is to reestablish the transportation and maintenance capital reserve fund. We have that now. It's coming to the end of its life. So, we need voter approval to reestablish it for an additional 10 years. This does not put any additional funds into the reserve. It just allows the reserve to start over and um continue to be there, which is also what proposition number three that is for our capital improvement um reserve. Again, um we're not asking for authorization to put any money into the
025reserve, simply to have the reserve. Should these be voted down, thanks to a question earlier, we really looked into that. Should these be voted down, then that money still sits in that reserve, you cannot add to it, and it does need to eventually be spent on what the reserve was initially created for. And proposition number four on the ballot is for the Sarin Lake Library. We are not connected to the library, but we collect their taxes for them. So, we're just a flow through. Um, so the vote is here on our school budget and uh then we collect the funds as part of your school district taxes and then we turn that over to the library. Also on the ballot are board of education seats. There are two seats that are up. Mark Farmer, his
026term expires 6:30 this year, as does Zach Randolph's. So, there are two people running for the board of education. The names may sound familiar to you. That would be Mark Farmer and Zachary Random. You are welcome to write in uh up to two members and there's a line. And do remember to flip over your ballot because they're on the back of the ballot. So, don't don't miss that. If you are a citizen of the United States, 18 years or older, and registered to vote in the general elections, or personally registered with the school district, which nobody is, correct, Gina? Nobody is. So, in reality, you need to be personally you need to be uh registered to vote in the general election and be a resident within the district for a period of 30 days. We
027hope that we will see you on May 20th. There's a lot of additional information on our website and uh we hope that you'll take a look at it. You can find it right on our www.slcs.org website. Click on the departments and then see budget. Click on 2526. All of this information will also be there. Okay, questions. Oh, so I'm gonna go back to the propositions if you don't mind. Sure. On the capital reserve, the two the um was number two and number three. Correct. Hey, Ellen, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Can you go to the microphone by chance? It would just pick up a little better, I hope. My name is Ellen Y. My question is about the um capital reserves, which are options two and three or propositions two and three. I know you
028checked on that and got me the answer. So, another question. Can you bring it up for a vote again if it were to go down the next year? Yes, I could answer that. Yes. Okay. And it does not say you are putting any reserves in there, but does it on the actual budget? There are some reserves that go in on the actual budget. That is correct. So then those if those got voted down would not be able to go into that. That is correct. What would happen to those funds? Those funds uh would probably roll into the unassigned the the uh carryover for the following year. Okay. Yes. So, this one doesn't have to do with this, but could sort of Okay. I'm asking about the possibility of creating a capital reserve account for health
029insurance. Ah, I do not have the list right there. I believe you have to be self-insured. Yes. which the consortium gives. Okay. So, I don't know if it could be just Sarinley. I I don't know that answer, but that's a good question. There is a list of allowable reserves. So, Ellen, can I get back to you? Yep. That was a very good question. Okay, that was so um last year during this there I think it was during this there was talk of starting a committee to study the closure of Blooming Hill. That is correct. Did that ever happen? So the committee did not because our first our first data point which was the number of incoming kindergarteners did not match the data point that was anticipated by the facility study. Okay. So that was a
030two-part question which was is that reflected in the budget? So so um no but it might be reflected in the meeting after this. Correct. Okay. Um, in the past through retirement, we've lost a library specialist and back filled with certified teacher from elementary. With the elementary layoffs, will that position be affected? That position will not be filled. So, there will not be a certified teacher in the library for elementary school. That is correct. Thank you. Um due to budgeting restraints, you have had to lay off many teach certified teachers. In the past, you have employed uncertified people under the finer agreements. Will that policy continue? So when you do um exercising, you must start with anyone in that tenure area who is uh not certified. But excising happens through tenure area and seniority. So there
031would be no one who was on staff in an area in which someone was excised who was not certified. Okay. And I think I have one more. Okay. I already picked one up because you answered it. um with the changes to graduation requirements coming from NICD where you possibly don't have to take regions um where there may be financial literacy required and I think an environmental science maybe um is that represented anywhere in the budget because that will start with the freshman and sophomore class I believe for next year. So that information has not come out. However, there is room in our science and room in our math staffing. Plus, there is something I cannot discuss publicly that will address uh one of those two items. So, can I answer something on that? Sure. So,
032I'm I'm on the New York State Education Department's advisory panel for environmental education. The estimated roll out of that is 26 27. So, so there's a year to kind of study that process and uh financial literacy is is on the same timeline. So that's something that will have to be thought about next year. Um the environmental education one is interdisiplinary too. So implications will be on science. And I just came up with another question. Sorry. The two new vision programs that are based out of Sarinite Lake um does both reimburse you for any of that? That's a great question and I only laugh because what happens with that is uh they reimburse us for 50% of the instructional cost but then we pay Boseies for each student who participates and the actual cost of participation
033includes the overhead cost for Boseies all the supplies all the things. So at the end of the day, it actually costs us money for our kids to to participate in the CTE program. But yes, your initial question is yes, we're reimbursed for 50% of their salary and benefits. Thank you. Yeah, you got it. Yes, there are 13. Thank you for looking that up. is one of those healthcare um bear with me. It the reserve the allowable capital reserve repair reserve workers compensation reserve unemployment insurance reserve reserve for tax reduction mandatory reserve for debt service reserve um property loss reserve including liability reserve the s the taxi reserve reserve for insurance recovery reserve for incumbrances, reserve for inventory and reserve for employee benefit acrewed liability and the question was about insurance. Yeah, I want to this
034is directly for my we'll take a look. Yeah. Anyone else with any questions? Well, thank you all for being here and uh being part of our budget presentation. Okay, it's now 5:45. We're going to take a short break and we will convene our regular meeting at 5:55.