001here. Trusty Amecha. Trusty Amory. Trusty Fogerty here. Trusty Copan here. Trusty Crackler. Trusty Wilton here. Trusty Witovich here. Please join me in saying the pledge of allegiance. All right. Well, good evening everyone. Uh we're going to mix things up just a little bit before we uh uh start our first public comment period. Uh we have a number of guests uh with us tonight. Uh that each year we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to welcome not only our students from Saratoga Springs uh but the administrators from our local Boseies as well as the board members uh who work so hard on our students behalf. Uh so tonight with us uh is a very familiar face uh Mr. Mr. Tim Hilker um from uh from the Boseies as well as Kate Atnazio. Um and then
002we have board members from the Boseies board and I actually would if the board members would be okay just to introduce yourselves and then what your home home school district is uh in addition to your Boseies that you represent. Well, again, uh it's it's awesome uh to have our our Boseies board members uh here with us tonight uh showing their support again of the variety of programs and supports and services uh that Boseies provides not only the Saratoga Springs but the 31 component school districts in our region. Uh so the stars of the show tonight that we always look forward to uh are our students uh from Saratoga Springs High School who are really involved in a variety of opportunities uh that Boseies that we partner with as a school district through our Boseies um
003through a wide variety of career and technical education programs. uh we are which we are super proud of uh the students accomplishments uh that our our students spend both their junior and senior years uh and half days uh over uh at the at the center. Uh we also have students involved in our pathways to technology our PEK programs uh through Sunni. Uh we also have students involved in early college career academy uh as well as our new visions uh program. Uh so over the many many years, the partnership between local school districts, Boseies, uh the community colleges, uh just wonderful partnerships to provide opportunities for our students to expand their learning experiences outside the walls of our of our school district. Uh so tonight we're going to hear from our students uh have the opportunity
004to hear from uh the administrators at Bosei. So at this time I'm going to turn over to Mr. Hilker. Uh and again as part of the presentation I know Boseies and we're very excited uh about uh the future facilities uh that are currently underway uh for our region. So I'll turn it over to Tim. Thank you for having us. It's great to be back on the board. She's our human resources. Good evening again. I'm director students here this evening and rather than hear from Tim and myself about how wonderful our programs are, we like to give the students the opportunity to share their own experiences. So I'm going to each student introduce themselves, say their name, what program they're in, what year, and why they decided to um to join. Hi, my name is Kaitlyn
005Sullivan. I am a high school and I'm a part of the program. I chose New Visions because I wanted to get experience before I started nursing school. I'm Molly H. I'm also a senior at Saratoga and I'm also in the New Visions program. I joined New Visions because I was always interested in the healthcare field and then New Visions really helped me experience different and shadow different. My name is Jessica Daine and I'm a senior in health occupations. Um I was drawn to my class because I loved the curriculum. I love the idea of and getting to work with real people. I'm GMA Murphy. I'm a junior here at Saratoga High and I chose my program occupations because I'm very interested in realities. Hi, I'm chose my program because I wanted to Hi, I'm Olivia
006Harborn. I'm in the criminal justice studies program. I'm a senior and the reason why I joined criminal justice. Hi, my name is Trip. I'm a junior at high school and ICC media program. I joined my program I really wanted to work with graphic design and art and I've always been interested in Hi, my name is Judah Robinson. I'm a junior here and I do culinary arts and hospitality and I've always love in the early college career academy for business entrepreneurship and I I chose that college credits ahead of a couple students talk briefly about some highlights or maybe favorite part of their program and I'll start with some highlights on the horse Some of the highlights that we do outside Um, so basically my class is very hands-on and we learn a lot like rest
007procedures um like radar and like how to reports and you know incident reports and stuff like that. We do a lot of book work learning about penal law like multiple different chapters in this big text and you know about court like lawy And we go on a lot of field trips like jail. One of them is another one. And just a lot of hands. Now I'm gonna have a couple of students talk about some of their internship experiences. And I'll start with Molly. So with new visions, we're on clinicals Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday almost every week. We get the opportunity to shadow different professions within the hospital and private practice. My favorite so far was maternity because I got to see a C-section and I got to stand right next to the OB. She explained
008everything and the family was so cute. And that's just one of the examples of everything that we get to see because we get to be so hands like involved I guess which is really cool. I have to see that I was just at a pain management never recently. So last week I was able to surgery which is what I've done so far. My internship master Now I'm going to have each student for nursing school and I'm hoping to do a couple years and back to school for anesthesia. I just for occupational therapy program therapist. I'm waiting to hear back from Hudson Valley for their associates degree in surgical technology. I'm planning to graduate high school with my certification and further my education as an RN and become a travel. When I finish school, I want
009to become a nurse and finish. When I graduate, I'm going to be going to Sunni, possibly transferring to getting university. in studies instruction. My goal after high school is two years of finish high school years of hopefully become a graphic designer. Um, I'm planning on going to connect for culinary and then afterwards I'm planning on the work and manage my restaurant. I plan on going to Sunni to finish my 2ear degree in business. Thank you everyone. That is very hard to do and get up in front of a board. So I thank students very much time and apping before we allow the students to leave this evening. Are there any questions from Um, at what age did you make these commitments? These are like major long-term commitments and you're also in high school, but did
010you make what age were you when you make them? I started I've been once I class and I knew I wanted to do something related to last year. So I decided last year and it was like really impressive. Well, all of you were so incredibly impressive. And I just have one question and then I know Connie's got a question as well. Um, as your junior and senior self, if you had the opportunity to interact with our nth and tth graders and knowing what you know now and the incredible experiences that you've had through the variety of programs. I think one of the things that we hear from our students is that fear of missing out of being in the high school all day long and many of you are here for a half day and
011then you're in other programs for the other half a day. you know, what do you see as the advantages of that? And what advice would you give uh to some of our younger students who are who are thinking about the variety of programs that you're involved with? I would definitely recommend forth I really want to be a police officer and they actually go to the program and they experience it and they're like I don't really know if I want to do that for sure it's too stuff for college. She I know college. I went into thinking that I wanted to be school. So Mike stole my question. I literally was going to ask you about FOMO. Um, but what can you talk about? So my oldest went to New totally support everything that everybody's doing.
012My question is can you talk about the new friendship that you've made from all of those other schools? Um can you talk a little bit more about that? That's also a really important part that I think some people are afraid to lose friendships when you're actually maybe gaining can I love that question. That was really nice to hear. I think we all have something to say about that. I actually had the great opportunity to meet with so many people that I never thought I'd be able to spur each other. I have made multiple program just a great I don't know about their classes but in my class there's five students which is really small but it's really awesome. I remember at the beginning of the year we all I don't remember what we started talking
013about but started getting closer and closer and it's a great opportunity to meet new people and just make good close friendships and then we all get like really class. It's kind of funny and then we joke about like it's so stupid but it's like so fun just like love each other and it's great. I love I love my classmates. each other's feet which quite an experience but kind of fun and kind of and we actually support Last. Great job. This is always most rewarding things that we get to do. But it occurred to me standing here that most of these guys rewarding to see them well on briefly about the new campus that we have underway. We've been through a pretty extensive capital planning process which many of you are familiar with. plenty of that
014here. But we started really by taking inventory of our facilities, what the needs were going through and trying to balance what the learning environment needs were infrastructure. And in doing so, we also in weighing our options, which we were in forunate spaces that we had or possibly possibly landed on building a new campus and consolidating one more central location. That allowed us to really expand our thinking into the programs that we have, but also what are the needs of our business partners and industry around us. And so as part of that first CTE and you can see we're serving on average between 12,300 students a year but if you look there at the second you'll see some of the more demand programs which perennially have pretty long waiting list. And so in thinking about what
015building a new space would look like really gave us an opportunity to address some of those programs by 10% that allowed us to do considering sports science fall into that category. taking a closer look at our trades program and splitting that out into more focus programs on each of the trades individually rather than having several of them together. This chart shows you top line is the trend of what's been going on in terms of student bottom line though as far as enrollment goes with our programs. And I show you this because one of the things that we have to consider in making an investment like this is really what the future of is the need to sustain us and I think this data really shows that I said we're going to be able to increase
016a lot of our programs heavy equipment as well and so There on the second we see the electric programs that we see a high partners and then you know in total it's going to allow us to expand by students. So then if we look to our exceptional learners which is the name for our program for students with special needs right now we're only able to serge it as well. trying to match where the needs are getting there. And then you know just thinking about some of the existing retrofit that environment. So with the new space, we're going to be able to serve 325 students. They'll have a lot more access. So talked about traveling supports. So the project itself is longterm over 20 years and we had a fairly large comm the most economical and
017the better way to get. So we made that recommendation to the board considering wheentralized location. It's going to provide a lot of efficiency still being able to stay. Um, we do have expansion property itself. It's not just itself. If you don't know, CC was the only tax. We were We went through a similar process. We don't actually this model also allows district in doing so able to process issuing debt. Just reiterate. So at the end of the lease, we'll have some options. structure building as well. If they were to sell for to sell it to us. They would not be looking So just to give you a sense of what this is going to look like special needs building this building for special needs building probably steel construction is well underway. We are ahead of
018schedule which is unusual. Just a quick one document to outline process for As you probably not going, but also Those two aren't connected. We will still have a new campus at some point soon. And so here we are. You can see there we were scheduled to start construction in October this past We have some pictures and seeing happy to answer any questions that you may have. Um, can you talk a little bit more about the nonprofit you work with? Is like their only purpose to own land or do they do other work that could impact? So it's interesting history questions. So they're grandfathered in their charter to build and so in that way question. That's their purpose. That's what they do. You know what it stands for? It doesn't matter. I'd be at this point
019as as Tim mentioned when the capital project teams for the district has been involved uh spent a lot of time uh getting feedback from cap region Bose. So if you drive down by the airport uh their brand new career technical education facility is right down the road from from the airport. Uh so the model of what we're doing and you know with the work with the nonprofit and the long-term financing is very similar to what our neighbors to the south has done and then Tim mentioned CVS which is the Platsburg Boseies um they're doing very similar approach so it's good to see that again everybody is kind of on the same wavelength and benefiting from these partnerships. I think it's worth through this model. Thank you so much for having us back here. So great
020to see the kids back. Thanks, Tim. Well, again, thanks uh to Tim and Kate uh to all the board members from Boseies uh for joining us tonight and uh again highlighting the wonderful programs opportunities for our students and obviously the excitement around the capital project. So, we appreciate your support and look forward to our future partnership. Thank you. All right. Could I please get a motion to approve the minutes from March 12th, 2026? Angie and a second from Lee. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? That's unanimous. And can I please get a motion to accept tonight's agenda? Matt and Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? That's unanimous. This brings us to our first public comment period. Do we have any members of the public who wish to address the board? Seeing none, we will move
021on to board committee reports. Do we have any committee reports? I know we report. I'm not kidding. It was my first property committee. It was excellent. It was so exciting. Okay. So, I'll start with the preunctide um and herbicide resolution. It's on our agenda and I wanted to note that it's marked emergency, but it's not an emergency. It has to be marked that way. It is an annual process. Um our committee did ask some questions about um natural pesticides, which has been tried in the past miserably. So we have a very tried and true now process that we do update every year that is on our agenda for approval. A couple other things just to report out on. Um, one is we had John come from the city and he is the person who coordinates
022um our recreation properties with us between the district and the city works and we are going to see some improvements at Westside completely organization that uses it on the ball field. Very cute exciting new fence going up. I know. I get so excited about um they're requesting, let's see, a fence to delineate the infield with from the walking path. People are just walking into the field. Um so that's going to be a nice addition. And then um they did check and make sure that uh they could all work. And again, no cost to us, but it does work between us and the city. So they came to talk to us. Um And future projects over there are going to repli and it's initiated by two of our high school biology teachers, Miss McMaster and Mr.
023and they put together a grant that's going in tomorrow, I believe, um to do to get red oak saplings and they're going to be coordinated all across the district. So these these trees are going to come they're going to be planted with our high school seniors um assisted by younger students. So they're going to do it during senior give back day or um as part of volunteer hours for national honor society. They are going to the science teachers are going to utilize the planting and lessons in their in their classrooms. These trees are going to go in at the high school, at leordorders all summer, keep them watered and do the intensive watering to help them over the summer and get rooted already collections and that was so exciting to hear all about recommend everyone
024should be on this committee. It was really great and it was all generated. Any questions? I don't know where exactly, but at the high school at Maple Lab, Geyser Elementary, but I don't know exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Can you just clarify? You said the grant went in on the grant is due tomorrow. So, they've been working on the grant to property to kind of talk about it. But has it been has like does the money exist yet or like the grant approved? Okay. All right. Any other board committee reports? Ashley, also not a board committee, but a district committee. I was able to attend the um district DEI committee this past Monday evening on the 23rd and really cool stuff going on. Um firstly want to just highlight that um on superintendence day also last week
025the crics who are the counselors of something something from the restorative justice program if anybody wants to fill in the afternoon. Thank you. I had it written somewhere. Um the crooks worked um with from Maple worked with some of our high school students on restorative practice and work. Um so that's really awesome that that's being implemented in across our district. And then um on March 31st at 6 p.m. the division street cultural fair is coming up and April 30th at 6 pm the geyser road student voices event is coming up. Um also and I wish the kids from Boseies were still here there was a student leadership conference for through Boseies. Um we had seven representatives from our district uh out of a total of 150 students in grades 7 through 11 and it is
026growing grew from 17 schools last year or 17 districts excuse me to 25 districts this year. Um and they work to focus on identity and school culture and bring that back to their school leaders and their peers. So, um that is really important work. And then our belt teams across the schools are doing some great things um at Lake AB. Uh they're learning about best practice um to inform parents about tech across the school day and it's been a really involved process collecting data from teachers and staff and then they're really going to the thought is to bring that back to parents just so there's a greater understanding of passive use of technology and then active use of technology and really thinking about that from a whole school lens. At Greenfield, um they are doing
027several things, but one of the great they're preparing kits for students entering kindergarten. Here's what you need to know and do and all the things that kindergarten parents are probably terrified about. Um and then at Maple Lab, they are gearing up for lunchtime recess, which I know has been something they're very excited about. And I will say that the high school representative how they can make that happen here at the high school. So, um and then just the uh committees for the DEI committee, the subcommittees um the culture and climate survey will be sent out in April and that's a by annual survey for staff um and administered before April break. Um again, the student voices event April 30th um and looking for um possible free transportation in the community if anybody's listening um to
028that event for families so everybody can make it. And we have one of our own high school students moderating the event. And then family and community engagement um working through the family mentor program. They're working continually. Um and then lastly um Actually, I was in this subcommittee, the communication promoting resources, just really thinking about how we can share um equity resources um across the community from our Saratoga DEI website specifically and partner with other organizations, etc. And that's it. Any questions? Matt, just a clarification, the the the survey is actually for students grades K through 12 or not K through 12, like 3 through 12, but yeah, but it's not for All right. Any other questions or committee reports? All right. Our student members are not here tonight. So, we will move on to administrative
029reports. Just uh one recognition tonight. And again, prior to the business meeting, uh, board of education had a wonderful opportunity to, um, join all of our student musicians and our teachers and parents and family members in the high school auditorium at 6:30 before the business meeting for our culmination of our March music in our schools month. Uh, awesome. We had a full house uh, performances by our students. Um, Natalia was able to speak and welcome everybody on behalf of the board. Uh, and then the music was recognizing student achievements across the district uh at all levels, elementary, middle school, and high school. So again, thank you to our teachers for the incredible job they do uh leading all of our musical groups and to our families and community and to the board for your continued
030support of our music program. Yep. We just again uh we have one uh presentation tonight. Uh so over the last several weeks uh the board uh has been meeting on a regular weekly basis. Uh last week we had um our second of two uh board workshops and so tonight Bobby Yuskar, assistant superintendent for business. We'll provide an update as to where we are with the budget development process for next school year. All right. So, here's where we left off last Thursday. We talked about looked and analyzed levels. So, here's where we started. And so, we talked about our reserve balance history. over the last decade or so and we focused on the use specifically of two reserves retirement contribution reserve which will help to pay for uh the employee retirement system annual assessment for all
031nonstruction. Um so this is a regular practice of the districts each year when budget time comes to fund balance we can possibly appropriate uh just to give this stability predictability every year and right now we're in a position where we would be able to increase the appropriation next year that we're reserve situation when we look at the employee benefit approved liability reserve this reserve has remained unchanged since about 2021. So speaking with the auditors at June 30, 2025 um you know we discussed you know the need to really start tapping into this resource rather than just letting it sit here because as you can see based on the year balances it's not evening or anything like that sitt benefits for employees and those benefits that are due to them at their time. So, leave anything
032that might be obligated to pay to them at the time of separation. So, that specific for that reserve, which is a change from really past at least 2021. Um the amount we're carrying in the budget is $351,000 postenefits. Um the capital reserve that will remain unchanged million that the capital projection and then the difference appropriate from unassigned fund balance the difference to close the budget gap which will get us to 8.38 million assigned. So budget highlights now that the budget uh construction is complete like most of you know we reallocated excuse me section from sixth grade to kindergarten based on student enrollment projections um for existing sections we also added we um expanded and changed structure to enhance the strategy special education for safety and security reasons here at the high school. Um that one
033is specifically important because most of projects unfortunately project upgrades to the high school. So the project will allow us to do the work frame and then be able to get building back on it. So in 2728 we would expect that we get 70.5% of that capital output n programs opportunity to create girls and then just the high quality investment education program that we have here as well the arts sports programs that you just were able to hearing participating in music programs growing up. It's really cool to hear how strong our programs and then just some you know regular business things. Levy increase within our state mandated capion in reduction and reallocations of existing operating costs. So like you know we talked about the month of March scrutinize savings. We have a bus for $2.4 million.
034We'll be using just like I went over a minute ago and then we have vacancies. Here's a breakdown of our expenditure budget. Overall, um biggest increase that we see is really to benefits and then the total instructional program that we have uh 4.2% increase year-over-year. So just over $6.6 million, our property tax leandated cap. And it represents revenue about So per $100,000. I think down below I give a monthly break for $400,000 value home. I a little over again. Here's a picture of our revenue budget year to year. So, state aid increasing$2.1 million year. Last week, we had the last slide that I reviewed was still showing $253,000. For the purpose of this slide, that $253,000 lives in the state aid increase. So, that is 2.1 year 2.1 million year increase. You'll see with all
035of the fund balance um changes over the net impat because of the debt service fund revenue that we're pulling in from the fund to help manage the tax. Um so last year we pulled in about 89,000 change in that property tax levy significant portion of our revenue budget. 3.9 increase to our pilots budget 4.2% budget program. So here's the difference again. So eight large buses, five small buses, two suburbans for non student transport. Total estimated million. But the bond resolution is specific about what you actually represent. contingency budget. So if the budget were not passed here and we would also be prohibited to issue a new bond and we would also beh million capital. So for governance like I mentioned we have three positions coming up information. Like a budget addition fund. Any questions? just
036for the work that good is doing based on the interest that we've heard from students and parents uh that there are a few local school districts who started girls wrestling down the capital district it's become really Um, so just getting started, if we only have a handful of students who are interested that we would join with a neighboring school district and combine our efforts. So it would be a shared uh partnership just like our girls hockey program. There's five or six schools that all merge together to offer girls ice. I just want to thank you, Bobby, for all of the work that you put into the development of this budget and all the ways in which you explain it to us to help us understand it and especially the costav students and for teachers programs.
037Thank you for your effort. talk about budget drivers. So really thank you for your comments. I notic that our student our student members aren't here and I also didn't continuum we were down here in this room. But it was awesome. The kids did a great job. advised by him and the county people were here and I think you know just kind of being astand a lot of faculty members like so I hope the kids learned if you want to go vote and get through quickly get there early start to finish really good My other question was about the proposal. Are there any proposal? biggest reason why is because we're incessant at the advice of the engineers knowing that the process is in place. process. I just I keep I understand the waiver system is happening.
038I do feel like more reports there's resistance to making significant changes to that proposal. I just want to make sure that position yeah I mean comparatively I think we're in a position you know I think most school districts have taken that leap of faith so I'll take the advice of the engineers I think has already made clear the way process will be such that the initial wed. with the show which is what we're trying to do. Tomorrow morning I'm going to be going up to Queensberry. They're hosting a legislative advocacy um session on their four buses that they purchased uh and to share um many of the challenges uh that they have faced with our local elected officials so they're more aware of the concerns that they you know a little bit further ahead in
039the process. for the participatory budgeting vote exciting. We'll pass those along. Awesome. Thank you so much, Bobby. This is really wonderful. Now we turn to the consent agenda. For those in attendance or watching, a consent agenda is a commonly used vehicle provided for by our adopted rules of parliament procedure that allows a board to vote on a large number of items in a single motion. Typically, these are business items associated with the everyday running of the school and their inclusion in the agenda. the result of a great deal of prior work and care by the professionals of the district. There are time to business items that by law cannot be included in a consent agenda and when this happens we pull those out and vote on them separately. Consent agenda items are known to trustees
040and the public several days ahead of the business meeting on which they are considered but the board members but board members have the chance to ask questions of discovery and do any advanced That is part of our due diligence process. All right. Do we have any modifications to agenda? For tonight's agenda, we do. We have four items that request Saratoga Springs, New York authorizing the acquisition of various school buses and vehicles stating the estimated total cost thereof is 2,413,000 appropriating amount and authorizing the issuance of 2,43 bonds of district to appropriation. resolution. I see Angie has a second. Is there any discussion? Trusty. Yes. Trusty Braxton. Yes. Trusty. Yes. Trusty. Yes. Trusty. Yes. Trustee. Yes. Next item is a motion to recommend the board of education approve the following resolution. recommend that the board of
041education approve a resolution of the enlarged city school district of the city of Saratoga Springs, New York, adopted March 26, directing submission of a bond proposition at the annual district meeting and election of the qualified voters of school district to be held May 19th, 2026 and prescribing the form of such bond proposition to be inserted in the district meeting. The resolution in its entirety is attached for each board member. Can I get a second? Any discussion? Oh, wait. Trusty. Yes. Trusty Wilton The next item is a motion to recommend the board of education approve the following resolution proposition one school district budget and proposition two school bus and vehicle bond. I got a second yes final item final item is a motion to recommend the board of education approve the resolution which is a cooperative
042resolution. Can I get a second? Trusty. Yes. Trusty. Yes. Trust. Yes. Trustee. And with that motion to approve the remainder of our consent agenda items, F and G in their entire Con has a second. Any discussion? All in favor? This brings us to our second public comment period. Are there any members of the public who wish to address the board? Seeing none, do any board members have agenda planning items. All right, seeing none, that brings us to board member comments. Do any board members have comments? I just want to quickly reiterate how wonderful it was to have an auditorium full of people in support of our music program. It was really incredible and the jazz ensemble was amazing. Congratulations to everyone who participated in that. I'd like to go ahead teacher student organization lab for
043their donation $300 to student Any other board member comments? Okay. Um, our next meeting will be on April 16th at 7 p.m. That's here at the high school in the teaching auditorium. Um, this is the plan for the board to adopt the proposed budget and we will also get a presentation on the district professional learning plan. Um, could I now get a motion to enter into executive session to litigation. I see Lee and a second from Angie. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Um we will uh plan to adjourn our meeting immediately following the executive session. There will be no further parts of this meeting that will be held in open session. Thank you.