001e e [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] e e [Music] for e he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] than e [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] all [Music] e [Music] [Applause] well that opens our uh Saratoga Springs City School District uh school board meeting for March 13th on a joyous note and more to come um Bobby can I get a roll call to open the meeting truste AA here trustee crackler I'll say here for him here you go trustee Amory here trusty Braxton here trusty bugman trustee Colligan here trustee Copans here trustey lakia here trusty yovic here student representative Juan here student representative prosk here thank you please stand and join us before the Pledge of Allegiance all right well good evening and welcome everybody it is awesome to see so many folks here uh in support
002of our music program uh march across New York state is music in our schools month uh so far I know on behalf of our Board of Education each year we get incredible support uh from our music department in providing the opportunity to showcase our students talents here at our board meeting so each year I don't think we've ever had a crowd this big which is awesome uh so tonight prior to the start of the meeting uh you heard under the direction of Jessica labello our high school fiddle Club under the direction of uh Mr Andrew janick our High School Jazz Ensemble on stage and in a few minutes uh you're going to hear uh from our high school BTO choir under the direction of Karen hulahan so I want to thank each of those groups
003and for the teachers for coming out tonight and just want to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate all of our student musicians for the tremendous uh work they put put in throughout the course of the school year and thank our music teachers uh from the elementary schools right through the high school for their ongoing dedication their efforts and the support of our music program introducing music at the elementary level all the way through I'm sure we have several seniors that are here tonight uh that are preparing for uh musical careers after their High School experience so uh this couldn't happen obviously with tremendous support of our parents and our community so I want to thank our parents uh for your support of Arts education and music education in our school districts uh and again
004just so proud of all of the efforts uh that the team puts together in providing incredible onstage opportunities for all of our students so I know there's an awards uh ceremony uh right after uh everybody leaves uh and we get into the business uh end of the meeting so I would just want to congratulate all the student musicians who are going to be receiving some award uh Rec recognition tonight and again uh thank you for coming out to support your children to support our music program and again thank you to the teachers in our district who make it happen every day for our students both in the classroom uh and Performing here uh and in the community throughout the school year so without further Ado I would like to introduce uh Karen hulahan and our
005High School Bel kto choir e e [Music] all [Music] [Applause] you to make the announc we wow there's a lot of people here any who I am tan trip and I'm in 10th grade this over there is belc choir we are an auditioned treble choir we have had many performance opportunities in this group including singing at St Patrick's Cathedral last April carolling at the home of the Good Shepherd in the navy base last December and a lot of school concerts next month we will perform at nisma majur at Guilderland high school for evaluation and go to New York City for a day trip to see the play that goes wrong it definitely goes wrong guys tonight we will sing Danny Boy conducted by our Liberty University student teacher Miss [Music] [Applause] Jose yes she has
006worked with us for the past 10 weeks and will be student teaching in Spain next so cool Danny boy is a beloved Irish ballad dating back to the early 1900s with themes focusing on love loss and Remembrance also this year's music theme in our schools month is united through music and we'd like to thank you for giving us this opportunity to perform at the Board of Education meeting thank you e call when [Music] the [Music] you [Applause] thank you everybody thank you so much for being here thank you to our students teachers and again parents for all your tremendous support throughout the year you are welcome to stay for the board meeting uh but I think they have a uh reception plan for everybody uh at this time have a great night everybody you for
007e was all right can I a motion to approve um our minutes from February 27th 2025 Natalia and Connie is there any discussion okay all in favor all right that's eight zero um can I get another motion to accept our agenda for this evening Beth and Matt is there any discussion okay all in favor thank you 8 Z that brings us to our first public comment period on behalf of the board thank you for being here we truly value input from the community and appreciate your engagement New York State Board of Education meetings are held in public so the board can conduct the business of the district visibly to maximize transparency and information sharing with the community they are not public meetings with real-time dialogue with attendees however our board provides two public comment periods
008during which speakers May address to share information and opinions that may inform our work in the case that followup is necessary the appropriate District official will reach out to you we ask speakers and the audience to conduct themselves in a civil and constructive manner modeling the same respectfulness we expect from the students of our district we do not allow comments about specific individual employees students or trustees and ask that you be succinct and try not to repeat previous speakers to allow more people the opportunity to address us the first public comment period is limited to 30 minutes then after the board conducts its business a second comment period is available with no official time limit this opens the first public comment period speakers you are allotted a maximum of three minutes and before you address
009the board please clearly state your name our first few slots are um saved for students is anyone who signed up here a student okay seeing none our first speaker is Terry digger good evening board members I didn't realize this was going to be music night at the board talk talk about a tough act to follow my name is Terry dig I am a Saratoga spring School District resident parent of two School District graduates and co-coordinator of the Saratoga immigration Coalition the immigration Coalition Works to ensure that immigrants feel welcome in our community our schools play a key role in fostering that community of welcome for that reason I urge you to adopt the proposed statement affirming our support for every student indeed every student is important the proposed statement rightly names certain categories of students
010who are at risk due to historical circumstances or current changes in government policy immigrant students in particular are innocent victims of irresponsible rhetoric that seeks to label all immigrants as criminals threats of mass deportation have spread fear among immigrants in some cities where ice arrests have been frequent School attendance has dropped by as much as 10% thankfully ice activity in our area has been relatively low profile but I do know of at least one student in the Saratoga Springs district who has been staying away from school out of fear of immigration enforcement most students will still come to school but they bring their fear with them so our schools must do everything they can to help reduce Their Fear and ensure a productive learning environment I commend The District administration for posting guidance on safeguarding
011the rights of immigrant students at school and I commend the district social workers English language instructors guidance counselors Librarians coaches and classroom teachers for the many ways in which they make immigrant students feel welcome now the Board of Education needs to do their part by adopting the proposed statement of affirmation yes immigration has become a political issue but care for immigrant students is first and foremost an educational issue and should be addressed as such by our Board of Education fear prevents students from learning in fulfillment of its educational Mission the Board of Education needs to counteract fear by reaffirming support for every student thank you thank you next up is Kimberly B we will need your last name before you speak thank you hello I'm Kimberly barus and um I am the parent of four
012students in this District I would like to express my concern for the resolution affirming our support for every student um also proposed at the last board meeting I think that the resolution as it is currently written needs to be like denied and Revisited I think it should be revised um I think that many parents in this area are not interested in compromising the district's Federal funding to further um what could be construed as a political statement um if it passes then this resolution would be in violation of two executive orders there are plenty of ways to comply with Federal mandates while also balancing and prioritizing the needs of all of our students um like my biggest concern is that the school district already seems to lack enough funding to give bus drivers equivalent benefits as
013neighboring districts the resulting bus driver shortage because they go to work at other districts that pay more um has led to many abrupt cancellations of bus routes these disrupt parents work schedules and puts their jobs at risk when they have to go to work late or leave early without any prior notice from a parents concern at the last board meeting as well it seems that bathrooms need better maintenance and monitoring Federal funding that the resolution puts into Jeopardy um Can thus be used to improve bathroom maintenance and increase monitoring it can also be used to increase bus driver benefits and an attempt to Abate the shortage so I would appreciate my children having a reliable means of getting two from school with a consistent bus driver there were many months this year and last year
014um that we did not know who would be behind the wheel and it was also abruptly just like hey the bus is canceled come pick up your kids in 10 minutes um so I think that that can be fixed with the funding and so um the abolishment of Dei per the recent executive orders um they don't affect um the causes as described in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the Americans with disabil act um of 1990 nor does it affect the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 I have noticed that there are plenty of initiatives for anti-bullying and even the wonderful best buddies Club in our district um I think removing and relabeling um like labels of Dei will not take away from these groups and will appropriately align the district with federal policy this
015will ensure that um we maintain our federal funding while still um having our students needs um I think that we can treat all students with compassion inclusivity without putting the safety and success of our female students at risk um allowing biological males or transgender females to continue to use female facilities and participate in their Sports increases the risk of injury in female athletes there have been many examples of this recently um the safety of biological females is at risk when they compete against biological males or even biological females taking cross- seex hormones um it has been proven time and again again in reputable studies that on average males have inherent physical advantages over females in sports and other such activities time can you wrap up oh yes um I just think that one solution would
016be to um have co-ed Sports um where they can participate in that while still maintaining the division of male and female sports um and I think we should stop the redundancies in organizations and eliminate Dei um I'm sure there are many more Creative Solutions that allow all students to thrive and succeed in their respective areas while still being in line with the federal policies thank you next up is Seth Warden hello my name is Seth Warden I'm a professional musician and Middle School music teacher at cahos City School District I have three children at the Saratoga Springs School District and I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight music education and school theater programs are essential in our schools as they Foster creativity ity critical thinking and teamwork skills that are invaluable in both
017the academic and professional worlds I hope that some of you are able to attend last weekend's amazing performance of Legally Blonde it was one of the most exciting and professional high school musicals that I've ever seen here at Saratoga I am truly I must truly hand it to our directors crew Orchestra and cast for putting on a show that I can't stop talking about and which brought me here tonight for many of our Saratoga students theater isn't just a hobby or a pastime it's clearly their passion or in words that might get a little more attention it's their sport but unlike Sports here at Saratoga the theater and music department seem to be quite underfunded without the endless hours and financial resources of parents building sets creating costumes selling fake Goods all to raise money
018our shows would not create the magic that I witnessed last weekend it makes me wonder why the school doesn't provide a larger budget for the Arts when they are clearly leaving such a lasting impression on our children and our community as we just saw here I'm certain that if Saratoga Sports if a Saratoga sports team was competing against other school districts to win a trophy the school would provide ample funding for busing uniforms coaching staff and all the supplies required to win for instance the Saratoga Athletics compete against shenen deoa one of the largest schools in our county yet our theater department is placed in a lower tier than Shen's theater Department due the due to the amount of money that the districts budget for their programs we can compete against them athletically but not
019theatrically all because of money which seems in unequitable for our students the Arts also offer career Pathways and performance performance to production and contribute to students emotional well-being by providing healthy outlets for stress and self-discovery investing in music and theater is not just about the Arts it's about developing well-rounded capable and engaging human beings thank you for your time thank you all right our last speaker is Ty Arnold hi everybody good evening um my name is Ty Arnold I am the guardian of a student at Maple Avenue um I'm speaking in favor of the resolution affirming support for all students in the district um my experience with my grandchild who is neurod Divergent and transgender has shown me firsthand why this resolution matters um came with me tonight sorry um anyway so um one of
020the things has already been spoken of um in relation to Safety in the school environment is essential for learning has to be there when students don't feel welcome or safe they can't learn effectively stress interferes with learning and focus and when it is persistent it can negatively alter the the Braun functioning um that's in the neurological research it's it's not um and and I actually just wrote a paper on it for some stupid reason um um in an ideal environment uh for my my grandchild people would recognize their neurod Divergence and gender identity As Natural variations of The Human Experience not as problems to be fixed um we would enhance effective learning with appropriate support and accommodations honor and value their differences recognize that strengths come from the same place as challenges and affirm their
021authentic selves they would not need to mask um the benefits go far beyond my grandkid here um a welcoming Community is a stronger Community classrooms where all students are seen and heard promote critical thinking empathy communication and problem solving skills for everyone and students develop a genuine appreciation for different perspectives preparing them for real world success when students see themselves represented and respected it builds confidence that benefits them academically and personally when every student feels like they belong regardless of their Identity or backgrounded a is accessible to everyone by standing with transgender neod diverse and immigrant students everyone can contribute Thrive and learn from one another finally as you know New York state law is clear on all of this um uh the resolution affirms our legal protections under Dasa and um some of the
022other um recent um State Ed um proclamations and guidance um and that protect the rights of trans students and immigrants along with upholding the legal expectations the resolution before you support spaces where everyone has a voice and a place and that strengthens our community I urge you to adopt the resolution everyone needs a seat at the table um thank you very much for your time thank you that closes our public comment period and we are now on reports do we have any board reports this time okay no you do okay we do have some go ahead the board uh the um finance committee did not meet but um about three weeks ago I did uh and actually it's uh Germain to topics that folks have brought up tonight um I did uh some finance committee
023based um investigating with uh the state Ed Department dep the uh Federal Department of Education nisba and the school business office to um get to the bottom of uh how much of our uh funding is indeed um federally sourced uh in our budget and so I thought it just might be of use in the general discussion in light of um well in light of public comments and and just the um the discussion of federal funds and the um sort of RIT whether they're risk for school districts uh Nationwide um the saratogo Springs City school district has 3.1 million in federal funding um in the 2024 2025 uh budget uh about 2 million of that 3.1 is um uh from the individuals with with disabilities uh Education Act Ida um and the remaining 1.1 million uh
024are title funds Title One 2A 3A and four and these um fund things like Essa the every student succeeds act professional development English language learning and uh title four is just a general um Improvement of student achievement um bucket uh all of these funds um the 3.1 million that we have in its entirety from the federal government um 100% and are congressionally appropriated uh by Statute and are only amendable by act of Congress so um that is a uh just a broad um brush uh look at how we're funded and who in DC initiated the the funding any questions thanks CH thanks Angie just uh proper Comm didn't meet but uh did have the pleasure of sitting in on uh a dirt meeting this morning which is the district Emergency Response Team which is led
025by Dave mamadu uh John Tiner uh Mickey Jones from the bosies uh Team comes over and helps facilitate those as well today's topic for discussion was Communications in an emergency uh Dave does a phenomenal job of facilitating about an hour and a half worth a discussion amongst a large group of individuals with representatives from each of our schools within the district those folks are uh supplemented into their building emergency response teams which is referred to as Bert uh those folks take care of their own um tabletop discussions they report out at the larger dirt committee meetings and then they uh do things to share information amongst the the staff and students at each of their respective schools as I mentioned today was uh Communications in an emergency which as all of you can imagine is
026extremely important uh anytime something occurs at one of our schools whether it's a true emergency a false alarm uh a drill or whatever it might be how do we effectively communicate with the stakeholders within the community uh and what is that messaging look like at different levels right because some of those stakeholders are not just our parents uh but as we were as we saw today with some representatives from the media the media is an important factor in that as well uh there was emphasis today on how do we utilize our Media Partners as support uh and not necessarily the enemy uh for distribution of information but how can they reach out to the larger masses and make sure that the communication that we want to share with them is appropriate as I mentioned the
027media reps were there law enforcement representatives were there they're always there for us uh Dave created four different scenarios that each of our tables talk through for about 10 or 15 minutes uh and then we discussed what those press releases and then supplemental parent Square information messages would look like Dave if I'm not sure if you're aware but while we were having our meeting today there was an issue over at the vosis on Henning Road uh that was not planned uh and so there was uh you know communication not necessarily from our district right because it was a Bose's issue uh but Bose's communication and then also law enforcement public information officer information as well so and two different messages and uh we want to be mindful of parents and students safety first and foremost
028but then also making sure that the community at large uh knows what's going on as well so it's pretty awesome meeting as usual uh just felt like it was an opportunity to report out this evening and let everyone know that there's lots of other good things that happen uh at the district level with various groups and organizations that get together thank you any other board committee reports all right um student reports thank you uh at Dorothy Nolan students received their second trimester report cards last week it was great to be able to celebrate the progress they had made since the fall students have been able to turn in their Blue Streak bucks for special experiences prizes during the PBIS Redemption week they're a very proud way um that students have demonstrated the 3bs be safe
029be respectful and be responsible congratulations to the first set of fifth graders that participated in the regional Battle of the books competition this week they put in a tremendous amount of work and gained some great life skills along the way at geyser Road Wonderland the musical was amazing the cast crew and directors out did themselves last week we celebrated all things reading with a book fair a family reading night and Dita thawn uh wow at Division Street the third graders did an incredible job at the chorus concert last night they presented a musical tribute to New York students assisted in composing lyrics and the program included singing dancing and instrument playing this week the fourth grade students participated in the don't wait to unmake a bully program working with local filmm filmmaker Michael fernstein they
030produced a public service announcement focused on character development and anti-bullying based on their own experiences students wrote produced and filmed the scenes for this P PSA throughout a long a weeklong Residency program at school congratulations to the fourth and fifth graders who participated in today's spelling be Division Street is incredibly proud of your hard work and dedication at Maple AV the wellness inclusion diversity Equity wide Regional Network and its elevating student voice Planning Group are excited to announce that the wide Regional student Summit event took place today at wswh bosis on Ballard Road the following students Mah memo grade seven Laya mcav grade seven Alexander Sana Suarez grade seven Ella hair grade seven Amir Williamson grade8 and Gabriella solar grade seven along with their no place for ha Club adviser Miss Altman attended the leadership
031conference the participants were able to brain brainstorm ways to improve School culture a sense of belonging and other leadership opportunities at Greenfield Greenfield held their annual literacy night on March 7th families and students came to enjoy literacy situ stations and to drop everything in read time we were visited by The Cat in the Hat and a clown on March 11th Greenfield grade 4 students participated in the battle of the books Sun ACC Greenfield students made it to the finals and placed third yesterday they had their March be assembly where they learned about the character trait resilience and recognized students for patience and at the high school congratulations to the cast crew and musicians of the drama club for the outstanding performance of Legally Blonde the musical sshs is excited to be training 24 students as
032restorative practice Circle leaders next week students will learn how to lead Community Building circles in the classroom to help grow the practice in our school student council will hold three events for our student body this month the volleyball tournament is tomorrow followed by the spikeball and dodgeball tournaments later this month thank you all right we're over to administrative reports Mike great thank you Casey and Matt comprehensive summary of all great things going on across the district District uh so I also like Casey just want to congratulate uh the entire cast and crew of our High School Musical Legally Blonde one of our public speakers uh you know spoke about what just a tremendous um performance it was uh and uh just want to uh thank obviously all the parents uh our directors the production crew
033um our students for the time and effort they put into each year uh the High School Musical production it is just uh just incredible uh the talents of our students to think that they're still in high school you when you watch it you feel like you're watching a professional uh show on stage so uh so just congratulations again to everybody who did a tremendous job uh with this year's musical production uh as I stated earlier March is music in our schools month uh so it's great to kick off our board meetings with performances by our students um and so tonight we heard from our our high school students and at our next meeting uh we're going to have some of our elementary school school students coming to uh perform at the start of the meeting
034uh so again always encourage the community members when there are performances going on in our schools to get out uh whether you have children still in school or not um I think you'd really enjoy the opportunity uh to see our students perform on stage and again thank you to all of our music teachers uh for the incredible job they do throughout the course of the school year uh just an update uh at our last meeting uh the board had asked uh for some updates uh from our elementary attendants uh Flex Zone task force uh so the Board of Education uh adopted a policy back in December of 2019 uh as a way for us to manage and balance class SI across our six elementary schools so now it's been five years uh that the uh
035flexone for the attendance at the elementary schools has been in place uh so we are going to reassemble we had over 35 members of the community that uh help develop that policy uh so we've invited uh members of of that team to come back as well as we welcome uh any additional uh School District Representatives uh and Community representatives to provide feedback uh so these will be open meetings to the public so we have three meetings scheduled uh this spring April 1st April 22nd and May 6th uh with a goal of having some recommendations to the Board of Education in June uh as to any necessary updates uh to our uh Elementary attendant Zone uh Board of Education policy um and then finally as we kind of gear up towards the spring um our May
03620th vote uh this year uh will include two things the annual budget vote uh as well as our Legacy 2025 uh Capital project referendum uh so over the next uh several weeks over the next few months uh we have a number of presentations scheduled so right now we've got about 20 uh in-person presentations uh both in the school district and out in the community um so there's a presentation schedule that I put in front of each of the board members I know the board was was interested in having the ability to uh participate and support uh any of these uh presentations board members are are welcome to come to um there'll be a newsletter that'll be coming out that'll be specific to the Legacy 2025 Capital project that will go out to all district residents
037um we are going to be producing some videos uh in the next two weeks uh highlighting um again some of the important goals of of the upcoming Capital project uh as well as there'll be some banners in the community um and again uh the inperson presentations so uh we're making sure to hit up all of our our ptas and our hsas and um uh PTO uh all of our staff um we've reached out to the Rotary Club uh the Lions Club we're going to have two Community uh hearings uh that again any member of the community is welcome to come uh one will be at Dorothy Nolan Elementary School uh the other will be here uh in our brand new uh cafeteria here at the high school uh and again there'll be also be a
038video live a stream uh where folks can watch the video at any time that they're interested in learning more about the capital project and then we're making sure to keep our District web website up to dat uh with all the information that folks would would want to learn about the capital project as well as the annual budget um so just for the board uh as you kind of look at the calendar and uh I know that's one of the uh efforts of the board is to uh again uh engage with our community um just let me know if any of those presentations and then if there's any other school group community group uh who would like to have us uh come present um about the project or the annual budget vote uh we'd be more
039than happy to uh add you to our calendar schedule um from April uh through the May 20th vote any questions from the board on our communication strategy over the next few weeks months busy times ahead all good stuff though all right so at this time we only have one uh formal presentation and and really it's just our ongoing budget development update uh so Bobby Esco and Jo Jo Greco um from our business office uh just have some updated information to share with the board uh and again we did get some additional information just this afternoon from the state uh from the Senate and assembly one house budgets uh and again uh Bobby's going to give us a little just a quick summary of just additional information that we're learning coming out of Albany so turn
040over to Bobby all right thanks Mike all right so we're going to briefly um just talk about uh how we've made uh some progress on reducing the initial budget Gap that we talked about last Thursday um go over the decision points that you're so familiar with and then just finally talk about any open items and important dates and late this afternoon uh like Mike alluded to we got um an update from nisus about the on housee uh budget bills that came out from the Senate and the assembly so I'll just give you a couple uh highlevel overview summary points of what those contained so here we are uh that red dotted line in our budget development summary calendar uh on the uh Trek towards that red box in the month of May our uh budget
041vote in capital project vote this year on May 20th so as you're aware our uh annual tax levy uh limit is 3.97% this year so it's uh just over 3 9 million here's a history of the assigned fund balance and reserves uh appropriation um that we use each year to balance our budget so as uh you're aware uh the plan this year right now is to transfer to Capital $4 million to help with the uh May 2025 Legacy project um to step off of the current year amount of 8.4 million uh to 6.5 million of uh unassigned fund balance utilization and then also step down on the retirement Reserve uh utilization excuse me from 800,000 to 600,000 so again this is just the uh tenative plan as it is today as as you guys know
042we basically uh said we were going to look at three separate scenarios and continue looking at are of the budget where we could reduce and then uh consider maybe appropriating the the remainder of the Gap with that fund balance so here's the decision Point wheel again that you're uh so familiar with uh trustee Braman had tasked us with bringing you different scenarios uh at the last board meeting so which we uh you know first showed you last week at our Workshop so we wanted to just update you um you know tonight briefly as towards the as to the pro progress that we've made so to summarize our scenarios here we were going to reduce some allocations of the budget specifically last time we we looked at the bosies um part of the budget um scenario
043two appropriate fund balance to close the remaining Gap and then the final scenario uh would be scenario three look at existing positions within the budget and make further reduction uctions within some of those Staffing areas what we're trying not to do is really go towards that scenario 3 right now and kind of find that um balance between scenario one and scenario two that we're all comfortable with this is just a brief history of our historical budget to actual so again to remind everybody these green bars right here across all the years represent our budgeted revenues that are not fund balance and then these blue bars here represent the appropriated fund balance that we used to balance those respective budgets in those years the black line is our actual Revenue so if you're just looking to
044compare uh revenues versus budgeted revenues you can see that our actual Revenue that we received in each of those years is actually higher than the planned uh nonf fund balance Revenue that we were anticipating receiving in those years so this is one of those things that we were looking at and trying to kind of rightsize a little bit in regard to uh looking at the comparison with our actual expenditures so you can see in the last couple years um we've had good operating surpluses but we don't want the trend to continue where these things continue to widen so one of the things that we looked at was hey let's let's try to reconcile a little bit the actual to budget and make sure they're a little bit closer and here's a nice way that uh
045we show that here looking at the expenditure side of the budgetary equation when we look at our budgeted expenditures compared to our actual expenditures we know that the state has a uh 4% fund balance limitation so really in a perfect world we would be able to finish with 96% of our budget spent 100% of our revenues earned and we're able to maintain a 4% fund balance on an annual basis here what we can see is a historical look back of our budgeted uh compared to our actual expenditures you can see that in the Years where we're either over 100% of uh the percent spent or close to 100 uh specifically in 2021 school year there was a capital project contribution that caused us to be either above or uh close to 100% of the uh
046percentage spent you can see pretty clearly um from 22 onward we've been trending between 91 and 92% slightly over 92% in the 2223 school year this is one of the areas that we've been talking about more in depth wanting to close close the gap on those two things so what we want to do is have our actual expenditures be closer to our budgeted expenditures um and essentially spend a larger portion of uh our annual budget really The Sweet Spot here would be between 94 and 95% so we're trying to just work our way up not necessarily saying we need to spend more we just need to correct our budget and budget a little bit less and so this was another good area of the budget where we can clearly see the disparity between the budget
047figure and our actual expenditure figure um and this has been one of the areas that we've been looking hey is there some room in in our annual Bose's appropriation where we can pull back without impacting any program or any student opportunity throughout the district it's just simply we're reducing a budgetary appropriation because we're not utilizing it and I'll hand it over to Joe and he'll go through some of the details oh actually before I do that I'm G to give you an update about the one house um budgets so the assembly and the senate had both released uh I think it was late last week their um their respective budgets both are proposing an increase above the governor in Foundation Aid which is positive specifically uh the assembly's proposing $1.1 billion above the governor's figure
048and the Senate is proposing 6 $80 million additional above where the governor is so positive development as we all know not guaranteed that it's actually going to happen but it was nice to see that both uh both houses were higher than the governor um another positive thing that I think out of the out of both one house budgets were the fact that um both supported increasing the minimum uh funding amount per pupil for pre kindergarten which knowing the situation we're in being at the floor here in terms of um funding available to us in Saratoga this is one of those areas where it would be much more enticing for those Community providers to potentially look at uh a upk program um because it would be more feasible so right now we're only basically getting five
049$5,400 a student and if that allocation were increased it would probably open up more opportunity for um uh upk servicing throughout the community which would be a great thing um and then another piece uh that you'd be familiar with with our advocacy efforts is the CTE salary that we get reimbursed from bosis on an annual basis so both houses did propose increasing that limit from 30,000 to 60,000 which was a great development different timelines in the implementation though um the assembly proposes to increase it immediately um next school year the Senate has a more phased in approach so a little bit difference um but we'll take anything as long as we can get that $30,000 um ceiling raised and then there were just a couple other things um the retiree waiver essentially it's known as
050that earnings exemption the Senate did propose a two-year extension for that which it would expire June 30th of 27 this has been really valuable for a lot of school districts throughout the state uh unfortunately was left out of The assembly's Proposal but I'm hopeful that this is something that really continues to gain steam throughout the budget process because this is a pretty big one and then the Senate did propose raising the capital outlay uh ceiling from what's currently 100,000 it it's essentially a district can put out a project of $100,000 and then get Aid back on the very next year with the cost of construction and the length of time it takes these days 100,000 is really not much so we've been advocating for years now to get that raised um so the Senate did
051propose to increase that to 250,000 um but knowing that there's many competing advocacy initiatives on the docket this year for consideration I don't anticipate that one will actually happen um but for us you know there's some other things on there that could really move the needle so just wanted to give you that brief update before Joe gives you the uh update on the budget Gap progress thanks great thanks Bobby um so the slide you have here this is exactly where we had left it two weeks ago uh so you see your preliminary budget gap of a little over four million um so then the next steps we talked about budget priorities so the one major budget priority was we had the mckin vento grant falling off and there was a social worker in that Grant
052so that was top priority we wanted to reinstate that position um also there's a 05 social work worker at Lake 0.5 social worker at Caroline Street so again top priority over the last couple of years is to try to make that those buildings with a whole position there uh so be Equitable across the district um so that's your second position in there at the bottom leand corner and then that 04 enl English as new language teacher we currently in the budget have a 6 position we needed to go to a 1.0 this year so we were using fund balance to cover that difference if we're to continue that position position we should really put that in the budget is that additional point for so when we add those pieces in not helping the budget Gap
053um then we're starting to look at well what are some things we can make our reductions in so we had talked about this last time uh the social studies position there's technology teacher position at the mid both those positions at the Middle School uh reading teacher and then kindergarten teacher there's actually two FTE there so all of these reductions were done through attrition and then also looking at uh dropping enrollment changes in our needs in our programming so we're able to absorb these positions with no impact on our programming so what I wanted to do just kind of moving forward I just condensed the that information in there so the numbers are exactly the same but I know we have more work to do so working just below where those two kindergarten teacher positions are
054so then Bobby and I started chipping away so the first thing that I have highlighted there the we talked about substitute Surplus so in our substitute codes we felt like we had over budgeted in certain areas again we were kind of very volatile coming out of covid so things have settled down a bit so we think we can make a reasonable reduction in some of our budgeting practices there same thing with overtime some modest uh reductions there tuition Surplus again we were uh these are out of District placements uh special ed placements so we we're able to make some reductions there and again still maintain a healthy uh buffer if new families moved into the district um some modest reductions of payroll Surplus there and then as uh Bobby had mentioned before there was quite
055a bit of excess in our Bose budgeting so we're able to make some reductions there again no impact on any current programs or opportunities and then the last one in there that breakage again when you have people that are higher salary that are leaving the district for retirement and you're replacing them there is a little bit of a gap there so again we're tring trying to capture some of the the dollars and and make sure everything maths correctly um so you see the the budget Gap at this point now um or actually let me go over to the the right hand side we also made a couple of additions over on the revenue side uh so Bobby I worked on this so you're seeing an increase of about 32,500 U so in total when you
056have those pieces there you're looking at a new estimated budget gap of about 2.27 so sizable reduction over just a couple of weeks here so again we're in that scenario right now and we've made quite a bit of reductions uh as we continue to make reductions in there it does get harder and harder to to slim that down um but what you're looking at here is a basically the history so we started at a $4 million budget gap on February 27th we came to with the 3.8 Gap that was with the added positions in and the uh the removal of those those five FTE so tonight you're looking right now at a budget gap of 2.27 five again that's with the budget surplus reductions of about 1.2 million and then some of those increases that
057Bobby was able to secure on the revenue side of 312,000 so we still continuing to work in scenario one um and we still want to have the conversation about scenario two which is the appropriate fund balance to close the gap again no decisions are needed at this point um and then again we always look at uh other Staffing reductions should we get uh retirements late or resignations we always want to look at those positions critically to see if there's opportunity uh to consolidate a bit just taking a look at that scenario too just kind of answering some hypotheticals here so this is what Bobby had shows you before and remember you're looking at that uh yellowish bar that's going down uh from the eight to the Six Million if we were to reinstate that so
058just go back to what it is current year so exactly the same eight uh seven or what was it8 445 can't see from this distance I'm getting old um but again if you put that back so we go back to the exact place where we are right now that would actually bring on the revenue side an additional 1.9 million just again hypothetical if you went back to exactly where we are this is what you're looking at now so technically if that was the direction you wanted to go that would be now the budget Gap would be reduced to 362,000 362,000 is pretty reasonable and definitely someplace that Bobby and I can look at then scenario one and even possibly at scenario two but probably in scenario one and make some additional reductions to get us
059to that even Balan budget so again again it's something to think about it's hypothetical at this point but again that's an opportunity that we can do that and still kind of comfortably get through this process um if you say listen Joe we really wanted to step down off of that um and maybe we'll kind of meet in the middle again give us the kind of the marching orders of what targets you're looking for and it just gives us better Direction on how much deeper we should be going in either scenario one or scenario three so again uh you've seen this before same type of thing uh the top one is really the important one moving forward here is the final State a figures we probably anticipate that it's going to be a not ontime budget
060um but as Bobby was just mentioning we're starting with the governor giving us a much higher number than we had last year so we're in a much better position so I don't anticipate us going down um traditionally what the board has done is if any additional monies do come in typically that's going back to kind of offset if we went a little bit too deep into our fund balance and reserves to kind of replenish that back up again again part of your decision points on what you choose to do with that and then here's our calendar so again key ones in here in just a month time we're adopting the budget so I feel pretty good I think we're a little bit ahead of schedule than we've been in in previous uh points uh but
061we still do do have a little bit more work to do and then as uh Dr Patton had mentioned May 20th big dat budget and capital uh project vote uh so again that's only about two months away so at this point if you have any questions thanks guys uh just a quick clarification so about four slides back uh when you show the modification to the scenarios to close the budget Gap to like 362 one more for that the uh incre no this one y the increase of the 1.9 is that in addition to what we've already discussed from a fund balance perspective or is that would that be the cumulative total of the fund balance that we would increase to no so I let let me just go back to this so you see up
062in the uh top right uh green box yep where it says from unassigned fund balance so about twoth thirds down so there's a a negative 1.9 million so we are we've basically already calculated us stepping off of 1.9 what I'm suggesting is if you went and reinstated that 1.9 back in that will actually bring you to that gap of about $300,000 sorry if we reinstate sorry can you just rephrase that yeah so the let me go back to that slide again so again you have the unassigned fund balance of that negative 1.9 million so that was the if I go back to the graph here so we were at 8.4 million was what we appropriated last year this year the plan was to do a step down off off of that by 1.9 so I'm
063saying if we didn't step down off of that that would essentially be revenue for us to close the gap thank you I like confused myself but I got it now thanks I'm very confusing so it's not it's not you just a followup to that especially based on the fact that Natalia wanted clarification as well can you help us understand so in this graph here the four million that we're talking about taking from the same category right the unassigned fund balance to put in towards Capital reserves can you just give us some sort of General indication if we cut that to two million to cover the 1.9 that we're going to put back in what does that look like down the road because I know there's ramifications to what that compounds to down the road and
064is that an option or are we looking to potentially take six million from the unassigned fund balance to distribute amongst two different line items so I'll first say no matter the circumstance that 4 million designated as green meant to be moved to the capital should and would always remain a 4 million green bar with the intent to move to the capital reason being that is part of a fund balanc contribution for the capital project that hopefully gets approved May and if that 4 million gets reduced then that would mean we would have to issue any of that reduction in serial bonds and because the propositions or the resolutions specifying what the propositions are that will be put before the voters in May they're set in stone and can't legally be changed we're locked into this
065$4 million what this represents essentially is our fund balance and reserves plan and the plan um as it stands today is to use $1.9 million less of unassigned fund balance to balance the budget so essentially what you could interpret this as meaning this is uh a conscious um board approved plan to get us towards a more structurally balanced budget where we wouldn't have to then rely on fund balance as a revenue source to get us to a balance um if we got to a budget where we never needed to appropriate any fund balance that essentially means we're now in a situation where we have a structurally balanced budget um so really that's what that represents here but that 4 million the key take away is it has to remain 4 million because of the impact
066it would have on the capital project sure it it also um and correct me if I get this wrong it's Al also serves a strategic uh purpose in terms of getting our unrestricted fund balance below the 10% level which is the new governor um sort of instated uh level above which certain penalties might uh might exist so under a microscope type of environment yeah um but you're right it's it's a strategy where because right now it's it's shown as unassigned or unreserved but the moment that it becomes designated budgetarily as a signed fund balance it goes to a different it goes to a different account category and then is reported differently to New York state but um yeah this it's really just as you can see the fact that we've back to 1920 and even
067prior because we've shown more historical slides than this um this represents a budgetary practice because it's a it's a consistent predictable thing that we're doing year-over year and strategy was the wrong word it's it it's now serving a different purpose that we need um in we need that 4 million for a different purpose so uh and we also need to reduce our uh unrestrict fund balance right by percentage so and truthfully if we had another year that $4 million would have been shifted to a capital reserve that we're also hopefully having approved by the voters in May the the difficulty that we had in working with Bond counsel and our Auditors is that Capital reserves are created for a future project so we couldn't essentially take $4 million that we knew we had on on
068hand today have it put in a capital reserve and then fund the same project that was approved on the same day so really it was a timing type of thing so because we fully wanted and intended to use the dollars to offset any financing necessary to uh to help fund the project we thought well we'll just shift it over assign it as fund balance and it can be a very quick inner fund transfer to Capital Matt and then Beth so if I recall correctly the taking out the 6.5 million from the unrestricted fund balance puts our fund unrestricted fund balance at around 14% when we're shooting for 10% yes so June 30th 2024 our unassigned fund balance percentage was around 14% so if we take the six the scenario the first I don't want to
069say scenario that for something else the the sort of we're $3 million under over budget position yep I see where that would leave us at that would have what is the percentage that we would be what would be the percentage of our unrestricted fund balance in this scenario and then also if we go back and keep that unrestricted fund balance level to 8.4 right what would be the percentage what I can tell you is if it were this level the plan right now is it would be around 8% I think 8.6 was the percentage but that's using a lower number so if it went up you know the percentage then would go down it's it has that inverse relationship so given that we are aiming for 10% is there any risk involved with adding back
070in the the two million is there any downside to that um you know I don't see any downside aside from the fact that if we're not confident that in future years we'll be able to you know meet the expenditures that exist on the expenditure side of the budget and knowing that we're using fund balance to help get us to that number up there um if we don't have enough nonf fund balance Revenue then my first inclination wouldn't be to just hey let's plug it with fund balance because then we have those future year considerations which is part of this too you know the sustainability of this um and we've talked about how just the pace of the budget increases have they become a little bit unsustainable um so this is one of those things that
071if you have an opportunity to reduce the expenditure side of the budget and do it without impacting anything then you should probably be prudent and reduce the expenditure side of the budget um and if we know we have a revenue that's able to support a growing expenditure then there's no problem with a growing expenditure because we're confident that it's supported by Revenue all right thank you all right thank [Music] you okay um that brings us to our old business which we're GNA hold off on and discuss during consent agenda our old business being the um Board of Education resolution so hold that thought and let's get to the consent agenda and we any modifications to our consent agenda we do we have one um agenda item f is in Frank one um the ca memorandum
072of agreement um it's listed uh on the agenda as being through June 30th 2029 that should be changed to through June 30th 2030 oh the yeah the live version printed version as of the beginning of the meeting um so um well actually so if it's if it's okay in the live version we don't have to modify we can make a note right it's if it got into the live version then we don't have to make a modification not the the version as it stands that we're not seeing that's currently live has the correct the correct uh contract term so uh forget all that and I move that we approve uh consent agenda items e f and g in their entirety all in favor I'm sorry and can I get a second I'm gonna pick you
073that's any discussion all in favor um know any obain okay that's two that would two so 62 y thank you okay um just one just one recognition uh so the board uh has just approved a new fiveyear contract uh for our civil service employees Association uh so again I want to thank csca leadership uh and their negotiations team uh for the tremendous job uh through nego iations was a very positive outcome uh for both our CCA membership uh as well as our school district uh the board has uh fully supported uh investment uh in our recruitment as well as retention efforts for all CSA staff uh they worked tremendously hard throughout the school year in a variety of roles and responsibilities throughout the district uh so over the uh the course of the five-year uh
074contract um next year all CA members will receive a 4 and a half% increase uh in their salaries and then we uh made a uh3 hourly wage increase for both our food services as well as our transportation staff uh and so the starting hourly wage salaries uh beginning on July 1st uh 2025 uh just to give some examples of our food service helpers currently uh their starting hourly wage is 1619 an hour so in July those will increase to $19.19 our Cooks in our kitchen uh currently starting wages is $17 that will increase to $20 an hour our bus drivers uh currently starting salary is $225 uh next year our bus drivers will be increased to $25.15 an hour starting salary and our bus assistants uh currently start at 1709 uh next year our start
075in salaries will will uh increase to $209 so this makes us extremely competitive uh again for salaries as well as benefits uh in our region uh and again just want to recognize the tremendous leadership of our CA uh negotiations team uh in reaching this agreement and again thank you to the board of UC education for your support of our csca staff uh in this new fiveyear agreement uh starting on July 1st that is great news um this brings us to our second public comment period is there anyone wishing to speak to the board this is a first come first serve one so start us off three minutes please state your name music I'm very happy to be participating and listening my name is Cindy swba I use the pronouns she and her I discovered that
076I'm a 39 year resident of the Saratoga Springs School District I live in the town of Milton I'm also a volunteer with Saratoga Pride the mission of Saratoga pride is to promote a safe and welcoming lgbtqia community in Saratoga County by increasing visibility building allyship and creating educ educational opportunities I'm here as a resident and also as someone who has seen the difference statements of inclusion and affirmation can make to the lgbtqia plus youth in our community and I stand Here endorsing your affirming student support uh every student the school board's approval of this statement will send an affirming and supportive message to our students and to our to their families thank you thank you anyone else wishing to speak to the board yep Ain L aarin Larry Saratoga Springs um from a period of
077time for a period of time from 2005 to 2016 I taught in University classrooms first as a teaching assistant and then as a part-time faculty member each semester class started with the same questions and many of the same ice breakers but always asked what would you prefer I call you this was a question to every student and made room for nicknames for Trans and immigrant students alike some of them would americanize names um and as a parent I have filled out questionnaires with my children's preferred names from the beginning my children have no nicknames or none a teacher should call them like sweet pee or Noo-noo which is Arabic for baby and this month I know people were reaching out to make sure they used the preferred names of trans elementary students in programs and
078yearbooks this is not controversial but it is the first step in ensuring the Dignity of each and every person um we've heard a couple of opposition people speaking in opposition to this there's been quite a bit of uh that online in certain circles but I would argue that the Saratoga Spring City School District is actually behind on this topic back in 2016 and 2017 the national PT ta made multiple statements in support of lgbtq plus students in 2016 they acknowledged lgbtq plus students as a protected class in 2017 they spoke about their disappointment in the administration's recision of guidance to protect trans students the same year the PTA filed an amicus brief in support of Gavin grim and transgender students in 2018 they released a statement sharing concerns about Health and Human Services decision to
079redefine sex as just male or female the PTA I just want to point out as a representative is not exactly considered the most Progressive lobbyist last month PTA leaders sent information about protecting immigrant students and shared their states guidance before I will point out our district shared information to our website let me read the PTA position statement quote PTA recognizes the importance of immigrants in the history of the United States and the resulting blend of cultures enriches our nation PTA also believes that all children regardless of their immigration status have the right of access to Quality public education adequate food and shelter and basic health care services continuing later quote it is in the National interest to ensure that all children regardless of their immigration status have the opportunity to reach their full potential and
080become productive members of society access to a free public education is the most effective method of securing this opportunity and should not be denied to any student regardless of their status on Dei the New York State PTA quote is committed to supporting every child that was capitalized with one voice no matter their race ethnicity zip code income gender identity sexual orientation religion immigration Stat or abilities the PTA recognizes that advancing diversity equity and inclusion is an integral part of the pta's work and make its vision of making every child's potential a reality and so I hope that as this board reviews The Resolution it's not just one that passes but that it passes unanimously thank you thank you did I see a hand over here yeah Su uh I'm Jack Millis I'm a senior here
081at Saratoga Springs High School and I stand before you today to urge you to Hold Your Position I did not know that this was even a thing until after school today a friend notified me that this board meeting was going to occur and I knew I wanted to come here and show my support I am honored to be a student under a school board that does not dare weigh a budget against the need of my peers I immediately went home and did as much research in perusing the uh dear colleagues document and uh calling some trusted sources to educate myself on this I was disgusted with the leaks uh with the leaps and logic provided in the dear colleagues uh document that was released by the Department of Education the main precedent that was cited
082was the let see what it was was it students against students uh for fair admissions versus Harvard ruled by the Supreme Court in 2023 the document itself literally said although the ruling only was about admissions they jumped to curricula I would go as far as to say that learning about diverse topics is in fact what makes us American I don't know many people that can do a 23 in me and say that they're 100% American because it's not a thing that doesn't happen I would also argue that opposing diversity Equity or inclusion is sickening to your fellow humankind how dare you oppose something like that you by simply existing in a classroom you are diverse you are nothing like the person sitting next to you be it through race be it through color through gender
083ethnicity anything at all and any program that our school or our district can provide that would allow those people who qualify under one of those three categories to further their education and to feel comfortable in a learning environment I stand by you thank you thank [Applause] you is there anyone else wishing to address the board all right this closes our second public comment period thank you to all who St um this brings us to agenda planning and before we go into new topics we'll bring back our um old business are we oh we are sorry he scared me um so we will um start with our old business which is our resolution so it was introduced to us last time this time is our time for discussion um and comment and then a decision kind
084of majority straw kind of do we want to put it on our agenda for vote official vote next time so um comments go ahead thanks Andy and um I'd also really like to say thank you to everyone who spoke here tonight and talk about a hard act to follow um between the music students and our speakers um I think it Bears repeating that the resolution is a statement of board values and commitments that affirms existing laws and policies um these laws and policies already exist and are designed to uphold the dignity and rights of all of our students um the resolution actually draws on language and ideas found in recent press releases and official statements by the New York State education department the Office of the Attorney General and the New York State School Board
085Association in response to the executive orders and the dear colleague letter that folks have mentioned um essentially We Believe believe it is especially important at this point in time that we as board trustees explicitly affirm our support for each and every student in our district and for and support as well for our Educators and staff who are working so very hard every day we believe in the inherent Dignity of each and every student and their right to a free and fair education we remain committed to diversity Equity inclusion policies and that is actually the language of the school board policy itself um and thank you Tony for pointing out there is no Financial Risk here um based on legislation laws that congress passes we also want to explicitly State our support for immigrant students I
086think even one student who is missing because they're afraid is too many and is deeply concerning and also we want to State our explicit support for our wonderful trans and gender expansive students we're also calling on our community MERS to public publicly affirm these commitments as well um and finally to all the students here tonight and any students who are watching the video we want you to know that you're amazing you're talented and you are loved we will continue to advocate for your rights during these challenging times thanks than de Beth um I would like to Echo much of what you just said dub first starting with the um people that we've heard from tonight thank you all for coming out and sharing your thoughts and um your opinions about this issue it's an important
087one um you know we find ourselves navigating um these circumstances in which there are two different sets of Demands being placed on our district and at this point I feel very strongly that we must follow the New York state constitution New York State edw as well as the guidance from the Department of Education nisba and the Office of the Attorney General um in my mind this resolution affirms that and um I also believe especially after hearing from our speakers tonight that this resolution affirms the values of our community um so aside from the legal part of this um which I think we are obligated to follow um I believe this is the right thing to do um we need to reassure our Educators who I believe show up every day and try to do what's
088best for their students that we see the work that they're doing we value and respect the work that they're doing and we will protect that work I think we also need to reassure our students families and employees of the district that as Mike mentioned last week during our meeting our district holds a core belief that students deserve to learn and employees deserve to work in an environment free from discrimination and stigma and so for that reason I will support this resolution thanks Beth others to speak on Matt I want to Echo everything that's that's been said um you know I I hope that the proposal doesn't break any new ground we're not trying we're not doing anything new and so I think the important importance of passing it at this moment is to send a
089message to to our students um and especially our trans and our gender expansive students but also obviously our immigrant students uh that you all are are welcome at school we want you at school we want you to learn we want you to do activities we want you to do Sports we want you to be your true selves and your school board and uh and frankly your your State uh supports you and that is why I I I'm excited for this board to pass resolution um I also just want to mention that um uh and clarify that we're not passing the resolution tonight we're the the uh the activity tonight is to determine via either informal straw pole or or formal vote if needed whether we're going to put it on the next agenda for informal
090vote correct um and so I I'm for doing that Nat time um yeah not to repeat what's been said but echoing all of that um and just to say like I'm I'm very proud of this resolution because it does just take all of this information I feel like we're at a point in time when there is just so much information I feel like I wake up and there is so much new information that I have to process as part of my job as part of my you know existence as a parent or just as a person living in this community and the point of this is to to kind of consolidate all of that to State um you know what the three of us who wrote this and hopefully the rest of the board view
091as important for our district so like has already been said this is so important for students it's important for educators and it's important for our community to know that students are safe they're welcome they're affirmed they're protected in our schools and um our state really allows for this this is all based on what our state has already said what should be in New York schools thank you Connie uh thank you so um I am a public high school teacher and um I am committed to supporting every student without exception um and I do appreciate the board members that brought this to the table um I do respect their commitment to and I'm going to I guess borrow a phrase that's been used by a couple of the speakers tonight that are in support of this
092resolution categories of people uh those that was the phrase Ed so I have a couple of concerns with this the way that it is written um to a degree I actually feel like it's not entirely inclusive and it um isn't it doesn't consolidate to to borrow the word that Natalia used for example in my district we have an Asian Alliance we have a Muslim student group we have the black student union we have a lot of groups and this particular resolution if it's not political because that was something that was said when it was introduced it seems like it's in response to something that is political and nisba who we get guidance from we don't get guidance from like the PTA nisba says we are to be apolitical bodies so I'm struggling with the logic
093here with like our charge but also our ground rules for being AOL political as well so um I know the funding has been mentioned I I things are very unpredictable so I have concerns there um and like part of this just to kind of stay with the like is this political or not one of the supporting documents that was brought forth is from Laticia James who is a politician uh it is in response to Washington which is you know a political body which is making all of these changes um so I I feel and understand why this was brought forward as it is written but I'm concerned that it leaves people out that if we're saying all students every student why are we categorizing people um so I it was offered to me like you
094know if you want to talk about this you know before we vote I'd love to take you up on that offer Deb um I don't know if we can like if that's a violation of open meetings law or not but um I those are my concerns and if if it's okay to like discuss this before it's brought forth to vote on um I'd love for that and I do think one thing that I definitely believe in is local control and that's a theme that people say time and time again it's why School boards are very very important people want local control so if the majority of the board is going to be in support of something so be it but I do have concerns with this the way it's written and I just I hope
095that it's not taken in in a bad way but in a in a way that makes sense um so that's where I stand and I hope that we can talk more about it um that's all I have to say if anyone wants to discuss or answer any of my concerns or questions I I I'm here I'm here I have a clarifying question are you saying we should list every affinity group in this or to include everybody so I guess like when I when I read this I was like can we just say this in something like dear students we love you we support you and we want your academic goals and dreams to come to life no matter where you're from who you are your socio econom IC status we're here to support you love
096your school board like that's like that's that's what I feel and it keeps it really simple but I don't know if that's aligned with the goals of why this was written in the first place so that's where like we might not be aligned if that makes sense so I'm just I'm coming at this from every day I go and I teach all the kids they get off the bus they sit in their chairs or they're working in groups and that's just what we do and I I hope that makes sense I just hope it makes sense that it's not if we are if we're going to be a political body and act like a political body I'm definitely out like I I don't want to wait in those Waters I don't think it's what we're
097supposed to do and what we're charged to do um I understand why this was brought forth I just don't know if it is aligned with what we're supposed to be doing at the table okay so I'll just since I haven't gone yet I'll just say that um I I would support this as is going forward I think um it is in response to something that's out that is reality and so the fact that we're affirming um support and safety to those who have um are not feeling that way right now is an important aspect of it um I don't know that we to list every last thing for Club to make it um meaningful in the way that it is intended to reassure our students and families but this is a time when I would
098appreciate having a statement like this from the board so um if those folks are willing to to meet and want to discuss it yes I I would not really be interested in a watered down version I think it's really the purpose is the but that's my personal thanks Angie so um I just want to throw in my two cents and I'll use a word that you used which was reality uh and the reality is you know whether it was intentional or not I do agree with what Connie said it's it is political it's a political statement based upon a very hyper political environment that we're in right now agreed or not based on State versus Federal I don't think that piece matters uh I would be more comfortable if our legal council reviewed this prior
099to uh me being requested to sign anything like this um I appreciate Tony's work based on whether or not there really is risk in federal funding whether that could be revoked or whatever the case may be reality is I don't think any of us know truly and that could change tomorrow uh which is scary um I think ultimately I I would just feel more comfortable with something this of this magnitude uh to be reviewed by legal counsel and some guidance provided prior to uh us us moving forward I'm also happy to and I know this can't happen with more than five at a time uh I'm also more than happy to discuss you know anything and everything that that that is written throughout it but again I think I just want to State the fact
100that I think I'd be more comfortable having legal counsel review it okay um Italia or de whichever one wants go first I sorry I just want to clarify I thought that we were discussing it right now this is the discussion okay so are we allowed to have a discussion away from the table or I I just I guess I hear you both saying about discussing it but we're having our discussion right now so I only said that because um Deb had said to me like if there's anything you want to talk about like me a call or or email me or whatever so I wasn't sure if we are allowed to do that outside of the table because there's not a quorum and that's not a violation of open meetings law if it is okay
101then you know three of us or four of us can meet up five of us cannot meet up correct so I think that is does that clarify your point I think uh yeah but there are nine board members so if we each want to have a say in what goes into the resolution are we having like multiple meetings with four of us I understand just having like a one-on-one phone call for sure I think that's fine but I just want to make sure like if the point is for us all to uh weigh in on this that's what this time right now is for I also just want to say like I understand I think that sometimes apolitical means no politics and sometimes apolitical means nonpartisan um and I agree with being nonpartisan I also
102want to say that if the issue with like latia James is that she's elected we're all elected too like we are a political body in that way and so I just like I I think that this is a nonpartisan statement the point is to affirm the dignity and the safety of our students make sure that they're okay at school there are specific groups that have been targeted and been targeted in a really scary way um and so I just want to make sure I guess that I'm understanding the discussion component and then also just wanted to say my view on the political part of it which is that I don't has anything to do with political parties um but I do think that it like being a governing body for a school district is there
103is like an inherent political aspect to it yeah I just also wanted to respond because I had I did initially when I was first drafting this reached out to um Connie and as well just to offer to talk through some of the issues um I struggle too with with a question of how to be really inclusive and include all all all students but I did we did come down to this fact that there are very specific groups of people being targeted right now and um and in unfair ways that you know and and the reason that the fact that I wear certain kinds of clothes and I love a certain person who happens to be a woman makes me a political Target you know and and for children young adults to be sub to that
104kind of targeting is something I find important personally so I I this it is I would I would tend to view this as a nonpartisan although certain people in this country would make it partisan for political purposes that's not our that's not our goal I think with with this statement and the way that it needs yeah I just want to say briefly that I I really think it's well crafted in the way that um that we've all been talking about here I I really see the the follow the commitments the four main commitments as being the first two are by definition inclusive of everyone um and uh and sort of reflect our our mission as a district to think in those terms and uh the second to our our reality as as people have said
105there are specific um groups of our kids who are being targeted and um it's our job to not only uh uh be a Bull workk against that targeting but reassure them that we are that that's reassure them publicly and loudly that that's that's part of our mission we see that as part of our mission so I see this as being both General and uh specific in in uh and and very well crafted well just sort of to to talk to sort of Dean's Dean's question about should legal council review this this is really we're not breaking any new ground here this is just a restatement of our current positions and policies um which doesn't do anything new and and also as I think one of our our speakers said pretty eloquently there's an importance to
106to making a statement uh uh about inclusivity and about uh protecting groups that are under Fire and uh I think restating our current policies is is a way that we as a school board can do that and we as a as a district can do that yeah I um I appreciate you know your the concern that you shared Connie and I in my mind this is in response to um confusing circumstances and being hit with a lot of different information and I don't see this as being a political statement I see it as being reassurance as as we I think as a board are tasked with setting kind of the um setting the the direction of the district and to um reinforce the values of the district and in my mind that's what this does
107it just makes it very clear that we stand by New York state law and that we stand by our existing policies so that our teachers don't have to worry so our students don't have to worry so con so I hear what you're saying um and again I'm just trying to see the future right or let's look at the past and use that as a good lesson let's during Co a lot of Asian students were under attack this was not done at that time so are we going to do this every time there's a group of people or a category of people that are under attack um I just want to know I guess maybe how Mike feels like is this a good venue for doing that or is there a way to do it that
108again my concern is that are we being inclusive are we really being as inclusive as we should be but also um planning for the future you know planning for when this might happen again for some other category of people um that are under attack so I'm just trying to be like pragmatic um which I think when it's emotional it's it's hard to be that way and and kind of hear the argument or like you know kind of just teasing out the specifics but that's that's where I'm coming from and I I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on that um I guess I would say that I do support having statements that affirm the safety and dignity of any student group that is under attack so yes I I would agree with doing that in the
109future um looking to the past we have done statements like this before and one was done in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd where we had a statement a board resolution you know voted on unanimously uh standing against systemic racism and so I don't think that this is unprecedented um and I guess I I would just say that in the future like I do support doing that I um like I guess the fact that a group that was under attack um we didn't do a resolution in the past I guess doesn't mean that I don't think we should do it in the future and um I guess I I do wish that we had done that during well I was just I mean I wasn't on the board when when Co happened but I
110you know I would I'm surprised and you know chrin that that sort of a proposal didn't come forward to the board to to support those students that were under attack and I agree with what Natalia was saying like I think whenever you know our students are here to learn and to to get the best education they can and when certain groups of students are attack from outside of the school especially from outside of the school district I think it's important that we as a school board rally around those students so that they can feel like their school is the place that they're welcome and safe to learn and and to grow is there any other discussion okay um I don't think there's harm in having our attorney look at this that's no problem um we
111can definitely do that and I um am hearing that Deb or any of the authors are open to a a phone call conversation and um other than that I think we should just get a sense of do we want to put this on our agenda next next meeting sorry so I'm seeing yes okay so I mean I'll I have it my notes I'll report out on that before we vote or send you an email about it for sure so I'm seeing a majority of us to put it on agenda okay all right thank you um I do have a couple reminders um before I open for new um new agenda items um we do or and one announcement we have an ssta liaison meeting that is scheduled for um at 5:30 before our next meeting
112which is March 27th it's a Wednesday it's a oh it's a Wednesday Oh I thought it was on Thursday okay I'm sorry SDA the board ssda meeting is on um it's a Wednesday evening at 5:30 and I'm trying to pull up my calendar sorry I got that wrong it's the 26 at 5:30 so we can have up to four board members uh participating if you are interested in um being the Topic's not set yet um that I know but it will be an an hourish conversation with the um a few of the ssta representatives and a few of us so if you're interested please email me and um I'll try to get we we'll probably try to do at least one more um now that we got the language down um so if you're not
113chosen or can't make this one there will be another one that we'll we'll have available I'm guessing um so email me about that um also um to Mike's Point announcing about the flex zone committee um if you are available on those dates the April 1st April 22 and May 6th and would like to be a board rep to the flex zone committee and we're not on it last time which I don't think any of us sitting here were um please also email me and we'll um populate that committee as well with board reps um and then anytime you want to report out on your board subcommittee goal or your board goals for the year your subcommittees please feel free to do that during the board um report or board meeting subcommittee reports um committee reports
114section I'll get it right eventually um so I just wanted to remind you we're in March and we did set those for the year um those are my reminders are there any um new agenda items no okay seeing none um can I get a motion to adjourn I'm sorry board member comments sorry I was so close um board member comments Natalia sorry um I know it's been said so many times that starting off this meeting with that incredible music was just really so wonderful so thank you to the Jazz Band to the fiddle clubs the bonto choir and then congratulations to all of the elementary and middle school students who then went over to the auditorium and won awards um that's really wonderful I love our music um department and I also want to say
115that Leal Le blond was phenomenal it was so great my whole family loved it um I also want to say thank you for donations so there are um a number of donations um as Mike said last meeting March is like attendance awareness month is that correct yep and so I see here that there um are donations from the bunker from cardas from uncommon grounds from West hav pizza and from Ben and Jerry's ice cream to uh promote improved School attendance um that's incredible um there's also a donation of gift cards from Skidmore cares to help support the needs of our mckin vento eligible students um and that's over $2500 and there's also a donation of $300 from the Maple Avenue parent teacher student organization to our district um also to focus on attendance um and
116I think it's really great that we have these other groups and Community um businesses supporting our initiatives um and then I also just want to say I'm really thrilled that we ratified the csca contract I'm gonna beat a dead horse but I also want to thank um the music teachers uh of our schools um you know these kids sounded amazing and uh as a a parent of a music student I know they don't usually sound amazing certainly when they're starting off and so I want to I want to thank the the teachers especially the elementary and middle school levels music teachers have the the patience of I just don't even know what of something very patient uh and and so thank you for all the work you do with our students um it's great when
117they sound great but you're with them even when they don't and so thank you so much other comments uh just want to reiterate uh and expand briefly on what Natalia said towards the end uh I want to congratulate really uh CA leadership and the uh administrative team for uh coming together and and agreeing on a contract that everyone is happy with and uh specifically for addressing uh some really needed increases in the uh food service and transportation areas and and everybody else on top of that uh with um with good step UPS uh over the way so uh congratulations on the process and the final um product Echo the music and thank goodness for csca contract I'm really grateful to both sides of those NE assciation teams that being said can I get