001The board says you're offline. Does that matter? I always say we're ready and then we always got to check Morocco. Definitely does. You're looking for the wrong place. Yeah, I know. I got to look over there. Getting yelled at when I get home tonight. So, great. that. Please do me a favor. If I'm rustling papers, just put my arm cuz that's the other thing I got yelled at for my friends. This This says offline. Don't worry. Okay, got it. Perfect. Okay. Good evening everybody. We're going to uh call to order this meeting, regular meeting of the uh Sorgh Central School uh Board of Education uh May 6, 2025. Um designation of designation of emergency exit. We have one at the the front of the room and then one on uh side of the room. Um
002Virginia, would you call the role, please? William Ball here. Christine Bellarosa here. Katie Emerson here. Tinauri here. Carol Keller here. Michael Meyer here. Jeffrey Azi here. Timothy Wells here. Rise for the pledge of allegiance, please to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dr. Ersig, our um mission and vision statements, please. So, here in Soures, we provide equitable, engaging, inspiring and holistic experiences that support success and empowerment for students, families, and the community in a diverse and changing world. And we our vision is to become a beacon of educational excellence where every child, every individual is inspired to be able to achieve their fullest potential. All right. Thank you. All right. We have two approval of minutes. Um because in April we had two meetings.
003The meeting from April 8th and the meeting from April 22nd. Can I have a motion to approve those? So moved by Mr. Ball. Seconded. Second by Miss Bellarosa. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Okay. We are to our public recognition um segment. So, if there's anybody in the audience who would like to address the board, uh, now is the time. Okay. No one. All right. Moving on. Um, we're going to we're student representative report. Um, Miss Mills is tied up at a extracurricular activity, which is right where she should be. Um and so we're moving to presentation honorings um audiovisisual student assistance at the board of ed meetings. Dr. Ersick. Uh so this year we did have two students help us. Sorry. During the year is don't want you getting yelled at. There you
004go. You're looking out. Yep. Um so just I want we want to recognize them tonight. It's Rowan Covert and Olivia Avalone. So thank you to them. They are not in attendance tonight, I believe. So, thank you. Um, just continue with the academic awards. Next, we want to continue uh with our Mahal scholar athletes. So, for the spring season, we have 116 total student athletes who are maintaining a 90% or above GPA during the varsity sports season. That's just varsity athletes as well. Uh, the following teams were recognized as a as a team as well. Baseball had five individuals. Softball six, flag football 17, boys lacrosse 18, girls lacrosse 15, boys track and field 19, boys tennis 13, girls track and field 23. So good job to all those students. [Applause] Uh and lastly for recognitions
005tonight, we wanted to uh recognize two well one individual and one organization for uh what they've done for the district. Uh so the first one I will recognize is Ela Magnetics. they are being nominated for the Mid Hudson School Study Council's community service award. So this past year, Elna Magnetics reached out to us. Um they have provided our students with some amazing opportunities, most notably uh putting together a video for their website which introduces Elna to the world really as well as their community endeavors. Um they have been a resource for our students uh to be able to interview as well. And then with our partnership with them, it's kind of led to future things with other companies as well. So, uh, I think appreciate Elna for getting the ball rolling on this and really,
006you know, living up to part of their mission of of giving back to to the community. So, thank you to Elna Magnetics. And lastly, uh, Miss Ricardani, Jen, uh, or Miss Jen, as everybody affectionately calls her Morris, um, is rec is honored for the Mid Hudson School Study Council's teaching excellent award. Uh, she's been a teacher in district since 1994. For for 31 years, she's been a special educator in self-contained classrooms, providing unwavering support to students who need it the most. Her impact has been felt in every elementary school in the district, where she has consistently created inclusive, nurturing learning environments. Uh, Miss Miss Jen's dedication to student success was on full display at Morris Elementary School's recent passion fair, where students had the opportunity to showcase their personal interest. Remarkably, every one of Miss
007Jen's students presented their passions, sharing their talents with the entire student body during the day and with families in the evening. In addition, Miss Jen and her whole instructional team also shared their passions, modeling lifelong learning for her students. The pride radiated from the students and parents alike and was a testament to her abil her to her ability to build confidence and foster a love of learning. Beyond the classroom, Miss Jen is known for her infectious laughter, uh, but even more so for her boundless heart and commitment to building a strong school community. As a co-adviser of the Morris Elementary School Council along Miss Dixon, she has helped organize meaningful events that bring students together and instill a sense of leadership and belonging. Over the three years of her leadership, the student council's membership has
008grown as well as a number of students seeking leadership roles. Through the student council, Miss Jen has provided social events. I can go on list of them. community advocacy projects and partnering with PTA and school leadership to advance the overall vision of the district. Miss Jen's passion for teaching and her dedication to her students and her commitment to fostering a positive school culture make her an outstanding candidate for this award. Uh she is truly a teacher who changes lives. [Applause] So, uh, Miss Jen as well as Elna will be honored tomorrow night at the Mid Hudson School Study Council's award ceremony. So, thank you everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Okay. Well, Dan, we was going to see if you get that sort of applause that you just we Jen Miss
009Jen just got. So, u moving on to the superintendent report. Um we have a public budget uh hearing presentation by uh Dr. Ersi. [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] Sorry. Fifth grade, so I feel like I'm sorry. All right. Uh, so tonight we have our budget hearing presentation. Um, a lot of the information on the slides is stuff that we've already been so I will kind of move at a pretty good pace. But as always, if there are questions, please pass a public comment on first by the way. Yes. Just to recap our mission, our vision of educational excellence. So we have that in the back of our mind as we're making decisions now and into the future. some of our achievements which you've heard us brag about in the past and kind of continue to improve
010upon. Once again, the budget um is really designed to be a reflection of our values as a community, right? It also needs to address our short-term needs, right? So, what what do we need for our students tomorrow as also planning for long-term needs, right? If five 10 years from now, how are we going to be? What what do we want for our students? So this year, just jumping right in. So while we look line by line for the budget, right, it's easiest to communicate changes that you would notice from this current school year to next school year. So that's what this this slide does share, right? So we talked about our our administrative positions being cut, not filling a business certified teacher, uh the reduction of a6 social studies teacher, one FTE elementary certified teacher.
011Um this position is actually kind of uh an addition additional section, so it will be an offset. uh public relations specialists going from five days a week to four, changing up our our coaching numbers for some of our programs as well as reducing software such as forecast 5, Panorama, um a data reporting mentorship that we don't need as well as looking at our supply our supply and equipment lines as well. Okay, this always comes up, so I'm going to address it again, right? uh certified administrators. If you go back to last year to compare to where we will be next year, we will be down three certified administrators. So, director of HR has not been refilled. Elementary project coordinator is retiring and then one athletic director assistant principal has also been reduced during the course
012of time. Okay. While there are some reductions, right, we we are continuing to look towards the future and what we need to meet our students needs. So in terms of additions, we do have an an ENL teacher expanding it from 04 to 1.0. Uh bringing modified sports back into the budget. An elementary certified teacher. This is kind of as this offsets the previous reduction. We do have a third grade section at sorry a sixth grade section that needs a third section at Khill Elementary School. Part-time nurse at Woodstock we're required to provide as well as a part-time social worker at Woodstock. Um we've heard a couple times now for the past month about or past couple meetings rather about how we're going trying to enhance our special education continuum. I will share about that. Um
013in addition we also have other things coming online. So the I park lease. So that is in reference to Olster Bosey's uh leasing space from I park which is the old IBM center uh in Kingston. Um so that our students will be in the new space in September. So with that comes lease payments um while they're occupying that the cell phone ban that the governor has announced uh bringing field trips back into the budget and then always a mind on professional learning needs. So what what does our staff need to meet our students needs? I'm talking really fast tonight. I'll slow down also looking at salaries. So these individuals the our monitors are non-aligned units substitutes increasing their their compensation per hour. Now diving into special education changes, right? So as we have said a
014couple times, right? This is kind of the one of the bigger changes that we have in grades five and six. Currently there is co-eing in math, ELA, science and social studies. Next year we'll be have having co-eing in math and ELA only with TA support during science and social studies. That change allows two things. One is it allows more support in grades K to2. So we can have co-eing in K to2 where we only had indirect consultant or sometimes direct if if schedule allowed. This will ensure that um and secondly it's we have now have a smooth continuum because what would happen is students would get support in math and ELA then they get grades five and six have support in all four for co-eing and then go to the junior high and only get
015co-eing in math and ELA. So now it's consistent support in math and ELA with consistent TA supports in the other subjects. Right. Um the other thing that we're adding this year is the ABC Academy academic behavioral communication um academy to grades 7 8 n so it's expanding what we're offering in the district. So I ideally now with this we will not have to send as many students out of the district and we can look to bring students into the district and possibly neighboring districts could potentially send students to us one one day once our program is up and up and running and that's been successful in the sixth grade the academy. I'll turn over to Jamie. Sorry. Yeah, a lot of those students um have been in the program for more Sorry, I forgot. Yeah,
016I know. It's just good policy to use the mics. All right. So my question was, so that's been an effective program in the sixth grade. So there's many students who have been in this program for many years. Some of them started uh their kind of careers at Kill in that program as well. So it goes from kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade right now. And so that's kind of what they're used to. And um we've brought kids kind of back into district already into some of those programs and hoping to keep them here um to continue up. So I would say for many students yes and for very few no but um we find other appropriate placements for them. Great. Thanks. Also included in the budget are possible capital outlay projects. Um so
017could be additional flooring at Ricardi, additional ADA egresses and doors ramp upstairs to get so that the entire building is ADA compliant as well as uh duckless AC. Um so we as a facilities committee along with our engineers Artekch will decide which is the most appropriate one to go with. Um but these are the four options that we're looking at. We did go out to bid for two ADA entrances at Ricardi to get the work done this summer. Unfortunately we did not have any bids on that. So right now we do not have uh right that construction will not take place this summer. We are looking at alternate means to we there will be work done at more. So we're seeing if that contractor would be interested in picking up this work. So, we're still
018pursuing it. Um, but that work may not get done this summer. This that we vote for, if we vote on it in May, we would design it next school year and then build it the following year. Items maintained in this budget include a similar class size. Now, right, I'm saying I'm purposely purposely using the word similar class sizes because, right, it all depends on geography at the elementary level where you live, right? So there could be some fluctuations in in section size, right? But with the current staffing and the number of students we have, they should be relatively similar to where we are this year. A social worker in each building is maintained a psychologist, armed security at Ricardi Morris, Cahill in the secondary campus, levels of art and music library. Our four Wilson trained
019reading specialist, school advoc advocacy specialist, professional learning and extracurricular activities. Okay, this gives us to uh our budget or that we voted on our board selected last um last meeting for $79.9 million. Uh it is an increase of 3.49% over the current school year budget. These slides are new. So we are required to share out our three-part budget. So the administrative capital program. So this slide here demonstrates our capital component. So the capital component provides for overall general support and management activities including district office, business office operations, personnel, legal representation, public information, insurance. Um so you can see year-to-year changes. The this slide uh so you'll see kind of here the big drop in personnel would be not filling the director of HR, right? So that's kind of the justification for that fluctuation that's there.
020Continuing on with the administrative um other notable one other special items uh that is part of um the Boseies paying for I park for there. So the administrative component of our budget of the $79 million budget is just $7.1 million uh up from 6.8 so an increase of 3.29%. Right now, the budget increased by 3.49%. So, we're all kind of in the same category. Program component. So, the program component provides funding for instructional educational support services for all of our students. It's funds for transportation are also included in here. So, this component of our budget is $65.1 million. Uh, once again, an increase of 3.75%. So all right around that budget increase. Okay. There are some fluctuations too that have to do with just recoding stuff. So Michelle and Michael deciding that there's a better
021category to put to put items in. And lastly is the capital component. The capital component plays for maintaining all indoor and outdoor facilities including electricity, heat, repairs, uh principal interest payments. So this uh part of our budget is the $7.7 million or increase of 1.5%. Dan. Yes. Can I ask? Um I'm not hear that one. Just got to give it a minute. Just um the safety and security. Um can you just explain why that's up like 2,000%. Like what is that just a coding thing? What are you? Yeah. So this is moving the funds from administrative in into this part. Okay. Right. Thank you. Yep. All right. Here is the the breakdown by percentage of our budget. So this is last year. So capital component made up 9.8%. Last year 8.9% was administrative. The program
022component was 81.3. This year we're very similar at 9.6% capital. uh 8.9% administrative and then 81.5% program. Okay, we've been through our tax cap calculations before, so I'll go through the I'll skip the the details and just share that. Right, this year uh the simple majority, so 50% plus one, our tax levy increase our tax levy will be 47.4 million or an increase of 1.56 over the prior year for an increase of that 3.43%. 43%. The estimated impact on taxes that we shared last time, once again, this is an estimate based on current assessment, current uh equalization rates, uh is here. So, this is also based on $300,000 house. So, if you live in a town or village of Serties, right, the current school year taxes would be uh uh $3,700. Next year's taxes would
023be $3,883 for a change of $129 or $1075 per month. Okay, once again, this is purely an estimate. This is based on current assessments, current equalization rates, and a house that's $300,000, right? We picked $300,000 because we thought it' be easier to scale up or scale down. Um, and also does not have any of the exceptions there. Okay, our state aid, which we've also talked about. So, while the governor did say that there was an agreement for the state budget, there is still not an agreement on the state budget. There is no uh formal budget yet that has been signed. Um, so we are still anticipating that our foundation aid will be that $17.8 million or increase of 2.49%. There is a possibility it could go up, right? If it goes up, then ultimately it's
024less out of reserves that we would use. Okay. uh high tax aid, summer aid, building aid, go overseas aid, all these additional aids are really uh based on our expenses. So they're expense based aid. So when we expend it this year, we get money in return next year from it. We've seen those before. All right. So um some other ones. So, right. So, we've got our leases, Medicaid pilot, interest in earnings. You're still predicting um quite a bit of interest in earnings, e- rate reimbursement, and so forth. And then last time we talked about appropriating $2.8 million out of our unappropriated fund balance to bridge the gap this next year. Okay. showing where our revenue comes from. We got our tax levy just about 60%, foundation aid 22%. Expense based aid 11.5, other revenue sources
0253.3 and fund balance 5%. So our last time just showing you our current status of our reserves. Here's our current balances. And once again, we're we're looking to use our unassigned fund balance for that $2.8 million to make the gap. Once again, that has been selected as we are still waiting on our insurance, our general liability insurance for a carrier for that. If there is a chance that we do need to be self-insured, then we would have to make a reserve to fund that, which could be roughly $2.4 million. So, we decided right now to uh use the unassigned fund balance and if we need to go with it with the insurance reserve, we can make adjustments to other things through board action items. Okay. Contingency budget. All right. So, if the budget does not
026pass on May 20th, we have a couple options. We can revote on June 17th. It could be the same or different budget, or we can go straight to contingency. If we do vote on June 17th, and it does go down, then it would go straight to contingency. So, what that would mean is a reduction of $1.1 million. So, our budget would then go down to $78.3 million. that would see reductions in our capital outlay projects, raises for confidential staff, our non-contingent equipment, co-curricular clubs, athletics, field trip, security, and other non-mandated instructional and non-instructional staff. So, we would have to find $1.1 million of cuts if the budget does not pass in May and if it does not pass again in June if we if the board decided to vote. Timeline wise, as we know, the
027vote the vote is May 20th. Everybody will be voting at the junior high school. There will not be voting at the elementary schools. Right. Just repeat it again. All the voting will take place up here at the junior high school gymnasium from 6:00 to 9:00. On May 27th, we count our affidavit ballots uh and get and the board will accept the budget results and June 17th is that revote if necessary. When are the um somebody asked me about absentee ballots available? They are available. They're available in through my office. And then when do they need to be turned in? They need to be received. I think it's by 5:00 pm on May 20th, but that's May 20th. That's what it says. My mom got what it says May 20th on the day of the vote.
028Okay. They can be called and we can mail them out or you can stop, pick it up. You can fill it out right there and just leave it right there as well. Okay. Okay. Just with turnaround times with mail, I would encourage people to stop in. Yep. Okay. Also on the ballot will be three candidates. Michelle Ramolio, Robert Tolman, and Christine Bar Rosa in that order. Um, candidate with the highest vote count will actually have their term start on May 27th or 28th once they get accepted because we do have a vacant board seat. The remaining two people would start in in July. And that is it. Are there questions? [Music] Right. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Sig. Um so since we just had a review of of the budget budget presentation we have on
029the agenda another public recognition um if people have comments on the budget component only. So um on the budget public hearing if anybody has any comments on the budget um now would be the time. Yeah. Yeah. Hi everyone. I don't I'm a better walker, not a talker. Um for those that I have not met, I'm the Michelle Golia that's on the top of that um board member candidate list for the 20th. And I'm not going to be labor this, but um for those that don't know, I have a very extensive finance background. Um, I worked as a in public accounting for the first seven years of my career at Price Waterhouse and since then have developed my career with a very strong finance background. And one of the things that attracts me to acting in
030a role as a board member should I be elected is hopefully my ability to support this board in bringing a budget to the public. And I want to commend all of you for all of the work that you've done. Despite the fact that I think it's sort of falling on deaf ears, it it's disappointing to me that there's three people on right now. Um when you did the special presentations, you'd see three or four. I think the the community is doing itself a disservice. Um you've done an enormous amount of work to justify where we are with this budget. I fully support the budget. Um, and it's my hope that should I be elected, I have the opportunity to help the community and surveys really understand the components of this. Your hands are tied in
031a lot of ways. Um, I think that that message gets misconstrued in the public at times. I also think that there are so many benefits to components you put in here where your hands are not tied and I think the public needs to understand that. Um, I will do everything that I can to rally my troops to support this budget and I hope we do not have to go to a revote. But again, I just want to commend you for all the work that you've done and um, I think you've done excellent job explaining to us where how we've gotten to where we are. Thank you, M. Anybody else? Okay, moving on. Uh, board member remarks. Um, I think I'm going to start I'll start over here at this time. Mr. Meyer, anything? Nothing. Good.
032Um, I just wanted to just thank and um the board who were presented with a board night, Miss Archipanian um and Elna. I appreciate all that they're doing for our school and our community. So, I did want to express my uh gratitude and um congratulations to them. Um and just, you know, this is the last meeting that we're going to have before the board budget vote and I just encourage everyone to come out and vote and uh you know Thank you, Mr. Riyasi. Very, very briefly, I I want to congratulate the student award winners. Um, in particular, those student uh those student athletes. That's pretty impressive number for sure. Um, and a a heartfelt congratulations to Miss Arcatapani as well. Um, it's been my pleasure to have had the opportunity to to not only know
033her but but work with her as well. So, congratulations, Shen. Congratulations, Elma, as well. That is that is the type of synergy you want to see, you know, and so it's it is good to see that developing uh between the school district and and uh it's a continuation of relationships with community partners. I know I know many many years ago uh Miss Kappler and I noted the the connection with Mark for instance. So, there's a great relationship there and there's a great track record there. Um, I I think everybody noticed there were not a lot of questions on the the school budget. Everybody watching the meeting noticed that there were not a lot of questions from the school board. Um, and I think that that speaks volumes to how many times we have been through
034and had the opportunity to ask questions uh of of Dr. Ersig uh of Miss Bologna. um you know as we as we continue to to learn and understand this this fiscal picture. So, um reminded uh and I appreciate Miss Grimolia for for highlighting that. Um there there there is a lot of miscommunication often times and the public does need to be reminded that this process here and this vote that's going to take place May 20th, you know, is something that's been going on for for four months minimally. um you know I say that loosely knowing you start building this year's budget you know at this at the end of this year right in other words you're always a year anyway the point is um please come out and vote uh I think that this is
035a prudent budget I think that this budget maintains uh services I think that this budget includes um some careful creative thinking I think it includes some right sizing and I as a board member personally will state that I support the budget. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Wells. Sure. All right. Um, first off, thank you, Miss Jen. Uh, appreciate all you do for the kids. Obviously, um, the the the district itself really appreciates everything you've done and continue to do. It's uh it's amazing as we've heard kind of some of these stories along the way to kind of to kind of get to meet you because I haven't seen you in person and uh to be able to congratulate you and and see you getting you know the recogniza recognization that you deserve. Um thank
036you to Elena for partnering with us and giving our students an opportunity to kind of dive into a field that they're looking to go after beyond sovereignties. Um, and I think that's really great that you've you've given us an opportunity to do that and and you know partner with these these students who are going to be adults who are adults, most of them, and uh, you know, have them collaborate with you in a in a real business sense and kind of help grow your business hopefully as well. Um, congratulations to the the MHAL uh, student awards and um, thank you Dr. Dr. Ersig and Miss Maloney for all the hard work you put into this budget and you know I mean we get emails late at night from m Dr. Ersig uh just you know
037in regards to this or that and I think uh you know it's hard to really truly understand the depth of work that they have to put in when they're when they're building this budget. And I know we see a little bit of the behind the scenes of it and I probably don't even see all of it. So, I definitely understand and appreciate all that you guys do to kind of give us a budget that I honestly truthfully feel is a very fair budget. I think you've been very cognizant of what's going on in the world to try and produce a a budget that isn't going to put too much pressure on people uh in regards to our taxes. Um, and you've made cuts where where necessary and shifted some things to make us to still
038allow us to look at our our um our district goals and kind of achieve them even with like kind of having to maneuver things around. So, I truly appreciate that. Uh, I I as well as Mr. Ball said uh I am very much in in favor of the budget and I hope that you all get out there and vote and uh vote yes as far as I'm concerned. I'll say it. There you go. I got it. Um, just to echo on uh what Mr. Wells said and what Mr. Ball said, um, this is a good solid budget. Uh, I think that there has been a lot of work that's been put into it. I fully support it and I encourage you to come out and vote. AV assistants uh for all the help that they
039do to make our the viewers see the board meeting so seamlessly at home. Uh congratulations to Mahal academic award winners and congratulations to Elna. Um but I really would like to congratulate Miss Jen. Um I have had the pleasure of working with her in um a few different capacities. um as a colleague, as her principal, as her friend in some outside work. Um she is truly an amazing person and the relationship that she has with her students. You walk into that classroom that is in there. They feel loved and they are so successful. And it is about time that you get recognized for all of your hard work and for what it is that you do for not only your students but for um this district. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. Yeah. I just want
040to iterate what everybody else has already said. Um, I do want to say that I'm uh terms of probably understand this budget more than I understood budgets in the past. And I just want to thank Dr. Ersig and the business office for being just consistently responsive to our questions and not, you know, rolling their eyes about why we're asking those questions or asking for having it be in a future form. Those of us benefit from that. Um, and I just I just really appreciate that because there advocate for this budget and um I feel much more prepared to be able to do that in a way that is very real as opposed to well it's just a budget that's us contingency which is a real as I am because the governance team here has really
041helped prepare us and so I just want to thank all of you who part of that and for uh I like the careful thinking and the prudent words of uh Mr. all um because I do think that that support that co-eing support in Kindergarten through 7th grade um really looking forward to sort of hearing how that's going and I'm super glad building and may not be required we have library art and music. So anyway, I just want go out and vote for the budget on May 20th. All right. Thank you. I'll be brief. Um, so just echo everybody's congratulations to all the award winners and um to Miss J. While I didn't have the opportunity to work with her in a school, I did have the during the summer in another extracurricular activity. It was
042um I'm very happy here that you've um regarding there over the past week I've had the opportunity to um be a panelist with Mr. Cooper um his entrepreneurship class who was designing products um and the best of that selected to this Thursday go down and present new um amongst other schools and when I look at this budget to me this budget supports people like Mr. those um young teachers who are kind of pushing the envelope of what they're doing with their students. Um because I think as you look at a budget um there's always people asking for things to be cut and things to be reduced and rightsized and I think this budget that Dr. in the business office has worked tirelessly at um does the two things in a budget that you want um
043which is control unnecessary expenses but also allow for growth um because as a school you always want to be growing and you always want to be affording opportunities um to people like Mr. Cooper who if you see him with his students and those activities they're doing those are the kind of things we continually want to be able to push and the passion days which I just love that phrase those kind of things. Um, so I think this budget, I thank Dr. Ursk for um, as I think somebody said, just tirelessly kind of going at it and making sure um, that it's doing those things, which is reeling in and making sure we're not spending needlessly, but also allowing for growth. Um, that's always what you're looking to do. Um, I'd like to to congratulate Elma
044as well, but also in doing this, you pay attention to some of the the announcements from um what I have um occurrences is our partners in the community being involved. Um when you think about Elena coming in and do that. Um I saw something about Rich Crochi, the president of Viking, coming in and presenting, I think it was to Mr. Cooper's class. Um, you know, this week I sat next to Dan and I, we sat with a couple of different members of Sawyer State who are coming in and lending their time and their expertise to the school. Um, and I think the more we can do that, um, the better. So, um, like I said, whatever your thoughts are, um, I would love as many people as possible to come out and vote. We've done,
045um, you know, again, through Dr. has done a good job of making sure the calendar this year aligns to where you know we don't have a bunch of time off around the budget and people are away. So getting a a good turnout to me um regardless of the yes or no is really important because then whatever whatever then the voters have spoken um because there's always comments and and pieces after the budget um and and and I'm always the number of comments compared to the number of voters um so you know I I think if the voters speak then we go and do what they want but I think this solid budget again allows it really controls the expenses right sizes but allows this district to grow so um so I want to thank Dr.
046for that. Um, okay. We went through everybody. I like the day. I skipped this. I didn't do it on purpose. I was coming back. I saved it for that day. All right. Moving on to the agenda. Personnel. This is instructional, noninstructional. We have items um J1 through uh excuse me I one through four which are a couple of resignations um a specific leave of absence and then appointments and then um two specific um the appointments to tenure for a Mr. Toman and Miss Melissa Chahanovich. Make sure I say it right. Um motion by Mr. Wells. Second question by Rosari. Any discussion? All those in favor? I All right. Oh, and thank God. Congratulations. Okay, moving on agenda. We have the business component which we have the treasures report and appropriations. Um the extra classroom statements.
047Um and then assessment reports. Um, I'm not going to call out everything. All right. Uh, motion to accept. All those in favor. Okay. K. 1 through eight, which are board action items. Let me see if there's anything. This includes middleway school. Um, and then policy, first reading of the policy for contest for students and student awards and scholarships. Motion to accept Mr. Well second by Miss Bellarosa discussion. All those in favor. [Applause] Okay. Audit Dr. Hosk, you have your mic there. Thank you. Um staying there. Uh we just had uh an article just prior to um this board meeting in which we discussed the in the annual risk assessment report that was just um presented uh as part of the agenda. Uh the internal auditor comes once a year and they do a wide brush
048um review of the risks um primarily in the business office um and the governance of the business office and they go through looking at cash receipts, cash dispersements, assets such as fixed assets, um inventory, things of that nature. But again, it's a wide review um in which they look at things. Um we you know one of the things that is a a risk of this district particularly this year is so we've had turnover in um our business office not only with our business official but some of the um key employees have been in the business office for several years have retired um but um we had those individuals actually came back to help out. So, you know, the risk was somewhat mitigated. Um, and that all being said, um, it was a fairly um good
049risk assessment report. You're just finding sort of the usual suspects of where you're going to find uh some, you know, things to make comments on. And the those comments that were recommendations for things that that came out of the audit um were uh corrective action report was done and and primarily surrounding training to personnel on on how to properly do uh you know cash making cash receipts and and submitting purchase orders and such. Um so uh that's the internal audit reports that we went over. Um we also discussed the fact that our external officitor was up for RFP and um we accepted in this agenda also the appointment of Bono group again who has been our auditor for the past few years um they've come in and we've appointed them to be our external guarding
050I think it's the next five years the concept might be somewhere around there three to five years um and also we had gone out to bid uh for our internal auditor as well. And uh we've appointed uh New Jen and Hler out of Montgomery, New York to be our internal auditor starting with in next um 2026 is when they will they'll come on board. And again, that was also on the agenda. Um and that's about it. All right. Thank you, Dr. Um All right. Uh the big news out of facilities is going to be that next board meeting in June. Uh Chris D. Carlo from Bernie Donigan's office who's our financial adviser. We will be here to present on opportunities for future capital projects. So as I shared last slide maybe two meetings ago like
051the our debt service kind of schedule was going to be dropping off. So there is opportunity in the next few years. Um so that was the big happenings for facilities meeting. Mr. fall. We had a policy first. We had a policy meeting just today. Uh three policies, one of which had a first reading today was the uh the academic awards. Um there was a first reading with changes to that. Uh in particular, the the language and nomenclature around high honor credit role etc. Uh so that was something we did today. Ford continues to work on the policy committee continues to work on use of electronic devices as well as extreme condition uh conditions days. Um both of these reflect priorities coming out of um really across the state. Um and uh we anticipate having first
052readings in June uh based upon changes and conversations that we've had at the uh at the policy committee level. Uh so please um one more meeting for the school year in June. Uh I don't have that date but I'll share it. Uh you are welcome to attend our next meeting. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay for a third time recognition again. Um if there's anybody This was a broad one. This is on any topic. So if anybody still in the audience would like to um address the board, now is the time. Okay. Um going to propose um motion to assess for the purpose of discussion of bargaining unit negotiation and specific personnel matter. Um do I have it? Um also we to um when we come out simply to enure there's nothing else that
053will be voted on after session in in uh the open meeting. Uh motion move second. [Music] Something great. Thank you so much. [Music] Please come on over. All right. Um, a motion to reconvene open session. Sunny day, Mr. Wells. Seconded by Miss Keller. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. All right. Future board meetings. Um, it's listed here. May 20th is the board member and budget vote and then May 27th is the opening and tallying of all ballots. Um motion to adjurnn. So moved by Mr. Wells, seconded by Miss Helder. Any discussion? All those in favor?