Sayville BOE Business Meeting Dec 11, 2025-Johnson Ave MS

001allows her family and friends. Emily is an amazing girl with a bright future and an opportunity to make a difference. I know her family and her friends have to keep her in our hearts and keep her light. We would like to recognize our community whether you Emily or not and or her family um in the outpouring of generosity and love that we wrapped around that family. So please join us in a moment of silence in memory of Emily Pinn. >> Thank you. You can take a seat. Okay, now we're down to business. So, um, at this moment, I'd like to take a motion to open up a public hearing to discuss our safety plan. Any discussion? All in favor? >> What that simply means is that we're opening public comment for the health and safety

002plan. I'm going to let Mr. Martell explain the purpose of that and what that means for typically the districtwide school safety plan is updated during the year at the end of the year over the summer. A new plan approved for the ensuing school year. In August, there was a change in the state requirements to include dishes law as part of the districtwide safety plan which have effective January 28, 2026. The ship's law provides for the implementation of cardiac arrest emergency response and automated external defeated. It was requirement that the cardiac response becated were done and had to be uploaded to the New York State portal which was done in early September. The district-wide team met on October 23rd from December 3rd and has revised the districtwide plan to incorporate these requirements. The team also included

003updates to a remote instruction plan and some other minor word clarifications. As with each update to the public safety plan, district is required to hold this hearing to allow time for public comment on the plan over the next 30 days for the board to approve the January 15. This will allow the district to meet January 2026 deadline for any questions or comments. We had some questions from the community, some highlights from the community of changes that need to be made or or wording and I'm assuming those address. >> Yeah, you you voted on those in September. We basically had some redundancies, a couple of repetitive locations that we had overlooked in the summer and they were fixed and then at this time we'll open up for public comment. We'll leave it to the safety plan.

004Sorry to have my back to the audience. It's a weird setup. Um, my name is Allison Ryan. I'm a mother of two high school students, a licensed clinical social worker specializing in intimate partner violence. And I share this not only as a parent, but as someone who has spent 25 years supporting survivors and educating schools and communities on violence prevention. There is a copy of this letter in all of the board members email inboxes as well as the principles of the middle school and high school. I'm not usually shaky when I speak, but my first experience in Sable High School was addressing a suicide student 25 years ago that was enacted after the end of a relationship. And to be standing here again 25 years later, knowing we're facing the same repeated cycle over and

005over again, it feels like such a deep injustice. So, I want to acknowledge the extraordinarily complex landscape in which the board of education, administrators, teachers, and support staff are operating. I know you're facing unprecedented mental health needs, staffing, and financial constraints, rapidly changing technology, and a community with passionate and differing viewpoints. And I do not envy that position, and I do not take her work for granted. At the same time, I'm generally scared, genuinely scared for our community and our students. And I am grieving for all victims and survivors of intimate partner violence, including Emily Finn and Gabby Patito. And the only thing I know to do with my grief is advocate for meaningful change. In the spirit of transparency, I also want to share that the letter I sent to the superintendent and the

006board president two weeks ago went unanswered. It's very vulnerable to express things about such intimate and personal and difficult situations and to not have a response is painful. And it's why I'm here to speak in front of you all. Our issues that we're facing are urgent and our community needs reassurance that voices like mine and those of our students are being heard. The murder of Emily by her former partner is an unbearable tragedy and tragically it is not an anomaly. Students are asking why did this happen? Could this happen to me or my friends? Am I safe? A trauma informed response must be offered to help our students and community heal. This includes being willing to offer truth, context, and practical tools, not silence. I am grateful for the PPS presentation offered shortly after Emily's

007death. The staff were compassionate and professional. At the same time, a content was geared towards a younger audience and did not directly address the relationship violence dynamics that contributed to this tragedy. Our older students urgently need developmentally appropriate, honest education about healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships. We do know why this happened, and we need to be honest and vocal about that. Unfortunately, our current district-wide school safety plan does not address this need. Despite its length and emphasis on violence prevention, it contains no meaningful reference to dating violence, intimate partner violence, coercive control, technology facilitated abuse, or the elevated danger adolescence face after breakup. The reality is clear. One in three of our teens in our high school are facing physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in an intimate partner relationship. Homicide is the leading cause of

008death for teenage girls, most often committed by a current or former intimate partner. The post breakup period is the most dangerous window for escalating violence and homicide. And excuse me, if it is unappropriate to say that my daughter learned how to count calories in health class, not the cycles of an abusive relationship. These are not abstract statistics. They describe exactly what happened to Emily and what too many of our students are navigating right now. Stable students deserve a trauma-informed response grounded in accurate information about intimate partner violence. relationship education integrated into Strides and Health curriculum, not as a one-time assembly, but as sustained prevention and partnerships with local intimate partner violence agencies, many of which provide free and grant-f funed school programming like the one I was working for when I first came here 25

009years ago. We cannot undo what happened, but we can ensure our response honors Emily's memory by reducing the chances that another student will experience the same fate. Healthy relationship education is school safety. Traumainformed response is violence prevention. And naming the truth is leadership. Thank you for your time and commitment to keeping every student safe. >> Just want to thank you for your comments. Um note that related to the safety plan. I just want to address some of the things you mentioned. There's some information that you might not have that we are very We are very common form that we do not do. Our PPS department does an amazing job of laying a foundation in our health curriculum constantly talking about this. In fact, just today we have talking to students about relationships. And so I

010just want to make assumptions and put out there that these things aren't happening. But we would love you to reach out to our department. a lot of things we do that we're not doing. >> I want to preface and I've said this many times in the past and I'll say it again. We can always do better, right? There's always things that we can improve on. We learn as we go. Um to Dr. Ferris's point, you mentioned that your own children did not have this education. We have had in our health classes specifically to what you've spoken to um many conversations about healthy relationships not only in romantic relationships but even peer-to-peer friendships. So that is happening in our health curriculum and as Dr. Ferris said as early as today we did have the Gabby Patito

011Foundation in at the high school that was planned months ago and they came this morning and spoke with our students. the students who are able to speak with them, ask questions and have an open and honest conversation about that. Sometimes too through our strides curriculum, we might the heading or the topic may be different, but we're instilling these type of values through trust or through empathy or through resilience and we are having these hard conversations. Later on this year, we plan to have a parent workshop with the Gabby Patito Foundation, they're going to come back and host the workshop parent workshop. are things that we do. So again, we can always do better. We always take feedback, but these conversations are happening. They have been happening and we hope to continue to increase the number

012of times that they do happen. And I just want to say to your comment that um we didn't respond. Yes, you did send an email um and we did correspond by text. You did reach out both times. Um, and and I just want to say that this may be your wheelhouse, but it certainly isn't mine. And um, it's been two weeks. We're all trying to digest this and we all deal with this in our own way. And and and the email that you sent earlier today, we haven't had a chance to >> just to explain how it works with the board that they're not allowed to respond individually to an email to the entire board. So the only time they can the only time they can respond and they've talked about it. So this is

013the first meeting we've had where they can get together and discuss email. So you will get a response. It's just not as an individual. >> Okay. Are there other comments regarding the safety plan? >> All right. So you have 30 days to comment. So at this point I'll take a motion to close the public hearing regarding this evening. Second Chris discussion. All in favor? >> Um motion carries. All right. We are now returning back to our regular public hearing public meeting. And um in terms of correspondence, you just heard about some of it. Um we received a letter regarding Lincoln Avenue and we received a letter about um kudos to many of our staff members and administration across the district. Um thank you for that. We also received a Christmas card or holiday card um

014from school which all right I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Ferris for the superintendent. >> Thank you so much. Um, and we want to kind of get into some of the things that's just going on around the district. Uh, but then they're going to do some student recognitions. We have some amazing music students here tonight that we're going to celebrate and then we're going to talk with the board about our budget priorities. We're planning much earlier this year, giving you more information. Mr. Martell has been doing analysis of our budget for this year and then preparing for next year. So, we want to give you guys an update and then we'll do our committee report. That's the plan. Uh just want to take a moment to congratulate our Golden Clashes football team. They

015captured the Suffet County Class 3 championship on number 20 20th with a resounding 347 victory over the Smithtown West School. And then they went on to win the Long Island Championship for the 42 to 35 victory over the Wah School District making them the 12-0 undefeated champion. Want to congratulate our football team for a successful [applause] season. But that's not all because we have multiple teams who won the county and Long Island championships. We had an impressive number of teams. The girls soccer team won the Long Island Championship. The boys golf team secured the county title. The girls cross country team dominated their season in county championships. So we celebrate all these winners in the parade. We just want to thank all the people that showed up in town on Sunday. Uh the fire department

016going through and we have a fun little group on the side of the road there celebrating. So, let's give a hand to all of our teams who are [applause] unable. You have multiple teams often winning county and state and and Long Island championship. So, something we should be really proud of. And from an academic point of view, on November 21st, Sable High School's AP Research Cohort hosted students from the William Floyd High School for a collaborative peer-to-peer mentoring conference. juniors from both schools, exchange feedback on project proposals, strengthen their research skills, and receive guidance from students who have already completed a research program. Just want to uh send a thank you to our teachers from both the Sable School and the Lake Public School District. It was a great collaboration and a great day for

017our students to enhance their their learning through peer feedback. Thanks. Um, also want to turn it over to um, Chris to talk about our student advisor. >> So, we met with the student advisory committee last week. I co-host this with Mr. Hart, the assistant principal at Sable High School, our PPS staff, and Miss Loresten, who is our assistant director for special ed. This committee focuses around board goal three. And that's why I wanted to talk a little bit about it this evening. Sense of belonging and inclusivity. So, we asked our students, it was about a group of 20. Anthony was actually on the committee even though he couldn't be there that day. Um, but I'd like Anthony in the future with a peer to come and share out. But what we talked about at the

018committee was our cell phone ban, mental health awareness. We asked the kids what they feel we address well and what they think we need to address more in the area of mental health and we focused a large part on resilience and how they develop coping skills. We also asked a question and I just want to share one highlight from that meeting. There was a lot of positives and they also had a lot of constructive feedback. But one question we asked them was when is it that you feel most connected to your school community in Seville? And we have them silently write down their answer and about 13 different students shared and every single one of them had the same answer and they didn't talk about it. It was silent and they all said they feel

019most connected to school when they're doing for others. So they mentioned volunteering in the community, community connect day, volunteering at some of our strides events, going to the nursing home. They said even at first though they might be reluctant, they never feel so close to the community than and the school than when they're out helping others. So I just thought that was a very poignant point and it was nice to share. But again, I'd like the students to come back and share more of their findings at a later date. >> And while our students are reading and talking about the Oh, sorry. >> Sorry. Thank you. Um, Jill, I just want to say I love that you have the part where the students can share what um can be improved upon, the constructive criticism and

020what they would like to learn more because that really gets them so involved and um makes it about them and not just what was on the agenda for that day. So, thank you for that and look forward and [clears throat] now that you've volunteered to come and speak um about your experience, I would love to hear from you. >> And as our students are meeting with Mr. Mus and talking about their experiences, our teachers are meeting with Miss Inola and talking about board goal number two. So, I'll just hand that over to you to describe a little bit about what's going on there. So we have two committees running concurrently and it's just a once in like a multiple decade opportunity to have these two professional growth opportunities happening at the same time like the

021the infrastructures and the systems that these two groups are creating simultaneously are just going to elevate our all of our work together. So we have faculty and admin representatives from across the district participating in the PD committee and the steps committee. The steps is like a teacher and leader evaluation committee. Um and these are both focused on creating strong systems for professional growth. The PV committee is very thoughtful in their approach um to shaping our professional learning system um that is designed to serve our students and our faculty needs in and they're very focused on ensuring that these ways are accessible and they're engaging. Um the PD committee is dovetailing beautifully with the steps committee. Um it's a golden opportunity. We're reimagining what a faculty evaluation system can look like. um when it's truly focused

022on growth um rather than like scoring and bringing out the best in our talent. Um there's going to be creative multiple measures for how um faculty get evaluated um that um goes beyond uh including observations but going beyond observations. Um the steps committee really heard the call to innovate. So the conversations like in the early stages are forward thinking, they're creative. Um Mappers joins me on this committee and we're already seeing that this work is it just feels revolutionary um [cough and clears throat] growth. So the two committees are interconnected. The systems that are creating are working side by side and um we're just excited how powerful it's going to be >> and eventually you're going to hear a proposal from them about how we want to move forward with the way we evaluate teachers,

023support teachers in their growth and develop our skills. It's really exciting. Uh continue on. I just want to congratulate the middle school students who performed in Greece. Uh they did a wonderful job. Uh it was amazing performance. The music, the sound, the lights, everything, the dancing. It was a great show. So, thank you to our middle school students. We also had Thanksgiving celebrations at the Sunrise Drive School. They had a parade. They raised money for charity. They collected food. Um the children all participated. It was wonderful. Also at uh Thanksgiving, we had the Lincoln Avenue School uh student council led by Miss Border. Miss Lero ran a successful food drive collecting 360 pounds of food for local families. Their enthusiasm, teamwork, and care truly showcases the spirit and is in line with what Miss said

024that the kids really enjoy when they do for others and and their memorable moments and learning experiences. Also want to thank our teachers and staff who uh promoted in November. We're out of the schools in November. We spotlighted men's mental health led by teachers at McGall and social worker Anthony Calci. Students and staff participate in meaningful conversations, lessons, and activities complete with mustache growing, engaging activities schoolwide, but mostly to enhance student and faculty understanding of the needs that men go through uh in terms of mental health and how they can kind of advocate for themselves and help others in the community. So, that was a great event. I want to thank the teachers and staff for all and um we have really great news with the middle school. uh they were listed by uh US

025world news report as in the top 15% of school middle schools in New York State. So we want to give a real shout out to the staff and faculty and students at Sable Middle School for an amazing job. Let's give them a hand. [applause] We are also now in winter concert season. So we're celebrating concerts. Sunrise Drive had their concert. Chariot Avenue Middle School had a winter concert. Uh there were really amazing singing and musical playing going on. Uh the band at the elementary school did their first concert. It was great. The uh singers were fantastic. And I just want to commend all of our elementary schools and middle school students. We will have high school concerts coming up next week and we're really excited for that. There's the Lincoln Avenue team. Uh we also

026want to point out that upcoming is Every Child's Dream. Our student volunteers work to prepare for our annual Every Child's Dream holiday dinner that's going to be tomorrow night. They spent their afternoon sorting jackets, clothing donations, and wrapping presents for the attendees. And the dedication to this community and the community beyond the community really embodies the true spirit of giving and the season and what it's all about. So, we want to thank our students and staff at the high school who are doing this great charity event. It's one of the nicest things. Glad to see uh you know several hundreds of children come to the high school to receive gifts to participate through [clears throat] sit on Santa's lab to do all kinds of fun activities. We really appreciate the work of our high school

027teachers, staff and administration. And finally, we have kindergarten registration is now open. Uh if your children is 5 years old on or before December 1st, 2026, you're eligible for enrollment in our kindergarten program. Please visit our district website for more information on how to grow. And that kind of uh ends our around the district. And now we're ready to celebrate some of the students who are here tonight uh to receive awards. So I'm going to turn it over in Miss Box who's going to come up and [applause] >> so I just wanted to compliment uh everyone that went to some of the concerts and the middle school music was awesome. Um, the amount of kids that were on the stage, I could not believe how many, like there had to be 100 kids on the

028stage at one point. And they were all dancing and he definitely involved. The leads were great. Uh, it was really, uh, the art was great. So, kudos up and down for that, uh, showcase at middle school level was was really tremendous. And it was great to even have a live pit sitting in front. Having some nice kids play. So, kudos to all of you that were involved in that. Thank you. [applause] All right. And now for the moment we've all been waiting for. Hello. Thank you. My name is Carrie Van Boxel and I'm the music department chairperson. Um, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to recognize the outstanding achievements of our student musicians. Each year, students work diligently to prepare a solo to perform at MISMA solo festivals held each spring. They

029are evaluated by an independent adjudicator and receive a score. Based on that score and teacher recommendations, the students being recognized tonight have been chosen for honor ensembles at the county and state level. The following students based on their score at the NISMA Spring Jazz Festival were selected for the Suffach County Music Education Association all county ensembles. Cooper Gavin Middle School Jazz Band and Aaron Saxs High School Jazz Band. [applause] Congratulations. >> [applause] >> Based on their NISMA scores, the following students were selected for the Long Island String Festival orchestras. Michael Draata, Middle School Orchestra. Christopher Larkin, Middle School Orchestra, Ryan Sereno, Middle School Orchestra, Maybel Valente, Middle School Orchestra, Cameron Dikova, High School Orchestra, and Braden Rothstein High School Orchestra. [applause] That's it. >> [applause] [applause] >> The New York State Band Directors Association selects

030exceptional student musicians from across the state from over 375 applicants. This year we have four students who were selected to represent Sable in Syracuse, New York to participate in the high school honor. The following students have been selected to perform with the high school honor band. Shannon Conifrey, Eric Dong, William Mitchell, and Ella Ryan. [applause] >> [applause] >> The Long Island Scholar Artist Awards, presented by the Long Island Arts Alliance in partnership with News Day, honors high school seniors who demonstrate excellence in both the arts and academics. The winners will be featured in News Day and recognized at a year-end celebration. Congratulations to Merit Award winner Ava Helba on this outstanding achievement. [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you so much and congratulations to all of >> [applause] >> Okay. So, this next portion of the

031meeting is focused on our budget. If you are a student and you have homework to do or other activities and you want to leave, this is your moment. And then if you're here, come on closer. Before we move on to the budget portion, I want to take a moment to recognize an employee who spent the last 21 years serving this school district and the board of education as both the secretary of the superintendent for myself the last four years. Prior to that, Mr. Dr. um and also this board and we really appreciate the time the efforts and the um the commitment to helping this board run to helping the meeting run smoothly to ensuring that our district is taken care of and it's been like taking care of everyone in the central office as the

032lead secretary and the lead district for a very long time. I want you to know I appreciate it. I Everyone here appreciates it as well. So, let's give a hand to our Julie [applause] [applause] retirement. We hope that you enjoy your time as you leave here with your family playing pickle ball, running, basking in the sun. I miss you greatly. Um, as as as the president currently, um, you do so much to to help me do this smoothly and I know that I feel that all the presidents before me, but this entire board knows what you do for us. And as the district currently done for the community, you run elections, you answer questions, you short, you distribute our resources. So, we'd like to invite you up for a picture with us and just to

033give you that final like [applause] That's good. You had many boards. This is your last [applause] Everybody, this is Sarah Maxwell. She's our new district clerk. Welcome, Sarah. [applause] Be calling Julie Buffin. All right. I want to kind of stand in front of you because I want to present to you this next portion and to the audience. Um, this next portion is about our budget planning and our budget priorities. But I think it's important to note that everything we do continues to be tied to our 100 day study that we did four years ago. At that time, we surveyed parents, we surveyed community members, we had focus groups with them. We did focus groups with teachers and staff and students. And we did surveys with students to ask them what do they believe saving should

034be about, what should the outcomes be for our kids, and what do we want for our schools. So everything we're going to hear about tonight and continue to hear about when we talk about budget is tied to these outcomes of making sure that our students are focused on being independent learners, caring citizens, communicators, collaborators, critical thinkers, and joyful learners. It's tied to the the building goals which are core path sunrise core values back to basics and Lincoln learns. Everything that our teachers are doing and working on with our administrators is tied to those goals, to those outcomes for our students and tied to the board goals, which you heard about tonight. Sense of belonging, inclusivity, the curriculum, instruction goals, all tied to that through connected autonomy and trying to be transparent and communicative with the

035community. But nothing of it works if we're not looking at our fiscal planning and ensuring we have a sound fiscal situation so that we can support these things for our students that's responsible for our community. Um so the today's focus is really earlier than before I presented to you a discussion about our budget priorities and then letting you comment on those priorities so that we can start to plan our budget out for 25 2017. Um, I think it's important to note that everything you're about to hear tonight should not be new because it was part of our five-year plan. And what I'm happy to report and cautiously optimistic about is working with the server cartels in these last couple months has really been so helpful and that he is an expert in analyzing past and

036projecting for the future. So, he's going to hear you're going to hear from him in a little while about some positive news. It's a positive step to be taking to close the gap between our revenues and our expenses. And that's really the most important thing that we do. So our number one priority as we develop our budget for this year is closing the gap between our revenues and expenditures. We want our revenues to go up as much as possible and our expenses to go down as much as possible. And you've seen the graphic from the last couple meetings. We want that line to meet and in fact cross over so that our revenues are exceeding our expansion. That's going to take some time and focus and we're hoping to get there in a short time.

037Um we also want to make sure that we significantly reduce our dependence on reserve funds to balance the budget. Uh this was started in about 2019. What happened was as co kind of came in and the funding for CO helped us to meet our expenses. Um and then that co money was kind of taken away. Our expenses exceeded our revenue and it resulted in us borrowing heavily from our reserves about 5 million.4 4 million from reserve to about 2019 to be present. Um so we need to make sure that we're reduc not only we increasing our revenue and decreasing our expenses but doing so in a manner that allows us to reduce our reliance on reserves. Our reserves as you heard from Mr. Martell's here is healthy. We want to make sure it stays healthy.

038And then the other aspect of this is new revenue. We want to look for ways to increase our revenue. We've been working with Mr. Martels and our team looking at our transportation aid, looking at our building aid, looking at our post, trying to find ways to capture more money for the district reserves in the services that were being provided. And we've been really successful at that. You're going to hear about that. But there are other ways to attend revenue. We've been talking to dance studios about renting out this space. We have a beautiful space with beautiful lighting and we can make significant revenue by renting it out on weekends. [clears throat] We're also going to be talking a board about future stars and the idea of renting field in the summer for different types of

039camps. We can talk about that during this business portion when we're talking about that. But these are just other ways to increase our revenue. So if we had to boil it down like what are our three priorities in terms of planning for this budget, it's one reduce the gap that is existing to revenue expenditures. Two, reduce our reliance on reserves and start to fill those reserves back up. And three, um increase our revenues to help with that process. We also apart from the budget have to look at our tasks and I'll talk about that. So in terms of our program and staffing priorities for this year and this year's budget um our number one priority is to maintain all programming and have a commitment to maintaining every single program that we exist that exists in

040Savville. We're very proud of our programs. We've added programming over the years program at the elementary schools. We've added the reading and math support at the elementary schools. We've added AP courses at the high schools. We have a really robust program. It's one of the reasons we were cited by US support about our AP offerings and the amount of students taking AP. So we really want to make sure that in this budget and all budgets moving forward, we are maintaining the programs we have, maintaining the class size we have and maintaining staffing across all levels. Another focus for this year's budget is restoring the professional development code. Uh we have used um uh government funding both through state aid and or through uh federal aid to fund a lot of our curriculum projects and professional

041development here because last year's budget we get to reduce that. But as you know great things happen for kids and great learning takes place for adults. So when we increase the PD we provide for our teachers and staff and increase the curriculum writing projects and the volumes when they go on it will result in great things for our students. So we want to restore our professional development GD curriculum budgets to the 2024 levels which were healthy and um we've talked about middle school for a while now. We focused as you heard from Dr. a couple meetings ago on the focus on academic teaming where kids are teamed and travel with their cohorts and teachers have team meeting time now in their contract. to meet with their team to discuss students to discuss curriculum to do

042some projects and our plan was to have team leaders. We weren't able to do that last budget cycle but we would like to put that back in this year's budget cycle. So that's one team leader per team and that's make it exciting to kind of facilitate the team be in charge of working with the principal to focus the team and focus the grade levels on common curriculum. jump charge or supercharge the team process that takes place at the middle school. If you remember, we added scheduling. We added a whole bunch of elements. Um, and we're looking at program enhancements. We can't commit to this, but we're keeping a close eye on our enrollment. We have declining enrollment at the high school level. We also are looking at attrition and retirements. So if things match up

043and make it possible, we would then use those opportunities not to add expenses but to keep expenses flat but still have perhaps some focus on restoring the math that we were looking at and also the middle school world language. Part of our five-year plan in world language was not only to put world language in the elementary schools which we've done. and we have more learning consistent in grade 1 through five, but also to look at seventh grade where we have an every other day situation and we're committed to following through on that and we just have to figure out that's going to be this budget cycle or next year's budget cycle. And a lot of that has to do with enrollment. We have a class of 175 in the seventh grade heading forward to high

044school. So as need for language classes in high school reduced because the low enrollment, we can enhance that seventh grade program with no cost. So we're looking at creative ways to continue and programming. We won't know about that until we're getting our final state numbers and planning that effort. These are the kind of staff priorities and the program priorities we're putting in front of you as proposals for as we look forward. We want to hear from you comments on this and any other things you think are important. We'll try to work into our budget planning. Again, the purpose of this meeting is a really good idea. We're doing this just kind of primer. This is what we're aiming for. We think you guys will see that and then in February we propose our budget we

045incorporate into terms of capital plans. Uh we have consistently been using a capital line of about a million dollars that sits outside of the tax net uh to enhance our buildings and grounds. And I will say our buildings and grounds are in really good shape. We've been doing our bathrooms. We did the bathrooms at the elementary school. We've done bathrooms at the middle school and high school now. And we really want to turn our attention to some of the instructional spaces and some of the other areas that we've talked about in our fiveyear plan uh for this next round of capital projects. So here are some of the things we want to focus on. One and primary is enhancing safety and security. Uh so we want to focus on hardening our perimeter. Uh we were

046given a audit last year from security and they gave recommendations. So we want to implement some of those recommendations. Adding additional swipe card and reading areas, maximizing access to areas and maxing [clears throat] key usage so there's no chance that anyone can get into our buildings. We have very good security. Now we want we also want to add camera coverage both inside and outside the buildings. This helps us see who's coming towards buildings within the building. Uh and we connect with the fifth precinct. Should there be an emergency, they can access our cameras. We want to have full coverage. I want to compliment Mr. hotels works just this fall to look at cameras that were not really having good vision because they were holding lenses or damaged lenses. We need to replace them with all

047of them and so we're in good shape there. But we want to enhance that and we want to do some other security measures as per the recommendations from Cobra as part of our capital planning and and we'll give you more details about that when we get to a presentation on studio section. Uh we want to refurbish some instructional spaces. I know you've heard a lot about the math classrooms at the high school and the middle school. Um, you know, we're enhancing and changing the way we do math instruction and we want to support our teachers who are doing that by putting whiteboards around the entire room and keeping furniture that's conducive to collaborative teaching as opposed to sliding stuff that doesn't quite fit. So, we would like to enhance our math classrooms. Uh, this is

048just phase one. Uh we want to look at our science technology and other spaces in future years, but even here I feel like our teachers are working really hard at this and we want to provide them with the tools they need to be successful. Uh we also want to upgrade the lighting and sound in our high school auditorium. Uh we have done that here at the middle school as part one of our projects. This is another project we'd like to do. I think it's several hundred,000 to refurbish the lighting and the sound so that that auditorium space can be used as well. Currently, we rent out lights and sound systems for our shows because our sound system is not good enough. And also, we find that it's be hard to have this great space. It's

049not as useful as we'd like it to be for assemblies and other things in the future. So, this was part of our fiveyear plan and we'd like to start working on that this summer. So, it will be part of the capital. We also have taken you down two years in a row to the weight room which is really in disarray. And so we have a very robust plan for the weight room going upstairs from the weight room to that fitness center. And we uh two years ago created a space the old junior high school where there was an old gym. It was used as a storage facility. We pulled everything out of the storage facility, refurbished the floor and now we use that as a practice space for our wrestling team for volleyball for basketball.

050So now the wrestling room at the high school is empty. And so our plan is to bring the weight room upstairs to the wellness room and then put the wellness room in the weight room, I'm sorry, in the in the reset room and then downstairs have a bike center and dance studio. So that can all be accomplished um either in a capital line budget and or discussion with the board about using the million dollar capital reserve that we have. Four years ago, we put a million dollars into the capital reserve. We're hoping to build on that and then do a lot of projects in the district. It's like a middle way to do a project. that gone. Um, but at this point, we don't see foresee in our financial future putting more money into that.

051So, the community voted to have this account and we should let the community vote if they want to spend the account on things like this for our students. So, it's something to discuss and consider. There's beyond and this is kind of the exciting part. We talked about this four years ago that we have debt from bonds we've done in the past and we've done a really good job with our infrastructure in our district. So for example, we have great roofs now. We have solar projects and they contribute to energy performance. We have done the units throughout our windows, our brick work. It's all really in good shape because of past bonds. But as those bonds come off the books, districts that are thorough take advantage of those opportunities to continue to do work in the

052district to advance and provide those students. So for example, if you look at this chart, um, and this is the proposed chart, the top line would be our debt service. It's a little under $8 million in debt service. In what you want to try to do as a district is not have ups and downs and peaks and valleys. Some years your debt goes down, some years your debt goes up because then you get hit with expenses that you, you know, have to anticipate and plan for. So you want to keep that top line flat. So the way you do that is the blue line is our debt service now. And if we do nothing at all, you'll see that blue line over the years will continue to decline because each year bonds that we did

05320, 30 years ago comes off the books, we don't have. Um, so what you do with those sensorations is the blue line goes down, you add bonds, new bronze to the books, and that would be that orange line. So we're in a moment in time that's really important for our district. It's an opportune time, I believe, next year to start talking about a bond for the community to vote on to support our schools with some of the instructional spaces and opportunities that our kids I think deserve and that this community has asked for. Um, this comes right out of 100 study. I'm about to present to you his life should be surprising that people are asking for it. It's a question of whether the community is supporting. That's why you would for vote. If we

054choose to go in this direction, I would do the same thing that I did with the 100 day study. We would have parent committees. We would have focus groups. We would have student committees. We have focus groups. We would have teacher committees and staff committees. And we would get feedback to provide to you as we design a bond that matches the community. But this is a really opportune moment in time that I believe we should seize on to ensure that we're providing things that that our district deserves. And I'll give you some examples. As much as we've been great at maintaining our buildings and our roofs and our windows and all the things around us are really in good shape, it's really time to start looking upgrades and modernizing spaces that kids use on a

055daily basis. So, for example, in the arts and music, um, we're we're planning on doing the high school theater, lighting and sound, but I also think the little theater needs to be revamped, upgraded, lighting, sound, and new seating. It's been that way since the building was built. And I think we have a really amazing theater program and and they would benefit from utilizing that space. It could also be used as an instructional space with more modern facilities that currently is being used. Uh, we have art classrooms that are we have great art programs. We want to provide equipment that is modern and technologically driven that matches what the art students will do if they go to art schools and will go to our professions in their life and also upgrade the music and recording studio.

056We have a recording studio facility that has been left unattended for many years. We have a morning show with it music creation and I think that that would be really appropriate to modernize those spaces for our students in the middle. And in the middle school they had a film program that they're doing in the magnetic space with a drop point music areas. We can modernize the music areas back here. They go back here. There's all new paneling. They're the original 1976 classrooms. And we can modernize our staff with the tools and equipment that meet the needs of modern music. And again, upgrade class. In addition to art, we're talking about instructional At the high school, we have a robust business program and it's taught out of the classroom. I really believe like look around other

057districts. Our program is just as good as some of the top districts in the county, but our facilities are not. So, I think it's really important to create a business center like center shaman or other districts around us. I like to visit other schools, think about what would work best for our students and come up with something that matches our programs. Our science labs, the newest science lab in Sable is 24 years old. Um, and we've changed the science standards multiple times with a new approach to teaching science. We want to be able to have science labs in our school and our middle school that match the needs of the new next generation science standards. Those are really due for nothing. This is what I mean by if you leave these things go and we

058don't do something like this next year, it'll be 20 more years before you can kind of several years before we have an opportunity to do this again. So I think it's important to kind of look at this as an opportunity to replace debt and debt, keep the budget on additional cost to taxpayers and provide some of these things for our students. We look at our guidance staff and our PPS staff at the high school. Um we really would work with this macros and part of create a wellness center. We have right now the social workers are in the back of the building. The psychologists are in another area. The guidance team is in another area. Then you have a wellness room down the hall. You want to put that all in one location. Have a

059wellness center at the high school where students can go guidance social worker psychologist andor the wellness center for mental health and support. There's space in the high school to do this. It's just a matter of configuring it so that it matches the modern day wellness program. I think that was an important feature to highlight the high school. We have a great wellness program that should be in a more collaborative and use space for our educators and air conditioning. We've looked at this now with Robert and with Teslano. uh we feel air conditioning uh the high school, middle school and elementary spaces and I'll talk about that not only provide a comfortable space with the new regulations of New York State we had to have it goes above 85 we had some really hot days in

060September and in um June and that was to alleviate that stress and that pressure for kids especially for testing time students but also by putting air conditioning in the windows at the first floor levels you're now guaranteeing that those rooms are locked and those windows are locked windows, you know, easy looking. That's another level of security for our schools because the whole windows are shut all the time because they're constant fresh air flow or hot. And again, at the middle school, we have a lot of science and steam spaces that were original 1976 classrooms. Uh we really want to advance these classrooms, expand their size, they're very tiny, uh so that students can do experimentation and focus on next generation learning standards in science and technology. We have great spaces at the high school. This

061is a very large building, a great size classroom. We want to modernize those. Our planetarium is a great concept. It's falling apart and it needs to we have to have a conversation about it. So either we revamp it and replace it and fix it or we build a bigger better system that incorporates a planetary other things for students. We can have so many unlimited possibilities in terms of science, in terms of plants, in terms of hydroponics and other other experiences for students. This is all again conceptual. Would that be your blessing? We won't go forward. I think it with your blessing at least more get people involved in talking about it, the teacher feedback, student feedback, etc. However, um we want to make sure that it enhances the reading needs of our students in the

062model needs that they have and air conditioning at the middle school similar to what we talked about at the high school because we believe it's comfortable and also enhances safety. At our elementary schools, we're committed to enhancing the outdoor learning experiences all three elementary schools. We want to upgrade our playgrounds, enhance our outdoor playground with sensory area and communication boards so that all students can access our playground in a meaningful and appropriate way. We love our playgrounds. If you look, the wood chips, you know, from 20, 30 years ago was the way to go. There are now rubber surfaces that are cleaner, that are less that are softer and that will provide safety for students. Our slack top areas need to be completely replaced. Today, in a modern um time period, you can get a

063rubber surface that you can bounce a ball on beautifully. When you fall down, you don't scrape your knee because it's a rubber surface. And also on wet surfaces and other stuff. So you could look to we're looking to redo our playground spaces, modernize them so that they're safer, also more inclusive for all students to be able to do. And then outdoor learning spaces. So our students in the elementary schools are outside quite a bit. We have some courtyards. We love to enhance those so they're better for outdoor science education, steam learning, and for any just, you know, going outside and meeting with us and more sensory equipment for the elementary schools. We have room of Lincoln Avenue. We want to look to expand our sensory equipment opportunities for students who have gains across the district.

064And again, at the elementary level, air conditioning so that kids are comfortable on the top, but also so that we have a safety mechanism where all windows are guaranteed to be closed throughout. And then we have athletics. And I know when you walk around on your building tours, Ryan Cox was very excited to share with you some ideas. And we have ideas high school fields and concession stands and bathrooms that are accessible. These are not our fields. They're just examples of mock fields. Uh the football field, the tracks, uh it's wearing out. So, you want to be able to use the track from each baseball field, softball field, all field, soccer, lacrosse, field, hockey. The main reason would be less and have more playable services. And then also additionally, these spaces can be rented out

065for revenue providing services to the district. We looked at the tennis courts. We would like to kind of upgrade those tennis courts. And we were talking about the possibility of an auxiliary gym off the back of the high school, a second PD space. So if you could run two of these spaces simultaneously, that would have result in less conflict for students. A lot of synergy courses. So you have more opportunity for kids to take courses and not lock out of courses. Again, these are ideas. What you do with the bond is you all ideas, you put them on the table and then you will back what's possible and then you prioritize. So I'm not suggesting any of these are priority over one or the other. That would be for our community and for you to

066decide for us to propose when we go to and if we go propose something we have to know in our hearts that our community participated in this process and they believe in ourselves. Uh and then the open school if you go out the back of the middle school you've seen that track is really deteriorated. It's really not we cannot run wheat at that track. We have to bring the middle school the high school track which gets more the middle school trip to the high school track. So we need to do the track at the at the middle school and the field at the middle school as well. Again we put all these things into committee. We have focus groups. we kind of prioritize and then we see what's possible and what's plausible with the type

067of bond we're looking at and also what the community is willing to support. >> Yeah. So I would like to begin the process, you know, once you decide that you're okay with this and we have a budget that's in good shape, which I believe we will talk more about that and it's really for the board to be able to go ahead to start the process of engaging the community, which we would want to do next fall because we would have to get ready for a go in the spring to then get work done over the next five, six years. And now I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Bartell who's going to give you our current expenditure revenue and funds projections. And I think this is relevant in that it speaks to how valuable

068and important it is to have someone in the district who can analyze and project which stand. >> Okay. I wanted to uh kind of give board update where we are still early in the year. the first half of the year. I think it's very important that you kind of see where we are. Uh this is uh kind of the chart I've been talking about. We have to bring the two lines together. Uh say you know the lines were pretty close for a number of years in the last few years kind of separated. So in 23 24 end of the year almost $5 million which is just Uh this past year we ended about $3 million apart. So again we're just we're leading the our reserves just too much reserves. Uh we have dash lines we're

069about $2 million apart and again this is at this point in this hopefully predicting no more than $2 million apart. I'm hoping be within a million dollars, but that's still a long way to go and there's a lot that can happen between now and the end of the year. Um, but right now I'm comfortable saying at least $2 million more. One of the important parts of these two lines, as I've discussed before, is the fiscal stress. So, I've got to get that down to a million dollars to keep us from being assigned any points towards fiscal stress. And again, this is the this is the very critical fiscal stress component because you need to have a break in consecutive years because they keep adding points. It's about eight points for each each year. So three

070consecutive years 24 points 25. So very important that we try to get that to within a million dollars. Where we are this year on expenses. Um we had our budget was 1056 this year which is actually down from where it was last year. However, our actual expenses are going to be up slightly. So right now I'm projecting 1.37 as far as expenses. Last year uh for the year we had 1032. So while our budget came down, our expenses may still go up slightly. Again, early in the year, I'm hopefully being conservative and we don't spend that full amount, but that's kind of where we're headed right now. Um, and again, this is all expenses. We'll talk about revenues in a second. As far as expense projections right now, I look at our salaries and project

071out for the rest of the year. Looks like we're going to be about $800,000 under our salary budget when we finish the year. That's really due to breakage, uh, turnover of staff, retirements, um, and utilizing the funds. Some of the things we're looking at is uh for example utilizing some school lunch funding to pay for that takes some of the expenses out of general school lunch fund where we're making additional monies especially universal free school lunch gives us ongoing revenue to continue to support that. for being able to pay for a custodian out of that out of the general fund budget. That's going to be an ongoing expense and ongoing revenue to support that. >> Can I just ask a quick question? >> Sure. What is breakage? >> Breakage is a difference of replace staff.

072So if you have a teacher that retires at $150,000 replace,000, you save $75,000. >> Thank you. That's the bridge. Um, social security uh is under is going to be under budget this year by about 150,000. Again, that's tied to more salaries. Um, transportation costs. We've done a number of things this year. So, coming into this budget, uh, I know district uh, had cut bus. We ended up cutting a second bus. Um, after I came on the summer, we looked at the different um, buses that we have. We ended up cutting two buses. along with some vans that go to some of our private local schools. So, we've done some consolidating of some of those routes. Um, we also get what we call share credits. So, our bus company when they do routes to other other

073private schools, not only do they take our students, they take students from other surrounding districts. So, we'll get share credits um on transportation. All that's adding up to uh feeding at least $500,000 to the budget for this year. On health insurance, we had a premium increase we just received last uh week for 2026. Our health insurance premiums are going up 9%. Again, large number. Uh fortunately when the budget was done 15% was projected for an increase. So this at nine helps out. Uh so we're going to end up being about 250,000 under budget. When we look at next year's budget, we have to put those numbers in. We have to do another projection for an increase for 2027. Again, probably going to be another double digit increase or have to plan for another double digit

074increase. Hopefully it will come in under and then we'll add to um additional ones uh that we used for the following uh equipment and supplies. We have a number of items in this category throughout the district trying to hold back on spending as much as possible um for equipment and supplies. Um should be about $300,000 under budget in those folks. uh our special education out of district placements. Looks like we're going to be about $200,000 of under budget for those students. We always have some additional monies in those budgets to account for students who may not be aware, some students who district, some students who are classified during the year programs. Um uh some other goals and the other codes we have smaller codes just kind of monitoring the usage things like conferences, travel reimbursements,

075things like that going to be about 100,000 under budget. Um our ERS and our TRS contributions are actually going to be $100,000 over budget and that's really due to our employee retirement system contribution rates. Uh things that we have no control over set by the state. uh we just have to pay those contributions. That's going to be a little bit over budget. Workers compensation last couple of years has been much much higher than our budgets. Uh and this year it's going to be about $200,000 over budget. Looking at ways that we can try to cut back on that going forward. Uh that's a big drain. We do have some reserves for workers comp, but that should be for one year at a time. We just exceed our budget. We should be budgeting for those claims.

076[clears throat] So in summary, spent side of the budget, we're about going to be about $2 million under budget overall at the end of this year. That's what we're projecting at this point in time. So we did reduce our budget overall, but it looks like we're still going to be about $2 million under what that budget is. Any questions about that part of it? Yeah, I I just I have a quick question. So that's that's the current year, right? That's 2526 or that's $2 million >> under what our proposed budget was, right? >> And that's through because that's a lot of money when you're talking about like that's that's almost 2%, right, of the entire budget. That's that's a decent chunk of money. So did we I now I know you overbudget on purpose, right?

077your over budget like in any budget with your housing and stuff like that. But are these savings that like so these are found savings and and that money would then go back into the general fund. Correct. And that would help close that gap that you talked about on your graph. >> Correct. And I'll get to it in a couple slides. Okay. >> Yeah. Like for example, we had a retirement at the end of the year that wasn't part of our budget planning. So when we replaced that person at 75,000 that's a $75,000 savings. those kind of things and other things. I want to compliment Mr. Bartell's because he went through the transportation lines and we rerouted buses to remove two buses and several vans. That was $500,000 in savings in the district by taking the

078time to work towards um getting those routes to be more efficient. So I like those details matter. Looking at Boseies and making sure we use Boseies, utilize Boseies for the things that we're purchasing. We did a lot of that last spring. result in higher dose aid coming back. So there's a lot of factors. I think some are just because some retired but others are purposeful by the business official uh making moves that make sense and can capture aid we deserve or capture uh funds back that shouldn't be spent. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. On the revenue side of the budget um we like be kind of in reverse. We're on our expense side, we want to be under budget. On our revenue side, we want to be over budget. So 2526 for the school

079year, our budgeted revenues were 100,100,000. Uh that's up about $100,000 over what was budgeted for revenue in 2425. Um 2425 we came in with an actual of about 100,200,000. So slightly above our budget. Uh this year we're looking at revenues right now about 117 which is 1.6 million above the budget. Going back to your point about expense side over that um how do we get the state again I have to temper this just because the state aid runs have not come out formally on the state a website I did by through uh one of the BOSEIS. They have projections that they're able to pull from the state data and everything. Uh looks like we're projected to get uh an additional million dollars above what was projected for SEO uh from the legislative budget back in

080spring. How we're going to get there is uh well, first the city budget um that we projected to be included in this budget was 300,000 under what the uh state had projected for us. So we didn't budget for the full amount about 300,000 under what the state projected transportation aid uh which is one of the things I've really been working on. uh talked a number of times about unallowable decimal making sure that we have uh allowable students to run as [clears throat] many buses as possible gets us additional state aid our transportation aid is going to be up over half million dollars for this year >> I want to interject that over the summer Robert painstakingly went student by student to make sure that we captured the aid we deserved and that number of $500,000

081is a direct result of more income coming into the district because he took the time to look at each student and the bus routes and make sure that we're capturing the proper amount of uh the next piece is our building aid to make sure we filed as many building aid project forms as we could. We had a number of capital projects going on over the past year uh even for this summer. Wanted to make sure uh got aid started on that as quickly as possible. So our building aid is going to be up 4.3 million plus. One negative piece is our ocean aid which is going to be down about 100,000 more projected. It's up overall from what we received last year but it's under what was projected by the state this spring. Uh reason

082it's under is because our total expenditures for 2425 did not get to the uh amount that they thought. We continue to push uh expenses into Boseis and we can uh we've been doing that additionally this year. So that number should go up again next year. Uh we quite get to I guess where we expecting to be last year as far as expenses. Good thing last year we didn't spend the money but we much state for this. Uh our interest income, we make money on money that we have in the bank taxes. We put in the bank interest on that. Uh we're going to be about $150,000 over budget on that money to invest that properly trying to maximize the interest. We got a tax anticipation note premium where we borrow money every year, early fall

083to hold us until we get our tax money. That's the tax anticipation note. Um when banks bid on that money to lend us that money sometimes instead of giving us a better rate, give us an additional cash up which helps lower the net interest. That was an additional $91,000. Um interest on health taxes. So the town holds on to the tax money when they receive it before they distributed to school districts. Uh in prior years, we typically don't plan on getting any interest on that for a short period of time. Interest rates were lower. Interest rates have come up in the last year or two. So we then additional $94,000 in interest on those the county bases that uh Boseies refund every year. Uh we for different programs that our students attend um collect all

084the money end of the year they have extra money districts and then they make refunds. Part of the refund is typically about $200,000. This year it's going to be over So it's going to be 225,000 more than what we budget for this year. Health services uh usually charge safe nutrition. Um they're no longer operational. So that 65,000 in the budget was closed after our budget closed that was still in our budget. So we're not receiving that. Um so overall in total for all of our revenue we're going to be about 1.5 million over budget revenue. So again very positive same same way here we're projecting 1.5 million now I'm hoping it's going to be actually a little bit higher than that but that's what I'm comfortable. So we ended last year uh with a total

085balance of 237 23,700,000. When we did the budget for this year, we planned on using $5.5 million to support the expenses in this year's budget. Um if we had done if we had this point before we spent the entire budget all of our expenses and we revenue we obtained exactly what we budgeted we would have brought our fund balance down at the end of this year to 182. So that's what happens. But by not spending the $2 million on the expense side, picking up the additional one and a half million on the revenue side, it's an additional three and a half million back. So right now our projection for the end of the year will be our fund balance is going to be down to 21,750,000. So still a fairly healthy fund balance and again

086trying to be conservative. hoping the numbers do better than that. The year's not over. We're still going to be looking for savings from the expense side, looking for additional ways to generate additional revenue. But my first goal is to get our actual expenses and revenue. That would be ultimately I don't think we're going to get there this year. Close. Next goal is to get to 1% hoping to get 1% of expenses and last to get through this year funding next year is to stop the use of reserves to fund the budget. You always need some reserves. You need an appropriated fund balance every year to fund your budget. You should plan on a contingency. You should they don't have that extra money at the end of each year. But it has to be reasonable has

087to be something that you know with pretty good reason you're going to get to. So if you're budgeting three billion, you should know that your expenses hopefully will be around 1.1. You should know you're going to have about $2 million access. Then you may have things like um an additional student that needs to go to post or special needs student. You may find um that you have to open another section at elementary school and someone have to add another teacher $100,000. There may be different things that happens around the year that may change. So some you should be pretty comfortable that whatever number you pick for the appropriate between unspending the budget and additional revenue you're going to get to that number. So you can budget hopefully you haveund so you have $2.5 million funds

088maybe you projecting $2 million under budget on the expense side you that's where you plan on end up if you end up with more You end up with an extra million dollar instead of an extra 500,000 on the revenue side and 3 million. Instead of 2 and a half million, you take that extra $500,000 and put it into your additional fundamentals to deal with issues that come up. If you ended up say you only $2 million at that point, that's when you taking Does does that do when you do when you come in 2 million under and and your expenses rise well does that will that negatively impact our tax cap or our tax rate? >> No. Does not that doesn't change tax levy the tax account that you have every year. So tax revenues

089and expenses that you have during the year don't really impact upon tax calculation, >> right? It goes so it technically goes off previous year's budgeted number, right? So >> it goes up the previous year's tax levy. >> Tax le. Okay. All right. All right. So then that wouldn't affect it. You're right. So, I was just making sure that because because I just want to make sure that like, you know, something sounds good and looks good and and but then, you know, there's there's like a backside to it where where it's negatively impacting us because that's that's happened before where where we've been like, "Oh, wow. This is great and this looks awesome, but then at the end it's like, yeah, but it it led to this, which ended up being a negative for us." So,

090all right. I just wanted to make sure that I had my ducks around. Thanks. >> You're wind up there. Um the only other thing with the appropriate fund balances that would be one thing that would plan you should have some sort of contingencies built into your budget. So you want to plan around that. The other piece is there are reserves for bonded debt. Those reserves are expected to be used against the debt which you have expenses your debt service on debt supposedly on basis each year. So that's something that should be tied to your expenses or a portion of your expenses. things like your uh teachers retirement system, employees retirement system reserve, workers compensation reserve, those are not reserves that really should be used to fund ongoing annual expenses. They should be used if you

091have a straight GM 20,000 in workers comp expenses year after year. That's what your budget is. That's what you spend. $300,000 in one year. But you really need to need to keep planning for actual expenses and keep those budget as well. Thank you very much for the effort to to maximize our state. Um I know it's quite a task to be able to um you know scrutinize everything and ensure that we're getting it. I appreciate that. Thank you. Um I yes I just want to say from the very beginning um you know um Mark watching um your presentation and how our five-year plan has um started to kind of come together and and the visions are moving forward and and um you know the idea of some of the things that you presented are very

092amazing and pie in the sky and I hope that some we can figure out how to get some of those to come to fruition. Um and and Robert in terms of of the budgeting and and I think we all learned a lot between last year and this year and um to know that we're like on the right track to getting back to the point of flush and then even possibly um you know in a better spot financially when you look at like the expenses um I know that and and really the revenues a lot of it is uh you know a guess like we don't have control over what the health is going to go up. We don't have control over what year or TRS is going to do. So, you're like guessing and and

093sometimes that leads to um you know works out in our favor then and then other years it doesn't. Um how much of like the expense and and the same thing with revenues like obviously there are some things that we didn't predict. We didn't expect US Christians to go out of business. We didn't expect some of those refunds to come back. Um, in terms of like looking at our budget from last year, this year, and looking forward, um, I feel like just from your presentations, it feels tighter and and and more that we have a a better understanding or vision of of or grasp of like what are um what we can control. Um, what are like our fears? What are the things that can happen that that we're not expecting? like um we obviously you

094know the state the state buzz tanks and and we don't get the money that we're expecting. Um how do we um is there a way to like hedge our bets for those kinds of things? >> There's really no way to do that other than to try to budget conservatively as best as you can. um if there is a crisis that comes up, if the state decides they're not going to fund it, for example, foundation a decide to change how they're going to do that foundation a we would be in trouble a lot more probably do more cuts. Uh but I would think something like that were to happen, we get a little bit of notice for that. Uh there was a time probably 30 years ago now where the state just pulled state aid directly

095from school districts from what they had projected in the spring school year. It just completely devastated school districts. Uh I don't think that would happen again. >> Uh I think that would be They would plan it out. They would tell you if they're going to change that formula. And today I'm going to give you that you get a little bit of um a little bit of notice on that, but there's really no guarantee. >> I relate to it. I know. Um one more question. Um you mentioned the fiscal stress war, which is something we kind of talked a lot about publicly last year. um and how you know you need to get a you were hoping that our projections were going to be better even than than than they are right now so that we

096would have a break. Um how important is it that we have that break in the fiscal stress door and does that mean maybe looking at in the spring like mid midyear cuts or something to make sure that we get to that keep that fiscal stress like how important is it that that we come under that? We're we are not going to be designated for fiscal stress in this year even if we do fall under the because I planned for that when we did our hand borrowing. That's why I did limit the amounts that we borrowed this year. Uh we could use another couple million dollars but we couldn't afford the possibility that we generate those extra points on borrowing because exactly this if our kid gets $100 million we're going to get those additional points

097but because I didn't borrow money 10 hit with others. So we'll still be under the 25 this year. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? >> No, that's what I was going to bring up that just thinking that the the fiscal stress score I think is I know first goal, second goal, there go that has to be right up there because eventually that'll affect if we're talking about bonds and things like that that that directly impacts that. So, you know, we're talking about, like you said, pie in the sky and we have all these great ideas and and you know, like our facilities need a need a major overhaul. Um, [clears throat] but we need to keep that zero so we can get that break and, you know, we can keep the fiscal stress where, you

098know, >> that doesn't affect our interest rates. >> If you remember, we had these ratings last year. They and they classified us at the high level. That's when we maintain our rating. So, we would hope that that would stay true. I remember Robert and you you had shown us I you had shown us like the the breakdown of that the points and everything. I thought that was that was really that was one of one of the more yeah educational things that we that we've seen. Um but that's it. Thank you. >> Okay. Um so something Dr. Ferris had said, I do welcome and look forward to the consideration of alternative funding sources for us such as uh future stars and the dancing. >> Yeah. And we've been in talks as you know with the future

099stars. We've been talking about the possibility of you want to run a camp in the middle school area on the fields in some of the classrooms. uh a general camp, a two-year-old program to 5-year-old program, general camp, and a five to 15 year old general camp program. Nothing that would interfere with our camps that we run in terms of like sports camps like volleyball, football, cheerleading. So, we would that we do through our foundation. We maintain that, but we want to rent out these field spaces, pool, and other areas here in the summer. That could be significant uh revenue for the district. And um we've also been in talks with some dance studios that have come to visit uh middle school and high school spaces and we rented out this space every weekend from January

100through May like the programs do 100,000 plus just for renting out the theater course of the year. So we are looking for those things and the more we upgrade our facilities the more we'll be able to rent out for higher cost. good thing to do the high school theater because then we have another stage that >> Hey, Robert, I just wanted to say thank you. I mean, the more I I learned about this stuff and more about like you know, the students in Boston and uh you know, everything they're concerning to overturn and uh you've saved the taxpayers have saved a lot of money. So, thank you for that. Um, I don't think a lot of people realize that. Um, until you start looking at those numbers and you see $500,000 here, $200,000 there, and

101that all adds up. So, hopefully we can I think we're we're riding the ship and and I think we're in a better position. Um, and we still have to keep on writing the ship, but but thank you for that. >> Just from a program perspective, uh, any feedback from the board? This is basically the the planning we're going to be doing as we start to formulate just the year annual budget. Anything in here you want to talk about or anything else you'd like to see us aiming towards, you know, now would be the time to kind of give us some feedback and then we'll kind of work that into um in terms of things about facility upgrades. I think the high school auditorium desperately needs some upgrades. I'm sure can tell you all about the

102acoustics in the room. Um, so I think that would benefit not only the orchestra around the course of the band, but also at the theater and that's where like a lot of parents get to come in and see the school and see what's going on. So I think giving them the best experience and that's important. Um, and it would make it a better space to run. In terms of the idea of a wellness center I think is very good because a lot of students recently we've been running like a mind program in high school. We see that going here but it's right now it's just like it's a little tiny room. You can't really have a lot of people in there. So they had to kind of restrict it to like seniors first. So I

103think a bigger space where you can kind of do all that in one area would be very appreciated by the students. And air conditioning. >> Um >> yes, >> air conditioning is very important. It's very important in the summer especially for finals um in June when it's supposed to get like hot hot and you're sitting in a room for two hours and it's 80°. It's not fun. So air conditioning like as many rooms as possible. everybody >> and I I know that some of the things died I'm telling you if you give it go ahead I mean it's community I believe we can get a lot of not all a lot of >> agreed I I think that having the process that includes the community and and their input is extremely important back to the

104year-to-year budgeting um the priorities for next year I think are in line with the things that we were talking about definitely in line with things we've heard from the community. Um obviously maintaining programs um maintaining class sizes um and in staffing, but then um the you know teaching at the middle school and and the um our commitment to language and and and enhancing those programs with there within our budget um makes um keeps us in line with the things that we've been talking about. So, um I do think that we could um possibly um everyone could kind of look this over and we could might have better well thoughtout comments um in our budget discussion during our workshop meeting in January. But um anybody else want to add? No, I I I think we've committed

105to a board as a board I should say um to be becoming more financially responsible and and and um you know I think through attrition in in in the coming years that'll help as well. Uh but I I just think you know we're we're now thinking outside of the box to increase revenue. uh we have somebody in place in the business office who is thinking outside of the box uh bringing experience to a position that really needs experience um that is you know helping you know to close the gap on both sides uh so I I I I think I'm really happy that you know just to see that one and two and you know like the our top priorities are responsibility and and being responsible as spenders um because you know last year was

106my first year through through a budget like it it was like it was pretty eye opening but you know at the same time um you know I I I want to do better and and I I can do better and I think we can do better and I like that we seem committed as like a group to like and make that be our top priority. So um I I know there's like you know nooks and crannies that we can dig at and I think that's what Christine means like take some time and kind of go through it but I I I like the top priority being the top priority because I think that's most responsible. We have a solid ship right now. Um we have phenomenal teachers. We have great leaders in place in in

107buildings and departments and and things like that. Uh so I think we just you know write the financial side of the ship and let let the amazing people that we have in place do their amazing work and and you know we we go from there and then once that gap gets closed you know we look to expand where we can expand. So I'm I'm happy with the first um and I echo I've done the budget now four years. certainly most difficult and I felt like we were doing a lot of it alone and in the mind and just working abroad these last four months really shows you what experienced official can do to support okay thank you thank you everybody um I'm going to transition to board discussion which is really just going to be

108an extension of what we just spoke about um Kathy and Desmond and Dr. Ferris Hall spoke about um outside outside chances for revenues and to be able to use our facilities in a way that will help us enhance our education in the long run. Um so we know and I'll let Dr. Travis talk about a little bit you did hit on it um that we've been in discussion with future stars and possible summer programs. Um and then I think we have a discussion that we need to have um about how we move forward. >> Yeah. So, as I had said, um, we talked to future stars about some potential camp opportunities here in the middle school. We also were very clear that we did not want to conflict with the camps that we run at

109this sport specific times of year. So, um, we talked about an early childhood program, ages two to 5 years old, uh, running here, you know, that's almost like a day camp. We also have a multisport camp again required ages 5 to 15. Uh there would be significant discounts to save the residents, but it would also be open to people from outside of Sagle. The future stars felt this was a great location because it was right off the highway. They have big rooms, spaces, and a lot of space. Um they will also be running opportunities for kids in dance, in drama, uh coding, battle box, cosmetology, possibly drawing and painting, drone adventures, engineering, design, science, magic, Minecraft. You know, they're going to offer a robust course curriculum and then whoever signs up, we'll run the they'll

110run the ones that obviously have. So the idea would be that they share the revenue with the district from their camp which could be anywhere from $35,000 in the first year to 5 years in if you have a high enrollment up to $300,000 in revenue for the district to use fields that are sitting empty all summer long. So it's a win-win where we get revenue and we get a space and and our students would actually get a significant discount to save residence should they sign up as well. So it was a way for the community to purchase activities for students that we don't currently offer spaces that are not being used and revenue. >> And also they were giving priority to Seville high school students that wanted to work, right? They would get priority. >>

111That's a really nice feature. They had said that when they hired counselors, they would give first priority to Sable teenagers and also to disable teaching staff. So they would offer to them the opportunity to interview first before anybody from that sense because that would be great opportunity for some of our high school students and our teachers to uh to work with the summer school >> and can you discuss where we are in the negotiations process with them in terms of a contract and how we move forward from this point? >> Sure. We've been negotiating a contract with them. Um our lawyer um as you know Lisa and John have been negotiating kind of making suggestions. Their job is to protect the district to make sure that um you know there's no hidden things that are

112in the contract that we're not aware of. It gives us full right of refusal to any of the courses. So if we want to run let's say that you know disable schools wants to run the robotics program not we want to say to them no we're running it we can say no to a space uh timing everything like that. They're responsible for basically feeding their kids activities and health and safety, bringing them home devices and all the equipment that they need. Their insurance has to cover so that if anything were to happen, we've sent recommendations to them. I have to say they've been very open with them into the contract and now we're at the process where we've agreed pretty much the terms of the contract and then we're going to send it to Nicer

113which is our insurance company to review the insurance side of things. We'll bring it to you at our January 9th board meeting and uh and then you guys will get to review it and then decide if you want to approve it. They have asked if they could do um some advertising, you know, to prepare because they want campers to sign up. So, what they could do is say in anticipation of a potential camp, what's your interest? And put flyers out to the community, but they wouldn't move forward until you approved it, of course, because it would be based on your approval. So, but they felt it would be better for business and better for our revenue, they could start promoting. So, I did want to ask you if you were okay with them putting out

114some preliminary flyers and information, letting the community are basically going to be attempted to run this camp at the end of January. >> Okay. So, I don't we don't have anything like officially to vote on, but I think that it would be nice for us all to weigh in on a do we want to continue um you know to to allow the administration to continue to bring this contract to fruition and b I don't know why I said that I'm sorry. Um and and and B um are we comfortable with allowing them to start to advertise even though we haven't signed that contract? So, uh, like to hear from all of you. Um, as we just spoke, we just heard Robert talking about, um, how important it is for us to start increasing our revenue.

115So, I think, um, the introduction of the future starts, it's a great idea as long as, as everyone's saying that it's not interfering with our own um, camps. And I think it probably is a good idea for them to start advertising because camps for summer fill up quickly, especially for the little ones. >> Yeah, I'm okay with the process right now. >> Yeah, I think it's win-win. Um, you know, it provides and we have an 8 to 10 year old and you know, more robust summer camps is great, especially right in the community. Um, so that's awesome for parents and it's awesome for the school district. So I I think there's multiple layers. That's a it's a positive thing. >> I agree. Let's start. >> I agree. >> Okay. >> I agree. I did a

116camp here for a few years. Um camp invention. I don't know if they still run it, but it was a great experience. It's a great space to do it in. Um with all your friends from Sable in Sable, I think it's a good idea. A couple years ago when we had co funding we were running some summer programs that couldn't go longer and run. So this should be a nice opportunity for our kids to have options as well. And then uh through trusty Robertson we've been working with the dance studio we're hoping to hear back from them soon about potentially renting our wristband. So we continue to kind of find ways to increase revenue and it's a good thing for the district. Yes, I agree on both on all accounts as well. Um I want

117to thank Desmond for bringing the future stars to us. Um and and and Chris, I look forward to getting this dance thing um to fruition as well. Um I look forward to not only the opportunities for the students in terms of the camps, the parents for a place to bring their kids and um possible um employment for some of our community. Um I also think the um chance at adding some revenue and helping our budget moves is um is favorable as well. Okay. Um going through um our agenda. Our only other thing on our board discussion hold on was training opportunities. There's a suffices pathway partnership CTE and workforce development resources on January 22nd at 6 p.m. If you are able to go, please let I guess Julie or Sarah know. And um Longwood's annual

118regional legislative breakfast, which is always a good one, um is February 7th, 8:30 to 12. And again, that one, if you'd like to sign up, you should do it um as soon as possible. I unfortunately am working that weekend, so I will not be able to make it. >> Any questions, comments? >> Okay. [laughter] >> The breakfast actually has a breakfast. >> They found a sponsor. Um, last year last year was very interesting though was the Yeah. the busing and uh that was like that was a a big topic but that was eye opening because all all we were hearing from as a school district was how they're going to force these buses on us and then we're going to have to make this shift and uh every legislator almost every single one got up

119there and was like yeah never happened. So I I thought that was very interesting to see the contrast and like what we were hearing hearing versus what we were literally hearing. So um yeah, I look forward to it this year. Anything else? Okay, moving along. Opening up to public comment. This is the first public comment of the evening and it is limited to agenda items only. Is there anyone who would like to come to the mic and speak? All right. No one we will move on. Thank you. >> Sorry. Okay. Um recommended actions. Um I'll take it to 811. Um 811 motion Kelly second Tom discussion. Um, I just want to acknowledge and thank the SUFFK Transportation Services who will um who very generously donated three buses to bring our guests to every child's dream,

120which is amazing. So, thank you to them for that. And we'd also like to thank both the Sable School Employee Charitable Foundation and the Friends of Sable Education for their dual $600 donations um for the middle school Frost Valley field trip which is going on right now. Um, so thank you for that. >> Any other discussion? >> I just want to say the same thing. >> Ditto. >> All right. All in favor? Motions carry. Okay. Looking at new business. Take 901 to 903. Motion. >> Tom. Second. Desmond. Discussion. All in favor? Motion carries. Um, new business. We have two walk-ons, which means they were late. Um, they were they were late additions to tonight's agenda. Um, and I would just like to say that um we um have Biscy Foreman is leaving our district and

121moving on to a new endeavor. We wish her the best luck and we would like to welcome back uh Mr. Michael Beo um to our high school. Um so um [applause] spent his uh his career at the Sable Schools at Sable High School. He retired. We dragged him back last year as he served as our interim assistant principal. And when we called him uh in in in hopes of getting some help, he was so eager and so thoughtful about wanting to make sure that the high school was in good shape. and I just want to thank him and appreciate his uh his commitment to disable schools for his entire career. So, welcome back. Welcome back. >> Welcome back. Thank you. >> Okay. So, motion >> did I mention 904 to 95? >> All right. Motion.

122Uh can I have a motion from 904 to 905? Kathy Tom. Discussion. Probably did that already. Um and um all in favor? Thank you. Motion carries. Um all right. Uh new business 1001 to 10:02. Can I have a motion? Kathy and Chris discussion. All in favor? Motion carries. Um upcoming dates. We got a lot coming up. Um, every child's dream we spoke about will be tomorrow night at the high school between 5:00 and 9:00. One of the most amazing activities we do in this district. Um, if you've never witnessed it, it is just absolutely heartwarming. Um, the high school winter concert will be on December 16th. The high school winter concert number two will be on December 18th. December 24th to the 22nd is our winter recess. And January 8th will be our next board

123of ed meeting. That is a workshop meeting at 7:30 and that will be taking place in the district's um offices. Um okay. Um opening up to our last public comment. Anyone have anything to say that wasn't on the agenda? All right. Seeing no one. Um before I motion to adjurnn, I just want to wish everybody a very happy holidays and happy new year's. Please um enjoy the time with your loved ones and reach out to those who you haven't seen in a while and check in on them and make sure they're okay. Motion to adjurnn. Chris Desmond. What? I missed you every time, Kelly. I'm sorry. Chris, I got you once. Chris Desmond. Um discussion. All in favor? Happy holidays.