5/5/2026 Regular Board of Ed Meeting

001here. I'm just letting you know like when you're here. >> Hello everyone. Grab everyone's attention please. We have a full house here tonight. I want to welcome everyone meeting. I'm going to start off with the flag stands for. It's great to see we have a uh full audience here tonight and it's uh it's going to be a great board meeting. It's it's it's always great when we get to um acknowledge our student athletes and our night of champions. So, so it's we're going to get that going. Um I was just a little remiss, we do have a full house here tonight. A quick fire code announcement in the event of emergency. Please be aware of your rear exits and exits to your left and to your right in the event of emergency. So again, thank

002you for being here tonight and we're going to get this program started and we're going to start with our night of champions and the board. We're going to go up front and turn it off to Dr. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone while the board heads to their seats in the front row there. Uh I'm happy to welcome everybody for celebration of uh not only our students achievement but all the effort and support that their families have put into getting into this night. The house is as you can see full. This is one of the best nights of the year. So congratulations to all the students, all the parents, moms and dads, grandparents. And without further ado, I'm going to ask Mr. Hwood to come up and start us off. [applause] All right. Good evening

003everyone. I'm Michael Hers, the director of fine and performing arts. Uh this is one of my favorite nights of the year, a chance to put student success uh front and forward to the community. Um all of the students that we are celebrating tonight um are a product of this incredible community and I'm so glad that all of you are here because it just doesn't happen in a vacuum. Um you need a community like Iceland to nurture these kids. You need strong families at home to help them thrive. You need a great school district to support them and you need amazing teachers to inspire them. And the students that you're going to hear about tonight have had all of those things and I think that's what makes the Iceland community very special. So without further ado,

004um I'd like to introduce some amazing students uh that have had incredible achievement uh in music and art uh over the last couple of months. Uh, and I'd like to call up right now um, Miss James, principal of Sherwood, and some of our music teachers from Sherwood as well to help hand out some of these certificates. >> We didn't practice this. This is all improvised. Over the last few months, we've had many opportunities for students to be a part of various all count Suffach County uh all county uh ensembles. These students are at a very high performing level uh nominated by their teachers but accepted by these organizations to represent Icelip uh among the best musicians in Suffach County. So, I'd like to bring up here uh Ka Leglia. [applause] recognized for both and the

005one string festival associate for the old courts [laughter] and Sam Campella for the Long Island Spring Festival Association. [applause] Congratulations [applause] to our children. [applause] Um, Miss Beckman from Comarmac Road Elementary, our principal, and some of our teachers from Comarmac Road as well. [applause] Mariah Murray with the All County Band. [applause] Juliana Will for the Old County Band. Joseph Bosley County. >> [applause] >> Nyla Kier the all county all county chorus Javar all county chorus all county chorus all county orchestra and John Willlet, Old County Orchestra. [laughter] All right. Thank you. [applause] All right, I'd like to call up Miss Stern, principal of Iceland Middle School, and some of our middle school teachers as well to help me out. [applause] We have quite a few here. So this is going to be a large picture.

006Step back orchestra Laya Hman [applause] also in the Long Island Festival Association. Bryce O'Reilly Str and all county orchestra. Aiden Kelly, Old County Orchestra. and going on the street. [applause] Hari Marento, Old County Orchestra. [applause] Lonni Daniels, Long Island Festival. Emerson Parks, Long Island Screaming Festival. Tim Dos, Long Island Screaming Festival. [laughter] Bruce Park, All County Band. James Dustaceio, All County Band. [applause] Owen Chandler of the All County Band. John Roman, All County Band. Isabella Sanchez, All County Chorus. Savannah Torres, All County Chorus. Joseph Starky, All County Chorus. Abigail Bados, All County Orchestra. Alice Champion, All County Orchestra. Cassidy Chandler, All County Orchestra. Alani Ken Daniel, All County Orchestra. Chelsea Cooper, All County Orchestra. And we're going to send Cox. We got another one. All County Orchestra. [applause] Millie Champion. All county bandelli. All county

007band. Nichollet Powers. All county band. Henry Sulva. All county band. [applause] DJ Skull is all county band all county band all county [applause] and Sam Nassa all county Morning. >> [applause] >> Now, you might be saying, "Mr. Hersowitz, that's a lot of students names you're reading out." [clears throat] And the answer is it is because we looked really deep into our records and this is the most amount of students selected for all county groups in at least the last 10 years. We don't have records HERE [applause] DR. GONZALEZ, Miss Ward, building leadership from our high school to hand out our high school music awards. >> Here we go. Ella Fishbine, all county orchestra and school. Thank you. [applause] MALCOLM FRERIEDMAN, Long Island String Festival Association and all county. Ryan Brown, all county, [applause] all county

008forest. Shay Alfano, All County Chorus. [applause] Roco Pita, all county chorus. Isabella Schmoliker, all county chorus. Julie Anthony, Old County band and it's a rare occasion but uh always incredible when it happens. Uh sending a student to all state level music. Uh we had a student uh who performed and got a perfect score uh at Bismouth. I'm very happy to present this to Nicholas Gulick uh one of our [applause] [cheering] >> [laughter] [applause] >> And it's not just music. We have an incredible art department. So, I'm going to call up two of our two high school art teachers here. Miss Buzzio Sako, help me out. [applause] Similar to music, these students presented works nominated by their teachers, submitted to various jury art shows, and were accepted. Uh these are also all county level um accommodations

009for these students. Nisa Peterson for the Long Island Art Exhibit. [applause] Jada Williams also from the colors of Long Island representative [applause] Humina Amir for the S community college high school. [applause] Matt Weiss for the Southern Community College. Kelsey Presley for the Flowerfield Jurine Art Show. Abigail Partner TV for Flowerfield Jur Art Show. Elizabeth Rochers for the Flowerfield Jury Art Show. Lily Bowling for the Flowerfield Art Show. Juliana Chaganti for the Flowerfield Art Show. [applause] Ava Natalia Gomez for the Flowerfield Art Show. [applause] Emma Good for the Flowerfield Art Show. Camila Bernados Gdoy for the Flowerfield Art Show. Samantha Kroo for Flowerfield Art Show. [applause] Johnny for the Flowerfield Art Show. Emma Casseri for the Flower Field Art Show. [applause] Kira Pierre for the Flowerfield Art Show. [applause] Amy Ridge, Flowerfield, Jordan with the Flowerfield.

010Archel, [applause] Alyssa Williams, Flowerfield, [applause] Shay Wson for the Flowerfield RJ [applause] that we submitted for, which is absolutely incredible. >> [applause] [cough] [applause] >> All right, hold on. Herskovich, why are you still up here? Um, Mr. Spario, uh, our amazing athletics director, could not be here this evening. He has a great excuse, which is he's attending his daughter's graduation from college. Incredible. Um, he's probably watching live stream. [applause] Uh and I feel very very honored to be able to present on his behalf and very fortunate in this district uh that uh our music and art department and our athletics departments uh get along so well. We are huge supporters of each other uh and that filters down into uh the achievement of our students and how we support them. Uh it's it's fantastic to

011have a mentor like John. Um, and you can see in the quality of the students, the performances, the coaching, uh, what an incredible achievement that we have here. So, without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce the athletic awards. So, coaches, I'm going to need your help here. Um, well, let's start with cheerleading. [applause] So, in recognition of earning all classification honors for competitive cheerleading, Jennifer Cornerins, [applause] she's not here tonight, but I know Ella Fishbine is and she's receiving this or earning academic all county honors for competitive cheerleading. [cheering] [applause] [laughter] >> [applause] >> approaches here. Oh, I'm here. >> All right. I'm so nervous. >> All right. So, um, thank you Delilah Cole. She earned all league honors for bowling. [applause] Ashley Hoffman also earned all league honors for bowling. [applause] Jay

012Reinhardt also earned all league honors for bowling. Jeezi earned all league honors for bowling as well. State of Palm in recognition of running all leagues, all counties, all states and all sections, all [applause] stars for [applause] uh before I introduce names, I do want to recognize the boys bowling team as small school champions for this year. [applause] >> Brandon Sinetti in recognition of second team all league honors for going [applause] Anthony Bolero in recognition of earning first team all league second team all county and all Long Island. [applause] Gavin Connell in recognition of first team [applause] and United States USBC ambassador of the year. That award goes to one male and one female in the country. Congratulations. >> [clears throat] [applause] >> Girls Wizard trap. They're coaches. Girls wer. [clears throat] >> Okay, here we

013go for girls track. Uh I will point out this year we had an outstanding season. We were the runners of the small county school championship. So that was the best we ever finished. Uh to start out tonight we have recognition of earning bowling honors and she was the high jump champion. ELIZABETH HAM [applause] recognition of all the Jenna how in the high HURDLES [applause] following in the shot put and our lead champion was Shaya Julia >> [applause] >> Ally honors in the triple jump and the long jump goes to Kayla White Walters. [applause] We have recognition to be all sectional and all county. She was the league champion and the small school county champion 600 ELA CARROLL. >> [applause] >> IN RECOGNITION OF EARNING ALL LEAF, all sectional in 55 and 300. She was a

014small school county champion in the 300. She was a member of the New York State Championship intersectional relay which makes all state. This is Florida. [applause] >> [applause] >> All right. Going with your track. All >> [applause] >> right, the boys win track in recognition of earning all the honors as a member of the pro relay team seasona. CONGRATULATION [applause] again for earning all the honors as member of the four by four relay team Wesley. [applause] Also uh earning all league honors is the member for 4x48 county. [applause] Next uh in recognition of earning all county and all league honors in both the 600 and 1,000 meter as well as all league honors and member of the 4x400 team. We're going to track Ryan DON [applause] County holding winner and also to states for intersectional

015place there as well. [applause] >> [applause] >> Check out those hands. We got a lot more. [applause] Girls basketball. All right. Not as their coach. They had an amazing season. Uh and I'm very happy to uh present these awards. recognition of earning all league honors for basketball. Abby Dumagard [applause] recognition of earning all honors for basketball. Tegan Rayo [applause] in recognition of earning all the honors for basketball. REESE WALLACE in recognition of Ernie Paul league county honors for basketball. Riley Moran Recognition Burning Unsung hero honors for basketball. Tessa Smith [applause] and recognition burning academic all county honors for basketball. Grace Ball. [applause] >> [applause] >> All right. boys basketball in recognition of earning all league honors for basketball, Chase Harrington. [applause] And in recognition of earning academic all county honors for basketball, Chase Powitz. [cheering]

016[applause] >> Okay. Wrestling. WHERE'S WRESTLING? THAT'S THE AMOUNT OF AWARDS. >> OKAY. Good evening everybody. In recognition of running all league honors for wrestling, Jackson Dor. [applause] In recognition of earning all the honors for wrestling, RYAN HER [applause] in recognition of earning all the honors in wrestling. LANDON DICK in recognition of earning all league honors for wrestling as well as being 175 pound league champion. AIDEN NIR [applause] in recognition of earning all the honors for wrestling as well as being league champion. Uh Kevin her [applause] Kevin her is also all counting in recognition of earning all these honors for wrestling is going to be league champion and namely most outstanding wrestler Joe Fringella who ALSO [applause] recognition allas for wrestling as well as qualifying for New York state championship be cardiac Perez >> [applause] >>

017for the recognition of earning all league and all state honors for wrestling as well as being 165 lb league champion in all counties. expensive [applause] in addition to going all league and all state honors in wrestling as well as being all league league champion 132 lbs Matthew Peterson [applause] to all American honors in being a national high school coaches association freshman national champion MATTHEW PETERSON >> [applause] [snorts and clears throat] [applause] [laughter] >> I HAVE FOUR MORE VERY SPECIAL awards uh recogn recognition of overall achievement. Um, the first is for Kieran Freely in recognition of being selected as ISIL High School's 2026 recipient of the Night Shepard Suffic Zone Award. [applause] Second award is for Wy Haynes in recognition of being selected high school 26 recipient the nicer current suffic zoning award. [applause] >> Congratulations

018[applause] and two more awards that were hot off the presses that I had to pick up almost on the way over here. Oh yeah. Carolyn and Riley, come back here for a second. [applause] You got to hold something out for her. >> They gave you the official award. Take [laughter] [clears throat] the Lord. >> [applause] >> Incredible. Congratulations to all of our incredible achievements in athletics. [applause] I like that. Outstanding. I'm going to invite Miss Ward and Dr. Camro to the podium to help you with the next set of recognition. State Senator Alexis Week and the New York State Senate's Youth Leadership Recognition Program honor outstanding students who will become our future leaders. This evening, it is my pleasure to recognize Tommy Travado for his leadership in our school. [applause] Tommy, an outgoing sophomore. He

019is the president of his class and he, if you know him, is ubiquitous at school events. He [clears throat] has a passion for taking photos and can be found at virtually every home and many away contests. both as a member of our student media team and even this evening as a member of the men's lacrosse team. Tommy can be counted on to positively promote our high school in a wide variety of ways. When he asked, should I come to this or do I go to my game? I said, you are a team player. Do not let your team down. So, I know everyone here will help me to congratulate him when he stands. [applause] Good evening. It is the pleasure that I that I ask any [applause] This is from the office of the New

020York State Attorney [clears throat] General Triple C award. The New York State Attorney General Lisha James Student Awards Program recognizes the character, courage, and commitment of New York's hardest working student leaders with it CO award. These students have attained academic success, contributed to their school community, and have persevered in many ways. They are examples to their fellow students and to all of us. Congratulations. Thank you to Emmy and John. [applause] [cheering] >> [applause] >> is town of the town of Iceland student community service award presented to Emily. Wire [applause] also the supervisor of the town of Iceland under the leadership of Miss Angie Parker recognizes one outstanding high school student each year from each high school whose contributions to the community exemplify the meaning of selflessness. Emily has significantly contributed to the life of her

021school and community through service and has served as a role model for other students. Congratulations to Emily for inspiring compassion and service to others. [applause] >> [applause] >> ask you please just come up and stand here with us. The Empire Girl State Citizen Award. Empire Girl State is an educational program of the American Legion Auxiliary based on the belief that youth should be offered a better perspective of the practical operations of government. The American Legion Auxiliary believes that the individual is an integral part and and responsible for the character and success of her government. The following students were chosen to participate in a special leadership conference this summer. Emmy Paceri and Madison Turp [applause] and Sophia Arrow. >> [applause] >> The boy the boy State American Legion Boy State is a weekl long summer program

022that immerses high school youth currently completing their junior year in a citizenship and leadership training. They learn the practical aspects of government as it exists in New York State and come to recognize that the individual is integral to the character and success of government. They also participate in physical fitness, teamwork and other activities under the values of American Legion counselors and the US Marines. Our award recipients this year are Christopher Duffer, John Aance, Matthew Leing, Kyle Peterson. [applause] >> [applause] >> the New York Controller [clears throat] Thomas Anatoli's Achievement Award is presented each year to students who have excelled academically and shown leadership potential by volunteering their time to serve the school or their community. According to their social studies teacher, Mr. Ted Lantern, are you here this evening, Mr. Lard? >> Yes, sir. I'm

023going to quote you. These two seniors, Talia Ellie and Juliana Chagante, come on down. Have distinguished themselves in a number of ways. In their American Experience course with Mr. Blanchard. [clears throat] He writes that these students have done, and I quote, exceptional work advocating for increased funding for the fine and performing arts. They have gone above and beyond by collaborating with the department, the school, and the wider community. And what truly set these students apart was their tenacity, their commitment, and their follow through. When they encountered obstacles, they remained focused and persistent. Rather than stopping at ideas or proposals, they stayed engaged through every stage of the process, demonstrating responsibility, ownership, and civic maturity. CONGRATULATIONS TO [applause] >> [applause] >> It is with tremendous pride this evening that we recognize Jaden Zinc. Jaden, are you

024here? [applause] Come on down. Some of us just love the spotlight. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Jaden is the class of 2026's saludiatoran. [applause] GPA, Jaden earned a grade point average of 105.27. [applause] In addition, she has an impressive academic course load. She has been involved, of course, in multiple extracurricular activities, including science Olympiads, among others, and she is a three sport athlete and was recognized as a national merit commended scholar. She plans to attend TU Tus University in the fall. [applause] >> [applause] >> With immense pride, with immense pride, it is my honor to acknowledge Joshua Alar. Is Josh here this evening? >> He might be very busy studying. Joshua is the class of 2026's valadictorian. [applause] A race point average of 106.75. He's been involved in various extracurricular activities including jazz ensemble. He was

025recognized as national merit semifinalist and as a quest bridge scholar. Josh plans to attend Yale University. Congratulations. [clears throat] [applause] Miss Ford wants me to remind you get busy on those speeches. See you at graduation. [applause] >> Uh again, congratulations to all of our students. Uh so many people tonight reflects years of effort, growth mindset, grit, determination, and of course, support from the community, families, our faculty, and our staff. Once again, congratulations to everybody. Mr. with your permission. We'll take a break, allow people to leave if they'd like, and we'll be here in about 10 minutes. Congratulations [applause] Welcome back everyone. I hope that presentation. It was really wonderful to see all the students being recognized for all their successes and wish you all the best. We're going to start off. >> Okay, folks. Welcome

026back. We're going to start a budget presentation. Mrs. Brower is going to start it off, go through the um budget hearing, and then I'm going to step in and uh show some information, try to give folks some of the detail they've been asking for, and then back for questions. >> Good evening. >> Thank you for joining us tonight. We're going to be talking about our 2027 proposed budget. If you've been with us, we've already spoken about our state aid and tax funding, our program and initiatives and expenditures. We've talked a little bit about enrollment and staffing. And at our last board meeting, the board adopted a proposed budget. I'd like to highlight some of the really good things that we're doing here in the district. And as you can see, we have a lot of

027good things going on with our students. Every day I students make a difference. And you can see that in all the different areas in different schools and different places. So, first I'd like to talk to you tonight about our proposed um expenditure budget. The budget maintains all current programs and it also includes funding for contractual increases in the area of salaries, benefits, pupil transportation services, insuranceances, and special education support services. It also includes a transfer to capital for the purpose of a replacement for the high school greenhouse. So when you break it down, you'll see we have general support, our instruction, transportation, benefits, our debt service, our inner fund transfers. The proposed budget is a 3.71% increase over the previous year at 106,244. Typically what you'd see in areas of general support are board of

028education expenses or district clerk expenses, central administration um including superintendent's office, the business office, personnel office, our legal services, public information and services, our operations and maintenance of plant security, central printing, central data processing insurance and our um property casualty liability and cyber insurance as well as our post administrative costs. In the instructional area, you see all of our teachers salaries across all grades. teaching assistants, teaching aids, all our support staff as well as our um supervision within our buildings and our building leadership, library, our media centers, curriculum development um and instructional leadership, our extended programs for gifted and talented, our ENL programs, our career technology programs, health services, psychology and social work services. Our afterchool co-curricular and our athletics along with our computer aided instruction, our homebound instruction, evaluation and testing and supplies. Transportation

029consists of our district transportation contractual uh agreements that we have that include transporting all of our regular routes both in district and out our special education students our athletic trips field trips um and students that are attending Boseies and our non-public schools. Also, it includes our McKenna mento students. Within the benefits area, you'll see our retirement contributions both for our TRS and our ERS, social security, our health insurance for both active and retirees, workers compensation, the unemployment insurance, life insurance, dental, long-term disability, flexible spending plans, as well as our employee assistance program. Debt service consists of any debts that the district currently has for bonded issues of capital projects, the interest payments, any bond anticipation notes, um lease purchase agreements um for equipment that has been financed over time. You'll also see our TAM um

030a tax anticipation note in that as well. And our inner fund transfers are transfers to capital and our special aid um fund. Sometimes it can be also to the debt service fund. So those are all the things that make up our expenditure budget. So when you put it together, you'll see it here and you'll see largest portion of the body is our instructional area. Next is our benefits followed by the general support and transportation debt service and our inner fund transfers. So when we create a budget, we look at our estimated revenues and we determine how much we're able to spend for the 2627 school year. Our estimated revenues are made up of the following items. a tax levy that we get from community members, our state aid component. We use some local revenues as

031well as some fund balance and sometimes the use of reserves. As we discussed at our last meeting, the allowable tax levy this year for the Icelope school district is a 2.2% 2% increase, which equates to about $1.5 million. The board approved a proposed budget with a tax levy that exceeds the tax cap limit at 2.85% or a $1.9 million increase. It's a difference of about $432,000. And you can see the amount based upon current tax rates for an estimated increase for the proposed tax levy is $262.97. The allowable levy is $24. So, it's just about a 60 approximately a $60 difference with the proposed tax levy. This will enable us to keep all programs intact and to sustain the integrity and provide incredible opportunities and supports to our students. However, this year we will not

032be able to fund PSAT, SAT, ACT or AP exam fees. So, we are seeking the authority from the public to um increase our tax levy above the allowable limit. The next largest portion of our revenue is our state aid. And unfortunately, I do not have any other um updates on that except that the New York State lawmakers does pass a 9th budget extender which exce uh extends through May 6. So, we should be hearing something shortly. This budget was due on April 1st and we are still awaiting um some information from the state. As I mentioned, we have some local revenues that in encompasses um portions of uh property and facility usage um Medicaid reimbursement, rental income that we receive as well as pilots. Those are payments in lie of taxes that are paid um

033by the town for those um properties that have come off the tax role. Our anticipated amount to be received this year is $457,000 in addition to using some of our fund balance at $1.5 million. We talked about our reserves in our last presentation and I'd like to draw your attention to a column from the left. Our anticipated use for this year's budget is approximately $2.2 million. And as I stated, if there is an increase in state aid um and approximately 212,000 in the budget that we have not yet received, we would not be using the full $2.2 million. So when you put them side by side, you have our estimated revenues in line with our estimated expenditure. And that budget raises to 106,244,04. As I mentioned, the tax levy this year is going to be

034a 2.85 is what we were asking from the community in the amount of 70,527553. The budgettobudget increase is a 3.71% increase. And what that means to the average homeowner with an assessed value of $40,000 or a market value of approximately $600,000 is an increase of $262 a month. That's an estimated monthly increase of about 21, almost $22. In order to pass this budget, we're required um to get a super majority, which means we need a 60% of the voters to approve it. We talked about at our last meeting some things that we did in order to um get our budget to where it is today. We had some reductions in staff through attrition. We also had some through accessing and that was due to enrollment. We started aligning our staffing needs with our most current

035enrollment data. We've had some uh negotiated savings with our collective bargaining agreement um units and we're reallocating expenditures and looking at all of our expenditures to see how they can be sustainable. We're looking at additional ways to optimize our revenue and increase our funding in the future. So just as a review, the proposed 2627 budget is 106,244,4. The proposed tax levy is 70 million527553 or 2.85% increase. The proposed budget tobudget increase is approximately $3.7 million. Again, included in this budget is a facilities enhancement. It's a replacement of our high school greenhouse with a transfer of capital for $275,000. This greenhouse will be used for instructional space as well. So the next step in this um budget development process is the budget vote which is on May 19th. The first proposition will be for the school

036budget and the second will be for a selection of two candidates for the board of education. We have Miss Laura Roaki running again which we are delighted. Um and and we have uh Mrs. Hillary Crow Greg running unopposed for the seat held by um Mr. Den. I'd like to ask Dr. O'Hara to come up. He has additional slides that he'd like to share. [clears throat] Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Brower. Um, so the last couple of weeks, we've gotten a lot of questions, uh, some phone calls, emails, and I, uh, I want to take this opportunity to try to clarify, [clears throat] excuse me, and, uh, provide more detail. So, one of the questions that we've gotten the last couple of years is, you know, what kinds of things being cut, what types of things are

037we gaining or adding with this proposed budget. So, this particular slide, um, we've used it the last couple of years. These are all the programs or supports that have been added to our school district since September of 2022. So, u, with a few exceptions, all of these things remain in this budget. These supports will be here in the 26th 27th school year. So I just want to take a few minutes to highlight I just want to take a moment to highlight some of the things that will change slightly. Um but I would like to say that uh with the few exceptions we anticipate students experience will be just as good as it's been for the last couple of years and we think that we're still going to stay on a really steep trajectory in terms

038of improvement and higher achievement. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is this budget maintains class sizes. So um on the secondary level we have caps 27 uh in general there's a cap for secondary classes. Then there are some classes that have caps of 24. Some um tech classes have caps of 18 uh for example. So those numbers are immutable. We can't change them. That's contractual obligations. So those numbers will stay. We also have caps on the elementary level. And with this budget, we're not coming near the caps. We're not going above the caps in those classes. So, for example, this year in kindergarten and first grade, there's roughly 20 students or 19 students in the classroom. And in the 26 27 budget in September, that number remains the same. So, class

039sizes in kindergarten and first grade will be remarkably similar. Um, class sizes in second grade, Crest 24, Sherwood 25. Uh, third grade 22 and 21 for Crest and Sherwood respectively. Fourth grade 23 and 22 for Crest and Sherwood respectively. And fifth grade, 23 and 24 for Crest and Sherwood respectively. The um place where students may experience something different. Students um going from kindergarten to first grade press would be used to a class size that maybe this year was 22 and next year it might be 24. Uh students going from kindergarten to Sherwood. So first grade to second grade have a class size that's 22 right now and it would likely be between either 24 or 25 depending on how they uh you know how the class is. And then the only other difference where there

040might be a noticeable change would be for students in Sherwood who are currently in grade four and they're in grade five. Currently they have 18 students per section. Next year they have 20. Other than that class sizes are pretty different. Next thing I want to draw your attention to is the bottom of the first column on the left. It said potential partnership with Suffach County Community College. We've crossed out the word potential. We started a partnership with Suff County Community College on March 10th. We had a board meeting here and he did a presentation. The president of the college was um in our auditorium and then we got some uh negative press and news day regarding that partnership. But I am happy to tell you that we remain persistent. We continue to have meetings with

041uh administration at the college and um just yesterday we got a final um actually a week or so ago we got an approval letter from the college. yesterday uh they sent back um a proofed an approved version of letter we plan on sending to our families sometime next week. So what that means for students in this school district, which is a very unique opportunity, students who are currently in grade nine, uh if they meet certain criteria and choose to do so, uh they can start college classes this summer on the Brenwood campus um for a cost of $100 per credit. It's typically $225 per credit. So if you're a nth grader who's in good academic standing and you're interested, we encourage you and your parents to contact us as soon as you get the letter.

042But that partnership is a goal. Okay, middle column crossed out the word RPT courses for classes. So, some of you may know Research for Better Teaching is a professional development program we've had for a couple of years for our teachers. So, um we have budgeted in the past probably between 50 and $60,000 for that professional development. We've removed the profession the money from the budget. Um and so, uh I'll comment on that again in a few minutes. Halfway down the column, registration fees paid for all AP exams. And the line right below it, one ACT exam for juniors. And so for the last four years, we've been paying the AP exam fees for all of our students. And we've been paying for an ACT exam for all juniors once in 11th grade. And we've been

043paying the PSAT exam fees. Unfortunately, the budget won't sustain that next year. So families will have to pay that money, pay for those fees on their own. There were some questions about uh our college visitation program. So for five years, we've been arranging day trips and overnight trips taking students to visit various colleges. Um typically it's uh five or seven colleges on a two night three day trip or two-day trip. We've had some day trips to Connecticut back to CEL and some other schools in Pennsylvania to see UPEN and and College of New Jersey. So that program will continue since its inception. the school district budget has not supported the program. Um this year for the first time we did put some money in the budget to try to offset the cost for transportation because

044the bus biggest expense for a program like that are uh coach buses. And so I think we utilize maybe $35,000 approximately between a high school trip and a seventh grade trip that will take place in the next week or so. Um unfortunately that money's been removed from the budget so we'll be back to the way we are. families will have to support that trip on their own. Um, okay. Circle in the bottom uh bottom column, third column, ongoing RPT. So, I mentioned earlier research and better teaching is a form of professional development for our faculty and staff. We believe in work. This is very important. So, it will continue for our administrators. It will continue with some form for some uh faculty members who have yet to take the course but it'll be handled differently

045uh and it'll be uh the PD will be delivered inhouse through people on our administration team that have already taken the course and have developed a certain level of expertise. Uh red arrow last year we we announced that we were expecting to have some u national merit commended students for 2025. In fact, we had four. That's the biggest number we've had in the district in approximately 10 years. We were quite proud of that. What I'd like to share though is since that announcement, two of these students have become national merit finalists, which is really a high bar to reach. Um, one of those students is a QuestBridge scholar. You heard about him tonight. He's our validatoran. He will be matched through the scholarship program with Yale University. So, West Bridge Scallet is a full ride,

046books, tuition, transportation. It's just an amazing opportunity and it happens because of hard work and opportunities that were created in this school district for that student who have had themselves. We have a Gates Foundation scholarship recipient this year, which is also a last dollar scholarship. So, that means that the program is designed so that student gets every single penny he or she needs to make sure that all the costs for college are entirely free. What's exciting about uh this recipient is uh she's she'll be attending Nor Eastern University in the fall and the first time she saw Nor Eastern University was when we took her on a college trip to Massachusetts and she saw the campus with that program. And then lastly at the bottom right some of our future goals. U you know all

047across Long Island the ENL population is has been increasing. uh in our district this year we've noticed a decline or experiencing a slight decline. So the only change in that column would be um we're prepared to develop a site program if necessary but right now we don't have any site students which is an acronym for students with interoper formal education so that sometimes students who come to us from other countries but they haven't been in school in our own country for quite a number of years and we have a lot of work to do catching up with them but as of now we don't have any size students in our roles. So other than those minor changes, every program that your children experience now, they will experience next year. So that means a full athletics

048program. That means a full complement of um electives in the high school. That means before and after school literacy support in the elementary schools. It means elementary clubs. Means anything you could think of that that they're experiencing now and have been for the last couple of years, they will be experiencing that next year. So when questions arise as to what are we losing as a result of this budget, the answer is other than the things I've mentioned here on this screen, nothing else. Um, sticking with opportunities in the high school and elective offerings, this slide represents a list of all the courses that have been added to the high school in the last four years. There's a lot, 46 or 45 courses. If they're on the list, it doesn't mean they will run every year

049because whether the course is run or not is dependent upon enrollment and student selection. So students have the opportunity to vote with their feet. If they don't want to take a course and there's only four students that select a particular course, it probably won't certainly the courses that are in yellow are the AP courses that have been added over the last four years. So, um, approximately five or six advanced placement courses of the 45 or 46 courses that have been added to this high school to create opportunities for students. Um, the numbers in parenthesis next to each bullet represent the number of courses that have been added in that area on secondary level. So, um, five new courses in English, for example, six new courses in family and consumer science, and you could follow along

050or read it at home from there. The other thing I'd like to draw your attention to is um the second to last bullet in the orange letters with the question mark is oh I'm sorry it's so washed out on the screen um is welding uh last word second bullet. So for the first time next year we anticipate having one section of high school. We have 14 students enrolled in it. We hired a technology teacher last year that is a welder by trade and we think that this is an amazing opportunity for our students because welding is um you know you could actually look at high school and and begin immediately making a living as a welder. So um u by contrast if we took those 14 students and tried to enroll them all in the

051welder program at Moses at $18,000 per student it would be approximately a4 million to get a welding program off the ground in our high school. It will be one of a secondary teacher schedule. So 20% of his salary. Um, so let's just say it's $20,000 for the teacher and um, we need approximately between $35 and $50,000 to upgrade some don't quiz me on this, but electrical panels and circuits and I don't want to say transformers, but some things to reduce the power or increase the power. So, um, we anticipate between 30 and $35,000 for that. the instructor or the teacher is going to spend the summer on his own time building the things that are needed for students to do the welding. So, um you know, not only is he uh a welder by trade,

052but he's invested in in uh making this program an opportunity for our students. And of course, we anticipate that a year from now we can talk about a welding two and another group of students and welding one. So, it's a program network. It's another CTE program we're looking to grow. Um this is just a four-year information slide. So this shows data regarding our students participation in advanced placement over the last number of years. So um the first row is the number of students in a graduating class and you can see what that's looked like from 2022 through 2026. second row you can see the growth in the number of exams that our students have taken over that same time period uh from 434 exams four or five years ago to 758 AP exams this coming

053spring and they actually started this weekend you could see the passing rates so of all the students who took those exams on the given years in 2022 81% of the students who took those exams pass the exams of course we start something new [clears throat] and you can expect a little dip And you can see the students have climbed back up. So that means that um our amazing teachers have risen to the occasion and our students have proved that they are extremely capable of doing really high level work. So um 2025 555 exams and 80% of the students scored three or higher. You can see the number of seniors who have taken at least one AP exam. And um when you read across you can see what the number is this year. 155 seniors. That's

054a remarkable 70% of this graduating class will have taken at least one exam before graduation. And you can see the percentage of students who um who uh scored a three or above from the senior class. And um just as a point of interest, you can see the number of students who've taken 10 or more advanced placement exams. So to me, this chart is a good indication of what our students are capable of academically. Um and the chart before it is an indication of we are trying to add things that attend to the needs and the desires of every type of student by adding CTE programs adding all sorts of electives at the same time offering high level electives that will put every student in best place for have each student first choice ready their high

055[clears throat] school graduation. Uh at the last board meeting I was asked a question about enrollment data over the last couple years. I promised we would bring it back. So this is the total enrollment in the district not counting uh universal pre kindergarten which this year has about 135 students in it. So you could add that to the numbers if you desire but you can see um there was almost 2,800 students in 2017 and it's just over 2,500 students present. Right. All right. One of the questions that we got asked was what's contributed to this budget cap. Okay. So, um Mrs. Brower mentioned uh state aid earlier in her presentation and every year sometime in January, the governor releases her executive budget and we get what we refer what we refer to as a state

056aid run. So, we received that state aid run and we looked at our state aid numbers and as you can see in the column on the left in the second row, our state aid increase is a net $136,000. It's obvious to everybody in the room that that is not a great deal of money. Um, at the tax money cap 2.2% uh 2.22 2 um we would garner an additional 1.5 million in revenue to run our programs and to maintain everything that we have presently for our students. So that's a total of approximately 1.6 million before we even got out of the gate to create this year's budget. The column on the right shows the increases in expenses that we anticipated. Um salaries increasing by just over a million. Special education costs just over a million.

057Transportation 600,000 change. Insurance premiums 128,000. Health uh those premiums by the way are liability insuranceances. Health insurance for employees 1.23 million and uh contributions to the retirement system over half a million. So that total is 4.7 million. So before we even took the first step, we had almost $3.6 million gap between the revenue that we needed and the expenses we would have to move. Um, okay, this is just a point for some history or to give you some context. You can see 2025 and 2026. This is the we refer to as the cluster. So these are school districts that are in our area. You can see where ISIL was fourth from the top last year. You can see we're second from the top this year. That represents each school district's um the tax levy that

058we're seeking from the community. Okay. I thought this information would be helpful. This shows the tax levy in the ISO school district for every year since the inception of the tax levy cap in 2012. If it's shaded in red, that's a year that uh the district passed the Pearson cap. If it's shaded in green, that's a year that the district stayed below the cap. In 2020, top right green row. Uh the tax the allowable tax levy that year was 3.65%. So addition was 1% under the levy. In 2022, the tax levy was 22.12. So slightly under the levy. This year, as you know, the levy is 2.22. And we're asking the community to support a budget that has 2.85. P5 tax levy. Um the average increase over 15 years in the tax levy has been

0592.34%. And the average increase over the last 5 years has been 2.25%. I thought this chart might be helpful because um we have presented a number uh in the bottom row of $2.8 million budget gap and then on 3:30 the $2.6 million budget gap. We got explained to the community that um over the uh spring recess, central office was in the building and we spent several days going through every code in the budget and reducing uh every line where we thought we could reduce it to a number that was reasonable approved and we were able to trim that gap to 1.9 million. Um, but the column on the left shows the date every year since 2021 that there was a budget presentation and where the budget gap at that point in the process was presented.

060So, you can see uh in March 16, 2021, there was a $1 million gap. Uh, in March of 22, that row is blank because that was my first year building the budget year. It was Mr. Brow's first year. We kind of started from scratch. we built it together and um I don't know why we didn't present the budget gap. My best guess is we weren't aware that that was a practice here. So we just came to the board and presented the best budget that we thought we could make. So I don't have that information for you. Um but then you continue through you can see the budget gap was 1.2 million. You can see one year it was 3.9 million. You can see 2.8 million. And then this year we presented that number twice to

061the community in an effort to communicate that hey we have some challenges this year ahead of us. Um if you uh once this presentation is is uh posted if you click on the link that's at the bottom of the chart it'll take you to um the March 10th board meeting. And if you scroll to the 239 mark there's some question and answer about use of reserves. Um how do how do we continue to move at this rate? and I think it's pretty informative if you want to take the time to look back at that. Okay. Uh this chart I thought would be helpful for the community to see. This shows the state eight increases we've had in uh the last number of years. So you can see an increase of 1.4 million, an increase of

0621.1 million, 3.4 million. So that's an increase in revenue. Each one of those rows represents money that we could put toward the programs that we have in our school district. And you can see what happened in 2024 25. That year stands out to me because that was the first year that we spoke to some employees internally and said while we don't want this to happen, we're speaking to you now because there is a possibility we might have to eliminate some positions to make our budget balanced. Um and uh at that time people weren't happy with those recommendations and there was kind of an outcry. Hey, we don't want people's positions to be eliminated. Um and and neither do we, by the way. So that's part of the uh part of the reason we incorporated some

063other thinking into this year's budget process. But to continue, you can see last year we had 1.1 million increase in state aid. And this number I showed you a few slides ago. You can see the stark contrast between 1.1 million or 3.4 million or 1.4 million and $136,000. So this contributed to our big challenge. Uh this I thought was helpful because um one of the things that drives our budget of course is salaries. So um we have contractual obligations. Every single employee falls under some sort of contract. And so if the contract calls for a 2% raise, we're obligated to pay that increase. And there's not the other way around. What I'd like to point out with this chart is we've through uh several steps, several things happening, our salary increases are kind of going

064in the right direction in terms of being able to sustain the good programs that we have in the district. So you can see in the last three years the salary increases went from 2.8 million to 1.8 million to this year approximately just it's just under 1.1 million. Um that's due to two factors at least. One is some of the contracts we've negotiated because we've worked with our RB units to try to figure out ways to make sure people understand that the work they do is valued and at the same time try to slow down the rate at which our expenses grow. And the second thing that's contributing to this is our faculty and staff is becoming a little bit more and more experienced. So through through um retirements and replacing people at higher salaries with

065new hires in their savings. Um we were asked questions about uh bargaining units. How did they contribute? So uh we are grateful to every single employee in the district and every single bargaining unit that participated in helping us close uh close this budget gap. So you can see uh ITA is our teachers group. ITA are teachers, aids, monitors and security buildings and grounds. IASA are um administrators such as principles, assistant principles and directors. Um IQA are some curricular leaders, six departmental uh supervisors and obviously clerical and you can see what central office's contribution has been to closing this gap. Okay, some people wanted to know, all right, so a year ago we had to use just over a million from reserves to balance our budget and this year we're proposing using 2 million. Everybody knows

066that's not a sustainable model. So what what are our plans to address this? So um first is we are now looking for additional sources of revenue. So um that could come from rental income, summer camp, soccer club. The first three items on the list have um we've had some talks with or have given us some sort of proposal and while it's not finalized um you know we may move forward with those kinds of things to generate some revenue. Um we're we have some really terrific programs and a special education program and it's pretty common across alumni for directors of special ed to contact each other and uh ask if our program is a match for students we may have in their district and those students come with some tuition and then of course uh while

067we haven't done anything with this yet we we will now be consider starting to rent a gymnasium space. Of course, when you look at a school district budget, 80% of it approximately is salary and benefits. So that's all personnel. We're not a business that creates a product. So we don't have uh expenses in other areas like typical business. So our biggest expense is paying salary and benefits for our employees. So um as you saw from the last presentation, Mrs. Brow's presentation, uh staffing is beginning to become realigned with enrollment. So we we had um reduction in staffing to attrition and we anticipate that in the next couple of years we will have larger numbers of employees who will reach retirement age and be able to u begin to collect their pensions without penalty. So as

068those uh higher paid higher salary employees begin to retire they'll be replaced with employees who earn a lower starting salary. And as retirees happen, we will fill vacancies only that are the most critical until until we solve this structural problem with having expenses and increase faster than a rhythm. We'll be working on some spending protocols um identifying deficiencies in purchasing procedures um and requiring people to get more justification before the purchase order gets approved so that we can kind of slow down how fast the money goes out the door and have a better handle on it as the year progresses rather than just allowing everything purchased right away. Find out maybe you know we didn't use it all by the end of the year. Be better to purchase it when we need it rather than

069spending money. um and some budgeting practices u have to change. And so by that um when I say optimize your budget to align with true cost, I give some examples of what we're talking about. Um one cost in our budget is the cost of column transfers. So u it's very common across island teachers um as they earn more credits they get an advancement in salary as they move from one column to the next. So example is if a teacher gets hired in our district and they earn a master's degree. If they continue with their education and earn 15 additional credits, they'll get a hold salary. In our district, that goes up to master's degree plus 75 credits. Some district some districts it stops at 60. Some districts it goes to 90. It all depends on

070their contract. So for the last number of years, um the budget's been $85,000 for column transfers. And what's starting to become obvious is that as we have teachers retire and newer teachers get hired, there's more teachers seeking common transfers. Now, the contract only allows common transfer once per year, but there's been more people seeking common transfers. So, we budgeted over 200,000 for that instead of 85,000. So, where where the last couple years budgeted now are more appropriately budgeted. Another example of where um where those changes will be affected is with transportation for athletics. So over the last couple years, we've added sports teams and our transportation budgeting hasn't necessarily kept up with the additional sports teams. So we have a better handle on that now and we'll be more accurately budgeted. And similar to the

071column transfer is as our faculty and staff uh advances through their career and more of them are retiring, there are some benefits in the contract that are terminal payouts. So it could be for unused sick days, could be for unused vacation days. And as more of those people retired, our budgeting hasn't exactly kept pace with that number. So similar to the column transfer, we've in the 2026 27 budget that pled to those kinds of things. Um and then of course the worst part of this is as time goes on we'll consider all programs and supports along with the accompanying personnel. So while there may be differences of opinion on what's necessary for a student to be successful and what's not in our school district right now we have social worker every uh school we have

072school counselors at the elementary level which is not always common. um we have assistant principles and we have deans and some people want to say you don't need this or you don't need that and of course we think that those things are important especially when we're talking about students mental health and emotional well-being but if we uh through some of these other methods it's impossible to balance budget then of course every program and every position will have to be considered as the future moves on okay if the budget pass uh Dr. Gett mentioned some of these things at the last um at the last budget meeting. So um there's a 432,000 difference between a $2.22 tax and a 2.85 tax levity and as Mr. Brower said that difference um equates to approximately $60 per year

073for the average household. So if um we don't have that funding, this is a list of possibilities. And while tonight this is not the final list, these are some examples of um what we would start to talk about and we hope that we don't get to that. But those are some examples. Um here were some other questions. If a budget in a school district fails, we have several options. We could submit to the public the same budget for a revote. We could submit a revised budget for a vote or the board of educ education uh could choose to go directly to a contingent budget. Just as a side note, um a second vote would cost approximately $7,600. And um in the white box there at the bottom um uh it just kind of shows some

074of the basics about what we have to do. Um if uh board of education chose to go to a contingency budget or continue budget or if a second budget will fail um and these are some of the things that would happen. But as you saw on the previous slide before we got to this point there would be um additional board meetings and there would have to be additional budget presentations. So um to nail this down tonight would be a little bit premature. Okay. So, uh we'll try to take some questions and uh we'll see where we go from there. Got >> Hello. Thank you so much for the presentation. I know how much work went into that and thank you. So, I had some questions. If you could go back to the slide where it

075was the um major increase in expenses >> that one >> yes I wanted I wanted to ask a question about transportation that's a very big increase could you tell me um what was transportation's justification for that kind of increase >> yeah um well I think they have the same challenge ES we have right they have contractual obligations they have uh supply chain issues um they have all sorts of costs going up and um they asked us to do an RFP because they said they couldn't redo the contract at the same rate that we had in the past so well I I don't know their business uh in and out those are some of the basics >> and um did we we did an RFP for transportation for another >> we did we did a RFP

076refers to request for proposal if you don't know. And the way that works is we do some legal notices and we put it in the newspaper and any transportation company that would be interested in obtaining a contract for our district is free to respond. We had only one response. >> And can [clears throat] you share um what responses you've gotten so far with people deciding whether or not they use transportation or not so we could reduce the numbers? Oh. Um, so, uh, sometime earlier in April, I think we did a survey. Is that what you're referring to? >> Yeah, the survey. >> Yeah. So, um, we had 37 people respond to the survey. Um, >> 37 in total. Respond to the survey. So, it didn't really yield anything that would allow us to reduce a

077bus. >> Is that survey still open? If somebody wanted to, um, can we put it out again? you know, um, just maybe a week ago, this car and I closed it. But if people think it would help, we'd be happy to try it again. >> I just know that even just from being a parent in the parking lot, I see so many people picking up their kids and I see so many buses that leave the building kind of empty. >> Yeah. So, that's a that's a really good point and and we get that point a lot. Um, part of the challenge is we're required to provide busing for every student that's within the transportation distance. And um, we don't have a way of knowing who's driving their child to school or how many uh, children

078are staying after school for clubs or for sports and things like that. And uh, I speak to my colleagues all the time. This is a chronic challenge for all of us because it it doesn't look terrible. It looks like poor planning, but um I can tell you we have uh Trish, our transportation office who she works like crazy day in and day out to try to make it as efficient as possible. Um you know uh when we talked about um uh if we can't balance things in the distant future two three years from now having reduced programs or things like that one thing we [cough] might want to discuss is increasing the distance where people would be have to go from and then um the other question that I had was I know there was

079um I know there's been so so so much work done in the special education department to bring back students and to create programs that they can be housed here which has been amazing. Um but I'm wondering if um perhaps someone could just speak to what led to the increases in special education and the needs of our students and how that is reflected in that number. >> All right, Dr. Callahan's gonna step up and answer that for you. Thank you for your question. Um, as you know, we look at a question like that. If we as we look at the data and look at all of our students and all the students that we service through our special education program, um, we have students that um, to our district throughout the school year. So, they may

080come in in the fall after we pass the budget and have already planned. They may come in in the spring. We have um currently have a student who just moved in from another district and is requiring special education services um in an out of district placement. Um the student is coming as I I know I'm repeating myself, but I want to make sure everybody understands. So students moving in from a different district to Iceland and is in an out of district placement already in a Boseis placement and that's where the child will be serviced you know until we evaluate his needs. Um so we have those kind of situations you know uh we also have students that are maybe in house and as Dr. Har mentioned um and this goes across the board for general

081education and special education uh who may need further mental health treatment so psychiatric treatment um and that can make the cost go up as well. So some of these costs are out of our control at times. >> Thank you so much. >> And then um the other question I had was um the increases in the insuranceances are quite a bit as well. How do we anticipate that year to year? >> Um, >> mind reading and >> yeah, it it's another terrific challenge that we have. Mrs. Brower follows um information regarding health insurance pretty closely and we make our best estimates based on based on what the insurance you know what my ship dictates or puts out there or hints at it. We don't have any control over it. So, most of the things that we

082talked about are things that we really couldn't have planned for. Um, and I just want to um I just want to say also that there was a list up there if the budget fails. I just want to confirm that that's a suggested list and not a board approved list. >> That's 100% correct at this point. Yep. Uh if you couldn't hear Mrs. Regaki, she said suggested list, not board approved, and that's 100% correct. >> Thank you. That's all. question. >> Yes, we get those. >> Just follow up on the transportation questions that Mr. Baki brought up. Um, when we when we were planning for busing for our students, is it the same number of kids per se? I know that sounds trivial, but I know the elementary school kids when they go on field trips,

083they're sitting three to a seat. Is that what we're planning with our bus routes as well? >> Um, so I don't know. I can't answer directly. I'm not sure except to to say that I do know it's a it's a different um it's a different ratio based on the age of the children, right? Is that Do you know what the ratio is? Would you But our current map at the elementary level is planning for three to seat currently. >> So if you couldn't hear Mrs. Brower's answer, she didn't have a microphone. She said um on the on the uh well that would be kindergarten and first grade or the entire level. >> Yeah. So certainly at wing it's budgeted it's planned on three students per seat but Mrs. Brower repeated that we don't always know

084who's being driven to school take the bus or not. And this just says another play and I know it's come up from the community as well that um with the transportation that we keep a thorough check on our McKenna students. >> Yeah, we are um working on that pretty uh intensely actually. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um Mrs. Broward just reminded me that we the at the was it the last board meeting? At the last board meeting, the board did approve a contract to do an efficiency study for all schools really quick. Uh can you go back to the slide with the data with uh enrollment please? Is that I was in the back I couldn't really see it. Um so last board meeting I if I remember correctly uh the indication for

085the e accessing and and uh getting rid of positions and whatnot uh was because of a lot of enrollments going down. Am I correct in saying that? >> Well, I think it's twofold. It's because of the number of students we have moving up into each grade and it's also because we have a little room in the contractual caps to have more or two more students in each class like the numbers I read earlier. So, and also in the same presentation you al saw the graduating classes those also recently. So, I guess I mean to me it's 20 22 children going down. I mean do you expect that another to go down more? I mean is that I'm just trying to understand for the you know getting your positions whatnot. You also indicated u salary increases

086and teacher contracts and whatnot and uh as well as um central administration contracts and whatnot. Um but is there also is there a cap on um when you pay outs because you indicated about payouts for teachers retire uh for like teacher incentives that if you have like 100 days you need 300 to one day you know like our central admin paid out like one to one you know if you could just >> yeah there's to my knowledge there's no contract in our district where uh people get paid one to one for unused sick days or vacation uh for unusual Um um we just the teachers contract uh that per that aspect of the contract changed the last negotiation but I can't remember the details of every contract but I can tell you that it's it's

087in the a couple of hundreds a couple of hundred dollars per day. It's not a full day spend. >> All right. I have more question. >> Hi Darl. Um so during last board uh last year's board um presentations it was mentioned that you were utilizing the funds to train teachers in the Wilson reading system which is a tier three intervention for any of our special ed students. Um I had followed up with an email last summer asking which teachers were getting certified in which buildings. That question was never answered. Um, transparency is one of our district's goals and I was looking for transparency with that question. The reason I bring this up is because a taxpayer money was used to be able to provide this service for our students. Parents should know what services are

088offered for struggling readers who can provide who can provide these services and in which buildings these services are provided. Furthermore, if funds were used to train these teachers to provide this service and the service are not being used efficiently, it is a waste of funds and it's a valuable resource for students that's not being utilized. This leads to parents getting frustrated when their children are not being serviced properly. So, they seek independent evaluations. And when a parent asks for an independent evaluation, it across the district about $4 to $5,000. Um, is there a way that we can improve our system and our data collection? Can we find a way to improve this so that we can save those funds? Uh yeah, your question is very open-ended, so I don't actually know how to answer it

089directly, but we collect those for all types of data and um uh I'll make sure we get uh the next well next board meeting is the budget meeting uh is the budget vote. So there's going to be an agenda that night, but I will make sure for the June 9th meeting that we answer that question publicly about the certifications. >> Thank you. I would appreciate that. You're >> welcome. So just based on the budget going through the different slides, I have a few questions. The greenhouse, did you mentioned that there was a grant possibly being provided for that? >> At the last board meeting, wasn't there something about possibly money or grant being used for the greenhouse? >> No, not a grant of donation. >> Yes. Um possibly donations, but we're we're not at a

090stage where we can say what or how much. So, um uh for over a year, we've been talking with a local legislator who who's um trying to help us secure donations of materials, but we're not at a stage where we know how much will come through or not. So, I know that you highlighted a few things and I just asked next year. We don't need a hundred pieces of line on one slide in size eight font. Yeah, >> you can see it at the back and you can see gold on purple. >> Yeah. So, um Okay, can I say two things? Um the uh we did try to fix some of the font for tonight and I'm sorry I thought I had it but we didn't I seem to miss the mark on that. And

091regarding [clears throat] Sorry, go ahead. No, no, go ahead. >> Regarding that slide with all the things on it, that that's I don't mean this uh in a disrespectful way, but that's my Mrs. Moon slide because a couple years ago you said, "What are we gaining? What are we losing?" And I thought, "Okay, it's a lot. I I don't want to go like five, six, seven, eight slides, but I'll try to work on improvement for you." >> So, Dr. O'Hara, um actually the saying less and more is more is sometimes very productive. So multiple slides might actually be very educational, helpful to the community, especially when we need a new projector and you can see whether you were sitting there, there or at home on your TV. But I'm going to continue with my question

092because I thought that was very personal. Um I didn't get that. I just tried to responsive to something you had as extremely sarcastic. >> It was. >> Now my next question. So on those slides, some of the things that were being trimmed were the testing, which is about $100,000 as per our correspondence, >> paying for the testing fees. >> Yes. >> And then you also talked about the college tours, RBT, so it's like about $190,000. >> What else did you initially think to trim in the budget before asking the taxpayers to pay more money? Like was anything else trimmed from the budget? there were things money was trimmed from every line in the budget before getting to that point and then we felt we reached the point where trimming other things would impact students experience.

093>> So I want to know last year you took over over a million dollars out of reserves. How much of that was put back? Any of it? >> No. Okay. When we're going into next year with almost $3.5 million taken out of our reserves and still no plan to put it back, are any of those revenue suggestions solid and actually going to happen? >> Uh yeah, one one is solid and the others we're working on. >> They're the we hopes from the last meeting. So my other question to you is I'd like to know the data from the past five years. how much money has been taken out of our reserves and how much money was put back to replace reserves that were taken. >> Yeah, I can I can get that for you. I

094can tell you that you can see for the last couple of years and I can tell you that um in the first year Mr. Brower and I worked on a budget at the end of that year we put $2.6 million into reserves and we established the capital reserve fund and we established a repair reserve. But I would have to go back and get you more detail here. And what is the cost to the district for a Suffach County Community College partnership? Uh >> zero. >> We don't have to train any teachers or any of that stuff? >> We do not. >> I'll save everything else for later. teaching the development the additional education for staff is that predominantly for administration or was that included for teachers as well? >> Research for better teaching that program

095or the question about teacher certifications? >> Well, the research for better teaching >> faculty uh staff are teachers and administrators. >> Okay. And then um with regard to the screen that's up with our enrollment having gone down so much, can you justify the addition of the upper administrative positions that have been added or created over the years? I had older children and now I have a child that's still in the high school. So >> yeah, I I don't know how far back you're going, but I can tell you within my time here, we have not added one administrative position. We have added um teaching positions. We've added clerical. We've added um uh aids and monitors. But a complement of administrators that are present today is the same number that was present. >> The three [laughter]

096assistant principles. >> We have two assistant principles and a dean. And yes, >> that's been consistent. And then what about the assistant superintendent? >> All consistent. The only change in central office has been that um one person who was um on the cabinet attended executive session for board meetings. We changed the title but the position is not there. >> And then I had a question about the state aid because that was an incredibly low number huge change from last year. Can you speak to the reasoning and justification? >> Yeah, I don't know exactly why. You know, some aid gets reduced some aid is what's called expense based aid. So it's relative to how much we spend the year before. So some of our our expenses go down in some areas that will reduce some of

097our aid, but it's based on combined wealth ratio. It's based on foundation aid formula. And it's a little bit of a black box that I can't tonight tell you exactly why. The understanding is you're supposed to have a better answer tomorrow with regard to how much of the actual state aid you're going to be getting or is that >> oh um >> tremendously drastically lower amount that was on your >> Yeah. So we're so I don't know if the answer will come tomorrow. They the legislature extended the um they they approved the budget extender until tomorrow but it doesn't mean they won't approve another one because now there's negotiations going on between the governor of the two houses. Um, but we if it changes and it goes to 2% instead of 1%, we're anticipating an

098additional $212,000. Um, question. I don't want to take anybody else's time. Just forgive me because I was trying to make a lot of notes keeping up with all those slides. [clears throat] Thank you. >> My pleasure. >> Green house as far as projected use, percentage of students that would actually be using it, staff, like what is it for? I I don't have a clear understanding. >> Yeah. So, we have a um we have a horicultural class and we have a club and so it'll be used for educational space as well as extracurricular space. >> And and how much was that going to cost? >> Approximately $275,000. So, I have a question actually to go off that I wasn't going to ask, but um is the greenhouse something that absolutely has to be done this year?

099already know we're moving money now into the capital. Is that something that has to be done in this budget year? >> Um, it has to be done now because that's what we told the public we're doing. We can't change the budget at this point after it's been adopted. >> So, previous to last week, it didn't have to be done, but now it does >> possibly. >> Okay. So, I have something a little bit long to read. I'm sorry. But um while I appreciate the answers presented tonight to a lot of questions, uh I still feel disheartened that it took so much time and effort to get to this level of clarity from this presentation. Uh over the past few weeks, many of us have spent a significant amount of time reviewing documents, going through the

100line by line budget, piecing together information that each of us were getting to try and fully understand what was being presented. Over the past budget presentations, it's come to light several times that we are both using I'm sorry that we are using both reserves and asking bargaining units for concessions. And along the way, hearing terms like mismanagement and underbudgeted lines in years previous used broadly without clear explanation raises concern. There are multiple layers of oversight within a school district and it can begin to feel like these phrases are being used as a fallback in response to questions about budget increases this year rather than providing specific clarity. And it contributes to a growing sense of concern within the community when asking to pierce the cap. So that being said, I also want to publicly acknowledge

101that I do not believe voting the budget down is the best solution. I understand that people are frustrated, myself included, and rightfully so. However, at this point, whatever issues may have occurred in previous budget years that landed us here cannot be undone. I am not convinced that rejecting the budget will improve this situation moving forward. A reworking of the budget will very likely result in significant cuts as we saw today and will directly affect our children. It feels as though we are in a very difficult position as a community where there are no easy choices at this point and real meaningful tradeoffs to be considered. So my question is where does that leave me and the rest of us? Um so if the budget does pass I guess my little thing is I strongly urge

102members of the community including myself to attend board meetings more regularly. It's clear that it would be beneficial to be active, asking questions and engaging earlier in the process rather than waiting until the budget presentations and the budget adoption before we're clear on what is actually being presented in the budget. Greenhouse being an example. I also would urge the district and the board of ed to recognize that there is a sense of urgency among this community having used reserves the last two years and asking employee concessions for this year. This year is an opportunity to rebuild sound money management through clarity, consistency, and communication. That's what this community is asking for and has been asking for in order to work together to do what is best for our children. This presentation makes me a little

103bit hopeful. Um, so I thank you for this and thanks you for your time. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Thanks. like a faculty and parents. [clears throat] Uh, presently we do not, but that would be something I'd be happy to participate in. Sure. $200. How many times do you come to to the board and say, "I need money to get to." >> How many How many times has Dr. Ohio school come to the board and say we need [clears throat] money for this we need money for this we need money for that to get to $2 million a lotion $2.5 million where $2 million I don't care where it's coming from $2 million I'm asking how many times did the school come to the floor and say we need $100,000 for this teacher

104$100,000. We need $300,000 for this. How many times that question have during these whole bunch of presentations, you know, I I understand everyone's upset, you know, like I said before with with piercing the gap because you can see back on the on the last term, one year we had 3.65. One year we came under the gap. We didn't go up to that. When we do our contract negotiations, we were told that, you know, everything's able to be questioned. You can see that we ran into some unex, you know, unexpected expenses. Then we ran into transportation, salary expenses, healthcare, we're up 14% this year. So when you're saying that the superintendent come to us and say we give 14%. Therefore, they're budgeting. So they're budgeting for this and they're anticipating it. So sometimes if something was

105under budget, it wasn't done intentionally. So is that what you're saying? >> How much does that happen over the course of year to get to what I'm just saying is when when they anticipate what these costs are going to be, that's their budget. So they say we have this budget, this anticipated budget. So there was some that ran over. >> So the welding class, which is a great thing, I think cost of $30,000. It doesn't seem like a lot of money. I feel like in exhaust you said $30,000 start. [clears throat] >> Yeah. I'm I'm told it's between $35 and $50,000 for >> No, no, no. Just hold on a second. for the electrical upgrades, right? To um to do exhaust fans and stuff that we need. We're we're jumping up another probably $50,000 so

106that the uh teachers building welding boots on his own over the summer so that the students can weld outside where we don't we can put off a year or two uh updating the exhaust until the program grows and we have money for. So we're we're we're >> I turn to $20,000. >> Yeah. So we're we're going >> and one of the things that we've been hearing out here is let's enhance our CTE program. Right now I spoke to someone electrician at the house the other day and he told me you know how he got started in it. You know he had a rough life but he became a man electrician and it was a really wonderful story to hear him say this. You know what he said to him really resonated and he also he

107left high school and then got back into it. He says this is something that you never take away from. It's a skill set that he's going to have for the rest of his life and he's making great money. So, so we're you know so when when you're putting a dollar amount on the program >> okay >> we can't underf >> so your point regarding the welding is that it's not it's not just electric because you need venting and other things like that right so >> right so >> yeah so in that example we've had those conversations right we've consulted with our architects we're quoting our director of facilities and we spoke to the welding teacher and we're we're uh we're looking for a workound around until we can get to that point. And the workound

108is I said to him, can you weld out in the cold? He said, I weld in snow, you know. So our our our guys and girls who choose that class, you know, might be outside for a portion of the day doing their portion of the class doing their welding until we have the funds to uh the program grows funds to uh dedicate toward ventilation that's required. say we don't go back to we don't $275,000 we don't put that we don't use that capital >> it's a c that's a capital project so it's not money >> yeah well there was an issue last year I don't I don't remember the date but we were at a board meeting at wing where we explained that um in 2022 Mr. Brower and I recommended to the board a

109capital reserve fund and when we made that fund we we made a list of the projects we we said as bill we said roof pain I don't remember I mean uh at the moment everything we put on the list but we tried to make it as inclusive or encompassing as possible it turns out we didn't specifically list greens and so then legal council said you can't use that money for greenhouse so so it's in the budget this year and what's going to happen is this past summer last this time last year, the community approved um expending funds funds from that reserve to do the playground and do the greenhouse and other projects, right? We couldn't use the money for the greenhouse. So that money is going to go back into the capital reserve. We couldn't

110use it. So we're building the greenhouse out of our line budget and the capital reserve to go back into the reserve. So that reserve go about $300,000. How would you go? Thank you. That concludes our private presentation. We're going to move on to our agenda items. Uh is there any questions from the board of any be voting on this evening? >> Is there any questions from the public on the items we'll be voting on this evening? >> All right. With that, I'd like to get a motion to consent. Items 5 A through 5 CC. Can I get a motion? >> Mr. green. Can I get a second? Mm. Waki. All those in favor? I I opposed. Abstain. And they roll all carry. Okay. And we're going to now move on to our public questions. I

111do have a couple few comments for us here. Um, looks like Sarah Guzman. [snorts] I guess she's here. >> Joshua, you're up. [snorts] >> Long night. Long night. Sorry, I'll be quick. I'll try to be. Um, so [clears throat] this Saturday we're going to be at uh uh we're going to be at the the football field uh elementary school um for lacrosse on Saturday. I'm going to ask the facilities uh be great. We're going to have five teams ATMED East isol and CI there to play. this Saturday. Um, that's one. Uh, my other question was, um, well, not really a question. Uh, I mean, it's really a question. Sorry. So, my wife and I are both parents here. We've been here for a couple years now, and we both have a first grader and kindergarten

112student here at Bing Elementary. Um, and I say that though we're new to the district, we we love the district and at being here, we're very proud and grateful to be part of the school community. We've also seen uh firsthand his dedication to teacher staff and have been fortunate to have our children grow up here. Um both also in the Isac program um I love the Isaac program. However, as excited as we start this district, there is something that uh has been deeply disappointing to me as a parent. Um, I recently learned that ISF does not hold a moving up ceremony or graduation ceremonies for our students reaching major educational milestones such as kindergarten, fifth grade, 8ighth grade with the exception of senior graduation. I was um especially surprised to learn that there is no

113celebration for first graders leaving Wing Elementary. Um, as that marks a meaningful transition from going c to one building to the next chapter in the academic journey. Um these moments matter for our kids especially at that young of age. I think that it's paramount for our children to understand that you are going from king uh K1 from one building to a whole new building and can be challenging for some students as well as scary for some students. Uh and I think they should be recognized. Um K kindergarten first grade. I mean listen I'm a teacher. I was at PD today and kindergarten and first graders is most important grades. You know, they're starting their chapters in education and they need to know that they're being celebrated. Um, and we don't have that program for them

114and I think we should. Um, so I really urge I'm sure parents in the community will love that who because I think everyone goes to win. So I think that uh you tell us why we don't have one. Um I mean whether it be something small auditorium or anything that would be great. I mean the kindergarten moving up. >> Yeah, we have moving up ceremony from Sherwood to the middle school and then a high school commencement. So we can revisit that if the board is interested. >> Pardon me. >> My wife I know my wife's part of the PTA. >> Pardon me. to see perform. It's not like nobody here has ever said that. So, everyone wants to do that. >> Well, I'm sure that there's going to be other, you know, people need to

115be notified within the district. I'm sure teachers involved and whatnot. Those >> committee will get that. I mean this this is what everyone's you know wants right so you know whoever would spearhead it whatever teachers or somebody you know make it happen I mean simply do a moving up ceremony >> listen I have no problem doing anything I mean you see that the speed limit signs in front of the wing I started that so I have no problem spiriting something so I mean you tell me to do something I will do it but I mean as long as everyone here on the board I'm sure nobody's going to contest to that I'm Why you would suggest that the court would say no to that first time? >> Well, I'm not suggesting anything, but I am

116I am saying I'm just simply asking for clarification why we don't have them. If I'm sure I'm not the first one who's ever thought about it. >> I mean, I haven't been asked, but we'd be happy to start the conversation. You're >> welcome. Holy >> mish. I'm going to speak mainly to the board on this one. Can you everyone can hear me, right? You can hear me. I want to talk about a little bit about the budget and I want to talk a little bit about leadership. In this budget, one of the things that we're talking about are the concessions from our educators and we don't even know if we're going to be in this place next year asking them for concessions. A column advancement is something that a district can plan for because teachers

117in all districts all contractually have to get approval for those classes that they are paying for. And yes, Dr. Har is right. Those are mainly young new teachers paying off college debt but paying for classes to advance their career and have a column advancement. They're working hard. A lot of them probably worked more than one job and it's about I'd say on average if I looked at a few contracts which I did around $2,500 that those teachers are giving back as their concession. That is the same. You're asking a 20-some year old teacher to give up her 25 his or her $2,500 and that is what central office who makes a lot more money is giving back per person. I find that it could have been better. Personal opinion, but I want to talk about

118the leadership in this district and the transparency that myself and many people have asked for over and over again. This is the first time and I don't even know how long that I've actually seen board members stand up and ask a question. We have no idea what kind of oversight is actually happening behind closed doors. The job of the board is to provide oversight and we don't know what questions and what debates are going on that's better going going to better serve our community. And these types of decisions, these budget transfers, you hire somebody because you feel as though they are confident enough to do the job. So you trust them and I understand that and we want to have trust amongst the people we are working with. But this comes from the top. This

119comes from this district's leadership. I have been disrespected more than once standing up here. It is I am over it. [clears throat] This community was promised I'd like to remind you that this community was promised that one year off of Dr. Rohara's contract would be taken away after the lifeguard situation and I really hope you keep that in mind because we need inspiration, we need innovation and we need somebody that's going to connect to this community. Thank you. [applause] [cheering] >> Okay. All right. So that concludes that closes our public comments questions. We move on to reports and correspondents. Thank you. Good evening. I'd like to thank everyone for coming out tonight. Um, I'd also just like to continue with ways parents and students can get involved across the district. To start, Karmac Road Elementary

120School will be hosting their spring family fun night on May 15th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. This event will feature games, prizes, and fun activities for the whole family. It is a great opportunity for students and families to come together and enjoy a fun evening at the school. Next, the postprom committee is looking for donations to support this year's postp prom event. Postprom provides a safe and fun environment for seniors after prom. Uh, complete with DJ, snacks, and prizes where no student leaves empty-handed. Parents and community members can help by donating items to create raffle baskets. And the links to sign up and contribute can be found on parent square. Next, the east of soccer club is really in need of volunteers for their just for kicks program, which takes place on Friday evenings. This

121program is designed for children on the autistic spectrum to help promote an interest in soccer. Volunteers can show up at 5:30 p.m. on Fridays at the Westbrook soccer fields in East Iceland. This is a great opportunity for students 12 and older to earn volunteer hours or simply get involved in a rewarding experience. No soccer experience is necessary, just compassion, a willingness to help and be ready to have some fun. Uh, I personally volunteer in this and have been for years and I can say personally it's been one of the most fulfilling and impactful things I'm a part of. Finally, I want to remind all seniors who have already turned 18 to register to vote if you haven't done so already. You can register through the New York State Board of Elections website. It's important to

122get involved and make your voice heard. I am registered and ready to vote on May 19th and I encourage you to do the same. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Ditch. And uh just leading up with the uh exopicio student member this Thursday the board of education will be meeting with. We have four applicants that Dr. O'Hara met with that 11th graders that are looking to be the next exopicio board member. So we're going to be meeting this Thursday and we're going to interview four of them and we'll select a new exopicio student and an alternate for the uh the next school year. So, uh, we had their resumes and, uh, we're looking forward to meeting with them and it's, uh, it's pretty exciting and it's, uh, as doc Dr. Harry told us, we're

123going to have a hard time deciding the board that um, that submitted their application. So, we're looking forward to that. Okay, that's going to bring us to our dates to remember. Our next board event meeting will be on uh, yeah, 19th will be the vote. um 6:00 to um 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. will be the budget vote and then after the u budget vote approximately around 9:30 after everything's been tallied uh we'll have a board meeting. So folks, thank you for attending. Thank you for all your questions. Uh stay safe and we'll see you at the next one and I get a motion for a journment and a second. All those in favor I will carry.