[0:04] All right. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to April 8th meeting of the North Port. I don't

[0:11] want to look as well. North Port, East North Port. Port of Education meeting. Thank you

[0:17] for coming to our meeting, whether you're live or in virtual.

[0:46] First thing, of course, is our

[0:48] virtual that's Trustee Lakopli and Trustee Lachorin. They are in virtual length. The emergency

[0:54] exits are behind you and behind me. And looks like there's no minutes, but we do have our

[1:02] accomplishments of staff and students. I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent.

[1:07] Thank you, President of the days and good evening, everybody. Welcome and thank you for taking

[1:13] time to come out tonight or who are watching online. Thank you for taking the time to participate virtually.

[1:22] I just want to go and introduce the student of the month for physical education

[1:29] and help them just a second. And again this is something that the Northport Rotary sponsors for

[1:36] students every year and I really want to thank the Rotary for their continued support of the district

[1:42] and particularly of our students and you know obviously everybody's been

[1:48] impacted by COVID and you know the arrangement and usually there's a lunch

[1:53] and there's a presentation and they had an opportunity to ask questions of

[2:00] Hunter and Hannah and it was just a really nice, it was just a great gathering

[2:05] yesterday and I'm really excited for you to learn more about them tonight and Mr.

[2:12] Dan Twano was here to do that but you know the Rotary is a very service-oriented

[2:18] organization and as you may know and yesterday they were talking about a new

[2:25] opportunity for Rotary members to get involved to help deliver meals to you know

[2:32] to veterans who are struggling, and during the meeting they were going around the room

[2:38] asking to volunteer, and I was sitting at the table where Hunter and Hanna were, and

[2:45] they kind of looked at each other because we come to find out that they're friends, and

[2:49] they said, you want to do it, and they said, yeah, so as they were going around the room,

[2:54] and they said, all right, who wants to take a month to deliver meals, they raised their

[2:58] hand. So it just is really, you know, it was a proud moment for me. Their parents were there

[3:06] and it just speaks to the, you know, the kind of people that they are that, you know,

[3:11] here they are, they're in a group in a room full of adults to honor them, but yet here they are,

[3:18] they're already finding a way to give back and I just found that to be extraordinary. So

[3:24] without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Dan Plano.

[3:26] Good

[3:33] evening, I'd like to thank the Board of Education President of the Daines and all

[3:37] the Board of Education trustees along with Superintendent Banser to have this opportunity

[3:42] to honor these wonderful and amazing student athletes.

[3:47] And in the next few minutes we'll have an opportunity to actually visualize all their wonderful

[3:51] accomplishments.

[3:53] But before we do that, I just want to mention we have Hunter Warner Shelley, Howard Health

[3:57] and sports and medicine, the student of the month,

[4:00] and Hannah Moraski is our physical education student of the month,

[4:03] and they're here this evening, and we're going to start the evening off

[4:07] with honoring and watching a beautiful video for Hannah Moraski.

[4:33] It is with great honor that we present Hannah Moraski

[4:37] as Rotary's student of the month for physical education.

[4:40] Hannah's like having another teacher in the classroom.

[4:43] She's an extension of our teachers.

[4:45] She's positive, she's energetic, she's always willing to help any student in need.

[4:50] Well, as a physical education student, Hannah is a very motivated student.

[4:55] She's a very helpful student, she's very willing to help her peers.

[5:00] Anytime, you know, we're looking to move teams or we have to do something that

[5:04] somebody else might not want to do, she's willing to help.

[5:07] In addition to her great contributions and physical education,

[5:11] She's a very dedicated student athlete. Hanna recently was captain of our

[5:16] Coley Championship Girls Basketball team, but this was a very unique and

[5:20] challenging season. Playing basketball throughout the pandemic and Hanna was

[5:24] the glue that kept these kids together and kept them moving forward.

[5:29] Winning this award has been truly an honor. I've been playing sports since I was

[5:35] able to walk and being able to have this award truly shows that my hard work

[5:41] test paid off. And Northport High School and their athletic department has

[5:47] always been like a family to me. Hannah was the captain of this year's team.

[5:53] Three-year starter on the three-year player on the team. The most important thing

[5:58] about her though is just what's brought to our team. As a senior girls are allowed

[6:04] to like their own captain and the unanimous choice.

[6:11] It respected they

[6:12] show from her and then the respect that I showed her is also hard to meet is amazing.

[6:18] What stands out about Hannah is her attitude and it's just a positive attitude.

[6:24] She takes the same attitude from athletics and rolls it over to Fizzid in terms of her

[6:30] drive and her willingness to you know to do what needs to be done basically.

[6:34] a great kid always does what she has to do responsible beyond believe just a great

[6:41] young lady.

[6:44] My teacher, Mr. Cordo, is one of my really close teachers and he always

[6:49] tries to make sure every kid is always involved and feels comfortable in gym

[6:55] class. Playing volleyball is probably one of the best activities we do in gym

[7:00] because everybody gets to play and be a part of a new sport, even if they don't play volleyball.

[7:08] And I'm planning to study biomedical sciences on the pre-med track.

[7:15] I've always wanted to help people. It's always been one of the things I wanted to do.

[7:20] Once again, Hannah, congratulations.

[7:32] I'd like to have Hannah, come on up, and receive a certificate from Board of Education, President Mr. Bidings, and Mr. Bidings.

[7:39] And

[8:29] next is with great honor that we watch the video presentation speech during Hunter Gwana Shelly, our Rotary Student of the Month for Health and Sports Medicine.

[8:48] It's an honor that we're presenting the Rotary Student of the Month for Health and Sports Medicine to Hunter Gwana Shelly.

[8:56] Hunter is a very dedicated and active student in Mrs. Gwana Sports Medicine's classes.

[9:00] What separates Hunter from his peers was the topic that he decided to pursue for his

[9:05] IB extended essay.

[9:07] And that was sports specialization and the impact it has on student athletes both physically

[9:13] and mentally.

[9:14] And I think what was unique about him his sophomore or his junior year was that he was involved

[9:20] with the CPR AED Awareness program that I do here.

[9:24] Last year we decided to expand it to the fifth grade and so I took a group of students

[9:29] down to the 5th grade. His end-classes and we taught them hands-on in CPR and AED.

[9:34] And Hunter was one of the first ones to volunteer to go. And not only was he phenomenal,

[9:39] but you know just watching him work with the kids, they responded to him well.

[9:44] He was articulate, he was patient, and just his energy was contagious.

[9:48] I'm very excited to see this award because I have done a lot of work in the health department,

[9:53] especially mental health.

[9:55] It's been a very big factor in my life and that's why I wrote about it in my extended essay.

[10:02] As an athlete myself, mental health is very important and a lot of the time it kind of

[10:07] just gets shoved under the carpet and, you know, you're not really allowed to show your

[10:11] emotional side in sports, so to finally be able to talk about this in an essay and to go

[10:17] through it and help and really experience it and learn, it was really like an outlet to

[10:22] my voice out there and talk about the factors besides physical injuries

[10:27] that happen to athletes. From the very first moment that he walked into

[10:31] class he just had a personality that was larger than life. Hello, very nice,

[10:36] very kind, very sweet. I'm sure there was a huge smile underneath the mask and it

[10:41] was just nice to have that kind of personality walk into your classroom on the

[10:44] first day and just be ready to learn. He's an added soccer player

[10:52] very committed and just being able to take the knowledge that he learned in

[10:56] IB in sports science and being able to relate it to his own you know abilities

[11:01] and his own fears and you know goals for the future was just inspiring and I

[11:08] just think that he's been able to take the concepts that he's learned in sports

[11:11] medicine related to the real world and now he's using that to excel and to you

[11:18] know take a look at what he wants to do in the future.

[11:20] I plan on going into pre-med biology in college on a course to study anesthesiology to become

[11:29] an anesthesiologist and that's really where my goal is right now because I want to work

[11:35] in a medical field really bad.

[11:38] I've always wanted to help people and you know going back to health, I've always wanted

[11:41] to be in the health sciences, in the health field.

[11:45] So being a doctor is one of my largest goals.

[11:49] Once again, we congratulate Hunter on this exceptional honor.

[12:04] Please congratulate him to once again.

[12:54] Again, congratulations to Hunter and Hannah,

[12:58] and we were talking yesterday.

[12:59] They both aspired to the doctors in the medical field

[13:04] and Hunter, as he said,

[13:06] wants to be an anesthesiologist,

[13:08] and Hannah had talked about wanting to be an orthopedic surgeon,

[13:11] so they could potentially work together someday.

[13:14] But again, congratulations to both of you.

[13:24] I haven't been able to get a motion to.

[13:26] I'm good.

[13:27] I'd like to make a motion to reorder the agenda.

[13:29] I need a second.

[13:31] Go ahead.

[13:32] So moving 10 and 11 at last seven.

[13:37] Any discussion?

[13:41] Any discussion from Trustee Lawsman and Trustee Lakopi?

[13:45] No.

[13:46] The

[13:48] proposal is a favor of moving.

[13:50] I have a 10 and I have a 11.

[13:52] I had a set of all those of them.

[14:00] I was hoping I didn't hear it.

[14:05] Are you voting the A or A on moving 10 and 11?

[14:09] Yes.

[14:10] Item 7.

[14:11] Yes.

[14:13] Trustee Larkin?

[14:14] Yes.

[14:16] Thank you.

[14:16] You're going to have a separate of the 10.

[14:20] I need a motion, please.

[14:28] Vice President?

[14:28] in? Yeah. I'm moving all of them. I'll second that.

[14:36] First, we have it's a par.

[14:47] First thing I'd like to say is we have a few people required. Yes.

[14:54] So we have a

[14:55] Ruth Quinn who's been a teacher area for 19 years and nine months who's retrying as

[15:35] Thank you, 30 years. We have to read that. Oh boy. That's the only thing we can actually work on.

[15:40] So, we have 10.03, so we have a amendment of resolution action 10.06 school closure advisory

[15:50] test for adopted at the January 21, 2021 public meeting of the Board of Education, whereas

[15:57] at the public meeting of the Board of Education held on January 21, 2021, the Board of Education

[16:03] adopted a resolution appointing a school closure advisory test for and whereas the resolution

[16:10] also set forth at the School Closure Advisory Test Board, which file an educational impact statement

[16:16] with the Board of Education on a report April 8, 2021, and whereas the Board of Education desires

[16:24] to amend the resolution regarding the School Closure Advisory Test Board that was adopted at the

[16:30] January 21, 2021, public meeting of the Board of Education for the purpose of extending the time

[16:37] by which the school closure advisory test was must file the educational impact statement

[16:43] with the Board of Education from April 8, 2021 to April 13, 2021. Now, therefore, be resolved

[16:51] as the resolution regarding the school closure advisory test was that was adopted at the January

[16:57] 20th public meeting of the Board of Education is amended to the extent to the extent that the

[17:05] educational impact payment shall be filed with the Board of Education on

[17:10] April 13, 2021. So that is also part of the 10th. Thank you, Beth, for your

[17:15] relevant work. Any other comments?

[17:23] Here, I know those will favor. Trustee

[17:26] Loss here, and Trustee Locopli? Aye. Thank you very much, Beth.

[17:31] As unanimously, I need a motion for item 11.

[17:36] I'll make the motion to move all of the 11.

[17:38] Thank you all second.

[17:45] Oh, there you are.

[17:47] Mr. Howard on

[17:50] the transfer of funds, I think it's 11.25,

[17:59] oh no I'm sorry it's 11.24.

[18:03] So there seems to be a transfer of funds for the consultant of the operation and maintenance

[18:10] of the plan.

[18:11] It looks like there was a transfer of $40,800.

[18:15] Can you explain that, please?

[18:22] Those are for fees for environmental services.

[18:26] We budget for them the general funds

[18:27] and the expenses come out of the BoC's code.

[18:30] Superiority will transfer funds from the general funds

[18:32] into the BoC's code to cover the expenses.

[18:37] I understand that, but I'm saying we budgeted $7K

[18:39] but we only spent 40, I'm not glad we spent less

[18:41] but just why did we spend less?

[18:44] It's real continued to draw down comments.

[18:46] So this is, as needed, so in every time we do sampling, testing, things like that, it

[18:50] comes out of, this is for like, you know, broader or various other environmental testing

[18:54] agencies when we do our water testing, any sort of testings we require to do.

[18:59] So, we're not done with the year just yet, so we have any specialist testing, if we want

[19:02] to drill into a wall, we'll be contracting and the costs come out of both of these and

[19:07] we transfer funds into both of these to cover.

[19:09] Thank you.

[19:26] All those in favor of 11.

[19:29] Trustee Lachner and Trustee Locopli?

[19:32] Aye.

[19:33] Aye.

[19:34] As you know, I believe that brings us back to item 7.

[19:37] Mr. President, before you move to 7, I would like to take a moment to have Mr. Vapin and

[19:45] Dr. Vapin.

[19:46] I'll just give an update about the Tuesdays.

[19:49] Thank you.

[19:51] Thank you.

[20:01] Just an update on the task force meeting on Tuesday.

[20:07] As always, we began the meeting with reviewing questions and feedback that are given each

[20:12] week anonymously from the task force.

[20:16] We also reviewed the educational impact statement and the components of that and what the

[20:21] task force has been seeing on a regular basis for some meeting minutes and the presentations

[20:26] that will be included in there along with the background and overview and that will the final

[20:33] will be coming out shortly for them to see. We also have presentation and we're asking the

[20:41] task force asked for Mr. Howard to return to explain a little bit more about the budget and about

[20:46] the savings that he did along with explaining about transportation and the three buildings WJV

[20:56] Dickinson and Delrose explaining about those buildings and the possible uses of the

[21:04] buildings should there be a closure.

[21:07] The task force also requested that we have the middle school, first of all prior to

[21:12] the meeting, we get two tours.

[21:14] We get a tour of Northport Middle School and each Northport Middle School, where the task

[21:26] great questions would be along with some of the other shared spaces like the music and

[21:31] technology and lunchrooms and things like that.

[21:35] They also had some other questions for the printables and one of the things that they really

[21:41] wanted to know more about, which they are continuing to plan, is the arrival and dismissal for

[21:48] this greater making sure that we plan that carefully.

[21:53] There was also time for the breakout sessions and for, again, those questions and answers

[22:00] for Mr. Howard and his two principals of the middle school.

[22:08] And then in terms of next steps, first I should say thank you to the board for agreeing

[22:15] to allow us some a little bit of extra time with the committee.

[22:19] So we plan to meet on Monday night or 12th with the committee for an additional meeting

[22:24] than what was previously scheduled to look at the finalized version of the educational impact

[22:31] statement. The draft of the impact statement has been posted to the website fairly recently,

[22:38] within the last say two hours, I would say. So it is out there for folks to kind of take a look at

[22:43] and get a good sense of the work that's been done by this committee. The committee is a group of,

[22:49] you know, 24 people and they work very hard six two-hour meetings with a lot of communication

[22:56] back and forth between the meetings.

[22:58] So we are deeply grateful to all the folks on the committee for their work, their time,

[23:03] their energy, especially during a challenging time.

[23:05] Some of our meetings for face-to-face, not as many as we had hoped and many of our meetings

[23:09] are through Zoom.

[23:11] So we want to thank them.

[23:13] So our next steps we're going to meet with the committee on Monday night to review the finalized

[23:17] version of the educational impact statement and we hope to present that statement, as you just mentioned, in your motion to the Board of Education on Tuesday, April 13th.

[23:34] Thank you. So thank you Dr. Bosnack and Mr. Blachem. Again, just to reiterate, the EIS,

[23:43] the draft EIS has been posted to the website. There's a meeting on the 12th of the committee,

[23:50] and there's an opportunity for anybody to watch that meeting, and then there'll be a subsequent

[23:56] meeting of Board of Education on April 13th to receive an education management statement.

[24:03] And then on April 27th, there will be a hearing regarding the school closure and the reorganization

[24:12] plan.

[24:13] And then on April 29th, there is a vote regarding that process.

[24:23] Thank you.

[24:23] Question?

[24:24] I think we just comment.

[24:26] Okay.

[24:27] Okay.

[24:28] Oh, thank you.

[24:29] I was able to watch Tuesday night meeting.

[24:31] It was long.

[24:31] So thank you all for you guys, your hard work and your volunteer hearing.

[24:34] So definitely didn't end it none.

[24:36] Definitely went on, but I appreciate all the feedback

[24:39] and collaboration that was happening there.

[24:41] I just have two questions.

[24:43] I know that you guys had the opportunity

[24:45] to some parents to tour or committee members

[24:48] to tour the middle schools, going forward

[24:51] and I'm sure you're probably going to be tackling this.

[24:54] But do we have a sense of where we're placing?

[24:57] I believe we've seen a bit of a mess.

[25:00] We're fifth graders, we're thinking you're going to be

[25:03] Is there something concrete in that area like a floor plan that's available?

[25:09] Yes, I can respond to that.

[25:11] So at one of the meetings, the principals did present with a floor plan of their buildings,

[25:21] of where the fiscal, the plans for the fifth grade classrooms would be.

[25:25] And the goal was really to insulate those fifth graders as much as possible,

[25:28] yet, you know, welcome them to the building.

[25:32] So those diagrams are actually part of the presentation

[25:36] that also are posted on the website.

[25:40] But people did ask about some of the folks on the committee

[25:43] who came to do the tours, had the maps with them

[25:45] as they toured around the building to kind of get a sense of

[25:49] where they were in the building at that time.

[25:52] And just to lastly, I wanted to follow up on the modules

[25:55] or it's like waiting for some feedback, right,

[25:58] on the age, you know, where and share them,

[26:00] and how we're going to be using them,

[26:02] if we are using them.

[26:03] Yes, I will be reporting that tomorrow

[26:06] with some information from the architect.

[26:09] Okay, great.

[26:09] Well, thanks.

[26:13] Thanks for that.

[26:18] So, I'll bring it back

[26:22] to you.

[26:23] Yes, we're, we're, yeah.

[26:25] So we know that before we get into the public comment

[26:30] regarding the budget proposal and the committee of the hall and wanted to just take some time and

[26:38] just talk through the budget. And I know I found a little bit like a broken record, but I think it's

[26:43] really important for everybody just to understand that, you know, what grounds us in our decision-making

[26:52] is the mission, the vision, and the core beliefs, and particularly that first core belief that our

[26:58] students are first priority to move through this process.

[27:02] You know, we're going to talk about a lot of numbers and plans and, you know, funding

[27:08] levels but, again, that all translates back to, you know, making sure that we have

[27:13] a high quality program for our students and our community.

[27:17] Again, we've been working through the budget process.

[27:20] We started back in January.

[27:22] We are now in April and time certainly applies.

[27:25] after this meeting, after the budget is adopted,

[27:28] there'll be a hearing on the finalized budget,

[27:31] and then on May 18th, there'll be a budget vote.

[27:38] So I just want to take a minute,

[27:41] and as I've been reflecting on the last five meetings

[27:45] or so, and really, as we talk about planning,

[27:50] what goes into this budget, and at the core of this,

[27:54] as I said in terms of our Mr. Statement,

[27:56] It is really to maintain the diversity and excellence of our educational program, for our students,

[28:03] for our staff.

[28:05] You know, we pride ourselves on having a robust and diverse opportunity for our students.

[28:13] And that is at the core of this whole budgeting process.

[28:17] But what's involved?

[28:19] What are the considerations that are part of this process?

[28:22] Well, certainly, we know, and I'll show a side, you know, all these things you'll see

[28:26] here, we're going to talk in more detail and go through the presentation, but we know

[28:30] that we're facing an enrollment decline. And since over the last 10 years, our enrollment

[28:35] has declined by 25 percent, that's over 1,600 students. So that's one thing that we've been

[28:41] dealing with. Another thing that we've been dealing with, obviously, is the life of

[28:46] and we know that that is here and so that is factored into this equation as well.

[28:52] We know that we're talking very earnestly about our reorganization program and enhancements to our program as well.

[29:05] We know that for years we've been dealing with a tax-loving limit and that is still part of our reality.

[29:11] We know that, you know, we're in the middle of the pandemic, right?

[29:15] Or I'm not sure if we're in the middle of the beginning of the end.

[29:18] I'm not quite sure, but we're in it.

[29:20] Hopefully, I think, we're moving towards somewhere towards the end of it.

[29:24] We know that we have to continue to consider our buildings and our grounds and our maintenance

[29:31] and our capital needs.

[29:33] We also know that we have to continue to have stable use of our fund balance.

[29:39] We know that we received, I'm going to say, unprecedented state aid, not only did we,

[29:47] but just in the last late Tuesday nights, really Wednesday morning, we woke up and started to

[29:55] to really analyze what the new state age numbers meant.

[30:00] And I know that there was information reported in the news day. And, you know, what's the translation of that? And then, you know, our mandated cost increases, you know, there are, there are continuing costs that are, are right, you know, certainly are benefits teacher timing system, you know, employee retirement system, healthcare, those things are factors that we all have to consider.

[30:28] But we do those things, and I bring it back to the middle again, is that we're working

[30:33] to build a program and a budget that supports our desire to maintain a diverse and robust

[30:43] program for our students.

[30:45] So again, all of these things are going to be and have been discussed, but we're going

[30:50] to be bringing them up again tonight.

[30:55] Again, just to keep considerations, I know it's worth considering again, but in this budget

[31:01] It supports permission and vision of the district.

[31:04] We maintain all of our instructional programs

[31:07] and related opportunities for students.

[31:09] And what does that mean?

[31:09] All of our co-curricular or extracurricular or athletics,

[31:13] all of our programming remains intact for this budget.

[31:18] It includes a commitment to social emotional learning

[31:20] and instructional enhancements and transitions

[31:23] for our students from building the building

[31:26] and grade level to grade level.

[31:27] It maintains our commitment to low-class size, particularly at the elementary level.

[31:32] It factors in the district reorganization, which is strategically aligned with a retirement

[31:37] incentive to minimize excessing of staff and includes contingency funding for potential

[31:43] pandemic response.

[31:45] As I said, you know, we've been moving through this, if we compare where we were a year ago,

[31:50] we were all at home a year ago.

[31:53] and, you know, the whole budget process got pushed into June.

[31:57] So we've made projects.

[31:59] But where are we going to be, you know, in the next, you know, four to six to eight months?

[32:05] And we also know that we have capital, capital project needs.

[32:10] And we talked a lot in the past about who?

[32:12] So this budget accounts for all of those things.

[32:19] Again, I had shown this slide, I think, at the last meeting

[32:23] and we are looking at, from this year to next year,

[32:27] a reduction of about 175 students across the district.

[32:31] And Mr. Howard, if you go to the next slide,

[32:34] some of the trustees had asked about our enrollment history.

[32:37] And so I just wanted to enumerate that,

[32:40] if we go back to 2011, 2012,

[32:43] we have reduced the number of students

[32:47] by 1,600 students, and that is a 25% reduction over 10 years.

[32:56] So again, this plan, you know, there was a significant reduction in staffing and we went through

[33:03] the budget process. We are looking at a reduction of over 34 staff and instructional level

[33:11] to administrative staff members and support staff of about 25 positions. And again, if you

[33:18] over to the right to kind of equalize these, you know, you're talking somewhere between, you know,

[33:24] So five and a half to six percent of each of those units,

[33:28] whether reduction of over six percent of our staff,

[33:32] again, as we have been planning

[33:35] the reorganization of the district.

[33:40] So our budget progression, when we started this,

[33:43] we presented a roll over budget.

[33:45] So we basically took the budget and said,

[33:47] okay, we're just gonna take everything

[33:49] And, you know, the budget to budget increase as a rollover was a little bit over 4 percent of 179.7 million.

[33:59] And since we've been working through this process, we have, you know, shown a reduction of over $6.8 million.

[34:08] dollars and you know the budget to budget increase if we didn't have the COVID contingency

[34:17] and we didn't plan for some capital projects like you know necessary projects like

[34:23] loose the budget would have been 172.8 million dollars which is just a you know almost zero

[34:32] but less than 1% but again as we talk about contingency plans and or an opportunity to start

[34:41] to work on the next phase of our capital projects because you know you know I know talk to people

[34:48] and we talked about the you know the $39 million bond issue that we had and we made great

[34:56] improvements with that. But even when we passed that bond, we knew that we weren't tackling

[35:03] the entire $80 million of the projects that were there. And we know that we have to continue

[35:08] to maintain our buildings. And so that 1.857 million is one, gives us an opportunity to,

[35:25] you know,

[35:26] such that we need to make some adjustments to the plan that we're presenting. Going forward

[35:32] through the 2021-22 school year, but it also gives us an option to start to plan to make

[35:40] some capital improvements.

[35:45] And again, this is just another depiction. We started out at the

[35:49] roll over, we indicated a budget of $176 million and that had to do with just the retirement

[35:57] incentive and that's if we replaced everybody and we have landed at a place of $174 million,

[36:04] $104,748, which is a 1.13% budget to budget increase.

[36:12] And again, you can see that it includes, you know, savings from retirement, not replacing

[36:17] certain positions, you know, due to efficiencies, but also, you know, as a result of the reorganization

[36:26] plan and also accounts for pandemic contingencies.

[36:33] So, again, as we talk about, you know, we've seen

[36:37] some significant reductions, if you look at the salary line, you know, that's not a typical salary line

[36:45] that you see in a typical budget year, usually that number is, you know, certainly an increase.

[36:52] But again, due to the planning that you've been involved in, we have seen a reduction,

[36:58] but I do want to point out that we have seen a significant increase, a $1.89 million increase in employee benefits,

[37:07] as well as $1.9 million in a fund transfer,

[37:12] and that's where when we talk about the pandemic contingency

[37:16] or the money for the rules,

[37:18] and I know what happens, that's where that money is.

[37:21] So those are two significant increases

[37:23] as we look at the budget lines on a very high level.

[37:31] So I'm going to, we want to talk a little bit about the revenue

[37:34] side of where is the money coming from to pay

[37:38] for this proposed budget, and at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Owl.

[37:42] Thank you, Mr. Vanger.

[37:44] So on this slide, we're just bringing us back to last budget meeting where our revenues

[37:48] are March 25th, and just showing the proposals, and just highlighting the significant changes

[37:53] from March 25th to April 8th.

[37:56] So on the March 25th tax levy, the levy increases 1.31%, just shy of $2 million.

[38:02] dollars. And the state aid numbers were based off of the executive proposal, fully recognizing

[38:09] the executive proposal, and that was an increase of just shy of 1% $157,000. And the total was

[38:16] equal to the revenues were equal to the budget, and there was 174,704,748 in total revenues.

[38:23] Now the change to April 8 was significant in that the state aid numbers were in a, we can argue

[38:31] state is pretty historic. The amount of state aid increases at typically aren't two districts,

[38:37] they're not of high need. So we applied at the superintendent's direction the full increase

[38:43] of the state aid and we'll discuss that further in the next slide and that number is an increase

[38:50] in total from budget to budget of 986,237 which is a 6.19% increase in state aid from budget to budget.

[38:59] the tax level was reduced by the exact amount of the increase to a .75% budget to budget increase.

[39:11] So on the stage slide, this is where the most significant change happened.

[39:16] And it really happened yesterday, the information being unpackaged.

[39:20] We were not aware of any of these significance of this.

[39:24] This aid you knew that there was discussion about the state

[39:27] desiring to raise more revenues via taxes

[39:30] and utilize some of the federal stimulus to push forward

[39:35] some programs that were in the state's priority list.

[39:39] And typically when that happens for education,

[39:41] the funding is usually directed to districts of need

[39:44] in a greater level.

[39:45] So we were aware that there was a push for additional funds,

[39:48] but we were not aware of the significance

[39:50] or the amount that Northport would be receiving.

[39:52] So in this case the state increased the foundation aid for the district from in their proposal

[40:02] 964,488 from year over year and just want to emphasize the significance of it is that foundation aid is probably

[40:09] the best aid to get an increase in. It's a reoccurring aid. It's not an expense driven aid. So a lot of our eighth categories

[40:17] who spend money get a percentage of the back. So if you don't spend as much, you don't get as much spending back

[40:21] and that's the very variable.

[40:23] Foundation 8 is really a base that grows off of each year

[40:26] with the exception of after the financial crisis of 2008.

[40:30] There was a gap elimination which cut all districts

[40:32] across the state to cover the state gap.

[40:34] So with the exception of financial crises,

[40:37] the foundation 8 is something that grows

[40:40] and it's very significant for school districts

[40:42] because it's reoccurred.

[40:43] That number went up from the state proposal 10.72%.

[40:47] Furthermore, in the legislation,

[40:49] They have a three-year commitment to fully fund foundation aid, which would be a multi-million dollar increase the next two years after this.

[40:57] So in the legislation, there is a commitment to do it.

[41:00] I just want to re-emphasize that a commitment is not definitive until the money is received.

[41:04] So the state has made changes to two financial conditions in the past and have made changes to commitments.

[41:10] But there is in the law a commitment to fully fund within the next two budget years.

[41:15] This is year one, and then there'll be, it's actually a third year, so this is year one

[41:19] we're in, and then two years subsequent that will be fully funded.

[41:23] In addition to that, another very notable change is the UPK, which is the Universal Pre-Kindergarten

[41:28] Program.

[41:30] And the district received $69,000 in the past, and that was a fixed number.

[41:35] It did not change based on the need of students.

[41:37] It didn't change due inflation and cost program increases.

[41:39] Every year, we were able to, we had to reduce the amount of students that could participate

[41:44] in our half-day pre-paid program because the funding remained constant, but the provider's

[41:48] costs were increasing. As a result, we had to increase the cost for pupil and we had

[41:53] to reduce the amount of students that can purchase and participate. The state allocated additional

[41:59] funds, but they did as they doubled the half-day allocation as if it was a full-day allocation

[42:04] numerically, and then they applied a rate of all the assumed four-year-olds that were not

[42:09] receiving universal pre-tech. So in a sense that there are almost or theoretically fully funding

[42:16] every single student that we have potentially to be able to participate in universal pre-tech.

[42:22] So that is a significant change, but I wanted to note is that this is not a general fund

[42:26] revenue. The state is reporting this on our runs and sharing it with the public as a general

[42:30] fund revenue. This is a special aid fund revenue and it is an expense and revenue neutral

[42:37] categories. So every dollar we get is has to be spent. So it's spent on universal

[42:43] pre-k purposes. So we cannot use the 600,000 dollars to cover budget deficits to

[42:48] reduce the tax level. These are used specifically for pre-kindergarten purposes.

[42:53] So it's a little misleading that shows up in our 17.56 million. So as you see on

[42:57] the bottom it shows the 17.56 million and it shows the 15.3 million in the

[43:04] in prior year for an increase of $2.2 million.

[43:07] I stated this before at a previous meeting

[43:09] is that that difference is not actually accurate

[43:12] to the difference in what we budget.

[43:14] So the state told us last year that we were gonna get

[43:17] $60 million, just over $60 million

[43:19] when we were in our budget planning process

[43:20] at this point in year.

[43:22] We budgeted at the very bottom, $15.9 million.

[43:25] We actually reduced the budget

[43:27] and not insisting all the money to be received.

[43:30] The state is actually paying us closer

[43:32] to the 15.2 number. So we are actually not receiving all the money we budgeted. So there

[43:37] is a number that's showing an increase of what the state is saying is going to give

[43:41] us more than this current year, but what we actually budgeted is approximately just

[43:46] shy of $60 million. So we can increase our budget by $986,000 and that's fully realizing

[43:52] what the state is telling us that we will get. That's a 6.2% increase. It's still very significant.

[43:57] What that is, including, and not including, is not including universal pre-K money.

[44:02] Those money are excluded from the general fund aid categories, and furthermore,

[44:07] there are two federal aid packages that the district is eligible for.

[44:12] In total, it is approximately $1.8 million.

[44:16] The two aid categories have different expiration dates.

[44:19] One is September of 2023.

[44:22] The other is September of 2024.

[44:24] more. Both of them have restrictions and provisions in them. One of them has more language to

[44:30] allow for supplanting of resources. The other one has more language requiring supplement

[44:35] of resources. And just give a little background of what supplementing and supplanting is from

[44:39] a school district financing perspective, is that supplanting of resources is where you can

[44:46] use existing expenditures of the district and you see funds or federal funds to pay for

[44:52] or existing expenditures.

[44:54] So that would reduce impact on the taxpayers in the burden.

[44:58] So supplementing is-

[45:00] As you cannot use existing expenditures that you have, you have to create a new expense that you did not have before, with usually specific purposes attached to them. And they're funding to support those new purchases purposes. So in this case, there's specific language that school districts must use the funds at a minimum threshold in order to cover gaps that were created due to disruptions in education, due to the pandemic. And it requires the district to spend money in a certain speed,

[45:28] or you can't spend more than 60% of it in one fiscal year,

[45:32] and if it's spending, I believe it's just over 16%

[45:34] at a minimum each year.

[45:36] So there are rules and restrictions to the money,

[45:38] and they are not to be extended as a general fund.

[45:41] These are also special aid fund revenues,

[45:44] and the expenses will also come as a special aid fund.

[45:46] So they do not factor in to the general fund budget,

[45:49] and these will not be money to be received

[45:51] to offset any sort of taxes

[45:52] or any sort of fund bounce realization.

[45:54] These are separate apart from the general fund.

[45:59] So just recapping from our fund balance conversation from last meeting is that in the last two

[46:06] columns on the far right to bring attention to that is our fund balance projection is

[46:09] remaining constant.

[46:11] And some questions came up after the meeting of more specifically of, you know, where did

[46:17] the LIFA money come from and then just want to, where did the LIFA money go and just want

[46:20] to illustrate, you know, visually where the LIFA money came for the first year of the LIFA

[46:26] settlement payment.

[46:27] So, in the 2020-21 school year for you currently, and we already received, as of March, a $2.5 million payment from LIBA.

[46:38] That payment is being recognized in the miscellaneous revenue category, and that was not budgeted for.

[46:44] So, that's $2.3 million is what was budgeted, and our actuals are going to be higher than what was budgeted.

[46:50] so it's an unanticipated revenue,

[46:52] which has a positive effect on the school district,

[46:55] because the assigned fund balance,

[46:57] the error that's above it to sell is higher,

[47:01] that was how much we were gonna use

[47:03] of our fund balance to cover the shortfall

[47:05] and deficit within the school budget.

[47:07] So because we've had a $2.5 million

[47:10] unanticipated revenue, the need or the amount

[47:13] of fund balance that we would utilize

[47:15] for the school year is diminished by that amount.

[47:18] So it is very helpful and I'll show another side, another illustration of that.

[47:23] And then in the future years, where that $2 million is being applied, so as you can see in

[47:27] the budget proposal, the Missilean's revenue is up almost $2 million.

[47:31] Within that proposal, that $4.2 or $4.3 million number includes a $2 million revenue being

[47:38] recognized as part of a life of payment to the district.

[47:43] And this is just showing that first slide that I showed before with the fund balances and

[47:48] and showing pretty much the level of fund balance between the last two years, this is showing

[47:52] if we did or did not have that $2.5 million of fund balance from the life settlement.

[47:59] So in the middle category is with the life settlement payment and that's where we're able

[48:04] to maintain a constant, you know, approximately 22 million, 100,000 and as a result we were able

[48:11] to fully fund our unassigned fund balance, which is that $6.9 million at the bottom.

[48:19] And that's the number.

[48:20] You hear people reference often as a 4% number, and by law, we cannot fund more than 4% of

[48:26] the ensuing years budget in unassigned fund balance.

[48:29] It is the most flexible fund balance and can be utilized most liberally.

[48:35] The other category that we were able to increase was the retirement contribution.

[48:41] So we fully maximize the assigned fund balance, and we're able to apply $700,000 to the

[48:46] retirement reserves, which is the ERS and TRS reserves, you know, to cover potential

[48:52] with spikes or increases in retirement contributions in the future.

[48:57] So that's totaled $2.5 million.

[48:59] So without $2.5 million in life of payments, our fund balance would have dropped by $2.5

[49:05] million to $19.6 million.

[49:07] So just wanted to show the positive impact of the 2.5 million dollars from LIFA, even though it was not budgeted for, it had a very positive effect in our plan changes at the fiscal year end.

[49:22] Here, just wanted to just illustrate the impacts of fund balance and the utilization of the sunflower, a signed fund balance.

[49:29] So, last year we increased how much we assigned in fund balance in order to reduce the levy.

[49:35] And that was one of the major ways that we were able to achieve a zero-tax levy.

[49:39] And as we stated last year, that's not sustainable.

[49:41] So, the goal was to not continue to use $4.3 million or $4.4 million in fund balance.

[49:48] It was to bring that back to normal historic levels.

[49:51] So, in this budget, we were budgeting at $2.3 million in assigned fund balance.

[49:55] But I just want to illustrate the changes or the impacts of as you shift more and more

[50:01] or less money in that assigned fund balance, how to impact your unassigned fund balance and

[50:06] your ability to achieve a 4% maximum in your unassigned fund balance.

[50:11] So last year actual unassigned fund balance was 3.33% so we were under utilizing, we were

[50:18] underfunded in our fund balance and we were almost underfunded to the level where we start

[50:22] receiving fiscal stress score points, which are negatives, from the controller's office.

[50:27] So around 3% you start getting negative points and the lower you get you start getting

[50:32] a lot of points.

[50:32] So, fiscal stress is the biggest category, is your fund balance and reserves.

[50:38] That has one of the largest factors in as well as any deficit spending.

[50:42] So, we would get significant weighted points against us if we drop significantly below the

[50:47] 3.3%.

[50:49] As far as scenario A goes, this shows as the budget was proposed a $2.3 million assigned fund balance.

[50:57] We're able to fully fund the unassigned fund balance to almost $7 million, which is 4% of our planned budget for next year.

[51:05] And then far right category is assuming we're going to take $2 million and apply to reduce the levied for next school year,

[51:12] it would now reduce the amount of money we've had for unassigned fund balance.

[51:16] And it would not fully fund our 4% to the max, we would drop it to 2.86, and we would

[51:23] be likely to have physical stress core points against us, but the total fund bounce remains

[51:27] constant.

[51:28] So there is no difference in terms of total fund bounce, but as you apply more fund bounce

[51:32] to the next year's budget, you have less money unassigned available, and presumably that

[51:37] money will be spent in that year's budget, and it will not be available in the future year.

[51:41] So this is a visual representation of that concept and we showed it last year when we were

[51:47] describing the impacts of the district applying more fund balance and how that would

[51:53] deplete the district's fund balance over time because as you start using four million

[51:58] and five million, your fund balance would be fully exhausted within two years.

[52:03] So we identified that there was a significant problem by having millions of dollars in fund

[52:09] being used to cover the budget shortfall and that there was a need to stabilize that action.

[52:15] So in this plan, we described that having in the 2021-22 school year,

[52:21] a decisions or financial changes that would restabilize the school district. So that would be either

[52:27] additional revenues through piercing the cap. It would be through budget cuts and consolidation of

[52:32] buildings or combination of the two, but it was a definitive point of that we cannot

[52:39] continue status quo and using reserves or fund balance to balance budget polls.

[52:46] This is a summary of the past six years or including the six years of tax levies.

[52:53] As you can see, every year the district has been below tax-ledding limit.

[52:58] This year it is less than half of the tax level limit and it is below the average of the

[53:04] past six years as well.

[53:07] The tax levy at .75 is a $54.94 increase to the average homeowner will say $55 and

[53:16] that's approximately a half-gallon dollar home.

[53:19] And we illustrated this last meeting and just want to update it since the numbers have

[53:24] been updated.

[53:25] And just also just take a little time to just explain a point that is very important to explain.

[53:31] So this is the glide path that has been shared at the time that the district was working on the

[53:39] LIFA negotiations and illustrating the impact the taxpayers planned over the glide path time period.

[53:47] It's just, you know, a factual representation of the districts and the town taxes in

[53:53] the blue.

[53:54] A green illustration for LIFA's impact, so as LIFA pays less in taxes, the remaining

[54:03] homeowners will pay more in property taxes and then in the red or orange that is the combination

[54:08] of the school slash town tax increase plus the shift from LIFA to the resident or property

[54:16] owners tax base. So as you can see, the numbers increased over time. In the first two years,

[54:25] we've already changed this whole scenario. So in blue, year one, it's slated to the $100 increase

[54:31] in school district taxes and town. I don't know if we won't speak for the town, but the school district

[54:36] component was a zero dollar increase. It was a zero levy increase in year one. Year two, if we

[54:42] continued doing the 2% increases as was planned in the planning of this reply back, it would

[54:48] have been $188 increase. We already didn't do the first 180. Now the second 180 is planned

[54:54] to be in this budget $55 increase. So all these numbers are actually wrong moving forward because

[55:01] the compounding effect of it, as well as the fact that the $486 total increase in year one was

[55:08] not 46, it was 288 or approximately that number. And this year's 515 total impact is not

[55:14] going to be 515. It's significantly diminished by the school district reducing the amount

[55:18] in its levy than it was planned for. What I do want to caution is that it is very beneficial,

[55:26] it is very helpful, and it is part of the planning process in district health group board

[55:30] is structural changes in contracts, aligning a lot of retirement incentives, school closures

[55:36] in order to accomplish reduced costs and savings to taxpayer, is that the increase grows significantly

[55:43] over the latter years of this phase. And by design, it is a delayed and it's a growth

[55:50] larger in later years. So the cost and or the effect that I just wanted to just caution everyone on,

[55:57] especially for members is that repeated zero levies make it more challenging to balance the budget

[56:04] with revenue in later years.

[56:08] And we just want to be careful of a scenario

[56:11] where our community is in the time of the life of life

[56:14] path where they're being most impacted.

[56:17] You know, the 400 to $500 increases to the life of,

[56:20] at the same time, we aren't able to maintain a lower levy

[56:25] in those years because we had significantly low levy's

[56:29] in the first few years.

[56:30] And we did not properly fund capital projects.

[56:33] we do not properly fund, you know, or bills upon the revenues in the first few years,

[56:39] the latter years will then need to be significantly higher, as well as we won't have potential

[56:44] class size reductions as we fully realize our reduction in enrollment because as our cohorts

[56:50] advance through the high school, then we no longer have the ability to reduce class size

[56:54] without cutting programs.

[56:55] So it really is setting up for later in the sky path financial decisions that require program

[57:01] cut in order to reduce the lead. And we don't want to have a three, four hundred

[57:06] hour increase on top of a five hundred hour increase that life was also

[57:09] imposing the power and the tax shift. So that is that is part of the long-term

[57:14] fiscal planning. And that's one of the things you want to caution is that as much

[57:18] as in year one and two, it is impactful. We really need to take a lot of focused

[57:23] attention on the latter years because those years are very significant on

[57:28] their own with LIFA. We want to be mindful not to add significant burden in those years on top of

[57:33] that. So just bring attention to this slide. We are, you're doing a fantastic job in mitigating

[57:39] the cost and it's part of the long-term plan that led into this. But we also need to be mindful of

[57:44] the led years of this LIFA and how to properly manage that increase and mitigate those costs as well.

[57:52] This is showing a historic trend of the district tax levy and the reductions or the amounts

[57:59] under the tax level so since the tax cap law has been enacted the district has historically

[58:04] been not only below the tax level but significantly below the tax level and many years over a million

[58:10] dollars below the tax level each year and that is not something that is typical of school

[58:16] district's only tax cap law, every year about 300 districts of the 700 in your state go

[58:23] to the actual levy limit to the penny. So, you know, over about a third or so of districts

[58:28] are taxing the maximum every single year and, you know, very few peers to cap or chart

[58:34] peers to cap yearly. But that's something that, you know, districts typically end up doing

[58:39] is the tax limit. Here in Northport we have been very mindful of the tax levy limit and

[58:44] We have not, here's the tax limit

[58:46] and we have not even taxed to the level limit in history.

[58:49] So I just wanted to point out the significant actions

[58:53] of the school district and being mindful of levy increases.

[58:58] And the historic levy increase was 1.49%

[59:01] so less than 1.5% has been the average increase

[59:05] throughout the time period.

[59:08] So just kind of bringing back to the planning

[59:12] in this budget process and the feedback

[59:14] that we have been hearing, you know, in terms of the need and desire to have in-person

[59:20] instruction, need and desire to have information and know what next year will look like definitively.

[59:27] And all those factors, and it really did weigh into this budget process.

[59:30] And in this budget process, all those thoughts and considerations from the committee share

[59:34] back to Superintendent myself and other members of the Cabinet, we incorporate these budgets.

[59:39] We wanted to make sure that we have flexibility to have in-person learning instruction.

[59:43] and we also want to have understand that there are many variables in terms of how we operate

[59:50] in COVID next year, and as we see it, we're all looking for some certainty in uncertain

[59:55] world, and we can't predict, but we can prepare.

[1:00:00] So there's three possible outcomes when we're planning this budget, and the first outcome is the virus guidance requires remain the same as they are now. And in personal instruction, you know, can be maintained or agreeable. We have everything in place to be able to maintain the program. Within our budget, we have the additional PPE to continue next year, the disinfectant cleaning supplies, everything is in our budget. Nothing is needed. Actually, we have the barriers. We really can run our program as we are today moving forward.

[1:00:29] need to current guidelines if they do not change. If the virus violence change, because

[1:00:35] of variant changes, it's even more transmissible, it impacts children at a greater rate than

[1:00:39] it currently does, any of those factors change, then it may change the health guides to us.

[1:00:44] They say that where we're operating under these conditions of distancing, social distancing

[1:00:50] rules, there may be new social distancing rules. In that case, we may have to modify how

[1:00:54] we operate and use our buildings, so we may have to increase spacing.

[1:00:58] So underneath that, we have all the equipment in place, but we have funding within the

[1:01:03] budget to be able to pivot and allow buildings to reopen.

[1:01:06] So item two, potential, we have the buildings to cover those items within the budget.

[1:01:13] Option three or potential three is that the transmission and strength and strain becomes

[1:01:18] significantly more transmissible, maybe more harmful, and there may be orders from the state

[1:01:24] or local health officials that schools cannot operate.

[1:01:27] And then we potentially in a remote setting in that case.

[1:01:29] So there's three potential outcomes

[1:01:31] and we are sitting in the first outcome right now.

[1:01:33] We're hoping for that or better.

[1:01:35] There is no pandemic.

[1:01:36] But we have plans in place for all three potential outcomes

[1:01:39] and we have funding within the budget

[1:01:41] to be able to maintain our program,

[1:01:43] even if there are some changes

[1:01:45] and that we might require more social distancing.

[1:01:48] So as the guidelines change,

[1:01:50] we have plans and continues to be able to pivot

[1:01:52] and make changes as necessary.

[1:01:56] So as far as planning for capital projects,

[1:01:58] this ties into that COVID contingency,

[1:02:01] is that there is a need on its own

[1:02:04] for planning and funding capital projects.

[1:02:07] So, reminder to everyone that last year,

[1:02:10] March, our project came in,

[1:02:11] it presented a building condition survey

[1:02:14] and presented a five-year plan of projects

[1:02:17] that have been identified that should be completed

[1:02:19] over the next five years.

[1:02:20] And that plan included costs or items that totaled over $86 million.

[1:02:25] So when we were looking at those plans, we looked at the types of plans that were in there.

[1:02:30] And we prioritized plans that really made the most sense to accomplish.

[1:02:34] And those are the roof replacement and HVAC reconstruction.

[1:02:37] So those two areas are areas that we highlighted as an important part of items because whatever

[1:02:42] you're putting inside of the building is secondary to being able to protect your building and

[1:02:47] and being able to properly heat, ventilate,

[1:02:49] your building, and having good quality,

[1:02:52] building itself for its occupants is equally important.

[1:02:56] So we prioritize those two areas,

[1:02:58] and doing so alone, $38 million is for root replacements.

[1:03:03] So in this budget, we're budgeting a total of $2.4 million,

[1:03:07] almost $2.5 million for root replacements

[1:03:10] and HVAC upgrades district-wide.

[1:03:14] Just for reference, an elementary roof costs across the $2.5 million, so that's the ability

[1:03:20] or magnitude of this funding and what it can accomplish, but it's very challenging to

[1:03:25] accomplish 10 school district buildings with funding within five years of funding for

[1:03:31] one roof a year, and the middle schools and high schools require more funding, $9, $12 million

[1:03:37] for those groups.

[1:03:38] So this is obviously not doing all the capital work that we need to do, but this is accomplishing

[1:03:43] and taking real efforts and making real impactful funding and budgeting towards accomplishing

[1:03:50] capital projects.

[1:03:51] Now, capital projects do not need to be funded only from the funding method that we're

[1:03:55] talking about as the Interfund Transfer to Capital.

[1:03:58] They can also be done through issuing debt like we did recently for the $40 million bond.

[1:04:02] We could potentially drop for a new bond or we can use capital reserves.

[1:04:07] So capital reserves are generated when you have year-end surplus.

[1:04:11] us that urine surface can be applied to various reserves and a cap of reserve is one of them.

[1:04:16] So in this budget, we recommend utilizing general fund appropriations to cover those costs,

[1:04:22] but in the event that COVID guidance changes and it would impact our abilities to have students

[1:04:28] in person.

[1:04:29] And we need those funds in order to change our program in our plan in order to have students

[1:04:34] in person.

[1:04:35] Those funds will be made available to allow for our educational model to run in the

[1:04:40] that we most want in desire is the in-person model.

[1:04:45] So, this is the reorganization analysis.

[1:04:47] So, this was a presentation that was actually made

[1:04:50] to the school code and task force.

[1:04:54] And it felt was pretty helpful

[1:04:55] because it illustrated the impact and the benefit

[1:04:59] of the reorganization plan.

[1:05:01] So, on the left side, that is the prior year school budget

[1:05:04] with a year that we're in right now.

[1:05:06] And it's a little over 172 million.

[1:05:08] this is our just a little shy of 173 million, 177 or so, the the Rollover budget was at 179.

[1:05:18] So as you can see, there's a significant increase within a Rollover budget.

[1:05:21] And that is the existing staff contractual obligations so increasing their salaries based on the contract, increasing benefits based on the projected health insurance, the retirement system increases, the Medicare Part B increases.

[1:05:35] is so all those costs were just rolled over. That is one set of none. Moving forward to the budget

[1:05:43] with the school closures, but without enhancements, which is the second to the right, that light blue

[1:05:51] part of the bar graph represents the cost of the budget without COVID contingency. As you can see,

[1:05:59] the budget is relatively flat over a prior year, and that's because the district was able

[1:06:05] to realize savings through retirement incentives as well as staff reductions as part of the staffing

[1:06:11] as well as utility reductions and other various reductions as part of the re-rearization plan.

[1:06:17] On the far right column shows the budget itself, the incremental increase due to COVID contingency,

[1:06:24] and the approximate $280, $4,000 in enhancements,

[1:06:27] which includes fifth grade for language, STEM for fifth grade,

[1:06:33] and elementary enrichment for all.

[1:06:37] So those are the enhancements,

[1:06:39] and those enhancements are just important to note,

[1:06:41] they're only able to be accomplished for that low cost

[1:06:44] because we have four elementary buildings

[1:06:47] and two middle schools and fifth grades in that.

[1:06:49] So the enhancements are very minimal

[1:06:52] in terms of the cost of the budget, but they are cost effective due to the structure of the program and the building layout.

[1:07:01] So in the budget, and as far as the proposition we're recommending having a capital reserve established,

[1:07:08] and just kind of give a background of what capital reserves are, is capital reserves require voter authorization to establish.

[1:07:14] They require voter authorization to extend.

[1:07:16] They have a 10 year funding limit and the maximum funding limit and the amount can be funded

[1:07:23] per year is set by the voters as part of our proposition.

[1:07:27] We have two existing capital reserves, the 2012 capital reserve, which has a funding maximum

[1:07:33] of $12 million and can have $1.5 million funded in it per year.

[1:07:38] We have a 2018 capital reserve which has a funding maximum of $20 million and a funding

[1:07:46] limit of $2 million per year. The recommendation is to create a 2021 capital reserve and set forward

[1:07:55] the voters on May 18th and have a $20 million maximum funding limit with a $2 million yearly

[1:08:03] funding threshold. And what that would do is replace the expiring capital reserve so that we maintain

[1:08:13] two capital reserves at all times.

[1:08:18] And then in addition to that there is a

[1:08:20] potential transportation proposition and how transportation mileage change

[1:08:26] propositions work is that they can be added to the ballot by a resident in the

[1:08:31] form of a petition and seeking the necessary votes to show up on the ballot and

[1:08:37] they also can, a transportation proposition can happen via a board

[1:08:41] resolution. The voters themselves, they determine by majority vote whether the proposition passes

[1:08:47] or fails. This is not a board action, it's not administrative action. The voters themselves

[1:08:52] decide if the mileage would go up or down, whether more seems to be eligible for translational

[1:08:57] or less students are eligible for translation and there's cost involved with changes to transportation

[1:09:02] typically. So the voters would be authorized in that very change. The district strictly must adhere

[1:09:08] to those motor mileage limitations that are set forward by the voters. There's no real

[1:09:13] exceptions except for mandated transportation in the IEPs or forrests or transportation

[1:09:21] to an approved child safety zone. So the deadline for this transportation proposition is

[1:09:27] three days prior to the budget vote and the Board of Education has to have sufficient time to build

[1:09:32] to present information to the public and include it on the ballot. So this information was also shared

[1:09:38] with the task force and I just want to share with the Board of Education and the community as well.

[1:09:44] So this is an analysis of transportation and trying to, you know, utilize and improve utilization

[1:09:54] of our existing buses. So just doing a little transportation 101 and explain how school

[1:10:00] different transportation works. So many of our runs are contracted runs and we pay a contractor

[1:10:06] in hourly rate or number of hours per day.

[1:10:10] So we typically use a four hour contract

[1:10:13] and our buses travel, our same buses,

[1:10:17] drop off and pick up within a three-tier system.

[1:10:21] And what I mean by a three-tier system

[1:10:23] is that we have building bell times

[1:10:24] that start at different times they're staggered intentionally.

[1:10:28] So we can use our existing bus capacity to pick up

[1:10:31] and drop off students between all three tiers.

[1:10:34] So we have a high school tier, which includes music buses as well.

[1:10:39] We have a middle school tier, which includes Norwood, so we have one elementary on the middle

[1:10:43] school tier in order to balance out and level load some of our elementary tiers, which were

[1:10:48] more costly.

[1:10:49] And then we have our elementary tier, which has five elementary schools, training regional and

[1:10:54] high school tech buses.

[1:10:56] So on the bottom is the amount of buses, large buses that are required for each tier.

[1:11:01] So 23, and this is based on our last fiscal year, that was a normal fiscal year, COVID year,

[1:11:07] transportation is different.

[1:11:09] So in 2019-20, we had 23 high school buses, 24 middle school buses, and 34 elementary buses.

[1:11:16] So the 34 elementary buses creates what's called a critical tier.

[1:11:21] So the critical tier is what you have to build your capacity to.

[1:11:24] So we have to hire 34 buses at four hours, whether we need to use them all four hours.

[1:11:30] because transportation contracts will not accept the contract for just one building for one hour.

[1:11:36] It's not within their contract and will not accept that or there was just four hours for the one hour.

[1:11:41] So what we have here is a underutilized capacity.

[1:11:44] We have 10 to 11 buses that are underutilized at the high school tier and the middle school tier on these are current configuration.

[1:11:52] So moving forward to scenario A, this is based on a school closure and moving northward

[1:11:59] Norwood to the elementary tier, so we have four elementary schools being

[1:12:05] transport the same time, four on the same exact Bell schedule and maintain three

[1:12:09] tiers. So we still have the same 34 critical tier and we have now high school

[1:12:15] and middle school at 24, which now we are continuing under utilization and

[1:12:19] transportation capacity. Under scenario B, this is changing our mileage

[1:12:23] limitations to allow more students to be eligible for transportation. So under this

[1:12:28] scenario, if mileage limitations were changed to 0.75 miles from grades 1 to 8, we would

[1:12:35] have a need for, sorry, 9 through 12 high school, 1 mile, we would still have the same 34

[1:12:44] critical tier, but now our high school buses will need 33 buses for that time period and

[1:12:49] a middle school buses will need 31 buses that time period, but we're having over 300 more

[1:12:55] high school students that are eligible for transportation. Obviously, there's obviously benefits to our

[1:12:59] community at no additional cost. If that's the case based on the school closure, there's no

[1:13:04] additional cost. The benefit of transportation, it reduces the congestion. If folks seek advantage

[1:13:09] of transportation at the high school during the drop off and pick up time periods. Also, the East

[1:13:15] Northport middle school will have approximately 130 more students that are eligible and the

[1:13:23] or criminal school will have approximately 60 more students that are eligible.

[1:13:27] So there is a benefit to this transportation proposition.

[1:13:31] It would be under consideration for the Board of Education and I understand this

[1:13:35] community member is working on petitions to be able to make a change in terms of a proposition on

[1:13:41] the balance. So there's just, you know, just wanted to explain this concept to the Board of Education

[1:13:47] community. The no-cost aspect is based on buildings being closed and there will be approximately

[1:13:54] just roughening it. I have the exact number of about $350,000 increase if the school district

[1:14:00] did not close buildings to do this plan. So, you know, obviously the propositions may be put

[1:14:06] forward that and there may or may not be a school closure so there may be potential cost increase,

[1:14:11] or either way, just illustrating the purpose of utilizing or improving the utilization of

[1:14:19] our transportation department to better serve our students and communities with limited

[1:14:24] or no costs.

[1:14:26] So just summarizing the budget in its entirety, just bring it back full circle, is that this

[1:14:32] budget supports admission and vision and district and really prioritizing students and the programs

[1:14:37] and the wide variety of programs, the quality of education, the low class sizes that we really

[1:14:44] appreciate as a school community, it maintains all the structural programs and opportunities,

[1:14:49] has a real commitment to social emotional learning, has structural enhancements.

[1:14:54] As I said, it maintains low class sizes of the district, it factors in

[1:15:00] The reorganization and strategically aligned retirement incentive. As mentioned before, there was a plan to have this retirement incentive at this point at the same time that there was a reorganization. So I have a lease impact to staff because we really do value in terms of recruiting employees is that people need to know that you're looking out for them. They feel secure in their position and that you value is our staff and our teachers. And that the timing and the play.

[1:15:29] This was really humane in the sense that when we did our presentation on personnel, there

[1:15:35] was very few or if not no need for accessing.

[1:15:39] We had significant retirements, and it really balanced out with the staffing reductions

[1:15:43] during that time period.

[1:15:45] So even though we reduced significantly in terms of our FTEs, the accessing will be kept

[1:15:51] to a pretty significant minimum.

[1:15:54] In addition to that, it restabilizes our fund balance and reserve levels, so we're less

[1:15:58] dependent fund balance and it also plans for the future and then it has a

[1:16:05] contingency funding for the pandemic as well as capital projects so if it's not

[1:16:10] needed for the pandemic it can accomplish some of our roof replacements that are

[1:16:15] part of the five-year plan as identified by the architect. I just wanted to

[1:16:20] I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Benzer.

[1:16:22] Thank you, Mr. Howard.

[1:16:24] And again, starting tonight with the budget development.

[1:16:29] Obviously, we are working our way down this page.

[1:16:33] Again, we're including this presentation.

[1:16:36] We'll have an opportunity for the public comment.

[1:16:39] And then the Board of Education will go into the Committee of the Hall.

[1:16:42] On May 6th, we'll have the hearing on the finalized budget.

[1:16:45] And then May 18th is the budget vote.

[1:16:57] I guess I was thinking that during the committee of the whole of those questions, could

[1:17:00] we?

[1:17:02] Okay.

[1:17:03] So that means we've had the public comment.

[1:17:08] So I do have a few cards up here.

[1:17:11] Sorry, wait a minute.

[1:17:14] First card, I have it from Iris.

[1:17:38] Good evening.

[1:17:40] Can you hear me?

[1:17:41] Yes.

[1:17:52] I am here tonight in person to avoid my opposition to the closures of Belrose Avenue and Dickinson

[1:18:01] Avenue schools. These are the two schools that my children attend.

[1:18:04] I have three children in the district, twins who are in fourth grade,

[1:18:08] one-to-one at Belrose, one at Dickinson, and I have a second grader at Belrose Avenue.

[1:18:13] So unfortunately, these closures have affected my family between the two schools significantly.

[1:18:21] While I'm here as a parent, a concerned parent, taxpayer, I'd also like to state that professionally,

[1:18:28] I'm a public relations professional, I have practiced as professionally for 20 years,

[1:18:32] and I'm also a professor of the public relations at Hofstra University.

[1:18:39] I speak to my students often about the importance of relating to constituent relating to public

[1:18:46] identifying audiences and being mindful and communicating properly.

[1:18:53] It's become very evident to me over the course of this school year that the leadership of

[1:19:00] the district has not truly properly responded to its constituent and I don't mean meeting

[1:19:07] such as this email or other reports or tasks committees.

[1:19:11] I'm talking about the regular everyday communication

[1:19:14] that is really concerning.

[1:19:17] Phone calls on answers, emails with no replies.

[1:19:22] Responding in in-person and virtual meetings

[1:19:25] with three words only at the end of presentation.

[1:19:28] Thank you and next.

[1:19:30] But proper communication is also about message.

[1:19:34] And for the better part of the school year, the school closure message has been maintained

[1:19:39] of a 20% reduction in student A of state A rather, a decrease in of enrollment, a trend

[1:19:46] which I've heard time and again.

[1:19:48] And the fact that moving forward with the school closure plan, COVID is not really a concern.

[1:19:53] We need to plan ahead and assume that COVID will all be fine.

[1:19:56] And

[1:20:00] it's a very difficult message to have to think about and communicate to my own children.

[1:20:09] I want to mention that I have, you know, in terms of message, the only message that has really been communicated,

[1:20:17] and it's been very frustrating, is that through the future study, through the board decision in December,

[1:20:24] and subsequent plans that have focused solely on the closure of dollars in Dickinson,

[1:20:29] the answers to why dollars and why Dickinson have not been answered.

[1:20:35] And they've got on answered many times like the emails and phone calls that I and so many others have placed.

[1:20:43] And the lack of response has made the challenges of parenting through these transitions in a pandemic nearly impossible.

[1:20:53] I want to share a story with you about my son who was a fourth grader and a special

[1:20:59] student at Dickinson and the impact of not having proper information and what it can

[1:21:03] do to a child like that.

[1:21:06] During one of the recent half days of school, my son had a very difficult time getting

[1:21:13] on his back because in his mind he thought that I was picking him up from school because

[1:21:18] it was a half day. The district of the school called me and I said no, he was definitely

[1:21:24] taking the bus home. I communicated that like any parent would to make sure he understood

[1:21:29] what his plan was. But in his mind, he was so fixated that he was going to be picked up

[1:21:34] by his mother and he did not want to go on that bus. I had a follow-up conversation with

[1:21:39] his teacher who was very sympathetic and helpful through the ordeal to get him on. That is

[1:21:44] to one example of what it is to parent a child with special needs and to be able to prepare

[1:21:49] them for one day.

[1:21:51] How am I supposed to prepare him and my two typical children want to have no information

[1:21:56] and no answers?

[1:21:57] On April 29th, when you'll make your decision, that is the same day that I will have my

[1:22:01] CSC meeting for my son's plans for next year.

[1:22:04] I'm meeting a fully expectileee with no answer as to where he's going to be because there

[1:22:09] has been no communication about what is going to happen with his program.

[1:22:13] I've communicated on step-the-meetings, I've asked that my children stay together and my fourth graders because they have been separated long enough.

[1:22:21] And I am fearful that they are not going to be those wishes that I have will not be granted.

[1:22:26] And much like the phone calls and emails, I will not get a response.

[1:22:30] I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight.

[1:22:41] I know you're not going to like what I've said, but thank you.

[1:22:46] Christine Aquaman.

[1:22:47] Between

[1:23:02] the comments, should you tap them please?

[1:23:04] Is North Worth?

[1:23:06] Good evening.

[1:23:07] As the subject's vote creeps closer, I still have three major questions.

[1:23:12] One, approximately how much would it cost each household?

[1:23:16] Is both Dickinson and Belrose were to stay open?

[1:23:19] Is it $300 that was proposed at the past meeting accurate?

[1:23:24] Two, is there another drafted budget that accounts for all tools being open in addition to the proposed budget that we have seen?

[1:23:32] The number three, is there a way for the community to vote on the school closure?

[1:23:37] I pose these questions in especially the last one, after speaking with my fellow community

[1:23:41] members, not just from the rules, and the consensus is that the community doesn't want

[1:23:46] to close to elementary schools, resulting in fifth grade relocation.

[1:23:50] If the community votes to keep the schools open and occur the cause, how could the board

[1:23:54] ignore, disregard, or push aside the wishes of the community?

[1:23:58] I do not think the board can grasp the amount of community members that is against these

[1:24:03] closures.

[1:24:04] We have to have an open, honest discussion with accurate numbers as to what each household

[1:24:08] increased with they, and it should be done so without scared tactics, threats of cutting

[1:24:13] programs and funding to our children.

[1:24:16] We need to factor in the state aid, and now that we know where we have an increase in state

[1:24:20] aid, closing these two schools should be off the table.

[1:24:23] Thank you.

[1:24:26] I am going to say a couple things, and again, this is just my personal opinion, Ms.

[1:24:31] Tav.

[1:24:31] I've always said that the school district went out to try to do a better job in PR, you

[1:24:37] know, I own my own business, my wife owns her business.

[1:24:40] It's part of the job, going out with you.

[1:24:43] Personally, I may agree with you on the PR.

[1:24:44] So I'm going to answer Ms. Carmen's question by her turn right about the public voting directly

[1:24:55] whether we've closed to schools or not, as far as I know that is not part of the law

[1:25:01] or part of the process.

[1:25:03] You collectively, people in here and people in the district have voted for the seven trustees

[1:25:10] that are part of the Board of F.

[1:25:12] We have had a very long process determining whether or not to close two schools or one, two, or the more corners, but that's been a very long process in many years.

[1:25:26] And we've come to today, which we're not making a decision today just to make that clear for voting, well, not even voting on a budget, we're proposing a budget and then the public votes on that budget.

[1:25:37] And as you've heard, August 13th and the 29th, that's when the decision on the educational

[1:25:46] impact and the closure of the two schools is officially made.

[1:25:52] What's that?

[1:25:53] Do I say that?

[1:25:55] No.

[1:25:55] Sorry.

[1:25:56] April.

[1:25:58] So, so it's hard to answer that question, but there is no direct vote by the public.

[1:26:07] you get the vote in the sense to make your opinions know of course as you get today through

[1:26:14] seven trustees, we hear from directly from people come here, we read the emails, we talk

[1:26:22] to the public when we're out and about, to the grocery stores or whatever, people call

[1:26:28] me a little time, so I'm not sure if that's answering a question, but there is no direct

[1:26:33] So that brings us, I believe, to people who are remote, right?

[1:26:42] Mr. Libby, we

[1:26:48] have come back.

[1:26:50] And then we have Maria and Chris Angelo.

[1:27:06] Other, they're there.

[1:27:08] Miss Maria and Chris Angelo, if you're there, can you please unmute yourself?

[1:27:12] Yes, I'm here, Maria Angelo.

[1:27:15] 19 Loretland, East Northport.

[1:27:17] Can you hear me?

[1:27:18] Yes, Karen, thank you.

[1:27:20] Okay, I just have a question regarding.

[1:27:22] I believe it's the April 27th of 29th meeting.

[1:27:26] Is that going to be like a public forum

[1:27:27] where we can actually ask questions

[1:27:29] and receive answers back

[1:27:31] and then rebut the questions and the answers

[1:27:33] or is it just going to be like this again

[1:27:35] where we're allowed to ask questions

[1:27:37] and we usually don't get a response back.

[1:27:42] So the 27th is the hearing

[1:27:44] and that is the opportunity for the board

[1:27:46] that's here from the public.

[1:27:49] So there would be public comment.

[1:27:50] it would be public comment but are we allowed to respond to what you say or tell

[1:27:57] us you know it's sort of like a like a like a town hall meeting is it going to

[1:28:01] be something like that or we're able to speak back if we need to well our

[1:28:07] public meetings are not you know just a decent analogy but we we are we don't

[1:28:11] well we typically don't hold our meetings in a town hall type format is there a

[1:28:17] Is there a possibility we can call a town hall meeting so we can have more open conversation between the board and us and the public?

[1:28:27] There's always possibilities, I like to say, but the meetings have, our meetings are very, are set in the policy on how they are run, whether the special meetings are tetra, certainly the board collectively can always modify that to whatever.

[1:28:47] and the call of town hall not doesn't really matter how you call it, but that would be

[1:28:51] up to the Board of Acts collectively, but as we speak as of today, it's a public hearing

[1:28:59] where we take questions like today. The Board considers the presentation we discuss,

[1:29:06] and we ask questions reading the Board, of course, and we get questions and comments from

[1:29:11] the community, but it's not a, at least it's a third. It's not a town hall meeting and that

[1:29:16] that would be a decision. And, again, I'm not

[1:29:19] sure if it's possible, but, you know, it's certainly

[1:29:21] something to consider, um, whether or not be.

[1:29:25] You're not sure it's possible or can we find out?

[1:29:29] Well, we can certainly find out that we can certainly do.

[1:29:32] Yes. All right. Thank you.

[1:29:34] And I'm not sure anything whether we could do that again.

[1:29:36] That's up to the board. Of course, I don't, I don't,

[1:29:39] obviously, you'd have to find out, but I think there's,

[1:29:41] there's probably a lot of people in the community would,

[1:29:43] that would prefer or would like an open conversation to go back and forth to for us to all to express what we need to express. That's all.

[1:29:53] That's a fair point.

[1:29:55] Thank you.

[1:29:56] Mr. Chairman.

[1:29:58] Mr. Timings of Health.

[1:30:01] Oh, wait, can I, I'm sorry, I'm going to give these people a Zoom. There's one more. I request so. Not there. And did Mr. Libby come back?

[1:30:18] So that brings us standing. I thought I saw it.

[1:30:29] Hi, good evening, chemical health from Northport. I just want to, you know, make sure I understand.

[1:30:40] the infusion of money that's coming in to the school district this year, at the end of the year, or next year, or next year.

[1:30:52] So the $2.5 million wide-half infusion from LIFA, then there are $2.2 million in state aid, 49 teachers retiring plus other reductions in district personnel.

[1:31:06] Now, decreasing enrollment, and I believe the number with the $5.2 million in savings

[1:31:15] on this school is closed last year.

[1:31:19] And, you know, totaling all of that up and understanding the object explanation of

[1:31:27] the, you know, where the $2.5 million is going to be allocated from the LIFA infusion

[1:31:35] and the trajectory using the unifying fund balance, understanding all of that and the

[1:31:46] robust programs that we have, I really still do not understand why there is a budget to

[1:31:55] budget increase, why we have to increase the budget. I just don't understand that.

[1:32:03] I think that, you know, we've not had, we've not been over the cap for the last many, many years, you know, before, before Rob, you were here, before, you know, when Dr. McDermott was here, we never, you know, went over the cap once the cap was in place.

[1:32:25] The contingency funding for potential pandemic response, you know, that was in the summary,

[1:32:34] you know, to the second speaker that spoke about, you know, in the first speaker also,

[1:32:40] the community asked for a cause, the UTN asked for a cause, and it wasn't granted.

[1:32:48] I think it was the board and the superintendent, you had it in your mind that these two schools were closing and no matter what anyone said, it wasn't going to happen.

[1:32:59] And so to that speaker who just spoke virtually, there is no townfall, there is no listening to the community in my opinion.

[1:33:11] And the decision has been made before we get here.

[1:33:15] And the decision is the decision that's been in my experience in the last 15 years of being involved in these types of situations.

[1:33:27] I think it's irresponsible to raise the budget. I really do believe it's irresponsible for all of you to raise the budget not with the community close to schools.

[1:33:39] Why do we have to close to schools? Why couldn't we close one?

[1:33:41] And why are we keeping money in the bank in case we have to respond to the pandemic and open a school back up?

[1:33:50] That just doesn't make fiscal sense.

[1:33:53] You know, rearranging the routes for transportation and then having to rearrange it all back just doesn't make sense.

[1:34:00] On the back of students with disabilities, it is irresponsible to shuffle these kids around

[1:34:09] to have them shuffled around potentially again in September.

[1:34:14] And, you know, I know three quarters of you don't like me.

[1:34:18] I've been here a long time.

[1:34:20] I haven't been to these meetings in a long time.

[1:34:22] But I couldn't stay away because I am so frustrated

[1:34:27] with the lack of accountability,

[1:34:30] the lack of assertiveness that this board,

[1:34:34] the lack of holding the superintendent to task

[1:34:37] and making decisions on the half of those who voted for you.

[1:34:45] I'm really, I'm very, very frustrated.

[1:34:49] Five seconds left.

[1:34:56] Reserve that you are planning for, you know, this budget vote for next year.

[1:35:04] Why does it have to be so robust?

[1:35:06] Why do we have to put $2 million into reserve and then plan on increasing it $2 million every year?

[1:35:12] doesn't make sense. People have lost their job. People are struggling and the school districts

[1:35:21] are sitting pretty and funding reserves. As someone said to me today, I would rather have that

[1:35:31] money in my pocket, not in your pocket. Thank you.

[1:35:38] I can only say that I do not believe anybody in this board has any animus towards humans

[1:35:42] and so far, and I apologize if you really believe that is true.

[1:35:47] Certainly people are allowed to have a different opinion, I'm sure you would agree with that.

[1:35:52] So just because we may not agree with your opinion that you spoke with today does not mean

[1:35:56] that any sort of animus towards you is just, so I just want to make that clear.

[1:36:18] I would like to touch on what some of the other speakers have said tonight, I have been

[1:36:24] updating and I have been following the finances and I said years ago, enrollment declining,

[1:36:31] are we looking at closing buildings.

[1:36:32] So I understand that the concept and the need to do that, but because of everything,

[1:36:38] everybody's been through this year, and we don't know if September will be normal,

[1:36:42] of course, definitely would have been a good idea.

[1:36:45] And yes, you know, we are concerned about putting away $2 million into this reserve fund.

[1:36:52] I think that's kind of how we got ourselves in trouble in the first place

[1:36:55] when we were letting our building's deteriorate and staffing money away and reserves

[1:36:59] and we got to what it is by the state control office.

[1:37:02] I don't want to see us go down that path again.

[1:37:05] A simple question, I think I asked these two meetings

[1:37:07] though of the 5.2 million we saved last year

[1:37:11] because our buildings were physically closed.

[1:37:13] There was 4.5 million that were shifted

[1:37:15] to cover the repairs at Ocean Avenue,

[1:37:18] for which there is a pending insurance claim.

[1:37:21] Has that claim been resolved or denied yet?

[1:37:25] No, it's still pending.

[1:37:27] Still pending, all right.

[1:37:27] So it's still pending and I would like to know if somewhat we look at where that money

[1:37:34] would be going.

[1:37:35] It's potentially, I'm not sure exactly what the term or how much we're asking on the insurance

[1:37:39] claim, but potentially up to $4.5 million, which is a pretty hefty amount, will come back

[1:37:46] for it.

[1:37:48] I also spoke about this and I know we don't know the savings from this school year yet, but

[1:37:54] I'm going to say there will be some savings because of the way we've operated, I mean we have six schools

[1:38:00] Six grades that's 36 grades I

[1:38:03] If we didn't have when you start eating up and each one may seem like nothing, but it's going to add up

[1:38:08] To money that we did not have to spend so I would like to know where and how that will be accounted for and

[1:38:15] again, I add

[1:38:17] And clearly closing the two buildings with a little controversial and up to me air

[1:38:21] But if you're going to go ahead with the plan you've had all along and close those two buildings for next school year, where is some type of revenue?

[1:38:29] We're looking at a transportation hub. We're paying to store our buses, to pay the store our buses at least thought and have

[1:38:37] two empty buildings that are not producing any revenue and not being used, you know, is ludicrous and building a

[1:38:44] transportation hub on top of it at this point,

[1:38:47] while displacing students and families.

[1:38:51] And I tried to follow the slide on the bus thing.

[1:38:55] I personally know at the distance

[1:38:56] and family distance, and it's historically

[1:38:58] about 85% workers, because it's literally

[1:39:01] a neighborhood school with houses all around it.

[1:39:04] So anybody from that neighborhood that's

[1:39:06] going to go to Austin is obviously

[1:39:08] going to end up on a bus.

[1:39:11] I hope that's being taken into consideration

[1:39:13] as you can save money, but you're sending money on the bus thing.

[1:39:18] And I also noted in previous meetings, it seems like we're budgeting too much money

[1:39:22] for maintaining two buildings that won't be used.

[1:39:25] And you have to catch up the heat because she's in half damage, but it keeps the heat on 50.

[1:39:31] It's not like having students where you have to keep it on 70, 75, I would imagine.

[1:39:37] You keep it low, you protect any areas that you think might need more insulation

[1:39:43] So it seems like we're still budgeting too much personnel and too much the maintenance

[1:39:49] of buildings that will really not be in use.

[1:39:54] So to me, it seems like millions of dollars that seem to be in the wrong place here.

[1:40:01] And I think that that really needs to be addressed because the community is paying attention.

[1:40:05] Thank you.

[1:40:21] So I've missed a lot of budget meetings this year due to work compromises, so I just have

[1:40:27] a question.

[1:40:28] Our budget last year was $172,750,000 and $759, correct?

[1:40:35] I

[1:40:39] see the exchange is served to last year for $97,536,161.67.

[1:40:49] So, where is that $75,000 difference in the budget?

[1:40:56] So, expenses to date as the report was printed.

[1:40:59] So, it's not end of your expenses.

[1:41:01] June 30th, those expenses will be yours.

[1:41:03] Okay.

[1:41:04] So, how would we find an accounting of that missing $75,000,000 from last year's expenses?

[1:41:09] It's this current year expenses that we're in right now, so the year is not done yet.

[1:41:15] Okay.

[1:41:16] Do we have a projected outlook for the rest of the year?

[1:41:21] We do have projections and that's part of the fund balance analysis we said.

[1:41:25] So there's the revenue side and expense side, those two together, we're looking at a neutral

[1:41:30] year for the year.

[1:41:31] So we're looking at being basically equal on expenses revenues.

[1:41:35] So, there was no money left over from last but your budget is what you're saying.

[1:41:42] Even though many of these columns, state, we had zero and we had $190,000 budgeted.

[1:41:52] Again, that those, you're referencing a can payment, I believe $189,000,000 is a tax

[1:41:57] and security payment.

[1:41:59] When the tax and security note is due in June, we pay the interest when the note is due.

[1:42:04] So there's zero expenses until the notice A and then we pay the interest on that bill.

[1:42:09] Okay.

[1:42:10] And what about all the other expenses that were so much lower because the school is for close?

[1:42:18] I don't know if you're confusing the current fiscal year or the prior fiscal year.

[1:42:22] I'm looking at 2021 expenditures.

[1:42:26] And that's the year we're in now.

[1:42:30] So we're still spending money.

[1:42:33] I understand that if they're projected outlook for the rest of the year is what I'm asking.

[1:42:39] So there are appropriation status reports that are given to the board and there are many

[1:42:46] public and as the year goes on, those appropriation status reports are updating.

[1:42:54] Okay, thank you.

[1:42:57] Thank you.

[1:43:07] We're on the website.

[1:43:14] We're on the website.

[1:43:16] Yeah, very new.

[1:43:19] And in 11.

[1:43:21] Part of part of board.

[1:43:23] So what you needed like when you

[1:43:25] reconcile a huge board meeting that's

[1:43:27] I'm sorry about those.

[1:43:28] Okay, I see that.

[1:43:29] Okay, I apologize.

[1:43:30] I don't know what you were talking about.

[1:43:34] So I just wanted to ask about, again,

[1:43:39] I wanted to piggyback a time instead

[1:43:42] about funding reserves and taxing us,

[1:43:45] especially when we're supposed to get a life of tax

[1:43:47] to increase clothing building with everybody retiring

[1:43:53] because they gave them a really great incentive.

[1:43:55] This is, it's almost, it can't be justified and it's almost shocking.

[1:44:01] I honestly can't put how I feel into words that you guys would present a budget this

[1:44:08] high.

[1:44:10] If you look at it, you were saying that it would be, our last budget was about $172 million.

[1:44:15] If we hadn't closed buildings, it would be at $1.80.

[1:44:19] What?

[1:44:20] I've had it meaning before we've never increased that much.

[1:44:23] We have low enrollment, we're getting a slightly increased, we're getting a few state A and you're claiming we would be at 180.

[1:44:32] I think that means we're presenting and I think it's sort of confusing our community and taking advantage of their connectivity.

[1:44:41] So I'm shocked that you guys are doing that.

[1:44:45] I also want to reference the boom truck and that, you know,

[1:44:48] the expectation hub.

[1:44:50] Is that still happening?

[1:44:51] The last time you guys spoke about it was when you presented it.

[1:44:54] Where is it in the budget?

[1:44:56] Is it happening?

[1:44:57] The increases that you spoke about during building days.

[1:45:00] Security, again, I'd like a status on that.

[1:45:06] And then I don't know if it was last week or the week before, we talked about if the budget failed, you would have to make draconian measures. So dramatic. I asked you, did you make draconian matters? Did you make draconian choices and decisions when you created this budget? When you look to save the community any money, what measures did you take? Because I'm not sure.

[1:45:31] that I see any savings, even at the creation of your budget.

[1:45:36] I know you're saying you dropped it down from 174 to 172.

[1:45:41] That's not business.

[1:45:42] It's crazy that you think that this is okay.

[1:45:48] And that's what I have to say.

[1:45:49] See what it's like.

[1:46:18] I'll get it wrong, everyone.

[1:46:21] I've been called.

[1:46:27] Mariah Hewer, 23 Carlisle Drive.

[1:46:30] It's okay.

[1:46:31] Nobody can help with my name correctly.

[1:46:34] Just don't ask me this thing.

[1:46:37] So,

[1:46:40] Mr. Howard, I would like to thank you and your team for the hard work and the dedication

[1:46:45] that you have shown our district in creating the budget that you have created.

[1:46:51] Not everybody agrees with it.

[1:46:53] That's okay, but you guys have been working really hard and you can tell that you've been

[1:46:58] doing the best that you can to come up with something that was for our district.

[1:47:03] I

[1:47:06] have been looking through the budget and I was curious if you could point out where the

[1:47:13] middle school counselor for the fifth grade is if we are to go to the closure of the two

[1:47:22] elementary schools.

[1:47:26] I don't know if there's a line item.

[1:47:28] I forgot what the codes are for the schools.

[1:47:31] I used to know that.

[1:47:33] And I didn't know I was giving through and I didn't see anything on that.

[1:47:36] I mean, you can short circuit it. My real question is whether or not there's going to be an individual

[1:47:45] counselor for each best grade in each middle school or if it's going to be as it was proposed previously to be a

[1:47:54] half-time position.

[1:47:57] Did you have any other questions?

[1:47:59] I have a comment.

[1:48:03] So do you want me to thank my comment?

[1:48:07] Before we came here to Northport, we were in a different district.

[1:48:11] My children were in the elementary school in that district, and the board and superintendent

[1:48:19] voted to do the peer-to-tax, levitate, and they needed a super-majority vote, and we worked

[1:48:30] tirelessly to try to get that. A lot of the school was supportive of that, the school community,

[1:48:36] but the general community was not supportive of it, and we wound up not being able to make our

[1:48:41] 60% supermajority vote.

[1:48:45] And as a result, the entire music program was lost. My daughter was about

[1:48:53] to enter fourth grade. She was been playing an instrument, and that whole experience was gone.

[1:49:00] They focused on sports, so the lacrosse team was still there, and that was in full force.

[1:49:08] And very well funded, not only by the school, but also by the parents, but there was no

[1:49:14] option for anyone who wanted to do music.

[1:49:17] And we also lost a portion of the elementary language.

[1:49:22] They had started language and elementary at that time.

[1:49:25] But we lost it.

[1:49:27] It doesn't seem like a big deal but in a district like Northport to lose something like music

[1:49:34] as we've kind of experienced this past year with COVID is devastating.

[1:49:39] It's devastating to the students that are already in the programs that are looking to go

[1:49:45] to college with those programs, devastating to kids who are delayed a year so that their success

[1:49:51] in the future is limited in music where they might otherwise be involved in that.

[1:49:57] There are real losses that happen when we don't pass the budget.

[1:50:02] I know the community is very concerned about the increase in the budget.

[1:50:10] Unfortunately, in order to continue forward as Mr. Howard explained earlier,

[1:50:17] We need to make sure that we don't keep our budget at zero percent increase every year because then we're never going to have any money in the future.

[1:50:26] I would just like to balance what's been said here tonight with the fact that if a budget doesn't pass, it can be very detrimental for a district.

[1:50:37] And that was my comment.

[1:50:39] So in terms of the position, we know that that's something that is discussed here during the staffing phase.

[1:50:49] You know that some feedback from the task force, you know, they have expressed the same.

[1:50:55] So that's part of what we're discussing tonight, you know, where we can find the funds for that, for that other position.

[1:51:08] So that means that brings us to our agenda where we're going to take a motion to go into

[1:51:17] committee of a whole and I'll actually make that motion to go to committee of the whole.

[1:51:21] Thank you.

[1:51:22] All those in favor?

[1:51:25] Trustee Lachorne and Trustee McCullough, please.

[1:51:32] Okay, so that means we get to debate or discuss with the board to let you, is anybody

[1:51:38] who would like to get in touch with slide, please?

[1:51:40] I'm just, I'm going to, I'll just, before I, you know, before I think we collectively go

[1:51:48] to the typical one-by-line budget stuff, I'm going to just ask some questions generally

[1:51:53] presentation, right? And kind of just the sense of a couple of things that we talked about during the presentation.

[1:52:02] Rob, when do we become aware of the final state aid runs that show this increase through R.A.

[1:52:12] They came in late Tuesday night,

[1:52:17] you know, around nine o'clock, something like that. And then it's really,

[1:52:23] You know, we took yesterday to sort of decipher, you know, what it means, and actually, you know,

[1:52:30] there's still some of that going on.

[1:52:32] You know, foundation eight is pretty straightforward.

[1:52:34] You know, it's pretty much discretionary.

[1:52:37] But as, you know, as to how it laid out, something like the U.P.K., which is included, you know,

[1:52:43] when, you know, including, say, a new day, but it has a very, very specific purpose.

[1:52:49] and, you know, has to stay in that very specific lane and can't be used for other purposes.

[1:52:55] So it really just takes some understanding of exactly what's in there and what its purpose is

[1:53:02] and how it can be utilized.

[1:53:06] So we kind of get a Tuesday night.

[1:53:10] We're digging into it yesterday, right?

[1:53:12] in the day, right?

[1:53:13] Yeah.

[1:53:14] The New Day article comes out yesterday, one day, right?

[1:53:20] Let's just say this, right?

[1:53:22] Yeah.

[1:53:23] Did we know that we were getting this additional state

[1:53:27] age before Tuesday night?

[1:53:28] So the issue with something like that is this, right?

[1:53:32] So in a general year, there's the governor's run,

[1:53:36] and then we know that as you go through the process of the state

[1:53:41] goes through their process of putting their budget together, we have come to just going

[1:53:46] to use the word we in school districts have become conditioned to expecting that there's

[1:53:51] going to be more money given. But that's not a natural level, right? So it could be that

[1:53:59] they're going to say, well, there's $2 billion for school funds. And it might mean for one

[1:54:06] district that they're going to get $4 million based on the criteria that the budget and

[1:54:12] the funding is created. For another district they may get very little bit of money. So there's

[1:54:20] always a macro discussion going on, right? But until you get that actual state aid run and you have

[1:54:27] a chance to digest it, you don't really know the end of that district by district. But this is this

[1:54:33] to use your term and another one of this to highlight these abnormal, I think, in the memo

[1:54:40] he sent out last night, and I think he said unprecedented, we did not know that we were

[1:54:46] getting this kind of a budget to worry, right?

[1:54:52] No.

[1:54:53] What you're speaking of is what we have a sense of because we've been through school budgets

[1:54:58] here over here, over here, and the governor released his run which is what we base all our

[1:55:03] initial projections on, right, and subsequent to that the legislators get their hands on it and there's a

[1:55:10] negotiation and then almost always inquiries, right? Yes, that's been the trend many years. But it in this is beyond that general

[1:55:19] expectation that we would see an increase because every single year that's the way that it goes, we didn't know we were

[1:55:28] getting this kind of increase. Right. So how would you know? No, it's not okay.

[1:55:35] Did many districts on Long Island and throughout New York see similar kinds of

[1:55:40] increases? Some saw significantly more, some saw less. I mean I think everybody saw

[1:55:48] more than what they had expected but but it really very very gone again as I

[1:55:57] I said the criteria that we use to apply the funds district by district.

[1:56:02] Okay.

[1:56:03] So it's a, uh, nobody knows what's coming out of all this when they do this.

[1:56:08] Right.

[1:56:09] Sometimes we expect it typically our increase is pretty nominal.

[1:56:12] Usually not very much, but it's always a little bit more speaking.

[1:56:16] There's only some discussion about what we're going to do with it,

[1:56:18] but it usually is not an astronomical figure.

[1:56:23] Um, I think everybody's reaction to it here.

[1:56:27] and other districts around the state could in new days,

[1:56:30] pretty surprising, and I think it is certainly on purpose at it.

[1:56:38] So, you know, to speak to the A because the information

[1:56:44] that's out there can be so wildly misconstrued and misused.

[1:56:51] The amount of money that's in this aid component

[1:56:53] that represents unfettered $8, but we can infuse into our regular general fund budget.

[1:57:02] If you use as we wish, it's $986,000, all right?

[1:57:09] So, you're talking about the aid and the discretionary fund?

[1:57:13] The money that we can use in our regular budget as we wish.

[1:57:16] As Mr. Howard said, foundation is very discretionary and it's also, you know,

[1:57:25] It's also the most desired

[1:57:31] area, funding, because, again, it does provide the most discretion,

[1:57:36] whereas a lot of the other aids that are out there are expense-based aids.

[1:57:40] So whatever much we use, the prior year, is an indicator of how much we might get the next year.

[1:57:48] So there's always that pension.

[1:57:51] Where foundation aid is basically, here's a, that with no conditions.

[1:57:57] So that amount of money is up on the screen right now, right?

[1:58:01] $986,000 to $137,000, right?

[1:58:05] Correct, so just to kind of reframe from the news day conversation where our public is

[1:58:10] made aware of, that's the middle line where it says total, that shows a $2.2 million increase.

[1:58:15] That's per what the governor stated and news days reported.

[1:58:18] But as I stated, universal pre-K is not a general fund expense or revenue.

[1:58:23] That money is pulled aside, so the new money from UPK is not part of that equation.

[1:58:27] So the actual dollars is $16.9 million and we budgeted $15.9 million last year.

[1:58:34] So the budget to budget increase the school district is recognizing is $986, $986,000, $23,000,

[1:58:41] increased not a $2.2 million increase.

[1:58:44] There was a 6.2% of state aid increase which is very significant.

[1:58:48] It is not a 14.7% increase of state aid.

[1:58:51] Correct. So we have this $9.6,000 roughly, right, that we get this here. The additional

[1:58:59] money is to the UPK program and that certainly benefits our community by being able to

[1:59:05] expand the UPK offering here, but it does a little, it's nothing, correct me if I'm wrong,

[1:59:11] who are annual general fund budget to operate the school district, right? So we get this, the

[1:59:17] The real bump is roughly $986,000.

[1:59:21] What do we do this year with that money?

[1:59:26] We applied all of it to reducing the tax revenue.

[1:59:28] Okay, so we took that entire increase

[1:59:31] to state a $987,000 roughly,

[1:59:35] and we turned it to our taxpayers

[1:59:37] in the form of a lower tax revenue.

[1:59:40] Correct?

[1:59:42] Correct.

[1:59:47] That's the representation of 1.31 down to 0.75, right?

[1:59:55] 0.75, it's going to be the level.

[2:00:01] Yeah, so again, if you look at this slide here, right, we had the levy on March 25th. We were projecting at that time on 1.31% levy. And then you can see if you drop down to April 8th and you look at the green, the dollar change from 1.955 to 1.26.

[2:00:25] And again, we applied the state A, well, the state A as a revenue has all been applied

[2:00:33] and it reduced the level.

[2:00:36] Right, so can you go to 22, Mr. Allen?

[2:00:41] The LIPA projections,

[2:00:48] thank you.

[2:00:49] So this is the original graph is what we were projecting when we were trying to project

[2:00:56] that what we thought our increases were going to be based on the best analysis that we

[2:01:03] could get out of working with the town of Huntington to produce these projections.

[2:01:08] This one prior to the life of settlement, and this is what we projected in June 1.

[2:01:17] We were able to pull together a zero budget, right?

[2:01:21] We had two, based on all of the planning that we've done to produce this particular budget,

[2:01:29] and the complete application of the additional state aid that we received in the eternity

[2:01:35] tax pay in the form of a lower tax level, we get to a $55,000, correct?

[2:01:44] Can you go to slide 4?

[2:01:56] Which one is that I don't have numbers?

[2:01:59] It's early in the presentation.

[2:02:01] It's basically a series like that right there.

[2:02:06] So, this looks like a slide that's just a visual aid

[2:02:12] and it just shows a bunch of pictures on it

[2:02:14] But the reality of what this slide is, is the story of this entire budget here, right?

[2:02:24] And this is not just a budget visual way, the budget such crash that here has so many complicated

[2:02:31] factors that have been in the work in this district, some of them for a decade, right?

[2:02:38] And this budget represents a long-term plan to come together in a particular year to fuse

[2:02:48] the life of settlement and the impacts from that with a plan that has been strategically

[2:02:56] worked on for years to get ready to do what we need to do in the form of reorganizing this

[2:03:04] That relates to what's on the screen that speaks to the environment and center, how would you do a fun balance?

[2:03:14] The reorganization, like in all of these things.

[2:03:18] So I appreciate the slide on visually, but it really does lay out how much is coming together in this particular budget.

[2:03:29] So, you know, one thing that I would agree with Mr. Bedan on,

[2:03:37] by a lot of things, is a need

[2:03:41] for better PR.

[2:03:46] But the PR that I think we need to do better right, is explaining how much is in this particular

[2:03:54] year's budget, how much is that stake here, how much strategic planning has gone on for

[2:04:01] years to turn all of these really complex factors that had the potential, any one of them by

[2:04:08] them served to cause catastrophic damage to this community through schools and taxes,

[2:04:14] to take all of this.

[2:04:16] And with planning, knowing all this stuff was coming, to produce a budget that delivered

[2:04:22] a zero last year and a $55 increase this year, while delivering the enhancements that we're

[2:04:29] hear about in the coming hearing as part of this reorganization is exceptional.

[2:04:38] It is staggering to me the kind of misinformation that is out there and to anybody who could

[2:04:42] look at this and the kind of budget that we're looking at and the levy that we're

[2:04:48] producing with the extraordinary efficiencies that we're going to begin to see and all of

[2:04:54] enhancements that anybody can look at, yes, right, and have an ultimate deal.

[2:05:02] Whether it's commentary here, or out in Facebook, or in a newspaper, or anywhere else,

[2:05:11] proud of

[2:05:12] this budget, and proud of the planning that has gone on in this district for years to produce

[2:05:17] something like this, with all the doom that we, and the real projections that we had over

[2:05:23] life are that we didn't produce a budget that looked anything like that. We've been able to pull that off.

[2:05:28] Mr. Howard, honestly, thank you for the presentation tonight.

[2:05:31] I am always smarter.

[2:05:34] After hearing from you on any given night.

[2:05:39] Yeah.

[2:05:41] Trustee Buscarino said before that the budget is not typically that there's been experience.

[2:05:46] But I am about as excited about this budget as I have ever been,

[2:05:49] because I know what could have gone on in these years with this budget in this community in these schools.

[2:05:58] The last thing I'm going to say is slide 24, if you don't mind, speak to the COVID contingency.

[2:06:12] So $1

[2:06:19] .9 million roughly is what this is, right?

[2:06:23] This is what we're budgeting as a COVID contingency.

[2:06:26] Should we need to re-execute on mass lockdown, remote, distancing of 60 again, and so on and

[2:06:34] so forth?

[2:06:35] So my impression just generally being here and on the ground knowing through the

[2:06:42] gestation is that I'm going in a different direction than that, right?

[2:06:48] CDC has previously said that the three-foot space was okay.

[2:06:53] They suggested it would be okay to eliminate the plexiglass shields.

[2:06:57] I'm sure there'll be more discussion about that.

[2:07:01] But as of yesterday, there was an interview with the new CDC Director on ABC News,

[2:07:08] who went

[2:07:09] further to say that she expected nation schools for kids to be back in classrooms by the

[2:07:14] fall.

[2:07:15] We should anticipate by September that schools should be full-fledged in person.

[2:07:20] With all of our children in classrooms, teachers, students, and their parents should be prepared

[2:07:25] to say goodbye to remote learning regardless of whether their children have vaccinated or

[2:07:29] not, and she went on to speak to even the variance that we're seeing, and the concern over

[2:07:35] the variance, and that they have tremendous tolerance for all three vaccines that are currently

[2:07:40] being used here, are believed to work effectively against those vaccines. That's our current

[2:07:46] speed we see directly. We are adjusting expectations and

[2:07:52] hoping to get and keep schools back

[2:07:54] to normal. So in my opinion, I think it's important for us, and I think it's something we have to

[2:07:59] do because what we don't know we don't know right but I think it's becoming increasingly

[2:08:07] a sound judgment that we're going back and forth.

[2:08:14] I have some budget asks when we get

[2:08:18] into that I hope that really wasn't a presentation I'll give it up and I'll go back to my questions

[2:08:21] later. Thank you. Thank you.

[2:08:23] Vice President Newman.

[2:08:24] Do you have questions?

[2:08:27] I have some budget asks on two specific things but I really wanted to hammer out the

[2:08:31] presentation.

[2:08:32] Does anybody have any general stuff?

[2:08:35] Do you think it's better for a man if we ask our presentation questions and then we get

[2:08:39] into the budget?

[2:08:40] Is that a better process?

[2:08:41] Because I have a one or two budget presentation questions as well.

[2:08:45] Sure.

[2:08:47] Go ahead.

[2:08:47] What are you?

[2:08:48] Well, I defer to.

[2:08:51] Well, I'll take the presentation first and then I guess we'll do the budget.

[2:08:55] So if I present the new one, all right.

[2:08:57] Thank you.

[2:08:58] Thank you.

[2:09:03] I

[2:09:06] just am wondering and the presentation question, but it's also perhaps a good question.

[2:09:11] I know we were, you were discussing these mild changes and that the board can do it or

[2:09:18] that is a member of the community, that's attempting to do it.

[2:09:21] One room is, do you want to have a conversation about the difference between kindergarten

[2:09:44] I'm just wondering if we're going to do that, we may want to look at making elementary schools

[2:09:54] that we were saying rather than having them

[2:09:55] in your garden would be different.

[2:09:57] So I just think that that should be something

[2:09:58] we should be thinking about.

[2:10:00] And that's, you know, finding out what that was all about,

[2:10:04] to just change it, so it's all the same.

[2:10:07] Additionally, the UPCK, you know, you're gonna round too long

[2:10:10] when you can say things like this,

[2:10:13] but when UPCK just became a thing,

[2:10:15] I sat on a committee that made the protocol

[2:10:18] for how we handled the UPCK money that we could see

[2:10:21] and the $69,000 that might get involved in what we get to do in order to use that here,

[2:10:26] so I am delighted that finally that definitely comes.

[2:10:30] We had to use a lottery and integrate it with the specialist program that we have, and

[2:10:35] I think it's the only fee, and it serves a real purpose here, so I'm glad to see that this

[2:10:39] is going up, and I think I agree with what we're all talking about to talk about the

[2:10:45] relationship because, no matter how we stay this is confusing, and people have to remember

[2:10:50] than that 78 to 82% of every budget is postponed now, and all of our contracts, all of that,

[2:10:59] start, get about a 2% raise every year, so if you think about that for a moment, and

[2:11:04] then you add the benefits where we know this year, even though we have 70 less employees,

[2:11:09] we still went up in those areas.

[2:11:12] So having a zero budget, not the same as what you would do to budget in your home, so while

[2:11:18] I appreciate, last year we were able to take the money that we could spend and use that

[2:11:22] to give a zero.

[2:11:23] This year, that's not the case and I thought that you made a very good presentation

[2:11:27] to show, you know, we reserved your funding by understanding, so if we get to the end of

[2:11:33] the year and there aren't, there is no understanding, there is no money put into reserve.

[2:11:37] And looking at your sign phone down, once in your unassigned, those are your savings account.

[2:11:42] And the sign phone down is lowering the levy and that's keeping that model.

[2:11:47] We have talked about the heavy mass because it used to be higher, and not that someone

[2:11:51] mentioned something about the audit, but that part was provided to be bought that down,

[2:11:55] because those things are completely, we pull one's red in effect for the others, and I think

[2:11:59] the problem is it is complicated, and supervised lies over, like, you know, sometimes, I hear

[2:12:04] child over our future, you know, because it's confusing, and I think we need to explain

[2:12:11] is better so the community understands that nobody comes here and says let's not you know my goal

[2:12:19] every time I'm here I want the most opportunities for kids I don't want to waste money and I want

[2:12:25] it to be the best possible price because I understand my family was directly affected by all the

[2:12:30] management of one-third of their salamah has been making one-third of what it makes since COVID started

[2:12:36] so I'm not missing saying my family has been impacted financially I understand what it's like to not

[2:12:40] to make choices and I think goodness, I don't have three kids in college like I would have

[2:12:45] another time in my life. But we have to be able to make sure we're talking about

[2:12:52] facts and issues and real things and understanding that if every employee is getting a 2%

[2:12:56] and 3% every year, how could it possibly stay the same? And then you have other factors that aren't

[2:13:02] in there. We are losing your money and doing the fact of it. And I just hope that we can maybe do

[2:13:09] a better job of explaining something very complicated so that we can help the community

[2:13:14] understand what we're trying to do. And I want to thank you as well as I feel. I always

[2:13:19] feel like I learn something every time that you explain it, but I also appreciate that

[2:13:24] it is more complicated.

[2:13:29] Trusty, anybody else on the budget presentation?

[2:13:45] Trusty, let's

[2:13:46] and really just commend you on the strategic planning.

[2:13:54] You know, the savings that we might be seeing,

[2:14:02] it's important for the public to realize that a lot of,

[2:14:05] some of those savings were realized in portion last year

[2:14:09] because we knew we had this plan in place.

[2:14:15] So to be able to put a zero present budget for last year and and you know bring everything together this year, I think it's very commendable. Thank you.

[2:14:27] Trustee LeCouple.

[2:14:28] I'm sorry.

[2:14:29] I have to ask

[2:14:35] the comments on the presentation.

[2:14:37] And the soundness of the of the plan and itself, you know, given all the factors.

[2:14:42] I certainly can attest to how complicated it is this year to, you know, frame a budget.

[2:14:50] From their fact that what we're trying to do in my own school district.

[2:14:54] But I just have a couple of questions.

[2:14:57] with the U.P.K. lines that are the 67.

[2:15:00] $1,000 that has been allocated. Did we expand that? And do we have a UPK program or do we contract that? So we currently have a UPK program, but we have contracted out to two vendors. So they provide the APK services to the district. Yes. Okay. So with the allocation that we are that has been targeted for us now.

[2:15:29] that would be outsourced to a vendor. I'm assuming that is the current plan, but obviously

[2:15:38] we have to review the guidance and the language and the requirements of it, but the original

[2:15:43] plan is to enhance and increase the amount of offerings within those programs.

[2:15:47] Okay, great, great. Now, my other question has to do with the rescue money.

[2:15:58] Now, we have

[2:15:59] Maybe it would be helpful for me if you would explain the board and the community.

[2:16:05] Why are we staying away from that?

[2:16:07] Because obviously there's going to be expenses that we have in the current budget that could go into that pool of restrooms.

[2:16:15] Which could contribute to lowering the tax revenue even more.

[2:16:21] And the question is.

[2:16:22] a little bit.

[2:16:26] Please put a lot of trusty look hopefully could you speak up a little bit.

[2:16:30] I know I'm never in a little trouble. I could repeat it if you want. You want to know

[2:16:36] with the rescue package money the $1.7 million in district of receiving why we're not allocating

[2:16:43] some of those funds towards this year's budget and reducing the impact of the taxpayers in the

[2:16:48] let it.

[2:16:49] Yeah.

[2:16:50] And essentially, what would be the risk of doing it, and why is it more wise now to do it?

[2:16:57] Yeah.

[2:16:57] And why is it wise not to utilize it?

[2:16:59] So, as I've stated before, these funds are not part of the general fund.

[2:17:05] They're not going to be recognized as revenue in the general fund.

[2:17:07] And the expenses are not part of the general fund.

[2:17:09] They're part of the special aid fund.

[2:17:11] So, yes, there is a potential to move expenses from the general fund into the special aid fund.

[2:17:17] and by effect, reducing the budget itself

[2:17:20] for those actions and those activities.

[2:17:22] The challenge is that they have not released the formal guidance

[2:17:26] to know what those purposes and expenses

[2:17:28] and the eligible purposes are for.

[2:17:30] So we have identified likely scenarios,

[2:17:33] ones that are more definitive, for example, summer programs

[2:17:36] and within our programs we have plans

[2:17:38] for summer education programs.

[2:17:41] So those are expenses that we may be more likely

[2:17:44] to be confident that the grant language will cover those expenses, but literally the information

[2:17:50] is being presented at the same time or after the budget process.

[2:17:54] So we don't want to run to the negative potential of putting expenses out of the general fund

[2:18:02] expecting for the grant to pay for.

[2:18:04] And they're ineligible.

[2:18:05] And if they're valuable enough for us to provide for our students, we don't want to create

[2:18:08] a scenario where we cut a valuable program because the grant was not able to accommodate

[2:18:13] that. So we wanted to be cautious of that until information is more apparent. It is not a one-year

[2:18:18] grant, but during this conversation, discussions, we may be able to identify a few expenses that

[2:18:24] may be able to be moved to the grant during that process.

[2:18:30] So will we make that adjustment?

[2:18:33] That will just build our fund balance within the expense area of the budget then.

[2:18:38] It will reduce the expense side of the budget, and then there could be decision on how to balance

[2:18:44] Okay, great. Thank you.

[2:18:47] Okay, so I bring it to me and I certainly usually have a different point of view.

[2:18:51] So, you know, I do agree.

[2:18:53] Sorry, can I just clarify one thing for me because I'm reading this for more?

[2:18:57] Just a little fun.

[2:18:59] Just to piggyback on kind of what Larry was just talking about in regards to the money.

[2:19:04] When it says that the funds do not have to be extended in one year in the plan for using these funds

[2:19:10] that we posted to our website by July 1st this summer.

[2:19:15] I mean, with these kids all coming back,

[2:19:17] how can we possibly know where we're going

[2:19:20] to be needing these funds?

[2:19:22] And is there an extension of that time theory

[2:19:24] that we could put our funds in a certain area

[2:19:27] and be like, we don't need this, it kids me this.

[2:19:29] I feel like they're kind of strapping us

[2:19:31] by this July 1st, what's the situation with that?

[2:19:35] So these are timelines that are established in the laws

[2:19:38] and I've been attending training sessions and, you know, while building the budget of

[2:19:42] presentations at the same time.

[2:19:43] So this is brand information.

[2:19:44] All I'm packaging it.

[2:19:45] But in the language, as it's currently understood, it's a July 1st state, you have to post

[2:19:52] the website.

[2:19:52] There's a 30-day review period for public comment, and I believe the idea is for the public

[2:19:57] feels to provide information prior to being enacted.

[2:20:00] Now, there may be a rolling date throughout the year that you can do that process, but in order

[2:20:05] to spend the funds they set to July 1st and I'm assuming that's for the next school year or this

[2:20:09] coming school year. So allow the public comment to happen as officials as traditionally as possible.

[2:20:14] But I would envision since the funds are open for a number of years that there could be multiple

[2:20:19] windows throughout that three-year period. But, you know, I really, I can't say definitively that's

[2:20:23] exactly I've heard of. I'm using applying logic to what I read so far. Okay, thank you.

[2:20:31] Mr. Howard, the thing that you put out, you can mention some of the programs, but the thing that you put

[2:20:35] would ask for more specific summer programs targeting any learning that has occurred

[2:20:43] with students as a result of all these pandemics, right?

[2:20:46] Correct.

[2:20:47] So, that's a much more targeted kind of a thing.

[2:20:49] I think it's great that we're getting some funding that might serve our students.

[2:20:55] I think it's great that it may not have to all be used in one year that we may be able

[2:20:58] to bump forward to trustee Buscarino's point, we may not know exactly what we all need and

[2:21:06] And what the kids all need until they kind of get in and begin moving.

[2:21:09] So the fact that, you know, we may be able to program forward with some of it to kind

[2:21:13] of close that gap because I think we're not going to know, you know, if there may be

[2:21:18] a gap with some kids that exhibit for a year or more, right?

[2:21:23] And so, you know, I just think it's important.

[2:21:26] It's potentially a large pool of money, but it's a pool of money that's going to come

[2:21:31] with a lot of caveats and very specific usage parameters, right?

[2:21:37] Express.

[2:21:38] Thank you.

[2:21:40] So as I was saying, so I do print, look at this from a different viewpoint.

[2:21:45] So I know you don't mean to be misleading and I'm not accusing you of the same, but to

[2:21:51] me, it's always about the bottom line.

[2:21:53] At the end of the day, at least as of right now, until the word decides, the administration

[2:22:00] is proposing a almost a $2 million increase in the $1.9 million increase in the expenditure

[2:22:10] side of the budget.

[2:22:13] 1.9 million.

[2:22:15] Okay.

[2:22:16] Yeah.

[2:22:17] So that's 1.13.

[2:22:19] So I certainly understand the public's frustration with that when you hear that possibly

[2:22:25] looking for those two schools, et cetera, and I do agree, and I know that's somewhat

[2:22:29] that, you know, would sound is going up, that kind of explains why some of that, why it's

[2:22:37] difficult to have a 0% budget to budget increase. Although I do disagree that having a 0%

[2:22:47] a desperate event, that never made sense to me. So, because, and then, you know, I do go through the line by line and I always try to find

[2:22:59] and saving and where we find it a little difficult, quite honestly, but the bottom line is this,

[2:23:05] you know, it seems to mean my question is the employee benefits that's going up on what's 1.9 mil.

[2:23:12] That's good to be honest with you.

[2:23:14] So there's the biggest drive in the factors of that is in our Medicare part B.

[2:23:19] So our historic trend of in the past few years we have been under budgeting and over-expanding those codes

[2:23:24] of requiring budget transfers to cover, and that's strictly due to the rate of the Medicare

[2:23:29] parking reimbursement in the amount of folks that are eligible over 65. So as our population

[2:23:34] grows greater over 65, and those parking reimbursement rates increase, we've seen increases greater

[2:23:40] than what we've been increasing budgetary hours. So there's about a half million dollar increase

[2:23:44] in Medicare Part B reimbursement which were required to do by law. The other part is there was

[2:23:49] about $4 to $500,000 increase in health insurance as a part of the retirement incentive. Now

[2:23:54] Now, the salary savings significantly outweigh those savings, but that factors in and offset

[2:23:59] into the health insurance code.

[2:24:02] In addition, there's just a traditional health insurance increase year-over-year as well

[2:24:06] in there.

[2:24:07] And then the TRS increase, which is not significant, less than 1%, but it's still, there's

[2:24:12] an ITTRS increase, and there's a greater ERS increase than the TRS increase.

[2:24:18] So that's what's going into that point, you know.

[2:24:21] It's part of the benefits category of that 1.9 million dollar increase.

[2:24:26] Almost a million it's spoken for between Medicare, Part B, and the retirement center.

[2:24:30] And the remaining million is between the TRS, ERS, and then the normal traditional health

[2:24:36] insurance rate increases year over year.

[2:24:39] But it's certainly discretionary, in a sense, that the interfund transfer is going from 1.4

[2:24:47] to 3.3, that is up the border, of course.

[2:24:51] That's a change, correct?

[2:24:52] Correct.

[2:24:54] And that's a discretionary board decision, correct?

[2:24:57] I'm not sure.

[2:24:58] No, man, also with the equipment going up

[2:25:00] for about, you know, it's a lot of a lot of money,

[2:25:01] but for me, every dollar counts, 113, that's correct.

[2:25:05] Correct.

[2:25:09] And, what was my other point here?

[2:25:11] Of course, it may come up later, you know.

[2:25:13] It's always been said that, and it's absolutely true

[2:25:16] that the salaries and benefits of that we pay are one of our employees in here cover about

[2:25:24] 10 percent. You know, the question always comes, you know, should we hire, I'm sure we're

[2:25:30] going to hear later, hire another counselor, a teacher, but we can serve and do that, but

[2:25:35] remember that comes with a course. I've always said that having four or at least for a

[2:25:44] But if you look at the population, to me, there's no reason to have 4 APs in the high school.

[2:25:50] Considering, I mean, we're sore, we have 1,000 students left over 10 years or so to have

[2:25:57] the same number of system principles, to me, just not, you know, not sustainable.

[2:26:07] The other thing I do want to point out is in your life itself.

[2:26:18] So regardless of what we're doing, I do just want to point out the life

[2:26:26] portion is pretty big, correct? It's pretty fixed with the exception that there

[2:26:32] is a calculation of the receiver technology or the assessor does every year.

[2:26:37] It's like flying scale by a thousand flights. It's a flight variability, correct? It's

[2:26:41] pretty fixed, but it's quite different. There's a flight, you know. But basically

[2:26:46] that is the way to be.

[2:26:53] If there was all I had to say, I was on that one. Any other

[2:26:57] things before we go to anything next

[2:27:03] part, trust me.

[2:27:08] So I have two things for this year's

[2:27:15] budget, both of which I spoke about earlier in the normal part of our budget routine.

[2:27:23] I think one of them is something I asked about early on in one of the budgets, but it's

[2:27:31] also something that has come up in the advisory committee that we're running right now.

[2:27:41] And that is the additional half-counts for the middle school level.

[2:27:45] I understand when we spoke about this last meeting, there was some content and given the amount

[2:27:52] resources that we have up there, right? And now there's the

[2:27:56] psychiatry, but it's a technology that's going to be able to

[2:27:59] switch off and we've seen like we have a lot of coverage. And I

[2:28:03] would sort of accept an acquiesce if over some degree of time,

[2:28:12] once we got running in those middle schools, and there was a sense

[2:28:16] that there was a good hand on the kids that had gone through

[2:28:22] that's something that should certainly, as all of the service personnel should be revaluated

[2:28:30] to see if we don't need it somewhere else or if we don't need it at all.

[2:28:36] But I think one of the things that we

[2:28:41] have a responsibility to be doing is to be making sure

[2:28:44] that we don't

[2:28:49] inadvertently strip some resources away without even realizing what the actual

[2:28:54] media is going to be. So one of my asses is to the addition of that health counselor.

[2:29:01] So I'll address that one first.

[2:29:08] An addition to a health counselor? Yes.

[2:29:18] How's that a whole

[2:29:20] the school equal in one.

[2:29:23] Okay.

[2:29:24] So, in other words, what we had proposed that we had talked about was that there would be

[2:29:30] a counselor moving.

[2:29:32] This was the initial proposal that a counselor, one counselor, would be moving up with the

[2:29:36] fifth graders after the time would be spent at one middle school and the other would

[2:29:40] have to be spent at the other.

[2:29:42] And we had some discussion about that and, you know, and then using the psychologist kind of

[2:29:48] all that we on the day when we, you know, covered up.

[2:29:52] Since then, subsequently to that, there's a conversation here.

[2:29:56] Because I know we'll be back from the task force.

[2:30:00] And you know from Dr. Boshnack and Mr. McLaughlin is that idea of having a full-time councilor or the fifth greet so that for every grade level, there is a councilor at the middle school. And so that's certainly something, and Mr. Sheward talked about it tonight as well. So, you know, I understand I hear, you know, that there's, you know, we want to make sure that there's, you know, opportunity for students to, you know,

[2:30:29] to be embraced. We certainly know that, you know, we talk about those social

[2:30:34] emotional needs coming out of this whole situation that we find ourselves, you know,

[2:30:40] that there is, you know, there is some justification for that. So, you know, in the

[2:30:45] budget, there are a number of contingency positions, right? And we could look at

[2:30:52] using one of those contingencies for that position.

[2:31:17] So you feel

[2:31:22] that a half like a part time counselor would spend half their time at North

[2:31:27] report middle and then half their time at East North

[2:31:29] Fort.

[2:31:30] Is that what you're thinking?

[2:31:31] Well, that was the meeting when we talked about staffing.

[2:31:34] Right.

[2:31:34] Two weeks ago, that was the initial proposal.

[2:31:37] Right.

[2:31:38] And that we would kind of when one counselor was at the state

[2:31:43] east, when the psychologist would be assigned to North

[2:31:46] Fort Middle.

[2:31:47] Yeah.

[2:31:47] The only thing is that with the psychologist is because I

[2:31:49] know they are extremely overworked in between testing

[2:31:52] and taking care of CSCs or regardless of any issues.

[2:31:56] is really the availability, I think, would be limited.

[2:31:59] I would fully advocate for a full-time counselor

[2:32:02] at each building, because don't forget,

[2:32:04] when they're in fifth grade, there's a lot of things

[2:32:07] that happen out on the plate around the Houston,

[2:32:09] just because they're gonna be in a different building

[2:32:10] possibly, those issues are gonna also come up

[2:32:14] and you can't really wait for the part-time counselor.

[2:32:17] So I would see really important.

[2:32:19] And it's been expressed by even me watching

[2:32:22] on Tuesday night, you know, from multiple reasons that it is really important that we make sure we make that happen.

[2:32:29] Sure.

[2:32:32] I totally agree with that on so many levels.

[2:32:36] And you know, I mean, we know that we can't anticipate what our students might need in September.

[2:32:43] But one thing we can anticipate is they're going to need more SEL support.

[2:32:48] And so I would totally agree with that.

[2:32:50] And I would make it more of a either social worker counselor because we know our psychologists

[2:32:57] are just overwhelmed with IETs.

[2:33:02] Again, you know, in my breakout group at the end of future studies, and I won't say

[2:33:08] who, but you know, I heard that the cancer, you know, again, looking at the population

[2:33:15] that they had served, again, 10 years ago, and I don't know exact numbers, but you know,

[2:33:20] of per capita per a counselor,

[2:33:23] they were handling the many more students 10 years

[2:33:26] ago than they are now.

[2:33:27] I don't, I'm not against necessarily increasing

[2:33:31] the counselor to a full time in each

[2:33:35] minister, but I would make, I would certainly,

[2:33:41] I'm not, I'm not in favor of increasing the budget

[2:33:43] if you're gonna substitute a contingency or some other,

[2:33:48] or somebody has a reduction to make it revenue neutral,

[2:33:52] I'm all for it, but I would not certainly be

[2:33:54] for any other budget increase.

[2:33:59] Rock, guys.

[2:34:00] Just

[2:34:07] tonight, there may be some other places,

[2:34:10] but again, what I'm saying is that there's

[2:34:13] one of the contingency positions.

[2:34:15] Trustee McDonald, please.

[2:34:17] So, and again, I'm just asking,

[2:34:20] are you intending to have fifth graders

[2:34:23] have guided councils.

[2:34:26] That's what we're proposing.

[2:34:28] I mean, a council is calling it a fifth grade.

[2:34:30] Right, but I guess what I was concerned with is,

[2:34:34] I do need support, but I wouldn't want a relationship

[2:34:38] to be established as a fifth grader,

[2:34:40] and then they become a sixth grader,

[2:34:42] and that person is not the fifth person.

[2:34:44] So I don't know if a better model is to have,

[2:34:47] however you scope it out, a guidance council,

[2:34:50] but some of it stays with the kids

[2:34:52] because I think that has a moody relationship is such an important piece.

[2:34:57] Yeah, and there's two, there's really two ways that, you know, that the counseling offices can be,

[2:35:05] you know, I don't know if you staff, but how they are assigned.

[2:35:08] So some may be assigned by, you know, to be assigned by alphabet,

[2:35:12] and so that you kind of keep that same alphabet all over the place.

[2:35:17] Or, you know, the fifth grade counselor moved with, you know,

[2:35:21] You can have that. You know, I think, I think, however, it's really possible to mind if it's to go. But for me, and I'm speaking as a parent, and I know that was a model in the middle school.

[2:35:32] They don't go. So with my first child, they got introduced to their go to person. And that, my counselor had my last name after.

[2:35:43] So everyone of my kids, I had a relationship with that. It was really, I thought that was a really helpful thing for the counselor.

[2:35:50] for my family to have that kind of relationship

[2:35:53] because it gave them a specific go-to person.

[2:35:56] So personally, I like something like that,

[2:35:58] where if it's not, they're just getting

[2:36:00] to know somebody is it great

[2:36:01] and then they go to someone else,

[2:36:02] but I like the, the agency, if you will, for students

[2:36:07] because I think that's very helpful

[2:36:08] for both the professional and the students

[2:36:12] to have that kind of continuity.

[2:36:14] So however you're crafting that,

[2:36:16] I think that we should remind you of that.

[2:36:18] I think that's a really good thing.

[2:36:19] Yeah, and now there's something would be often good for those about.

[2:36:25] Okay, so it sounds like what you're saying is you have the budget prepared in such a way that you can accommodate our requirements based on the budget you presented.

[2:36:33] Can you know the request has been at one point out and there are again, we have some things in position.

[2:36:39] You know, and I know we're going to go through the process, but, but yes, there is, you know, there is an opportunity for that to be pointed.

[2:36:57] So, Rob, what's the, uh, for pupil, uh, ST, uh, count per, uh, STE of the, of the guidance

[2:37:04] Councillors you know what the case load what's that their case load in effect yeah so so it's

[2:37:17] generally it's at the middle school is generally you know one per class so just found out we have

[2:37:29] So once at 225 kids, once at 3200.

[2:37:35] Just

[2:37:43] looking at the current numbers, so if you look at East, there's 190 students in 6th grade, 188 and 7th and 201 and 8th.

[2:37:54] Northport has 152, 173 and 207. So there's a range there between about one.

[2:38:02] 175, 173, 200.

[2:38:04] Yep.

[2:38:05] Very soon.

[2:38:07] So Rob, I'm assuming that you would consider that ratio acceptable.

[2:38:11] Actually pretty desirable. All things being able.

[2:38:15] Yes. You know, if you look at the, uh, asher guidelines, you know, the,

[2:38:20] it's sort of the, you know, the national school. Yeah, it's below it, right?

[2:38:26] Now, they, they, you know, their guideline is about 250.

[2:38:30] Yeah.

[2:38:31] So we're well below that.

[2:38:33] So the additional Councillor, is that included in the 1-75 word that would be an additional

[2:38:39] Councillor, which would bring it lower?

[2:38:42] It would, it would, entering the middle school will be for new students, you know, they would

[2:38:49] be coming in with the fifth grader's patient.

[2:38:51] All right, got it.

[2:38:52] So with the fifth graders, are we assuming like a middle level, are we going to drop or extend

[2:38:59] a middle-level education to fifth grade now? I'm just curious.

[2:39:04] The original plan in terms of the role of the council was to keep it an elementary focus which is

[2:39:10] push in, proactive support, pushed into the classroom, working on character education, social and emotional learning.

[2:39:16] You know, certainly would adapt and adjust based off of the recommendations but that was the current

[2:39:24] plan and process that myself and Ms. Dancewanna, I've spoken about, just ahead, the current

[2:39:29] fourth grade has 355 students, so if you look at that, it's split across the two middle

[2:39:34] schools.

[2:39:35] It's kind of staying in that same ratio as well, the fifth grade income.

[2:39:39] So Rob, in terms of the additional counsel, would that be a function of the change, or is

[2:39:45] it because of the, in other words, the change of the configuration or COVID?

[2:39:54] Well, mainly because of the change of the configuration, but certainly knowing, you know,

[2:40:00] when we kind of looked at it initially, we said, well, you know, what about doing a half

[2:40:06] and a half?

[2:40:06] And you know, we've had a good discussion throughout this process and, you know, considering the

[2:40:15] move, considering the feedback from the committee, you know, the feedback from the board.

[2:40:20] and COVID as well. So, you know, it was a number of factors.

[2:40:24] Right. Right.

[2:40:26] Well, Paul and all, if I were to weigh in on this, I would support it,

[2:40:31] but I do agree with Mr. Bedan's that it should stay without a change in the overall budget.

[2:40:38] Sure.

[2:40:41] So,

[2:40:46] and so my other thing is also something that I spoke about at

[2:40:53] one of the prior meetings.

[2:40:54] and that was the adjustment to the art teacher from a .75 to a 1.0 with the elementary

[2:41:03] buildings. My reasoning for this really goes back to the discussion that we had about

[2:41:14] the initial need to go through the reorganization and I think it was worried that spoke at length

[2:41:22] about the fact that we sort of occupy this place where we have a social contract,

[2:41:27] not just for our students, but for all of the residents in the district who are tax payers here.

[2:41:34] And we had some discussion at that point about how many of our, how many taxpayers we have,

[2:41:42] how many of them are sick, they come, how many of them don't have kids in the school district,

[2:41:45] and it's always a much larger number than those they do. And so, you know, I find myself in this

[2:41:51] space where you know normally agree with us to be games that we don't and I

[2:41:56] really had I don't remember having done that we don't typically add stuff into

[2:42:02] this component of the budget but in this particular year as much as this move

[2:42:07] represents an attempt to enhance a lot of program but also to trustee McCopley's

[2:42:14] prior point we expect the social contract that we have with all of our tax

[2:42:18] There's, you know, we also have a social contract for the students with it.

[2:42:24] And so, you know, under the concept and promise that we've put out to the community that,

[2:42:32] while we know that closing some schools is difficult, right, for many, out of that,

[2:42:38] we'll come a great deal of enhancements, lots of different ways that we can potentially improve the program,

[2:42:44] and an expansion of lots of things.

[2:42:46] And I think we've heard a lot of that

[2:42:49] from artists to tenants who are moderating that committee.

[2:42:53] And a lot of those enhancements,

[2:42:55] most of them have come out of discussions

[2:42:57] that have happened in that committee.

[2:42:59] And I think that this particular thing takes me back

[2:43:05] to what the school district used to have,

[2:43:07] which was in-house, a full-time-in-house art teacher,

[2:43:10] and how that person can create

[2:43:13] a more enriched environment for the new elementary environments that we're creating that are

[2:43:18] capable for.

[2:43:20] So one of the things I had asked at last, meaning when I raised this, was there a way

[2:43:25] that we could kind of come up in the concept of what they might do with that extra 0.25

[2:43:31] to fill out their data.

[2:43:33] So I don't know if you had anything that we could have chew on in the context of that discussion

[2:43:38] or?

[2:43:38] Yeah, so Dr. Bosch and I can speak to it.

[2:43:42] When we established that number, we looked at the number of sections overall, you know,

[2:43:48] that we anticipated each of the elementary schools.

[2:43:51] And that's, you know, and that's how we arrived at that point 75.

[2:43:56] But I understand there was some questions.

[2:43:59] Is that point 75 of each of the elementary?

[2:44:03] Yes.

[2:44:03] Yes, the teacher wouldn't be a three-quarter teacher, you know, they would pick up, they

[2:44:11] would have to travel, you know, to make them a one-point out.

[2:44:14] But, again, if you look at the anticipated sections, you know, on any time you do that,

[2:44:20] I mean, there are some trade-offs, and again, it does, you know, you lose a little bit of

[2:44:25] travel time.

[2:44:27] You, you know, there's some restrictions then, and the principals do a great job of scheduling

[2:44:32] But it does inhibit that a little bit and have, because the art teachers at the All-Mainty

[2:44:39] School, you know, they're a special, right?

[2:44:41] So there's PE, you know, there's art, there's music, library.

[2:44:46] And so when you, when a particular, some, special, special areas, they only have this person,

[2:44:53] you know, in the afternoon, because they're in the morning, they're at this school.

[2:44:57] So, you just have to consider that when you're-

[2:45:00] And again, our principle has done it, but it does cause some restrictions. So if I do the math correctly, there's three art teachers total. There would be, there would be three art teachers, but of course, of course. My recollection was that there was, if it's a .75, that you're also going to lose, you know, on that remaining say quarter, you're also going to, like we said, this travel.

[2:45:29] and there's other scheduling laws that kind of burns up some of that anyway.

[2:45:37] Yeah, what's the mathematical calculation for travel time?

[2:45:42] What that's my point is that?

[2:45:44] The point one.

[2:45:45] The point one.

[2:45:48] You lose your moving.

[2:45:50] You just burn it up almost half of the quarter and travel time anyway.

[2:46:00] There's a few advantages, you know, one's just being the parent having someone who's

[2:46:07] there and able to, part of the standards too and the art standards is showcasing student

[2:46:14] work and, you know, the display, the things that they can do, that's the obvious with that.

[2:46:19] And there's also the ability to be able to go into classrooms and collaborate with other

[2:46:24] teachers in which social studies, for example, even math, the ELA, and being able to do those

[2:46:31] types of projects, which our teachers would be very eager to do.

[2:46:35] And the other factor that is definitely a struggle sometimes, especially for those schools that

[2:46:42] are really trying to piece of teachers to create a schedule.

[2:46:47] And so, when you're able to have a little bit of flexibility to do schedule, especially

[2:46:52] when we're adding, if we add, you know, having the stem fall, the enrichment for all,

[2:46:58] it does provide us a little bit more flexibility with making this all happen and trying to maximize

[2:47:03] that time so students aren't missing things.

[2:47:06] So that does provide you with that flexibility.

[2:47:08] So those are some advantages.

[2:47:10] I know that the integrating art and education can really enhance learning for students, especially

[2:47:16] students who learn in different ways. It's a great way to really maximize that and it

[2:47:22] would be a great enhancement, but I just have to be able to do that.

[2:47:28] Justin, would you like to go on?

[2:47:29] Yes, so I guess I'm, you know, looking at fairness. So, music, you have one way to teach

[2:47:36] your reach, building, you have one, so the other specials are not divided like that, is

[2:47:41] the assignment the same, because I know years ago when this happened, we had, you know,

[2:47:46] point, what is a full-time position because I think it's important that we look at that

[2:47:50] and I'm also wondering how ART is going to deliver to 503 with the intention to use that

[2:47:58] 0.25 to deliver ART to because I'm assuming the current ART teacher wouldn't have room

[2:48:05] and there's a little school to provide ART once a week to 503 class.

[2:48:10] So how is that going to be accomplished?

[2:48:13] So, I can answer the second question first and then we'll go back to the music and remind

[2:48:17] me if I forget you're asking about music.

[2:48:19] So, what makes it a little bit difficult when you have teachers traveling between buildings

[2:48:26] that are on different time schedules is not only do you lose that type 0.1 for two schools

[2:48:31] that are on the same schedule and they're only teaching periods and the teachers get up

[2:48:35] and up and launch.

[2:48:36] There's known time, like one of those six teaching periods has to be traveled time.

[2:48:40] So that's what we talked about across the elementary.

[2:48:44] It's very difficult to try to match up a special, like, in a fifth grade, where once

[2:48:52] a week to have, you know, or once a week with the middle school schedule, that is typically

[2:48:58] either 10 weeks every day or every other day, there are different configurations depending

[2:49:01] on the course and the grade.

[2:49:04] So it is very challenging for the middle school to do that.

[2:49:08] what we've proposed and Dr. Boshnacken in her work with the committee, they've proposed

[2:49:13] to create a fifth grade schedule and make it look more like just in terms of timing

[2:49:18] and when the rotations are, make the fifth grade schedule match the middle school in all

[2:49:23] of the special areas so we can share staff vertically so, say, a physical education teacher

[2:49:28] can teach fifth grade or sixth grade or seventh or eighth and we want to do that with music

[2:49:32] and art folks as well.

[2:49:34] So the plan really would be if we were going to stay with three teachers across the elementary

[2:49:40] and art, they would really be truly, you know, across the elementary buildings, not

[2:49:47] very difficult to make them go, have them go to the middle school.

[2:49:50] Middle school, high school is very easy to move them.

[2:49:52] They still need travel time.

[2:49:54] The bell schedules don't match up perfectly, but they're a nine period, nine school day.

[2:49:58] So we have additional time for our teachers to travel without impinging on certainly the contractual

[2:50:03] obligation of a launch or a prep.

[2:50:06] With regard to music, it is a little bit different.

[2:50:09] Classroom music and classroom art, you know, as a special

[2:50:12] or as a class is exactly the same.

[2:50:14] You know, that's the same dosage for every grade level.

[2:50:17] But with regard to music, we have music teachers who are also

[2:50:20] working in delivering lessons and teaching ensembles.

[2:50:24] So there's a little bit more flexibility in terms of the numbers

[2:50:27] of music teachers in the buildings and the consistency

[2:50:32] of those folks being there to deliver the instruction.

[2:50:36] You know, we knew that the question would be,

[2:50:38] well, what about FISED, what about, what about our,

[2:50:42] you know, the answer is, I think I might have said it

[2:50:45] previously, a lot of times it's very challenging to,

[2:50:48] unless you could do something interdisciplinary

[2:50:50] and I have a push in like Dr. Bach's,

[2:50:52] Bach's, Bach's, was mentioning with regard to our,

[2:50:54] I would be really difficult to do that

[2:50:55] with a physical education teacher, you know,

[2:50:57] if, you know, if a FISED teacher or the schedule calls

[2:51:00] for, you know, three-quarters of the teachers say a .75 that would cover all the classes.

[2:51:06] The other .25, I'm not sure whether the physed teacher would, how you could push them

[2:51:11] into an L.A. or math or, but within our teachers it's, you know, interdisciplinary projects

[2:51:17] and there's certainly a connection.

[2:51:20] So it's a little bit different.

[2:51:21] I think music, we have a little bit more flexibility because we have more music staff going because

[2:51:25] of the ensembles and because of the, you know, the individual lessons in orchestra band and

[2:51:31] and right. So if we were to decide to put a music teacher in each elementary school they're

[2:51:40] assignments, their time assignment would be the same. So in others, we wouldn't be paying a full-time

[2:51:47] salary with three quarters of a job. We could even put their schedule so comparable to what we

[2:51:53] we expect the full time cell.

[2:51:55] Yeah, you know, we would block that out

[2:51:57] so that, you know, there were expectations.

[2:52:00] It would be a new assignment,

[2:52:01] a little bit different than what we've done in the past.

[2:52:02] So there'd be an expectation, whatever that would be,

[2:52:05] we would work together with the teachers,

[2:52:06] and the teachers have great ideas.

[2:52:08] Right.

[2:52:09] You know, how can they, you know,

[2:52:10] what do they think about utilizing that time?

[2:52:13] So we would set up a schedule

[2:52:14] and have, you know, the push-in be part of their schedule as well.

[2:52:18] And the two bands are really being able to do that without new tasks.

[2:52:22] And by the way, we have to say thank you very much for that.

[2:52:25] Well, again, I mean, you know, we have to see how this goes and, you know, there are some

[2:52:31] other key things in the C position that are still there.

[2:52:33] So, you know, that's a possibility, but also, you can see, you know, how this discussion goes.

[2:52:42] Thank you.

[2:52:44] I just need to ask a clarifying question.

[2:52:49] When you talk about horizontal instruction, isn't it a different certification elementary

[2:52:55] in middle school?

[2:52:56] That's a great question.

[2:52:57] So certification in art is a K-12.

[2:53:00] It's also K-12 in physical education.

[2:53:03] In music certification is K-12, but specialty might be with advanced teachers' preparation

[2:53:11] should might be banned rather than overstroke or something like that, but they're K-12

[2:53:15] earthquake.

[2:53:16] And in the past, when I first moved to the district, we did have full-time art teachers

[2:53:22] in the elementary school.

[2:53:24] That was a decision made by this board in the past.

[2:53:28] Yeah, I do.

[2:53:29] Cup that.

[2:53:32] That's one of the casualties, if you will, declining enrollment and keeping it built at the

[2:53:44] I don't think so. I was here. So that's the section that they were teaching more

[2:53:49] less than one of my kids. And it was a hard work for me to make. That's why this decision

[2:53:55] is made to have in trouble because there's nobody wants teachers to travel. You have less kids.

[2:54:00] It's about the numbers of sections that you have in the school. So you have 30 sections which

[2:54:05] which is a lot.

[2:54:06] But if you have 26 sections, then a teacher is almost full for, you know, with six a day.

[2:54:12] As the sections got, you know, the declining enrollment cost fewer sections.

[2:54:18] And so if they were to say they were 18 sections in a building, that was the discussion back

[2:54:22] then.

[2:54:23] So, where are we?

[2:54:24] And the thought of utilizing that time with a full-time teacher in a different way was not

[2:54:31] really part of the discussion at that time.

[2:54:32] So the resolution was having people travel.

[2:54:35] And that was, I mean, if they truly were working

[2:54:38] or they had to say half of their sessions in this instance

[2:54:44] because we've automated the counts

[2:54:46] and we're creating these four new kinds of ecosystems

[2:54:49] and elementary schools, you know, there are 0.75.

[2:54:53] We would lose, you know, a third of the remaining quarter

[2:54:59] to travel.

[2:55:00] and that leaves the other two-thirds or less probably only

[2:55:06] usable 90% of that as the scheduling level rise.

[2:55:11] So I just think it's something that we probably

[2:55:14] own entry program.

[2:55:17] I appreciate everybody's discussion.

[2:55:21] I'm sorry to hand out this part.

[2:55:22] I appreciate everybody's discussion.

[2:55:25] Well, we have two remaining.

[2:55:27] Trustee Locke and Trustee Locke, hopefully anything on the art teacher?

[2:55:30] on

[2:55:33] the table.

[2:55:36] Yeah, I'm good and I'm just assuming that that's what our our professionals are

[2:55:41] recommending. I'll be fine with that. And I also would like to see within the existing budget.

[2:55:48] Right, so I have a clarifying question maybe this is the hour. I mean, I think it's a good idea,

[2:55:55] but of course, I'd like to keep with the budget. But right now, we budgeted for three

[2:56:02] These are teachers in for the elementary, Zekra, correct, we budgeted for three elementary

[2:56:07] teachers.

[2:56:08] Okay.

[2:56:09] And I understand we are purchasing in a sense of 0.1, but I think if we're going to add

[2:56:15] this 0.25, it really makes it for four teachers obviously, right?

[2:56:19] It would be an increase of one art teacher, which would make roundout that each building will

[2:56:24] have a full-time art teacher devoted to each building.

[2:56:26] Right, and how much would it cost to hire one part teacher?

[2:56:33] A master step three, our teacher is about $68,000 at benefits.

[2:56:39] You're about $90,000 with salaries and benefits.

[2:56:42] We have six contingency positions in the budget.

[2:56:45] No, no, no, no. We have six contingency positions at budget.

[2:56:48] I want to make clear it's not like we're finding money.

[2:56:51] We intentionally increase contingency because we have so much variability this year.

[2:56:54] We wanted funds for the task force to make recommendations as well as we want to have funds available for variances

[2:57:00] So as students move between buildings it may break sections and increase staffing

[2:57:03] So we do have some contingencies that we can hold on to for those reasons

[2:57:07] But there are some contingencies due to task or some poor recommendations. So

[2:57:12] Rounding the process was used to tell me it was about a hundred thousand you know hire a teacher correct give it that

[2:57:18] Yes, that's the easy math way. The easy math is a hundred thousand. Most people like you

[2:57:22] So 100,000 give a text for one teacher.

[2:57:27] So I'm not too sure if it equals to, you know, the point one

[2:57:30] for traveling.

[2:57:31] I mean, it's not merely a, you know, people talking that it's only

[2:57:35] at any point, whatever, because of the travel.

[2:57:38] So I don't know if the math really worked out that way.

[2:57:40] But having said all that, I'd be okay with the adding a full-time

[2:57:46] art teacher provided we don't increase the overall point.

[2:57:52] Typically, I think our budget, we have discontinuity costs and what you're saying is you put

[2:57:57] 6 in this one.

[2:57:58] In anticipation of having accessibility based on the task force, I think that's going

[2:58:03] to be something.

[2:58:03] That's more for grandations as well.

[2:58:04] Absolutely.

[2:58:05] I'm very interested.

[2:58:06] Okay.

[2:58:07] That's good to know.

[2:58:08] Thank you.

[2:58:09] Any other comments on the trustees on the budget?

[2:58:14] Just to give me.

[2:58:15] I mean, my question was like.

[2:58:17] Oh, it's fine.

[2:58:17] I just had a question about the UPK, you know, the universal pre-K.

[2:58:23] How many students do we typically turn away because of so lack of funding that we've had?

[2:58:31] Because what would be like, might be anywhere between 20 and 30 students?

[2:58:37] Okay, so we could obviously with this new funding, obviously, can't be used for anything else.

[2:58:43] We could obviously increase the program substantially and actually have money left over

[2:58:54] that we wouldn't even spend because the demand wouldn't be there.

[2:58:58] Potentially.

[2:58:59] I don't know how many community members may not apply for it, thinking it's only 20, you

[2:59:06] know 20 states, so it might be that more would apply knowing that we do have a lot more

[2:59:13] available, you know, the majority of people. Can you explain the process or what somebody

[2:59:20] goes through and how? Sure. There's an application process, which is going on right now.

[2:59:27] And so individuals have to meet the criteria, obviously being a resident, having a quarrel.

[2:59:33] And then what happens is we literally draw the name from those applications and notify

[2:59:40] individual and then we have our local child care preschool that they have a choice where

[2:59:51] they want to attend and so then we actually make those payments through the grants on

[2:59:57] a regular basis that the parents are only

[3:00:00] Honorable or transporting their children? So is there any way that we could with this increase in funding? Increase the program. You know, right now we contracted out to two different vendors. Is there any consideration? I know that we just got these numbers the other night. But was there any consideration or talk about increasing the program to capture more students? I don't know whether the program.

[3:00:28] and you know, you know, for the registration is underway.

[3:00:31] I don't know whether that went out in the little language.

[3:00:34] You know, is there any, was there any talk about maybe anything before?

[3:00:38] I think absolutely that we want to, you know, reach back out,

[3:00:41] because again, it's a process and the lack of funding that,

[3:00:46] you know, that we've had in a prior years has discouraged

[3:00:49] on people we certainly want to make them aware.

[3:00:51] And the other thing is, correct me if I'm wrong about the process.

[3:00:54] So this process, this application process, the financial need is not a consideration, correct?

[3:01:01] So it's strictly lottery, whereas now with this funding, you know, it can cover anybody,

[3:01:08] you know, any family that has a four-year-old.

[3:01:11] So we will be definitely, you know, again, once we get more information about it,

[3:01:17] and make sure that we're, you know, cross-conceiving dotting on it,

[3:01:21] certainly will be reaching out to the community and saying, hey, you know, we have this for you.

[3:01:25] Does it have to be a one-year use, but only one-year aid?

[3:01:29] So this is the recent information that's providing everything with this caveat that was shared with me

[3:01:34] is that the aid is tied in their belief to federal funds that had expansion of pre-tay to its

[3:01:41] estate. So there is a fear or concern or there's a warning that these funds may not be reoccurring,

[3:01:48] But that is not definitive and they just warned us on that that might be a potential to keep your eyes open to that

[3:01:53] So we obviously want to don't want to expand a program where it must be and then cut so utilizing our agencies

[3:02:00] It's a very good model that we're currently doing and in the language it states

[3:02:05] The funding is based on a full-day pre-kit doubles your funding so by logic we're assuming that they're

[3:02:12] They only fund a full day pre-k, so we may have higher enrollment with a full day pre-k.

[3:02:18] We're not sure if people may be more interested in a full day and half it wasn't sufficient

[3:02:22] for them.

[3:02:23] We may have less enrollment for the full day.

[3:02:25] So there's a lot of variables, but Dr. Bosch and I were literally texting within minutes

[3:02:29] of it coming out.

[3:02:30] And that was one of our topics.

[3:02:31] We've had a phone call already about it, and we were seeking about this very issue with

[3:02:35] how many kids we have that are left out.

[3:02:38] We may have more kids that we need.

[3:02:40] We don't want to lose the funding.

[3:02:41] because typically if you don't spend the funds often they reduce your funding

[3:02:44] allocation. So we're saying after the lottery can we go out and do some you know work to your

[3:02:49] door to door. So you know put the liars out mailings because the liars still happens.

[3:02:53] The lottery may mean everyone wins and if everyone wins we might let go but you don't want to have

[3:02:57] folks that weren't aware of their opportunity. So we want to do a lot of you know

[3:03:01] outreach to our community to let them know this opportunity but this is all brand new.

[3:03:05] So we both told each other we're going to get this week to figure out more information in facts

[3:03:09] and then we're going to do that work, you know, when we get that information.

[3:03:12] Excellent.

[3:03:13] Great.

[3:03:14] And then I'm going to try to take just to finish that part.

[3:03:16] How do we teach the preschools that we contract out?

[3:03:19] We used to do the only two that we're using?

[3:03:21] Yes, so there's an RFP process about the Washington Speed to that, really.

[3:03:25] There's actually three.

[3:03:26] We were projecting that two before this information came out.

[3:03:30] There are more requirements as far as our working in collaboration and monitoring curriculum,

[3:03:36] assessments and making visitation.

[3:03:40] So one of the things we were looking to do is streamline that because it is, you know,

[3:03:46] the process for working in partnership has increased over these last several years

[3:03:51] and what the state requires us to do.

[3:03:54] So that is definitely something we're going to obviously, you know, if we do get a number

[3:04:00] of students that and families that are interested in that amount that we have, we would have to

[3:04:05] I look to more partnerships.

[3:04:10] Yeah, my recollection is that it was a

[3:04:13] significantly larger task to go through it.

[3:04:16] And I believe in the beginning,

[3:04:17] it was additionally, it was income driven,

[3:04:19] but there was an income requirement in order to be

[3:04:22] so it's great to hear that that's not the key point.

[3:04:27] So anyone who can turn the air conditioning off?

[3:04:31] It's like a computer.

[3:04:32] I don't know what to do with it.

[3:04:32] It's like a computer.

[3:04:34] I don't know what to do with it.

[3:04:35] I don't know what to do with it.

[3:04:36] I'm sorry.

[3:04:36] I'm sorry, I'm okay, so I just want to ask you a question.

[3:04:40] I just want to ask one other question for summer school,

[3:04:44] which is obviously, you know, increased dramatically by, you know, 41%

[3:04:49] and last year, obviously for all the right reasons.

[3:04:53] So I just wanted to know the type of all the instructional models that I'm sure

[3:04:58] will be in place for summer school are there supports in place to catch students

[3:05:05] for helping with navigating through social emotional issues that our students might need.

[3:05:14] That extra support for in this 41.7% for the just programming.

[3:05:24] So that for summer school has really been, you know, has really been about programming.

[3:05:31] Is there any room for us to have more support, more counselors involved in our summer school

[3:05:42] program, or social worker?

[3:05:45] Well, one of the things that we can, and we have to really consider that, you know,

[3:05:51] one of the difficulties with that is our, you know, some of our students, the way that

[3:05:56] we're looking at the program, some of them may be coming on campus, some may do it virtually.

[3:06:04] It's really establishing those connections and those routines for those types of interactions

[3:06:09] to happen. It's certainly something you can explore. Knowing that now we have some more funding,

[3:06:18] that could be something that we could look into.

[3:06:23] All right, and then I did have a question about the social work services in regular school

[3:06:29] as I did lines 2, 8, 2, 5, it's decreasing and is that due to a vacancy?

[3:06:36] I wasn't sure, I have it in my notes as a vacancy, but it looks like it's decreasing from last year.

[3:06:44] Yes, there is a vacancy in there, so it is the reduction due to a more highly compensated

[3:06:50] in an employee being replaced by a master step three place hole.

[3:06:53] So it's not a reduction in FPD?

[3:06:55] It's not a reduction.

[3:06:56] Would we consider, you know, because we are saving a certain percentage?

[3:07:03] Would we consider it supplementing the social work in the regular school social work services

[3:07:15] overall?

[3:07:15] So you're suggesting adding a social worker?

[3:07:17] Well, if we're saving, right, you know, which we obviously are, if we're saving, it looks like almost

[3:07:24] $50,000, would there be any consideration of hiring the part-time social worker that with that state?

[3:07:37] Sure.

[3:07:38] The savings have been realized within the budget.

[3:07:42] So just from a budgetary perspective that has already been captured in the budget.

[3:07:48] And again, we've been talking about contingencies and positions.

[3:07:53] Mr. Badanak, we want to talk about our social work, but we have added, we recently added

[3:08:00] a social worker position, Ms. Coleman and that position.

[3:08:08] So, we have looked at that and addressed a need from a couple of years ago, but certainly

[3:08:16] or something that can be stressed?

[3:08:21] Currently we have seven social workers.

[3:08:25] We have two in each middle school.

[3:08:32] So we have two in the high school.

[3:08:34] We have the Drug and Alcohol, the SCL, which is this Coleman.

[3:08:38] We also have one in each middle school as well as a social worker

[3:08:44] over in the Port Academy.

[3:08:47] That's our current social worker.

[3:08:51] And they're also kind

[3:09:02] of ducked hell off of what trusty MacNaughton said about the transportation.

[3:09:08] And what Mr. Howard was saying, I'm sorry, so sorry, Mr. Howard was saying about reconfiguring

[3:09:17] our transportation and the critical math, I forget the slide it was for the buses.

[3:09:23] And would we be able to come up with some sort of forecast that if we were to provide universal

[3:09:30] busing, would that make more or better uses of our bus time or not?

[3:09:38] So yeah, we can do various analysis, our transportation software allows for that.

[3:09:42] Just off the top of my head, the universal bus will come with a significant cost.

[3:09:47] The kindergarten change may or may not have a positive impact and we'll definitely look

[3:09:52] at that.

[3:09:52] Just anecdotally in top of my head is that being the elementary is the critical tier and

[3:09:56] we were bringing up the other buildings closer to that 34 buses.

[3:10:00] Having less students eligible in the elementary might drop the critical tear down to 33 or 32,

[3:10:05] which makes the high school and the middle school might become the critical tear.

[3:10:09] So we might lose some of that potential savings.

[3:10:11] So if it gets, we can only cut one bus at the beneficial, we cut more than one bus than it

[3:10:15] hurts.

[3:10:16] So we can just see the financial impact of it and we'll see from the kindergarten perspective what

[3:10:21] they change.

[3:10:21] But universal busing will likely be significantly costly.

[3:10:25] And we might want to modify our bell times to be able to reduce those costs, which would be a large structural change.

[3:10:31] But that's something we can look into at the board in some time.

[3:10:34] I don't

[3:10:39] know if it's something we could do legal if we have to have a proposition.

[3:10:42] Are parents allowed to pop that?

[3:10:45] So just make believe I still have kids in the high school.

[3:10:48] If I just say, hey, I don't want the bus to come down, my blog can't go up.

[3:10:52] And I'll lock down.

[3:10:53] I'll take all the risk for it.

[3:10:58] So a parent always has a right for the child not to ride the bus, but the parent has the right to always change that decision.

[3:11:06] So, or building transportation is challenging to, if that is non-binding, to reduce the capacity of transportation because a child may not ride the bus, if that decision is changed, it will require us to now add capacity at that point in time.

[3:11:22] So I'm saying, can I put it, can I be fine?

[3:11:24] Can I have parents say, hey, I'm not all the right,

[3:11:27] I'll write whatever contact you want.

[3:11:29] My kid, I'll take care of my child getting to school.

[3:11:33] I'm not going to take the bus for the whole year.

[3:11:35] Is that something that a school district can do?

[3:11:38] We can ask our position by board policy or whatever.

[3:11:41] We can ask legal if that is a possibility

[3:11:43] as my understanding that the right of transportation

[3:11:46] is set forth by the propositional of the voters

[3:11:49] and that a parent has that right and all kinds based on the voter proposition,

[3:11:54] but we can ask if that could be some sort of contract with the parent if they choose not to have transportation.

[3:12:01] At that point, we would then not schedule that capacity for a bus.

[3:12:05] I think it's important to note that when we plan bus routes,

[3:12:10] we plan based on experience based on the data that we have in past years.

[3:12:17] We need to plan at a capacity that is greater than we know that is going to fill those buses.

[3:12:24] That's correct, especially the high school.

[3:12:26] So high school buses have 70 to 80 kids to get rid of it.

[3:12:29] There's only 44 people to seek faster.

[3:12:32] Our high schools really never ride the bus or rarely ride the bus.

[3:12:35] We have buses very rarely.

[3:12:37] So we do factor in for cost reasons to be more cost-effective, but I'm curious if parents are

[3:12:45] hopping out.

[3:12:46] We might already have factored in a lot of savings or efficiencies through what Ms. Vanis is mentioning over

[3:12:52] Loading the actual on paper ridership, then the actual actual ridership

[3:12:58] Thank you. Do you have more questions? I just had one last question

[3:13:03] So I just wanted to

[3:13:06] You know when we're looking at the operation of plan overall there's an overall increase of 4.7

[3:13:15] I just have a hard time with that number knowing that overall we're closing two buildings.

[3:13:22] So I understand that we still have to maintain the buildings and, you know, that's important.

[3:13:28] But I just, I guess it's hard for me to reconcile the operation as a plan going off by 4.75%

[3:13:35] and we're not utilizing two of the buildings overall.

[3:13:40] Sure, a large portion of that increase is due to the $168,000 of COVID related expenditures.

[3:13:47] So we have two replacement cycles for every one of our HIPAA filtration systems.

[3:13:52] We have additional replacement PPE throughout the year, we have hand sanitizer replacements.

[3:13:59] So we have a majority of that increase is due to the COVID costs of operating next

[3:14:06] So that's not part of the $1.9 million as a contingent.

[3:14:11] Yes, the $1.9 million is covering the staffing costs.

[3:14:14] For example, the building principal, security, the greeders,

[3:14:18] clerical staff, all the staff that the buildings were being closed

[3:14:21] to be turned back on basically.

[3:14:23] But we do have funds on the budget for the PPE needs,

[3:14:27] separate and apart from that.

[3:14:29] Okay, so then my next question does kill on this.

[3:14:32] It's not really a budget question,

[3:14:34] but more of, you know, for COVID, if we could get an idea of Superintendent Banser about

[3:14:41] the community spread versus the spread in schools, you know, maybe for, because I know the CDC has

[3:14:50] changed guidelines, but we don't operate on the CDC guidelines. And I know that in our district,

[3:14:57] There are cases in the high school that's floating.

[3:15:00] So they just great, just to get an idea for the contingency for COVID, you know, for next year, if the numbers reflect anything this year. And that's it. I think trust you, the cochlea, you had some questions.

[3:15:22] Larry,

[3:15:48] We're not currently paying for any services for Gotham, but it's currently.

[3:15:53] They're done, I said this year.

[3:15:57] You know who one of the tax payers is one, that's a one.

[3:16:02] In fact, there's basically on cost, but there's no monthly retainer.

[3:16:09] Thank you.

[3:16:12] Larry, you will back from.

[3:16:15] Yeah, I had a good drink.

[3:16:17] Trustee Locoplia, what would you like that?

[3:16:21] What's the, what's the question?

[3:16:23] I didn't hear you.

[3:16:24] Oh, do you have any questions?

[3:16:28] No, I do not.

[3:16:31] All right, Trustee Locoplia.

[3:16:37] Any

[3:16:40] other suggestions on the budget?

[3:16:43] It has a standard addition to subtraction, it's common.

[3:16:55] So that, so from what I understand,

[3:16:58] just to wrap it up before we go out of it for me,

[3:17:00] ho, we had a couple suggestions.

[3:17:03] One was to have a full-time fifth grade counselor

[3:17:08] for both East North Port and North Port Middle School,

[3:17:12] but it's gonna be, that would be from the contingency

[3:17:18] and also to have four full-time art teachers again from the

[3:17:22] contingency so that the budget is still remaining at 1.7.4.7.4.7.4.8.

[3:17:28] Is that right?

[3:17:30] Right.

[3:17:31] Thank you.

[3:17:32] Just double check it.

[3:17:33] So now we go out of the committee of all and we need a motion.

[3:17:36] I believe to go into a special meeting.

[3:17:38] Is that right?

[3:17:39] The speaker?

[3:17:41] That's us here.

[3:17:50] Thanks.

[3:17:52] So I have a motion for the new to approve the secret resolution.

[3:17:58] We don't have to read it, correct?

[3:18:00] I'll second that.

[3:18:02] Any discussion on secret?

[3:18:07] Trustee Lockerner with Coakley on item 8?

[3:18:11] They're voting yes.

[3:18:12] They're voting yes already.

[3:18:14] They thought you were calling.

[3:18:15] All right, all those in favor?

[3:18:18] Hi.

[3:18:19] Hi.

[3:18:19] So

[3:18:23] now we have item nine, which I do know we do have to read. So I'll, oh, we need a motion first to

[3:18:33] prove both nine and one and nine or two.

[3:18:38] I'll second that and we have to read that right.

[3:18:45] Well, you have to read number one.

[3:18:47] The result of the Board of Education shall be presented qualified voters of the Northport East Northport Union Free School District at a special meeting.

[3:18:57] to be held on May 18th, 2021.

[3:19:00] The following proposition as proposition number one,

[3:19:04] resolve at the annual school district budget

[3:19:06] for the 2021-2022 school year

[3:19:09] in the amount of 174,000, I'm sorry,

[3:19:14] 174 million, sorry, 700, 4000, 748,000,

[3:19:19] and the necessary taxes, therefore, be approved.

[3:19:24] But we don't have to be number two, right?

[3:19:26] that was previously posted.

[3:19:31] So we already talked about it, but any other questions on 9.01 and 9.02.

[3:19:38] Hearing none, all those in favor?

[3:19:41] Aye.

[3:19:42] Thank you.

[3:19:43] Two with two eyes on their passes.

[3:19:45] No, please.

[3:19:47] I'm going to make a motion to extend the meeting.

[3:19:49] It

[3:19:52] has to be done.

[3:19:53] I mean, the second, all those in favor to extend?

[3:19:57] Aye.

[3:19:58] Aye.

[3:19:58] We already did 10, we already did 11.

[3:20:15] That's very information-only.

[3:20:19] So, new business, we have the upcoming meetings

[3:20:21] and there are plenty of them.

[3:20:22] So, we have April 13th meeting for the board

[3:20:26] to receive the educational impact statement

[3:20:28] from the School of Closure Advisory Task Force.

[3:20:31] That would be here.

[3:20:33] And then April 27th, special meetings about

[3:20:35] embossed administrative budget and transfer

[3:20:37] and the public hearings on the educational impact statement.

[3:20:41] April 29th is a special meeting to render a determination on the proposed

[3:20:45] school building closing. May 9th is a public hearing and a finalized budget. May 18th

[3:20:53] is the vote on the budget vote and the election of trustees and May 18th is a special

[3:20:59] meeting to step voting in terms. I make a motion to adjourn. I need a second.

[3:21:05] A lot of people put out for it.

[3:21:06] All those in favor.

[3:21:08] Hi.

[3:21:09] On a pleasant evening, everybody.

[3:21:11] It's very weekend.

Northport-East Northport Union Free School District, NY meeting

Transcript