Board of Education, Regular Meeting

1. 5:33Thank you all for being here. I'd like to call the meeting to order and ask everybody please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Leslie, roll call, please. Mark DePace. Here. Amanda Grubler. Here. Kirsten Gustafson. Here. Diana Howard. Here. Matthew Maccarone. Here. Maureen Sheridan. Here. Mike Sibella. Here. Lebona Prova. Here. And like to make a motion to accept the agenda as presented. Second. All in favor? Uh brings us to budget workshop number three. I wanted to begin tonight by reiterating
2. 6:58a few things. Um first, this has been uh a long journey for just really what is four short months when we started in January. And having hard discussions around what we believed to budgetary forecast to be. And um I know because we're at a point now where very difficult decisions are having to be made, I just wanted to remind I know more people are paying attention. I want to rewind and just go back to how we arrived here today. We all know it doesn't matter our line of work, health care has significantly and precipitous ly increased, no matter where you stand. And the district has year-over-year um encountered some amazingly high increases in both health care health care costs as well as our pharmaceuticals. I think I mentioned at the last meeting, we just had an adjustment sent to us by our carrier of $900,000
3. 8:01just for our pharmaceuticals. In addition to that, state aid has remained flat, even though we know all expenses, not just salaries and benefits, but all expenses, electricity and fuel, >> have that additional expense, that
4. 9:56additional teacher, that additional custodian in the next year's budget without it have been accommodated for. And if you do that a few times, you obviously you eat up cuz it's not uncommon. Districts utilize their unassigned fund balance quite frequently. Maybe not a lot of it, but some of it or from their reserves. And the idea is you're fiscally conservative. You've over budgeted to some extent in in the places where you might need it like uh in employee benefits. And at the end of the year, you have money left over that goes back into your unassigned fund balance. And when we finished last year, we finished with $200,000 left. It's a lot lower than what ordinarily be, but that's the that's the actualization of having more expenses than what we have budgeted for, right? And last year um as um as they were preparing the budget for this year, they saw the shortfall. They saw the financial shortfall.
5. 11:00And in the end, the board uh made the decision uh not necessarily a bad one to allocate almost $3,000,000 from our bank account to balance this year's budget, our expenses and our revenues. So, we kind of pushed off what happened last year was happening last year off into this year. $3,000,000 from our bank account that very likely will be gone by the end of this year because we're having to accommodate for some expenses that were not accounted for. As we go into this budget, when we spoke to the board at the last meeting, uh we've mentioned a few times about the differences between our revenue, which is our income, like a household income. We know what that fixed amount basically is. The state has remained almost flat. We have a few other uh income lines, ancillary income that we receive from various sources, and then we have tax revenue that can be generated by the tax levy.
6. 12:03Our levy this year is 5.8%, which will generate about 1.5, 1.6 million dollars in additional dollars if we went to 5.8. On top of that, to meet the uh expenses as we described last time, 63,100 or so thousand, the board tasked us with reducing that by about $4,000,000, trying to get down to $59,000,000. We've worked very, very hard and looked at every area in our district to achieve that task. But what I want to make clear is that even with that $4,000,000 reduction and expense at about 59 $59,000,000, even if you go out at 5.8%, the school board will have to dedicate about $2,300,000 of our savings to bridge the gap.
7. 13:09The reason I say all of this is there are some things that we discovered that are windfalls, transportation. By making that small change that the board authorized at the last meeting and changing how we're going to route next year, saved us almost $900,000. That's a windfall at no expense to the human beings that work here. But we know that there's still $3,100,000 and a lot of very difficult discussions have been had with colleagues in the district about the possibilities of what will be discussed as part of this budget process. But our household budget >> [clears throat] >> is really only 56.7 million and we're going to spend 59 million next year. I just want to let that sink in because if we are fortunate to find other revenue sources
8. 14:14that we are still dedicating $2,300,000 of our balance next year's budget. And we only have so much in savings. We we you might have the possibility to do that two more times before there were no more unassigned fund balance and your reserves would be depleted. So, very difficult place to be in because this isn't a choice of if, it's a choice of how we find a way to reach fiscal health and viability. This district deserves to continue to thrive at its 100 plus years of history and this hurts. I'll acknowledge it right up front. Because this isn't this isn't how we want to project ourselves and it isn't what we want to face. Um so, we're going to present to you
9. 15:18about $4,000,000 in reductions from various uh parts of the district and I'm not exaggerating when I said we looked at every area and every area is helping to balance this. Good evening. This is our agenda for tonight and these are the items that we will be presenting to you this evening. So, the Hudson City School District proposed budget and revenue plan is grounded in three core pillars. Focus on stability is achieved through
10. 16:22the careful alignment of resources to student needs, the maintenance of staffing, and ensuring classrooms are equipped to create dependable and supportive learning environments. Our work to strengthen the organization is carried out through the ongoing review and refinement of operations, improving systems and processes, and using data to enhance instructional quality and increase efficiencies. Long-term sustainability is supported through intentional multi-year planning and responsible financial management, and proactive decision-making, and safeguarding our fiscal health. These commitments have guided our work and reinforced the mission centered on delivering educational excellence for every student in the Hudson City School District. This is our proposed revenue plan.
11. 17:36As you can see in the column highlighted in blue for our 26-27 proposed tax levy at 5.8%, which is our tax cap. Our projected state aid at 26,974,066 dollars. We've talked about our other revenue sources as utility tax, reimbursements, and miscellaneous revenue, rents, tuition, and pilots. At this time, our assigned fund balance is $1,789,000 of used assigned fund balance to create and generate this type of revenue. And also the planned use of reserves of $531,279. Altogether, this totals a um revenue of $59,071,704. And an increase of 0.9%
12. 18:47from the budget from the previous 25-26 budget. So, our budget position after this revenue strategy, our initial proposed expenditures based on our current programming and the increases that we have um proposed for this year was $63,000,000, 63,100,047 dollars. Our expected revenue based on our revenue plan that you just saw is $59,071,704. And this creates a gap between the revenue and the expenditures that needs to be balanced of $4,028,304. I'm sorry, $343,000.
13. 19:50And that's the work that we need to balance the budget. The revenue needs to match and balance with the expenditures. >> [clears throat] >> People have asked how do you possibly tackle $4 million? I mean, everybody ask anybody, everybody has an opinion, right? You need to get rid of that, you need to go after this, you need to get rid of that person. I've never really liked that person. The whole idea is to try and preserve what's in the center. To protect instruction in the center. And and have that be our our sacred ground, right? To be able to deliver the program that we've always wanted to deliver for our children, what they deserve, and what the taxpayers expect us to do. So, we usually try and start from the outside, what's the lowest hanging fruit, um that may have the least impact on our employees, and work our way
14. 20:52toward the center. Trying to prevent um as much exposure to instruction in the classroom as we can. And in considering how we might do this, we broke it down into buckets essentially, which is what are some of the highest impact financial savings that we can perhaps wrap our arms around. And BOCES, and as you've you've heard me say before, the good thing about BOCES services is that in most cases, we're being reimbursed for those services in the following year. Hudson has a crazy low return percentage of 36%. It is the lowest in New York State among others. There are some other schools who have this as well, but I believe it has something to do with the wealth wealth ratio of some of our residents. But I neither here nor there, what I'm telling you is for every $100 that we spend with BOCES, we get $36 back in the following year.
15. 21:55That counts as revenue in the following year. So, sometimes these BOCES investments are very important. Program consolidation, staffing reductions. Those are the three biggest buckets because they pertain usually to staff and benefits or contracts with various persons or or companies. And then below that, attrition. That means retirement. And either we are filling those vacancies or maybe we fill them with employees whose salaries are lower, and we have breakage. Software and contract reductions and operational efficiencies, which can be great, um as I mentioned with our transportation services. That is usually low to moderate, and it's turning out to be a very high return for us. You will hear me conscientiously avoid the names of employees, our colleagues. We've spent the last three weeks having very difficult conversations with
16. 22:56people, just letting them know that we'd be having discussions around areas that affect their position. So, it's important to know that that is the case. And and throughout my discussion tonight, I will try and remain focused on programs, reductions, expenditures. And you to the best of our ability, I would I'd be very appreciative if we didn't say any person's name, because this is as emotional as it gets. We are blessed here with an IT department that actually delivers on its promise. I can tell you from my first minute in this district, I had the equipment that I needed, and they've attended to the needs of me and my department and this district exemplary.
17. 23:58The current expense, um and I forgot to mention, when I mention any expense that has anything to do with the salary, we have to remember that salary is not just salary. Salary is health insurance, it's retirement contributions the district must do. It is social security. There are multiple layers, so if I made $100 here, the district might have to pay an additional 35, $40 for every hundred that I make in you know, some circumstances. So, please know, you're going to see some numbers, you might be able to say, "Oh, that's one person or that's two people. How can it be so high?" It is inclusive of everything. Just as a quick reminder, a family health insurance plan is as expensive as expensive as $36,000 here. So, that is included when you see some of these numbers. So, when I say 647, that is inclusive of everything, including BOCES contract for a portion of it. If we moved some of our IT services over
18. 25:01to BOCES, we believe we'd see an immediate savings of $235,000, a reduction to $412,000 for next year, and a good portion of that will be aidable in the following year. I mentioned to you 36% BOCES aid ratio. The one hiccup is if it's a salary, they have a little bit different aid ratio. And interestingly, for the first time in more than 30 years, New York State is raising the salary cap for BOCES employees. So, if you happen to have a BOCES employee here. So, you can see in 2027-28 and the following year and the following year, our reimbursement is going up because that cap is actually going up. It's $40,000 next year, 50 in the following year, and 60 in the third. So, if someone made 100,000, we would only get a reimbursement of 36% on 60,000 of it.
19. 26:02And these are very conservative estimates. I believe that we will actually potentially have a better return um in our investment with BOCES. And we would have some of our own personnel still here to, you know, create that connection with Hudson. On the bottom, you see uh student tutoring. This program, I think, has been here for more than three decades. Very long-standing tradition here. Students who are out on tutoring most frequently for disciplinary issues, there could be other reasons. We've been transporting them to school in the morning, have some retired staff work with them for four or five hours, and then we send a special bus home in the afternoon. The transportation component of that costs about $70,000, and the staffing about $60,000. So, 130,000, almost $131,000 expense for that tutoring center. We're proposing that we move our
20. 27:05tutoring to BOCES. They actually offer a 3-hour virtual tutoring with a real human being at the other end. They would be working on the content that our staff provide, and there would not be a transportation component, and we would not be transporting students who are in trouble for various things back to the school in which they got in trouble. So, we're thinking that was a nice marriage. In the first year alone, $102,000 savings, and then we would be generating aid in every future year. So, you see I added another 10,000 dollars and change to that in the following year. So, the total savings in this BOCES aidable student 337,586. Do you have any questions about this? As far as the going virtual, if we move that to um [clears throat] BOCES,
21. 28:07how effective is the virtual going to be as opposed to in person? Great question. I think all tutoring is as effective as the student wants it to be. Doesn't matter whether it's in person or virtual. But what I will do, Mike, before we come to our next meeting is I will I I what I don't have is the names of our other sister school districts that are using the service right now. I think knowing their experience and and who they are is relevant. All right, this the reason I asked that is because I hear a lot that when we were in COVID, students suffered by only doing virtual. So, I'm just wondering how much are they going to be set be behind by doing that? It definitely has a potential, but as I said, it really is if the student wants to do the work, they'll do it in person or they'll do it virtually. Okay. It is sometimes easier when you can Yeah, be in their proximity. And is it possible to if they were in that
22. 29:10situation, and we kept the programs here in school, but the parent was to provide transportation? You identified probably the other Achilles heel of that, and I I constantly talk about equity in this district with our 66% poverty rate. I I would be worried that we would be removing access for families who maybe didn't have the transportation to do that. Okay. Which is probably why the district has always provided it. Okay. Um couple of things. First of all, I want to remind us that Mike did mention the fact that maybe possibly we could buy a small van and have um transportation to Can you move your mic closer, please, Diane? Thank you. Um Mike had mentioned previously about buying a van so that we could have our own transportation. Uh I just want to remind us that wasn't my question, but since you said that, um maybe it's possible that we have a a larger van. It would require somebody with a CDL, but we'd have a smaller transportation vehicle of our own. Uh
23. 30:13but my two questions about the virtual learning is how will it affect the parents now that the child has to um have a location for tutoring if they don't have the internet available at home. Um and if they are we going to provide one of those um jump boxes at home for the kid that's on tutoring? The Verizon >> The hotspot? Yeah, we've been Computers have Yeah. We were we've been fortunate through the digital promise program. All of the Chromebooks that our students have are cell enabled. They have Wi-Fi on them constantly. Okay, so then the parents would have to stay home. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, but we have an elementary What was that, Cheryl? She was just clarifying elementary versus >> Elementary has hotspots. Yeah. That they can borrow. Okay. But only junior and senior high students access this. All right, so now the kids are going to be at home and the parents are going to have to have the kids supervised at home. They won't have They're suspended, though. Mhm. They are suspended. So they're going to
24. 31:15be have to be supervised anyway, whether they're at the tutoring center or not. I am all in for doing anything that will help children be improve their behavior. And if their parents have to be home to supervise them and it's an inconvenience, I sometimes think that that is also helpful in having kids be >> If they decide to supervise their children, you know, there's there's that. Yeah, again, I agree. Those were my two questions. I would just hate to go all virtual and then see that it's not working and then how do you step back from that if we've already eliminated the whole program? Just trying to get to $4 million. And trying to keep our teachers in their classroom. That's really the balance. So I and I there's a lot of good arguments for it. I agree both with Mike too about in in person versus versus virtual. We would all argue that the potentiality of in person is going to be higher, no
25. 32:17question. Well, how many how many students per day are we talking about that uh are assigned to these tutoring services? The real kids that are being tutored is probably between two and five at at at most because you're you're talking about students who have been excluded from school, which is the most severe, you know, disciplinary event. Um But I could also get the number of like frequency for the year and see what that looks like. Can you go back to slide four just for one sec and remind me why there's a decrease in the revenue from the like reimbursements and miscellaneous? Yeah. Where it's we've got like about half a million less there. Yeah. So um as you know, the budget has been rolled
26. 33:20continuously and in that line there was a reimbursement that we had received, but it was a one-time reimbursement, but it was um still included in the past several um budgets as a revenue source, but we had already received it um a couple years ago. So yes, that's why there's a decrease in that line. Thank you. I have a question about moving our uh technology department services to BOCES. Will we have the same level of or a similar level of service to support our classrooms where students are dependent on on computers for a lot of their activity? We're proposing within that um a reduction of one computer tech. Uh the we'd still have two computer technicians and the network administrator who's on site every day. And um the one addition that we've discussed, which our own staff have been handling, is a virtual help desk.
27. 34:23In other words, when people call or they um use the ticket system, our own staff have been responding to it. Um that as part of the BOCES service, they have a ticketing system where they would answer the phone, they would accept, and they would try and be like the first line of defense. So the idea is to try and lessen the impact on the people who are on the ground, you know, actually going on site to try and correct things. Thank you. Uh going back to um eventually going to BOCES for some uh actually let me take that back. The uh contract services. Does BOCES offer a wide range of different services that we can utilize? How wide? Mhm. [laughter] Well, for instance, right now we are using a platform for our um treasurer. Does BOCES offer a treasurer where we can utilize that service and still get a kickback at the end of the year? They may.
28. 35:26Um they actually probably Our BOCES is one of the stronger Every BOCES has like a specialty. Theirs is state aid planning. So they have a pretty strong uh business office support. I don't know if they offer treasurer specifically, but they very well may. I mean, we are using quite a few outside contractors, correct? Yeah, just one. Just the one? Not for any other departments or anything? Or any other avenues? That's a pretty broad question. We have construction um That that we're using through private firms that we could maybe utilize through BOCES services. >> Um It's the first question we ask ourselves. To be quite honest, cuz you're you're exactly right. Is is there a way to um like we struggle constantly with some of our service providers for students with disabilities. BOCES, in a perfect world, would have the people to do it, but they don't, and
29. 36:27we're forced to go to private providers to do that, but it is the first thing that we ask really because it's an easy way to um create revenue in the following year. There are some exceptions to that it's worth noting. So BOCES is a service, but it's a service that has their own administrative fees. They have like when we buy software through them, we do get aid back, but they charge a percentage on top of it in order to forget aid. And you know, one of the things that Cheryl has done is gone through every single piece of software we own or we're using and asked the vendor and asked NERIC or BOCES who is going to give us the better price and with with the aid, you know, considering the aid. And it's sometimes a split difference. There's a handful that we go right for the vendor because the administrative costs would be make it higher and more costly than just going to the vendor itself. So and that's true of some services, too. There's a premium, you know, they
30. 37:30they charge a premium. It's not if they're paying someone 60,000, they charge us 60. They charge us administrative fees and benefits and everything. So it's a $100,000 person instead of 60. So But so we're always weighing that in the balance. So sometimes you do make the choice to not go with them because it has all the ancillary cost. Okay. Thank you. Anything else on this slide? Talking about um >> [clears throat] >> program reductions, um we were considering uh reducing an elective at the junior high school, which we already know uh electives are somewhat problematic at the junior high. Our hope is that we do a better job of u- utilizing the fact that we're attached to another building that has access to various uh special areas that students still have access and opportunity.
31. 38:32Um we've had AVID for quite a few years and we have this partnership with AVID and it's a significant investment just for using their name and their materials. And we've been doing it for I think nine or 10 years. What we're going to ask our staff to do is let's do this important work, this important um uh organizational skills, the self-regulatory skills. Let's make it Hudson's and not have to pay them anymore. So that's what that $14,000 is. Um the SEL program reduction specifically refers to our restorative practices. Um a reduction in staff there. And instructional support is a teaching assistant position. Um that happens to be currently vacant. So there's not anybody working in that position right now. Uh that slide is a total savings of $233,000. Uh I have a question. Um could you
32. 39:36remind me what SEL is? So sorry. Uh social emotional learning. When I practice that, I use those words in my head. I I mentioned we're looking at every area of the district. Uh, there will be a reduction in administrative position at the central office. Uh, reduction in billing administration, which is somewhat complex. Um, a reduction may require some consolidation, and we need the state's permission to do some consolidation. Um,
33. 40:3714 teachers or student support within number. There are three classroom teachers. Um, and a lot of student support. So, in looking at this, um, the results of of doing something like this, it means increased sizes in our AIS, our academic intervention support classes. It may means adjusting case loads when we're doing, um, servicing students through social work or through speech. It may require us to reconsider the services we're providing, um, as student evaluation through psychology. And, um, we have, um, asked to move our
34. 41:40instructional coaches back into the classroom because it doesn't make sense to lose our instructional folks and and still sustain those at this time. The one exception is the the, um, digital promise grant requires that we may continue to maintain one coach in that program. So, we'll still have one instructional coach. What we know is that we have a very needy student population. I no one's going to argue that. We look at our test score results, our poverty, our graduation rate. What this basically is saying is that we we go from what has been helpful and we have enjoyed having, um, the additional resources at our disposal and our kids have likely benefited from that.
35. 42:43We are in a position where we have to move more toward the area of compliance and mandate, which also does not feel good. Cuz again, we want what's best for the kids in our care. And I'll show you a a projection of class size K through 8 on the next slide so you can see what that would have at least at the classroom level. Um, 15 aids represents both part-time and full-time staff that help in every corner of the district. You see them outside on the curb, you see them in the lunch room, you see them on the playground. You see them helping students on and off the bus. Um, one clerical staff member, and, um, one custodian position that is currently vacant, um, and and some equipment costs added to that
36. 43:46for a total of $2.4 million and more than that. Questions about this side? Oh, I have a question. Um, how is there going to be extra support for the teachers who now have a bigger class size? It depends. I mean, if it's a We have in the early grades, we have aids in the classrooms for K1 and 2 for a portion of the day, not the whole day. But, as a general rule, there is an additional support in the classroom. Well, I have one more question. Like, >> Yeah. if you're getting rid of like 15 aids, like how are you going to replace the responsibility all those aids are doing? Great question. >> [applause and cheering] [laughter]
37. 44:46>> Yeah. It's not an if, it's a how. Um, so we really do have to look at every corner. If if we I'm trying to think how to answer you, Labana, without like identifying areas or people. But, um, we need to provide uh, aids to students who have it designated in their IEPs, their individual education plans. Um, or classrooms that have them designated as part of the committee on special education. And we need to provide them contractually to teachers in grades K1 and 2. And what we absolutely have to do is think of what Those are the focused areas. Those areas mandate, required, and we have to consider everything else. If it's not this, then it's something
38. 45:49else. It's the horrible balance, and I'm I'm well aware of the that number represents 15 human beings. Maureen? Um, I have a question about the, um, like the psychologists in the, um, speech and language pathology and special education. So, we're cur- currently right now, this is the middle of IEP writing meetings, um, and all of those decisions, many of those decisions about services and how much, you know, each student is getting have been decided already. So, I'm just concerned about the impact on all on all of that. Um, and also I have a question about, um, some of I believe it's at the elementary, there's a Well, I shouldn't say that. I'm sorry. Um, but there are, um, speech and language pathologists, >> [clears throat]
39. 46:49>> excuse me, um, do, um, um, they bill Medicaid, which is an income as well. And also, um, and I'm wanted to know if you could elaborate a little bit on how the impact on the preschool, um, evaluation, um, site, and how that those cuts will impact that, which could be a huge revenue >> I'm going to answer the last one first cuz I remember what it is. >> Okay. Uh, we are going through the process of partnership with the county for, um, don't help me. It'll come to me in a second. Um, you know, CSE is committee on special education. CPSE is committee on preschool education. It's for students that are essentially entering pre-K. So, they're just becoming age eligible. And as is true, I think, everywhere in the state, schools are beholden to wait for the county to do the initial evaluation. I don't know why that's the
40. 47:50model. Unless they are an approved site. The benefits of becoming an approved site, um, is that our kids get evaluated. I can tell you in Albany County that just it, you know, get pushed off and didn't happen cuz they did not have the staff to do it. Um, the benefit of having your own is our students have access to it, and the county reimburses us for a portion of that. And the third benefit is we have the ability to generate revenue because if we take other students from other districts as a county assessment, you know, we can bill the county for that. It's not hundreds of thousand dollars, but it's good cuz our kids get the services they need. We're going through that process right now, and we're asking the hard questions of them of what what our requirements are for staffing levels to make sure that we don't endanger that partnership. Uh, I envision that as far as, um, what it would look like with the, um,
41. 48:54in practice, what it would look like for our service providers is we would be having the maximum number of students in a group. If it if the state guideline is five, we should have three, four, or five. We can't have groups of one or one, two, or three. Um, that, um, we are offering some services in addition to what is mandated, which I'm I'm not going to say I'm I can't say it's not going to be a loss to not have for all students to have access to certain programs. Uh, but they're not mandated right now. And when we have to be thinking what is the thing that we need to meet our requirements and keep the doors open as a part of it. I'm not saying that's a good choice cuz if you said you can have the mandate and you can have another program that maybe helps a much broader segment of the community um pushing in the classrooms or teaching a specialized program that's that's what I want. That's the
42. 49:58benefit I would want for my own children. But it may not be practicable. And your first question Remember your first question? My first question I don't remember. >> [laughter] >> I think it's something about like speech pathologists and >> Oh, um bilingual speech pathology Right. >> And also the fact that IEPs they're right in and billing billing Medicaid. >> Billing Medicaid. >> So um and and do you Go ahead. No, I was just going to say that you're exactly right. It's a revenue generating opportunity um for not just their speech language pathologists or social workers and other staff are able to do that as well. Is they can still bill for four students as they can for two. I mean if they're in the same group. And I am oversimplifying it by a long shot because it's not just pulling four kids randomly. It's the complexities of the schedule in the elementary, junior, and senior high. There are so many layers. It's not
43. 51:00interfering with other services that students have. It's not simple and I'm I'm not pretending that it is. So there are a lot of moving pieces for us to consider that have to be considered. And we are considering them. I mean the promise I made to everybody that we talked to is that really in the next 3 weeks we would be definitive. We would know both based on what the board um decides as far as what our revenues and expenditures will be but also to go through the facts to make sure we can do what we said we can do. Okay. Um I think sort of building off of that can you talk through like shifts at this level obviously mean that you can't just like take these people away and sort of continue the program at as normal, right? Like shifts at this level require I think like a revamping of the system. Um and so can you talk through a little bit sort of like what
44. 52:03what work you would plan on doing through this spring and how you would like collaborate with staff and building leaders around like what what do the sort of programmatic, operational, structural shifts need to be to you know, whatever the like final decisions end up being made here sort of like what's the process that that sets us up to still make sure that all this bed services are met, that our students who are struggling right to score where they need to on our math and ELA state exams aren't further behind. Like what what's kind of the like big planning that needs to happen that goes along with this? All of the resources that are left need to be put in the center of the table. And we have to make we have to unravel and make decisions about how to redeploy what we already have. Like I a lot of meetings were in one building yesterday. A lot of meetings were. But that's not
45. 53:05where that reduction is going to live. That that's a district-wide reduction. I said to the leaders today so it happened to be in this person's building. It's all of our problem. All of us are going to inherit what's happening right now. And we have to figure out how to redeploy to provide the best possible service that we can for the students in our community. So it has to start with the leaders. It has to involve the department chairs cuz they know the inner workings of what you know, how how they're able to do what they're doing. Um and the building level committees. I mean we have seated um school do do We have school we have the sub teams in each of the buildings which are the educational improvement teams. Um they need to weigh in because this is again this is I mean I'm not going to say this is a good opportunity. I'm not going to take out the word good. It's an opportunity to say how are we going to do what we said we were going to do. We're going to move
46. 54:07the needle. We're going to improve attendance. We're going to improve grades. We're going to improve behaviors in students. It is an opportunity to retool and say how do do we how do we do what we were doing with this fewer supports in place. It's not pretty but it's the hard work that will have to be done. Do these numbers include the retirement and the insurance? Do these >> They do. They do. Okay. They do. And social security. Mike, did you mean do these numbers include retirement benefits or did you mean do these numbers include like positions where people are retiring and we wouldn't replace? Um probably both.
47. 55:10Different slide. >> contribution. Yeah, the contribution, yes. >> to make sure. Yes. Well, there's a separate side separate slide for attrition Okay. and breakage. Here's a representation of class sizes. Hm. They lined up perfectly earlier today. On the left-hand side class sizes from 25 26 and on the right-hand side you see the four green squares. Um easiest to start from the last one. The square in grade five is because um one person from grade four would or one person from the elementary grade move to grade six. So you see in in this coming year there's five sections in each 6th, 7th, and 8th. So that's not a reduction in staff. It's just a reduction in the elementary staffing that's moving to junior high. The other three K1 and three again it's
48. 56:13this is not specific to people. This is just a suggestion of what if you reduce by three sections, what that looks like. It really is up to the building to make a decision about where those sections are deployed. You could have a absolutely blessed first grade and they need smaller class or larger class sizes. They're fine. They're thriving. Or you could have a really difficult fourth grade and you decide that you need to put more resources in those classrooms. So this is just a suggestion of what that would look like and the resultant class sizes. These numbers again do not include students in self-contained classrooms, right? Just for people at home or calculating and saying there's only this many kids. We talked about this before both the elementary and the junior high have a large cohort of students with disabilities that are in other programs in the building.
49. 57:14Just so you know. Here's that other slide Mike that I was talking about. >> Okay. Um we have five retirements this year and um we're hoping to have two um not rehire through attrition. Uh one vacancy in clerical that we're choosing not to fill and um three breakage so the rehiring of three people. As an example, there are just some positions that are too you can't cover with anyone else. Like a specialized science is a difficult thing to ask someone else to cover. So there are some positions that we felt they really needed to be refilled. They couldn't be easily accommodated. Is this clerical position here the same one on a previous slide? >> No, it's a different one. So there would be two clerical. One at one vacant position and then >> One. Okay. Yes. $261,000.
50. 58:21Um Cheryl and the leaders and some of our staff have gone through and reflecting on our usage. We basically looked at usage and frequency of usage and the value of our return. We came up with $80,000 in reductions, almost 81,000. There may be more. There are some software where frankly that we didn't feel like we communicated with the staff enough to know how if we did make a change, how would they, you know, deal with that. Last year going from last year to this year a decision was made and something was cut off and people really needed it. So we turned it back on. But it's $18,000 so we had to decide like as we go forward. We left it on going into next year but we should decide how do we use the resources at hand and um if there's something else that we can use and save money, we should do that. What's the total software expenditure? What percentage is 80,000? What percentage of the 80,000? What's
51. 59:24how much money is currently spent on software? That's a good question. >> how much possible money is left in that line? A lot. Because it includes um our Google membership, Microsoft's uh our NWEA um Fast Bridge uh A lot of curriculum programs. A lot of curriculum programs that our staff use. We we can um we can come up with a number and get it for you next time. Are there any grants that you can get to help offset some of the software expenses? Sometimes. It depends on whether it's being used uniquely within a grant-funded program. Like as a for instance, if uh we were using a student management program unique to the after-school program, absolutely could be put in there. Grants are really picky. They're they're very finicky and they they want to make sure you're not supplanting. In other words, the
52. 1:00:26district would have bought that anyway, we're not paying for it. They want to make sure that oh, you needed it for something that's more than your regular work. But it is possible. Can you think of anything? Um just that we purchased a lot of the software through our BOCES, so we get a lot of aid back on that. I don't know. Okay. I was saying we purchase a lot of our software through BOCES already, so a lot of aid comes back on what we purchase. Okay. Would we be needing to purchase that same software for using BOCES for some of the IT stuff, or is that totally separate? You're good. It is totally separate because it's staffing as opposed to software that's impacting in the classroom instruction. Okay. Here's the miracle. Simply by putting students on the same
53. 1:01:30bus. 800 basically $841,000. That's a lot of human capital. And we're being a little conservative with that number. And I will tell you that it includes a monitor on each bus. Because this is a little bit different paradigm. For almost generations, some families have grown accustomed to my K through 2 child will be on this bus. They won't see anybody over the age of whatever. They won't hear any words from anyone over the age of We're combining uh grades. It's going to be a little unsettling for families. And and and we would all admit K through 12 on one bus might be a little challenging. We need We're We're providing a buffer by including the potential cost of a monitor, which is provided by the bus company on each of the bus runs. But this reflects I think it's a reduction
54. 1:02:31of nine. Nine runs. And um from our field trip and materials and supply lines from throughout the district, we're aiming to reduce by 20,000, bring it to 860. 981. What specific materials and supplies do you use that cost 15K? Oh. Copy paper. Oh, you have you have no idea. Mhm. Um so, I to the greatest extent possible, we do try and provide the supplies for the children, especially at the elementary school. That's you know, a lot of uh paper and crayons and glue sticks and tape and construction paper. And if bulletin boards are in there, that's at least $15,000. But that's uh Thankfully, with a a district of this size, um
55. 1:03:32I can find out the exact percentage, but that still leaves a good percentage for us to be able to do the work that we're accustomed to doing. But for fun, I want to give you the whole number. And it is worth mentioning uh we want to be as clear as we can that if we're changing the infrastructure around our leadership, uh it will make it so there's potentially less student supervision, especially around disciplinary issues. Um so, one of the things that we considered is part-time deans to help with some of the discipline. This is not in concrete. This would have to be negotiated. There's lots of things that lots of discussions need to be had. But I've worked in many places where deans of students can be very effective because they are people in the classroom. They understand almost
56. 1:04:35innately more more differently than someone who is not in a classroom. Um that's why I say part-time deans. I think it's there's relevance to it cuz if I know I'm in my classroom, I had just had this happen to me, what would I want to see happen if someone were processing a referral? So, we put some money there um for potentially deans. We also know with the reduction of two administrators that there'll be fewer people in district to administer the annual professional performance review. The uh review cycle here is pretty rigorous uh and uh we used We had a little bit of support this year. We put extra money in there, which is aidable if we need additional help to execute our APPR plan with fidelity. And the last one, unemployment insurance. Um as you probably know, anytime that an employee is um laid off, we are responsible for paying unemployment.
57. 1:05:38And um and and our reserve isn't very um isn't very much money. So, we wanted to ensure that we added that going forward. So, when you look at all of it together, each of those buckets that I talked about, that brings us to the the asked reduction. There are some unknowns that um I want you to know will require flexibility. We're going to hire three staff. Let's say one of those staff members cannot be hired except for more than what we've estimated. It's a specialty position, you know, there's only three applicants and it's difficult to find. We may end up having to spend more in that staffing line and have to move that money from somewhere else. Or we could spend less. We could find three people fresh out of school,
58. 1:06:40they're great, they're excited to do it. All school budgets are like that on all the budget lines. But I will tell you and and Christie may finish by saying this. I started by saying it is not uncommon for a district to finish a school year, especially with a $58.5 million budget, to finish a school year with 1 to 2 million dollars left over. Because you managed your money well. You were conservative in your expenditure estimates in the prior year. We are not being especially conservative. We are being mandate, focus on the prize, stay open, own the trust of our taxpayers and our community. We are not in the place where we're talking $300,000 away here and $100,000 here for a rainy day. This is
59. 1:07:42next year is going to be nerve-racking um because it will be a balance throughout the year of conservative thought. There's not a lot of There's no rainy day. Um our best hope because as we say we're conservative everything, our best hope is that we discover more revenue. And then that will help reduce the uh reduce our deficit in our fund balances next year. That's the best thing we can hope for, to find more revenue so that we're healthier going into '27-'28. Were you going to say anything like that? Yes. Um But know that um we've been as accurate as we can. We started with a snapshot of the human beings who work here now. Because as I said, all those things that may have gone wrong and led us in a in a different direction over the past few
60. 1:08:44years was not acknowledging who works here now. What programs are we running now? What after-school? What summertime? What are we doing now? We've tried to roll all of that in there, which is how we got to 63.1 million. So, I unquestionably wanted to leave you and I know you're not done with questions, but I wanted to leave you with this. What happens if the voters don't approve the budget? It's a small city school district, so I'm going to tell you what happens outside of a small city school district and anyone's welcome to correct me later. Um we go out to vote. We need 50% plus one vote to have the budget approved. They're approving the tax levy. And if we don't get it the first time, the board can regroup and make changes or put out the exact
61. 1:09:47same budget again. Or that time, the board could consider going to a contingency budget. If we go out a second time, we lower the tax cap or we keep it the same or we change our budget numbers. We go back out. It goes down again. You don't get 50% plus one. Then we are obligated to go on a contingency budget. These are some of the elements and I apologize if you don't have this particular one. These are some of the elements that we know can be included in that. Operations, preserving the property, and ensuring the health and safety. The things that cannot be included. New capital expenditures. So, you're not going to build anything. Equipment purchases unless it is an absolute emergency. Administrative costs, public use of the building if it results in any
62. 1:10:50additional expenses. So, if you had a Saturday event and you had to hire a custodian to do it, we're not opening. Um salary increases for management or confidential employees that aren't covered by collective bargaining. And maybe the hardest part. The board is going to have to make a decision about every single one of these things. If we got to this point, we would ask Questar to come in or state aid planner to come in and help us navigate it. If you looked at last year, I think last year there were maybe 10 schools in the state whose budgets didn't pass. Uh and I think one or two of them ended up in contingency. But it's very complex. But I'm it's very restrictive. And here's the scariest part. So, that means that we would
63. 1:11:52be required to go out go forward with a tax levy that is exactly the same as last year's. So, that's that number in red at the top, 26 million 362. And when you get to the bottom, you can see that we would be allowed we would have a revenue of 57 million 541. That would mean an additional $1.5 million in reductions to remain balanced. And the the board would have to make decisions about those things that I showed on the previous slides and more to determine how we we get to the What are we going to allow, you know, on each each day and each step of the way. So, that represent represents 1.71% decrease from last year's budget. So, there there are consequences for ending up in a
64. 1:12:55contingency budget. We don't want to end there. We don't want to end up there. Um but I just wanted to to let you know. Other questions? I have one. Um I don't know if this is how it works, but are you technically laying off all those people you're getting rid of? And like do we have to like how much are we playing in unemployment because of that? I I should have mentioned from the beginning too in any school organization uh layoffs are done by least senior in an in an area. Um the cost in New York State varies by salary. I think the cap right now if you make You make What's the cap right now? No, I know, but what's the cap right
65. 1:13:56now? Yeah. Um so, assume an employee who may be laid off who was making $70,000 would get about $800 a week for how many weeks? 26 weeks, half of a year. And it's it's income dependent, so lower income would receive less of that. Amanda? Contracts here up the end of June or they up the end of the summer in terms of like when if someone was laid off for the next school year, when does that start for them? I'm not ready to have that discussion. Okay. Yeah, that is complex, too. Um Yeah, it's complex, too. I have one for you, Brian. You can tell me if that line or not, but we're doing all this work
66. 1:14:59and basically you're out of here in a couple months. How does that How's that going to work for the new superintendent coming in too this mess? I came here in September. I'm saying that you have continuity of of other leaders that are here other staff that are here, board members that are here. Mhm. You are by far smarter now. We all are smarter now than we were in September. Um you know, sometimes it's trial by fire or learning by fire, but I would I would so much rather as a superintendent come into a complex, difficult, painful, organized problem Okay. than not not know what I was coming into. From this I I I have said it a few times. Um this process, this accounting for what's real, what's here right now, it will set the stage for you being able
67. 1:16:02to plan five years out. You would not have been able to competently do that two years ago, I don't think. And that is essential. Any business has a responsibility to be planning five years or more out um both with our educational plans and our financial plans. So, this is the groundwork to do it. If I were going to come into a district, I would have to know that this was done. So, that's the benefit. Okay. And then if if we did go into contingency budget, I saw that in there there was no capital projects that could happen. I don't know, Mike, if it means no continuing capital projects. That doesn't make any sense. But I'm They're probably saying not you cannot initiate any new capital >> Okay, but the ones we've been working on can still move forward. Yeah. Yeah, um yeah, cuz I didn't put the whole list up there, but it did say that um you're allowed to continue payments for any capital um expenditures. That would include paying off debt during a capital project. Okay.
68. 1:17:04Even the ones that have not started yet? Like the ones we're planning now. already been approved by the taxpayers or or it's already in process. Okay. Thank you. I'll send a website to all of you from uh school boards association. I think it's from school boards. It's from 2011. I don't know why they don't have something more recent, but I when you when you read it, you'll see what I mean when I say complex. Okay. It's Yeah. Dana? Something that just doesn't sit right with me. Um we had an audit in the fall. Right? There was an audit done in the fall. We had some people over from Questar. >> We have audits every year, yeah. Um how come we didn't find out all this deficit then? So, some audits look specifically at certain areas and some are supposed to be looking more globally at the work. Don't think that the finance committee and Christie and I haven't asked the same question. Um somehow like the state has a the state has a uh every school in the
69. 1:18:10in the state has a rating for their financial stability. We don't look like we're in distress. I don't know how you can use $3 million in your savings, which is almost a third of it, and not look like you're in distress. So, I'm not sure the metrics and I'm not sure why. And do you have any better We do still have the unassigned fund balance to to utilize and so we do still have savings and so our savings is still, you know, valid and something that we're used to balance our budget. And so that could be one, but we can absolutely look deeper into um why we have a deficit now. But also remember when we were looking at our budget in terms of expenditures, we were um making sure that we put in every single expense that it was not only contractual, but also that was expected and traditional that we've been doing that necessarily has not been put in the budget, but that we've still been
70. 1:19:12expensing every year. And so that's why there was a a huge deficit compared to other years. And you know, the audit wouldn't necessarily project what we'd be proposing as a budget for this next school year. Yeah, it did it did show us that we spent as Dr. Billy said within $200,000 of our budget last year. Um and you know, last year uh Christie came in sort of in the middle of this budget um uh budget process and by the end of it, you know, she was recommending that, you know, we would need to lay off about 18 employees just to balance our budget and we made the decision as the board then like this is way too late in this process. We haven't done the work with our leaders and with our employees and given people proper notice and we need to do whatever we can to uh put that off. So, you know, we were we knew it then and it's just been, you
71. 1:20:16know, a year's worth of doing the work to really figure out where we are and what the situation actually is. So, this is unfortunately not entirely new. And I think another important point >> [clears throat] >> to your question about why now is is uh March is when the health insurance figures get given to us for next year. Your mic just if you say >> Is it Is it on? Doesn't seem to be. >> Uh health insurance figures came out in March for next year and so 20% increase in health insurance is a $10 million expense plus so um you know, I think the uh I think it's a combination of, you know, what Mark described. The financial audit for last year was done in November. Um and then March is when we get health insurance. So, there's uh you know, a timeline of factors that have just been additive to get to this point. Mhm. Um I had Is the tax cap 5.8 or 5.88? Is there another decimal on there?
72. 1:21:21>> 5.8. The other numbers you saw were 5.8. It was the other factors we showed you 3.44 and 7.33 I think was what maybe made you think of the decimal point. Right. And regarding that, I guess, just to be clear we're looking at $4 million in reductions right now. A contingency budget would be 5 and 1/2 of total reductions. Yeah. >> Um and what's proposed here is going out at the max uh for a 50% budget uh vote. Yes. Mhm. Um I I know we you you haven't you mentioned uh this part of the process and looking ahead um you know, I I would just put it out to the board as one thing that we can consider is this is not using um the maximum amount of our assigned fund
73. 1:22:26balance. Um you know, it what would it look like or if we put another $300,000 into it or $400,000, you know, which in the grand scheme of things doesn't seem uh significant or meaningful, but when we're talking about people's jobs can make a a big difference. Um So, I just wanted to put that out there and see if anybody had thoughts on that or um you know, I I just yeah, throwing it out there. >> I I'd like to piggyback on that. Um I would be all for something like that. I mean, I I feel like there is um we we as a district have gone through some really rough past couple of years, rough times, right? And we're just now sort of coming out of that and feeling good about about ourselves and, you know, starting to build as a team and um and move forward and now I feel like this is like
74. 1:23:28holy cow, you know, we're setting us back again. And even though it's a small um you know, gesture, any anything I think um to try to um ease the pain a little bit. Um and if we, you know, choose people whatever that can Maybe I should just leave it leave it at that. But, yeah, I I agree with you um Mark. I think um any little bit that that we can do to just not push off the problem as a you know, it's a huge problem, but just ease into it a little bit. Um the this is a lot. It's a lot of change um and it's tough. How much would be left in the fund balance and reserve with this current proposal of using like 2.3 million, how much is left? So, it's my understanding we have a
75. 1:24:33little bit over two 2.3 above our 4% that where we are able to keep and so there's there's some left in the signed um fund balance. Can you just break down a little bit more what that means for everyone? Like the 4% we're allowed to keep so that that makes sense to everybody in the room. >> Yeah, so um New York State allows us to keep a 4% fund balance and then anything over that we um should utilize in some way, but that is our savings and we have I believe 2.3 million over our 4% and so that's right now we have it assigned to balance this budget one 1,789,000. So, there is we could go up to 2.3. That would be all of our unassigned fund balance. I think the thing that that gives me pause um because I would also like to lessen the
76. 1:25:39impact, slow the impact on the people who work very hard to take care of our children. And and have children I have children who require a lot of those services. Um Oh, sorry. Uh is that you know, we're looking at expenses of 59,000 or 59 million dollars for this year. And we're borrowing about half of what's left, right? It's not going to be less expensive next year. And so we're putting it off and creating the potential for for cuts to be at least as significant next year. Again. And we know expenses are actually going to go up. It's not going to be flat. And revenue's not going to go up that much. So, that's my fear about continuing to draw. Um that's valid.
77. 1:26:42Um Could we look into the future year and at least think about what it might look like then? Um I mean, I I I know that it you know, sort of like compounding interest, you know, it just continues to grow, but, you know, what does you know, not making cuts now look like in the future or not making all of these cuts and and yeah, what would our position a year from now look like? Wish I had a whiteboard. Yeah. Um when Christie keeps referring to 2.6 or sorry, to 4% um figure that um if our budget is 58 and 1/2 million that's about 2.4 million. That's 4%. So, imagine that that's our our golden egg. That's what we want to hold on to the 4%. If you chose to use everything above that 4% that's 2.3 million.
78. 1:27:46So, in other words, there's about 4.7 million in unassigned, right? 4.7 million unassigned. You use 2.3 of it this year. In other words, you go 500,000 higher than what's up there in the blue. Next year, you could do it one more time and then you have no money left. And that would put us below the 4% next year, right? Cuz you're saying we would take this year which would bring us down to the 4%. >> left in your unassigned fund balance. Right. Like so, it's not like next year would take us to having that safe level that we're supposed to keep. It would take us to zero, basically. Yeah, just about to zero. So, two years out. >> I mean, the other thing that we all hope is that there's a miracle. State aid has a correction which we're we're I'm generally afraid the correction will not be in our favor when they do it because as in most districts with declining enrollment
79. 1:28:48the consequence is less aid. So, we're a hold harmless school. We want to maybe let that just just let it ride a little bit cuz if the accountability for us is our aid going down, then that means more of our unassigned fund balance in order to balance what's happening. I think one of the issues we face is we don't know what the fund balance is going to be on June 30th which is two months from now. I mean, it's we rely on some revenues that uh interest interest income for example. Uh you could say it was a windfall last year. We budgeted 165,000 in 24 25 and we collected $732,000 in interest cuz interest rates were high. Um that added to that fund balance cushion. Uh we can't necessarily count on that every year to kind of fix a bad budget. Um we don't know how much interest we're going to get for the next 2 months. We can guess. We don't know how much propane tax is going to come in. That's
80. 1:29:50one of the other revenues that we have. Um anything we're aiming for for the end of this year fund balance is a model. It's a guess. It's it's, you know, trying to figure out where that starting line is for those calculations of what where are we next year, where are we the year after. Um anybody else have thoughts on the fund balance? Do we want to give Dr. Bailey and this very a figure to to play with? Or do we want to maintain what's currently uh in this proposed budget? I'm a little more inclined to agree with Maureen. If we give up all of our our programs, then how do we get them back
81. 1:30:53if we do happen to get income coming in or higher CD or next year you'll have other people retire and then you can change the balance that way. I mean, these are our people. I don't want to just give up on our people. And >> [applause] >> but on the on the flip side of that, I'll be a little bit selfish, too, because I did say about the tax. I don't really want to see a whole lot coming in for the taxes. Uh but I think the sting would be a little bit less if we were more supportive of our people knowing that at least we're protecting them through our taxes instead of Um and also, I'm sorry, Amanda, I just the the fact that we're a district under review. Um we need we need all the support that we can get, you know, to to help our students to improve and so it just seems like a crazy time to be
82. 1:31:58[snorts] cutting people. Um when we need everybody to Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't I don't think we're in a position to say that we can cover the entire gap. No, no. I I realize it may be through 200 300,000. Like how do people feel about >> So that figure? I mean, I I I guess what I would say is if you're going to advocate for using more money, you need to say what you want to keep. And I mean, that seems to be where the conversation has to go. And I don't think we can count on continued spend savings when you know, I I assume this would be a math problem in high school class. You know, if you have this much in savings and you're spending more than you're bringing in. Um I would almost suggest we attempt an override on the tax levy before we do that. Mhm. Yeah, that is the other option um which like we mentioned uh would require 60% of the vote. Um
83. 1:33:02I believe the last time that happened here was 2011. Um and that's when the the budget failed. Mhm. If we tried for a tax levy override and then it failed, we could go round two at the tax cap and aim for 50%, correct? And then in round three it would go to contingency. Yes. Um is there a quick math on like Every percentage is about $300,000. >> That is exactly what I'm asking. Okay. So, if we were talking about adding 300 to the assigned fund balance, we could instead say, what if we went to 6.8? That would also give us 300,000. Yes. I want to bring up the little van again. Can we legitimately look at that and say
84. 1:34:06maybe if we bought a a smaller I don't want to call it a bus. What did you what did you say the 14-passenger van That's a minivan. So the minivan that somebody could >> van. Um do you >> She means a bigger one. Can we look into using a van for some transportation to eliminate maybe some other bus runs that might be eliminated from Yeah. We would need a CDL certified person to do it cuz as we know uncertified you can only do itinerant meaning occasionally. If you're going to do a run every day, they would need to be CDL certified. Not impossible. People can be trained on that. They they would we'd probably have to partner with another district because there's ongoing training related to that and we don't have anybody I'm sure somebody would sacrifice to get the CDL in order to make that happen. Maybe we should just look at the numbers. Doesn't the purchase of an additional van erase savings in the short term? It may pre it may create
85. 1:35:11savings in the long term. But purchasing a 15-passenger van is a significant Look at look at some numbers and see what >> Yeah, and I think also Diana's talking about better utilizing the one we have to, you know, be able to utilize it more. Or differently. Um how does everybody feel about the idea of overriding the tax cap? I don't want to do that. I'm okay with it. What did you say? I'm okay with it. You would be in favor? >> I would be in favor of it. Either. Either the fund balance or the overriding. >> Yes. I think I'm with Matt that I would try for the tax first because I think there is I worry about draining that fund balance down when we don't know like you said if like health care costs by like spiraled again, we're losing. It's at least like a first attempt there.
86. 1:36:18I'm Larry. I know how concerned people are about the 5.8. I would like to reduce the impact on our school. But I also know that people are real concerned about their taxes in this town. Yeah, I my uh my fear is that that it just becomes the conversation about whether the budget will pass and what the contingency budget is and starts bringing up all of these other really scary conversations that we haven't even thought about or um examined and >> our likelihood of landing in contingency if we have that. You know, it takes away one one chance to vote. If that goes down. And the expense of another vote. Yeah. And the expense associated >> at is eliminating people that are going to vote.
87. 1:37:24One of the problems we have historically, too, is people don't go vote. Our vote numbers are tiny compared to the eligible voters. So that's going to help if we get people to the vote. I don't know how we do that. Maybe this will scare them enough to go [laughter] out and vote. More people to vote. More people to vote no. Um it seems like we're a little bit split. Um is it uh Can I add one thing, Mark? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So in my mind I'm thinking like what's the psychological effect of going out at 6.8 then voting it down going back out at this. Um as long as you still have the 50% plus one, it's okay. But if it has done something psychologically
88. 1:38:28to the community. I've also seen revotes where the number of people that come out is significantly higher. Um the I was going to say as I mentioned when you go out below the tax cap repeatedly, you leave revenue on the table every year. If you go out at 6.8, that is your bottom for next year in your calculation. So you're not leaving money on the table. I'm just saying that it will have an advantage going to next year. It's not I'm not saying that next year your tax cap will be 6.8. I'm just saying that it's one of that big number, that top blue number is a big component of the basis for your 2% tax calculation next year. So, it would be advantageous in that respect. If you were successful at 6.8, that first number when you begin the calculation next year is a better number to start with. That's the only other thing I would add. Is there any expectation the state aid is going to go up
89. 1:39:32this year or next year? No. >> We've been flat on the foundation >> year's and we No. I'm going to I'm just going to pray that it stays right where it is and there's no more adjustment. So, I think the important point to understand is the tax levy is the only thing we can really increase. And I think that's our foreseeable future. So, if whatever the tax levy increases, since it's half of our revenue, divide that number by half and that's how much our expenses can go up. So, if we're looking at 2, 4, 5, 6% increases, all of our expenses can only go up by one, one and a half, 2%. I don't know that health insurance is not going to stop escalating. So, if it goes up 20% again next year, it's another $2 million, which would require an 8%, 9% tax increase just to pay for health insurance. So, I don't know that hoping next year is going to be better is
90. 1:40:33is going to get us there. Big risk. I think the the concern we have is we go out to vote, we get a contingency budget. I think we got to look at that as a real concern even going at 5.8%. Um I don't You know, I don't have the answer, but I don't know that we can push this too much and and get a better outcome. Contingency A contingency is going to be a disaster. I think that's safe to say. Do we have to make a decision right now? Okay. >> No. Um I mean, yeah, next next week we should be having a final budget, which we will vote on as a board. Okay. Um I don't know if it's possible to have a A version and a B version. Um >> [laughter] >> Uh but um we can uh
91. 1:41:37we can certainly discuss and deliberate um after public comment, we'll go into executive session and get into a little bit more detail about specific positions and specific programs that it's not appropriate to talk about publicly right now. Um so, if we come to any decisions, then we can obviously give um Dr. Bailey and Ms. Ferry direction as what we want that budget Okay. next week to look like. >> I'd like to hear what people have to say and that I think will give us more information and help us to better make a decision as well. Great. >> So. Can I ask for a summary? Because um as you would imagine, there is a large amount of behind-the-scenes calculations to get to It looks so simple. Um what I hear the board saying is the desire to raise that number that's three from the bottom in blue by 300,000 and you're either going to raise that by 300,000 or
92. 1:42:39instead raise revenue through the tax levy by 300,000. Is that a I think I would be curious to know like what what would the impact of that be on schools? Like where would that $300,000 go? In in thinking about all the things that we looked at up above and like what what is the impact of that? You know, I think to like Matt's point, like what what does that go towards? Mhm. Would be my Yeah. question there. Yeah. And we could look at it and say it's you know, it doesn't help. Right. In general, and and it's true in every school, you're thinking round numbers. Just to be just to be thinking like how much does 1% almost $300,000? What does that mean? In general, a certificated instructional employee is about 90,000 with all benefits in. Um
93. 1:43:41support staff, uncertificated folks could range from anywhere from 13,000 if they're working part-time and no health benefits or up to 50,000 if they're working full-time with full benefits. Those are the two numbers that we really we work with. Between 50 and 90, that's what $300,000 investment would bring you. Can I also propose, if other people are amenable to this, that we take like one final harder look at the software line um cuz I think I just working in education and seeing those invoices come across my desk, it's like things like Newsela and these other things are like lovely to have, but if two programs like that is one staff member, I think that's something to to think about and so I >> [applause and cheering] >> like one last squeeze of those other places. Um would just just to cover all our bases. Yeah.
94. 1:44:51And I know we've mentioned it multiple times, but any other revenue that we can find, um I think we're willing to be less conservative there and uh hope that a little bit more money shows up. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you. We appreciate all the hard work. Yeah. Um it does bring us to public participation. Um and we do realize that this is very serious and sober moment and we understand the severity and the frustration and the pain that a lot of people are experiencing and we all know folks will be affected and are, you know, grieving with you for our staff and our students and everybody in the district. We want to give everybody the
95. 1:45:53chance to speak. Um and just wanted to point out that under state and federal privacy laws, we can't talk about individual personnel or students for that matter. Um and we just ask you keep your comments to 3 minutes so that everybody who has signed up um has a chance a chance to share their thoughts. Um and you know, just by the reaction um Amanda received when she mentioned software and programs, you know, we want to hear ideas. Like if you have things that you think will help or places that we can look, you know, we want to um use your expertise and your experience to help make this these hard decisions as uh as um seamless as possible. Okay. So, first we have Lloyd Cooding? Cadding. Cadding? Here you go.
96. 1:46:54Up to the microphone. Well, greetings and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I know what it's like to roll roll through these things. I'm kind of new to the school board. I'm this is my first foray and what an interesting time to be here. Now, my my experience, I was a treasurer for 5 years and uh just from a first blush look, and I I feel like I have to say this and I know we're all generally forgiving, but if I had incurred expenses that were not part of a budget, where I was, I would have been personally responsible. So, there's a lot of this there was uh some reckless
97. 1:47:57behavior and it's a good thing that it's been uncovered and that you're actually taking a hard look. Um you're in a tough spot here. You're in a tough spot. Now, the city of Hudson was $400,000 short and they went ahead and submitted the budget and it got approved. Now, here, I I would just say so, revenue solves the problem. Anytime you're in a situation like that, you continue doing the good work. You know, I know what it's like when you're under financial stress, you continue to produce and do good work. So, here, I would say we're not a poor community. I would reach out to the community and say, you know, there are people here that probably could make up that difference and not feel it.
98. 1:49:02So, this would be me making a uh a plea out to the community, the people that are well healed to, uh, help out in this situation. Uh, the one thing I would say is that these people are now being responsible. This is the opportunity here, as the good doctor said, to go forward with a stable, you know, foundation. The foundation got got uh just not not it would it went go it was let go. It was let go in a I don't know that, you know, you want to be punitive in any way. I don't know that that works, but it just it should never have happened. So, uh, again >> [applause] >> Again, the answer is always revenue. It's not a poor community. People step up.
99. 1:50:07Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next we have Shannon Sullivan. >> [snorts] >> Hi, my name is Shannon Sullivan and I'm here as both a taxpayer and as a teacher and as the second vice president of the Hudson Teachers Association. And I'm here and I feel heartbroken and I feel really angry. I was here in 2011. I remember what it was like to be here in 2011. I remember these discussions in 2011. I remember how our community came together and came up with a booster club. We funded a full position for a music teacher. We did amazing things. And I'm heartbroken that we're in this situation again when as a person who sees how our community is very, very different and with lots of new and old people that are part of it.
100. 1:51:11I live on Warren Street and my family's been in Columbia County forever. I am looking at what's happening and I feel like one of the things that we really need to do is that, especially when we're talking about this situation, we need to move out of our comfort zones. We have all of these silos in our community. We have all of these online communities and offline communities and new people that are in our communities. And we need to break out of those comfort zones and come together and have these discussions because we are, as a district, more than our cost per pupil. We are people who are working to make programming and make decisions that are difficult. And these stories, when we're talking about these cuts, that's the part that's heartbreaking. These are stories. Each of these people that I'm looking at that are just a budget line right now, they've had an impact on people in a personal conversation, in a way that they've changed someone's lives. And because of this, we need to have people come into our schools. Come and
101. 1:52:15see us. We're transparent. Come into our buildings. We don't care. If we're teachers, we have people coming into our classrooms all the time. If you want to know what a cost per pupil looks like at Hudson City School District, come inside and see what that looks like and understand what those numbers mean rather than just spewing them out as though that's the bottom line factor about what we are as an institution. So, if you're upset, I want people to direct questions directly to those people who can answer them. So, if you're worried about cost per pupil and how we wound up in this situation right here, you need to talk to our business office. If you want to know what the programming is that leads to a cost per pupil in this district, speak to a building leader. They can break it out for you. You can look at these numbers that we have for this year, for which I'm grateful. My direct question would be to the business office and to the people in front of me looking at these numbers up here, why is there only one position cut to central? >> [applause] >> That is something you need to discuss
102. 1:53:16when you go into executive session. There's millions of dollars of cuts and over 35 positions that are direct impact and we talked about that center of what is the most important thing? The most important thing is that student teacher contact. You need to talk about that, please, because you talked about how $300,000 could be a 90,000 position person that is certified or multiple people depending on whether they're part-time or full-time in an uncertified position. Please have that discussion. It's important. And I don't want to come after or split us apart because I just talked about us coming together, but that would be my direct question as a taxpayer in this school district, why is this line item this number? Thank you. Appreciate it. So, we need all of our eyes on this problem because we got into this situation because we became lax as a community. All of us in this community need to focus on this. This is a $60 million organization run by people who are new to our district and by people who are part-time volunteering to run this district, but
103. 1:54:18it's also all of us in this room and we need to look at these numbers together because unfortunately, as angry as and upset and all the people that I know that are being impacted by this, as upset as I am about this, this is systemic. It's not isolated. It's not going away and because of these issues, it's not just us as a school district that's being affected by these issues. These systemic issues are going to be with us for a while and these are tough conversations that all of us as a community has to have. So, there is a green piece of paper over there. If you've never been to a meeting before, you can walk right over there right now and sign up and you can stand and you can tell people that are here and our community what you speak and what you want to speak and feel. I encourage anybody in this room who's upset or angry or needs to speak, please go sign up at that green piece of paper right there. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next we have Laura Bender. Good evening, everybody.
104. 1:55:25Um, as you know, my name is Laura Bender and I serve as the president of the Hudson Teachers Association. Um, seeing this all put together tonight kind of took my breath away despite a couple of hard days. Um, so please forgive me if I'm not as eloquent as I usually am. Um, over the past several days, many of our members, in addition to many other members in other bargaining units, have learned that their positions may be part of these reductions that were discussed here tonight. These are dedicated, talented, passionate people who work with our students every single day and this is an incredibly difficult time for them and I'm for our school community and for you, too, as I can see the conversations that are happening tonight. We understand that the district is facing significant financial challenges. Um, we recognize that difficult decisions need to be made and, um, I want to take a second and say that I appreciate the effort efforts of Dr. Bailey to do the important work of having these conversations with
105. 1:56:27individuals on a personal level um, while these decisions were being talked about. And I appreciate the level of conversation that has been going on tonight. Um, it's very meaningful, as you can tell by the reactions of the people in the room. It's very meaningful to, um, to us to hear what the conversations are. Um, I do want to focus on something that is really critically important as this process moves forward and it's something that Dr. Bailey has mentioned already. Um, maintaining a program on paper and maintaining it at a minimum legal requirement compliance and mandate as Dr. Bailey had mentioned tonight, it's not the same as maintaining its effectiveness or its impact on our students. Our students rely >> [applause] >> Our students rely on systems of support that are very much interconnected and thank you very much. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Teresa Hayes. Hi, everyone. I'm Teresa Hayes. I serve
106. 1:57:34as the vice president of the our clerical unit. As the 21st budget approaches budget vote approaches, we just want to express our concerns. Uh, we are not only employees, but we're parents, we're taxpayers and community members who believe in the strength of our schools that isn't measured only in test scores and graduation rates, but in the people who keep them running every day from our aides to our administration. The proposed clerical staff reductions concern us deeply and we want to be clear that these cuts have already been happening throughout this school year. Since July 2025, the district has quietly absorbed the loss of four critical positions that were never filled after becoming vacant. The IT secretary, the junior high secretary, an administrative assistant in central, computer service technician. We've merged roles, um, into a single shared position that remains unfilled. We have an admin assistant been temporarily hired through August and other positions have been, uh, not even been posted along with another potential layoff. That's five positions gone, no matter what
107. 1:58:36those slides say. We are the people that answer the phones when a worried parent calls, who process paperwork so teachers can focus on teaching, who knows the students by their names, who keeps technology running with IT, uh, so that instruction doesn't grind to a halt. When someone leaves, that work does not leave with them. It lands on the desks of colleagues who are already stretched thin. And it is our students and our families that experience the resulting and gaps. We cannot continue to lose positions every time someone walks out the door. That's not a staffing strategy, it's attrition by default. This board owes it to the community to make these decisions intentionally and transparently, rather than quietly absorbing them and moving on. We understand the district faces significant deficit and that difficult decisions must be made across all departments. We're not asking for this board to ignore fiscal reality. We're asking you to examine your priorities. The HR department currently has an executive director and two contracted secretaries, the largest it's ever been, even as both student enrollment and staff numbers decline.
108. 1:59:40>> [applause] >> I Can we just be sure not to mention specific positions, please? Oh, sorry. Um, you know Sure. We >> [laughter] >> How about a hard look at central administration organizational structure must be taken. We urge this board to look beyond the line item savings and consider the full picture. There are paths to fiscal responsibility that do not hollow out our support structures uh, that our schools and our students and families depend on. We ask you to pause, reassess, and commit to rebuilding, rather than continuing to chip away at the foundation that holds our schools together. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Nikki Genito. Hello everybody. Um, my name is Nikki Genito. I'm a graduate, I'm a taxpayer, I'm a employee, and I'm also the union president of the
109. 2:00:41aid unit. Um I also want to talk about these slides where it said that we were going to have the aids were going to lose 15 positions. We already have six positions open, and I was told by HR that that were not going to be refilled. So, I want to make sure you know that's 21 aid positions that would be lost, not 15. I also want you to know that these are the lowest paid people in the district. They start off at minimum wage and most do not take insurance because they cannot afford it. Um, I do want to talk about the van that was talked about. I do think it will be a savings, even if you look at just the sporting events, the the transportation on sporting alone, I think it's was $200,000. Just that alone, I would go get my CDL to drive those sports I I grew up on a farm, I can drive a van. I'll go get my CDL. There's many people that would go and and and do these things and save money instead of losing positions.
110. 2:01:45Um, there's other things that I would like to look at, but you don't want me to say what those things are. So, I would be happy to meet with anybody to go over those things. Um And I also want to discuss the taxes. You're talking about raising taxes almost 6%. People can't afford that. You have people on fixed incomes, they can't afford that, they don't want to afford that. There's people that have the money that don't have children in this district. They don't want to pay that. It's going to be a hard sell, a very hard sell. I wish it was an easy sell, but I don't believe it's going to be. I just want to reiterate that that when you're talking about 21 aids, they're the first person here in the morning to deal with the children. They they they come here and they're the first ones to see the children and a lot of time they're the last ones to leave that deal with the children. It's a huge impact on this district and I'm not even sure how it would work. Even with special even with just the ones that are legally obligated to be here, I'm not even sure you would have
111. 2:02:47enough left for that. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> That's it. Write write it down, just so we have a record and then go ahead. Honestly, there's a bunch of stuff I could comment on and I don't know the specifics in terms of um, like some of the positions, of course, but I would say the tutoring center, the kids sometimes that get suspended, they're kind of come from some of the most vulnerable situations. And I do think it's important that their
112. 2:03:48routines are like the impact on their routines is minimized. So, I think it's really important that they continue coming to school. I don't foresee like uh I don't know how much like the money for that can comes to that amount. Like I don't know what the minimum amount would be needed to run that, but uh I think it would be important. And I don't personally think like uh, doing like a remote thing, especially with those kids that would be getting suspended, would be something that would be really feasible. But uh, yeah. Just on that specific, I've been on that. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> [applause] [applause] >> Walter, you want to Walter, can you just bring the board over there? Come across. Thanks. Yeah, just keep the board right there. My name is Bob Conti. I've been around, I'm about the oldest
113. 2:04:49one in this room, probably. Want to bet? How old are you? Uh, but I'm talking about the tutoring room. I've submitted a proposal about a week and a half ago, maybe 2 weeks ago. And the proposal was to eliminate 5 days a week to four, instead of three teachers in the room, two, which would save the district uh, a lot of money, $23,000. And eliminate the bus routes. You have to remember when we call the parent, and we do call all the parents, we get a name, suspension, we call the parents. We set up the bus routes. However, if we most of the kids, when we call the parents, it's a voluntary situation. All the state says is we have to offer
114. 2:05:52them 15 hours per week if they're suspended for 5 days. If you cut it to four days, we're offering them 16 hours, which we which meets the mandate for the state. If you cut the bus, first of all, a lot of the parents aren't going to send their kids, and the kids are going to refuse to come. A lot of kids refuse to come anyway. I would think right now, the way things are working, about 60% of the kids that we receive are not suspended. They are caught in the hallway and the principal or the vice principal sends them to us so they get some work done. So, we keep their grades up. That's the whole purpose of the tutoring center. It's not just for suspended kids. And I'd say that about 60% of them are not suspended. If they are suspended, they're for 2 days and most of the parents don't even want to send their kids for 2 days. So, our the proposal was going to cost the district
115. 2:06:56$23,000. That's the 130 that was up on the board and BOCES was going to cost them $28,000. Granted, they get 10,000 back for the next year. So, that's a difference of $5,000 for cutting our program. $5,000 and we're talking about 60 million up there. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Oh, by the way, I'm not saying this myself cuz I'm not coming back next year. I'm too old. >> [applause] >> Bob, you were my fourth grade teacher, right? Oh, stop rubbing it in. >> was it fourth grade? Fourth grade, yes. Probably a lot of people in this room. >> [applause] >> Okay.
116. 2:07:59Um, we have upcoming meeting dates. Um Tuesday, April 21st, 2026, Board of Education meeting at 6:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Thursday, April 23rd, 2026, voter registration day from 4:00 to 8:00 in the junior high school cafeteria. Wednesday, April 29th, 2026, nominating petitions are due for those interested in running for the Board of Education. Uh, they're due by 5:00 p.m. in the district office. Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 is the budget hearing at 6:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Tuesday, May 12th is policy committee meeting, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the high school library. Monday is May 18th, 2026 is a facilities committee meeting at 5:00 p.m. in the district office conference room. Tuesday, May 19th, 2026 is the budget vote and board member election from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And followed by a board meeting at 8:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium.
117. 2:09:01Um at this time, we do have uh need for a second executive session or first in this case uh for the purpose of employment history of particular persons and persons. Uh there'll be no further business after this executive session. I thank you all for being here. Thank you for all of you who spoke. Uh it is very meaningful. I'll make a motion to enter executive session at 8:06 p.m. Second. All in favor? All.

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