Board of Education, Regular Meeting transcript: FUTURE HUDSON

109 of 109 lines

1:32Good evening. Welcome to tonight's Board of Education meeting. Uh pursuant to New York State law, Mark DePace uh it will just be any of your remote video conferencing from 1940 East 6th Street, Cleveland, Ohio. >> [clears throat] >> Members of the public may attend public portions of the meeting at any location. Um please stand uh for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Wesley, roll call, please. Mark DePace Here. Amanda Grubler Here. Kirsten Gustavson Here. Diana Howard Here. Matthew McCrer Here. Maureen Sheridan Here. Mike Zibella Here. and Lebona Prova Here. I make a motion to accept the agenda as
2:37presented. Second. All in favor? That brings us to our student representative report. Since last meeting, the band was able to record What's Up in Utopia Studios in Bearsville. There is going to be a field trip to on Thursday for the Clearwater sale, where high school students can go on a boat. The Seal of Biliteracy presentations is starting on Thursday and Friday. There's going to be a sociology expo tomorrow. Envirothon's first competition is going to be next week. Mock Trial has had three competitions, and either today or tomorrow we'll find out if we go to county on Thursday. Um there is going to be a multicultural festival next month, May 15th, I believe. The class of 2027 is host hosting the golf tournament. And AP exams is starting in the next one or two weeks. That's it.
3:40Thank you. Uh for board reports, uh audit committee, uh the minutes for our March 9th meeting are uh in the agenda. Uh we have not met since the last meeting. Facilities We are meeting May 18th. We have not met since our last meeting. Policy Uh policy met last week. Um we are continuing to work through sort of general NISBA updates just to make sure that everything in our overall policy manual is up to par. Uh so we have tackled uh all of the zeros and the 9000s at this point. Um the edits to those will go to our attorney first for review and then will be up for first read on next month's agenda. Um in addition to that, uh it's been a little bit, I think, since I reported out on the policy subcommittee, which is the code of conduct committee. We have been meeting monthly. Um and spent uh two meetings ago really looking at uh draft code of conduct in other areas to see what we want to like
4:44look at, what are other models, and what's working for other districts, um and picking what we liked best from those and sort of seeing what applies to Hudson. Last meeting, last week, we worked on a revised draft of that. We're going to finalize that in our May meeting, and after that point, we will [clears throat] be working on getting input from the larger community. So thinking about student focus groups, staff focus groups, families, um so that in June we can take that feedback and incorporate it um into the code of conduct. So that's where we're at with that subcommittee as well. Thank you. Uh finance has not met since the last meeting as we've been holding board budget workshops. Uh board president's report Um yeah, we've been head down budget development, so we've not made uh progress on some of our other goals or initiatives. Those items within the next few weeks. Um we wanted to thank Dr. Bailey, Ms. Berry, and all of our administrators and staff for their hard work during this budget season.
5:46Uh also wanted to thank all the members of our community who have taken time to write letters or speak during our meetings. Um input from our community is a very valuable part of this process, and we've been trying to address as many different concerns uh as possible. Look forward to reviewing uh this next budget budget presentation with everybody. Can folks in the audience hear him? I can hear him. Sort of. Is there I wonder is there is there anything we can do on sound? Like can we stick a mic in front of the mic or something? Like You can go on. >> [laughter] >> I'll fidget with things. Got it. Yeah. And I'm forgetting All right, thank you. Should I try that again? A little better. Can folks hear that better?
6:47Talk again, Mark. Okay. A little better? There we go. That's better. Okay. All right. Uh >> [clears throat] >> I'll read I'll go through it again. Um just saying we've been head down in budget development, have not made uh progress on many of our other goals or objectives, but look forward to revisiting them next few weeks. Um wanted to thank Dr. Bailey, Ms. Berry, and all of our administrators for their hard work during this budget season. And also wanted to thank all of the members of our uh staff and community who have taken the time to write letters or speak during meetings. Uh input from our community is a very valuable part of this process. We've tried to address as many concerns as possible, and look forward to reviewing an updated budget presentation together. All right, that brings us to budget presentation number seven. Hello again.
8:01When we met last time, I'm I'm not going to uh go through all of the history of all of the things we've talked about since January, but um start from where we left off last time. The board tasked us to come up with an additional $300,000 in revenue specifically to help lower the number of reductions in staff. And the options that uh we discussed last time was raising uh going above the tax cap to raise the additional $300,000, which is about 6.94% or to take additional money from our unassigned fund balance, so that $300,000 from there. So I wanted to start from there. Oh, uh can you put it in presentation mode so I can advance it? I think, Frank, can we just add that the
9:02last thing that the board asked was to like see if there was any more savings that could be dredged up from other non non-personnel areas. Correct. I'm willing to sacrifice Mark for a brief time while we're presenting, cuz I think the there's so many small details and numbers on the screen. Yeah. Interesting. You can swap monitors. Yeah, I think that's swapping the screens so that the presentation is up there, maybe. It won't, because that's me up there. It won't. It won't put it up there for whatever reason. Hm. Is there any way to disconnect from that screen temporarily so we can project up there? Yeah,
10:04it's just Mark Bromley was using it. Mark has it on his >> he has a copy of it. There's that pesky screen. That's the one. Thank you. All right. There's a lot of things on this agenda, but basically each one of them is one slide. And it really digs to the heart of the discussions that we have have had and as I was reflecting on all of our discussions around reserves and unassigned fund balance,
11:06we've discussed quite a few times the purpose of those particular funds uh reserves are legally restricted savings accounts that districts can have. And we have it in >> [clears throat] >> various areas. Unemployment um we could have a tax certiorari which is to relieve when someone challenges their taxes, capital reserve employee benefits and the comptroller actually sets some uh what he considers to be recommended or allowable levels in reserves. Like we talk all the time about unassigned fund balance is supposed to be no more than 4%. That's not a reserve, but that's a perfect example. We talk about that all the time. On the screen is the last 3 years in our reserves. The blue line represents the amount of money in our combined reserves. 2026 is right in the middle
12:10and I project it out uh 27 and 28. So, we started at just about 7. 2 million back in 2023. And there are some very legitimate reasons to use reserve. For instance, um between 23 and 24 is when you're having discussions around your construction project in 24 and 25. And if you had a capital reserve, that's where the money would have come from uh to help launch your project. You can see the precipitous drop in the reserves each successive year. This past year to get to the 25-26 school year the board uh adopted a resolution to spend $900,000 from our reserves to balance the budget because you got right to the end of the process last year confronted with the potential loss of 18 staff and you made a conscious choice which we do we you have to do
13:13to use the reserves along with some unassigned fund balance to make it work. So, if we were to you know, estimate last year I think it was 2.1 or so million of unassigned fund balance and 900,000 in reserves you used the the district used 3 million dollars in our savings to balance this year's budget. So, that tells us this year's budget was $3 million over budget. More expenses than we were actually bringing in revenue. So, as I said, we all make hard decisions like that and you made uh a strong decision at the time because that's that's the information you were given as as a a choice. Many boards make that choice. As we go into this year from a 58 and a half million dollar budget from this year going into next year
14:14at estimated expenses over 63 million we can see that we're aiming for a 59 million dollar budget this year, about 59.1 or so. We're not just 4 million dollars short of our revenue because we're still going to use reserves and we're still going to use our unassigned fund balance. And we haven't made a hard decision yet, but about 2.3 million dollars. What that tells us is we are now 6.3 5.3 million dollars over what our revenues are. We're spending 5.3 million and that's why the board tasked us it is 6.3. That's why the board tasked us to find $4 million in reductions that we came and brought to the meeting this last time. Closing that 6.3 million gap to 2.3 million.
15:18Those are big numbers. And still using 500,000 in reserves and I projected out what the reserves would look like 500,000 or so. We're using about 533,000 is the proposal for this year. Um each successive year you can see there'll be just under 3 million in 2028. That bar on the on the right in the red is what the comptroller recommends as allowable reserves. And in that [clears throat] is $3 million for capital reserve because of that is the spark that allows us to do construction projects. I've said before we're aidable at 70% so we could generate a $10 million project out of a $3 million capital reserve. We don't have any capital reserve money as right now. But in the future, if there is ever any money left, that's a good place to put that money and it can only come out with taxpayer
16:20uh votes to do so cuz it's usually, you know, partnered with a construction project. So about 7.7 million dollars is what the comptroller says is allowable and even potentially advisable and we have about 4 million dollars in reserves right now. Unassigned fund balance. And I went back to 2023 which is on the far left and that's the remaining unassigned fund balance and then the green is how much was used to balance the budget in each of those years. And there's a lot of reasons why in 24 and 25 we might have yielded uh savings, right? We were able to put money away. We got to the end of the year, we had money left over. That's normal. That's really what districts should be doing. Fiscal responsibility um follow uh the board policies and be as conservative and accurate as you can be
17:22as you're spending money. You should always have some for those unexpected things. You have to add a bus route. You have to add a student with disabilities and an out-of-district placement. You have to add a staff member because you have a specialized program that needs to be created. Usually you have some of those things in there that you can find in different lines in the budget to create that. So 23-24 marks the end of the COVID money which I don't know what Hudson's allocation was. Mine in my former district was $9 million? That went an awful long way to add to program and in some instances maybe supplant some program. In other words, we used that grant money to pay for things we would have ordinarily paid for including technology. So, at the end of the year, all right, money to put in the unassigned fund balance and we see the rise up to 25 which is where we are this year.
18:26We're proposing [clears throat] 1.889 million be used from that unassigned fund balance next year to balance the budget. I talked about a 2.3 million dollar shortfall, some from reserves, some from the unassigned fund balance. And then if we did that again in 27, you can see that there's about $2 million left and we use our 1.9. Actually, it's a little less than 1.9. It'd be like 1.7 left. And if we did it again in 2028, it's gone. The reason I show these two you is I mentioned last time that every single solitary dollar that this district can find they should save because it will save someone's job next year or the year after. Every single dollar. Money in software
19:29um not hiring a vacancy, eliminating a bus route making a decision next year to have students walk if they're within a quarter mile of the school. Consolidating programs. Every single dollar will save people's jobs going forward. So, it's not just about helping those people that are with us today. It's about helping everyone that's with us next year and the following year and the year after that. And what's doing what's best for our students, too. I mean, I don't want to omit them from the discussion. They're not the ones that are here with us right now, but to preserve what we have for the students in our care. And the taxpayers, too. But we know our students and our staff, they're the ones that live here and are experiencing this. We dug in. We found $300,000. And the reason I spent so much time discussing
20:31the reserves and the unassigned fund balance is we did it in a somewhat unique way. So, reinstating two instructional staff positions and four aides. And you can see the change numbers in red. This slide now to overall savings of 2.113 million dollars. And this is how we did it. To restore those positions, two instructional positions is about $180,000. And the four aide positions is about $120,000 coming to 300,655. Again, I say, if we chose to take more money from our unassigned fund balance, you are just spelling someone's reduction next year. So, we took $100,000 from the unassigned fund balance, and then we cut to the bone all throughout the budget in the areas that are up there.
21:34And some more. And again, formatting has betrayed me. I think there's something down at the bottom that you can't see. Maybe? Yes. Yes. Yep. Want me to read it out? >> So, the new projected expense is now 59,171,704, which represents a $100,000 increase. Because if we are uh taking an additional $100,000 from the unassigned fund balance, that adds 100,000 from the quote for the budget um that we had last uh at the last meeting. And I'll be a thousand percent transparent and say this is tight. This budget is tight. When we have when you have these instances where you might have to create a special program or add a bus route or add a staff member or pay for a student in a special
22:36program you're likely going to have to reduce something. That's how tight this is. And I want you to record me saying that. I want you to remember that. This is not a good foreboding. I know that. I understand that. It's just I want you to know that. You will continue to have hard decisions. These are not the only ones that you will be having. And I encourage you to actually start next year with a spending freeze. In other words, the normal day-to-day, we would we needed a box of pencils, we would fill out a requisition fill out something from Amazon or Staples or somewhere and we'd send it off to be processed and wait to get our pencils. I wouldn't do that unless there was not a single pencil left in any cabinet in this district. Because every penny you save, every dollar you save is going to preserve a job going forward. It doesn't mean that we can't purchase
23:38things. I don't want to I don't want you to think that because there are lots of things that must be purchased as a part of the operations of a school district beyond payroll and our capital expenses and our utilities. There are lots of things that we use on a daily basis. We will need to purchase. But when you are in a uh spending freeze everything has an extra level of is this absolutely a necessity or can we find it from somewhere else? Is there anything else that we can do? It's that nickel, dime, and dollar saving that will give you money to put in your unassigned fund balance at the end of next year. Districts cannot use their funds like a credit card. We do. But there is no paying your debt at a later date. Because you never know what the revenues are going to be coming in next year. The state has proven that. The state went up 0.3%. They represent half of our budget. And
24:42health health insurance alone, 1.5 million. So, if you think about as a pie every taxpayer in this district pays 50%. They pay 100% of 50% of that pie. So, if the state says, "We're not going to raise anything." and we have a 2% expense, every taxpayer gets a 4% raise. Cuz the state's not moving. The only place to get it is from the taxpayer. When health insurance goes up 1 and 1/2 million and we know that 300,000 is every percent on our tax levy that's a 10% tax levy just to pay for health insurance. These things that are out of our control are scary and dangerous and certainly there's lots of forces out there in the world who are trying to get them in control. But the magnitude of what we're up against with health insurance and other retiree benefits and stuff like that is great. So, it isn't just some of the bookkeeping things and hiring things
25:46that have contributed to where we are. Many, many districts are where we are because of those factors. And it hurts my heart that we're talking about people every time we're talking about this situation. And there are people who came to Hudson because they wanted to work here. They wanted to give of themselves. Teaching and working in a school is a thousand percent generosity and giving of yourself. You can't come to a school and not do that. But this isn't [clears throat] just about if we can adapt, the district must adapt and slim, be thinking slim and be thinking conservative every single day that you're in operation for the next year and the following year. It will save people's jobs. >> [clears throat] >> I included this in the last presentation but I didn't in a way that may have
26:49struck clarity. When you began the school year July 1st of 2025 you had a superintendent and five executive level positions. That included uh the executive position in IT. And in the fall, the board eliminated one vacant position. That brought it down to four positions, executive level positions. And because it was kind of mixed up in moving to BOCES for technology and in a reduction of an administrator at central office, I don't know if everyone could see it with the clear vision that I was trying to express. You started this year with five executive level positions and you will start July 1st of 2026 with two. I clearly we heard the people saying, "You need to be thinking about central office." That's central office. That's the right size for right now. That's what we need, savings of 402 and
27:521/2 thousand dollars. I also talked about the potential reduction of a building level administrator. I want to be abundantly clear what that might look like. We will have to look and you asked last time, "What What are we going to do? We're going to eliminating these staff members. How are we going to open the doors and do the work that we ordinarily do?" You are going to have to look at your pre-K 12 program as if you've never seen it before and start from there. This isn't a we've always done this or this is what we had. This is a how do we make this awesome with the resources we have? We are still a district with abundant resources. We're very fortunate. There are places that are worse off than us and people that are better off than us. We have the capacity to do great things, but we're going to have to rethink. One of those things is consolidating the junior and senior high. I mentioned last time having to seek permission from the state education
28:54department and I've spoken to them and they're receptive to us making this change. Even though it's after there was a March 1st deadline. Who knew? I've never consolidated a building before. Um but they said, "Based on what your fiscal challenges are, we're more than happy to help." So, this is what it could look like. One principal, two associate principals. The part-time deans are in quotes because that is a topic that would have to be discussed with different labor units. But I believe [clears throat] that having assistants in lower level dis- discipline is one of the keys to making this as streamlined as possible. I'm not going to say we were thinking about this before we got into this budget crisis. But I will say some of the benefits that come from doing this. I my kids went to a small school where the junior and senior high were together. What it does is it allows for you to take all of those wonderful
29:57resources in both schools and operationalize them in a way that's different and sometimes better. Both core and special areas. And we would all anybody who's ever worked in a school would admit there's like an invisible wall when you leave a building in fifth grade and go into a building in sixth grade and then you leave a building in eighth grade and you go into a different building in ninth grade. There's like an invisible wall. Being together thinking together helps to eliminate that eighth to ninth grade which is one of the greatest mysteries of humanity when you're talking about teenagers. And I have to hope that communication will be better between the 6-12 staff because they're in it together. Shared leadership shared resources, student supports. I know I'm making lemonade out of lemons. I'm just saying that there are some things that are beneficial to making strategic changes like that for a savings of 100 86,998. So here is the slide in total. I
31:05finished my discussion with you last time similarly and the numbers that are changed are in red. We did find some more additional money in software and I should have mentioned it before because this puts a pretty pretty good context. Our software budget was approximately 200 to 210,000 dollars this year. We reduced 80,000 when we came to the table last week. We found some more money 94,000. And I will tell you that because we're still working with the BOCES to try and figure out what the advantages are for us moving other software over to them. We could yield some savings too because as I mentioned it's either you could get a discount or you unquestionably start generating aid. You need aid going into 2027-28. I mentioned every dollar spent 36 cents comes back. You need that and it'll be included on your revenue side when you go into next year.
32:08And all those operational efficiencies that reduction last time was 840 or so thousand dollars. So we've added 200,000 dollars like I said those other areas that we cut. >> [clears throat] >> And the number before you probably remember was 4,128,000. But because we are using 100,000 dollars of our unassigned fund balance, we did not have to reduce as much. Do you have any questions about any of that so far? Well, I have a question. Yeah. So I think it was a slide about having like one principal for the junior and senior high. Like is there any [clears throat] like what would day-to-day life look like for a student? Like is there any like direct impacts that students would feel when they're
33:10in the school? That's a great question. We know that when you're going from 400 students to 700 and change or 300 students to 700 obviously the level of contact will inevitably be less. The trade-off is their relationship will be longer. Known person, known quantity sixth to 12th grade. There is a lot of benefit to that. Cuz it creates norms, it creates expectations, shared vision. Um but obviously adding three or 400 students is going to change what that relationship might look like. There wouldn't be a change to sort of the it would still be junior high on one side, senior high on the other, right? In terms of sort of like day-to-day interactions of students minus maybe like elective programs or things where
34:12we were able to think more creatively about that. Very similarly uh this year when there's a frequently when there's an advanced program the staff member goes to the junior high to offer that. Uh it's it wasn't our thought process or intention to have sixth graders be in the English wing in the high school unless there was a darn good reason for it. Uh also you think of when when if we were doing that we'd be compounding the travel time. That's a big building. The high school alone is a very big building. So it wasn't our intention to have students mingling and and going back and forth en masse like that. Going back to the um unassigned fund balance. I obviously it's bad if we have no fund balance. But what happens if we need to have an expense that's more than our leftover remaining fund balance? You ideally would have some reserves left. The some of the reserves by board action
35:16money can come from them to help uh bridge a gap. Or as I mentioned before you would have to get rid of something, get rid of an expense in order to meet the needs of a new expense. Okay. Cuz if we're looking at the say obviously the more we use it the less balance we're going to have. Right. So if you're projecting none left in 28 and that's where we're at. If we continue using 1.889 Okay. What would happen if there was an expense and there was nothing left? You would not buy it. Okay. You would but you have the potential to move money out of a reserve. Okay. Uh it happens. I mean I mean moving money out of reserves does happen in rare circumstances. Um but it's the six of one half dozen the other. Then you're depleting that side, you know, whatever's left in the reserve. And some of the reserves are important. Um
36:18employee retirement contribution. Every single person that works here we're contributing to their retirement as well if they're within their first 10 years or depending on their tier they're contributing and the district is contributing. District contributes all the way through the end of someone's career. Um teacher retirement, unemployment insurance. There's a repair reserve which we used some of this year for that repair of the pump on the furnace, the boiler. Employee benefit accrued liability, workers compensation. And um Oh, I forgot to mention the other reason why this year's uh unassigned fund balance went up pretty drastically is there was a tax reserve that expired and that 500 or so thousand dollars went back into the general fund. So that also added to that spike in this year's unassigned fund balance. Okay. But not having money in the reserves is dangerous, too.
37:20Uh it's intended to be to to be able to weather uh changes, unexpected changes in expenses. And if they're not there it's extremely problematic, obviously. Okay. Thank you. So when we left last week we were tasked with looking at a couple options in terms of the tax cap. And when we began this budget process the development process it has been a very difficult process to go through.
38:21When recognizing that the expenses have outpaced our revenues there's a recognition that the numbers on the page also are always representing our staff, students, and community members and it has a direct impact on the community and the education at large here. So as we're presenting a revenue plan just know that all of those things went into the process and making sure that we have the revenue that matches the expenses of you'll see at the bottom around 59 million dollars and there's a couple different options for you this evening to look at. So here we are at the tax cap which is the most that we can ask for which is the 5.8%. And if you notice the highlighted number we'd be utilizing our fund balance of the 1.889 amount on that line.
39:27And that also gets us to 59 million dollars which balances our which balances our expenses. It's a 1.07% increase. >> [clears throat] >> We've looked at this before, but I did want to illustrate how that this estimated tax impact would have on the annual and monthly statements for a home valued at 200,000. We've talked about that there's a way in which you would need to estimate your total home value and then multiply it by these um monthly amounts in order to get the total. And this is at the tax cap of 5.8% increase. The other option
40:39is to go above the tax cap. And this is at 6.94%, which would require a majority or 60% vote in order to pass. It increases the tax levy with that 300,000 dollar amount that we had talked about needing for the expenses. And only use uses 1.5 million of the assigned fund balance in this in this option. But again, this does require that 60% majority vote. And increases the tax levy by 6.94%. And this creates a difference in the annual and and monthly statements for our taxpayers.
41:44Can you remind us again this is based on a $200,000 home value? Someone remind me I know there was an equation for like how that how you scale up the amount based on home value. I feel like Matt you had a simple way to calculate that last time. Um >> [clears throat] >> Sorry to put you on the spot. Uh yeah, you're going to uh divide the house value by the 200,000 and use that multiplier. times the number that's up there. >> Yep. So if you had a $400,000 home, you would double it. >> Yep. Just wanted to make sure everyone asking for myself but also everybody else. Absolutely. So a $200,000 is it's just a base, but you would you would multiply that you would double it if your home is valued at $400,000. So that would be your yearly your yearly amount annual. Or if it was $600,000, you would you would triple that number. So this takes a look at our three-part
42:53budget, but this is this goes to demonstrate the expenses. So previously we're talking about our revenues and that's the funding that's coming in. The expenses is what is going out. And it's always broken up into three three different parts. And this is a comparison from the from the current year until next year and the at proposed total for each year. So you'll see the biggest difference is in the administrative line between the different years. There's a decrease there and the capital has increased. We do have some additional principal and interest that will be coming in um for our for our capital projects next year. So here's what's left for the board to
43:56decide. Um as you mentioned before um the board must adopt this week the latest that the um the tax What is it called? What's the thing on Friday? Yeah, the tax report card we're required to submit to the state by Friday. So the decision has to be made this week which of these resolutions is appropriate. Is the board interested in going out at 5.8% or are they interested in going out at 6.94%? As we talked about before 60% plus one if you're going to go out over the cap the consequences for not uh being successful in either situation is to go back out with a the same budget or a slightly modified budget or automatically go to um the fallback plan which we do not want to do. We we don't want to go to the fallback plan. We'd want to pass the budget.
45:06>> [clears throat] >> I'm going to put the resolutions back up so you can see them. What happens if it goes to vote twice and it fails? I know we go to contingency, but can you explain what's going to happen if we do go to a contingency as opposed to what you're offering or what's being proposed now? Immediately equipment is uh pulled from the budget. Um the board has to make decisions about every almost every expense. They get to kind of paint by numbers, but there are some things that um automatically are res- uh restricted. Like um any administrative job that isn't protected by collective bargaining they may not receive a raise going from year to year. Um and uh we are not allowed to go above this year's
46:07budget number 58 5440000. That's the biggest consequence. So we would immediately be looking at another $600,000 in cuts before the board started making decisions about what we wanted to do with that reduced number. And where would those cuts most likely be coming from? That's it truly I when you read it uh it is it's pretty daunting. The board actually has a lot of latitude in I um it's a little different. It becomes a mechanical exercise rather than one of necessarily uh it's it becomes a must. And you don't have a decision. I mean it's there's a a lot of must in there, but going back down to 58,544,000 would be very very difficult. Does the state step in and advise or is it still all in the board? As lo- as long as we stay with under
47:08that number and we're not violating the few caveats that the state has put out there, they won't step in. Okay. Do those and those cuts would happen before the start of the next school year? It's like a pretty immediate reduction, right? So we would like immediately need another $600,000 out of what is already a very Yes. >> trim budget. Correct. In other words, we don't want that to happen. No. Shall we sit so you can discuss? Well, I think I'll say something because I know that I started the fight last week and I don't want to raise taxes and I don't want to lose my people. Uh but Mike redirected me and I was able to come up with some things that I I just want to share and I know everybody here is getting nervous because I'm the wild card at the table, but
48:11uh somebody paid for me to go to school K-12, right? Somebody paid taxes and thought I'm paying for some stranger. I don't even have any kids in the school. So somebody paid for me to go K-12. Uh additionally, I was a teacher here in this district for 25 years. And so somebody paid my salary. And now that I'm retired, somebody's paying my pension. So as much as it's a struggle internally, you know, Mike actually de-escalated me last week and I appreciate you. Um I don't want to pay more taxes. I don't, but I I don't want to lose my people. Because okay, so last week I went to the Bank of Green County to talk to the manager, former student. Went to Plaza Diner, my patty melt was made by a former student. My hairdresser, former student. I called my real estate agent, we went to high school together. So you know, it's not just that the district is a family. Anywhere you go, we're going to run into
49:14each other. Period. So I feel even though this is really scary and I don't want to do it this is my obligation as a member of this community to pay back to the families of the people that put me through my whole whatever I went through that didn't even know who I I or what my potential is. So, the other thing that we don't really understand is the potential of the children that come through our district. You look at us as test scores, graduation rates. I I didn't even know what I don't even know what I want to be when I grow up and now, I'm not going to know what I want to be when I'm in school. And even if I fail at something, a teacher's job is to tell that kid, that's okay. It's okay to fail. It's all right to fail because, you know what? That's an opportunity for growth. So, if I open my mouth and I say the wrong thing, I need somebody to say, "Look, you think about what you're saying." A teacher's job is to question and provoke. Period. That's what we do.
50:17Don't be surprised. We question and we provoke provoke. And so, you take with that for whatever it is. Um I'm not happy either way because I don't know how my people are going to get their jobs done for our kids' kids that are going through there, you know? So, uh I that's I guess I broke the floor open for somebody to follow me, but like Shannon said last meeting, we have to get out of the box. And what you're proposing is drastic and it's hooray, we're getting out of the box. We're trying to figure stuff out. You know, we had the 20 cuts last year and you knew it was coming. Uh it's here again. So, collectively, we need to do something together, not form a wall so that we can't work cooperatively together. We need to get over the wall so that we can show our kids good examples of us working collectively together to come up with a solution. I know we're all secret and we can't talk to each other and all that, but we
51:19need to show examples too so that the kids know healthy ways to get over the wall and work together. So, those words are actually from my boxing coach, so I'm going to give you credit, who's also a graduate and an employee of the district. So, I appreciate everybody [applause] and I'm sorry if I made anybody uncomfortable, but I I can't sit here and and not say I'm comfortable or uncomfortable. I I need to be my true self like everybody needs to be their true self. So, I'll do whatever you guys need me to do. Period. I'm a team player. The end. And again, thanks Mike because I was a little bit nuts last week. Uh I mean, I agree with you. I mean, the impact of the district on the community um is enormous. We we are educating our fellow citizens out there. Um I think the peculiarity of this
52:20moment is that we are cutting expenses to have a 1% increase in the budget and it's going to result in a 5.8% tax increase in effect. Um the dynamic of our state aid um you know, the use of reserves in prior years is what's kind of shifting this uh dynamic. But, I think that part of the message that needs to get out is that this isn't the worst-case scenario. The worst case is contingent budget. That's what I was trying to imply to you. And we've got to we've got to sell this uh to a community that needs to understand the value of what goes on in these walls. Um >> And outside the walls. >> And outside the walls, you're right. So, um I don't know that we would pass a override. I believe I looked up last year, we got 60.4% um which would just pass it on a 3 and 1/2%
53:24increase. So, uh I'm inclined to say that we add the additional fund balance for the plan that was presented this evening. Um and that we you know, that's and that we got to sell it and sell the value of the district to the community. I Dana, I think you like nailed it, right? That is there's no comfortable option. There's no good option here, right? And like you said, like these are our kids, our spouses, our neighbors um in this moment. I I feel really torn between these two. Like I I hear what you're saying on like we should like rally and pass whatever we need to pass from the taxes to like do what's right for our kids um and our community. And I'm trying to be sensitive to like the impact that that does have on people's taxes and I'm terrified of it failing, right? And I think if there's a if we need two shots at a budget to not get to the contingency, we need to do
54:27what gives us the best chance at that. Um and I think that that would make me feel more in line with Matt from that perspective, though I could be persuaded either way on this. I mean, I think if I spoke, I'd I'd mostly repeat what you just said. I'm real concerned that that if we go to the 6.94 and we need and we don't get our 60% and then we come back out at 5.8 and we don't get that. We run the real risk of running into contingency. And those cuts are even deeper. And Leslie mentioned at the last meeting that we have to pay for two elections also. That is a really valid point. There's there's no good option. What is What is the most likely option to protect what we can? I think there was a comment made last
55:32week that this happened to get to 2011. Um and basically, it was a restart. And I think we're in that situation where we have to restart from previous administrations that were here to we have to regroup. And I said no nobody wants to see an increase. Nobody wants to see jobs lost. But, we need to start someplace. And we also need people to get out and vote. I think the voter numbers are very small compared to the eligible voters. So, if you want a voice, whether you own or rent, get out there and vote because it all matters. We need we need to hear from you. Mark, you got anything? I was on mute. You're muted, Mark. >> you. No, he's not. The sound is off for some reason. Uh do we move them? No. Something is Oh, he unplugged it because we needed to use the uh Hold on a moment, Mark. Cuz the sound trying to come from that
56:34computer. Hold that thought, Mark. So, I'll just speak up when while we're waiting for Mark. Um I know there there are a lot of community members that are complaining about our test scores and our graduation rates and how can we, you know, and the number of employees we have and how much money, you know, our budget is, but um I just want to encourage the anybody in the public that questions what we do what we do, what the teachers do every day, come and see, volunteer. If you're you're really concerned that we're not, you know, doing enough or doing a good job or getting paid to, you know, whatever it is, come into the building,
57:36volunteer to do do, you know, to help out on the playground, whatever it is that you come and see the work that's done every day, the hard work that's done every day. Um there are a lot of wonderful things happening. Um and we have an incredible district with um who are, you know, so talented and and I think um Hudson just is underappreciated and and I know this sounds cliche, but misunderstood. So, I'll just leave it at that. And I I would I'm I would vote for the 5.8. Yeah. Some folks who can't volunteer can come to a game or come to a performance. Our students are our our staff is is helping our students be their best selves every day. And there are lots of ways for us to see that. I agree. Mark, you want to try and speak?
58:40Hello. There we go. Go ahead. All right. Um yes, I and thank you everybody for the comments. This is a We're talking about a lot of important things. And yes, we do need to get the community to um you know, be more involved in our schools and and recognize the work that everybody does. Um I think I would be most in favor of going out with the 5.8. Um you know, we have a [cough] ton of work to do over the next few months um both adjusting to uh new administrator coming in, um you know, figuring out the best ways to run our schools next year in this new paradigm. Um so, whatever makes it most attractive to our community to go out there and vote yes on the 19th and pass it in the first attempt I think would be the most prudent thing to do.
59:43Um, you know, dragging it out would only create more distraction from all the uh important things that we need to do to get ready for the next school year and get our students ready to go. Any other [clears throat] thoughts? Good. Okay. Uh thank you for the presentation. Uh at this time the board needs an executive session. I make a motion to enter executive session to discuss the employment history of particular person or persons. Second. All in favor? We will be hasty. >> Pearson I'll make a motion to exit
1:10:39executive session at 7:10. >> think your speaker's on. Second. All in favor. All right. All [clears throat] right. Uh thank you for your patience. Uh now we'll move to the personnel agenda. I'll make a motion to approve personnel agenda items A 1 through 7 and B 1 through 10. Second. All in favor. All right. This brings us to public participation. Mark, do you want to give the spiel? Um Yes. Uh It's important for us to hear from the community. Everybody uh each person gets minutes to speak. Uh under state federal privacy laws we cannot entertain comments about individual personnel or students. Leslie
1:11:42Uh first First we have Nikki Genito. No, if you would, please. Hello everybody. Um Nikki Genito, as you all know. I work here, graduated from here. My children graduated from here. I'm the union president for the aides union. Um I just want to discuss a couple things. Um first of all, what Maureen was saying about the people from the outside looking in that don't have kids here and they look at the scores and just the grades and and graduation rates and things like that. I've been to a lot of schools and I've never seen a school just like Hudson. It takes a village to raise these children. These children come into these classes, come into these schools with the weight of the world on their shoulders. There is so much in their personal lives that they bring into this school that if you if you don't know, you don't know.
1:12:47Um the cuts it's it's just going to get worse. I think we realize that. And I don't know what it where that puts the children and that's what I'm worried about the most is the children here. You're cutting their the people they trust. You're cutting the teachers. You're cutting the aides. You're cutting the people they see daily. It's a struggle. It is a struggle. I'm also a taxpayer. I understand where am I coming up with this extra money? I get that, too. Um talking with Dr. Bailey how he said we have to look at everything. We have to cut everything. I I want to bring attention to the consultant agreement on the agenda tonight. I I urge you to take it off the agenda until the new superintendent comes on board. This seems extreme. Um we can hire a treasurer for less than this. We shouldn't be spending any any more money than we have to right now. >> [applause] >> I understand we have to make cuts
1:13:53and it's so scary to hear it because you're listening to you saying that we're bare-bones. As we all know, there's unexpected that comes up every year. How how are we going to deal with that? I don't hear any plans about that besides saying we can't. Well, there's some things you're going to have to. That it's it's law. It's building repairs. We have to. How are we going to do that? There's many questions. I'm sure everybody's scared. And it's a it's a it's a huge huge loss to these children. But I hope that everybody up there understands. And I I just want to thank Diana for what she said. We've been having a board lately that doesn't speak about anything and everything is secretive. We want to hear. We want to hear. We want to hear what the board has to say. And I I hope we hear more of it. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next we have Lori Campbell.
1:14:57>> [clears throat] >> Hello. My name is Lori Campbell. I have spent my entire life as a Blue Hawk. A proud 2003 grad, ASP counselor, one-on-one aide, literacy coach, and elementary reading specialist. To say that my heart and soul is blue and gold is an understatement. Dr. Bailey, I would like to personally thank you for taking such a humanistic approach to your leadership. Your kindness has not gone unnoticed and I urge every member of this board to seek out these same qualities of compassion and benevolence in their search for our next superintendent. There is nothing that our faculty and
1:16:00students need more. >> [applause] >> Members of the board, thank you for continuing to review, to question how these choices could have the least impact on our children. It is clear from the expression on your faces that you share and join us in the collective sadness felt by our entire district. Remember the immense power your decisions hold and an all-important lesson I learned so many years ago within these walls. It is never too late to do the right thing. Sadly, we know these cuts have to be made and as Dr. Bailey stated, this is no longer a question of when or if, but a question of how. How? Such a small word with such a lasting impact on our children. In the days that followed last week's gut-wrenching presentation, the faculty and staff on the front line began to slowly put all of these pieces together. This led us to the heartbreaking
1:17:03realization that the majority of these proposed cuts are happening at the elementary level. Four classroom teachers, two reading specialists, two speech and language pathologists, two school psychologists, 15 aides. Again, that all-important word, how? Every piece of research and literature available will 100% support an educational structure with a large, strong, robust foundation. In other words, you put the bulk of your resources, teachers, support staff, aides, in your elementary building. Yet as a district, we are choosing and yes, choosing to solve our financial challenges by placing the burden on the shoulders of our youngest learners. Our baby Blue Hawks
1:18:08that burst through that door at 4 and 5 years old, bright smiles, eager to learn, and filled with humor and creativity, joy, and a diversity that embodies everything that is beautiful and special about Hudson. But within these backpacks bigger than they are, some also bring uncertainty, hunger, and a worry of responsibilities far beyond their young years. And in step and and in steps our people to greet them with open arms because when you are a teacher and a staff member on the front lines in the Hudson City School District, you have no choice but to give with your whole heart and soul because it's it is simply what we do. We may not be perfect, but nobody outshines us when it comes to love. >> [sighs] >> Providing support at the elementary level is not only best practice, it is an act of compassion. Choosing this
1:19:12decision goes beyond dollars and bottom lines. It is about equity. Dr. Bailey, I have heard you time and time in last budget presentations reference equity and our students are in deep deep need of equity. It is your moral and your ethical responsibility as district leaders to ensure that a child's potential is not measured by their circumstance. Four classroom elementary teachers. It takes a really incredible person to be an elementary classroom teacher. >> [applause] >> You are taking away the people who create a feeling of home. People who make our youngest, tiniest, most innocent feel seen, understood, safe and loved on a daily basis. They rise to the challenges of the ever-changing and never-ending demands placed upon their shoulders. And now you are asking them to do even more with
1:20:15less. Larger class sizes, less specialist support, less aid support. And even though I have seen with my own eyes that they are superheroes of the education world, how? Ms. Campbell, I'm not going to cut you off, but I'll ask you to conclude, please. I'm sorry, what? The 3-minute limit. Oh, that is why See, at the elementary educators, we think outside the box. And my friend Mrs. Rapant is signed up after. I And I And I hear you, but we it has gone over the limit for a while. So, I'll just >> Well, the next speaker so I can have her 3 minutes. It It was a while ago, but I'm I'm I'm not asking you to I think that the district owes us this right now. Thank you. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Two reading specialists. Two speech pathologists, two school psychologists. We are not simply extra support. We are not an an additional luxury item that we have become accustomed to in our district that can
1:21:18be easily crossed off a budgetary list. We are specialists in our field who provide intensive support to those who need it most. We allow our children the chance to soar. We send the message to every child and their families, we see you, we are here for you, and we will give you everything we have. Within the last 2 years, despite growing needs, the elementary reading department has lost three reading specialists. The possibility of losing two more would have a catastrophic impact on our students. These educators specialize in the intricate complexities that are diagnosis and remediation. They support colleagues in the classroom, collect and analyze data, and are a crucial component of the MTSS process. Many also on our caseload receive ENL and special education services. Learning to read is not a privilege, it is a fundamental right. And mastering the skills to be a proficient reader is essential to leveling the playing field and is a critical focus for, again, equity in our education. And so I ask the board,
1:22:21>> [applause] >> what is a more essential skill for our students to acquire than the gift of literacy? 15 aides at the elementary level. Our classroom and building aides are the glue that hold it all together. They work the longest days and the most challenging settings with the least amount of recognition and the least amount of compensation. Yet every day they show up and support our students and staff in countless ways. Most importantly, they are responsible for the safety and students in the cafeteria and on the playground. Again, how? Seeing the proposed cuts of 15 aides as savings to the district comparable to one central office staff member sickens me. >> [applause] >> It sends the message that these positions are disposable and they are anything but. They are the backbone of our building and we simply cannot run without them. Again, how? How are we choosing to take away people who build lasting
1:23:23relationships with our students for decades? This is evident in the continued commitment of some of our most retired our longest retired teachers. People like Ellen Humer, Bob Conti, Mary Beth Leezer, Hudson Elementary teachers who have who even after their collective 100-plus years of service continue to support our Blue Hawks in the tutoring center and as building substitutes. And when asked why, the answer is always simple. There are still important work to do and lives to change. How? How are you looking at these people, your people, the people who have stood by your side through the challenges of teaching during a global pandemic, through years of negative headlines, and through the endless revolving door at central administration where a large part of the responsibility lies for the situation we currently face? >> [applause] >> Yet they show up day in and day out because of this simple fact, our kids are worth it. And they refuse to give up
1:24:27on them. I'm almost done. I got a Hudson City School District education. And so [applause] we ask, are you ready to not give up on us? It is not too late. Yes, you may not be able to change the bottom line numbers, but you can have the courage to do what is right and change the story for the better. Thank you. >> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Trish, you don't want to speak? Okay. Melissa Brown. It's a hard act to follow. I was just I was just going to say
1:25:30that's a very hard act to follow. I will try my best. I did not intend to speak tonight, so I don't have prepared notes. So, forgive me. I'm not super good at speaking extemporaneously, but I will try my best. Um my name is Melissa Brown. I teach first grade. I've taught first grade for 28 years in Hudson. Um thank [applause] you. What really just jumps out at me when I see these budget cuts is that they disproportionately affect our youngest learners. We're talking about cutting 25% of our ENLs our ENL department, 20% um in elementary classrooms, 20 uh I don't know the math there, but at least 15% in AIS, 20% in speech. These cuts are disproportionate to the
1:26:35percentage of cuts that you are seeing in other areas. And the last thing I want to do is play, you know, tit-for-tat with what groups are getting cut, but I will reiterate what Lori Campbell said, which is that you could save like seven or eight aides with the cost of one administrative position, of which there's only one cut in this budget. And I noticed that that cut is, you know, um I just want you to look at who has the most face time with kids, who has the most face time from 7:30 until 3:30, who um 10 fewer aides will be um less supervision at recess, less supervision at lunch, uh more less group time in elementary and primary and kindergarten and pre-K classrooms. Our aides are such a backbone of our um of our district that I I couldn't do
1:27:41what I do without the support of my classroom aide who is integral in my classroom. And you know, cutting speech, cutting ENL, cutting psychologists in a time when when we have um kids with social emotional learning, and um all of these things are going to disproportionately affect our youngest learners. And those are the kids that I think as as they as was said before, is the foundation, and you're always going to be playing catch-up when you have those cuts. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Shannon Sullivan. Hi, I'm Shannon Sullivan. I'm a teacher and a taxpayer here at Hudson. And I wanted to piggyback on Lori and Melissa's comments that they just said
1:28:43about impact on the elementary school. So, this was shared with me, so I'm going to do my best to make sure that I'm paraphrasing this person correctly. So, if you're looking at something like a specials classroom and you're looking at class sizes on the chart, the chart will say something like 22 students for that grade. But with specials, what happens is that then if there's a special ed push-in, those numbers get added on top of that as well. So, a class size that looks like it would be 22, then becomes in a specials classroom 28, 29. And I haven't been a teacher's aide in an elementary school in a very long time, but 29 small people in a specials classroom is a lot of people. So, as we're looking again at the impact of our budget and we're looking at how we're reintegrating the positions that we have, again looking at programming and looking at those student-facing positions and looking at that impact, please consider those things because there's something that's meaningful to the people who are doing that work day in and day out. Um the other thing that I wanted to say
1:29:46was that when we're looking at this budget, there's a misunderstanding in our district about what a no vote means. So, something that's happening is that there's a misunderstanding of what a no vote means. People think that a no vote means an opinion. They're not understanding that a no vote means the cuts. That's really critical. I don't like this budget. That's my opinion. But, if I don't vote yes for this budget, a no vote for this budget moves us to a contingency, which cuts hundreds of thousands of dollars and our community really needs to understand that. So, as we're publicizing the vote, please consider making that something that people understand is that saying no is not sharing your opinion. Saying no to any in process I've ever been involved in, when we went to those votes and there were more no votes than there were yes votes, we moved towards contingency, we cut sports, we cut extracurriculars, we consolidated bus routes. A no vote means
1:30:50you are cutting money. It does not mean I like or dislike this and I I really wanted to emphasize that. Um the other thing that I wanted to say is that teachers understand that the revenue part of this equation is also important. I am a taxpayer. I have seen my rent go up. It will go up again next year. It will go up because the property taxes go up. But, teachers at least have been going up and advocating for increased state aid. We did go and advocate with both Didi Barrett and with Michelle Hinchey to ask for a change in our state aid. We asked for that additional revenue to come back because we understand what we're asking our community to do and we want to be part of that solution. And so, we are hopeful. We don't know, but we're hopeful that the state will look at our situation and when the budget gets passed, we hope that revenue comes back. And if it does, please take the comments of the people that have been said today and please consider when you're reintegrating if those funds ever or do come back. And then lastly, although
1:31:52Lori and Melissa did such a beautiful job and Nikki and actually, um everybody on the board today talking about most of you guys have had direct contact. You're in our buildings. You've been in our buildings. Your children are in our buildings. And again, like to anybody who doesn't know and anybody who sees this as a number, please come in. Go to the elementary school. Look at the fifth grade coiled art pottery. Go look in the elementary school and see the astronomy displays that are are there. We have people who took students up to the New York State Legislature and those students researched and spent time looking at laws and they spent the weekend with our New York State Legislators advocating and looking at the the different kinds of legislation that exists. There's an art show at the Columbia County at a Columbia Green. There's so many things again that we do. We're more than a number. Please come and see what we do. Please support us and I'll say it one more time. A no vote is not an opinion. A no vote means I want to cut money from the Hudson City School District budget. Please remember that. Thank you.
1:32:55>> [applause] >> Lloyd Couding. Lloyd Alden Couding, your voice of reason. So, I will say this. It was a couple of months ago I was in Hudson Hall and they had this art display. It was actually quite incredible. I was taken back by it. It was stupendous to see this and it was sixth graders from Hudson and I think seventh graders from Catskill. And it it just was glorious. I mean, I was just I I told everybody about it. Um so, there is that. I'm not from Hudson. I've been here 5 years. I'm a
1:33:56transplant. Uh so, this situation I have a little experience in dealing with financial stress and and situations like this. You have a sell. Right now, whatever you pick, you have a sell. You have to sell the voters on a budget. So, this budget, whichever one you choose, you need Is it 60%? Is first round or or 50% the first round? >> Right. Depends which one we pick. Depends which one you pick. Right? And then I think I think I heard that 40% voted against it in the last I'm not up on these numbers. This is all new territory to me. So, if I'm off, but getting back to the sell. All right. First of all, there's probably people disappointed. I think you're going to have to own up to the problem. If you don't own up to the problem in front of the taxpayers, they're going to, you know,
1:34:59uh look at just more, you know, so you need to like represent that you know what the problem was and I think it's something to do with software and not being used. I don't actually know, but I would come clean. Really honestly just say, "Yeah, there was a situation. It was we allowed it to happen. It wasn't, you know, I mean, from where I come, management, the essence of management is caring. So, somebody slipped. Somebody dropped the ball. The situation should never have been allowed to get to this point. Still, you're here. Whatever, it's draconian. Yeah. And everyone wants to do right and you're all here doing the job. So, the sell, you're going to have to sell this to voters and there are no voters. So, if you we want this to go on the first first uh vote. We don't want a second vote. God forbid, we don't want a contingency.
1:36:02So, you're going to have to sell it again. If you're not straight with the voters, why would they trust you? So, let them know, "Yeah, there was a situation." I don't even know the specifics of it. I'm just not that familiar with everything that happened, but you're probably going to have to tell them, "There was something wrong. We know it. We own it. We're fixing it. It won't happen again." So, this is where you need to go to frame, you know, the argument and I think all you teachers, you should probably get out there and and uh and speak to the to the voters and and get your voters to come out and uh hopefully they'll be like some angel that who comes out of the blue and, you know, has some disposable income in an affluent community and they just want to see, you know, things go better. So, there's my two cents. God bless.
1:37:06>> [applause] >> That's it. All right. Thank you for your comments. Uh Dr. Bailey, superintendent's report. Over the past few months I've been talking about the communication advisory committee and one of the things that came out of our discussions was having much more clear who to contact when guide for the district. And the board has a copy on the table. I put a copy on the screen, which is very difficult to read. But, what it essentially does is it uh anyone who lives in the district or has children in the district, if they had a
1:38:07question about any of those really the larger areas where people may have a concern, they would know who to speak with. So, the first page looks like this and the second page is a listing of all of the employees and their contact information. This would have been a great addition to our wall calendar that we were going to print and distribute for next year, but with the budget constraints, we're not going to be doing that. I'm still going to ask our communications specialist to create uh a a calendar for the district that is reminiscent of the ones that we've all had for generations that help remind us of those landmark things that happen in our buildings, but um we will be continuously updating this and put this in a conspicuous spot on our website uh and at events like this, quite frankly. Uh it's not uncommon. I've been in places where they have this on the
1:39:09podium when people enter along with hearings and petitions information or agendas but it can be very useful. So I'm open to any thoughts or suggestions from the board. The only thought I would have skimming it quickly is to add a contact for the PTO so that if people have this and are interested they have that. And I will note it's too small to read for the public on the second page it does make a note that if you have gone through these levels and you are dissatisfied unsatisfied with the response or the results the board is the last step on each of those pathways. So there is [clears throat] a you know the board does play a role in this as well. You know we want people it is helpful to it I mean because quite frankly the board often times doesn't have an answer to someone's problems or concerns and we want them to be able to go right to the source to get the information that they need.
1:40:13But we can look into doing that Amanda. Any other thoughts on it? Will this just be like a PDF or is it going to have like links embedded with it so you could like immediately go there. Yeah it it would [clears throat] be a PDF with hyperlinks in it for people's email addresses. And if we can squeeze our our oh there it is. In the bottom right hand corner on the back there Amanda it actually talks about the PTO but we have more than just a PTO so we'll consider how we get any of our affiliated organizations in that box. Anything else? I want to talk to the board about the budget process that'll be coming up in May. I wanted to ask or suggest that I know the board meeting is starting
1:41:14late the board meeting is scheduled to start at 8:00 the polls close at 8:00 and I think it's a matter of right time right we want to we're we'll be in place when the poll workers in the three locations are doing their count. I wanted to make a suggestion as in every school that I've ever known and of all those peers that I've asked in the last week that the count of votes the count of votes for both the budget and for board member people the run that are running for the board should be done in a quiet place away from active public. It doesn't make sense to it doesn't make sense to try and count on the middle of the stock exchange floor. It makes sense for it to be accurate. So what I would like is for the count which I think I've been told it's a tradition which is why I'm even talking about it now. The count has been done live as though it was a presidential election with the different precincts
1:42:18reporting in and one's a red state and one's a blue state. That is not districts are not built to do that. Our communications conduits aren't built to do that. Our platforms and this well look what look at the struggles we've been going through tonight to try and get these few things together. So my recommendation would be that we have the board meeting you can have it at 8:00 but that when it is time Leslie has to step away and she should have someone else with her. I don't know who that will be but she should step away so that she can do the calculation get the right information from each of the polling places and come back and what occurs in everywhere that I've been and every person I've asked is the tally is done it's verified and the superintendent or the board president comes out and announces the results. It can't even be put on the screen but what I want to do is I want to preserve people's dignity. I want to ensure that it is accurate and that it's a nice clean process. It's very complicated
1:43:22with your three different polling places cuz they're going to they're going to be doing things at a different pace and maybe you don't know. I wanted to share with you what the process is that we do have the scan ballots that go through the machine. Ideally the machine works perfectly and it also picks up write-in ballot suggestions and it is creating a tally of those as well. The polling places also have the write-in ballots the the I'm sorry the mail-in ballots the absentee ballots that they also have to tally on the night of the vote. So it's more complex than just printing out the tape from the machine. There are a few things that are are going on. And again we want to them to be accurate and to be able to report in a timely fashion and then the board would you know know what the results are and you can adopt the results. I think one of the things that you said has happened in the past is to adjourn during that time when the no numbers are
1:44:25coming in. Yeah. But I am open to suggestions cuz I think the process of getting one polling place in and then throwing the results on the screen is not an accurate representation of what's happening. This is not New York State and Pennsylvania and Maine. It's our three polling places for our one district. We want whole numbers not that probably not that. But I I am open to your input. Last year was a mess. We were here till God knows after midnight. It's the way the numbers did come in and they were wrong. And then there was some other things and all the most of board members that were there picked up on it right away. They just didn't seem right. So anything we do to streamline it and make it more accurate when it is finally tallied would be better. I think also Mike to to contribute that contributed that last year is that we were given a form by our BOCES to use for the tallying and it did not have
1:45:28enough spaces to do what we needed to do. Three polling places multiple candidates. We're going to ensure that the form is the right form. That really limited I think what happened last year. How do you just curious you were not here at that time so how do you know? I've taking a straw poll from board members and and Leslie and other people who were here for the budget vote. I did not watch the tape. I did not want to see it. I think one of the things that is important is to to maintain voter confidence. And I think last year's challenges created some shakiness in voter confidence. I want to make sure that we maintain transparency but also give people accurate information. So I think that bouncing around was shaky for folks. I want to make sure that people feel confident when those numbers do come out. If we go ahead with with just announcing the final numbers which I think on the
1:46:31surface sounds like potentially a very good idea. If there's a way to help people feel confident can we can we show the final numbers of each of those three districts? What how do we do that to or what do we do to help support people? No of course of course we can. That is sensible to do. The other thing I was going to suggest is we're we're we'll have a written protocol for the polling places for the school the work that we'll do here and how the information will be shared. We want something that will will last beyond just I think this is a great idea let's go do this and then next time you do something else but to have a written protocol that is shared with the public. They they need to know that each of the poll workers is required to sign their affirmation that what they have done is accurate they've followed election law. Those are all really important steps toward as you say ensuring that the public has some confidence that it was done correctly. I think for context
1:47:36the meeting was suspended while the vote count happens. That's how it's traditionally done. The YouTube feed was turned off so nobody at home saw what was going on and they just saw a blank screen for two three hours and then it came back on and it was announced. So there was just a little bit of misunderstanding in the room for anybody who didn't know about what we're talking about. I I I think it's a good idea. I don't see any reason why it's it's you know we can still present it the same way but just you know it gets done in an office environment as opposed to in the you know at the table with everybody. So. It may still be midnight. I'm not making any promises about that. I just want to make sure that it is a smooth confidence filled process that people can get behind and say okay they did everything that they said they would do. Yeah I think my my first election it was like 11 so I don't know that this is going to make
1:48:38it any shorter and that's not our goal. No it's not not to be shorter it's to be accurate. Well I can share that when I first started the meeting did start at 7:00 and then the board adjourned until all the results were in. I thought that's what we did last year. I thought I was just going to say that. I thought we did start an hour earlier so that we could do our like the board meeting stuff. We we timed it to to the business we thought we had to conduct it before suspending. So, I do wonder if we need to move that to start earlier. I don't think we started it at 8:00 last year. I didn't think we had either. Yeah. Yeah. I think 7:00 is a good compromise. Because I questioned myself. I'd rather start earlier than go later. I was questioning [clears throat] my own memory. Yeah, there's always business to be done. Yeah. Would you like to start the meeting at 7:00? I think I mean I think it's reasonable if I know we have um
1:49:39believe normal business and I think we have a couple of things to get out of the way tonight, so Yeah. Okay. I see Mark is shaking his head yes. Yeah, that's me. That's nodding. That's nodding yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks. Uh now we have our annual Questar votes. Uh for context uh each district of the 14 constituent districts um votes on the administrative budget and any outstanding board seats. There are four open board seats and there are four candidates. Um the administrative budget for context is 7.6 million. Uh although BOCES' budget itself is over $100 million. Um we don't vote on the other parts of their budget. Uh so, I'm going [clears throat] to make a motion to that the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene Counties is authorized to expend the sum set forth
1:50:41in the 2026-2027 tentative administrative budget document in the amount of $7,687,882. Second. All in favor? I'll make a motion that the Board of Education cast its vote for the election of Ms. Mary Daley, Columbia County, New York, district of residence, Hudson City School District, as a member of the Board of Cooperative Cooperative Educational Services, Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene Counties. Second. All in favor? >> [clears throat] >> I make a motion the Board of Education cast its vote for the election of Mr. Joseph Garland, Greene County, New York, district of residence, Coxsackie-Athens Central School District, as a member of the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene Counties. Second. All in favor? I make a motion the Board of Education cast its vote for the election of Mr. John C. Hill, Rensselaer County, district of residence, Hoosic Valley
1:51:43Central School District, as a member of the Board of Board of Cooperative Educational Services Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene Counties. Second. All in favor? I make a motion the Board of Education cast its vote for the election of Ms. Mary Urista, Rensselaer County, New York, district of residence, Schodack Central School District, as a member of the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene Counties. Second. All in favor? All right, that brings us to the consent agenda. Uh at the request of the Board, we are withdrawing item U. I'll make a motion uh to approve consent agenda items A through T and V through BB. Second. All in favor? Okay, that brings us to the adoption of
1:52:46the Hudson City School District budget for 2026-2027. Given the conversation that's already taken place uh in the options that were discussed um I'm going to make a motion uh the Board of Education adopt the 2026-2027 proposed budget in the amount of $59,171,704 with a tax levy increase of 5.8%. Second. All in favor? Can I just add I want to I just want to like name that hearing everyone in the audience tonight, right, in terms of process of next steps here, like we know that the cuts here are are like awful and devastating. Um but that and and that the next right, what happens next is sort of where where the positions that were put back in or
1:53:48where the final things fall lies with the superintendent um not the board in terms of like what where particular aides go or don't go or what instructional positions, right? I'm I really appreciate the work that happened to at least bring six positions back between last week and this week and I know that that only like softens the pain in this audience a little bit. Um but I I hope that like we're hearing sort of where where the need is in terms of where those decisions are made. Um and I know that Dr. Bailey is working, you know, to communicate that with union representation with staffing over the next couple weeks so that those final decisions, because I know there are also people here who are like waiting to know what they need to do or not do for next year and that that's a really hard position to be in. Um I also just want to like name to the audience, right, that when like when we say state aid is flat, like I appreciate whoever who said that like you went and advocated, right? State aid staying flat is a cut to our kids and our staff,
1:54:50right? Like state aid staying flat is giving less money to us every year in the what we need and so that's just one more thing to the larger community is like advocate to the state cuz flat state aid is harming our schools. Can you Can you like mention specifically where people can voice their opinions to the Do you know specifically where to say that state? Um like your your local representatives. Didi Barrett. Didi Barrett's office would be our Michelle Hinchey, yeah. Yeah, um and we could certainly send something out, I'm sure. Now we're at the policy portion of the agenda. I will turn it over to you, Amida. Um yeah, these were all up for first read in our last. There's not There have been no changes since the first read to any of these. So, I'm happy to answer any questions, but they all they all have no edits since that last round. Do we want to adopt?
1:56:01I Yeah, I think we're good to adopt these if Sorry, sure. I kept talking. Um they all should be good to be up for adoption unless anyone has any other questions or comments. Any questions? I'm seeing none. Okay. Uh I'll make a motion the Board of Education approve uh policy 6640 inventories and adopts policy 6640 inventories. Second. All in favor? Uh make a motion the Board of Education accepts the second reading of policy 0150 HIV/AIDS policy and adopts policy 0150 HIV/AIDS policy. Second. All in favor? I'll make a motion the Board of Education accept the second reading of 0105 diversity, equity, inclusion regulation and exhibit and adopt policy
1:57:050105 diversity, equity, inclusion regulation and exhibit. Second. All in favor? I'll make a motion the Board of Education accept the second reading of policy 0110 sexual harassment and adopts policy 0110 sexual harassment. Second. All in favor? I'll make a motion the Board of Education accepts the second reading of policy 0110.2 sexual harassment in the workplace and exhibit formerly sexual harassment of employees and adopts policy 0110.2 sexual harassment in the workplace >> [laughter] >> and exhibit. Second. All in favor? All right, related to the end >> these policies uh Board I make a motion the Board of Education rescind the following policies 0110.1 sexual harassment of students, 0110.1R sexual harassment of students regulations, 0110.2R sexual harassment of employees
1:58:06regulation. Second. All in favor? And I'll make a motion the Board accept the fourth reading of policy 5405 and 5405E student wellness and adopt policy 5405 and 504 5405E. Second. All in favor? Mark, do you have a update on the superintendent search to provide? Yes. Um we met as a board to review candidates this month. Dr. Easter April 12th. Um we had 29 qualified applicants, which is amazing. Um most I've ever heard of. Uh we narrowed down the list to nine candidates, which will be interviewed in early May. Uh we will be forming an interview search committee by the administrators, faculty, staff, students, and community members. Um as this committee will have a chance to interview semi-finalists uh
1:59:10at a date to be named for the end of May. Outreach for these community members will begin in the next 2 weeks. Um and we'll have Dr. Adams present to the board and community on May 5th um to share the leadership profile she compiled and uh survey results. I think it was a little like garbly at the beginning um for our folks to hear. There were 29 qualified applicants and we narrowed down to nine for the first round interviews. I think it got clearer after that. Yeah, thank you. All right. Old business, seeing none. Uh brings us to our second public participation. Leslie, any takers? Okay. Uh any board discussion this evening? Anything anybody wants to bring up? I think we've had enough. Okay. I could say that I went to uh to the uh all-county concert and got to see Hudson students really performing
2:00:14with a just a lovely bunch of peers and and showing themselves to their very best. Uh and a plug for anyone who hasn't seen the art that's up at Columbia Green. Um it's there's some really incredible student artwork there right now. And I'll just share some uh fun thing. Um well, there was the blossom blossom ball at the elementary school on Friday. And so, the kids were all dressed up in their first dance. Um and also um I participated and chaperoned helped chaperone the third grade uh trip to the Science and Technology Museum in Schenectady. And that was awesome. That's a great Unfortunately, it's probably the last time we're going to first and last time we're going to go. But it was great. It was a great trip. Really um interesting museum and fun. I Oh, go ahead. >> One more just in like promoting publicly. Hello, everyone in the uh
2:01:17Zoom screens or YouTube screen. Um the sixth grade did fundraising this weekend for Nature's Classroom. Um and for folks who aren't aware, that's like an incredible asset to our community, an incredible program that the sixth graders go on every year. I went to the fundraiser this weekend. Didn't win anything in my baskets. I didn't win anything either. But it was nice. >> Yeah. Uh >> [clears throat] >> there is a list of 11 important dates coming up. I'm going to speed run this. Uh Thursday, April 23rd, voter registration day, 4:00 to 8:00 at the event entrance in the junior high cafeteria. Uh Wednesday, April 29th, nominating uh petitions are due in the district office for people who want to uh seek a board seat. Uh Sunday, May 3rd, the board will meet regarding superintendent search. Tuesday, May 5th, there will be a budget hearing at 6:00 p.m. here. Uh Wednesday, May 6th, there will be a
2:02:20board meeting related to the superintendent search. Tuesday, May 12th, policy committee, 5:00 to 7:00 high school library. Monday, May 18th, facilities committee meeting uh 5:00 in the conference Tuesday, May 19th uh is uh vote day, uh 11:00 to 8:00 um both the budget and for potential board members. Uh there will be a board meeting to follow at some time to be later advertised. Uh Tuesday, May 26th, uh meeting related to the superintendent search. Wednesday, May 27th, meeting related to the superintendent search. I have one thing. I'm sorry. I have one thing. Yeah. There was a lot on the agenda tonight. I don't want it to go unnoticed that um Cheryl Hi, Cheryl. Oh. Cheryl Rabinowitz um is the longest-seated district leader since Marie Spotmeyer left more than 4 years ago. And um has provided continuity of
2:03:22leadership even interim or acting superintendent during some of the many changes that have happened in the last few years. And her leadership in the IT department as manager of instructional technology has changed the face of how technology is used in this district. I said before from the first moment moment I walked in here >> [clears throat] >> I've seen the work that uh department has been able to do for me and for the staff of the district. Um but her bravely accepting to do curriculum, instruction, and technology is an important part of our consolidation plan for central office and IT functions. Uh and it makes us possible to reduce a position um and I look forward to what you will continue to offer for the district. And thank you for making this brave taking this brave step in July. So, congratulations.
2:04:23>> [applause] >> Thank you very much and I really look forward to continuing to serve the Hudson City School District. So, thank you. Thanks. Good job. Thank you, Cheryl. Uh one other quick thank you uh um uh that was also in the consent agenda. Uh the bussing for the boys basketball uh during their sectional and state run uh was donated by Michael S. Johnson LLC and Michael and Tammy Johnson. So, we want to thank them for their uh support in you know, the times that we're in. >> [applause] >> Okay. At this time, we need for a second executive session. Uh there will be no other business conducted after the executive session. Uh so, I'll make a motion to enter executive session at 8:05 p.m. Second. All in favor? Yes, we do. Thank you. Who second?
2:05:26I did. Okay. Okay.

Timestamps link to the corresponding moment on YouTube. Auto-transcribed, contains speech-recognition errors. Not an official record.