Watervliet City School District – Board of Education Meeting – May 19, 2020
Transcription of Live Broadcast
Sheri Senecal, Board President: Hi everyone. Good evening, I would like to open the meeting at 6:05 p.m. If we could please say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Sheri Senecal: Dr. Caplan, would you please take the roll call?
Dr. Lori Caplan, Superintendent: Sure. Mrs. Senecal – Present, Mrs. Soroka – Here, Mrs. Whited – Here, Mr. Hoffman – Present, Mrs. Cavanaugh – Here. And no Miranda this evening. All present.
Sheri Senecal: Thank you. Mrs. Boardman, did we receive any comments from the public?
Bernadette Boardman: I wouldn’t unmute me. Sorry. There were no comments from the public.
Sheri Senecal: That’s okay. Okay, thank you so much. I was worried that you guys couldn’t hear me. All right, Dr. Caplan, do we have any old business?
Dr. Caplan: No, we have no old business.
Sheri Senecal: Okay, thank you.
Sheri Senecal: So with that, we’ll do the first reading of the new policy, “Privacy and Security for Student Data and Teacher and Principal Data,” and then we will ask Mr. Heid to provide us with the 20-21 budget presentation.
Keith Heid: Oh I’m sorry, can everybody hear me now? Okay, let me start over. Sorry about that. I was on mute. What I was saying is that, before I did this presentation, what I’m going to do is I have a couple of slides that I’m going to go through and then I’m actually going to put the line-by-line budget up and go through it and answer any questions that anyone has. So having said that, what I was saying is that, first of all, I’d like to thank everyone for being patient with this process. It’s been extremely difficult. Definitely the toughest budget I’ve done in my nine years here and I just want to thank the Board, the administration and all of the staff for being patient and understanding as we’ve gone through this process and, having said that, the good news is that we’ve come up with a responsible budget that preserves all of our programs and staff. The seven and a half FTE’s that were reduced from the budget were all through either attrition or through not filling any open positions. Our overall budget limited our spending to a 1.3% increase over 19-20 levels. Our upcoming tax levy will be $7.2 million, an increase of $141,000 or 1.98%. So when people ask, “What are you going out at with your tax cap?” It’s 1.98% which, of course, is below the statutory limit. We’ll be utilizing some of our reserves this year. Specifically, the EBALR, or the employee benefit accrued liability reserve.
And we will also be appropriating $250,000 in unrestricted fund balance and even after doing that we still have a very healthy 1.3 million remaining in that unrestricted fund balance. This also gets us below that 4% statutory limit. So we are within the OSC guidelines for that. So this slide is the same one that I presented on Friday. It has been updated slightly. Specifically, there is one additional teacher at the elementary school who has since resigned and we have one high school teacher who will be out, excuse me, who will be out on leave next year. That brings our total savings to $342,000 for those seven and a half positions we’ve mentioned, in addition to a proposed stipend freeze for any coaches in the 20-21 season. Again, state and federal grants, we are projecting $108,000 savings for deflecting some of that salary to those federal grants. The health insurance savings has been updated to reflect those further reductions in FTEs. We covered the new program for our students with disabilities, which will allow us to keep four students in district as well as returning three of our higher-needs students back into district, reduce our summer days for our guidance counselors from 17 to six. There’s no summer school allocation. It will all be funded through our ExTra program. And the total savings has been updated to be a $1.1 million savings in tier one reductions. Tier two reductions – and all the tiers mean are that, tier two just means that their after we did the tier one. There’s no level of importance between the two of them. We have deferred salaries of $30,000. We are moving some of a guidance counselor salary into our Pivot grant. We are moving our in-service training into our state and federal grants. Occupational education programs have been reduced by $76,000, primarily through three students who are in the Pathways program who are no longer in-district. Our operations, that would be our utility costs, our maintenance equipment, and our maintenance contractual expenses are reduced by $60,000 and that generally is just a reduction in the usage of our facilities. An inter-fund transfer, saving $14,000. There will be no TAs for our extended school year program this year, and that’s where that savings comes from. And the additional savings from what we’re calling Tier two are $243,000. So, I apologize for the for the briefness of the slideshow, but I had very limited time to put one together. So, instead, what I will do now is go through the actual line item budget and point out what I think are the highlights. So, bear with me for a second. Okay. Can everyone see that budget up there? All right. If you scroll down, the first item that jumps out at you would be, slide down to 1310, in the finance category budget code 1310 16 is salaries non-instructional. That’s a net savings of $14,000 that comes from the deferred salaries of $30,000 that I mentioned in the slide presentation. The increase in the 1310 49 code, BOCES Service, that is we are switching from our private safety and health program management team to BOCES, and by doing so, we will also be able to get BOCES aid back on that as well as receiving funds from the county for shared services initiatives. So that’s where that increase comes from. And there’s an offsetting decrease into another budget category I’ll get to, slide down. Okay. On page two the biggest thing that jumps out at you is under Central Services, A1620 operations. You’ll see that there are significant savings in equipment, contractual expenses, electricity, natural gas, and materials and supplies. Again, that is primarily due to the restricted use of our facilities. So we haven’t been using as much electricity, natural gas, etc., don’t need as many supplies or equipment, so that’s a significant savings there. If you look at A1684 90 you’ll see an increase there of over about $70,000 that’s primarily from our new food services program that’s $27,000 we will be are contracting with both us to provide zoom remote learning capabilities at $5,000 and our copiers are also coming off contract, so we need to renew that and that has a cost of $17,000. Go to the next page. Next is under A 2070 in-service training instruction. The 15 code to savings of $30,000 as I mentioned in the slideshow that will be funded through our state and federal grants, providing the general fund with a savings, and the increase from $90,000 to $138,000 is increasing our coaching, our professional development from one to two days a week. If you look at A2110 the 13 Teachers 7-12 code, that increase is just what we did is we took two employees who are under different budget codes, and kind of reorganized them to better fit what they actually do. So you’ll see some reductions in other budget codes and an increase in that one. It’s just an offsetting entry so there’s no increase really in that amount. It’s just moving teachers from one budget code into another. The second thing on that page is the tuition other districts…I’m sorry, the payments of charter schools. That’s because we have 21 additional students, now resident students going to a charter schools. That’s that increase. To the next page. Alright A2250, that reduction is one of those employees who has been transferred into the 2110 13 code. The second code. The 15 salaries administration, that includes that’s where we will be using that a EBALR reserve and that will cover the compensation that is due for an, excuse me, an employee who will be retiring midway through the year. So that covers their buyout for their unused vacation and sick leave. If you look at A47, 473, 49 that’s just the increase in the number of students who are attending those programs. We already went through that on Friday in our budget workshop. And if you go down to A 2630 15, computer and assistive instruction, the 72 down to zero, that is an employee who was moved into that 2110 one. So that’s not a cut in a position that’s just a restructuring, or a reorganization of that employee’s budget code. Okay 2810 guidance, the 15 budget code salaries that $59,000 is offset by one employee who is out on leave, and we’re also putting a portion of an employee’s salary into our Pivot grant. 2850, the reduction there is we are eliminating two clubs from the general fund. Basically because we don’t think that they’ll be able to run next year because of our current situation. So we cut those out of the budget. And the 2855 15, you’ll see that that amount has stayed the same. That is because we are freezing all of our coaching stipends for the 20-21 year. Next page, under a little bit, under undistributed items, you’ll see that we’re budgeting additional $40,000 for unemployment insurance. Just because we expect more people to be filing next year. And then the last thing I have is on the inter-fund transfers, the savings of $14,000, go down to the last page, that would be the TA’s that will not be doing the extended school year this year. So that saves $14,000.00. And that is a very, very brief description of what has changed in our 20-21 budget and now I will take any questions that you might have.
Sheri Senecal: I do have a question about the BOCES shared services. It’s my understanding – correct me if I’m wrong – that those are a one-time savings. That you can only claim that the first year and then after that, there is no benefit. Is that correct?
Keith Heid: That is correct. In terms of the shared services, yes, we would still get BOCES aid on those purchases
Mary Beth Whited: What happens if we don’t meet the guidelines of BOCES, the 30% that we have to spend to get the reimbursement?
Keith Heid: Well, the only thing that I can say on that is that all of these agreements are on a year-to-year basis and if we find that we are not benefiting from that program, we have the option of eliminating it in the 2021-22 budget.
Mary Beth Whited: What, and I’m sorry, I mean, I know I know a little bit more about this obviously because of Mr. Whited, but what is the, the cost that we are paying to have this person come in one day a week, I believe, is what we were told?
Keith Heid: $27,000
Mary Beth Whited: So that’s approximately $500 and some odd for that one day per week?
Keith Heid: I didn’t do the math, but yeah, that sounds about right.
Mary Beth Whited: Okay, and what about the cost increase of the products that we will be purchasing?
Keith Heid: Okay
Dr. Caplan: I’ll answer it. Because it’s my initiative (inaudible)…
Mary Beth Whited: I’m sorry, you’re like echoing really bad and I can’t really hear you.
Dr. Caplan: Can you hear me now?
Mary Beth Whited: Yes.
Dr. Caplan: Okay, so it’s the Farm to School initiative that we look into years ago. BOCES only started it – this was their first full year. So, I had looked into it prior. It was too big of a lift for us to do here by ourselves. So again, keep in mind, we have almost a $30 million budget. So this is a $25,000 item with aid back on it, and it’s to give the students an experience in the cafeteria. Hopefully that, to, you know, our cafeteria service has improved and it’s good, but I’d like it to be great. And so, this person is a trained chef who will be coming in at least one time a week and, you know, we reassess next year. We’ve done surveys with the students this year. And that’s what prompted me to finally make the move and so we’ll do surveys again next year, and if they’re not happy, then we’ll look to reassess and you know maybe give the program some time, or maybe not, like we do with any other program.
Mary Beth Whited: Right and I understand that. But if this ends up costing more than what we get back, is that money if it, if the cafeteria winds up having losing money is that money then going to come out, the loss, going to come up with the general fund? Whereas now, I believe the cafeteria is self-sufficient.
Dr. Caplan: Well, the cafeteria, I mean, we get money back on our free breakfast and lunches no matter what, whether the kids like them or not. So you know we operate in the black anyway because of our federal status with free breakfast and lunch.
Mary Beth Whited: Okay, my only other question is, I know like some of the products just for example the milk is 33% more, will bel going forward.
Dr. Caplan: We don’t know that. It’s going to be based on, so it’s a cooperative bid, so the more schools that start joining this, the more schools will, so in other words, if we’re buying milk for 1200 students right now, it costs us a certain amount, but if there’s five schools going out to bid, which is what we’re doing with PPE and we’re doing with a bunch of other things, then the products become less expensive with the more schools that come on board.
Mary Beth Whited: How many schools are doing the shared services right now?
Dr. Caplan: Don’t know, because we didn’t have to put our BOCES commitment in until Wednesday, I think. So I don’t know.
Mary Beth Whited: When, when will we know how many schools are – I know, I know there’s…
Dr. Caplan: They don’t necessarily share that information.
Mary Beth Whited: Right.
Dr. Caplan: I mean, I can ask, but this year, I think there were two, if I’m not mistaken. It’s a brand new program.
Mary Beth Whited: Right. Now my last question, and then I’ll…is Farm to School something different than the BOCES shared services? Because we do Farm to School right now.
Dr. Caplan: We don’t do Farm to School, we do the best we can to get as many products from New York State as possible, but the shared service, they go out to bid for products that we could get like I said cooperatively, so it’s cooperative bidding. There’s aid back on it. Plus, it’s working with a trained chef who will come in and, like I said, this is not that there’s anything wrong, it’s just that we can do better. And this is an area that you know the students have come to me, when I was a principal, and now as superintendent, and I looked into this, like I said, years ago. The opportunity arose because they created the problem, sorry, they created the program, and I want to give it a chance. And I think it will benefit the students.
Mary Beth Whited: Okay. Thank you.
Dr. Caplan: You’re welcome.
Sheri Senecal: Mr. Heid, can you touch on what other items are considered a BOCES shared service?
Keith Heid: The only two that we have right now are the Food Services Program and also our Health and Safety Management program.
Donald Stevens: Well, we have a lot of shared services.
Keith Heid: You are referring to the ones that would be eligible for the reimbursement from the county, correct?
Sheri Senecal: That is correct.
Keith Heid: Those are the two. So yeah, we have lots of BOCES shared services, but the two that would be eligible to receive funds from the county are the Food Services Program and our Health and Safety Management Program.
Sheri Senecal: Okay. And do you know what the estimated savings or I guess kickback is for that shared service with the county?
Keith Heid: That’s something that has to be developed between BOCES and the district’s. They’re going to come up with a baseline cost, basically averaging everyone’s cost that’s participating and then they would – we would receive a check for the difference. So I don’t have that now, but BOCES would have to come up with what that baseline price is.
Sheri Senecal: Thank you.
Amanda Cavanaugh: So I’ll pop in. I have a question. I know a lot of like the materials are things that we cut in half. I imagine that’s things like school supplies, etc. So what does that look like as an impact to our teachers, and then our students, and what can we do to further support them so they don’t feel that so much?
Keith Heid: Well, I think that, yeah, what we’ve done is we’ve kind of put that in the principal’s hands to reach out to those teachers and to have them look at what they’ve asked for in supplies. I mean, you’re not talking about cutting pens and pencils and you know necessary items, it’s up to each individual teacher, so I can’t really speak specifically on that. If anyone else – Dr. Caplan, if you’d like to add anything, um.
Dr. Caplan: Well, some of it could be field trips. Like, you know, there may be a pretty good chance they won’t be taking field trips next year. So it could be that. It could be, you know, somebody, I don’t know, maybe they budgeted for art paper. Well, you know, we had three months where students aren’t here, so we don’t really need all that art paper. So it’s kind of just reassessing what we didn’t use this year, what can we roll over, and we assume there’s going to be plenty that can roll over. Agenda books is a big ticket item. Do you want to keep the agenda books but maybe, you know, cut something else on the other side? Or maybe, you know, you feel kids use their phones and other electronic things to keep their assignments and maybe we don’t need agenda books. So like, for example, when I was principal, the teachers used to order the gradebook, like when we were all on school. You know, they can write the grades, will many people, almost every teacher now has gone to online grading. So there’s a savings and, you know, at the high school it was about 70 grade books. So it’s really up to Kelly and to Ryan and then they usually go…so when the teachers make their budget, they prioritize and I always say, you know, do it in order. So, for a science class, you need a certain kind of scale. Don’t put that at the bottom of your list. You know, make sure that you prioritize it so either you make the cuts or, you know, if we end up doing it, we cut from the bottom up. Just like, you know, Athletic equipment. Dave ordered stuff for spring. We didn’t have spring sports, so we have all that equipment that will carry forward so he’ll cut money out of his athletic budget next year because he won’t need to order spring sports…baseball caps, socks, we have all that.
Amanda Cavanaugh: Thanks.
Sheri Senecal: Steve and Heather, do either one of you have any questions?
Heather Soroka: I guess I would just have more, maybe just a comment on the fact that programs are being saved, and there’s no layoffs that are taking place I think that’s really just a positive thing, so I just wanted to…
Keith Heid: Heather, I think you’re muted.
Heather Soroka: I hit unmute
Keith Heid: There you go. Now we can hear you.
Heather Soroka: I have more of a comment, I think, than a question. I just really wanted to thank you, Mr. Heid, and Dr. Caplan. Programs are all being saved, there’s not any layoffs, the best interest of our students are definitely at the forefront here, so for me it was more just, you know, as always, thank you for your time and time and time.
Dr. Caplan: I appreciate that. You know I kept saying we need your patience…(inaudible)…you know having to make cuts and, or, not cuts, having to adjust our budget at this time without the principals, having their staff here and, it’s been really difficult. And furthermore, you know, we still don’t know what we’re getting or not getting from state aid. So we took our worst case scenario. And I want to be very clear, that we’re in this situation that we’re in, we’re – like Heather said – we’re able to preserve every single person and every single program in this district at a $28.5 million budget because of all the budgeting that we’ve done and the restraint we’ve exercised over the years. And every year I say this, we don’t have an expenditure problem we have a revenue problem. So as the revenue doesn’t come we continue to do more with less. And we’ve done it since this COVID operation happened and the teachers and the administrators have continued to do it almost seamlessly – learning on the fly. So, you know, school budgeting is really, really difficult. And that’s our job. I’m not expecting you to understand that, but it’s really time consuming and everybody has been amazing with “okay I’ll do this,” “I’ll do that,” and I know he probably would not want this out there, but I’m going to tell you the deferred salary is John Heid’s salary. He didn’t take a salary this year, he didn’t, he’s not taking a salary next year. That’s $30,000 that he’s leaving on the table. Nobody asked him to do it. I didn’t ask a single person to take a freeze. It was the area I didn’t want to go because I feel like everybody’s working harder than they ever have, and frankly, they deserve their salaries. And he’s deferred his salary, so he probably won’t appreciate that being out there, but I’m going to tell you, that’s where $30,000 is right now. So thank you for acknowledging that and I really appreciate the time that you know Keith and John and I have put in. We’ve done a lot of it here, but they’ve done a lot of it on the weekends coming in. We’ve done a lot at night, so we have a really healthy budget compared to the times that we’re in right now, and I just hope that, you know, the public understands that we have put out a really fiscally responsible budget that is preserving, like I said, people and most importantly programs for students and I hope they remember that on June 9th. Does anybody have any other questions about the budget or any other comments?
Amanda Cavanaugh: Sorry. Just a quick question. With the cost of, like, PPE and hand sanitizer and the uptick in cleaning supplies and things, is that something that we’ve had to take into consideration at all?
Dr. Caplan: I only heard a little bit, Amanda. Can you repeat that please?
Amanda Cavanaugh: Yeah, absolutely. So like with, thinking to the fall and kids coming back to school, that like, having to have masks, possibly hand sanitizer, that stuff, is that something that we’ve had to budget for?
Dr. Caplan: Yeah, so we are buying it this year. So with the money we have this year, Mr. Heid, put it in order today, I believe. Yeah, so we ordered face shields. We ordered small children’s face masks, we ordered adult facemasks – we don’t know what we’re going to need, so we did the best we could. We did a lot of hand sanitizer. We did, you know, the long gowns for the nurses, um a couple, you know, clear shields, we’ve bought a lot of posters to hang around the bathrooms on how to wash your hands, how to social distance, we did the best we could. I mean, certainly, I’ve never had to do that before. So yeah, we, we didn’t budget for it, we bought it this year. Again, that’s a cooperative bid through BOCES.
Sheri Senecal: Thank you. And then one other thing I was just going to ask if you know any more about what the process will be and how people will receive their ballots and things like that. I’m sure the public has questions about that.
Dr. Caplan: Yep. So everybody will be receiving a ballot in the mail, Judy, do know…so by next end of next week, they should receive a ballot in the mail. There will be a self-addressed, stamped envelope to come back to the district. They read the ballot, they have to sign the back of the envelope, they mail it back to us – as the postage is included – or there will be a drop-box out in front of a high school until 5:00 PM, in front of a camera, on June 9th so they can’t put it in the ballot box after 5:00 on June 9. And then, on June 9, we count the ballots. There’s two seats open and there’s two people running. Mary Beth, her seat is open and she’s running, and Steve’s seat is open – he’s not running – and Tim Delisle is running. So two people, two seats, that will be on the ballot as well. Anything else on the budget, voting, anything?
Amanda Cavanaugh: Are we going to have another zoom on the night of June 9 to discuss the results?
Dr. Caplan: Yep. So at 8:00, we’ll live-stream the results.
Amanda Cavanaugh: Okay. And is it possible, like are, I mean, now that the capital region is going to be able to start opening a little bit, will we be switching to in person-meetings? Are we going to keep them zoom for a little bit longer?
Dr. Caplan: Um, I think that that’s up to you guys. I feel like we probably should be zooming until we get clear guidance on the governor that it’s okay to…I mean because otherwise we’d have to probably be in the cafeteria and really spread out and I’m not sure about the acoustics in there, plus, you know, it’s more cleaning for the maintenance people at this point. And I think, you know, until we get some clear guidance on that maybe we would still, you know, continue to zoom. Right, more, more guidance on public outings.
Sheri Senecal: Okay, thank you. And Steve, I just wanted to make sure you had a chance to speak. If you have any…
Dr. Caplan: Wait, what did you say? Sheri, can you repeat…Sheri, I didn’t hear you.
Sheri Senecal: Yep. I was just saying I wanted to give Steve the opportunity to speak if he still had anything.
Steve Hoffman: No, I would just like to thank, again, Keith and Lori and Don and the rest of the administration for their valiant efforts during these difficult times, and not only with the budget, but with everything else that they’re trying to oversee and take care of
Dr. Caplan: Appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Sheri Senecal: Thank you. So I guess since we don’t have Miranda this evening. We’ll skip the Student Council report and we’ll move on to the board discussion. And obviously we just discussed that our next meeting will be June 9 and that will be to do the, you know, budget count.
Dr. Caplan: Sheri I just wanted to say June 2 is the board meeting.
Sheri Senecal: Right, I’m sorry, June 2 is the board meeting and then June 9 will be the budget vote and the count for both the budget and the board election. And I wanted to, you know, say that we certainly appreciate all of the efforts of everyone you know everything that everybody is doing to ensure our students are you know, receiving the services that they need, I believe, is being met and we appreciate all of the extra effort that everyone is putting into the class of 2020 – both the sixth graders who are moving up the 12th graders who are graduating high school. I know today, all of you were out – well, not all of you, but many of you – were out to,
you know, show the seniors that they’re being missed and that, you know, graduation is coming and all the efforts for that committee – maybe Amanda can touch about that a little bit. Have been you know well received by all of the students. I saw so many appreciative families for, you know, getting not only their signs, but also the backpacks and the T shirts and the cookies and you know just even seeing some of you, you know, roll up in the school bus to make them feel a certain way is definitely something that I think they can all appreciate. I also wanted to just mention, send out our condolences to Michelle Rosario and her family on her recent loss. And I didn’t know if there was anything else that board wanted to talk about before we go into the further agenda.
Steve Hoffman: Could I just say one thing? I believe it was like past practice to like meet the candidates that are running, and I don’t believe Mr. Delisle was given that opportunity to hear why he wants to run for the board and…
Sheri Senecal: Yeah, that’s later on the agenda, Steve, so we will get there. Thank you.
Steve Hoffman: All right.
Dr. Caplan: Can we do that with an uncontested…(inaudible)
Amanda Cavanaugh: I’ll just echo Sheri. Yesterday I was able to drop off all the picture frames and again I’m just blown away by the support of our staff and our administrators and their willingness to do whatever it takes for students. Um, I did not participate in the delivery of the senior bags today. I really thought it should be an opportunity for the students to see the teachers that they’ve had and not some random person that they’ve never seen before. So I loved seeing all the pictures. I definitely appreciated it. I’m glad to know that it really made a difference and an impact and again, I just, our community never stopped showing the support and you know there’s the same staff and teachers that are constantly willing to help are the ones that are sitting at the food bank that are dropping off money and canned goods for the food bank are the same ones that were standing in the cafeteria yesterday stuffing bags for the seniors. So I’m just, again, eternally grateful for the community that we have here. It’s second to none. So, thanks all.
Sheri Senecal: Steve, that part is going to be in New Business, just so you know. Um, so with that, then I would ask – unless anyone else has anything else they want to talk about – we’ll go into the consent agenda for items 1 through 18. Do I have a motion?
Steve Hoffman: I’ll make a motion.
Mary Beth Whited: I’ll second.
Sheri Senecal: Miss Boardman would you do the roll call?
Bernadette Boardman: Sure.
Mrs. Senecal, Mrs. Soroka, Mrs. Whited, Mrs. Cavanaugh, Mr. Hoffman: (All) Yes.
Sheri Senecal: With that I will go to item 19, “Resolved that the board accept, with thanks, the donation of washable reusable face coverings and hand sanitizer from the Watervliet Police Department, to be provided to essential workers of Watervliet City School District, as recommended by the superintendent. Do I have a motion?
Heather Soroka: I’ll make a motion.
Steve Hoffman: I’ll second it.
Sheri Senecal: And Miss Boardman
Bernadette Boardman: Sure.
Mrs. Senecal, Mrs. Soroka, Mrs. Whited, Mrs. Cavanaugh, Mr. Hoffman: (All) Yes.
Dr. Caplan: Sheri, you froze up. We didn’t hear you.
Sheri Senecal: I was mentioning that if Mr. Delisle was on and he had anything he’d like to say, that we would hear him now.
Dr. Caplan: This meeting is just for board members – he’s not – he wasn’t invited. It’s just for board members, we can arrange something for our June 2 meeting.
Sheri Senecal: I think this is an official meeting. It says on the website. But, at any rate, with that…
Dr. Caplan: It is official meeting…(inaudible)…audience, but only the board participates right now. So we can set something up for him to be able to talk at the June 2 meeting. There’s people watching, but they can’t participate.
Sheri Senecal: Understood. Anyway, Mary Beth, would you like to say anything?
Mary Beth Whited: Well, is that something I should probably wait until the June 2 meeting as well?
Sheri Senecal: If you so chose, that will be fine.
Mary Beth Whited: That’s fine.
Sheri Senecal: With that, we will ask for the administrators to provide any comments.
Don Stevens: So I guess I’ll try to go first. Hopefully everybody can hear me. I’m trying to do multi roles over here, keeping things organized but hopefully we’ll, we’ll make this work. I would like to just echo the awesome work that was done today delivering the signs. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to check out any of our Twitter accounts, but there’s lots of pictures floating around. We delivered signs to the seniors and little swag bags that were – it was another great event. It brought reminders back to the parade throughout the city. But I want to just reassure the board and the administrators and the staff and students that we are deep at work planning for a graduation. I don’t want to give everything away, but I’ve been sitting here for a reason because we have been mapping out some possibilities of what graduation can look like, having students still be able to come with a small group and cross the stage and receive their diploma and have pictures taken and wear a cap and gown. We feel like all of that is really important. We’re trying our hardest to make sure that we put a plan in place that allows for social distancing, safety our students and staff and public and we make sure that we have everything in line before we roll that out. And I’m sure that Mrs. Webster will share, and Ms. DeMento, that you have plans underway recognize the sixth graders, as well as moving up UPK students. So there’s a lot happening, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re working really hard at trying to keep things going. And we’ll see how the next couple years pan out – next couple weeks – sorry – I said years, but I meant weeks.
Janelle Yanni: Can I go next? Janelle Yanni?
Sheri Senecal: Sure, go ahead.
Janelle Yanni: Okay, just a brief update for special education. We’ve completed almost all of our annual review meetings, including both for in district and out of district…
Dr. Caplan: Janelle, you’re muted.
Janelle Yanni: Oh, it doesn’t say I am. How about now? Okay, I’ll start again. Just a brief summary for special education. You can hear me now? Okay, we’ve completed almost all of our annual review meetings, including for both in district and out of district students, they’re going very smoothly via Google meets. Parents have been great to work with and teachers and staff are in continuous contact with parents. So the parents are well informed about their child’s progress and the possible recommendations before the meeting even starts. Several home visits have been conducted with other building administrators to see how we can support students and families during a school closure. And CSC chair meetings are held weekly and facilitated by capital region BOCES and there are weekly sped department meetings for both buildings. Thank you very much.
Kirsten DeMento: Okay, just a brief update on food delivery. We’ve had, we’ve been in service now for 51 days and have served over 30,000 meals. That includes all breakfasts and lunches. We average 336 a day, a little bit more on Friday. Speaking of Friday, as Monday is a holiday, we will be delivering an extra lunch and breakfast this Friday so that on Monday, there is no delivery, because it’s Memorial Day. They will all have a breakfast and lunch waiting for them. Also, you’re all invited to the UPK moving up ceremonies that will be held by zoom at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00 and 10:30 on Monday, June 15. I’ll send you out the links, once I have them all setup. Also, we are registering students for a EPK and UPK, if you can help us get the word out. Registration has begun, and we need to get the word out to the parents so they can sign up. There are packets in the elementary lobby. They could stop by between 8:00 and 10:00 every day, or they’re also available online. And we have a phone number, if we need to do something else like mail them or drop them off, we could do that as well. If you can get the word out for us, that would be wonderful. Thank you.
David Wareing: I’ll jump in. I just wanted to let everyone know that, um, our end of the year sports banquets are going to go on. They’re going to be going on virtually. Each team will get a different time assigned to them and we will do specific team awards over three nights, which will be Monday, June 8; Wednesday, June 10; and Thursday, June 11. June 11 we will have the final awards presentation for the All School Awards and all board members and administration will be invited via the zoom or the Google meets network. That’s it.
Kelly Webster: I – may I go? Kelly Webster, Elementary Principal. Um, I just want to piggyback off everybody else which um, what a wonderful community this is. Today really tugged at my heartstrings seeing old students that I had taught or that I worked with at the high school. It was so lovely to see everybody and I am just so grateful to everyone that helped contribute to that. And then, as Mr. Stevens said, we do have something planned for moving up as well. You are all invited. You should have received an invitation yesterday via email. The sixth grade moving up ceremony will be on June 16 at 9:00 a.m. That too, will be very much like this platform. So I will send you a link, as soon as I have that. But thank you everyone.
Michael Foust: Don’t forget to check out our special persons link on our website for our ceremony that was supposed to be last night. Big shout out to all of our teachers that put slideshows together for grade levels, and to Miss Frost for putting it on the school district website. Those have all been shared via social media.
Mary Beth Whited: I happened to watch that last night. It was awesome. Good job.
Sheri Senecal: I did as well. It was very nice.
Amanda Cavanaugh: That and the talent show was excellent. So, I think it was Miss Sweeney, shout out to her for working on the talent show that was a really cool way to see the students in a different light. So, good stuff.
Steve Hoffman: And I enjoy Mrs. Webster’s cooking shows. I find them very interesting
Kelly Webster: Thank you so much. That means a lot to me.
Sheri Senecal: I like all Mrs. Webster shows.
Kelly Webster: Please join us for dance party Friday. That seems to be the biggest of the hits.
Sheri Senecal: That one is pretty good. We want to see Dan in one of the costumes.
Amanda Cavanaugh: Just remember that Carol has a stockpile of costumes over here. If you start running out. We’ve got like, the dinosaur, the alien, the big baby…we’ve got you covered if you need some more.
Sheri Senecal: Sounds like you’ll be all set, Mrs. Webster.
Kelly Webster: Please, I need them.
Sheri Senecal: Did any other administrators want to speak?
Sheri Senecal: Okay, well then with that we would ask Dr. Caplan, if you would please provide us with the Superintendent’s Report.
Dr. Caplan: Sure can. So I understand that Mr. Stevens was a little garbled when he spoke so what he said was that behind him, are the plans for a possible graduation celebration. We are definitely going to do something. We’re going to keep social distancing in mind, keeping our students safe, while still being able to have them celebrate with their family and pictures and photo opps. And so we’re in the final planning stages of that and then we will…we’ve made some tweaks along the way, because of social distancing. We have to continue to be cognizant of that. So that will include the entire staff, elementary school and high school, helping out on June 9. It will be an all-day affair, starting in the morning around…sorry June 9th is the budget vote. Sorry. June 17 and it will that will be our final day of school. Our final day of work for teachers, and the graduation ceremony will be all day long, because we have to space it out in between families to stay in line with social distancing guidelines. So more to come. But we are, um, seniors are helping plan, so it’s not just the adults and we will continue to unfold the details as we develop them. I too, would like to thank the Board, the community, the teachers, the administrators, the staff, everybody for their patience. I know it’s been a really difficult two months for many, many reasons. And then people wondering if they were going to lose their jobs on top of it. Children wondering, are their teachers coming back. So you know I asked that everyone be patient, for the reason that we have, which is a fiscally responsible budget that has preserved every single program that we have here. I keep saying that because we really pulled rabbits out of a hat. I never ever thought we would be to this place right now, without having deep cuts. And now the work begins for next year so budgeting is a 12-month process for us. And so, you know, next year starts now. And, you know, we start talking about ways that we… we don’t have fat, so I never say “trim the fat,” but ways that we can remain fiscally responsible and continue to do more with less, while servicing our students. I’d like to thank the WTA for signing an MOA agreement with us, which allowed us to not have to pink slip teachers on April 1, and unnecessarily jar their lives any more than they’ve been. So they allowed us the time we needed to get to where we were. Normally, we have to let teachers know by certain date, contractually, and that’s what the MOA was, to allow us more time to come out with hopefully better news which is exactly what happened. Me, as well, feel the same way everyone else, my heart literally began to beat again today. I mean, it’s been Groundhog Day every day is Thursday, Friday, never comes. And seeing the kids today. It was like – very emotional. It was so exciting. It was community members, people were stopping the buses. The signs on the buses were amazing. Thank you for the for buying those, they were amazing. And the students – once they woke up – were so very happy to see the staff, the teachers, even the bus drivers. It was awesome. And the bus drivers are kind of our unsung heroes lately. They’ve been doing everything: dropping off Chromebooks, delivering food, dropping students belongings off. We will have a plan, we do have a plan for students to be able to retrieve their personal items as well as teachers and staff. We will do it, again, in a socially distant, responsible manner. But building principals do have schedules and sheets, ready to go, so everybody can retrieve their personal property. I wanted to congratulate Alyssa Melucci, our nurse at a high school, who was an LPN and, as of yesterday, she’s an RN. So congratulations. She has accomplished exactly what she set out to do, and she’s an amazing addition to our staff. We’re lucky to have her, and again, you know, I mentioned John. I think that, you know, he’s kind of behind the scenes as well, although he’s our part-time treasurer, who has not taken a raise since 2012, when the last part time Treasurer was here. And he does anything and everything, works far longer hours and he needs to and gets nothing in return, except the satisfaction of helping out the district and so a lot of gratitude for John. And, you know, lastly, again, I’m just going to circle back around to a budget that you know we right-sized our organization years ago, and so we don’t have these irresponsible expenditures that all of a sudden we had to rein in. You know, we really developed programs that meet the needs of our students and meet them where they are. And I’m really proud of, of the work that all the teachers, the administrative staff, the support staff have done – all day, all night sometimes on weekends – and as a result, it was so nice to be able to present them with a budget that preserves everything that they’ve worked so hard to create. With that, I have nothing else. I hope everybody remembers to vote – we’ll remind them at our June 2 meeting – on June 9, and when you get those ballots in the mail, please don’t disregard them. Oh, yes, another fundraiser that Amanda and Meg have with the T-shirts, the Mount Rushmore T-shirts, um Coach Reinfurt, Coach Mardigan and Coach Curro, and they get those from Meg, Amanda?
Amanda Cavanaugh: Yeah. Sawyer’s actually has an online store. But if you…Meg can send out the link. I was just looking for it. Um, but there’s also the…so there’s the coaches one and then the mural one which is like, awesome. Both which students helped with recreating so that we could get the designs on the shirt, so…and all that money is going to go to food pantry, whether it be the one that we have or another one here in Watervliet.
Dr. Caplan: And that food pantry has come in such handy. I mean, I don’t even know all the people that have gone there, but I know there’s many students who have called me. I sent somebody down yesterday and asked Amanda to make sure that the student was well taken care of, because they were going down alone, and thank you for doing that. Thank you, Heather for arranging the books with Meg Matuszek and Meg Fronczek. You guys have been invaluable for this community. So much good has come out of that. That’s all for me. I wish everybody a safe and healthy rest of the week and rest of the month until we start coming out of pause, which seems to be sooner than later. And there’s the link Amanda just sent out. Thank you, Amanda.
Sheri Senecal: Yeah, and also Lacey Whitman was one of the students, I believe she’s a junior, that was the one who develop that design for the other T-shirt and it’s, that was a recreation, I believe, of something that was in the old gym. So special shout out to her for doing that as well. Very talented students that we have in our district. And also just before we adjourn, I wanted to thank everybody for being available as much as possible and for all of the extra things that everybody is doing. There’s a lot of people doing things behind the scenes. So we appreciate everybody. And I hope everybody has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, although it’s going to be different than probably most Memorial Day weekends would be. And to thank all of our service members. So with that, I’ll ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:03 p.m.
Steve Hoffman: I’ll make a motion to adjourn.
Sheri Senecal: Thank you, Steve.
Amanda Cavanaugh: I’ll second
Mrs. Senecal, Mrs. Soroka, Mrs. Whited, Mrs. Cavanaugh, Mr. Hoffman: Aye.
Sheri Senecal: Thank you everyone.
Amanda Cavanaugh: Thanks, everyone. Have a great weekend. Stay well.