Good evening everyone. Welcome to this evening's meeting of the board of education. The board of education is interested in encouraging members of the public to share their ideas, comments, and questions. Public participation opportunities will be available at the beginning and end of this meeting. And
as stated in board policy, no person shall speak for more than three minutes and in each period of public participation will be limited to 30 minutes. If you have any questions or concerns regarding matters on the consent agenda through the items for discussion, it may be important for you
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as individuals in official matters. Thus, although questions may be directed to the entire board or an individual board member, answers may be deferred pending consideration by the board or for further discussion with central administration. Thank you for your
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republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to open the meeting for the first public participation. Please be sure to clearly state your name and address when you come to the microphone.
>> Okay. Thank you. Mr. Deffendini, please present the proposed 2026 2027 budget. >> Yeah, thank you. I'd invite the board of education to uh join the congregation in the auditorium and we'll get started in
just a minute. My team too So, good evening members of the board of education. Thank you members of the community for joining us uh for this evening's presentation. Uh first off, I just want to apologize on behalf of Mr. Motici. He like many others uh wound up
trapped uh as a result of the storm. So was unable to be here tonight. So I'm going to do the best job I can filling in for Mr. Motesi uh remembering my days as the business official to try to uh again just begin the process. And I think that that's the message that I'd like to lead with is this is just the
beginning of the process, right? There's a lot of steps that have to be taken between now and the actual day of the budget vote today. Uh we're really focusing on some of the preliminary information that we understand at present as well as uh starting to look at some of the revenue projections that we have. Tonight's not a night to really
talk in detail about the appropriation side of the budget. We're really focusing on revenue uh and again some legislative updates that are that are relevant and and appropriate for us to talk about just to begin the budget cycle. But again, there'll be a number of presentations. We'll lay out um the budget calendar so that you can become
aware of sort of how the whole thing is going to be playing out over the course of the next couple of months. So, we look forward to another successful budget vote come May. So, again, our budget development process starts uh very early on in the school year, even in the late fall,
shortly after we close the books, we begin to analyze our financial condition and the academic environment, start to think about programs, program opportunities for kids, what some of the goals are that we've talked about through uh the summer months leading into the fall. Board of Education, us have had that opportunity to really kind
of talk through some of our long-term goals. Uh, and again, financial condition is probably one of the most important things. You need a good solid foothold to decide where the budget might be going over the course of a given school year, right? So, the budget is never a one-year process. We're always looking at how did we close last
year? Significantly different if we close last year in a deficit versus a surplus. It's different if we close last year based upon a retirement incentive versus you know we were in a hiring freeze or whatever it might be. So we think about sort of the financial condition as well as the academic environment.
Next step is we put together a budget development plan and calendar. A lot of work happened this year very early on through the late fall and early winter to start to kind of consider some of the projections, start to put together some of the thoughts as to what this budget might look like for the upcoming school year.
We begin always with primarily uh preliminary revenue and appropriation estimates. The big ones uh CPI which obviously directly impacts the tax levy uh the tax cap calculation both of which we will go over today. State aid runs which are now available. Those came out in the middle of January. So we have
some of that information to share with you this evening. And then some of the bigger uh you know appropriation costs uh health and pension rates are always a big topic of conversation that represents a significant portion of the budget. transportation is becoming a bigger number for us that we're
continuing to have to contend with large year-over-year increases and we'll talk a little bit about that tonight. Um, and then the negotiations process as far as collective bargaining and and how salaries wind up falling year-over-year uh through the conversations that we have early on with the board of education in the fall begin to consider
some of that as we put together some budget parameters. What are those framework type items that we're going to use in order to be able to, you know, move through this u budgetary process with a with a with a very clear north star. The administrative budget meetings are really important for us. Those are
opportunities that we have to speak with every single administrator who has a responsibility over putting together their respective budget. Start to get some insights from them as to where they are, what their thoughts are as far as programs goes. Bringing all that back to cabinet budget discussions and and having some of those more deeper
conversations at the cabinet level to have that true district-wide feel, right? A lot of our people have the understanding and the depth of knowledge with regard to a specific building or a department. Cabinet is able to then take all of those individual ideas and sort of pull it together in a thoughtful way again with the attempt to try to marry
that based upon uh our goals and and the conversations that you and I had uh you and us had earlier in the year. And then finally uh the presentation and discussion with the board of education uh which which begins tonight. Obviously we get to budget adoption and then comes the you know what we call the road show
the opportunity to go on the road and just talk to the community the best we can about all the different things that are going on uh once we have uh an approved budget for the community to consider leading up to the May vote. The goals uh have remained very consistent uh year-over-year. Uh
designing a fiscally responsible budget that meets the operational needs of the stakeholders. Uh continue to capitalize on savings achieved through the retirement incentive to strengthen the district's financial condition. This was something that we talked about and has been sort of a mainstay with the district as far as our our protocol
goes, right? We talked about, you know, what happens over time is your appropriations begins to catch up with your revenue, right? As salaries go up, benefits go up, eventually you get to a place where we are now operating at a deficit where there's obviously more money going out the door than we are generating in revenue. We need that
opportunity for a reset. That's the moment in time we usually offer a retirement incentive. A bunch of people retire, resets the salary structure, we're able to save money, put ourselves in better financial standing as we again move towards the next few years, uh, you know, where that eventually starts
growing again until we hit that pressure relief valve in order to again reset the appropriations. That's the cycle we've been able to operate under in order to maintain programs. We're in now that first year where we have to be fiscally responsible because it is going to be a number of years before a retirement incentive can be offered again. So, we
have to make sure that we're staying within our means uh year-over-year and starting to build back some of the money that we've used in order to be able to maintain the budget over the course of the last few years. Uh always continuing to seek out cost-saving initiatives and all district programs and services. We've been
talking a lot about that on the insurance side and the benefit side, trying to figure out little ways in which we could save some money. Um, a big one for us over the course of the last couple of years has been solar. Uh, that's really done a really nice job. You're going to see that when we get to the appropriations discussion that we're uh saving roughly a half a million
dollars year-over-year now for taxpayers based upon the solar initiative. So, there's some real savings that we're starting to see there. But again, looking at those savings initiatives when those savings initiatives don't impact programs can always create savings by by by firing a whole bunch of people, but that directly impacts services to kids, which is something
that we try to avoid. So, we look at all those other items where we can save some money without impacting direct programs and services to kids. Uh, as well as obviously always staying within the tax levy limit, just a 10-year rolling average. I think it's important to always give um sort of
a comparative basis of of where we stand compared to other schools around the region. Looking at anybody in isolation doesn't really work. We're all playing by a similar rules. Um you can see where our levy has been over the course of the last 10 years, which is very consistent uh with the levies that you're seeing as
far as the average from the rest of the Nasso County school districts, you know, within our region. So 1.9% as a 10-year average compared to 1.76%. So again, we're sort of in that sweet spot of of really being, you know, within the median of of uh Nassau County school districts.
Okay. So there are cost drivers that are, you know, that are that that have been continuously increasing and they are problems for us and that they are cost drivers that go up that don't really buy us anything more. Right? So there are certain things that when we build something into the budget, we're
very proud of we build a new program. As an example, we built a cosmetology program, right? There's a cost associated with that. We had to pay for the space associated with the cosmetology program, the staffing, the professional development, some of the certifications that were required. But in in order to be able to do that, we
paid more money, but we got something for it, right? There are other things that are a part of the budget that go up year-over-year just like they would for any normal homeowner or any other person out in the community, but we don't get anything more for it. We're just basically incurring the cost associated with cost of living type adjustments
that exist across these industries. I don't think it's surprising to share with you that uh general liability excess and automobile insurance is going up. Most people that are probably sitting in the audience today have experienced this on their own. Their homeowners insurance, their car insurance premiums over the course of
the last few years have gone up. We're no different than really you are at the end of the day in comparing the two in that we're also seeing those kinds of increases. We're seeing increases year-over-year in health insurance premiums. I can tell you in the last 20 years that I've been doing this work, uh we've only had a couple of years where
health insurance premiums have gone down. They typically do rise year over year. Again, we're going to talk more detail about that when we get to the appropriation side, but that is another cost driver that we're seeing year-over-year increases. Transportation is a big one. U you know, we talked
about this, you know, for for many, many years, the the COVID impact, right? there was a a COVID bubble that hit uh many years ago because of the transportation hit that the industry took at that time when there wasn't transportation being offered for the second half of a school year and there was a recoup that wound up happening. We
did wind up fairing better uh than some of our neighbors as far as year-over-year transportation costs uh because of the way in which we negotiated the uh payment during that period of time. So we did soften our blow, but we're also looking now at transportation supervisors planning for
things that are coming down the line. So there is a electric bus component that is now starting to flow and and and for as much as school districts have continued to talk about the fact that that may or may not be real based upon infrastructure and other systems that uh may or may not be available to us to
even allow us the ability to get into this world of of an electric bus. But the reality is the mandate is still there. It is creeping up on us as the years go along. This is the last year where we're going to be able next year is the last year we're going to be able to purchase um diesel buses. After that, we're going to be flipping over to everything at that point in time that's
purchased new is going to have to be electric. They're far more costly uh than than a typical diesel bus. And as a result of that, transportation providers are starting to plan for, well, what happens when that initiative comes out? Because again, we don't buy our own buses for the most part. Our transportation contract is what pays for
all of our buses. So our transportation contractors are starting to plan for well what happens when that comes and we need to be able to start buying those electric buses. They're starting to position themselves to be able to do that. So you're going to see increases in transportation year-over-year again without really ch big changes in the
increase of services. We're still offering the same kind of service but it is at an increased cost. Uh this is another big one that we're we're seeing across the industry. technology needs associated with data privacy, cyber security, and other instructional technology supplies uh are
going up all over the place. You know, districts being held hostage or ransom uh to hackers that are out there and continuing to provide better network security packages that can protect data for our students and for our staff members. Um that can that can provide an uninterrupted environment. have had
colleagues who have gone through uh having their network held hostage and that is a significant issue when you are trying to provide a consistent academic program to all of a sudden have all of your data wiped out. So uh you know continuing to put money into uh our data privacy and our cyber security is
something that has become increasingly important. We're going to talk more about the instructional technology component of it as uh again we're we're we're planning something a little different for the future and we'll talk more about that you know in the coming months uh but pulling away even a little bit from some of the use of technology especially at the earlier ages but again
we'll talk more about that as we get deeper into the process and the last one is not a surprise for anyone again special education is on the rise uh something we've seen uh exponential increase uh Cassidy and I often reminisce over the first days of putting the first 611 and 811 on programs in
place nearly 20 years ago with the board support where we welcomed uh you know our our um self-contained learners back to the back to our school districts for the first time. That was 20 years ago to know that we went from having a section to having the amount of sections that we have today. Um it's astronomically higher and there's a cost associated
with that. We would make sure that we always meet the needs of our students, but it is also important just to make sure we are recognizing the fact that that does come at an increased cost. Every time you add a 611 or an 811 program or a 1211 program, there's a lot of additional costs that are on top of what would would typically be for a
regular education student. OTP services, psychological services, um additional aids, um ABA services, you could be talking about at home services. So again, those costs are real uh and they are impacting us year-over-year. We're going to really spend most of our
time tonight talking about revenue and fund balance and reserves. And again, that's one side of the equation, right? You got the revenue, which is the money that's coming in in order to be able to support the programs. And then you got the appropriations, which is the money that we're using in order to be able to support the programs that we
have. But revenue is the money that's coming in. Um, and that usually comes in through two main sources, which is uh taxes and state aid. Uh there are a couple of other small pockets that we will talk about a little bit tonight, but again most of the money comes by way of those two main sources, taxes and
state aid. And then fund balance and reserves, which is the ability for us to utilize any prior year savings to appropriate to help offset taxes in the following year. And we do have that planned as part of the budget process. There you go. Uh property taxes and
pilot here in Farmingdale represent 72% of the total amount of revenue uh that we have in the upcoming year's budget. 24% comes from state aid and 4% comes from other areas. And again, we'll talk a little bit about some of the areas, but we will spend most of our time
talking about property taxes and pilot as well as state aid. Just to be clear again, this formula is not consistent for every single school district across Long Island. Farmingdale is deemed to be across New York State considered to be a wealthier district and therefore we get less money in state aid. So if you have
a district that has a higher poverty level, right, they're going to get more money in state aid. So in some instances, this formula could be flipped. For a district that might have a higher poverty level than we do for a district that has nearly no poverty, which there are some school districts up on the Northshore that have very little poverty, they might wind up with a
formula that looks like 95% coming from property taxes and 4% coming from state aid and 1% coming from everything else. So again, this triangle looks a little different for everyone because of where our wealth stands. This is what our particular triangle looks like.
Okay. The tax cap uh crazy as it is, this is uh since 201213. So we are coming up on the 13th year of the tax cap. Um one of the most restrictive tax caps in the country. I think that that's kind of important to note. Uh California
has I think the single most restrictive tax cap. Massachusetts is in there, too. But we are right there with having one of the most restrictive tax caps, which basically limits the board of education's ability to decide to levy a tax greater than the calculated tax cap without going for the super majority.
Right? Anything over what the calculated maximum amount is would require the district to go through a very different budget process where we would require 60% of the community uh to support the budget as well as a whole bunch of notifications that have to be made on the front side if the community decided they wanted to get behind that. Which is
why we know because of the low success rate that districts have in surpassing the tax cap how important it is to stay within whatever our defined tax cap limit is on any given year. Um, the other important point, um, is that the the tax cap in and of itself is
almost never 2%. Um, it's the misnomer that it's it's a 2% tax cap. It's not 2%. Um, it's variable based upon a formula that we will go through tonight. And I'll talk you through kind of how our tax cap calculated out this year and why we're in the spot we're in as far as what our specific maximum is. And that's
so important to know. Every district has a different calculated maximum amount. Farming Dales is different than Seaffords is different than Masipiqua's is different than Great Neck is different than Plain View. Every single school district has their own specific one. And I'll share with you our calculation as to what our maximum value
is, knowing if we went above it, we'd be in that spot where we would need that supermajority. There's a whole bunch of other things that cause us some level of concern. We try to do what we can communicating as fairly with our community about what could change their individual property
tax bills year-over-year. Um, we can't really do that. And I think last year was probably the testament to that where there was a significant shift between Nassau County and the town of Babylon based upon a change in equalization rates that we had no idea were going to change back in March when
we started the budget deliberation process. So there are factors even when we know what the levy is, it's very difficult to calculate what the impact is going to be on every single individual residents. There could be people who grieve their taxes. You grieve your taxes, your assessed value goes down, your slice of the pie goes
down, you pay less taxes year-over-year. What does that cause? It causes everybody else that didn't wasn't successful in a grievances taxes to go up. That's one example of what can happen. base proportions in Nassau County is another thing that can shift taxes around if all of a sudden there's a pop in class three properties. They
can draw out a significant portion of the tax levy, lowering residential taxes for your individual homeowners on the Nassau County side. So, a lot of variability that goes into this. Um, some of the other big ones down below are STAR and other exemptions.
star changes now almost every single year and they are putting more and more pressure on residents to get the check in the mail because if you continue to just get the credit on your bill, you don't actually get as much money as you would if you actually chose to get the check in the mail. So, they're incentivizing people to to utilize different
circumstances um to decide how how their how their how their star payments actually come in. So, u another variable, right? All of a sudden, you start to decide you want to take your your star payment by way of a check. it's going to look like your property taxes went up because you're going to wind up with a check on the backside
after you pay the full value of your property taxes. So again, lots of variability in this. Um, and we, you know, we started this 13 years ago and it's almost hysterical that this is continued. So 2% is not really 2% and even if it was 2%, it's still not 2%.
Lot of words there, but that actually, if you understand this, makes a heck of a lot of sense. Um just one other point um that I want to bring up with regard to the Babylon um Nassau County uh taxes. Uh again, there is money that did come in now uh to help begin the offsetting of some of the increases that
the Babylon residents saw. We've been in conversation with the town of Babylon to put together a distribution plan for that money that we do now have in our accounts. We are working actively through that. We hope to have that done before the actual budget process which will provide a a refund opportunity for our Babylon residents that did have that
year where they overpaid in their taxes as well as the beginning of an offsetting where they are shifting the taxes back. So the equalization rates have changed and if you look at your year-over-year taxes on the Babylon side, you are going to start to see a drop off where your taxes are going to kind of go back. So we're trying to hit it on both sides. Draw the tax bill back
to the amount that it was as well as reimbursing people for the amount that they overpaid uh you know in that year year-over-year. So here's our tax cap calculation. Um we begin with the 2526 tax levy 143 632984.
Uh then this is all again state regulated. This is the actual formula that the state puts together. This is not something that we create here in house. We multiply it by something called the taxbased growth factor. uh which is 32% which basically represents new brickandmortar buildings that are
being built within Farmingdale. That basically recognizes that if for whatever the reason there's a new building coming into Farmingdale, they're going to be absorbing or they're going to be taking some of the tax uh levy amount from the rest of the residents because you have a new property that's on board. That right
there represents those new properties that are a part of Farmingdale that are helping to offset the taxes for everybody else. And the state recognizes that. get that gives you more space to be able to levy and increase tax without having the residents actually feel it since you have new properties that are helping to defer or take some of that
levy upon themselves. Um we're going to talk about pilots but again um and they are growing as the pilots are based upon uh contracts that are established by the industrial development agency in Nassau County and the town of Babylon. Estimated pilots
for 2526 were $5.3 million. So that gets added again those are taxable. those are not taxable properties and that they're offered a tax break, but they still are part of the base tax property. So, the state basically says you can recognize that by putting those or building those
pilot properties into your formula. You have to take out capital and local expenditures net of building aid, right? So, that's all the building aid, that's all the capital projects that are voted on separately by the community. Basically, it offers a a null way of saying if the if the community approved
a project or you have a debt service obligation that shouldn't impact the formula, which makes sense, right? Those are those are required obligations that have been approved by the board that have been approved by the community. So, by taking out the capital local expenditures on the front side and then building in the new ones on the bottom, which we'll get to in a second,
basically nullifies any debt service related obligations that have already been approved by the community. Um, so you got the minus 4.7 million, which gives you an adjusted levy of 144,694507. You multiply that by the allowable growth factor. The lesser of 2% or the
CPI bottom of the thing, the CPI for this year is actually 2.56. But it can't be more than two. That's the only place where 2% actually means something. That's the 2% right there. Maximum of 22 2% 1.02. Um, again down below you can
see the CPI at 2.56. We talk about this one all the time, too. This is another major concern that we have as a school system. When the CPI is at or below 2%. I know that that sounds crazy. We're actually in a pretty good place because we're able to grow based upon the rate
of the economy, right? The CPI is a reflection of uh the cost of of doing business or the cost of buying goods within a particular geographic region. When it's at or below 2%, we're in a pretty good place. When you're in an inflationary environment, it becomes problematic because you're held to a
lower standard than everything else. Like everything else is growing by more than 2%. Let's just say you had a two or three years where things were going up by six and 8%. But you're only allowed to keep up with that by increasing your levy by two. That becomes problematic for us. We've had the good fortune for the most part where it really hasn't
gotten too crazy. If you ever wind up in a crazy inflationary environment where year-over-year you're seeing double digit kinds of increases, this is going to begin to pose a very big problem for us. Again, we've been able to manage this, I think, in large part because uh the average CPI over the course of the time since the tax levy was put into
place has actually been close to 2%. So, um there's your 2%. Uh you have to take out the pilot payments, right? Because those are not part of your taxable properties. Uh which brings you to a um uh limit before exclusions of 141, 903, 230. Uh you have to add back in then,
right, we talked about this the debt service obligations that's nullifying the impact that debt service have. You take them out on the front side and then you add them back uh on the back side gives you a new maximum allowable levy of 147 689 309 or percent increase
year-over-year of 2.82. That is our present day which can change. Not saying that that is final final, but that is our present day maximum allowable levy limit. It is not the levy limit that we will ultimately approve. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. We have to talk about that. Uh but that is the maximum
allowable levy limit that could be issued if you went to 2.83. 83 super majority. You need 60% voter authority, voter approval to to get a budget passed. If you're at 2.82 or less, you just need a regular majority.
Take a breath. Right now, everyone in a good place with regard to where we are. Fair enough. Okay, let's talk a little bit about state aid. So there are three basic state aid
packages that districts can receive. Uh the unrestricted portion of it which is your foundation and your high tax aid. We'll talk about that in a minute but those are uh a particular form of state aid that really generates the bulk of the amount of money that we receive from the state. And again when I have
mentioned before right different districts receive different amounts of state aid based upon wealth formulas. There it is right there. That's your unrestricted wealth uh your unrestricted portion of the actual formula uh foundation and high tax aid reimbursement and expense driven aid is
basically formulas that are tied to the amount of money we spend. You spend a certain amount of money in Boseies. You spend a certain amount of money on transportation. You spend a certain amount of money on materials and supplies and you get a certain amount of money credited back from the state. They're recognizing that they're assuming a certain responsibility or a
percentage of the cost associated with specific subcategories. Um, so we got unrestricted. Those are the wealth and needs driven. The other ones that are based upon the amount of money that you spend, right? You get a certain amount of money back. And the last one, uh, categorical and grants, um, which again
are something entirely different, which for the most part are actually covered in a different fund, the special aid fund, uh, with the exception of the state always seems to want to report your UPK money as part of the state aid formula, even though it is not recognized in the general fund. It's recognized on the special aid fund.
They've been doing this for years. It complicates things because you see the number in News Day and it's not actually the number that we're getting in state aid. But it is something important that we do need to talk about this year as the state has changed significantly um the UPK formula uh based upon a plan
that the governor has over the course of the next few years of phasing in a full-time UPK program for all uh in New York State which will impact us here in Farmingdale. Uh but again, we're going to talk a little bit more about that uh over the course of the next few years. Again, with the knowledge that all of the stuff that I'm talking about today,
important to note, especially the things specific to state aid are based upon the governor's proposal only, right? The legislature now and the wrangling process at the state level needs to happen. Eventually, we'll get some final numbers, but these are all just preliminary numbers based upon the governor's estimates. It could be more
and it could be less or it could be the same. Can't really tell you right now how that process is going to go, but it is part of the actual budget deliberation process at the state level with regard to state aid. Foundation aid uh again increase 6.22%
2.2 million a little bit more uh than the state average year-over-year recognizing a growing poverty rate here in Farmingdale schools. We have seen a larger number of students uh in Farmingdale uh that have reached that that poverty threshold. So therefore,
our percent or our slice of the pie is going up. Uh we're seeing a larger amount of of money coming to us to the tune of $2.2 million. High tax aid is almost just a plug number at this point in time. Uh that number actually rose for the last time in 20134 and has not increased since.
So, we do live in a high tax zone and there was a point in time where the state recognized taxes are high in certain areas, Farmingdale being one of them. And they were delivering year-over-year more money and helped to offset some of the higher tax regions. They have stopped doing that since 20134
and we have not seen a dollar more in high tax aid since that time. So, they're just shifting their philosophical value system away from thinking that they're going to try to help to offset some of the higher tax regions, uh, which they had done at a time, and they're just not doing that anymore. It's not just for us. It's for
anybody that receives high tax aid, which has been frozen again for, uh, more than a decade. some of the smaller numbers um uh not small but smaller uh than obviously the unrestricted most of the state aid comes by way of the restricted transportation
aid uh we're seeing an increase of 14.16% you can see the ratio has increased from 46.4 four in 2526 to 49% which is driving a little bit more money to us. But most of what's actually driving that additional money towards us
is we're spending more money in transportation. Again, I mentioned it's an expense-based aid. You spend more, you get more. Transportation is costing us year overyear more and more money. Therefore, we're getting more and more money from transportation aid. Again, in part because of the formula change, but
in part also just because of the fact that it's costing more money for us year-over-year. uh Bosey's aid is actually uh going down slightly. Uh again, this is based upon all the different services that we receive through Boseies. Again, Boseies is not just a special education
provider. They provide a whole host and range of services that we utilize. Uh helps to operate our network, helps helps to operate certain facilities, certain contractual benefits that we have. Um again, we're seeing a decrease. you're seeing the ratio drop as well as the expense year-over-year connected to
those things that are specifically relevant to Boseies are dropping. Uh so we're seeing $143,000 decrease in the projected Bosey's aid year-over-year. The next two categories are directly linked to our uh students uh receiving special education services. Um, you
know, these these are numbers that that um really pale in comparison to the actual cost associated with special education. But again, we appreciate the fact that there's some money flowing to help recognize the increased cost that we're seeing uh from our our special education side of the budget. Public
excess high cost aid is going to 1.153 uh which is up 79,000 or 7.37% year-over-year as well as private access cost aid uh increasing 15.27% 27% to um 660 or $68,983. Again, large percent increases, but
because of the dollars associated small, you're not really seeing a very large number of amount of money coming to help offset special education related costs. Uh we laugh uh at the fact that in total uh you're seeing about $1.6 million in reimbursements coming for our special education population where they are deep
into the tens of millions of dollars that are being spent year-over-year for special education based services. So, it's a very small percentage of the total uh amount of cost that we're outlaying uh that we're getting back uh by way of uh the special education related um reimburseable aid categories.
And the last one uh instructional materials, software, library, textbooks, hardware, instructional aid, uh $485,945 uh or 2.69% 12,743. do again receive reimbursements based upon those purchases that we make for you know software and different kinds of uh
textbooks and and and um material costs that we have for for instructional materials. This is where things are changing pretty pretty dramatically. Um we have a goal year over year with regard to our UPK program. You know that we had started with the UPK program many
many years ago. It was a half-day program. Uh there was actually uh one half day or two half-day programs per building many many years ago. $419,194. That is the number that I will remember for the rest of my life. And I don't know why, but it has burned into the back of my brain as being the first
amount of money that we ever got uh for the UPK program. And that sponsored a handful of half-day programs that we had in each of our elementary schools. That has changed dramatically over the course of the last decade. We have now gone to a 100% full-time model. There are no
more half-day programs. Uh we understand the value that the community has with regard to the full day program here in our schools. Currently, we are serving uh 11 sections or 198 students next year. We are looking to increase that to 14 sections. So, we're adding three more
sections to it going up to 252 students. Uh still not probably going to hit the need of our entire community. We're still going to have uh upwards of about 150 uh that are not going to have their needs met. still will wind up with a uh list of students and parents that are
going to be looking to to get into our UPK program if other people fall out. Um but again, we are moving in the right direction of continuing to be able to add more programs. Uh we'll talk when we get to the legislative slide about what changes the governor is looking with uh looking at with regard to this
particular program because that is going to initiate a whole bunch of conversations for us as we consider the potential to include or to increase UPK services to be able to offer that to all of our parents here in the community. And the last is uh title grants 611 and
619 Nassau County grants and special legislative projects. all other forms of revenue that we receive where we really don't and we do a pretty good job in this district making sure that we don't create a liabilist condition with regard to grant money. It's always a scary thing for us to utilize too much grant
money for real fundamentalbased or or foundational programs because they can change in a heartbeat, right? We see that at the federal level right now. A lot of changes with regard to the way grants are being provided or not being provided to school districts one way or another. uh we have to be really careful
in the way in which we actually utilize grant-based funding. There are some that are more stable than others. Uh your title grants 611 and 619, they're consistent and that we do receive those grants year-over-year, but there's a level of volatility associated with how much money we might
get in the grant program or if the federal government or the state at some point in time might find they're not in a place to continue to deliver the funds and therefore for one reason or another, they're going to dry those funds up. Which is why again we try not to put too many essentialbased services in grant-based programs. If they do go
away, we don't want to have a place where we're fundamentally changing the program. We want to have more control over it than relying upon a very unreliable source of revenue through the special aid fund through the grant programs. So here's what it looks like uh in total
uh year-over-year. 48,802749 was the number from 2526. 51,48464 or $2.6 million increase or a total of 5.36% year-over-year more. When you look at all of the uh aid categories that go
into uh the executive budget estimates, and again, one more time, executive budget estimates, there's still a legislative process that has to take place over the course of the next couple of months. Typical wrangling goes back and forth. Legislators are trying to fight for their constituents. We'll see where this thing winds up landing as we
get deeper into the budget process, but this is where we are today. This is your revenue uh tax levy, state aid, uh other income. We kind of chunk together because there are so many smaller categories that uh um that
include other income. Uh use of reserves. Uh and then fund balance and reserves. I mentioned that before, the $5 million, that's the money from the prior year's budget year-over-year that we use from our own savings account in order to help offset taxes year-over-year. You have to always be
careful uh depending upon the number that you put here because this could be a death cycle, right? If you put money in that you can't save on the other side from a from an operational standpoint, you wind up continuing to draw money out of your fund balance and reserves. And what happens when you no longer have
that money to be able to continue to put toward the budget? So, a lot of financial analysis goes into making sure that the number that we choose to use is a sustainable number year-over-year that we can replace or or or put back some of the money uh that we use year-over-year
uh for fund balancing reserves. Okay, a couple of other things uh just to talk about. Um so, this is something big uh that that we're now looking at. again uh reported out in a recent update to the board that we're actually uh seeing a lot of rebates now coming in on
top of the money that we're saving on the budget for our solarbased projects. Uh we've received uh roughly threequarters of a million dollars of additional revenue that's come in by way of um uh renewable energy uh one-time uh chunks of money that's being sent our
way. Uh but the state is looking to increase the building aid ratio. They recognize the fact that school districts are in a very unique place because of the fact that if you have a new roof, which we do, uh, or we will have new roofs on our buildings in the next couple of years. We have flat roofs that are not obstructed by any outside, you
know, trees or other kinds of things. And we're an excellent source for renewable energy. So they are trying to create um uh building aid ratios specific to renewable energy projects. Meaning you're going to get more building aid which is another one of those aid categories in the event that you choose a renewable energy project
whether or not it's soda solar photovoltaic thermal systems geothermal systems uh or other cost-effective renewable energy technologies. So again, this is part of the governor's proposal to try to incentivize school districts to take on more energy- based projects
uh as part of future capital. Um and again, we talked about this the climate act January 2020, all electrical demand systems for every economic sector to be zero emission by 2040. This is part of the uh bus mandate requiring school districts to no longer utilize diesel, but instead moving to an all
electric fleet. I mentioned year one of that plan really does hit us next year. So, it's becoming increasingly real. Uh if you don't buy a bus within the next year, you are going to be in a place where everything thereafter has to be done via an electric bus purchase. They will not approve you buying a diesel-based bus uh within the next
year. And this is the big one right now that's on everybody's um on everybody's mind. Lot of questions, more questions than we have answers for right now, but uh universal pre kindergarten. So UPK really actually being universal pre kindergarten, which we've called it UPK,
but it hasn't been universal because it hasn't been offered to all of our students. But that is now what is being recommended uh by the governor for the legislaturator's consideration is by 2829 all students in New York State will have an opportunity to receive a full day UPK
program free of charge. Could be done in a lot of different ways. could be done through um RFP type processes that allow uh local established UPK programs to receive funding that allows them to get it the the money that they would normally get from parents to get it
directly from the state to keep the programs. District operated programs uh could be something that we could be using. So it could be the in-house or the community- based organizations. Still questions with regard to transportation. It's a big issue with UPK. How do we do transportation related circumstances with UPK students? We
right now do not transport our UPK students where we do transport our our K through2 students. What are the staffing needs going to look like? If we do choose to go with an in-house program, what's that going to look like? Uh classroom instructional space is probably going to be our biggest issue. Uh we are now coming to capacity with
adding these next three sections of UPK districtwide. Uh with really filling up our buildings with about as many sections as they can take now. So, if we're going to choose to go UPK, you know, what are we going to do as far as instructional space to be able to afford the program to the remainder of the community? We've had some ideas
connected to this, but there's a lot more conversation that needs to happen. Also to make sure that this is financially feasible, right? You don't want to pick up uh the cost associated with the lease arrangement for an additional space and then not be able to continue to sustain it. But, uh something that I think our parents would appreciate, um again, having been a
parent of a UPK student many years ago, the cost of those programs is expensive. um eight, 10, 12, maybe more thousand dollars. I don't even know what the costs are running to these days. I see some of my UPK parents and my UPK grandparents jacking their fingers up on me. It's more than that. So, uh the
knowledge I remember being a parent of twins at the time where I had two kids going through UPK program and from from prek to kindergarten was this like, oh my god, I can't believe I don't have to incur that cost anymore. How much that meant to my family. I'd imagine a lot of other parents in this community would also benefit from not having to incur
those costs and having the benefit of a of a district- based program, right? They're in our district schools. Uh, you know, they have the security and the the infrastructure. We're hiring certified teachers. Um, offers them something, uh, you know, truly beneficial whether or not it comes through us or even through a community- based organization.
Um, and then how will the need to be locally funded by the general fund impact that? So, is it something where the grant associated with the governor's program is going to completely pick up the cost associated with UPK or are there general fund obligations that we have to assume in order to be able to do this? We got to go through some of that
stuff as we learn more about uh what this program is looking like. It look like at present right now for the most part the UPK program operates on its own. There might have to be some general general fund obligations that we have to incur in order to be able to provide the program based upon the additional space. So again, more questions I think than
answers right now connected to it, but it is something that uh the governor is pushing and it is one of those legislative items that most of us believe in the industry will probably happen because the legislature is not going to fight on being able to provide a program that's going to save uh parents those kinds of those costs and
providing a a consistent UPK program for all four-year-olds. Okay, whatever you want. I'm almost at the end, but you can Hello. >> So, universal prek in this aspect, the
governor is is pushing to have that. Okay. Right. So, with that being said, we don't know the answers to these questions yet because she didn't come out with the possibilities of what, where, when, and so it's thrown out there, but we don't know what it's going
to consist of or should consist of. It is. It is. And and you have to be you have to always be careful with regard to legislative or or executive based promises. Just had a conversation today about um you know the the new federal program that provides you know overtime. And when you kind of get into the weeds
and you understand how the tax-free overtime works, it's not quite tax-free overtime. There's all sorts of caps and limits and it starts at a certain amount of hours and it's only based upon the amount over what you would normally earn for that overtime period. So, this is one of those kinds of things that it
sounds really good, but we really have to unpack this deeply to to know kind of what it's going to mean for us and and how it might or might not be feasible for us to implement this plan um based upon how the next couple of months go getting to the legislative approval and then even after that as the regulations
are built because again, even when something is approved as a law, you still kind of have to wait on it a little bit to understand how the state education department is going to put regs in place in order to even roll something like this out. So, we have time. Um, you know, we know what our plan is for next year because we're going to still conclude some additional
programs because we have the funding to be able to do that. >> Uh, but the full-time program is probably going to be another easily six months plus away before we really understand the underpinnings of of what's going to be needed. So, we know what questions we even need to ask. >> So, is this considered
going to be considered a mandate that we have to do it or we're we're able to possibly do it? It doesn't appear at present, and I'm going to use that word appear, to be a mandate. It's an offering where every dollar, every student that you provide UPK services
to, there'll be an additional chunk of funding that comes along for the ride. So, as an example, for using round numbers, for every additional child, here's $10,000 more dollars to be able to sponsor that particular child. So, if you have a hundred students, you know, based upon that formula, you're going to receive a million dollars. If you have
200 students, you're going to receive $2 million. are going to give you more money the more students you have enrolled in a UPK program. >> But there's no requirement that everybody has to do it. It's just a matter of offering it because the reality is there are districts that do not have the means. We at present, if we were going to be doing this for next
year, don't have the means to do. We don't have the space to be able to put students next year for a full-time program. So, it can't really be a mandate, but it's an offering. >> Well, I only asked the mandate part because kindergarten is not mandated. Correct. So, if kindergarten is not mandated and we're now on to four year
olds and possibly three and two like the city, um, someone has to decide what's a mandate, what's not and who can afford it. >> Yep. It it's moving in that direction. There's no doubt about it. You know, you can go back far enough. I think some of us can go back to know a time when um uh
kindergarten was half day. I can go back to, you know, uh my my up my upbringing here in Farmingdale. I had Mrs. Sansabella in kindergarten. Uh Dolores Santiella was my kindergarten teacher here over at Woodward Parkway. It was a half-day program. Um there's nobody anymore that has a half-day kindergarten
program. That has become the norm. Then halfday UPK was all the rage. Now it's not anymore. Now it's pretty much full day UPK. And we are now climbing towards full day UPK for all. I have no doubt over the years, you know, having a three-year-old program would probably be the next thing that could come down the
line after we establish, you know, UPK for all. Uh we're certainly moving in that direction or we have been over the course of the last couple decades. >> I think it'd be fabulous but but I don't want to go two steps forward and eight steps back like how are we going to do this? Yep. >> But that's why I asked the mandate. >> Thank you.
>> Yep. >> Um all right. So I guess we are at that place right now. Uh any questions, comments uh from the board? you were you were ahead of you knew what was coming, Kathy. You knew what was coming. Um or information requests. And I know that that might not be an entirely fair
question just because we still have to get into some of the appropriation side. We still have more to talk about, but um just wanted to open it up for any initial questions or thoughts or anything the board might have right now uh for us to start to think about as we continue to move through the cycle. >> Hello. >> Hi, George.
>> So, first of all, thank you so much. This was uh great. I know you stepped in for Mike Motissi, so thank you for uh it was an excellent presentation. Uh I have a a bunch of questions. You want me to just spew them off? Okay. >> Um so first question is related to you
talked about the town of Oyster Bay issue, uh Town of Babylon issue, uh with the equalization rates and how we're starting to get back to center, right, and bring them back to a place. Can you get a little more specific in terms of how is that how is the resolution to
that affecting uh our budget this year in terms of the the the levy on that side of things and do we have like exact numbers or or a place where they're going to be? >> Yeah. So so we're we're getting closer to having more exact numbers. It looks like depending upon uh the way in which
the money was received. Uh again we we did receive the actual money. We received a million dollars from um the state in order to help to offset some of the increases that the town of Babylon saw. But the the real question has to do with the way in which um the funds are going to be distributed. There's
different classes of properties in town of Babylon, George. So there's your your your homestead, right? or your your homeowner properties and then there's a whole set of commercial properties depending upon decisions that are connected to and some of the people at the legislative side that were able to
um ascertain the money for us right for the residents of the town of Babylon have some level of influence over how that money is actually being distributed so that's where the conversation is actively happening if the money is going specifically to residents it would obviously cause the amount of money for
each resident to be much higher than if it's being equally distributed over the entire town of Babylon. Since the town of Babylon is actually odd in that Nassau County represents a vast majority of the taxes come from residents, as crazy as it is on the Babylon side, it's it's absolutely flipped. It's almost
like I think it's like 75% of the total levy on the Babylon side goes to commercial properties. So whereas a million dollars might not look like a lot of money in comparison to the actual overt taxing that happened which was to the tune of more than $4 million, if it goes to the homeowners and not to
the whole property, all the property owners in the totality of the Babylon, it could represent a near uh complete reimbursement for the one-year over taxing um based upon the change in the equalization rates. Again, all of that's being flushed out right now. I don't have definitive information to share because those decisions haven't been
finalized. I think they're getting closer. Um, so that's a part of it. And the other part of it is the equalization rate shifting back. Uh, we're a little bit uh we're almost halfway to the halfway mark of where we were before. So if if a resident was overt taxed by
$1,000, the redistribution is getting close to about 50% of that going back to the resident. So they're not where they were uh before the actual equalization rate shifted that large amount over to them, but they are creeping back towards center. And I would suspect within the next year or so, if the state continues
to issue equalization rates similar in vein to the way that they did it this year, we could be back to square one again for next year. >> Okay. And does that shift over to the town of Oyster Bay side? >> It does. It does. It basically redistributes. So the the tax savings
that the Nassau County side saw as a result of that, they'll now go back to where they were uh before the redistribution shifted taxes away from the Nassau County side. >> That is absolutely correct. Okay. the the I guess the the only benefit if you want to think about it in these terms and it's not a it's not a benefit to the
to the Nasso County resident side for certain but because of the fact that there are so many more Nassau County residents >> the impact that the Nasso County residents are going to see as far as the swing back is nowhere near the amount of money that that the Babylon residents got hit with because they represent such
a significant portion of the base remember 80% of the communities on the Nassau side when the shift happened and all of the taxes went to the town of Babylon the residents saw a ginormous increase because they there's not a lot of them to pick up what the increased levy was. There will be a shift back.
Taxes will go up on the Nassau County side, but not so much, I think, to create the same kind of panic that occurred when the taxes were shifted to the Babylon side because there just are less of those property owners to split up the increase that they got hit with. If that makes sense to you. >> Got it. Makes total sense. Um, the next
question is on high tax aid. So, so I guess the high tax aid is kind of their way of making right I guess wrongfully classifying us as a rich district, right? Um that number for 2526 and 2627
was 3,243907. Same number for both years. So I I just did the quick math on the percentages of the overall budget. So, of this year's proposed budget, it's 1.52%, of last year's, it's 1.57%.
Is that a static number always? And how does how is that calculated? >> It's a static number. It was a number that used to be calculated uh back in the day. I only had six years of watching that number move before they froze it. Uh it was a number that they calculated year-over-year based upon
exactly that. Uh they understood or recognized the fact that there are certain portions of the state. Uh, I know that it's hard for us to imagine here on Long Island, but there are parts of the North Country in in New York State who might pay $1,200 in property taxes. Like, that's not an unreasonable
tax bill for someone in the north country. They recognized in certain pockets of the state that there was a very large taxing increase or there was a very large tax number. Um but there was also recognition of the fact that the the the the uh cost of living factor
was such that it it didn't evenly distribute if that makes sense. Right? They're paying less but their cost of living was so far less. We're paying so much more in property taxes but our cost of living is so much higher. It it's not it's not balancing itself out right. It's not having its intended effect. So
they kind of put this fix in place to say, "Okay, we recognize the fact that, you know, the taxes are so high within this particular jurisdiction and it's not fair to ask you to pay those property taxes because the cost of living is also so much higher here, right, in Farmingdale than it is in
North Country, New York." high tax aid was the offsetting aid category that they used to help soften the blow for for for us in this region of the state which is really Nassau County a little bit of sufficing and Westchester are the three wealthier areas across New York state. Um so so that was a number that
they were using to help us balance that. In 1213 the political dynamic changed and that was the end of that and that is a static number that does not go up year-over-year. Even a single dollar that is exactly the same number as it's been for the last 13 years. >> Is that specific to Farmingdale or is
that Nassau County? >> Specific to Farmingdale based upon whatever the wealth ratio was back in 201213. >> So is that something that's publicly accessible to us to find out what other districts in Nassau County get? Is that something that we can >> Absolutely. Absolutely. I can pull that together. That's not that's it's
available on the state aid runs. You can literally just pull it off of the state's website. We can pull that and share that. >> And I'm only asking because that I think that's a good thing for the legislative action committee to to talk to the legislators about. >> Sure. >> You know, something to to unfreeze that number. >> I mean, because we've looked at other
districts like Hemstead, >> which obviously is it's upside down on us, right? They're backwards. 24% 25% comes from property tax and the rest comes from the state. Um, so if they get a number similar to that, it almost doesn't make sense. And I know
foundation aid has kind of been fixed. It's a little bit better, not great, but um, okay. Um, my next question was on the tax. So, so on page 12 um, of the presentation,
2526 shows the tax base growth factor at 1.0032%. And then 26 27 shows the allowable growth factor at 1.020%. >> Yep. >> Is that because CPI was lower
>> than the 2% last year? Why is that number different year >> over year? >> So So two different numbers. And as I'm standing here looking at it, it's not actually 1.0032%. It's just 1.0032. Simple mathematical thing. Sorry, I just looked up that. It just bothered me. >> My fault that I missed that. Uh and it's
1.02000. No percent. uh those are the actual multipliers. But anyway, there are two two very different things. So the one up top, uh George, the tax base growth factor, right, is a recognition that the state offers to to in the event that we
that a new building gets erected on Main Street, right? That was never there before. It's a new brickandmortar building that was never a part of Farmingdale. There was no taxes coming from it. Starbucks decided they're going to build a new building. the state basically recognizes, all right, if you
have a completely new brick-and-mortar building that's coming into your ge geographic region, they're going to all of a sudden become a part of the tax base paying, right? Yep. >> They're going to they're going to increase the size of your pie. Therefore, they give you the the
leverage to increase your levy automatically out of the gate by that amount of money. So, they're saying if Starbucks could pick up another I'm going to just use a real ridiculous number, $32,000 of property taxes, you can increase your levy by $32,000 because your residents aren't going to have to pay for it. Starbucks is paying
for it because they just built that new brick and mortar building. That's what that top number is for. It's a recognition of new brick and mortar. Got it. This is your CPI or 2%. This is supposed to be the recognition for all right, we get it. We would love to be
zero. We would love to be zero, right? Don't stand up here feeling great about increasing taxes a dollar. I think every one of us would want to keep it at zero, but there's a recognition that that's not realistic. Things around us are costing more money year-over-year. We talked about that, right? Transportation, benefits, things go up
every year. That's their recognition of we're going to give you the ability to increase the formula by a certain amount of money. And the way that the state has the law written, it's either the CPI or 2%, whichever is lower. So if the CPI
were 1.56%, that number would be 1.56. If this number is 2.56, that number is two. If that number is 8.56, that number is two. If that number is 15, that number is two.
So that's the maximum amount in this whole formula. I know that sound this sounds crazy, but in the whole formula of all these ads and deletes and changes and debt service, all of this stuff is used to basically equalize it so that there's the only relevant factor in the formula is that number right there.
That's the number that's actually operationally going up. Everything else connected to the formula is just pulling out and putting in things that are required by law expenses. Everything else is required. That is that is basically the flexibility that they're offering us year-over-year with regard
to taxes. 2% or uh the CPI whichever is less. >> Okay, perfect. And then last Yeah, totally. And the last question um >> I guess it was on the legislative proposals page, but it reminded me of um I guess the energy performance contract.
So the renewable energy projects uh the increase request for increase in building aid rating capacity. Can can you explain that a little bit? And what does that have anything to do with I know we're dealing with right now that PSCG is limiting >> how much of our solar that we can
currently >> so we literally within the last 24 hours are 100% a go with regard to solar we just got >> okay >> the notification from PSCG within the last 24 hours that we are full on and we are generating the full savings associated with all the solar panels that were pulled up there was a
arrangement that existed that had to do with Yes I know that is >> a reason for us to pull because again the savings that we're seeing right now isn't even based upon the totality of the the photovoltaic system that we're putting in place. Um that had to do with yeah uh slowness uh I want to be polite
about this >> delays connected to the way in which PSEG was providing us permission to move ahead with regard to getting the the savings associated with it. This is something entirely different. So the state offers building aid when you go ahead and initiate a project. Our building aid ratios are usually uh just
under 50%. So, if we go ahead and we do a project and we apply to the state, we get permission from the community, we put it out there, it's a $2 million project, we're going to get roughly $800,000 in aid from the state for that $2 million project. When you actually
deal in the world of energy projects, the state's actually gone the other way. They penalize you by taking 10% of whatever your aid amount is and deducting it from your formula each time you go out and you have your board of education approve a solar project. So if you approve a solar project for us to go
ahead with it, we don't even get the full amount of state aid as we would if we built a new classroom. They don't offer as much state aid. So this plan is to go in the other direction. Not only offering the same amount that they offer for every other capital projects, but even incentivizing school districts to
increase the amount of renewable energy projects, whether or not it's again wind, geothermal, solar that they they do. They're going to offer a new aid ratio that'll make it even sweeter for districts to go ahead and and pursue these kinds of projects. >> Got it. And is that the reason that the
building aid has gone down for this year? >> It it Oh, you go back to the >> building aid went down 6.36%, right? >> So, you're talking about net building aid 4.7 to the 5.7. >> No, you just passed it. Page page 18.
But you had everything broken down. >> Sorry. >> No. >> Yeah. Right there. >> Building aid went down 6.36%. >> 118,000. >> Hang on. Just Yeah, there we are. >> Uh, no. No. So, so building aid is based
upon timing of projects. So, um, so as new projects come on and old projects come off, building aid fluctuates each year. So the reduction in building aid year-over-year is probably based upon a projection or an assumed amount of projects that we were going to be able
to capture in a particular year. Once you um approve contracts with the vendor is what triggers the new building aid to come in. So depending upon the timing of that, it can change year-over-year by small amounts of money just depending upon how many projects were tucked in. We we have the solar projects going on,
we have the roof projects going on right now. Um, all of those projects are just based upon the timing of when the final cost reports are actually submitted to the state. That's all my questions. Thank you, Paul. Any other questions from board members? Um Paul, when you were talking about um
property taxes and stuff like that and you talked about residents um Nassau versus Babylon or SuffK, right? Um you said um the shift in residents. There's more residents in Nassau than there are
in the Suffach County uh part of it of correct of New York. Um, are you talking about residents per resident or homeowners that property owners like so what I'm what I'm talking about is is um
it's another formula that's used to represent the value right or the the the I know it sounds crazy but it's almost like the total cost to purchase the entirety of a particular taxing jurisdiction. So the way that
equalization rates work is they are supposed to basically equate to the full value of the property in a particular region. So um to give an example in Nassau County uh assessed value of a property might be $894.
Clearly you can't buy a house in Nassau County for $894. There's an equalization rate that goes in to basically say, well your assessed value is $894. But when you apply the equalization rate, the property just went up to $958,000. Right? There's So, and when you add up
all of those different properties across Nassau and all of those properties across Babylon, that's the distribution of taxes between the two a entities. It's the total value uh or the full value, which is the the term that they refer to at the state level, the full value of all the properties in Nassau,
the full value of all the properties in Suffach. And when you break that down, 80% of the full value or the the total monetary value of the properties is on the Nassau County side. 20% of it is on the Babylon side. And when you actually break that down even further, out of the
20% that's on the Babylon side, a vast majority of the Babylon properties are commercial, right? Not residential. So almost 75% of the 20% is on that that on the on the Babylon side which means there's a very few number of physical
residences in East Farmingdale on the Babylon side than there are compared to North Masipiqua, South Farmingdale and the village of Farmingdale which represents a vast majority of the total number of properties and the value associated with those properties as well. >> I wasn't sure what the resident part meant. Um
>> does that make sense Kath? >> Yes. Okay. >> Thank you. >> The transportation. So has to do with the electric buses. That's going that's is or going to be a mandate. >> It it is it is a mandate. >> That's what I thought. By a certain year two a year or two from here it
>> 2040 is the renewable. It's 2037 for school buses across the region. So by 2037 all buses in New York State are supposed to be electric. But they're beginning that by next year requiring all new burst bus purchases to be electric. which is why you're seeing
increases on on contract based transportation costs because they're prepping for maybe it goes away and maybe it doesn't and maybe they hold to the fact that they really are going to require transportation providers to to provide electric buses. They need to then have the means to purchase those buses, which is why you're seeing these
these large increased costs, 20 25. I know a couple of my counterparts in other districts this year seeing in excess of 30% increased costs in transportation because they're prepping for having to then purchase at some point in time these more expensive buses. >> So, what I was going to ask you with
relations to that is we use a transportation company. We're very very diligent in what we do. We check out everything and and such, but there are only so many companies out there. Do you It's probably premature, but do you have
an inkling of whether these companies a handful of companies are going to be existing then? Are they looking for electric? Are they saying we're we're we can't possible to do this? Do you have a feeling about that? It's too early. >> I do. There Yeah, there are two different kinds of um mechanisms under
which you could provide transportation. Some districts, uh, Levittown, I think Garden City provides transportation because they buy their own buses. They have their own buses. They have a a right a contract with their bus drivers similar to what we have with our teachers and our administrators and our nurses. They have they have a specific contract and the contract provides a
benefit structure and they have their buses. They have a yard, a maintenance system, and they maintain their own buses. In those instances, those school systems beginning next year are going to have to buy new electric buses. Farmingale, we don't have any of that. We contract out for an outside company.
they take up or pick up all the the cost and liabilities associated with providing the transportation. They just give us a flat rate. They're though going to be held to that same right responsibility. And because we do multi-year contracts, right? We don't ever do the contract for just a year. It's a five-year contract. you what
you're seeing now is increased percentages year-over-year because they're beginning to gear up for what could be the requirement for them in years three, four, and five to begin to start to replace some of those buses at a much higher cost uh than what the diesel buses are costing right now. On top of, let's be fair, costs for right
employees and salaries and benefits because the even if you have a contra contract transportation provider, they still have employees and bus drivers that need to be paid a commensurate amount of money to keep them competitive with other people in the industry. So these are the reasons why you're seeing those increased costs in
transportation. It's not only the buses, it's the insurance that we're seeing on the automobile side. They're seeing increased automobile. They're seeing increased costs from their staff members, increased benefits in order to retain, you know, some of your lower paying employees, which is becoming increasingly diff more difficult in this
economy. Um, for all of those reasons, you're seeing those those double digit plus increases on the transportation side. I was I was just curious for the fact that um want to make sure they're in business. If these companies go bankrupt, then we're really stuck with
that and that could be a possibility. Yes, >> I I I guess yes, you would. But I but again, I think that they're sophisticated enough to understand the changing landscape and what they need to do in renegotiating multi-year contracts with school districts to stay afloat, knowing what the increased costs might
look like for them in the coming year. The reason why you're seeing the bigger increases is for that exact reason. They're gearing up for, you know, what could be something very real for them in the coming years. >> You're welcome. >> One more thing related to the buses. Um, do we have a plan to do a feasibility
study before the bus mandate just to get a sense of what the scope is going to look like for this and the cost? >> So, so we're a little different. We're positioned a little different than some of the school districts who are going to be required to actually provide um the the transportation service in and of
itself. Right? In Farmingdale, we use contract transportation. We don't have a yard, right? I don't have to worry about um figuring out how we're going to bring in, you know, more electric in order to be able to charge 40 buses overnight. Um that that's an extraordinary
uh cost. That's a a feasibility study in order to just determine how LIPA and how the grid can support the increased electrical needs that would be required to charge buses. We're sort of deferring a lot of that to the bus company because we don't have to worry about it. We're paying a contractor to worry about it
for us. Um so we're we're not really in that world. We just have to recognize what the increased costs are that we're going to come to bear on us based upon these multi-year contracts for them to be able to handle whatever those increased costs are and that feasibility might might look like for them. The
districts that are really struggling with this more are truly the districts that have their own buses and and really have to figure out how to do this on their own. Their maintenance yard, they have to put charging stations at their maintenance yard over the course of the next years to charge the new electric buses that they're buying. Not my
problem. We don't own the lot. They own the lots. They have the responsibility for buying and charging the buses. Yeah, good question. We're good. All right. Thank you so much everybody. We'll uh just give us a second to sort of put ourselves together and then we'll
open up the mic one more time if anyone else in the community has any questions and uh we'll wrap up tonight. All right. Well, first I'm going to start by saying Paul, it's a pleasure to see you back up there presenting one of the first presentations. Um, I've had
the pleasure of spending several years watching you do that. And although we love Mr. Motici as well, it was nice to see you back up there, you still have what it takes to do it. So, um, but also in fairness to the, um, people who are here tonight, anybody that's going to be listening to this, in fairness, they're
always forecasting out, but I think, uh, we have to give a lot of thanks to the business office, Mike Otis, his staff, um, everybody here plays a huge role in that. Um, our staff, um, because even though they forecast out, it pretty much starts, you know, boots on the ground
the day after the budget vote. um a lot of work goes into this and you can see that and obviously we'll see a lot more in details as the uh next few weeks and couple of months come along. So thank you. >> Yeah, you're so welcome and again credit where credit's due to your absolutely right. The the planning process
associated with this began eight months ago uh to get to the point that we're at today. It's a tremendous amount of work that's happening behind the scenes. Every one of those numbers is ticked and tied in order to make sure that it uh it hits the mark. Doing fund balance projections is something that's really crazy to even think about. But I
mentioned that we start the year talking about financial condition. What does that mean? It means that we're projecting the budget and then we're doing a fund balance can can calculation to determine how much of next year's budget are we actually going to spend. How much of the revenue are we actually going to be able to realize? So we can
start to get an idea from a projection standpoint as to how we're going to close 2627. like that work is being done behind the scenes so that we really know what we're walking into uh when we start recommending things to the board of education and and and starting to talk about some of the details. So yeah,
credit where credit's due. Thousands of hours probably are put into what it is that I just did in the last 45 minutes on the backs of the people that are doing all the hard work. >> Well, it doesn't go unnoticed. So, thank you. >> Of course. >> Okay, moving along. I would like now to open the meeting for the second public
participation. Please state your name and address clearly when stepping up to the microphone. Okay. Well, thank you very much. Um All right. Well, thank you everybody for coming out right now. I'd like to make a motion to enter into executive session.
>> Make a motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing a specific personnel matter. All in favor? I >> I motion carries. Have a great evening everyone. Thank you.