WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=qkr9Pe-6Gk0

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: qkr9Pe-6Gk0):
- 00:00:06: Meeting Call to Order, Roll Call, Pledge Allegiance
- 00:01:02: President's Report: Wizard of Oz and Teacher Appreciation
- 00:02:47: Committee Reports: Finance, Personnel and Meeting Schedules
- 00:03:53: Reading Rules for Public Comment on Agenda Items
- 00:05:13: Public Comment on Agenda Items Opened/Closed; Superintendent Report
- 00:07:08: Board Secretary Presents The 2026-2027 Budget
- 00:26:19: Public Comment on Budget Presentation Opened and Closed
- 00:26:52: General Resolutions, Budget Resolutions, Personnel Resolutions
- 00:30:13: Public Comment on General Items Opened and Closed


Part: 1

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Father, >> we're good. Okay. Um, hello everybody. Um, notice is hereby given that in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231, the laws of 1975, notice of this meeting has been sent to all school offices, officially

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designated newspapers, file with the township clerk, and posted in the board of education office 48 hours in advance of this meeting. Uh, roll call vote, please. >> Certainly. Mrs. Burkowitz, >> here. >> Mrs. Leler, >> here. >> Mrs. Pinterelli, >> here.

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>> Mr. Rosini, >> I'm here. Flag salute. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

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for all okay. So um this uh time for my report, one of the first things I want to give uh talk about is I heard tremendous things about uh the presentation, the performance of Wizard of Oz. Um

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it was just uh every report was that it was awesome and I apologize that I couldn't be there. I was traveling Friday, Saturday. I really wanted to be there but I couldn't. But I'm glad it all worked out well and congratulations to you and all the kids uh that worked so hard um to put out another great

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performance. Um the other thing too is teacher appreciation week. So we appreciate everything that the teachers do. Um and I'm glad that we have this week for that reason. Um ordinarily the board will uh give um as part of the

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celebration provide a little a little something to the teachers before uh Memorial Day weekend, but we're going to do it a little earlier on Wednesday the 20th where we've brought pretzels and other things. So instead of doing it that Friday, we're going to do it the 20

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um that Wednesday on the 20th. So um you can really slide into that weekend um Thursday and Friday. Um and so you know just want to show something a small token that uh you know we want to recognize everything that you do for um

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yourselves the the students and our district. So thank you. Um apart from that I don't have anything else to address and I'll move on to committee reports. Uh Mr. White is not here. Anything on buildings and grounds? No.

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Uh Mrs. Burkowitz communications and policies. >> Nothing for tonight. Okay, Mrs. Austin is not here for curriculum and technology. Anything that we need to know? No. Um, Mrs. Pinterelli, finance. >> Um, yes. I just wanted to point out that we on tonight's agenda, we will be

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voting on the 2627 final budget. So, I believe it's B1. >> Okay. Um, I have nothing to report with regard to negotiations and um, Mrs. Sor isn't here, but we had

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a personnel meeting earlier today. Um, is there anything else, anything we want to share from that meeting? >> Uh, no. Other than we are um filling our vacancies for next school year and we've been in the process of interviewing for

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those positions. We have some people on the agenda tonight to be board approved for next year and we'll hopefully have um one or two more on the agenda uh for the May meeting. And that's all. Okay, terrific. All right, moving on. Please take note of the committee meeting

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schedules and um we will move on to the public comments on agenda items only. Um I'm going to read this once and then the same thing will hold true at the end of the meeting for non-aggenda items. The Riverdale Board of Education is committed to encouraging the citizens of Riverale and employees of the Riverville

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School District to speak directly to board trustees. In order to facilitate this communication, residents and employees are requested one to sign in before speaking, two to maintain an appropriate sensitive quorum, and three to limit their remarks to no more than five minutes. The board will also take under adisement the written comments and

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opinions of non-residents that are submitted to the board secretary, being mindful of its responsibility to maintain the orderly conduct of meetings. The board retains the right to rule on such matters as the speaker's right to address the board as well as the appropriateness of the subject being presented. The board's decision decision

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in such matters is final. The board also reminds all members of the public that while it subscribes without reservations to the principle of keeping the community informed by policy and law, it cannot allow public discussion of personnel matters, nor can trustees comment on any current or pending litigation. If a matter concerning an

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employee of the Riverville public schools is of interest or concern to a resident, the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal or the superintendent of schools by telephone letter or email. And I'm going to open the meeting to public comment on agenda items only at approximately 7:06

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PM. Is there anyone who wants to make a comment about agenda items? Okay, I'm going to close it then at 7:06 p.m. and move on to Mrs. Senor's report, the superintendent's report. >> Okay. Thank you. Good evening everybody. I also wanted to just take a moment

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tonight to recognize and thank Mr. Rich Ogara and the entire staff that was involved in the recent production of the Wizard of Oz. I was able to be there on Friday, opening night. It really was just another truly wonderful performance that showcases the incredible talent of

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not only our students, but our staff. I mean, I I watch these every year and I'm just blown away that this is a middle school performance. um just incredible. The dedication that it takes of our staff and students to pull off a musical

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like this is something incredible in it of itself. Um it was a a great night and I am so thankful that under uh Mr. Ogara's leadership and that our staff wants to put the time in to be able to provide this experience for our

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students. It's just incredible. I also do want to extend my sincere appreciation to all of our teachers and it's also um nurses recognition uh week as well. I did write a letter in my most recent newsletter that has gone out to

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our teachers, but I also want to publicly thank them for their commitment and their care and their professionalism every day and of course the impact that they make on our students. I am so proud to be the superintendent of this

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district and it wouldn't be able to get done if it wasn't for the staff that we have. So, I'm so incredibly grateful for them. Um, and that's all for tonight. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Now, we're going to

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move on to Mrs. Epilito's report, board secretar's report. Good. Okay. Good evening. Um, I'll stand over here. Welcome to the presentation of the 2627 budget.

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I first want to thank the board, the staff, the finance committee, everybody who has participated in bringing this budget to life, superintendent, board trustees. Okay. And I know that this is small. If

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anybody can read this, you get a prize. This will be up on the website tomorrow, so please don't don't worry about reading all of this. Our values are what you already know. We provide an individualized and structured education

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for all students. We empower students to grow personally and academically and to help them find and develop their passions. Greatness means more than test scores. utilize technology and providing professional development opportunities

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to enhance teaching and learning and continued focus on school improvements to support student growth. And what steps do we take to establish and a and bolster a robust educational setting? Well, we regularly assess and

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evaluate the effectiveness of our educational programs and make adjustments to improve outcomes for students. We focus on data analysis. If anybody has not been here for the state of the state report from Miss Ignori and

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Miss Dowling, you have to come back in October. Focus on um continually recruiting and nurturing, supporting and enhancing exceptional personnel. That's all of you. Focus on supporting

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students social and emotional well-being while providing modern facilities, technology, and comprehensive support systems to create safe, inclusive, and engaging environments that foster academic success and empower students to thrive both academically and personally.

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Okay. And our budget goals. Each year the board sets their goals with the superintendent and key stakeholders. We take those goals and obviously the budget marries

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into that to ensure that the financial as well as the educational goals are met. So 2627 budget supports, current educational programming, small

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class sizes, full day kindergarten, K to8 technology initiatives, digital resources such as Canvas, Linkit, Big Ideas, Math, etc. and professional development, nationally recognized experts, and the regional curriculum

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office. And I am not going to read all of these goals because these are goals that are set and we're going to set the goals for the following year at the next board meeting. The board has a retreat each year in which they set their board goals

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for the future and that carries us throughout and as I said the budget is then crafted to help support those goals. So what comes first? The board goals. Then the money follows.

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So it's just very quickly to cultivate an innovative and inclusive learning environment, adopt and integrate updated curriculum and resources to deliver all of that. Improve the well-being of students and

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staff by establishing welcoming and nurturing learning environment. And again, this is in the board minutes and it will also be up on the website. We have operations goals maintain a safe and and a healthy environment

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budget and the referendum has concluded after four years. As you can see, we have tackled every single school inclusive of this building. so that you all have a safe and healthy

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environment. We continue with shared services and onboard district staff with our secondary platform for the finance program technology. You all know firsthand, especially staff, that it's a onetoone

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initiative, onetoone device across the the district. Last year's goal was to adopt a website and a messaging platform which was rolled out. That took a lot of effort between Miss Signori and Mr. Oggera and

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everybody else in the in across the district. That was a very heavy lift. Well done. Looks great. But again, that's a major goal. upgrading the virtual server and

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improving district security and cyber security. Nobody should not be aware of cyber security. It's all that anybody is talking about. Okay, just to reiterate budget

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development, we start in October. That's when we start and the process concludes here today with the final budget. So we are projecting a budget that is going to start in July

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and take us through to June 30th, 2027. But again, we are starting our process back in October to make sure that we have all of the necessary information to provide a financially and fiscally

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responsible budget. And as you've seen, there's been a lot of movement in the world of education and finance. Okay. We're very highly efficient and we're a leader in the area of shared services.

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We partner not only with our township, we partner with Ulta Pan. We are one of 43 districts in a cooperative insurance group that provides for our property, our auto, our cyber, and our employment

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practices. We participate in any co-op that is available so that we ensure we get the best prices whether it be supplies for paper or it's pencils or it's time and materials in terms of an electrician

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that's going to come in or a painter or whatever it may be. We get involved and we also have two very important partners in the PTA and the Rivervale Ed Fund. two very critical partners. They have done so

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much for our district and we are very very happy to have them. As you can see, they've dedicated science labs, playgrounds, media centers, technology.

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They've um paid for sound systems in each of the schools and lighting in the gym. So very important partners to have. It does truly take a village. Some of our external challenges, some of

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them are the same as they've been for the past decade, continue to have state mandates that are unfunded. Special education costs continue to rise. the significant increases in the health

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premium insur insurance premiums is that this year really took everybody for a loop. That's across the state. That's not just Riverville. Um and we get minimal state aid. It's a $30

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million budget and we receive $ 1.5 million in state aid. The rest of it falls on the taxpayers. So what do we do? We start out with keeping the budgets flat. It's build it

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as you need. So don't just pretend that just because I had it last year, this is what I need. We make sure that the instructional staff and programs are reviewed. And in this particular case, we're able to keep

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the programs and the instructional staff at the current levels, which is not what's happening out there. So, we are very, very proud. Everybody worked very, very hard. They dug deep. They looked at what they needed versus what they

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wanted. And we were able to continue to keep our our instructional staff and programs. We have in the past not taken advantage of what's called bank cap unless absolutely

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necessary. As I get further into the financials, you'll see that we did dig into using certain advantages which are our enrollment adjustment, banked cap, and some of our reserves to

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help balance the budget. So, as I'm standing here and talking about the finances, the budgeted fund balance, that money comes from unspent funds in the pri in the previous year. So, as you

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can see, that's steady. We as the board used an emergency reserve withdrawal to help offset health benefit costs last year. There is only $81,000 left in that reserve.

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Maintenance reserve. The board used close to $200,000 last year and they're using $100,000 this year. Reserves are money that are set aside in a bucket. Consider it a savings account. It's your money. So, it's not raising taxpayers

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um taxes. We're just moving it from one bucket into the general fund and saying, "Okay, now we're going to use some of our savings to help offset our needs." Maintenance reserve are for items that are required to keep the district

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running. They're not for toilet paper. It's not for paper towels. It's not even for cleaning supplies. It's for items that require the buildings to keep running. for instance, your HVAC systems, a roof,

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those types of um items. Unemployment reserve. The board had previous to the COVID years been saving money in the event that there was a

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number of people that were going to be collecting unemployment. That reserve grew. The board is now saying, "Okay, we're in a safe place." and speaking with the auditor at the end of our um

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June audit said that we can take those funds out and we can put it back into the district budget. The local tax levy, that's what the district is going to be putting out to the community of Rivervale to raise for

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the 26 27 year tuition. that is our integrated prek program. So we have students that pay to come

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into our integrated prek program. So there are some special needs students and there are some gened students. The gened students are in a lottery and they pay to come to the program.

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Miscellaneous and interest. It is interest that's earned. It also includes rent. We don't have a lot of people that rent our buildings, but the educational fund rents our buildings and they pay um and that's part of what's

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what's in here. Here's your state aid. State aid this year is the highest it's ever been. We were fortunate to get $1.7 million. federal grants. That's restricted funds.

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Those are um for IDEIDA, special needs students, and it's also what we use is approximately $12,000 for the regional curriculum office. That's your title 2 funds.

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Debt service, that is the bond that the dis that the community is paying off. It's a 25-year bond and that was for the referendum. And the debt service aid are the um funds that the

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state actually is giving us for the referendum. Now on the expenditure side, so you can see the pockets of where the money is going. instruction, teachers, um

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supplies, co-curricular clearly that's your um stipens, your your your after school curriculum um programs. Special education tuition.

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This is the outofd district placement students. We have 24 currently students that are out in placements because the district is not able to handle the needs in Rivervale. So we send the students

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out. administration. It includes the business office. It includes technology office. It includes superintendent's office. And each one of the principles that those budgets are included in

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what's called administration operations and maintenance. Clearly, that's your utilities. It's your property insurance. It's your custodial staff. It's all of those operations.

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Transportation. Now, transportation, you're going to ask yourself, why did it go down? The district is very proud of the fact that we went out and rebid the middle

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school routes and we ended up seeing a significant savings. So, that's a positive. The other component is that the district has purchased a van. It's an eight passenger van that they're

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going to use to help to transport some of the special needs students. Capital outlay. That's really it's not equipment. It's $10,000 with anticipated interest

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and it's also a payment that goes back to the state for years ago when we had our first bond referendum. So they get you coming and they get you going. Your special revenue again, that's your IDEIDA

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and your title two and your debt services. That's your principal and your interest for next year. Any questions? Okay, there's our van. All right, so when everybody sees it driving through the district, we're

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going to start that in September. Our general fund budget is up 7.1% uh n% over the 2526 year. The good news is that because

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we're seeing $63 million come into the assessments from the Edgemont Country Club development. It means that the yearly increase on the

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average homeowner is only $18148. That's a big help. And that is the budget. Does anybody have any questions? Nothing. Okay. Thank you. Okay, that was very comprehensive. Thank

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you. And um do you have anything else for your report other than that presentation? >> Isn't Isn't that enough? >> I'm just saying I don't want to I don't want to prematurely cut you off like you had a couple of other things. >> Should I get back up and do >> Yeah. >> My stand up?

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>> Just want to make sure. Just want to make sure. >> No, thank you. That's all I have for tonight. >> All right. Um and so this is where we come to a point where u if anyone is interested can make a comment publicly um from the public about the budget presentation. It has the same rules as

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the public comments on agenda items only. Um is there anyone who wants to make a comment from the public? No. So, that's open and closed at 7:28 p.m. And um we will move on to general

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resolutions G1 through G19. Will somebody move it, please? >> Second. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Thank you. Any comments, questions on this? >> No. >> Okay. Roll call vote, please. >> Certainly. Mrs. Burkowitz?

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>> Yes. >> Mrs. Leler? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pinterelli? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosini? >> Yes. >> Moving on to B1 through B44. Uh, motion, please. Anyone?

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>> Sorry. Motion. >> Any a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. Discussion. Okay. Anything? Anybody? >> Okay. Roll call vote, please. >> Certainly. Mrs. Burkowitz. >> Yes.

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>> Mrs. Leler. >> Yes. Mrs. Pinterelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosini. >> Yes. And now moving on to personnel resolutions P1 through P29. Motion, please.

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>> I'll make a motion. Uh >> second, please. >> Second. Any comments, questions? Anything? No. Okay. Uh, roll call vote, please.

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>> Certainly. Mrs. Burkowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Leler, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pinterelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Rosini, >> yes. And now we will move on to public comments on general items. Same rules apply as any other times that somebody

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wants to make a comment. Uh, this is on general items. Anybody want to can comment on general items which is opened at 7:31. Seeing no one closing it at 7:31 and old business. Anyone new business?

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Um I know we're going into close session. So can we have a motion to go into close session? >> Yes. Second. Second. Anybody? >> Second. >> Okay. >> All right. We're going to move go into close session. We're done for the evening um being out here. We're not

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going to come back or take any further action. So, have a good night and thanks for coming everybody.