"I wanted to walk everybody through kinda where we were on our finances," Robert Bartels told the Sayville Union Free School District Board at the workshop. Bartels' presentation reviewed the district's fund balance, reserves and New York State fiscal-stress metrics and described steps the district took to limit short-term borrowing.

Bartels said the district recorded a revenue/expense gap of about $4 million in fiscal 2023'24 and about $3 million in 2024'25 and summarized the effect as: "so this means we've lost about $7,000,000 in our total fund balance over the last 2 years." He attributed the change largely to the end of federal COVID funding and to continued expenditures that exceeded revenue.

Key financial points Bartels described:
- Fund balance and reserves: the district's undesignated fund balance briefly fell close to the lower thresholds that trigger fiscal-stress points; the district continues to hold multiple reserves (retirement contributions, employee benefits, capital, encumbrances, etc.) but several reserves have been drawn down.
- Fiscal-stress scoring: New York State uses six measures (including unassigned fund balance, total fund balance, operating deficit and short-term cash flow) to compute a 100-point stress score; Bartels said the district expects to report 23.33 points under the current formulas and avoid a formal fiscal-stress designation (the state's threshold is 25 points).
- Short-term borrowing: the district issued tax-anticipation notes (TANs) of $17 million last year; Bartels said he limited TAN borrowing this year to $18 million to avoid additional state fiscal-stress points tied to short-term cash flow.
- Specific reserves and transactions: Bartels noted use of capital reserve against roof projects (a $15 million bond issue last year produced a $511,000 premium), encumbrances that total about $3 million (he said that amount is higher than typical), and several other state-accounting items (unemployment, workers' comp, health-insurance reserves) that have been used to smooth budgets.

Board members discussed revenue-generating possibilities. Board member Desmond described outreach to outside users and camp operators and said private providers might contribute to facility upgrades in exchange for rental revenue. Several board members noted the district could pursue evening/weekend rentals of the middle-school auditorium and atrium and agreed to set up follow-up meetings to explore rental agreements and potential summer-camp partnerships.

In the discussion, board members also raised these operational questions:
- Procurement clarifications: A board member asked why SportsScope Inc. appeared on a claims report and why three written quotes were not obtained; staff said they would research the vendor and procurement record and report back.
- Staffing and attrition: board members discussed teacher retirements and the need to control long-term costs rather than add new programs until revenues stabilize.

Bartels said the path to replenish reserves is straightforward in principle: expenses must be brought in line with revenues so the district can restore reserves over time. No formal budget vote occurred at the workshop; Bartels' report was informational and several follow-up actions (TAN management, vendor procurement check, and revenue partnership meetings) were set as next steps.