BOE Business Meeting 2026-2-9

001Good evening. I call this first budget study session to order. I note that all board members are present except for our student members along with Dr. Patrick and members of his cabinet. Welcome to all those who have joined us this evening either in the audience or tuning in to our live stream or via Zoom. Anyone wishing to make a public comment regarding this public study session is invited to do so in one of our two public comment sessions during our business meeting which will be following this budget study session. We look forward to your feedback and input on our budget process. Would someone like to make a motion? Oh, sorry, that comes later. Now we'll just get started. I think I'm going to turn it over to Drew. Thank you very much, Jim. I appreciate

002it. Good evening, everybody. We are here for 2026-27 budget study session number one. So tonight we will work to outline for the board and community the why, how, and what of our budget. We'll present the overall preliminary budget draft, knowing there's work still to be done, discuss the key budget components and drivers, and we will discuss five key budget components tonight. Curriculum instruction and assessment, facilities and capital projects, transportation, debt service, and lease purchases, and finally, employee benefits. We look forward to a robust discussion once we've had the chance to share this information with the board. First I'll share a few process reminders and describe the key priorities and considerations that have impacted the preliminary draft budget that we'll be discussing tonight Of course it's the school budget that provides the necessary financial resources to

003operate the school district and to help achieve the goals and objectives of the school district as set forth in the strategic plan Budget development occurs in stages with different areas of focus at each of our Board of Education budget study sessions and discussions. At each of these meetings, The administration will provide the board with information on the upcoming proposed budget. The board will discuss and the community will have the opportunity to provide comment. This all leads to the board's adoption of a proposed budget that the community will consider as part of the annual budget vote and board election, which this year will be held on Tuesday, May 19th. As we shared last week, there are four high-level principles that guide the administration's budget development and decision-making process. First and foremost, we're thinking about our recommendations

004in the context of our strategic plan, which outlines the priorities we are emphasizing. These priorities continue to reflect student achievement as a central goal of our work. We must also consider mandates and best practices and norms that have been in place or are new. And finally, we look at opportunities to staff our programs more efficiently when possible to minimize the overall financial burden to our community. To be more specific, We're very intentional about linking the proposed budget to our strategic plan, which reflects our educational priorities. The proposed budget that we'll present tonight emphasizes learning by maintaining class sizes, investing prudently in maintaining our class size norms through the addition of a math position at the Scarsdale High School, and planning for elementary class sections. continue to build out the special education continuum to support the

005students who are here with us to complete their course of study and also to comply with the legal mandates and requirements and to invest in program improvement through sustained professional development of teachers curriculum adaptations and continuous improvement of instructional practice in the area of living We envision environments that promote well-being, belonging, and resilience. And as you know from last meeting, we have a proposal to expand our social work support at the elementary level to continue supporting our students and families. And then in the area of leading, we focus on the long-term financial health and sustainability by working toward a balanced budget that uses reserves judiciously and garners support from the community. thoughtfully prioritizing capital projects in our budget to address needs that fall outside of the bond we've spent so much time discussing and with

006that and those concepts in mind we'll move on to our draft budget plan and I'll turn it over to Andrew Thank You Drew so to begin looking at the 26-27 budget it makes sense to take a stock of where we are today in the 25-26 school year So we began the year with fund balance of $22.1 million. We're projecting at this point to see $190.7 million in additional revenue coming in this year and $191.9 million in expenses with a projected ending fund balance of $20,911,178. The categories of reserves and fund balance are listed below, but I'll switch to the next chart, which shows the history of these numbers. I will not go into these in great detail, but there are two trends I'd like to point out as part of this conversation. First is the

007steady decline of our self-insured health reserve that we've spoken about at great lengths. This reserve has been crucial in helping us deal with high claims cost increases in recent years, both from a budgetary perspective and in an unanticipated expense perspective in the middle of the year. Though we've used the reserve both to balance the budget and to deal with those unexpected costs, we've also been able to return funds to that reserve at the end of each year based on cost savings in other areas of the budget and excess revenues. The second area is the unassigned fund balance line. This is the most flexible of categories, providing the liquidity needed to deal with unexpected costs across the district or revenue shortfalls and budget gaps. It is limited at 4% by state law of the subsequent year's

008budget, and we've been able to maintain that level over the last several years, as you can see that line growing. For more information on fund balance and reserves, I'll direct you back to the November 17th board meeting where we laid out the long-range financial plan, but we also included a fund balance and reserve plan document that will help explain what some of these categories mean in more detail. In that November meeting, we did note that the projected fund balance for the current year was $19.663 million, so we've improved that now based on another few months' worth of actual data to report on. Another key piece to look at as we get into this new budget cycle is the property tax cap calculation. A reminder, the property tax cap is just that. It's a calculation which

009tells us whether the proposed budget will require a 50% plus one vote majority to pass or a 60% supermajority if it is above the cap calculation. This year's tax cap, based on known factors and current proposed budget, results in a levy increase of 3.37%, or $5,918,219. Embedded in the formula calculation is the fact that CPI is exceeding the 2% limit. Therefore, we're capped at... 2% for that factor in the calculation. Our tax base growth factor, which represents the property values increasing through either new development or renovations in the community, is going up to 1.013%. And then our capital exclusion, which we'll talk about in more detail in various parts of the budget going forward, is just over $9 million again this year. This next chart. outlines the actual calculation as we go through it in

010detail. So we start with the current year levy. We apply the tax-based growth factor I mentioned a moment ago. There are no pilots to add or subtract in this calculation this year. We remove the exclusions related to last year's or the current school year's capital exclusions. We apply then the allowable growth factor, which is that CPI tied factor, which is capped at 2% this year. From there, we add back the capital exclusions on the right-hand side for the coming year, and that results in our new tax levy limit of $181,731,441. That number represents a tax cap-compliant budget if our budget requires a levy of that number or less. But beyond that, we would need a 60% majority. So taking a quick look at our revenue projections for both the current year and the budget proposal

011going forward, current year revenue is estimated to exceed the budget by about $1.675 million. This includes $760,000 for EV bus-related grants, including the EPA funding and federal tax credits that we took into consideration to buy the EV buses this year. Tuition revenue is exceeding our expectations, particularly in the special classes, so that is revenue better than budget. And we've got some additional state aid in there based on the expense calculations that we finalized the year with, as well as a reimbursement for a residential student in New York State program, which we get reimbursed for from the state. For 26-27, we're reflecting the tax cap increase and anticipate a decrease in state aid due to lower expenses and expense-driven aids. Our aid ratio has continued to drop this year for things like BOCES and transportation aid,

012and those are factors that are collected over multiple years by the state that drive those aid categories. I'll also highlight our appropriate fund balance area and reserves. We talked last year. We had a one-time adjustment in fund balance for the professionals related to the bond, the architects, the engineers, and the construction manager. We're removing that appropriation. We no longer need to fund that in next year's budget. And we are carrying through with our recommendation that I shared in November. about trying to ease off the use of our health insurance reserve to balance our budget. So we're recommending a $250,000 decrease in the appropriated health reserve to balance this upcoming budget. So it would be $750,000 used from that reserve to balance next year's budget in the current draft budget. This chart outlines the historical expenses

013and the projections and proposed budget side by side. We'll spend more time going through the detailed budget information year over year, so I won't dwell on this too much at the moment, but you can see that our current expenses are projected to be about $400,000 over budget. That includes additional staffing at the elementary level for a position that we needed to add based on section breaks. We also had a significant number of purchase orders from last year carried forward to this year, as well as some special ed-related services and tuition costs that we've included in this budget. Also reflected in the current year projection are those EV bus purchases that, again, were from prior year funding and federal grants that increased the expenditure projection this year. The budget-to-budget increase is about $8.168 million based on

014the current draft budget, and that budget is a significantly higher increase than what the property tax levy cap would allow, so we'll talk more about that in a moment. This next chart highlights the budget-to-budget. increases based on broad expense categories. So salary and wages are going up by just under $3.1 million. Our employee benefits are going up $2.7 million. Contracted services and other related contractual expenses, $1.1 million. Utilities, $196,000. Interfund transfers, which really are the contributions to either the summer special education program or our transfer capital, those numbers are going up by $229,000. debt service principal and interest which we'll talk about in more detail is going up in this proposed budget six hundred twenty eight thousand We've got a reduction in our transportation bus purchase number, so that's coming down year over year. Supplies

015and materials are going up $247,000. Tuition costs by $26,000. BOCES services are going up by $390,000, almost $391,000. And software is declining by about $55,000. So these are broad expenditure categories which are all embedded in the areas of the budget that we'll go over starting this evening and continuing at the next budget study session. This budget does reflect the staffing recommendations that the administration brought forward at the last board meeting. So you'll see there's one additional FTE in the special education department and one additional FTE at the high school math department based on versus the current staffing of today. We've also included the elementary social workers through the Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling Services in this proposed budget at the moment, and that is a contracted service which goes up by about $159,000 for 1.5 FTEs

016through that service. So at a high level, the draft budget plan shows a budget-to-budget increase of 4.27%, or $8.168 million. Other revenues are declining slightly by $104,000. And the transfer from reserves, as I mentioned, is going down $250,000. The assigned fund balance is going down by $90,000. total tax levy required to support this budget would be going up 4.9% or $8,612,340. As you can see on this next slide, we recognize, again, that this number is above the property tax cap by about $2.685 million, and we will need to spend much of the work over the next two to three weeks identifying areas of either revenue growth or expense reductions to help us get within that property tax cap. Okay, we're going to turn it over to Edgar at this point to go through the curriculum

017instruction and assessment. I can do that or I can pass it down. What do you prefer? Sure. Thank you, Board of Education and Drew and all those people remotely or who are joining us for this budget presentation live. I appreciate this opportunity to highlight the essential areas of the curriculum instruction and assessment that this budget supports. I'll start with some of our guiding principles and then give some details about what this budget will provide. Most importantly, students are at the center. We must check back to see that we are using our financial resources in ways that meaningfully, holistically, and positively influence student development in all ways and ask the question, can this be connected to student learning and student thriving? We have framed our educational reports around the practice of responsive change, meaning all change

018should be research-based, collaborative, supported, and appropriately patient. This budget is also guided by the principle that multiple perspectives and authentic experience enhance learning. A curriculum that invites multiple perspectives develops students' critical thinking skills, builds empathy, and develops the skills that prepare them to negotiate and thrive in a modern global community. Program improvement relies on using internal expertise and harnessing experts in the field to design and update our methods and curriculum to better meet the needs of our students. A substantial amount of this work is done during the summer months when Scarsdale teachers come together to think, plan, innovate, coordinate, and make meaningful changes to the curriculum. We are not a district that reads from curricular scripts, but relies on our experienced and talented educators to innovate, adapt, refine, and improve on existing curricula to make

019them relevant and inspiring to their students. As many in education know and research supports, clear adherence to learning standards, evidence-based practice, and common tools and language is important, but so is teacher agency. That means there should be opportunities to craft, curate, and adapt quality resources and meaningful progressions as a means of developing curriculum. Over this summer, there will be a focus on responding to our goals of the strategic plan and feedback from the Tri-State Consortium through the collaborative development and refinement of cohesive, meaningful performance tasks and assessments for our students. performance learning experiences that will develop essential skills and dispositions of our students to balance and complement traditional assessments. The arts are strengthening and affirming for our students and essential to the whole student approach. This is not the only funding for the arts. This

020is a centrally funding budget item that provides enrichment opportunities beyond school scheduled and PTA funded opportunities and allows for select assured experiences that can be flexible based on the goals of the building and revealed opportunities. We've used these funds here for visiting artists and you can see some of our students dancing to Alvin Ailey pictured there. The Interdependence Institute fosters the development of intercultural skills that teachers and students need to deepen global understanding and broaden their international perspectives. Through partnerships and exchanges, students and faculty develop the skills needed to successfully navigate the complexities of an increasingly interdependent world. The Interdependence Institute has also sponsored author and expert visits to enrich and inspire our student experience. We've successfully expanded and engaged our global network through admission into the Round Square Consortium, an organization that connects multiple

021international schools in meaningful and globally important ways. Because of our robust participation and leadership, you'll see a slide of two of our students leading a virtual classroom with peers from around the globe right up there, we have moved from probationary status to full membership, still the only public school to be part of this network. We are entering our sixth year as active members of the Institute for Global Learning, formerly known as the Global Education Benchmarking Group. Scarsdale educators have participated in and presented at their international conferences and look forward to deepening our partnership through virtual and in-person international connections. connections, incidentally, that are leading to newly planned culture-centered student trips to New Zealand, Australia, and a science-focused one to the Galapagos Islands. Our global mindset has led to the development of a global scholars elective

022at the high school level, designed through program improvement days and taking advantage of the curricular flexibility to create meaningful and timely electives that are, incidentally, budget neutral. Global Scholars is a humanities-based research elective exploring global citizenship and international issues through history, literature, arts, and politics. Students investigate the UN's sustainability development goals, connect with peers worldwide, and examine topics like equity, culture, and geopolitics. The course includes virtual and in-person global collaborations with an optional travel component. STA Article 9 funds competitive project grants. Each year over 100 teachers receive funds for conference attendance, school year research, or workshops. Individual awards are limited to $1,200 per year. The total funding is negotiated in a contract with the Scarsdale Teacher Association. The Scarsdale Teachers Institute, STI, provides continuing education to Scarsdale faculty. STI is funded by the district and

023teacher tuition. The district funds the administrative salary of the STI director and provides an allocation for support of the STI program. The funding level for STI is contractually negotiated with the Scarsdale Teacher Association. Our STI is an important element of the work we do in Scarsdale. The SDI reflects the needs and interests of diverse educators and courses are informed and generated by Scarsdale initiatives and values. Importantly, there is coordination between SDI leadership and district. Director Anne Marie Nee, Megan Troy, and I meet regularly to coordinate our resources and work hand in hand to align and support district priorities. A major benefit is that the STI provides essential interdisciplinary collaborations across contents and levels. And from it, new learning can result in course creation and structural change. STAC classes, or STI mini-seminars, continue to go strong

024and engage external and internal expertise on a range of responsive topics. The purpose of the Community for Inquiry and Innovation, formerly known as the Center for Innovation, is to reimagine teaching and learning, develop new models of instruction, and reexamine a tech-centered approach to this work. An analysis of this work, its scope, reach, and impact has led us to expand on the mission of the CFII to be more inclusive and nimble to the challenges and opportunities that are facing educators. And this is reimagining in the age of information overload and AI, there's a deliberate focus on both critical media analysis and the development of human skills or what folks are calling soul skills. We are planning a future Forward Conference, a two-day event inviting outside districts. It will be a flip from your typical innovation conference,

025one that I think that will feel more unplugged. Ongoing professional development is essential to our goal of assuring up-to-date student-centered and evidence-based teaching across our schools. Examples of these include the transformational work we've done with Research for a Better Teacher, Schoolful Teacher, Responsive Classroom, as well as assured training for educators that align closely with department, school, and grade-level goals across the content areas. This learning can happen on-site through internal or visiting experts or off-site through workshops, conferences, or collegial networks. We are proud and frankly thrilled to share that educational luminary, Jay McTighe, will be working with us at our upcoming superintendent's conference day where the focus will be at the secondary level on performance learning. We appreciate the resources to bring in educational leaders to help shepherd our growth from all areas of the curriculum.

026This budget is to fund gardening sustainability initiatives in all seven schools and support projects reviewed by the District Sustainability Committee. This spring you can look for the impressive physical impacts on the Edgewood Gardens that will be fully rabbit-proofed here. One of the district's ongoing goals is to use meaningful data to improve instruction. This budget includes funds to bring in committees of college professors who work with teachers to develop, validate, and assess high school curricular offerings, including a rotation to evaluate the college equivalents of our advanced topic courses. This budget also provides funds to assess the district's strategic initiatives, district-wide surveying on belonging and development. developmental relationships falls under this category as well. We engaged a tri-state consortium visit as part of our three-year cycle. This consortium is a valuable assessment tool and its recommendations have

027been powerful levers for program change as you've heard described in the area of performance learning. We are in discussions with the Hanover organization to continue our practice of alumni surveying. It's fascinating, informative, and guiding to learn how Scarsdale education has impacted our graduates in their colleges and careers beyond. In past budget presentations, I described the importance of research, collaboration, support, and appropriate patience. I have described how this relates to curriculum change and these changes are iterations and are ongoing. Funding of this budget provides the resources for positive change and the means to assess its impact and it assures that Scarsdale continues to lead the way. Through critically examining different voices, ideas, and opinions, and having the resources and educator support to do so, students get a deeper understanding of history, current events, and social and

028societal trends that shape our world. At last week's PTA-sponsored legislative breakfast event, we heard our elected leaders echo this again and again, and many of us proudly listened to the thoughtful questions our students asked. This also includes math instruction that demands our students describe multiple pathways to solutions and authentic learning experiences that push our students to think outside of the constraints of single disciplines, apply their synthesized learning, and demonstrate it and apply it in meaningful and multiple ways. We have a photo here of a high school senior, Dylan, who along with his classmate, Oliver, have designed a civic engagement curriculum. They presented to Scarsdale teachers during a workshop at the last superintendent's conference day, and they continue to present statewide. Simply put, both by engaging in multiple and diverse ideas and engaging in authentic learning

029experiences, our students get smarter, more skilled, and are better equipped to thrive in our globally connected world. Curriculum research and professional development includes curriculum program improvement, which includes an increase in ICT staffing planning needs and support, and district-wide compact for learning assessment and data analysis and tri-state collaborations, as well as inquiry and innovations contracts for our out-of-district consultants. This also covers in-service training and instruction. Curriculum supervision and instruction budget to budget variance reflects administrative salary increases, salary increases offset by staffing adjustments articulated earlier in the presentation, inflation adjusted per pupil allocations, salary and wages due to co-curricular stipends and high school extra classroom activity clubs. And these budget lines fund the professional development program in Scarsdale Teacher Institute, ongoing professional development for teachers and staff articulated in the Scarsdale Teacher Association collective bargaining agreement. And

030now I am happy to pass the slides off to Andrew to discuss the facilities and capital projects. Thank you, Edgar. I'll also. Okay, sure. Okay well first thank you for taking my questions midstream I appreciate that actually Andrea the questions I have are just for you so first I wanted to express appreciation for the gratitude for the fact that our projected fund balance is now a million over what we thought yeah so that's that's nice to see but I was curious as to how you decided on the $250,000 reduction for the health care reserves what was your process there clearly the declining reserve balance has been a concern of ours and you know dr. Patrick and I've talked about it at length at previous board meetings I think to assume that we can completely remove

031that million dollar line item or essentially a funding source for our budget we just didn't think that was appropriate but we wanted to move in the direction of weaning ourselves off of that so I think in the long range financial planning document that I shared in November the suggestion was $250,000 per year will continue to reduce that this way that all at once doesn't become a burden on the tax levy. Okay, thank you. And then just one more question. I noticed that supplies and utilities went up a fair bit. I assume that's just inflation, those increases? There's quite a bit of inflation on the supplies for sure. Utilities, electrical in particular, has been going up quite a bit, as well as we've had some sewer rate increases, which I'll talk a little bit about here.

032Those are both factored into our budget proposal. We've also, as you'll hear in a moment in the facilities department, we're trying to do more in-house, which is kind of causing a shift in contractual to supply costs. So we'll talk about that a little bit. Okay. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. I would suggest that totally good questions maybe well because we have these five different components maybe we'll stop and focus on curriculum and instruction and then the next few and then we can come back to the big the big picture any other questions related to Edgar's component not to say you can't ask those at the end also when you have the whole picture I think I did have a question, but I'm just trying to find where I was in the presentation, and I'm

033not sure I can find it with ease, so I may just come back to it later. Sure. Well, actually, I found it. It's actually, and thanks so much, by the way, for all the work you've done on this draft. I know it's a lot of effort and it's only really the beginning of this process and it's really a first cut. I know there's been some refinement but it's, you know, there's a lot left to do as we've sort of noted. So I think it's actually great to see how much effort has been put into it and the thought that's been put into it already. I just was curious, Edgar, about the, I guess it's slide 31. curriculum research and professional development slide at least for some of the I guess contractual and other and BOCES

034services seem to be two line items where we are estimating expenses that then seem to come in considerably lower than what we're estimating I'm just wondering like that seems to have gone on in 24 25 and 25 26 I'm just wondering like what's going on with those in terms of why we think they're going to be higher than they actually have turned out to be, at least for as seemingly as those two years in a row. Yeah, I'd say the key reason is there is... a fair bit of discretion available to us in spending in those lines. Last year we implemented a hard spending freeze pretty early in the process given the financial picture we thought we would be facing last year. This year we are being diligent about our spending in that area as

035well. That's not to say that it's not important spending. And some of the things that we are choosing to defer. are things that we don't see as recurring savings. So that's why you'll see some of the budgetary increases from the projection up to that. And I can say we did an audit of some of the curricular resources that we were using. And we were finding that we were using getting our support and our professional development in other ways and not necessarily through some recurring BOCES curriculum subscriptions, really. Okay. Yes. Thanks. I'll also note that we, unfortunately for Edgar, oftentimes when we find ourselves in a budgetary shortfall in other areas, we... typically pull resources from Edgar's budget to help fund those so an example maybe I'd have to fact check this but the additional section

036at the elementary level we didn't have that in a salary code so we'd have to find funds to transfer that from so I wouldn't be able to fly it but that's an example of a type of transfer we would do and we try to keep that within the instructional space and I try not to take it personally yeah so these are the results of decisions made during the course of the year to reallocate resources I just have two questions. Since you mentioned it, are you doing the spending freeze this year too? I will say it's a softer freeze. I think the way we approached it last year to help folks understand that this was a thoughtful process, a freeze. People didn't rush out and spend all their money because they were afraid of a freeze

037coming So it was kind of a partnership with the administrative team I think at this point we've checked in with all the building principals and department heads and the things that are must-haves have been encumbered So they're reflected in our projections. That's not to say that there's not surprises that we will be faced with in the coming months but but a Hard freeze has not been put in place. It is still on the table as a possibility, but I think right now we're comfortable that Anything that someone really needs to order from the end of the year, they'll have the ability to do that. Thank you. And then I have a question for Edgar, too. The Community for Inquiry and Innovation, I wonder if you could just talk about that a little more. Is this

038something that's just generally worked into the daily student life at every level of school? Is it like a think tank where we have faculty working on this? It's closer to a think tank. where we have budget and resources to help support inquiries that teachers might want to have. I'm thinking very specifically right now that there's an inquiry going on around certain digital tools around mathematical fluency, for example, where there are, I believe, five different platforms that are being looked at for being the most... align the most engaging and so teachers are engaged in that and part of that is we support that and then they come back together they have conversations about it they collect data and the CF formerly the CFI when these inquiries would happen these explorations would happen they would then end

039up becoming if they were successful changes that could impact the curriculum that could impact even structures that we have currently, like the stack was something that was an idea, was an innovation. The STEAM program as well. The STEAM program as well. It used to be referred to as the Center for Innovation, CFI, and over sort of the process of a couple of years, really culminating with last year. We rebranded that as the CFII, the community, not center, because there was never really a physical place. It was a concept. We rebranded it the Community for Inquiry and Innovation. And as Edgar said, I'll just build on, our goal is to promote the asking and trying to answer challenging problems of practice. through not individual but collaborative inquiry. So it is a think tank. It's a way

040that we can incentivize or help provide thinking partnership and in some cases financial support for these questions that connect to digital tools, AI. reading, mathematics, all sorts of different things. We don't know exactly what those questions are going to be in any given year. So I had a question about the fund balance and the fund balance history. I know we've talked a lot over the last few years about the declining fund balance. What I'd like to be able to understand is how these numbers compare. if at all possible, to other peer institutions who, let's say in Westchester that obviously use fund balances, maybe the similar methodology. To my eyes, I'm not a financial person, it looks healthy to me. It is declining. I do see that. But the numbers of 25 to 21, 22 still

041feels healthy to me. But I know there's all this concern. So I'm not quite sure whether that's a justified concern. So if you could just maybe. So as we proceed and make our decisions, how sensitive these numbers really are. Absolutely. So I don't have the comparisons data, but I think one of the key data points that's relevant is when we met last fall with the credit rating agency, talking about the bond we were selling, we were very transparent. Here's our fund balance. Here's the financials. And their response to us is it's healthy now. I'm paraphrasing. It's healthy now. The trajectory should be monitored because if it continues, it could be a concern. That was essentially it. But we can certainly look around and try to get some comparison data for us to understand what that

042looks like towards the end of the process. Any other questions at this point? Okay, thank you. We'll turn to facilities. So I'll ask Nick Farrar to join me at the podium for a minute. I'll get my notes up here. So we've spoken quite a bit this year about the school facilities and the capital projects that we hope to accomplish via the proposed bond. We'd like to take a moment this evening to highlight the facilities department and the work that we do in the facilities department to support our students. In recent years, the facilities department has made a concerted effort to build capacity among its ranks. find ways to more efficiently perform their tasks and reduce the need for outside contractors by growing internal capacities. The leadership team has focused on building teams that complement the

043skills of the staff and leverage their abilities while also developing leaders from within. This is no more evident than in our facilities office itself with the promotion of Nick Ferraro to the director of facilities last summer. Having been part of the department's leadership team for several years, Nick's transition to this role has been seamless and provided continuity of leadership for staff and a sustained vision for the department moving forward. Under Nick's direction and in close partnership with John Antonicelli, the assistant director, the department continues to build on the momentum that they... generated as assistant directors together. And now with the addition of Luis Magalhaes, it's a great three musketeers in the office. I'm happy to have them as part of the team. So with that, I'll ask Nick to talk about the next few items.

044Thank you. Thank you very much, and good evening, everybody. So to give a little bit of insight for us, the facilities department currently consists of 52 cleaners and custodians, six ground staff, and six maintenance. Our team not only cleans and maintains the approximately 100 million square feet of our buildings and 115 acres of our property, but they also act as a trusted partners for building administrators and facilities users such as the PTA, Recreation Department, and others within our community. Outside of that routine cleaning and maintenance, our department has taken part in numerous larger scale operations within our district. To offer some of those highlights, the facilities department staff has renovated offices, bathrooms, faculty rooms, and classroom spaces throughout our district, taken on capital-level work at significantly reduced costs such as the Fox Meadow field retaining

045wall, drainage issues, and the parking lot path of that campus. They've handled numerous priority one and two of our BCS and significantly reduced costs such as hose cabinets and gemmatorium rails that you've seen on a lot of these reports. They've taken those on in-house. They've also begun renovating fields throughout the district to help improve drainage issues and natural turf growth, those being Dean Field, Fox Meadow, Green Acres, and the Middle School as some small examples with plans to do more throughout the future. They also have done a lot of site work, beautification programs district-wide such as fencing, gardens, as Edgar pointed out, flower beds, and et cetera throughout the campuses. Also, they do playground and maintenance repairs, something that historically we used to outsource but is now with Matt Hilgendorf, our head of grounds, being

046a certified playground inspector, we're able to do a lot of these repairs in-house at a significantly reduced cost. And also, most recently, in partnership with the high school leadership, we are looking to create a pilot program of nooks throughout our hallways, also highlighted throughout the bond conversations. So we're looking with our in-house maintenance staff as well as the building leadership to start creating some of those spaces throughout the building. But throughout this, we also continue to work on several challenges facing our buildings, such as utilities costs increase, primarily with the electrical at the current moment. Also inflation, which affects our operations and maintenance, supplies and materials. Costs on everything from cleaning supplies to building materials and equipment continues to rise. Contracted services, increased costs for skilled labor and professional services continues to see inflation and

047driven increases. Our aging buildings require more and more to keep them operating well. So, with that said and moving forward, it is our hope to continue to grow our department as we do have a vision for it. In order to continue to grow the skills and resources available to the facilities department, we'd like to see our staff take on more work that was removed from the 2026 bond scope, grow our annual capital work program to help bridge the gap between bond cycles, grow our departments through training, equipment, funding, and personnel in order to become more efficient at the work that they do. learn the skills needed to get them to the level they desire to be and to take on more projects within our district. For us in facilities, growth is a multiplier. The more

048resources available to the department, the greater the return we can bring to our schools and programs. I can say with confidence that these are the finest teams I've ever worked with. They work hard and they work with pride. They care about the district and are honored to be part of its success. Allowing growth for this department will see a return on investment in every way possible, from savings to utilizing our in-house teams to the ability to take on more and larger projects. Thank you very much, Nick. This budget continues to support the building repair and maintenance of the district facilities and also provides increased supply funding to do more work with district staff. It maintains our focus on both mandatory and voluntary environmental testing as needed. It supports the replacement of aging maintenance vehicles and

049represents the department's first purchase of an environmentally friendly EV vehicle to reduce our carbon footprint. And this is the operations budget numbers. I'll highlight some of the key drivers here. So you'll see the supplies and materials are going up by $200,000. Sorry, utilities are going up by $200,000. This is, as I mentioned earlier, largely driven by electrical expenses, as we've seen in Westchester County, lots of electrical. price hikes we've also see here an increase of eighty five thousand dollars in equipment as I mentioned we're trying to replace two vehicles in the maintenance department this year one of them would be an EV vehicle as we try our hand at our first internal fleet EV vehicle to see if that is a benefit to our district from a fuel usage perspective We are reducing our contractual

050spending. We've seen continued increases in the cost of professional labor as a hired kind of contracted service. So we're hoping to bring some more of those supply and material costs into the district because with our new head of maintenance. Rob Schweit and the team of professionals that's there, we are really accomplishing more and more. In order to do that, they need the supplies to take on those projects that we mentioned earlier falling out of the bond project. And then our BOCES services are going up. This is largely related to some of the environmental testing needs that we do, whether it be asbestos monitoring, air quality tests, lead tests, those types of services come through our BOCES program, as well as does our facilities usage scheduling system. So it comes through that code as well. so

051those are the really high level items I mentioned them on the next slide as well you know we are maintaining our level of staffing in the facilities maintenance department we're hoping to utilize that staffing more efficiently and effectively and I think another highlight that I want to point out is we are continuing our partnership with synergistic synergistic has finally really identified a partner who is in district every every week kind of working with our head custodians our our BMS system vendor really trying to troubleshoot a lot of the comfort and and efficiency issues that we've seen in the district and I will say it has been noticeably different I mean while it's been very cold the last few days you know some of the comfort level complaints have come way down and when I say

052comfort level during the heating season you often find Rooms are cold, rooms are overheated, windows are open. That situation has reduced significantly, which will result in energy savings, which we're really happy about. We do anticipate having a spring presentation from Synergistics on the outcome of their program as we get ready for entering year four of that five-year program. That is... the budget for the facilities department but I want to transition now and talk about a little bit more the five-year capital plan so this budget also includes a commitment to facilities improvements informed by the facility study the bond scope discussions and the ongoing development of programmatic and building needs the five-year capital plan includes current cost estimates and have been prioritized based on objective need and commitments we have made to our school community Continued

053budgetary investments in our capital work helps to stabilize our property tax cap and avoid spikes in values in property taxes while also ensuring that the list of building needs does not continue to grow at an unsustainable pace. So the projects we intend to fund in this year's budget are reflected in year one of the five-year capital plan. They currently total $1.815 million. Through our capital project steering committee work, we have seen how deferral of projects results in escalating costs and the continued growth of building needs. Therefore, we're showing modest increases in the capital project funding on this slide, knowing that this list of current identified needs that did not make it into the bond proposal far exceed the available funding over this period of time. We also recognize that priorities will change over time, and

054the only firm list of work we are committing to at this point are those slated for year one of the funding included in 26-27 budget. The next slide provides the full list of projects included in this budget. They are... The Scarsdale High School Life Skills classroom renovations that we anticipate taking on over the next two years so that in 2028 the current sixth graders of the middle school will have a place for their program here at the high school. We've included the replacement of our oldest oil tank at Fox Meadow Elementary School. The sanitary sewer line as well as the continued commitment to playground structure replacements at Heathcote with the kindergarten structure there are included in this budget. The replacement of the problematic heat exchanger at the Scarzell High School library, which did not make

055it into the bond but is continuing to give us trouble with heating that space effectively, is included, as are hot water heaters at both Edgewood and Quaker Ridge. Replacement of the bleachers in gyms one and two at the high school, which have been a safety concern due to their age and their condition. Although they are safe, they are problematic for us. We want to replace those. And a significant paving project at the middle school across that entire campus will stretch that dollars as far as we possibly can to make sure that that paving project addresses the largest cracks and potholes that we are preparing to see there. So the facilities team continues to review the list of projects, of possible projects that will be included in years two to five of the capital plan, which

056could include items such as playground equipment funding, oil tanks, curriculum program needs, classroom renovations, including perhaps at the high school and middle school, door hardware, roofing, windows, and other building systems. The list is quite long, as you all know, through our capital bond. discussions and we'll continue to refine that list we have a draft that we were circulating as a team for years two through five and we'll continue to produce that nick and i will work on that over the next month and we'll share with the board our our recommended prioritized list that we have for discussion for for future budgets so again this is the uh the capital um transfer capital budget slide that you're familiar with which will also be replicated in the budget book but this is the trajectory of where we've

057been we had 1.49 million dollars in the 24 25 budget 25 26 we have 1.7 million and we're asking for 1.815 in the proposed budget next year I already went over these projects so I won't do that again so before we move on to transportation questions about facilities and capital product thank you thank you Andrew thank you Nick I want to just thank all the facilities teams. It's obvious when you go around the buildings how much work they're doing, and it's really incredible work. And I found it really interesting that you used to outsource work, and now you're doing more in-house, and I think that that's great that you're able to keep costs down and do it that way. And in terms of the high school hallway nooks, they were discussed during the capital project

058steering committee as kind of a place for students to work collaboratively in the hallways, like a special space. and a place to, of course, enjoy community lunch and congregate so they're not just kind of standing randomly in the hallway. So I appreciate that that work is happening. I just want to highlight, and I know we touched on this briefly at our last meeting, just staffing levels. There are no staffing requests related to facilities. And I know you said that you're working on building leadership and skill building and more effective use of the staff, but I just wanted to say I'm noting that even though I know how much work is happening. We appreciate that. Okay, thank you. And also, I just wanted to also note, I know we had community comment at our last, at

059our bond forum. A community member mentioned wanting to know where some of the projects that we had highlighted in the bond planning, where they were going to happen if they weren't within the bond. So I think that this is very important work, and I'm glad you're sharing a five-year plan for that. and I also pleased to see a Heathcote playground structure in this because I know the playgrounds have been something that the elementary schools have been you know as the PTAs year after year we've heard that it's a need so thoughtful planning in that way for all the schools is very important and of course high school classroom renovations I know they're not necessarily in this budget But that was a huge need that was identified in the capital project steering committee that we did

060not include in the bond So just to highlight that for the community moving forward so that we're aware that that's an issue with the high school Thank you other facilities or yeah amber I want to echo Leah's comments about thinking about the transparency. I, too, remembered that comment from the bond forum, and I think it's great to see at the next meeting we're showing exactly the answer to that question, the transparency, so really appreciate that. I had two questions about these potential projects. The first one was the the space for the life skills curriculum program is that the full extent of the renovation the 330 000 are you anticipating that's all that's needed are you anticipating more work so the 330 000 estimate is was basically a square footage based estimate based on discussions we

061had with bbs during the pond planning discussions we think that that is sufficient to both meet the space reconfiguration needs and the furniture and whatever else might be needed for that program. And we think we actually could probably come in slightly below that, but we'll need to see plans firmed up before we do that. Okay, and remind me, those students are in sixth grade now, so this work would be done when they were in seventh grade? It will be done in seventh and eighth grade. We're likely trying to... There are multiple locations we're trying to identify that may require renovation. So rather than doing it all at once, we're probably going to do it over a staged two-year time frame. Okay, great. And then as far as the Heathcote Playground goes, I just will identify

062it's kindergarten and first grade, so it's not just kindergarten playground. But are we comfortable? I mean, $250,000 for that playground. clearly you're comfortable with that estimate if it's out there it's one small structure I'm Nick yeah do you want to add anything about that cost estimate as well as if you have anything to add on the high school life skills program no I think regarding the life skills program you have that perfectly said with the Heath Cote playground we're currently working with the Fox Meadow committee now to develop one what we're seeing for the structures and the site work we're still comfortable with the $250,000. Basically, what we're doing over at Fox Meadow is relocating it by shifting it over a little bit to the green space, going back with the wood five bar, creating

063a new surround, and then building up a new structure with the play area, and also incorporating a handicap ADA walkway to it. That's coming in around $255,000 right now, with the possibility to go up to $265,000. At Heathcote, there's far less site work to be involved. year to year that may fluctuate the price a little bit but we're still confident that we'll fall within that 250 000 that's great and can i ask a follow-up question um i know that that back playground half of the playground was renovated many years ago and the other half remains unrenovated any plans to yes so i john you'll correct me if i'm wrong i think we've listed that one as the potential following year Yeah, okay So we're hoping to do as we develop the five years to keep

064the theme of a playground per year that that's the hope with the with the Eye sight on that next one at Heathcote. Great. Thank you I'd like to also add my thanks to the great job the facilities department is doing. I have a question about the outer years of the five-year capital plan. I know we are just having some broad-line possibilities here, but I'm curious to ask whether in the classroom renovations is the high school, any of the science labs kind of part of the maybe potentially in that scope. So that's part of the feedback we need to go through over the next month and identify spaces that we have not included in our list. The slide that had all of the green kind of lines of this, we have. similar structure for projects all

065the way out through 2031 however that does not include feedback in what we are missing in the facilities departments we want to gather that high school classrooms other program needs have not been really factored in beyond what was discussed at the capital projects hearing committee or the facility study work so we need to have some of those discussions to really identify the area identify the estimated cost and then try to find where they would fit into the five-year plan thank you thank you Yeah, I think we can all agree we've been very impressed, Nick, with your team and all the hard work that you guys do day in and day out. I feel like I see everyone removing snow daily, but with a smile on their face while I'm freezing in my car. So, you

066know, please extend our gratitude. Even walking down the halls, they're always respectful. They're always happy. and I feel like the kids pick up on that, the adults pick up on that. It's a very special team, so please let them know how much we appreciate what they do. I just had a few questions. One was you mentioned the synergistics, which I had a question about. That they were able to you know, maybe make a few changes to become a slightly more efficient with the heating and regulatory Regulating the classrooms. So do you feel like their recommendations will long-term produce energy savings around the electricity? I think it will I think it took us quite a while to get there in fact, you know, we still may be breaking a few things to get it, right and

067I mean that you know some of our older equipment that was just vulnerable because of its age as we try to use it to do some of the synergistic programs methodologies like we're exposing that vulnerability and things are needing replacement which is not synergistic fault is the age of some of the equipment I think we've moved through many of those issues and now we're at a point where the BMS system is helping us manage the spaces more effectively with temperatures especially like in this heating season temperatures more appropriate when staff arrive and Throughout the school day and then certainly more appropriate when the spaces are unoccupied. It is much more complicated. It is You know balancing act of watching our building schedules and who's going to be in the building and what spaces can we

068control in isolation versus others it's been a really big learning process but between John Anthony Chelle the head custodians and and Dan from synergistics who's our representative like they've really made a lot of adjustments so I think If we are able to make sure that all of the equipment is working and functioning properly, I think we'll see energy savings from it and comfort improvement for staff and students in the building. That's a long answer. I'm sorry. No, no. That was my question. I'm curious how Synergistics has been helping us. We kind of keep circling back to that. So I'm happy to see where we're moving in that direction. I'll also add that Dan, our Synergistics rep, has started to engage with some of the high school students in particular. I know that they were doing

069some energy readings prior to the... winter break if I'm not mistaken right the the holiday break trying to see okay let's measure the amount of electricity used in these areas with these devices and now let's come back and say okay well if the building was unoccupied if we were able to shut those devices off through periods of vacation or breaks, how much energy could we save and try to engage that learning aspect in students, which I think is going to be a great way for us to kind of both emphasize the education component, but get community buy-in to, let's shut these lights off. Behavioral change. Behavioral change, which is what the RFP was, behavioral energy savings management. No, I mean, I think that's amazing. If you can teach my kids to turn the lights off

070when they leave the room, I'll pay you. But no, I think that's great. Connecting the students back in is so important. So I appreciate that work as well with your team. So thank you for that. Just one other question. Amber had my life skills question. So thank you for that. I noticed that we're doing some paving at the middle school as part of this. Do you know where I'm going? I know exactly where you're going. Do you think there's any possible way we would be able to maybe pave the basketball courts since we had to take that out? So I knew where you were going, and I will say that I can't commit to it until we have bids in place and obviously an approved budget that will support it. We're going to try to

071prioritize all of the worst sections, and based on the pricing we get. if the basketball court is attainable, we certainly will pursue that because we know that we did not include that in the bond going forward. You're welcome. Anything else? Yep. Yeah. I, too, want to compliment the facilities and Nick. I think I'm sort of sitting here feeling very optimistic and positive about what feels very professionally handled. So my question is, as I look at the proposed budget on the contractual and other, if you add operations and maintenance and grounds, it comes to like $2.4 million. So I'm wondering if at some point it may not be able to be accomplished this round. If we could take a deeper dive into where that money is being spent, because my intuition is that with Nick's leadership,

072it may be more cost effective to hire a person to do certain types of work than to outsource it. As anyone who's a homeowner knows, that exercise can get quite expensive in terms of hiring people to do projects. So that, you know, I don't know how... further what kind of a further list there is of what that is I'm sure that it is somewhere but it you know it might be not that anyone sitting here says we want to increase staffing but I think it's really a total picture so you know if we can say five hundred thousand dollars a year by hiring one more person that is a positive thing. So I think we need to keep looking at the big picture about the impact of that staffing. And I think, again, with good

073leadership. and someone who can get these things to happen, I think that may be a path to help whittle away. Again, I don't know what those contracts are, but my intuition is maybe some of it could be brought in-house, as it seems that we're doing more and more anyway. Just a thought. I appreciate you bringing that up, Bob, because for the last two and a half years that I've been in the district, that's been a conversation in my Wednesday meetings with the facilities team. we have yet to be able to definitively say it will be a cost savings so we have not brought forward what I would say are two key trades that that we think that there's potential the first being electrical We are spending a lot of money with contractors, both in the

074facilities department but also in the technology department, in cabling, wiring, and terminations of plugs for technology and for various other circuitry needs across the district. We have a hunch that we could save money there, but we can't prove it just yet, so that's still on our list. The other one is as we see air conditioning roll out in our buildings through this bond project, right, we have contracted services that... do all of our air filters, our preventative maintenance on all of our HVAC equipment. That is something we're going to be looking at very closely over the next year and a half. And if it makes sense to pull back on the contracted services there and do more with an HVAC person on staff that we don't have today, we will bring that forward as a

075future budget consideration. But as I mentioned, we can't definitively do that yet. It's more... We have a hunch, a really good hunch, but without data we didn't want to bring that forward, or at least I didn't want to bring that forward. Well, I think that makes total sense to me. And as I'm sitting here thinking, you know, if there isn't categorically a clear need for 100% of a person, I'm just wondering whether there is any potential through BOCES to create, quote, an in-house. CADTRAE or whether that is more controversial from a union's point of view, you know, doing it in-house. But also, frankly, with maybe another school, like, you know. a school said, well, we need a third of an electrician. You need two-thirds of an electrician. Why don't we, Eastchester and Scarsdale, hire an

076electrician? And like we do with other music people, they move from one day here and three days here. I'm just trying to be creative about trying to reduce that number of 2.4 million, which seems intuitively relatively high. Appreciate it. Any other questions on facilities? Okay, we'll move on to transportation. You're not done with me yet. So another key leadership transition this year was in a supervisor of transportation role, and I've got Nadia Pedagano here, so I'll ask her to join me at the podium. Nadia has brought a wealth of experience and leadership and innovation from her private transportation career into Scard's Pupil Transportation Department. Her experience in the private sector, combined with the experience of our head bus drivers, William Ramos and Robin Senuous, as well as our head mechanic at the Village, Billy Ryan,

077have provided fresh ideas and a renewed focus on operational improvements that are needed in this critical student support area. I'll ask Nadia to briefly share her own, in her own words, several of the initiatives that are currently underway in transportation. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me here tonight. Over the past year, my goal has been to stabilize and strengthen the transportation department and build a strong foundation for long-term success. The majority of the work that has been done has been encompassed within the six focus areas listed on the slide. When I stepped into the role, I spent time learning by listening, riding routes, meeting with staff, and understanding where our risks and opportunities are. From there, we focused on strengthening systems around safety, compliance, communication, and workforce stability. These are some

078of the high-level items we have accomplished within that framework listed there. We have conducted a comprehensive review of all regulatory compliance requirements, implemented tracking systems for any expiring documents and required reporting, standardized accident incident reporting procedures and processes, improved pre and post trip vehicle inspection forms and procedures. We've created driver and monitor SOP manuals, organized and modernized records and documentation systems, established consistent weekly staff team huddles, and an internal transportation safety committee. We've evaluated systems that are pen to paper that could be digitalized with technology. We are utilizing the parent square for communications with families. We've upgraded our radio communication systems on the buses and we've also gathered data to show the need and importance for GPS tracking and telematic solutions to improve safety and efficiency. This particular upgrade to our operations is highly recommended.

079We've collaborated with principals, athletics, special education, and security teams. We've increased proactive parent communications and upgraded updated transportation website created a mission statement for the department and updated safety messaging We've represented the district at the NIAPT and other regional leadership forums We've contributed to budgeting discussions and forecasting, evaluated private charter and vendor services for additional school district transportation needs. We've participated in the electric bus planning with the business office, vendor partners, facilities, and other key stakeholders. We've prioritized a fleet replacement plan with collaboration with our village head mechanic. and we've increased staff recognition and morale efforts we've encouraged professional development for our head bus drivers we've expanded recruitment efforts to attract qualified candidates and we've implemented a structured hiring and onboarding process with the hr department trans as you know transportation is a safety critical

080environment Clear expectations, coaching, and professional support directly impact our student safety and experience. Through structured training, ride-alongs, collaborative processes with staff and union leadership, we've worked to create a more supportive and professional environment together. That said, the most critical issue facing school transportation today and here and nationwide is the school bus driver shortages. Without reliable driver candidates, it becomes difficult to meet daily student needs, let alone advance any additional initiatives. We've worked hard to expand recruitment efforts, streamlining onboarding processes, and focusing on creating a supportive work environment to retain our existing staff. We have an amazing driver and monitor team. So far that is dedicated and committed to our vision and mission. However, everything else such as system modernization, efficiency, long-term planning depends on building and sustaining the staffing vacancies. Moving forward, recruitment and retention

081remains our top priority. And our focus remains clear, safe, reliable transportation supported by strong systems and a strong transportation team. I thank you all for your time and support. Thank you very much, Nadia. I don't know how you have time to do all the things you just listed, but it is a mountain of work that Nadia has taken on, and she really has done a fabulous job. So I really appreciate all the work that you've done, Nadia. Thank you. As Nadia mentioned, unfortunately not all of the initiatives we would like to take on are able to be supported in this budget, but we are laying the groundwork for future improvements as funding becomes available. However, without reliable driver candidates, it's difficult to meet those daily operations for our students, so our primary focus is on

082the recruitment and retention of our drivers. Now, with all that in mind, I'll move on to an update on our fleet electrification work. As you all remember, New York State law currently requires all new buses beginning in the calendar year 2027 to be zero emissions. Beginning in 2035, just nine years from now, the law expands to include not only purchases but all vehicles in operation to transport school students. The law was modified to provide waivers to districts having difficulty implementing this requirement. However, it has been made clear to us that this requirement is not going to go away. With the assistance of the federal EPA grants, tax credits, and NYSERDA funding, the district was able to procure four large buses over the last two years. Additionally, after a rigorous process of evaluation and negotiation, the

083district partnered with Highland Electric Fleets to design, install, and maintain four EV charging stations at the bus compound. This agreement covers all associated costs, including power and ongoing driver training. First of these buses is awaiting DOT inspection and will be delivered to us any day now. And the two additional buses are complete and waiting for shipment. The last is in production. So we are seeing movement in the vehicle fleet, the EV vehicle fleet. The charging station project with Highland is delayed by a few months due to the contract negotiations that happened last summer, and we anticipate this project to be completed within the next six to eight months, six to eight being my duration. They're hoping to have it much sooner than that. In the meantime, the district has installed, with the help of our

084facilities department, two chargers, one at the high school and one at Quaker Ridge School, to supply power to these vehicles as they arrive over the next few months. These chargers will remain in place and be used as we expand our electric transportation fleet and also to electrify some of our district maintenance vehicles, as I mentioned earlier. The implementation plan for EV buses needs to be closely linked to the needs of our fleet. To that end, Nadia's team and our head mechanic have taken a thorough look at the 80 vehicles we currently have in service and prioritized their replacement from low to urgent. These priorities took into consideration the ongoing cost of repair, the reliability of the vehicles, and the lead time for replacement vehicles. The table on this slide summarizes their assessment. As you can

085see, 25 vehicles were noted as very high or urgent priorities for replacement. The next slide, from there I worked with the team to identify a potential budget year for replacement purchase. We considered several factors including urgency of replacement, the number of spare vehicles of that size available to us in the fleet, the negative impact to operations caused by vehicle failure, excuse me, and the looming zero emissions bus mandate. To purchase this many vehicles all at once would be cost prohibitive, so we needed another option. 36 of our 80 vehicles were purchased more than 10 years ago, and with 19 vehicles purchased 15 years ago or more. This is a testament to the maintenance performed by our mechanics. However, any gas vehicle purchased today would only be permitted to operate until 2035 under the zero emissions

086bus mandate. That is just nine years away. Unfortunately, the current cost of EV buses remains extraordinarily high, especially without federal incentives that were removed. So leasing of transportation vehicles becomes the best option to obtain sufficient vehicles to ensure uninterrupted transportation operations over the next two to three years. This next slide outlines the proposed financing plan for those vehicles. To address as many urgent needs as possible, we are proposing to lease 12 gas vehicles and two EV vehicles. Because of the lower purchase price and the limited useful life due to the 2035 zero emissions mandate, we anticipate this being our final big push for gas vehicle purchases. We are also interested in implementing our first fully electric SUV and minibus into the transportation fleet. To obtain the best interest rate options, we are planning to issue

087two separate leases, each coupled with our annual technology lease. device and infrastructure lease with terms of four and eight years. The projected annual financing cost that will be included in the 26-27 budget is $408,247. I should note that this amount is less than the cost of the three EV buses and the two mini buses we had in the 25-26 budget. This amount will be included in the debt service section of our budget, which will be discussed in just a few minutes. I will now go over the transportation budget in total. Salary and wages reflect the ongoing struggle to recruit and retain drivers. The average hourly rate of drivers with experience continues to rise substantially as private transportation providers drive up wages in the marketplace due to the shortage of drivers. The reduction in the equipment

088line represents the shift away from purchasing buses outright and to a leasing model. Contractual weather represents increases in the village shared services costs for the salary benefits and overtime of our fleet maintenance team and the parts associated with those repairs. The contractual obligation for capital improvements at the bus garage is also included in this line. The full year of the four EV chargers through Highland Fleets. And a correction to our fuel budget for last year where there was an incorrect adjustment made that understated our fuel budget. So we've corrected that amount in this budget going forward. The latter offset was offset by a reduction in the supplies line, which is where we actually record the fuel expenditures. So that increases offset slightly by that supplies adjustment. Related to our leadership transition, we have included a

089BOCES transportation service through the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES in this BOCES line. This service assists with the district in the administrative, compliance, training resources, and a hotline for personalized assistance on all topics related to student pupil transportation in New York State. By leveraging this service, we anticipate being able to devote more time to the recruiting, onboarding, and training new drivers to address our ongoing driver shortage. Questions related to transportation. Go ahead. Thank you first Nadia thank you welcome I'm impressed with all you've accomplished and your time here so it was really nice to hear that I think we often forget how important transportation is for our students so really important work you're doing thank you Andrew I have a just a couple questions for you on this slide 51 we've got 64 drivers is that target staffing

090number or what what number is that we've not hit that number in several years we currently have 57 they're not full-time but I'll call them full-time drivers 30 hours per week and we have five part-time drivers that drive either in just the morning just the afternoon or in some cases even just a few days a week so we've been struggling mightily to fill that gap since I've been here. We've not had 64 drivers. We do have the luxury of having two head bus drivers who really are meant to help with dispatch and triage and do some of the administrative planning that Nadia highlighted, but most of their time has been spent over the last two years driving routes, either covering for drivers that are out or simply covering routes that we just don't have a

091driver to assign. Thank you. And then I appreciated the creativity around leasing the gas vehicles in terms of a way to deal with that upcoming mandate. I was curious, when we lease a vehicle, you mentioned sort of the overtime costs that we have for maintenance, and we've had these older vehicles, we're maintaining them. So when we lease a vehicle, do we have to maintain it as well, or will they maintain it? Can we expect those costs to go down? At the end of the lease, we would own that vehicle, so we would absolutely be maintaining the vehicle. Everything from DOT inspections, oil changes, services, if there's damage to a vehicle, we would be continuing to use our village garage staff to help us repair those vehicles. Okay, thank you. Leo? Thank you. Leah, before, I'm

092sorry, just to follow on to that. With Billy Ryan, our new head mechanic, who's been there about a year now, I think, since the prior mechanic retired, he was very forthcoming about the amount of overtime and repair costs we're incurring on some of our vehicles. It was spending good money after bad. So we've taken the approach to focus our repairs over the last 12 months on the vehicles that are most likely to remain viable for us rather than just fixing it because we feel desperate about the number of vehicles. We've removed from the fleet several vehicles that we knew would be cost prohibitive to even put them back on the road, whether it be frames rusted out, whether it be engine trouble that we can't clear the lights on that would never get them through

093DOT inspection. His work has really helped us focus our efforts. So we've seen a bit of a reduction in overtime because we're not trying to repair vehicles that really have no business being on the road. Thank you for that additional commentary and thoughtful approach. I'd like to echo the thanks to Nadia. You've done substantial work and we appreciate it. Thank you to you and your staff. Andrew, in terms of GPS tracking, is that something that is going to be happening this year and could you describe that? Broadly the answer is no. However, the four vehicles that we have, the EV vehicles that we have and that are tied to the EV charging stations from Highland, Highland will be installing only telemetric GPS monitoring to monitor the... the mileage and the fuel usage so that they

094can make sure that the charging stations and the vehicles are recharging properly and make sure that we're not overusing the vehicles, therefore not getting the full charge overnight. So those four vehicles, through the agreement with Highland, will have that type of GPS. But the GPS systems that Nadia was talking about are much more robust and much more meant to help us deal with. routing issues emergency issues those those items we just we were not able to include in this budgets for the obvious reasons of the budget gap we have thank you and so there's currently no charging infrastructure at all at the bus depot so the bus that we receive shortly will be charged at the high school or Quaker Ridge yeah so we are the two chargers that we've procured installed are ready to

095go we just need to have them commissioned so once they're commissioned we will be able to charge either right up here by Butler field by the the athletics storage garage sort of by the where current students get on and off the high school buses and then the other ones in the back of Quaker Ridge kind of where this but the right now they use it for for the bus drop-offs right now those will be ready to charge these vehicles and they will be sufficient as a backup plan the maintenance department at the village has installed several charging stations because of their fleet electrification. We have not pursued it as a recurring fuel source, but we've had conversations with them about if we needed to do a quick charge in order to get a vehicle moved

096around the district, we would be able to use that. And I suspect that if we ever went to them and said, we just like our... fuel tanks are owned by the village. We'd like to use the charging stations for a short period of time. I know they'd be supportive. And then I understand the rationale for leasing the vehicles. It all makes perfect sense. I noticed on your slide it says tax cap exclusion for leasing. Does purchasing a bus go towards the tax cap? Is that different? No, it's not. So either the lease cost of the capital lease for the bus or outright bus purchase, both are exemptions for the capital exclusion. Those costs are offset by state aid that we would get, capital aid on the transportation purchase. That would be amortized over several years,

097similar to building aid. So the lease actually aligns that aid. nicely so it's less of an annual tax impact in the out years but it's essentially you know it is a slightly more expensive over the life because we will be paying interest costs on the lease however it allows us to get those in you know initial kind of infusion of good vehicles while we can still keep them on the road before the the gas sorry the zero emission mandate expires in about nine years And you kind of covered my next question. I was going to ask, are there any other ways that leasing versus purchasing affects our budget? But you mentioned the interest payments and you mentioned the state aid. Yeah, so that's really the gist of it. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I

098will say that new vehicles will help us with some reduced repair costs, right, just because of where we are, just to get buses on the road, DOT inspection, but it should be marginal. I wanted to add my thanks for coming up with this plan. It's thoughtful, it's creative, and it's working towards getting us to our mandate. I was a little surprised when you said that this mandate's not going anywhere or something like that, because I guess there is a bill out there to delay the timeline. In terms of our timeline, when we would have to lease these buses or whatever. Like should something happen to the mandate would we be able to pivot or would we even want to like or would you be going? Forward with this plan regardless. So the right now there's

099the waivers that are in place right and that that's for the purchase over the next I believe it's the two subsequent budget years from now. You could apply for a waiver if you're not able to move forward. What's not clear is what's going to happen on the 2035 deadline. So that piece, I don't know if there'd be a waiver for us to allow these buses to continue. I can only assume that that will eventually be the case, but there's really no talk of it in my circles at the moment. In my advocacy work with New York State ASBO, the business officials group, we've had very candid conversations with many of the elected officials. And while they may see modifications like the waiver process that happened in the last budget cycle, there really appears to be

100no appetite to remove the mandate as a statewide initiative. That's the read we're getting at the moment. Thank you. It seemed like at least in August when there was that study done of all the districts around, it seemed like we were well positioned vis-a-vis this mandate versus other districts. Have these other districts been working to catch up? It's a challenging mandate, so I don't know if they're so far behind how they're going to get there. I agree. I think downstate, we've got a very different story than upstate districts. Upstate districts really are challenged with the mileage and the range of vehicles, so they're having different issues. They're also having political issues in many parts of the state where their community are being asked to bond buses, and they're voting those down. I don't think we've

101got the same type of kind of feeling in this region, but we are taking a balanced approach. We are buying gas buses because we need to, but we're also trying to maintain our kind of environmental stewardship in the EV bus rollout because we believe in it, and we're in a different situation. I would suspect, and this is me just really kind of making a guess, the districts that have... proven time and again that their communities do not support this I think they'll they'll continue to have trouble but districts like ours who we had a slow start right but but we've in the last year and a half we've really moved forward to get caught up on where we need to be with the fleet I think we'll we'll be able to meet the deadlines for

102the mandate that's wonderful thank you so much any other transportation questions Okay, we're not done yet. We're going to move on to debt service at least purchases and then benefits. So this will be a quick one. So this is the segue, intentional from the transportation lease conversation to debt service. This budget, you'll see the primary increase is two things. One is the The bonds from school construction, that is the increase related to the auditorium bond, which is now in place after last fall. So that's an increase of $246,000 on the budget. And then the $408,000 for the bus lease that I mentioned a moment ago. The lease for the equipment line is a reduction based on the debt schedule for some of the grounds equipment that we bought two years ago to help that department

103really catch up on some of their aged equipment, which is... proven very helpful in the latest snowstorm. There's a lot of thanks that the equipment did not break down when we were moving a foot of snow. So those are the main increases there. The next slide just is one that you're familiar with, and it's really just meant to remind everyone at the moment that this budget conversation, there is no assumption on a proposed bond, and the proposed bond would not affect the 2026-27 budget. I've circled in orange there the 2027 column. That is the debt service that's been committed for prior projects, including that auditorium project, which I mentioned a moment ago. The decline is what's scheduled with the red arrow. That's what we've been talking about as part of our bond project for out

104years, but that's the 2027-2028 budget, which is not what we're covering this evening. Okay. Still not done with me yet. We've said often that salary and benefits are the two largest pieces of our budget. The employee benefits section this year, we're projecting an increase in the retirement system, increase based on salaries and the contribution percentage published by the New York State retirement system. That increase is for staff that are in the New York State employees retirement system, which is... our custodians, our clerical staff, and our nurses, and our teacher aides and drivers. Thank you, Drew. That is... That system is showing an increase in the contribution rates, unlike our teachers' retirement system, which covers all of our teachers, teaching assistants, and administrators, which is showing a decrease in the contribution rate for their system. These

105numbers now reflect the proposed budget salaries and those contribution rates, as does the Social Security increase of $400,000 for mandatory contributions. Social Security and Medicare. We've also reflected in this budget an increase in our health insurance. program. That increase is based on preliminary estimates for our current year cost and projections at a high level with our new consultants working with us. They have not been able yet to get into the detail of our claims data, but they are seeing claims cost increases between 8 and 10 percent. We've been... kind of targeting a historical trend rate of 6%. So this budget-to-budget increase represents a confluence of information and discussions on where we think the health plan needs to be. We'll continue to refine this. Earlier this evening before the board meeting, I actually received final okay

106from our attorneys that the contracts are ready to go, so we'll be able to start sharing that claims data with risk strategies. So we'll get that. They'll have better information to help us with this forecast going forward. And then Medicare Part B and D reimbursements. Sorry, just one more time there, Drew. That's essentially part of our health plan as well, but that is the Medicare contributions that our retired employees make towards their own Medicare Part B and D coverage. Our health plan refunds a portion of those to folks on a tiered basis, and we're seeing continued increases in... what those premium contributions that are taken out of our retirees' Social Security payments, they're going up significantly. So we've factored in that increase here. We're working with the administrator who covers those reimbursements for us, Compton,

107to get a more precise view of the current enrollees and what those contributions will be for next year. But we needed to project an increase here because we're seeing that happen. So now on the next slide is just the high-level ERS and TRS kind of numbers. I updated the USOA's chart last time, but we've now corrected those numbers. TRS is requiring an 8.24% contribution rate this year, which is down from 9.59 last year, and that's helping us with a reduction of $964,000 in our budget. ERS is going up from 16.5 to 17.6, and that's a $482,000 increase when you factor our... post salaries and those contribution rates and then I mentioned a moment ago about risk strategies so they are going to they're going to start helping us we've we've seen our weekly claims average

108to below budget this year. So that's a really good thing for us. However, we know that this fluctuates greatly over a period of time, so we're not counting our chickens before they hatch, but we do think that there could be reason to believe that the worst is maybe behind us in some of our high claims experience, although the data is a bit murky. We still have a significant amount of... folks with claims that are over $25,000 already this year compared to last year. So there's reasons for optimism, but there's also kind of sober, realistic concerns about what could be, and we're going to continue to work with risk strategies to really hone in on what's driving some of those claims with the hope that we've maybe turned a corner and we can start to see

109more. on trend health increases going forward i will still i will advocate here this is a mention that our health plan still we believe to be the most affordable option for our district right now but we'll continue to test that with data over the next you know several months so with that um Next steps, of course, this was our first look at projected budget. There's work to do to refine revenue assumptions, as Andrew mentioned earlier. And then on the expense side, we have a gap that we need to work on between now and budget study session number two. Refine those expense assumptions, do a thorough pass of all of our codes, lines, and priorities, and identify those reductions to come back to you. with suggestions to get to the cap and just to recap before

110questions we're here on budget study session number one on february 9th we come back for budget study session number two on march 2nd we'll have an update to the overall draft plan and then components on special education safety and security technology and athletics will take place at that meeting and with that we will open it up to questions on any of the topics not just the last few it was a very thorough and interesting presentation I appreciate all that Andrew and Drew and Edgar and everyone involved in terms of the 1.1 million from the unassigned fund balance that we put towards the budget to mitigate the tax levy And I know we did that last year, we had the 90,000 added in, but 1.1 has been kind of the number for the past few years.

111And I know we talked last year about fund balance. Is there any thought about that part? I know you've reduced it from healthcare. I know it all contributes to them needing to levy more potentially, but I'm just wondering, is there any plan forward for that? I know Bob commented on the general health, even though there is a decline, just want to look out for it. broad picture appropriation of fund balance to balance the budget is it is a sound budgetary tactic right as long as you are reasonably comfortable that you're able to generate that back in the subsequent years and we've we've proven that we've had some challenges doing that recently so I think my recommendation is to continue to focus on the health reserve because that really needs to be kind of funded to

112deal with the risk that's associated with our self-funded health plan. The appropriated fund balance from the unassigned fund balance, I think that number can, on a $190 million budget, you know, it's a reasonable amount to assume that we'll generate that each year in order to support the following budget. if our budgets continue to shrink or get tighter and our revenue contracts a bit then I think we need to be you know careful there we shouldn't think that we can increase that number in the future because that I think would be a concern long term anyone else have questions okay so I just wanted to again thank you for the work that has been done on this it's obviously very very much a lot of work that's going on and will continue to go on you

113know by you and by others and so it's it's great we appreciate all that's been done so far I did want to sort of light on fund balance you know briefly it's been certainly a matter of occasional concern in the community and subject of you know reporting and the like in particular with respect to the long term capital plan I know there's you know it's it and i just want to think so to underscore from your perspective i mean the the sort of long-term plans that we've we've um published from time to time you know do show fund balance uh you know sort of like reducing to zero right over like what uh five years six years whatever whatever the period of time is um and i just want to sort of um You know

114sort of just take take our temperature on that issue in particular because I think it's important for people to know I mean do we view that as you know something that is a Red light do we view that as something that's an emergency do a view that as something that is a cause for A, concern, B, panic. I mean, just what is our sense, our working sense of that kind of progression and what it really means. I'll give my two cents and then Dr. Patrick, if you want to share yours. I think every budget cycle that I've been part of in the out years. the results become less and less clear. Therefore, the margin of error is much bigger, right? So we've projected continual deficits in the out years because that's what we know in

115the short term, but we know we wouldn't let that happen. So to be specific, I don't think that that's where we're going, and I think I've said this in November, but I think the decisions we make now have to have that context. mind when we're talking about short-term decisions because every decision has an impact on that trajectory I think that this board has demonstrated in our conversations at least my feeling is that that you all clearly understand that the actions that we're taking are to prevent us from getting to those potential kind of negative consequences and I think that support from you all in my work has been gratifying because you've heard my message you have not panicked about my message but you've you've known that we need to be very diligent about the budgetary

116increases or reductions we're taking over the long term did that answer your question Jim it does yeah I would just add to that I'm just looking at some data over the you know over the past 12 years There's been one year where the if you'll call budgeted surplus. I know that Andrew hates that term but Was under 1.1 million one year every other year was either at 1.1 million or was significantly higher But for a very specific reason like our 90,000 over this this past year So while there's no doubt the inflationary pressure of this period has been put significant new stress on our budget that is real the cost of things that we normally are doing has gone up significantly despite that we've been able to thoughtfully plan for that 1.1 million and repeat

117it year after year so my view is that that planned use of returning surplus to offset the next year's budget has is in a different category than the health reserve the health reserve you know Andrew presented phase one of a four step plan to reduce our dependence on that if all things are equal and ideally we would return some money like we did this year we would return money to that reserve if trend continues this year as we're hopeful it will. So that's just what I would add. I do appreciate that and just want to say thank you. I want to just echo thanks that many of you have shared for Andrew, but one of the huge challenges of this first session is all the work that goes in not just to projecting next year,

118but really first to making a guess at where we're going to end the current year. and that work starts in the business of Andrew and Lisa and Sherry and the whole team starts months ago and is really difficult and as we've said before Andrew said before right now we're beginning to plan for something that won't happen until potentially June of 2027 so obviously that's what the budget process is but I think it's important to note that That's why things change they'll change between today and our next meeting and they'll change from that meaning to the one after that and they'll definitely change before June so No, but I do want to echo Lisa's help in the business office has been phenomenal, and I really appreciate what she's able to do for some of this projection

119work. And I also want to just, before I forget, having Nick and Nadia here this evening to really talk about their departments, which they're passionate leaders for. So they're crucial in hearing what we're talking about, but also presenting what their departments are doing. So thank you both for being here this evening. Items from us in terms of? where to go from here i mean we've obviously seen the gap there's discussion about the need to to close it i mean i think we're as a board supportive of that effort yeah fair to say you know okay yeah so i don't know if you needed me to say that that's the next immediate thing and then there might be a different direction or types of things we'll hear from from you next time okay thank you guess

120we're done with this portion of the presentation okay so with that would someone like you make a motion to adjourn this budget study session number one and to move in tonight's business meeting Suzy a second yeah thank you any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye that motion passes and we would like to take a five minute wellness break okay good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order and note that all board members are present including one of our student members, Lucy Eisenberg, but not Amish Meta. We were also joined by Superintendent Dr. Patrick and members of his administrative cabinet. Welcome to those who have joined us this evening, either in the audience or tuning in on a live stream or via Zoom. Immediately before this business meeting, our first budget

121study session of the season was held for the 2026-27 budget. This first budget study represented our financial position on an actual versus budgeted basis for this year, as well as an overview of the major considerations and decisions to be made to arrive at a proposed budget for the 26-27 school year. Thank you to Dr. Patrick, to Andrew Lennon, and to his team for all their hard work preparing the materials for this budget study. And thanks to everyone else on the cabinet who also presented. Tonight's meeting... We'll also include some information item and discussion around possible board advocacy. Advocacy is a board goal, and the board as well as the administration is staying engaged in the legislative process, and you'll be hearing more about that a little bit later, along with a number of other topics,

122which I'll turn it over to Drew. Thank you very much, Jim. I appreciate it. Good evening. I add my welcome to everyone in attendance here in person or tuning in online. As you know, budget season signals a very busy time of year for us, but also for our students, including our perennially successful Science Olympiad team. At the high school, the team placed first at the regional competition this past weekend, which was held at Maria Regina High School. Congratulations to the students who achieved this, and thank you to Nicole DeLuca, Kevin Viviano, and Jed Wagner for their mentorship of the students. Also thanks to our entire science department and Chair Nicole Pisano for their support and inspiration. The team will now head to nationals at Le Moyne College in Syracuse next month. We wish them good

123luck. Next, just a reminder that PTC Wizard is open today for parents to sign up for online conference registration and scheduling. Parents of elementary students can sign up now through Sunday, February 22nd at 11 p.m. As a reminder, the K-2 parent-teacher conferences are 15-minute periods in person on the 19th, 24th, and 26th of March. grades three through five parent teacher it's our second year of zoom touchpoint conferences and those are five-minute check-ins to take place on March 24th after school dismissal information was sent out to families last week And I'd also like to just put in a plug here for the Village Flag Design Contest to mark the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and the 325th anniversary of Scarsdale. Residents of all ages are invited to create a

124unique design that celebrates these milestones and showcases our vibrant community. Flags should be representative of both our village and our country, tying together local and national history. the winning design will be transformed into a physical flag that will be flown at Village Hall and other village properties throughout 2026 residents are encouraged to use their creativity and join us in commemorating these important anniversaries entries must be received March 20th at 5 p.m. and we sent that out in the Friday five which you can find and it's also on the village website and we have talked to our art teachers to encourage our students to participate if they're interested and finally just as an update at the end of three weeks of open kindergarten registration we have 117 registered students with another 66 in the queue just

125awaiting processing so we're on our way toward our see if I can do this math the class of 2039 Hard to believe, right? 2040. Class of 2040. We're in the next decade. Anyway. In closing, upcoming dates to note. Next Monday, February 16th, is President's Day, and that's the first day of our midwinter recess. We're closed next week from the 16th to the 20th. Tuesday, February 17th is Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival. Ramadan begins at sundown on Tuesday, February 17th, and ends at sundown on Wednesday, March 18th. Wednesday February 18th is Ash Wednesday the first Wednesday of Lent and I turn it back to you Bob thank you I just called you Bob yeah I don't know why I had Bob Clenham my name is Jim sorry Jim

126that's Bob there so actually I would like to turn it over to Bob because he has something Thanks, Jim. On Wednesday, February 4th, we held a community coffee at 7 p.m. in this room, and it was attended by Jim, Laura, and myself, as well as three community members who are both elementary, middle, and high school students. The discussion started off with an overview of the most current hot topics, including high school community lunch, rolling grade books, grade management system implementation. Both received high marks from those present. We then shifted over to the current school bond being developed, and it was a chance for board members to further explain in detail additionally why things were included, but community members were also disappointed that certain of their own priorities were not included, such as new science labs

127in the high school. But unlike these board meetings, the informal format enabled a back-and-forth discussion and dialogue, and I believe I can say... that all those present left felt both heard and clear on why certain priorities were set. The last topic was reveal math. No conclusions were made at the meeting, but we explained that the previous version of Singapore math that is often referenced is no longer being supported, and we further discussed the stepping up to middle and high school math and that it is too early. evaluate whether those being educated with reveal math will be prepared for the rigors of higher level I would like to again encourage anyone who wants to express their views but also have a dialogue with the board members to try and intend a community coffee thank you okay

128who else has a report okay yes On Friday, February 6th, Colleen, Amber, Laura, and I, along with many members of district administration, attended the PT Council Legislative Breakfast. This annual breakfast is an opportunity for students and the larger school community to ask questions of elected officials on topics relevant to our public schools, notably it is held during budget season. Elected officials present included our State Senator, Shelly Mayer, our State Assemblywoman, Amy Pollan, our Regent, Fran Wills, our new County Legislator, Jen Pooja, and Scarsdale Mayor, Justin Arrest. The event was hosted by Green Acres School and was organized by Chairs Jeanette Rosen and Julianne Ferugia. Scarsdale High School juniors and seniors posed questions to the officials on topics ranging from protections for students, artificial intelligence, parking in the A school, environmental and climate planning, the regents

129profile of a graduate, state mandates, as well as the nature of party collaboration in New York State government. The officials spoke candidly about multiple topics and it was an extremely informative and meaningful discussion. A huge thank you to our high school students for bringing forward such important questions and to PT Council for organizing and facilitating the event. Okay, thank you Leah. Anyone else? Great. Do we have a student report? Yes, on Friday, February 6th, the SHS Chinese Culture Club held their annual Chinese New Year celebration. Students got to try traditional dishes and watch Chinese dragon dance, and it was a really great way to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday. Thank you to the Chinese Culture Club for putting this event on. Okay, thank you, Lucy, and I think that turns back over to you,

130Drew. Yep, we have one cabinet update, and I just asked Edgar to share a little bit about elementary math. Sure. Thanks Drew. I wanted to remind members of the elementary community that we have an upcoming educational coffee on February 26th from 9 to 1015 a.m. at Quaker Ridge School in which we'll have educators from across our schools demonstrate the ways we were building math flexibility and automaticity for our students kindergarten through fifth grade. The board and I have received I have recently gotten emails concerning our use of RevealMath resources and materials as part of our math instruction. The upcoming Math Coffee will be really focused on demonstration of the tools and routines we use, which will include and go beyond RevealMaterials. However, I will schedule a follow-up meeting at a later date for parents who

131would like to discuss the process we use to choose materials, the ongoing adaptations we make, and the assessments and data we use to monitor a program's effectiveness. We'll make that meeting accessible to families remotely to allow wider participation and provide an opportunity for questions and feedback. Once we've determined a good date and time, I will communicate that out to the families. We value parent participation and welcome our elementary families at either or both events. While discussions of the educational tools and resources is important, I would urge any parents who are concerned about their child's progress to reach out to their teacher to describe their struggles, whatever the content area. Our educators are expert at using a variety of resources and methods to reach our students and should be the first point of contact. Thanks. Anyone

132have any? reactions or questions or should move forward moving forward into hearing from those present and I'm going to read the preamble members of the public are cordially invited to speak on district related items or other non personnel related matters during two separate public comment periods when is your turn to speak please state your name address and if you are speaking on behalf of an organization For those commenting remotely, please mute the live stream voice, turn on your camera, and then unmute yourself. Comments should be kept as brief as possible. Speakers will be asked to conclude their remarks after four minutes and will be given a verbal cue at the three-minute mark. If at this point a speaker has additional comments, they may send them in writing to the board via email at boardofedscarsdaleschools.org. The

133public comment period is reserved for comments only. The board will not engage in dialogue. The board reserves the right to respond to comments and questions at its discretion, either during response to public comment or at a later time and place. Response to public comment will take place after the first and second public comment periods. And with that, is there anyone in the room who would like to make a public comment at this time? Hi, good evening everyone. My name is Minji. I live at 231 Fox Meadow Road. I have seven years old and two years old. I'm here tonight along with some neighbors to urge the board to take immediate action to reevaluate the review math curriculum in our elementary schools. Over the past year, parent concern towards review math grows a lot and much

134of that concern comes directly from what we see from our children who experience that every day. My second grader, for example, consistently complaining about review math, not because the math is advanced, but because the curriculum places excessive emphasis on reading and writing. Assignments often require lengthy written explanations and a story-based response instead of focusing on fundamental math skills, logical reasoning, and step-by-step problem solving. And I even spent some time reviewing the curriculum myself, including the grade three and the grade four textbooks. The problems become even more concerning. First, a lot of the key concepts are introduced in a very fragmented, non-sequential way. Also, there are straightforward calculations are often overcomplicated with unclear and sometimes very random and arbitrary steps. As someone with a STEM background, I found the material disorganized and unproved. And also I

135talked to a lot of other neighbors. I hear the same concerns. Children are confused rather than challenged. Families are paying for outside tutoring just to keep up with the grade level math. Parents feel unable to help at home because the methods in Review Maths textbook are inconsistent and unclear. Even some educators in public teaching forums have raised a lot of concern about how difficult this curriculum is to teach effectively due to its lack of structure and consistency. Some districts in a lot of other states, like Florida, for example, they adopted reviewing math, but they quickly rejected because they see a lot of negative impact. A petition recently started about six ago in our neighborhood, in Scarsdale, quickly gained over 270 signatures from our parents, and it continues to grow. This is not a small issue.

136It's widespread, persistent, and urgent. Scarsdale is known as one of the top public school districts in the nation. The reputation is built on academic excellence, but also on responsiveness and accountability. While curriculum is not meeting our students' need, I think our families are losing confidence. It's the board's responsibility to act. We are asking you tonight to initiate a formal re-evaluation of the review math and consider a more proven research-based alternative. Our children have only one elementary school experience. We account for the years of confusion while waiting for incremental adjustment. Thank you for your time. Okay, so hi. I'm Winston Yang. I live in 131 Grand Boulevard, and I'm a first-grade student at Fox Middle School. So I really think this real math program is kind of confusing because a few weeks ago, we just learned

137division, and it's really confusing. You have to write a million steps, and it's kind of disorganized. Some of my friends also say this program is a bit confusing and they dislike all the steps that you take to solve the problem. It's also inefficient and there are a lot of more effective ways to complete the problem. And that's all I can say. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Peng Wu, 23 Dun Island Road. So I've been living in this neighborhood for five years. I'm a mother of two children and a working professional with a STEM background in the finance industry. Elementary school math lays the foundation for the students' future STEM education. Are your kids struggling with math study in elementary school? People naturally think this is going to be students' problem. They are

138not good at math. But the reality is, okay, this might not be students' problem. It could be textbooks' problem. The young schoolers shouldn't spend quite a few, like... minutes reading ICY style math question and trying to figure out what this question is about. My daughter asked me frequently at school when she was doing her math homework, what's this question? What's this long question mean? I don't understand. The super long ICY style questions distract the kids from solving the real math problems. Also, young schoolers spend way too much time on reasoning how they get the answer. They have their math equations. That's enough. They don't need to write an essay about it. Effective fluency is important for young kids. They have to be good at it. Otherwise, they couldn't continue on with their middle school math

139and science study. Can we let math be math? I strongly suggest that BOE create a curriculum review committee formed by school administrators, teachers, and parents to work together and solve our elementary school math textbook issues. Thank you. Good night. So my name is Ashley Tang. I live in 109 Brandeis Road. I live in this community for how long? 16 years. So I have three children. I have one in high school and two in elementary school. So I'm not only a parent, but I'm also a math professional, like everyone know here. Quite some parents majored working in financial industry, majored in math or STEM, and work in quantitative fields. So we fully understand how children should learn math. So our main concern with review math, first is poorly worded and language-heavy questions, which do not match

140elementary school students' development level. Second, insufficient focus on computation and math facts, but those things are critical in building number sense and a strong math foundation. Three, emphasizing over-complicated calculation tricks before children understand the basic rules and the logical order of math can make simple math unnecessarily complicated. Grade second grade to fourth grade are critical stage for number sense and the foundational math learning. With roughly, so far with roughly, we have like roughly 400 students per grade. And for grade second to grade fourth, we have a totally 1,200 students. Last year, we already have more than 500 parents signed a petition highlighting these issues. This year, just in less than one week, another more than 270 people joined a new petition. Even we think there's overlap of these two groups, but there are still more

141than 600 parents. giving more than six parents to represent our 1,200 students. This is about 50% for grades, second grades to fourth grade. Because like I also have kindergarten. I know like kindergarten only go there for half year. There nothing math to talk about. For first grade, similar. And for fifth grade, they are already moving on. So main focus, that's I think this main... The main source to sign this petition is second grade to fourth grade parents, based on my understanding. Because in our kindergarten parent group, some people send out no response. But in our second grade, we get an overwhelmed response from the parents. They immediately joined all different groups. They voiced their concern. So this is definitely not a vocal minority. We strongly believe kids should learn math as math. The district should

142return Singapore math as a core curriculum. And we can use review math as a supplementary resource. We respectfully ask, when can the board discuss these concerns with our school administrators? Second, can the school realize the serious issue and impact of review math after several continuous rounds of petition and complaints? This second year, we continue to be here. Third, how can our collective voice be heard in shaping a solution for our children's math education? Our children's foundational math learning is at stake. And as parents and the professional, we urge the board to act promptly and thoughtfully. Thank you for your time and patience. Hi everyone, good night. My name is Jessica. I'm a parent of the district. I live at 73 Brewster Road and I have three young kids. I'm also here to talk about this,

143our concerns about the math curriculum. My husband and I are both math professionals. We both earned PhDs in STEM field and currently working quantitative careers. I share this simply to explain why we reviewed this curriculum very closely. After reading the book, the textbook of Reveal Maths, we're concerned that this is a step backward from Singapore Maths for elementary students. Reveal Maths relies very heavily on open-ended language dance problems and frequent strategy switching. For young learners, this creates unnecessary cognitive load and confusion, as shared by Ling Ling and the preliminary school student, especially before foundational skills are secure. My daughter actually shared the same concerns during our conversations. She thinks the class is very confusing and it requires a lot of writing in the classroom. Without fluency in basic operations, it cannot function. We are particularly

144concerned about the reduced emphasis on automaticity in addition, subtraction, and multiplication. In professional mathematics and applied quantitative work, fluency is not optional. It is a foundation that enables higher level reasoning. We think Singapore Mass understood this balance well, but Reveal Mass does not appeal to maintain it. We also worry about equity. When the core curriculum is difficult for parents to follow or explain, families with fewer resources are disproportionately affected. We are already hearing that outside tutoring is becoming necessary just to keep up. and my husband is trying to teach my daughter at home to add a supplement to the school curriculum. A district curriculum should not require private supplementation to be effective. We are not opposed to change and we support strong conceptual instruction. but we urge the board to critically evaluate whether this curriculum

145best serves elementary students, to closely monitor outcomes and confidence, and to remain open to revisiting or supplementing this decision if gaps in fluency emerge. Thank you for your time and attention. Good evening everyone, very appreciate your time. My name is Norena. I lived here for five years and I have two young kids. I just want to share my child experience with review math. In the third grade, he's still doing very simple addition problems. For example, he just gave me today like 343 plus 12. but he is asked to solve them in multiple ways. He finds this repetitive and boring. That's his word. And he doesn't understand the purpose. He is also frustrated by how much reading the program requires. He is already a good, a strong reader. He reads over two books a day, but

146in math class. He wants to work with numbers. formulas and the problem-solving, not lengthy text explanations. He doesn't understand why math lessons focus more on words than on math itself. Math should be taught as math. We don't teach reading in PE class, and we don't build physical strength in art class. Each subject deserves to be taught according to its own nature. Math is no exception. It should focus on mathematical thinking, accuracy, and mastery. Many parents are seeing gaps in basic skills and confidence. not a small issue because math is a foundation of all STEM learning. If the foundation is weak, everything built on top of it becomes harder. We want a program that respects math, helps students build real skills, and keeps them engaged and confident. Thank you for your time. 180 Geller Road. So

147I'm father lives in the 13 Olmsted Road in Fox Meadow School District. So I would like to share my experience with my son's example of his like review math journey. So basically I talked to him today regarding some simple math question he learned on the second degree for the addition. It's a simple question three plus eight. He said he learned like three different methods to calculate three plus eight. And one of the methods he has been asked to use is called adjustment. It's adjusting eight to ten, then also adjusting the three. So he got really confused a lot of times. Now he's telling me 8 plus 3, I have to adjust 8 to 10, and also add 2 to the 3. So 8 plus 2 plus 3 plus 2 equals to 15. But he said,

148it doesn't make sense, because 8 plus 3, I know it's 11. But with the new methodology introduced, it has been very confused. Mix one is like eight minus three, eight plus three is different addition to adjust the eight. One need to add two to eight. one is three minus two and three plus two. He's really confused right now with all this addition and minus the new methodology introduced. He's adding a layer of actual complexity of the pure math, the conceptual understanding of eight plus three. I think the curriculum a little bit over heavy on the text instruction of the new methodology introduced to the understanding of math. I would like to like the school to reveal whether it's efficient to use those methods and the accessibility for the children to truly understand this methodology and

149how to apply them. And also I have another case is from the ENL class. I really appreciate the help on the English learning journey in the K and the first grade. I also very little concerned whether the English as a new language student can fully understand the review math because it's pretty heavily relies on the English understanding of the methodology rather than conceptual seeing the number add up together. using the diagram and some other easy way to understand the simple math questions. Yeah, I would like to see more data supporting, be using the correct curriculum, and if it's not data sufficient to support this, I would like to see any further discussion to revert back to using the Singapore math method. Hello everyone. Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Dandan Zhang. I

150live in 176 White Road, Scarcell in Edgewood. First of all, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for everyone who is staying up so late and listening out of us about our thoughts and concerns about review mass. So really, really a big thank you for that. Second, I'm a mom of two young kids. I have a first grader and a fourth grader. I think my philosophy for math is that I would love them to become a lifelong learner of math. I would love to nurture the love and the interest for math. And both my husband and I were engineering degree, so we used to play math games with them. They used to love math so much. But just after the school adopted review math, it has been just heartbreaking to hear all the

151frustrations from my kids, especially for my fourth grader, my daughter. She's a very strong reader. She loves reading books, and she couldn't just help putting down books. But with review math, there are two problems. One is that... It's just the question was too long and confusing. She mentioned that no one in her class understand what the question means. So the teacher literally have to just basically explain to them in simple languages what is the problem we are solving for. And then second, once the teacher explains the problem, it's just too easy for her. She felt... bored and not interested in solving the problem is because she can literally solve it in like five seconds. So like both of those problems in combination. It's just she just felt like math is not as cool and interesting

152as before and that's really concerning for us because like we really we really would love to have like both our kids have this like a lifelong love for one of the most important skills in in human world. So like I would share another very quick story like I was just chatting with another mom. I think there were also some errors in this. whole review math programs. So for example, one of the problem is that there are three bacons in one burger, two bacons in other burger. And then the question is, how much tomatoes are there in the bacon? Is it we should make the assumption of the bacons are equal to the tomatoes? So there are just so much. I don't know if it's an arrow or it's mistakes from this review mess. So I

153just wanted to share some of my personal experiences with you all and I really, really appreciate you. bearing with us and hearing all the stories and we're really hoping to just the board and the team could hear the voices from the parents and again I hope like we could work together to nurture lifelong learning experiences for for math thank you so much really appreciate it any other live speakers here if not we'll go to zoom we have three hands raised so I'll promote the first one Can you hear me okay? Yes, hello. Hi, my name is Zoe. We live off Fox Meadow Road, 146 Fox Meadow Road, and we just relocated here over the summer. from California. So we bought into the whole concept that it was amazing schools, amazing schools. Everyone kept selling us

154on that. It was the first time trying private or trying public schools for us. We've always sent our kids to. you know, top-notch private schools. And so we bought the home. We really had high hopes for the school. And as far as the faculty goes, we've been very impressed by the teachers. Our children adapted very well and have made friends. But I am extremely concerned about the fact that you're using Reveal Math. I have seen my daughter who, I have a daughter who's in second grade and I have a daughter who's in kindergarten. I see both of them just completely in a different mindset when it comes to math. My second grader was a star of her class with math, was passionate about it. As soon as she got into Reveal Math, she has no

155interest. She hates math, as she says, every day when she comes home. I tried to help her with this. I've looked through these questions, which are half a page long, and to me it makes absolutely no sense. With a strong mathematical background, I have no idea. Why you know anyone would expect young children to be able to grasp math through this I find it very wordy or boring and and just off the topic, you know, and I I don't understand it she was doing Singapore math before I've talked with some of the other parents and I Don't know of a single parent that isn't getting tutoring for their kids right now because of the decision to change to reveal math. Almost everyone I have talked to has had to get outside tutoring, which should say

156a lot to the school board at this point that something is not right. If the test scores are starting to slip, if everyone has to get tutoring, if none of the kids are grasping the concept, then there's a problem. This isn't the right fit. And everyone... you know, is pretty much on the same page. I don't know anyone who's against going back to some form of Singapore math. I honestly consider, I don't want my child or both my children or all three of them to have to constantly be tutored in math. because the school isn't doing anything about the program. And I don't want to have them fall three or four years behind or lose passion for education because they're not getting a proper education in the classroom. And so I think we're faced with

157doing our best to try to communicate our needs as parents, and hopefully as a group we can make some sort of change. we will have to think about alternative schools obviously and i imagine i'm not the only parent because multiple other parents have also talked about private schools at this point because they're fed up with the math issue is the number one issue at this point i mean i i i'm just kind of beside myself with the whole thing and i hope we can come to some sort of solution that everyone's happy with because ultimately this is our kids' futures and we really care about them having a good education, having a passion for learning. That's what I wanted to say. I'm a little passionate about it tonight, but thank you so much for taking

158the time to listen to all of us parents here. I think we're just trying to do what's best for our kids and raise them to be healthy, happy adults. Thank you. We cannot hear you at this time. Could you unmute your... Yeah, it's unmuted. Can you hear me? Yes, now we can. Great. Yeah, there's always a lag. Thank you. I'm Mayra Kurgendahl-Rodriguez. And as you all know, this year with Rachna Singh, we are the PTC Budget Study Chairs. We simply want to remind the Board of Ed and the Scarsdale community that it's customary in Scarsdale for PTC Budget Chairs to send in questions to the district and Board of Ed during the budget process, which obviously just started in earnest last week publicly. Although, of course, certainly we know the district. works on this year

159round and thank you for that. We're also going to be soliciting questions from the seven budget liaisons from the PTA leaders and we'll be sending these questions over to you. In fact, tonight we'll be emailing you some questions about budget growth, pressures on health reserves and fund balance, the projected operating deficit, if the district plans to keep within the tax cap and the important interconnections of the proposed series of debt issuance, the proposed budget and the long range plan. for example here's a few of the questions that we're going to be posing since the staffing request presentation notes that each one percent budget increase equals roughly 1.92 million would you kindly please share with the community the current projected percentage increase and what guard rails you will be using to keep spending sustainable second staffing

160requests at approximately 4.3 fte overall would you please share the multi-year financial impact including salary benefits and pension costs three what data demonstrates that expanding elementary social work services is the most effective approach to student support four the staffing presentation noted an estimated 286 000 decrease in stay date could that loss be absorbed without increasing the tax burden Five, given the volatility of the self-funded health plan, what contingency plans are in place if health care costs exceed projections? Six, pension costs are projected to change. How do those shifts affect long-term financial planning beyond this single budget cycle? Seven, what are the biggest financial risks you see over the next three to five years, and how is this budget preparing for them? And lastly, would it be possible for the district to please create a tax

161calculator to help residents understand the impact of the proposed budget on their household? Of course, it goes without saying, another thank you to Mr. Lennon. for having created his staff and he created a tax calculator to assess the impact of the 101.7 series of debt issuances commonly referred to as the bond thank you very much and we'll send you the rest of the questions tonight thanks thank you hello can you see me all right perfect thank you um my name is molly two and i live at three putnam road i have two children in the district a seventh grader and a fourth grader My fourth grader has experienced both Singapore math and more recently review math. I wanted to share a conversation I had with my son. I asked him about the review math and

162how he likes it. He said out of, and we always use a reading system in our family, he said he's reading review math a two out of ten. I didn't lead him, I simply asked why. His answer was thoughtful and concerning. He explained that many review math problems require extensive reading and written explanation, which makes it very difficult for him to focus on the actual math. He feels that problems now take too many steps to solve, and while explaining reasoning can be helpful occasionally, being required to do it for nearly every question is tedious and discouraging. What concerned me the most was his observation that he now spends more time explaining how he solved a problem than actually solving it. He always loved math. When he started his elementary school, he told me that his

163hobby is math. Like, your hobby is math. Yes, he loves math. But now he's saying that learning feels very frustrating and boring. Math learning at school is just not fun anymore. It's not engaging, not confidence building. So he asked me to put him into other programs, which I did. Now, my self-experience is not unique. I consistently hear similar feedback from other parents and students across grade levels. Many share the same concern. The review math places a heavy emphasis on language and explanation at the expense of math fluency, problem-solving skills, and a genuine understanding of the subject. I understand and respect that state standards require rigorous math reasoning and explanation. However, I would strongly urge the district to re-evaluate whether ReviewMath is the right tool to achieve these goals, especially given the volume and consistency of

164the negative feedback from families, both parents and kids. As others have already noted tonight, there was a petition last year with over 500 signatures asking the district to re-evaluate ReviewMath. And now there's another petition this year with 270 signatures asking the district to replace Libby O'Math. I've spoken with parents who signed the first petition, and many feel deeply disheartened by the response they received. There's a perception that their concerns were dismissed, and the district believes adding a digital platform or additional teacher training will fix the problem. But the problem many parents see are fundamental design flaws in the curriculum itself. um as actually i didn't know that zoe was uh going to share that but i i actually heard the same as she is considering you know her kids private school public school some other

165parents have also shared with me that they no longer believe the district is willing to listen and they're considering move their children out of the school entirely to private school. That would be a concern for all of us. I think we're a great school district and it's going to be, I think it's a shame if we drive parents out because of a curriculum that everyone or a lot of people think are not really serving the purpose. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Hi, Rachna Singh, Griffin Avenue. I'm speaking in my personal capacity. I wanted to clarify a point made by the District Assistant Superintendent of Business, Mr. Lennon, during the discussion of the capital bond on February 2nd. Mr. Lennon stated, and I quote, The presumption

166all throughout our process is that this bond will be a tax impact to our community and that the funding source will be the property taxes. He also explained that while the bond debt service is exempt from the tax cap, the district would increase the tax levy to cover these costs. I want to be very clear for the community about what that means. Tax cap exemption does not mean taxes will not rise. It means that the district has the authority to raise the tax levy above the cap in order to pay the bonds principal and interest. Mr. Lennon also said, and I quote, this bond would not impact the deficits or the long-range fund balance projections. That conclusion depends entirely on the assumptions that the property taxes are increased sufficiently every year. to cover the local

167share of the bond after netting for the state building aid. In other words, after the building aid is applied, the remaining local share becomes a recurring expenditure and as Mr. Lennon acknowledged, that cost is funded through higher property taxes. The bond may not create a paper deficit if the taxes are raised accordingly. but it does result in a higher tax burden for residents year after year, and this will be in addition to the tax impact estimator. For this reason, statements about tax cap exemption should not be interpreted to mean that there is no tax impact. As Mr. Lennon himself stated, this bond does have a tax impact, and that impact should be fully reflected in the long-term financial planning before the scope of the bond is approved. Cap exempt does not mean consequence exempt. The

168question is, has the Board of Education done due diligence to find out the compounding, and I always use this term, compounding effect of this capital bond on our annual taxes? The Board should also ask for this compounding impact on the annual tax bill or the life of the bond. Thank you for your consideration and your time. are no other hands raised is with that while we did conclude the live portion okay because I'm coming from the city from corporate event but I think I should I need to show up today and to show my to express my concern with respect to real math. We do need your name and address. Oh, sorry. My name is Cynthia Lee, and I live in 8 Lebanon Road, Scarceville, New York, 10583. Sorry, I was late because I come

169in from the city, but I need to... Show up to accelerate concern with respect to reveal math I I believe this topic has been Like you guys already know that and then I also wrote a letter email to the Board of Education I got a response say that reveal math got a very positive review by ad reports so I want to share my share my comments regarding review of math is because I think with respect to review of math, what most important is apparent feedback and observe the student outcomes instead of just like add reports or like third party independent review. So I think a lot of people already spoke, already discussed this before so I don't have to re, like re, like repeat what they're saying but I really want to focus emphasize that

170the challenges families and students experience right now are not in isolated and implementation issues I think there's a they reflect structure features of the curricular itself so I think So review math, there's a heavy reliance on language dense problem like solving delayed mastery of foundation skills and insufficient emphasis on procedure fluency have created unnecessary barriers for many students, particularly those who need clarity, repetition, and confidence building through skill mastery. So I have also spoken with students who attended our elementary schools and are now in middle school Many have described ongoing struggles with math which they attribute to gaps in fundamental foundational skills and procedure fluency developed during their elementary years using real math so the students reported very difficulty keeping pace with more advanced material because core skills were not sufficiently mastered earlier. So I

171think given what I just said and also what other people already expressed, so I think we should replace real world math and then go back to Singapore math or whatever, but definitely real math is not right. material for us, for the students at this stage. So I... I'm not sure. So I understand that many parents also struggle with losing Corking's rating material as well. But I don't want to emphasize or discuss that today. But I just want to share my experience and also my kids' experience in review math. So I truly hope... people like Board of Education and also people sitting in this room like take more seriously about this issue because this has been raised by many parents. And also I think we have discussed this last year and then or like early this

172year. So I was, it seems like people say that, oh, we can discuss later this year. However, this topic has never been raised. So I really, and the last I have a question like. how can we address this and then could you give us a like better explanation about how you guys gonna address this and or what should we do with this like ridiculous course material? Thank you so much. Okay, I believe that closes public comment and there's a follow-up public comment yeah thank you for all the public comment tonight and and always when when it happens particularly our youngest commenter who I'm sure had to go home and head to bed appreciate that this this portion of the meeting it's not a time for us to respond point by point to everything that was

173said but I think there are a few high-level reflections that hopefully will help demonstrate that we we hear the concern I think the thing I'm most optimistic about and everything I heard tonight and the letters that have been written is we shared the same goal for student learning and success and achievement and the ability of our students to grow into successful young people then successful adults that we share that I think I think you know that our community knows that the process, I hope you trust this, that the process that we use to arrive at curriculum decisions is thoughtful, it's collaborative, it is purposeful, it has criteria, and that once we make decisions, whatever the content area, the... work is designed to respond to student experience, to the learning or the gaps or the successes

174or not that occur. And that work, this community through our budget actually robustly funds that work. to adapt and modify and make changes, responsive changes that are rooted in student learning outcomes. Just to be clear about what our community can and shouldn't expect, I just want to say like three things on that. One is the feedback and the number of people writing in matters. It's helpful to understand. to some degree the scope of the problem but we don't make curriculum decisions by petition that that's not what we do it's never been that way here we do have a thoughtful robust process and this feedback like last year and like some people will remember here and then the district I was in at the time 20 some odd years ago when that math change was made

175that it was bumpy and we made some adjustments We're learning where we take that feedback seriously, but but You know at and I know people probably don't really mean this but like throw it out tomorrow and start something new That's not gonna happen. That's not that's not feasible, but we will continue to think deeply and thoughtfully about this and gather more information and and root our communications in what we're seeing in terms of achievement and also Try to understand both individual and grade level issues as deeply as we can to inform what we do next. The other thing I just, and I'm sorry to go on so long, but I think it's important. The podium and the Zoom, yes, it is a public forum to share communication with the board. People should know, like, this

176is it. The board. can only meet as a board in these meetings in public with a few tiny exceptions related to my evaluation and legal things that were involved in so the any deliberation that you're seeing happens here in public the work day to day is really the teachers the building leaders the administrators so The board does not decide the curriculum per se. The board responds to the recommendations of the administration, and we try to get it right together. It's not that the board's not involved, but the board isn't the sole decision maker. And in fact, we have a contractual obligation to work with our teachers to make curriculum decisions. So it's... It is thoughtful, it's deliberate, it's research-based, and we try to make the best decisions for student learning. And if and when we

177need to, we pivot. We make those changes. I'll leave it at that for now. We will continue to engage on this topic. Edgar will share in a second just a reminder that we do have coffee at the end of the month that's designed to help. answer one of the questions that was brought up tonight is how do we you know how do we do this and and how do we know how our students are doing so our teachers will be sharing some of that Edgar give you a chance to respond the coffee that's coming up is specifically about how we develop that automaticity and flexibility the various ways and there are going to be demonstrations by teachers and so there'll be an opportunity for parents to come in and sit in and look at that

178and how it happens across the grades. That's what the focus of the coffee is going to be. However, I will set up an opportunity in the future to talk about curricular change, how we make them, and perhaps some recent updates that families might not be aware of, some of the research that went into it. and also our plan as we go forward to be responsive to the needs of our students. I'll also talk about some of the assessments that we use, and we have been monitoring using various tools that we have at our disposal to make sure that kids are not losing the foundational skills as they move. So I'll be doing some of the sharing of that. That's not going to be at the coffee. That will be at another time. Got feedback that

179people want more access to that. So that will be a Zoom meeting. So people who are working in the city or can't make it in person will have an opportunity to attend that and give feedback then. So I'll make an announcement when we settle on a date. for that, but the coffee is on the 26th. And I really welcome all of you who are interested, if you are able to make it on that particular day, to come in and join our teachers and our administrators as we do some demonstrations about the work that we've been doing. Some of it is going to be demonstrating how we use some reveal materials and some of it is going to be demonstrating how we use some other materials that we've curated that go in harmony with the reveal

180materials that we're using. So thank you for your comments and would love to have as many of you as you can come to that and we'll get the word out about the second opportunity as well. I'll just wrap up this part and say there's nothing that impacts me more than hearing my child used to love math and doesn't anymore. And we care about that. That's not okay. We want to make sure that we grow the care and passion for math. through the 13 years of the system, not diminish it. That is absolutely our goal. So we need to understand that better. You know, that matters. Do you want to, yeah. Andrew, if you want to address, there was a factual error there. So I will talk about the bond project in a few minutes, so

181I won't. go over anything that's in there, but just to be very clear, because we've shared a lot of information in a lot of different ways, and it can be confusing. This proposed bond project is a new project with new financing and new debt that, if approved, would be an annual commitment on the budget for the duration of those bonds. So that is a new line item in the budget that would be added to the property tax levy. net of building aid is noted. Separate from that, as I went over earlier this evening in the budget conversation, the property tax cap is a calculation that determines whether or not the annual budget is a simple majority vote to pass, 50% plus one, or a super majority. The level of what that annual tax levy increase

182will be to determine the 50% plus 1% or 60% is the tax cap calculation. And the capital debt payments that would be created by the bond are an exemption, raising that bar, therefore keeping a simple majority vote at a higher annual impact to taxpayers. So it can be confusing. I'm not sure I did much better there. It doesn't mean that that increased cost. not passed on to the taxpayers it is but it allows the number to be higher than it ordinarily would be without that added debt and still be under the tax levy cap that's that's all it means okay great so can we move on then to written communications item six Colleen Thank You Jim Please note that the Board of Education email is also viewed by the superintendent and the district clerk. Open

183meetings law requires all board deliberations, which may lead to an action or policy change to occur in public. Therefore, your written communications and emails will be reported at an upcoming public board meeting. A board member will respond at their earliest convenience. A formal response requires that you include your full name, address, and if you are writing on behalf of an organization in the communication. more detailed information regarding the written communications received by the Board of Education may be found in today's meeting agenda located in board docs on the Scarsdale schools district website and just a reminder what I'm reporting on are all the emails received up until Friday morning I around that so any emails that we received over the weekend will be reported at the next board meeting so since last Friday the board

184received 63 emails on district matters and nine emails on board matters meetings board highlights and invitations Okay, thank you Colleen. And now we're up to item 7, which is the consent agenda, and I'll read a short preamble. The board may conduct some of its business using a consent agenda in an effort to achieve greater efficiency at board meetings. A consent agenda condenses some of the routine business items of the board into a single motion. The consent agenda is prepared by the superintendent of schools in consultation with the board president or board officers. Items are selected for the consent agenda when the Board President or Board officers and the Superintendent believe there is no controversy regarding them. The items on the consent agenda will have the same background material as ordinary items on the Board agenda.

185If any member of the Board feels that any item on the consent agenda requires discussion prior to action, that Board member may remove that item from the consent agenda by requesting the same at the meeting. The exempted item then moves to the regular agenda. All non-exempted items will be moved, seconded, and voted upon without discussion in order to achieve efficiency as outlined above. And with that, I believe the consent agenda is Amber. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. There are six items on the consent agenda tonight. Item 8.01, minutes, business meeting February 2nd, 2026. Item 8.02, personnel certified. Item 8.03, personnel non-certified. Item 8.04, quarterly report student activities fund. Item 8.05, claims audit report January 2026. Item 8.06, accept the consent agenda. I move the board accept the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Amber. Is

186there a second? Thank you, Susie. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. That motion carries. We're now on to item nine, information items. Thank you, Jim. We're going to provide a very brief capital projects update tonight and then move on to the SECRA resolution. So the slide deck that we presented last meeting was a very comprehensive. review of the process that still exists on the website but we've created this shorter presentation that people could move through faster and then it includes an update to the total cost and to the field section to add the middle school field back in so i'm just going to hit a few highlights and then open it to questions so this was our process we're still headed toward the adoption of the referendum on the 16th of

187next month and a public vote on may 19th all all other things being equal The bond priorities remain as they were. You saw this slide last time with the sort of four different scopes of work, and now there's a fifth, and that's the top right. This is what we're now considering the final bond scope. It grew from 98.69 million to 101.7 million to reflect the restoration of the middle school turf field into the bond. So this is the overall. Scope and you'll see the field total went to five point four four million dollars again including that middle school field scope and the Relative percentages changed slightly as a result of adding that to that particular period I'm gonna hit escape and not we're not going to go through the Infrastructure or spatial items they have

188not not changed We're not going to go through the air conditioning. That also has not changed. What has changed here is the fields. So this is... An additional image to show the middle school turf field drawing that BBS had shared with us. And as was pointed out earlier tonight, not the resurfacing of the basketball courts. So the scope there is $3,014,662. That's the additional piece from last time. Accordingly, the phasing and the total cost has been updated. That's also in here. Not much change except when we get to the middle school, the turf field appears in phase five. is all on the website anything you want to add on that just in discussion with Aris contracting and BBS about this work we spent quite a bit of time last time talking about villages potential project

189that's a drainage project there we felt it would be important to not only coordinate this field project the middle school with the interior renovation work but also to give that process time to work through if it does not move forward we move forward with our field along with the rest of the middle school work if it does turn into something more realistic we would then be able to coordinate any of that work with the with the village and plan accordingly so here's the updated cache so these next slides are Very similar to what we showed last time but reflect the higher total cost of the bond This is the new cash cash flow. I don't know if there's anything to say there this is the new pro forma local share chart and then a more

190Hard to reach for you. This is a PDF on the website, of course and then narrowing in on this the new Peak cost, first year cost for Scarsdale would be in 27-28 would be 68-65 and 76-72 for Mamaroneck and a new peak cost of 439-76 and 491-49 respectively. other than that building aid projection as indicated last time the tax in tax impact estimator Andrew updated so it reflects these new numbers and we're still on that that same timeline so being aware of the late hour I just wanted to move quickly through that any questions I'm sure some members have questions budget where can one go on the website to do the tax calculation using one's own assessed value of what's yeah let's go ahead and actually see if we can look look at that um

191bear with me for one second i'm just going to open a new tab um it's good to people are paying attention to just navigate so from scarsdaleschools.org we have an icon down here that's 2026 bond info And right on that page, there's a graphic that says property tax estimator. That brings you to this separate web page where you can go right in. If you don't know your assessed value, there are instructions of how to look it up and then apply that value into your tax calculator. And then it generates an estimate. So if we use the Scarsdale average of one. point three two million do I have enough zeros there Andrew yes this would generate the you know the annual additional impact above what the board has already approved over very past years right that's

192that's that if you are having trouble with the calculator popping up on your device One quick step to try is to launch that website in an incognito tab. That seems to address some of the issues. Otherwise, there's a link there with some other suggestions. There's some known Google issues often related to when you have multiple Google accounts signed into your Chrome browser. Any other questions? Thank you. I'll just say thanks again for all the work you're doing. I know it's hard work and sometimes it seems like it's thankless work, but I know I speak for the board when I say that we very much appreciate it and we recognize the dedication it takes to address the things we raised at the last minute and actually incorporate them into the plan. So thank you. Thank you

193very much. Okay, so item 9.02 is the 2026 bond secret resolution So I'll just read this so I hit the high points. Before moving forward with the capital project, the State Environmental Quality Review Act requires school districts to conduct an environmental review of the proposed scope of work. The extent of that review depends on whether the proposed activity meets the thresholds for a type 1, a type 2, or an unlisted action. Type 1 actions require the most comprehensive environmental review, which in many circumstances involves the preparation of an environmental impact statement and will require a determination of the significant impact. of the environmental impact of the action. Type 2 actions require the least amount of environmental review. Unlisted actions generally require some level of environmental review that will require a determination of significance of the

194environmental impact of the action before the project may be undertaken, funded, or approved. The proposed bond has been determined to be a type one action based upon the review conducted by Stephen Muller of JC Broderick and Associates. Stephen's here this evening to help answer any questions. This is Ken Schubner from BBS. This type one action will require the preparation and circulation of a full environmental assessment form, FEAF, with a 30-day comment period for involved agencies to opine on that assessment form. Resolution 10.1 declares the district... the district's intent to act as the lead agency the determination that this be a type one project and the and directs the consultants to circulate that feaf form to the involved agencies so as i mentioned mr ken schubner from bbs and stephen muller from jc broderick and associates

195are both here to answer any questions about the secret process or the resolutions that we have on the agenda this evening and this is for action later this evening yeah it's our only action item any questions thank you um i took a question about this historic status does that affect anything i can't tell from i just noticed it in the letter it does and since they spent so much time here this evening listening to the rest of the meeting perhaps i'll ask our friends at bbs and jc broderick to come up to the podium and answer that for us hey good evening everyone uh thanks for having me my name is steve muller with JC Broderick and I'm a professional geologist and the environmental expert who's preparing your Type 1 resolution. Yes, the historic nature

196of three of the buildings within the scope of work creates a lowering of the threshold that determines a Type 1 response. So, for instance, in a typical project, that you're undertaking. If there was not a historic status on any of the buildings, you have a hundred square foot addition you would allow to be put on the project as a whole. Your project is only 26,000 square feet, the two building additions. The historic nature of the building lowers that threshold from 100,000 to 25,000. So essentially you're a thousand square feet over the threshold deeming the project a type one. So the historic nature was very important in that determination. And the high school doesn't have that same, the Scarcell High School doesn't have that same designation? The high school does not. Okay. Other questions? not for

197me okay thank you thanks very much thank you very much to steve you know with the the kind of evolving scope of work this has been a you know a process we were waiting to kick off and and steve and his team including ken at bbs you know they've accelerated that process for us based on the the determinations from the last meeting so we appreciate that work thank you okay and i'm delighted to invite ann marie nee to the podium to discuss our spring and summer sti courses Thank you good evening everyone I'm very proud to present to you the courses that were proposed and approved by the accreditation committee We have our spring courses run from March to June and our summer courses July and August and This listing of courses is really a

198testament to teachers who are willing to go above and beyond both the teachers who coordinate classes I really think it says a lot when somebody wants to step up and teach their colleagues a class. It's kind of an entirely different experience and for some people kind of pressure filled. And then of course the teachers who take these courses. Each of these courses requires a minimum number of participants. So folks really take them because they're interested and they're willing to be lifelong learners even over the summer. Every course satisfies one of the district pillars of learning, living, and leading. And it's very difficult to put many of these courses into one category because they really satisfy all three. And so on the cover page, there's a listing of the new courses that were proposed. And then

199there's a packet for the spring courses and summer courses. So I'm happy to answer any questions either tonight or by email. And I want to thank also everyone on the Board of Education for your support and also the support of all of our administrators in central office. The STI really can't operate without the partnership of all of the offices in central office, without our building administration and the leadership that it takes to encourage teachers to take on this endeavor. So thank you. Thank you very much. My question is, are you taking any ride-alongs for the Saratoga tour? It's a beautiful part of the state families from around there That's why I'm asking And it's exciting that there's a course connected to the semi-sesquicentennial is that right? Yeah and there's possibly more to come to in

200the fall so Thank you Thank you all have a good night So this will come back next meeting Thank you Ann Marie Thanks gentlemen appreciate it And next is legislative ad yeah okay so I think we have a draft letter that we sent around and it was a committee of Suzy Hahn and myself and Leah Dembitzer who worked on this and really Suzy doing the lion's share of the work with some input and really spectacular work that was done. In fact, I think I might turn it over to Susie just to talk about the letter that she mostly wrote. But, I mean, we had a few meetings about what should be in it, and I think it sort of sets forth a vision of advocacy for us like this year. And you want to talk

201about it, Susie? Sure. Well, thank you, Jim. I guess to recap for the community, as Jim mentioned, one of our board goals set at the beginning of the school year is around advocacy. And to that end, we have a little working group to present for information and discussion today what the board might consider as legislative advocacy priorities for this budget season. In preparing this rough draft of a letter to Senator Shelley Mayer, we considered largely the work being done by regional and state associations such as Westchester Putnam School Board Association and the New York State School Board Association. We have studied the governor's budget and then have attended both lower Hudson Education Council's legislative forum on January 29th and NISPA's live virtual capital conference this past Friday. That's why I missed the PTC legislative breakfast,

202which I was sad to miss. To understand the issues that face New York State public schools and hear perspectives from different districts and stakeholders. From these conversations and after studying the various advocacy platforms out there, we have adopted and adapted those points that seem to us like it would have the biggest impact to Scarsdale. In the coming weeks, Westpud is hosting virtual roundtables with our legislators and we will get a chance to present them with our collective thoughts on various topics. Broadly under the topics of foundation aid and safe harmless, capital projects, operations and budgeting, and local control. Through this work, we hope to highlight legislative and budget priorities that are critical to sustaining high quality public education and long term fiscal stability in our district. So I don't know if we want to go

203over the main points, we don't have to read every word of this letter. But some of the themes that we heard this year so far are around Foundation Aid, people are obviously happy to see Foundation Aid funded and Save Harmless preserved this year. Unlike last year that saw an increase, a minimum increase of 2% this year, the governor's proposal has a 1% increase in Save Harmless. And given that we're still in an inflationary environment, I think there's some talk of advocating for a little bit more than that, 2% or 3% in there. I think... at the LHEC meeting. I think it was a little bit of a surprise to the legislators, but I think they quickly understood where we were coming from as districts. So many of our districts in our state are in safe

204harmless. I think it was 60 to 70% of the districts in the state. So to me that says two things. That the foundation aid formula still needs to be looked at. There has been efforts to revise the formula, but I think we in the past have advocated for special education, for example, to be taken out and for the Rockefeller. suggestions to be looked at more carefully. Us being where we are in the state and the regional costs are higher here than upstate. These things make a difference in foundation aid and things like that. So you can read the letter, some of the things that we put in as things that we would like to advocate for. In terms of safe harmless, again, that we would hope for something a little bit higher than 1%. I

205don't know if. maybe Andrew or Drew have insight as to like how that conversation might be going out there but that's where we are with that it's really listening phase right now so much so I'm not I don't have much of a read on on that other than you know the one house work is underway I don't know if my fellow board members have comments or questions on that section As far as capital projects, operations and budgeting, the big kind of top line news story for the governor's proposal was a big push in UPK funding and a mandate potentially. And it was actually received very well by most of the people in the groups that I was in. Looking at it, you know, at first glance, it looks like it for us, it could be

206another, you know, unfunded or unfully funded mandate, which could be problematic for us. I think a lot of other districts in the state can accommodate a UPK program because, you know, they might see declining enrollment and have room in their buildings, or they might have local programs that they can easily send their four-year-olds to that, you know. would be within the $10,000 per pupil allotment that the governor is proposing. I did a quick look on the computer. Some of our most popular programs around here are over $20,000. I think the mandate does call for anybody who asks for it in a couple of years. And I think they've mandated five hours a day, so even a half day wouldn't work. I don't really know what they want to say about like space because that could

207be obviously a problem. Who would be staffing these things? Would it have to be a certified person or a local program? I think they suggested those two and also potentially a BOCES alternative which I didn't really understand but would we have to transport students? BOCES is pretty far from here. I don't know if that's realistically an option. So that's going to be a tough one, I think, for us because I think a lot of districts out there are really excited about this. And obviously, four-year-olds having access to education is important. So it's not that we don't believe in that, but it could be a lot of money for us potentially. So I think in the letter we said that we understand that this proposal is developing, and we'll be watching it carefully. But I do

208think that it's important that our legislators know that there are districts that wouldn't be fully covered by this. The next point was on zero emission buses, which Andrew talked about tonight. So I don't even know if... how we feel about this as a group if we are moving forward with this. But it did seem like many people on these calls were advocating for either support financially or a delay in the mandate. I think a lot of people felt like the buses are not only very expensive still, I think people were hoping that the prices would come down by now, but that they're very hard to source. Somebody quoted something like there's a wait list of like 4,000 for a bus. And the grants obviously don't exist anymore to purchase them. So I don't know. I

209don't know how we feel about that if we would want a delay, you know to advocate for support or No, maybe we're handling it. I don't know. Do we want to keep it in? That's what I'm asking you guys We feel like we're on track or do we want to say something about? You know external sources of funding like being available. I don't think I kind of think flexibility is the only practical option that you know as a chance of having successfully being successfully heard because There just isn't the availability and the source is not there and the money's not there So I mean, you know, I think the flexibility to you know comply with the mandate like that Has to be it has to be adjusted or stricken. I don't know if it's gonna

210be stricken I haven't heard there's an appetite for streak striking it entirely But I think adjusting the timeline is something we want to advocate for Is that what everybody thinks? Thank you. And the last in this section is regarding the property tax cap. Approximately 92% of a Scarborough School budget is funded by the tax levy. Given that the property tax cap was enacted over 13 years ago, the board would strongly encourage a review of the formula and would advocate for common sense updates that reflect present day economic realities. Modernizing the tax kept formula with regard to pilots, which I realize right now we don't really have, but you don't know about the future. To account for student enrollment increases and to allow for carryover would help Scarletdale to fairly balance the needs of our students

211with our judicious fiduciary obligations. Wait, did I skip one on building aid? Yeah, building aid. Yes, sorry about that. Sorry, Andrew. On building aid, the way building aid is treated now is the classrooms are treated differently than other spaces in our schools. And over the years, we've all seen that our school buildings have evolved to meet the modern day needs of our students. We provide a lot more services than we used to. Safety and security has become a much bigger part of. managing a school building, mental health resources, you know, all of those things, that costs a lot of money and should be treated equally with classrooms. And his input on some of this as well, that additional building aid adjustments would include lifting the capital outlay threshold. And maybe you want to explain this

212a little bit. So it affects when we get our aid back, you know, the threshold level for that. So currently in law, projects of $100,000 or less are aided as a capital outlay project. You'd get that aid payment the following year. All of the projects that are aided are aided over an amortization schedule, sometimes 15 years long. The cost of construction has gone up so significantly in recent years, and the $100,000 thresholds, you really, with professional services related to it, it... Very little work can get done for that home So raising it to 250 has been an advocacy point for the lower Hudson business officials for quite some time to try to to quickly Have state aid follow From projects you're able to complete in one budget year. That's the gist of that How do

213those sound to people I wanted to ask first of all, thank you for working on this It's really well written. I did want to ask a question about the property tax cap. So I was curious as to, you listed to account for student enrollment increases. And were you anticipating student enrollment increases? And that's why you included it, because we haven't really seen that in our district happening. And I would actually be more concerned about our enrollment decreasing. And then if they put in something that put in a cap. formula based on enrollment, then it could actually lower. So I would not want to put that in, but I'm curious as to what the logic was behind it. It specifically referenced increases. I don't think people are looking for a decrease. Also, we are looking at

214freightway, right? So if we get more kids, we'd want the tax cap to reflect that. So it wouldn't, it would, you said there's nothing that would decrease the cap if our numbers went down. It wouldn't be based on enrollment. It would only increase if enrollment increased. That's what you're advocating for. Yeah. Okay. All right. I guess, I guess that's fine. And then what is to allow for carryover mean? So. Not that we do it, so we wouldn't know. But if you don't budget to the tax cap one year, let's say you have a million dollars left over, that you can bring it and add it to the cap the following year. So it just adds a little flexibility to your budgeting and makes it so that you can budget to true needs as opposed to

215like, oh, well, we have to get to the cap or that kind of thing. That's great. So, you know, I'll say that, you know, NSPAA did advocate for, you know, a minimum 2% tax cap rate. Didn't put it in there, but, you know, would be happy to hear what people think. Nowadays, 2% is like a no-brainer kind of thing, given our inflationary environment. But I'm old enough that I remember a time where interest rates were basically zero. So I'm a little hesitant to put in a number, minimum or maximum, to be honest with you. Yeah, I don't know that we need to do that. I just wanted to ask. I'm old enough to remember a time when interest rates were 10%. And that's in the savings account. Yeah. Just a point of clarification on the

216tax cap. There is a provision in the current law that there's carryover. I think the issue with the tax cap implementation was there was a determination made early on in its rollout that the carryover is based on one of the interim steps that I quickly went over, and what ends up happening is districts that think they are well below the cap because of all their exclusions end up not being below the cap. And in terms of that, carryover provision so it appears as though they leave money on the table every year because of the way that that's been rolled out so it is a valid request to advocate for that that reminds me though somebody else was talking about you know not having a um like having not being able to have a negative tax

217cap you know being something to advocate for as well um if we want to put that in i'd be happy to put that in i kind of forgot that one I just want to add quickly, have the groups advocated for like inflation adjusted tax caps in the past and how did that go? I didn't see that in NISPA's resolutions or advocacy priorities this year. I think by its nature. So the tax cap uses CPI, and that is the piece of the calculation. That is the actual cap. It's 2%, right, CPI or 2%, the lesser. So when CPI was down below 2, that was a lower cap. But when CPI was at 3.5%, 4%, 8%, it was capped at 2. And that's the way it was written to do that. So the inflation adjustment was there.

218It's just it's capped at 2%. My sense is just the organizations don't believe there's political will to mess with that. Yeah. I don't think anybody thinks that that's realistic to propose. Thank you for asking about that. Right. No, that's true. That's true. And the last, did I skip anything? No. Okay. Thanks. And the last main section is on local control. We've, as a board, always advocated for local control where possible. In terms of curriculum, and it's broadly worded, although legislation regarding curriculum generally carries commendable intentions, the board favors local control in most curriculum related matters. I think we feel that our faculty school community are best positioned to be responsive to our student learning needs and deliver an education that both aligns with the region's portrait of a graduate as well as scar's mission and

219motto of non-civi i think one you know consequence unintended of some of this legislation is the burdensome filings and the compliance of these laws can be overwhelming I think at times. I remember you showed me once the portal. The portal, yeah. It's incredible. And also, you know, laws have a long shelf life, right? So like, you know, if there's a law put on the books, they're not going to change it maybe for 10 plus years, right? So, and education evolves, you know, as we see, you know. So, you know, we generally want to keep curriculum out of, you know, the legal, you know, space as opposed to like with the regents or the New York State Education Department. And... Another point would be on the calendar. We just approved our calendar last week and every

220year we get a few emails asking about either a start date or an end date, but most often end date. There are programs out there. that because of our long end date, which we have no control over right now, you know, that our students can't take full advantage of, whether it's, you know, summer camps, jobs, or, you know, some kind of enrichment program, and those are important for our students to be able to participate in. So not that we would necessarily do that, but to have the, you know, the ownership of our calendar and to make those decisions ourselves is what's best for our students. I think that's something we wanted to put in there. And last but not least is charter schools. There has been a growth of charter schools in our region. It

221seems like as New York City has kind of reached a kind of satiation point. that some of these charter organizations are trying to move into Westchester. I think there's one in New Shell. I think there's one, a charter process happening now in Peekskill. And the way these things happen is, you know, there generally is no community input. There are two chartering organizations, and the one by SUNY is, you know, doesn't exercise the same. amount of rigor in terms of vetting and approving charters, which is of great concern to us. I think everybody knows, but if a child were to move from a local public school to a charter, the tuition that is assigned to a student in that local school district follows the child. So it can be really harmful to public schools and it's

222almost like an existential thing. So, you know, even though, you know, knock on wood, it's not something that hopefully we will see directly. I think it's – most of these things are things that would impact us directly, but this one I – because also you never know. Does that pretty much describe it? For an action item, would it, this letter? I mean, would we as a board of directors just sort of – I don't think we need to vote on it. I mean, you know, I can make – Do we just get consensus here that this is a good thing to go forward with as it's written? Are you signing it from the full board? Well, I think we talked about having the full board sign it including the student members although Adish is not

223here. If you're so inclined obviously. No, I'm comfortable signing it. I just wasn't sure since it wasn't signed. Yeah, I didn't want to make presumptions as to who would be signing it or how we would sign it. I would change that one word that I mentioned. Oh, yeah. Forceful. We'll change that. Okay, great. I think just to look at some of the things that I've heard as being kind of hot topics or themes that didn't make the letter in case somebody wants to propose it. Cybersecurity was one thing that people were talking about, but I kind of felt like that could be a local control issue, that we might want to look at that ourselves. I don't know. I don't know how you feel about it. I think our guiding principle was to try to

224avoid advocating for something that could become an unfunded mandate. Yeah, an unfunded mandate, and it's very unclear at this point what that would look like, you know, so kind of until we get more clarity on that to stay away from it. You know, the federal advocacy. We didn't address in this letter. Well, this letter is a senator mayor, but even in these calls I was surprised how how much they were talking about the federal, you know picture Which I guess recently sounds like it's been settled a bit. So maybe not as I think I can't remember I mentioned this last time but it the fiscal year 26 budget ended at left basically level funding maybe a total of 20 million dollars more for IDEA nationwide 20 million dollars more for title 1 nationwide So we

225were thinking about it as level funding for next year. And the last thing that they were talking a lot about was reserves flexibility. I know we talk about reserves a lot, but didn't make the list. I don't know if you would add to that. Going beyond the 4%. Yeah, that was more of a talk of going above the 4%, and then we thought how much can you hold on to of taxpayer money. Yes, there was that and then there was also just having more flexibility of being able to you know move money between funds like like we have that tax certiorari or whatever reserve that has a good amount of money and I don't think we've really drawn down on that much, you know if we should need it, you know kind of thing but

226like I said I didn't put it in the letter right now. Business officials have talked about this at length. unassigned fund balance cap at 4% is extremely different than other municipalities, which are over 10, some 20%. So just in context, it does seem like an undue burden on school districts. Now our budgets are generally bigger than those other municipalities, so that 4% represents a larger number often. But the flexibility and use of fund balance and the ability to go over 4% has been a perennial issue for school districts that are trying to plan long-term over the fiscal horizon. would you feel like we should put it in the letter or should we look at it next year I mean it's really up to the board if it's not an advocacy point that the board you

227know feels is compelling at this moment there's no sense in changing the letter but I think in the future we should keep keep a touchstone on that what would be would be the advocacy would it be to keep it at 4% or just advocate for flexibility Oh superintendents are advocating 10% 10% matching villages well I don't like that I was gonna say that makes me a little nervous honestly I haven't thought about that I don't know that I'd be comfortable signing something without thinking that through a little bit more so I would probably suggest pausing. I mean, we do have a fairly large budget, and 4% of our budget right now is not a trivial number. So I would want to be very thoughtful about what we're asking our taxpayers to pay now just so

228that we could have flexibility. So I would not. Part of the reason I didn't put in a letter, too, is just practically speaking, we don't have the ability to do that anyway right now. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. that's great they appreciate the work with that I guess we can move on to gift proposals yes so the we have three gift proposals in excess of $1,000 so they're here as information items before coming back to you at the next meeting as action items potentially the first is transportation support for a number of field trips as per our conversation last time for Edgewood and the amount of two thousand five hundred ninety one dollars The second one is a Fox Meadow Elementary author visit to launch second-grade passion projects in the amount of $1,700.

229And the third one is a Fox Meadow field trip to Saxon Woods Mini Golf Course for $1,092. And, of course, we're appreciative, very appreciative to our PTAs for their support of these gifts. I just lumped them together. Any questions about any of them? Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry. I do have a quick question. just talking about the lumping you know when we see all these you know please the gift from Fox Meadow gift from Fox Meadow things like for example using Fox Meadow as a brief example has there been any thought to kind of grouping the gifts in our agenda by school when there's more than one I know you would want to pay close attention to each does everything have to be a separate action item not necessarily haven't thought about that we could

230honorating just technically can talk about that the we get separate checks like that's one way to say it so I think I don't know if that would have a business office impact I mean I don't think what I think more it's it's the practical kind of nature that these gifts are coming in they're coming in as they're approved individually and sometimes they may look at like there's a group of them on the board agenda but they may have been multiple kind of individual submissions I'm a strong proponent if the board wishes for us to Collect those and try to do them all you know in one big thing because there's there's a lot of I think administrative burden on the building principles and you know So I think if there's some improvements there we can

231think more about it and come back with a suggestion perhaps You know the way we see it now especially with the field trips and everything that we have in there that maybe some more There's a more streamlined way to do it. That's still transparent and having us think about each gift. I don't know. Thank you. Okay I'm ready to move on to item 10. That's an action item for the CEQA resolution. I think that's Susan. I move that the board accept the following resolution. Resolve that the Board of Education adopts the CEQA resolution as presented below. Is there a second? Amber? Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. That motion carries. And now we're on to section 11. gifts I believe the first gift is Leah Thank You Jim I move that

232the board adopt the following resolution resolve that the board accepts with thanks the gift of $7,700 for a fifth grade trip to the tenement museum as presented in the attached letters is there a second amber in discussion all those in favor please say aye aye that motion carries with thanks the next one is Laura move that the board adopt the following resolution resolved that the board accepts with thanks the gift of one thousand four hundred and seventeen dollars for a fourth grade field trip to Phillipsburg Manor as presented in the attached letters is there a second well yeah thanks any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye that motion carries with thanks the next one is Bob I move that the board adopt the following resolution resolve that the board accepts with thanks

233the gift of $2,800 to fund a three-week third grade social dance program as presented in the attached letters thank you Bob is there a second Okay, thank you are all those in favor. Please say aye. Aye That motion carries with thanks The next one is amber. Thank you, Jim I move that the board adopt the following resolve that the board accepts with thanks the gift is $600 for a speaker presentation for kindergarten and first grade students for the 2025-26 school year as presented in the attached letters Thank you. Amber. Is there a second? Thank you Susie all those in favor. Please say aye okay that motion carries with thanks next one is Leah thank you I move that the board adopt the following resolution okay resolve that the board accepts with thanks the gift of

234two thousand three hundred twenty two dollars and thirty seven cents for k5 teacher grants as requested by classroom and specialty teachers and described in the attached letters okay thank you Leah is there a second Thank you, Laura. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The motion carries with thanks. The next one is Laura. I move that the board adopt the following. Resolved that the board accepts with thanks the gift of $1,349.97 to purchase three mixers that will be used in the FACS 8 class as presented in the attached letters. Thank you Laura is there a second Thank You Amber all those in favor please say aye aye that motion carries with thanks we're back again to Leah Thank You Jim I move that the board adopt the following resolution resolve that the board accepts

235with thanks the gift of $460 to support a food tasting lesson as described in the attached letters Thank You Leah is there a second Thank you Amber. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. That motion carries with thanks and we are now we're now back to Bob. Okay. I move that the board adopt the following resolution. Resolve that the board accepts with thanks the gift of approximately $44,950.54 to $39,150. and 54 cents to purchase a Nevco scoreboard, Butler Field, and $5,800 for the installation of the scoreboard as described in the attached letters. okay Bob thank you very much is there a second Thank You Laura all those in favor please say aye aye that motion carries with thanks and now we are up to amber again thanks Jim I move that the board adopt

236the following resolved that the board accepts with thanks the gift of approximately three thousand eight hundred dollars for transportation costs for a fifth grade field trip to the Jackie Robinson Museum further details are provided in the attached letters Okay thank you. Amber is there a second? Thank You Suzy. All those in favor please say aye. Aye. That motion carries with thanks and now we have Suzy for the last one. Thank you Jim. I move that the board accept the following resolution. Resolved that the board accepts with thanks the gifts totaling $11,169 to cover the transportation costs associated with the field trips presented in the attached letters. thank you susie is there a second thank you amber all those in favor please say aye aye that motion carries with thanks and we are now up to

237item 12 which is um our second public comment of the evening um skip the preamble and just we'll ask the question if anyone in the audience wishes to make a live public comment at this time don't believe that is the case how about on zoom we have one hand raised hey how are you um Sorry, it's so late, but I just have a couple questions on the SECRA process. The first one was just reading the resolution. There was something about a 30-day. Christian Callahan, 173 Webster Road. So, yeah, I have two questions on the SECRA. The first one, the resolution says there's a 30-day review period. before the lead agency is declared. I was just wondering if that has any impact to the proposed schedules of approvals and everything else moving on. And then secondly,

238is the SECRA type one action viewed holistically as in all the schools and the fields are grouped into one thing? So if, for instance, the middle school turf fields have an environmental impact, will that have an impact across the board in terms of approvals or positive declarations or however the secret works? Those are the two questions. There's no one else on Zoom. Okay, thanks. I guess we're now up to response to public comment. So the seeker process as it stands right now will keep us on schedule. So we do not anticipate an issue with meeting our March 16th deadline for the board to adopt a resolution. In terms of the determination on the seeker resolutions. based on the professional experience of BBS as well as Aris contracting our attorneys and the environmental consultants We do

239not anticipate that the proposed scope of work will generate a negative environmental impact that cannot be addressed through the the requirements of projects so we anticipate that Again, we will stay on schedule, and the project is viewed as a whole at the moment for the bond authorization purposes. So I guess if there was a major issue with any one of those items, it would end up being a holdup for the whole project, but we don't anticipate that. Thank you. And with that, I guess we're up to wrap-up items or meeting dates, whichever one. Yep, I think we're good. Okay so our upcoming meeting dates our next meeting is it's not until Monday March 2nd I'm going to miss you guys. We'll have a special meeting executive session, if needed, at 6 p.m. in this room,

240followed by budget study session number two and a business meeting at 6.30 p.m. in this room. Then on Monday, March 16th, budget study session number three at 6.30 in this room. And Monday, March 23rd, special meeting executive session, if needed, at 5.30 in this room. Budget forum, business meeting at 6.30 in this room. In case you do miss us, come to the library on Wednesday at 7 o'clock and there'll be a Scarsdale Forum where we'll be discussing the state of the school. So there's really no need to miss us at all. So with that, motion for adjournment. Aaliyah, thank you. Is there a second? Susie, thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay, we're adjourned.