BOE Business Meeting 2025-4-7

001Good evening. I call this audit committee meeting to order and note that all board members are present except Ron Schulhoff who could not be here tonight. We are joined by Superintendent Dr. Patrick and members of his administrative cabinet. Welcome to all those who are joining us this evening either in the audience, on the live stream, or via Zoom. At this time, would anyone like to make a motion to appoint Honorary Adams Secretary Pro Tem? Thank you, Leah second Thank You amber all those in favor. Please say aye the ayes have it and the motion carries The time is 631. Thank you Next item on the agenda is item 3.0 3 the internal auditors report and risk assessment update So I'd like to invite to the podium Demetrius bent alaskas who's our partner from? performed their

002second now audit of our general district procedures this is the risk assessment update and as part of his report to me to make recommendations on where our in-depth audit will potentially be for the coming school for the current school year districts you know we are mandated to conduct an annual risk assessment and also a cycle review a deep dive in one functional area So for 24-25, you know, we have completed the risk assessment, which it is the report provides information about the district's risk profile. And it provides the administration and the board and the audit committee with information about, you know, where are the risk areas and also recommendations of how to improve overall internal controls, procedures, and, you know, performance and efficiencies. So the objective was to assess low, moderate, and high risk areas

003and also to develop the internal audit plan for the remaining part of this fiscal year. A quick education about what the risk ratings are. We have three types of risk ratings. We have high, moderate, and low risk ratings. High risk means that absent of any controls, any policies, any oversights, there's going to be a high risk that something may go wrong or somebody get paid incorrectly. So we're looking for the opposites. We're looking for a low-risk control environment where there is checks and balances, there are procedures in place, the reports are reflecting accurate payments. That reflects that the district is complying with its purchasing policies. So to do this risk assessment, we look at various business process categories. There are 21 in total. Each one business process category has sub controls that we assess. There

004are 92 in total. So you can see that our risk assessment is an in-depth analysis of the district's internal controls. That involves areas within the business office and also outside. And these areas that we have included in our risk assessment and internal audit plan is developed over the years through inquiries that come from school districts and also from other audits that we have seen from the State Controller's Office. So we do these risk assessments by meeting with the key personnel that are responsible for the above business processes and departments. And we have listed in our executive summary the individuals that we met, such as your superintendent of schools, your superintendent for business, but also like your directors, like your director of facilities, your director of technology, your district treasurer, and also individuals that have hands-on

005involvement with the internal controls. So not only like, you know, we meet with people who supervise an area, but also we meet, you know, with people who, you know, know more about the reports or, you know, the requirements. So we also looked at certain documents, and we have listed a sample of those in our executive summary. That list of document requests is shared with the business office, with the district, well in advance. And we thank the district for being forward with us and providing the records that we requested for assessments. That's very helpful because not only it helps us assess the controls, but it also helps. when we do the interviews, when we have the conversations with the individuals to assess what are these records and how they utilize them. As part of the process

006in our risk assessment, we take into consideration certain variables. But most importantly, because this is an update, we want to make sure if there's any changes from one year to the next, whether those changes have affected the internal controls, whether there's still oversight, whether there's still adequate controls processing certain transactions within your system. And also we look at prior audit reports, and we want to continue looking at the implementation status of those recommendations. So in our executive summary, we also, on the second page, we show the results of our risk assessment. And I want to start with the first table that we have, and it shows the risk ratings, high, moderate, and low, and also shows in two consecutive years the trends. The first thing that I want you to know is we have zero

007high risk ratings in two consecutive years. So that's a very positive sign about the district's internal controls. Another positive sign is that the moderate ratings have decreased from 27 in 23-24 to 23 in 24-25. And also the low risk ratings increased from 65 to 69. So all these trends show, again, a positive risk profile for the district. And also, as I said, we look at the prior year recommendations and the district's corrective action plan and assess the implementation status. So in our initial risk assessment, we have 12 recommendations. and we're happy to see that the district is taking action. So we see two of them complete and the remaining ones are in process. So I just want to pause here for a second because the number of recommendations that we have in our initial risk

008assessment, they are reasonable from our experience with other school districts. When we do our initial risk assessments, they're typically high. high in number but you know as we go throughout the years they reduce you know and the risk ratings you know become better and better so the fact that we have these positive trains and the fact that the district is working on our recommendations you know as your internal auditors we feel confident that you're moving in the right direction So I'm moving down further in the executive summary where we see the summary of ratings and recommendations. So here it's a little bit more detailed where we see all the 21 business processes. And then we have the risk rating columns, low, moderate, and high. So again, we have 69 low risk ratings. That's like 75%

009of the 92 areas that we looked at. We have 23 moderate ratings and zero high risk ratings. And we also have three new recommendations. And those three recommendations pertain in the cybersecurity area. The recommendations pertain to conducting an independent analysis of compliance assessment of the district's controls surrounding the EDLO 2D and the NIST framework. So we highly recommend that. We understand that the AT department is working to implement controls to comply. But having an independent assessment is important because it helps the IT team to develop a roadmap of where they are currently, what are the gaps, and how to implement recommendations to close those gaps. We also recommend... And again, it's part of the EDLA and the NIST framework requirements to develop comprehensive data classification policies and procedures so we identify, you know, where the

010data is, you know, within the various systems, within the network, and who handles and manages, you know, that data. And one other important control, you know, we believe, you know, the district should implement controls and prevent end users in saving files on their desktops and direct them to a more secure or on the network where the data backup procedures are in place. If you save things on your desktop and God forbid something happens, it's hard to retrieve those records. So as an outgrowth of the risk assessment, you know, we recommend, you know, areas to develop the internal audit plan for the remaining part of this fiscal year. So as a selection, you know, for the audit committee, you know, we propose to look at either one of the four areas. The first one that we

011have on the list is the health insurance benefits. Then we also recommend, you know, to look at the employee leave accruals. look at cyber security and again and the last one sorry is to look at the scars they'll teacher institution you know But this is our recommendations, and I'm here suggesting those, but as your internal auditors, we're open to suggestions coming from the audit committee. We'd like this to be a collaborative approach. If you have any ideas or any thoughts or any concerns, we'd like to know so we can include it in our internal audit plan. Any questions? Thank you for your presentation and for your summary. And actually, you started going to where my question was originally. So in the executive summary, you have the results and you sort of notice that we're on

012the trend down in terms of risk. Is there a target that we're looking for? I mean, are we trying to get everything down to low or to zero? Like, is there something we're going towards or are we just trending in the right direction and you just want to continue to trend down? So that depends on, like, you know, the audit committee's risk tolerance. That's kind of like what we like to say in our audit world. As your consultant, we like to see these controls to be as low as possible. If we can achieve a 92 low risk ratings, that will be fantastic. We like to see that. But it will take time. So is there a goal? to reduce as much as possible those risk ratings? Yes. Is there a goal when? That's where it

013all depends. It depends on some of these recommendations are not going to be implemented from one day to the next. It takes time, and that depends on resources and the systems in place. So it's a collaborative coordination amongst various parties to achieve them as fast as possible. Okay, thank you. That's helpful. Sorry. Sorry. Thank you, Leah. Just a question. In terms of the way you look at the risk assessment, Does any part of what you look at I know you've got other school districts that you work with you consider where scars don't fits in where you know in terms of the the scope of Where where we sit with our risk assessment whether we're middle low high Among the school districts that you have knowledge of so that's a good question and we like to

014hear those types of questions and assess where we are within our peers. I do want to say that having 69 out of the 92 is 75% low risk rating. It is, from our perspective and our experience, one of the best initial risk assessments in a two year period that we have seen. And again, Starting last year with our initial risk assessment and we only had 12 recommendations, that's something that puts Scarsdale in the... in the category of school districts that are well performing. And we strongly believe that Scarsdale will be, with our assistance and our guidance, achieving that 75% to higher numbers, like 85%, very soon. So, comparatively to other school districts, I believe, you know, Scarsdale is, like, you know, well-positioned and, you know, definitely has, you know, the right guidance, you know, from,

015you know, the administrative team to, like, implement good controls. Thank you. I have two questions, and maybe they're related. Number one is, were there one or two areas that we went from, like, low to moderate? And I wonder if you could extrapolate on that a little bit. And also, are there any areas that give you more concern than others or not? Like cybersecurity, I know you mentioned, is something to watch or think about as one of your recommendations. But is there something in general in auditing that you find potentially troublesome or concerning, something to watch more closely? Okay, yeah. So to answer your first question, There were a couple areas that we increased from low to moderate, and that was actually just one, and that was in the area of employee attendance. And that's one

016of the areas that we also recommend to do a more deep dive to have a better understanding of. Whether employee attendance is consistently tracked among the buildings and the administration and bargaining units, and then are we accurately tracking the employee leave accruals within your new financial application system? I think that's something where we believe needs improvement and making sure that there is consistency in place. Now, to answer your second question about areas that, you know, based on our assessment, you know, with all the interviews and the document collection, this is, you know, the four areas that, you know, we suggest to the audit committee to select, you know, one. I feel like, you know, health insurance benefits is important to look at just to make sure that Sorry, your benefits of employee enrollment is accurate,

017and it's reflected not only on your system, your financial application system, but it's also reconciling to what your insurance carriers are. So it's more of like in order to make sure that the process is correct because it is one of the biggest items in your budget. after a payroll. So you're making sure like all the claims are accurate, the benefits, payments are accurate. That's what you wanna consider, especially right now we're in a budget season. It will help the administration team to make decisions about the future. So now the other one is cybersecurity. It's always a hot topic for a lot of school districts. If you look at state controls audit reports, information technology and cybersecurity is one of those audits that they look at. Now, we strongly recommend, and that's why we have it

018as a recommendation, to look at this area as doing this gap analysis or an independent assessment. It provides a very good roadmap of where the district needs to be. From our assessments, School districts have made efforts to comply with the LO2D that it was enacted back in 2020. So like we're like four or five years after that so we should be implementing those controls, you know. And an assessment is the one tool that can help the IT team identify what's missing, have the conversations, you know, with the business office and get to the support, you know, from the board and the voters, you know, to help them with their budget because that's what we see with a lot of IT teams. Like, you know, they're lacking resources and they need, like, you know, support. So

019it helps, you know, if, you know, the board knows exactly what those risks are and what are those resources that they need. Thank you for preparing this audit, and thank you also to Andrew and Lisa and their team for cooperating with the audit. It is gratifying to see that we are moving in the right direction in terms of the audit. And thank you for walking through these potential cycle reviews. I don't know if the board wants to start a discussion as to which one we might prefer to have our auditor look at next year. I know I have my thoughts, but I would like to open it up. Okay. Amber? Sure. I'm happy to start. I think Demetri shared something this evening about employee attendance in terms of moving from a low to a moderate

020risk. which is concerning to me, especially given in light of the trend that we see in all of the other areas. However, I do think that looking at our health insurance benefits might be a more pressing issue. So I think it's something I would probably lean towards the health insurance benefits, but I certainly want to keep my eye on the employee attendance because that's... that's something that's trending in the wrong direction in terms of risk and and so I think that you know not that we can say what we might study in the future but I think that's something as a board we may want to continue to keep an eye on so that's that's where I stand right now thank you Amber anyone else Leah so it's one area per year like per cycle

021that you focus on or is it more than that's what we budgeted for is one one per year okay so and you'd be looking at This current year? Yes. So I agree with Amber. I think the health benefits is probably the most pressing issue, especially since we have those high costs, and it's very concerning for our budgeting process. I'm still interested in other areas as well. So hopefully, well, maybe they'll come back next year. But I think the cybersecurity was a big one, and I think they're bringing that also to our attention. Colleen? Thank you for this. We touched on the three of the four. I'm just curious why you added on at the end the STI policies as one of your areas that you would recommend for consideration. For the Scarsdale Teacher Institute? Yeah.

022Yeah, we know it's an organization, and it's the Scarsdale students and the programs. We just want to know that. the communication between the Scarsdale Teacher Institute and the district and any related payments are following their policies and procedures. And we know it's a valued organization and it's been assisting the district for many years. We just wanna be part of another set of eyes of looking the controls and making sure that we are following those policies and any agreements that are entered between the two organizations. Thank you, that's helpful. Yeah, I tend to agree with Amber, I think at this point. we really need to just focus on the health care but leaving the the employee attendance kind of in the back of our minds and maybe the district should just continue to keep an eye

023on that thank you sure so I see the the four here and I'm just wondering From a review cycle point of view are they equal in terms of level of effort to accomplish them? I personally feel that That the health insurance is a priority but Intuitively, I'm thinking well You know, could you do two if they're you know if one one takes X hours and some of the others take less hours whether you could I'm just trying to understand, you know, as we're sitting here in terms of trying to select one, if that's, you know, our goal here, whether, you know, how that would work, whether one is. So the way we have, the way we selected these areas is based on a risk-based approach. Right. the way we are performing these audits, we are

024scoping them based on our agreed budget with the district. And those include the number of hours, that includes document collection and interviews and analysis and report. When we're going to look at health insurance benefits, you know, we have drafted an audit program, you know, that covers, you know, the risk areas that we believe. Okay. You know, as I said before, like enrollment eligibility, the claims, the payments, and that stuff. So it takes time, you know, to review all those records and select a sample that is representable, you know, for us to, like, you know. assess you know those controls okay and so if I was not gonna like you know select an adequate sample and I'm trying to do less hours here I don't think the report will give you the information that you need

025for the district to know more about this area. And all the other areas still need time to look at. Cybersecurity, that's a big area. I don't know if in the budget that we have we will be able to split into two areas. Yeah, I'm not saying, yeah, I just wanted to understand whether, you know, if you have, whether from your experience, whether the levels of effort are comparable. If they are, they are. I'm not saying they're not. Yeah, yeah. And I'm happy to give you more details. It's just that health intuitively seems more complicated than the STI question, but maybe I'm wrong. But I all that said I would put my vote on the health insurance because I think long term that's going to be the one of the bigger areas that we need to

026Yeah, I also agree with prioritizing health insurance benefits reconciliation given the issues we were having That are impacting our budget this year on that on that category Personally, I think cybersecurity would be the next priority to focus on because... The potential for serious economically consequential adverse impact I think is great in that area even though we fortunately have not had anything happen in that regard so far and we have to knock on wood. But to the extent we have weaknesses there, I think it would be critical, although maybe less critical than the healthcare insurance to understand that. I agree. All these areas they recommend, they're all good areas. So it's hard to prioritize which ones we want. So we try to help you like putting them in order. Thank you. I agree with my fellow

027board members that although these are all great topics to analyze, I would have to agree that health insurance benefits reconciliation would be my priority as well. Thank you in advance for your work for that. Just to explain to the community, the whole board serves as the audit committee for our board of education. Some other school districts do it differently. But a few years ago, we decided that our whole board was going to be on the audit committee. So thank you so much. Is there anybody else who would like to ask a question? Yes. I just share with the risk assessment update there were three recommendations included in the report itself and all three of them were in the area of cybersecurity and two of those three are already in the process of being implemented by

028Jeannie Crowley and the technology team so I want to give credit where credit's due. There's a lot of positive work being done in technology. The third one is something that based on a risk-based analysis the district has chosen not to adjust our internal procedures for this because we believe that the scope is of lower risk than... maybe in other districts so that third recommendation is we're basically gonna not implement choose not to implement that we have other controls in place to help it's the ability for staff to save and retrieve documents on their personal I should note my corrective action plan is also attached to this agenda item that has that listed and with that we could move on to an action item 4.01 and I believe this is Amber thank you thank you so

029much And thank you, Suzy. I move that the Audit Committee accept the following. Resolved that the Audit Committee accepts and recommends that the Board of Education accepts the Internal Auditor's Report Annual Risk Assessment Update pertaining to the internal controls of district operations and the corrective action plan as presented. Thank you, Amber. Is there a second? Thank you, Leah. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it, and the motion carries. Thank you. And with that, if there isn't anything further, I'd like to ask if anyone would like to make a motion to adjourn this audit committee meeting. Thank you, Colleen. Second? Thank you, Amber. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Thank you. The motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you. Do we need a minute before we start

030the business meeting? Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Should we keep going or do people need a break? Okay. All right. Let's keep going. Good evening. I'd like to call this business meeting to order and note that all board members are present with the exception of Ron Schulhoff who could not be here with us this evening. We are joined by Superintendent Dr. Patrick as well as members of his administrative cabinet. Welcome to those in the audience who have joined us this evening or are tuning in on our live stream or via Zoom. Earlier this evening, the board met with Scarsdale High School student representatives. This meeting is an opportunity for the board to hear directly from our students, and we appreciate the thoughtful and candid conversation during these meetings. The board heard from

031the students on four topics. The community lunch pilot, the rolling grade book and grading transparency, students and personal electronic devices, the draft policy, and the ex officio student member of the Board of Education. Thank you to the student representatives for their thoughts and feedbacks on these topics, as well as the many students who have reached out to the board with their articulate and thoughtful feedback for us, especially during this budget season. Any student should always feel welcome to reach out to the board on board-related matters. You can always reach us at boardofed at scarsdaleschools.org. And just prior to this board meeting, the board met as the audit committee to hear from our internal auditors, Naraki Smith, regarding their risk assessment report. We also received a correction action plan for identified items. The audit committee voted

032to accept and recommend that the Board of Education accept the internal auditor's report and the annual risk assessment update pertaining to the internal controls of district operations and the corrective action plan as presented. Both the audit risk assessment report and the corrective action plan are included on the budget's agenda as action items later on this evening. Thank you very much, Susie. I appreciate it. Good evening. Welcome. I add my welcome to those joining us in person here in the room and online. Tonight it's with a heavy heart. I'll start my update with the news that we shared earlier today of the unexpected death of Julia Quek, a Heathcote first grade teacher, as the result of an accident at home. While we do not have further details at this time, we are grieving her loss. Julia

033joined us in the 2023-24 school year as a special education teacher at IHM, serving students who attend that school and receive services from the district. She began as an ICT teacher this school year as part of the first grade Heathcote team. Julia and her co-teaching partner, Deborah Rubin, provide a warm, nurturing, supportive environment for students as they've developed throughout this year. Julia leaves behind a loving husband and two young children. This is a heartbreaking loss for her family and for her students, the staff, and our parents and the community at large. As I mentioned, we did send messages earlier today to both the Heathcote and the broader parent community to share the news and to encourage anyone in our school community to access support if they or anyone they know is struggling. We extend our

034deepest sympathy. to Julia's family and her loved ones, to her students, her Scarsdale family. I ask everyone to join me just for a brief moment of silence. Thank you. Next, having previously updated the Board of Education, I want to update the community about two payment penalties we received from the IRS. In November, we were made aware of an IRS penalty in the amount of 2% of payroll, or $3,900.90. for the third quarter of 2024 imposed on the district due to processing the july 15th payrolls federal taxes one day late the late payment was a consequence of a misunderstanding in our business office of the semi-weekly depositor rule temporary change in our process associated with the transition to envision on july 1st meant we submitted our payment to the irs according to the semi-weekly depositor rule

035What we didn't realize was that due to the amount of our taxes, this rule didn't apply. Rather, the next day deposit rule applied. Unfortunately, it took the IRS four months to notify us of this error. And while we corrected our procedure immediately upon notification, we learned in February that a second payment from October prior to the notification about the July payment was also one day late. This resulted in the second 2% penalty totaling $25,148.15. Again, the process was corrected immediately in November, but we did not realize a second late payment had occurred in October. In both cases, we immediately remitted the full penalty to the IRS as required and filed the necessary paperwork to request a refund of these penalties. We consulted tax counsel, and we await a response from the IRS. Turning to student

036news. I'm happy to share that the Scarsdale High School math team had another stellar performance at the annual New York State Math League Championships. This year it was held in Chaminade High School in Mineola. This year's team finished in third place in Division A behind New York City and Nassau County. This was our first time competing in the A Division, having been in the B Division the past two years. Kevin Dong and Iris Wang were the highest scorers for our team in the individual round, both scoring 9 out of 10. Kenneth Wren won the Berman Rock Owl Award, given to students who've demonstrated outstanding leadership to their team. By all accounts, it was both a successful and fun day for our students. I want to extend thanks to Sam Greenberg for his coaching and to

037Anna Tomasini and Joe Garibaldi for supporting the students and chaperoning the event. I'm also delighted to share the results from the New York State Speech and Debate Championships as shared by advisor Joe Vaughn. We had 35 entries this year representing the 43 students that qualified for the tournament through successes earlier in the season. The students compete in eight different speech categories and two different debate categories. The tournament had 77 schools from across the state competing in over a total of 800 entries. On the speech side, Junior Leah Chu won the state championship in varsity oral interpretation of lit. Freshman Eva Lamer was the runner-up in the junior varsity extemporaneous speaking. Junior Esha Mehta was the runner-up in varsity oral interpretation of literature. Freshman Haley King was the runner-up in junior varsity oral interpretation of literature.

038Other students that reached the finals of their events included juniors Kate Simpson, Anish Mehta, Evie Schiff, and Elle Lee. Collectively, the speech squad earned enough points to be declared the champion team in the speech division of the competition. On the debate side, we saw similar successes. Freshmen Jacob Auerbach and Nathaniel Ng were semifinalists of Novice Public Forum debate. Sophomore Vic Tan was a semifinalist in Varsity Lincoln Douglas debate. Other debaters who again made it to the late elimination rounds were juniors Joyce Liu and Linda Zhang, sophomores Allison Andrade and Alina Peng, and freshmen Henry Chen and Iris Zhu. Through the combined efforts of both speech and debate, Scarsdale placed third overall in the team sweepstakes awards. So congratulations to that group of students. Amazing. As we approach spring break, we're starting to encounter some of

039the great end-of-year traditions that take place in Scarsdale. So, for example, as we sit here, the SHS Science Research Symposium is taking place upstairs in the little theater. Congratulations to all of our research students presenting their work this evening. This coming Friday is the annual student talent showcase Jabberfest and that's scheduled to take place in the auditorium. Andrew will give an update about that shortly. But our high school students will be the very first to enjoy the space both as performers and audience members as they attend. I'd like to extend a public thank you to Andrew Lennon, our facilities team, Mike Patera, Nick Ferraro, and John Antonacelli, Ken Bonamo and the high school's administrative team, Dr. David Graybill, our theater director, our partners at BBS. it's a really exciting moment coming up this week and

040then a formal ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on april 28th at 7 p.m in the lobby outside the space just prior to the high school orchestra and chamber ensemble spring performances and wrapping up important dates coming up starting with the evening of april 12th through the 20th will be passover our schools will be closed for spring recess from the 14th to the 18th that's next week Easter is celebrated on the 20th, Earth Day on April 22nd, and on April 24th, the holiday Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So those are ahead. Thank you so much. Thank you, Drew. Next on the agenda, 5.04, will be board member reports. Do we have any board member updates at this time? Leah. Thank you, Susie. So I am the

041liaison to the SAFE Coalition, so I'd like to make an announcement for their organization. The Scarsdale SAFE Coalition and its partners invite you to join them for their spring program entitled It Ends With Us, a film discussion, led by Scarsdale Family Community Services' own youth outreach workers. This program will explore the film's depiction of domestic violence and examine whether it gives the audience an accurate illustration of the complexities surrounding this topic. The program will be held at Scarsdale Public Library on Wednesday, April 30th at 7 p.m. and will be live streamed for community members who are unable to attend in person. All Scarsdale community residents age 13 and up are invited to attend. To register, you may visit the Scarsdale Public Library website. And for more information regarding the event, please contact SAFE Coalition Coordinator

042Millie Chatelaine. at mchatelaine at sfcsinc.org. Thank you. Thank you, Leah. It's me again. So on this evening's agenda, the board will notice that there's three resolutions related to our SECRA requirements, which is our State Environmental Quality Review Act. The resolutions include descriptions of the projects that are going to be undertaken in our 25-26 budget and declaring those projects as type 2 actions, which means there's no additional environmental impact reviews that are required. standard protocol for projects of this nature. You will notice that the projects included are the Fox Meadow playground that's in our transfer capital as well as the conversion of an athletic turf field, formerly grass field at the high school, as well as the electrification of our bus compound. This was done, it was added on Friday after consultation with our school attorney

043just to make sure that as these projects need to go. through approvals we wanted to make sure that this determination is on record so that was an ad on Friday to the agenda. And then as Drew stole my show. Jabberfest is Friday, and we're really excited about the space. I was in there this morning actually rocking out with some Led Zeppelin and some other music to see how the sound was working. I have to say the tuning curtains actually have an impact, so I'm really curious to see how that all works out once we get everything dialed in perfectly. There are certainly going to be some areas of improvement as we kind of break in the space, but we're really excited to have our kids. who I've seen late last week and earlier today kind

044of preparing the space for their peers to perform, and I think it's going to be a really exciting event on Friday, and I'm looking forward to hearing all the accolades for our students after that. I do have to take Dr. Patrick's lead and echo his thanks to the facilities team, who have been really impressive in this process, but also to the high school administration faculty, who have been very patient and very understanding as we've worked in and around their spaces throughout the last year or so. been it's been really impressive the amount of patients that they've shown so I think the high school team for all their their grace Thank you, Andrew. Just regarding the SICRA, so for the turf field addition, so that would look at any potential issues related to additional flooding or

045something that a turf would, you know, any stress it would put on our parking area. We still have to follow all of the environmental requirements and even historical building requirements that we would have at our spaces. So, yes, all of that will be looked at as part of a normal course of business. This just... makes it clear that this project is not going to require an additional kind of level of environmental scrutiny. Thank you, Andrew. I attended the student performance of Pride and Prejudice recently, which was amazing, and they were in the Little Theater. What they did with the space was incredibly creative, but I know they are so eager and excited to go back to the auditorium soon, so thank you so much for all your time. We were there last week, it looks

046amazing, the theater. And I think we weren't listening to Led Zeppelin, we were listening to jazz at the time. But it was very nice, it was very nice, thank you. Okay, next will be curriculum, Edgar, or did Drew wanna? Yeah, just getting to the right place. Thank you, Drew. Okay, so last Monday we had a highly productive superintendent's conference day at all three levels. At the elementary level, we gave the elementary educators an anonymous in-depth survey about Reveal math resources. Their responses will guide further adaptations, substitutions, professional development, and parent communications. We know community interest is high from the teacher survey from board comments and communications and we are responding with an upcoming elementary math focused parent survey for feedback to shape the content of parent workshops to be held at the elementary schools this

047spring. Next slide. At the middle level there was work in curricular alignment, a range of learning sessions, science curriculum collaboration and team cohesion work and some opportunities for event planning. At the high school, teachers followed up on work of the assessment committee and rolling grade book survey with time spent on community lunch plans and on department specific work. All educators across the district provided feedback on initial planning done to shift our annual professional performance review or APPR. within the new flexibilities provided by New York State. It gave Scarsdale educators a chance to weigh in on the values expressed in our revised plan and describe meaningful artifacts and observations that could be used as evidence. Here's a snapshot of the Padlet that we used to collect feedback. And finally, In preparation for an upcoming Tri-State Consortium

048visit, Scarsdale educators and specialists dedicated a portion of their time uploading assessments into a collection platform to address the guiding question, to what extent do our assessments align with our values as a community as defined through the strategic plan? And for those not familiar, the Tri-State Consortium is an educational benchmarking network of high-performing districts that provide collegial feedback to their memberships through professional visits. from the educators within the consortium and we look forward to their visit in May and the guiding information we'll gain. Thanks. Thank you, Edgar, for that update. We look forward to your May presentation. Okay. Next on the agenda, item seven, hearing from those present. This will be the first of two public comment sessions this meeting and I will read the public comment preamble. Members of the public are cordially invited

049to speak on district-related items or other non-personnel-related matters during two separate public comment periods. When it 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. This might be a good time to do that now. 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 boardofed at scarsdaleschools.org. The public 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

050its 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, I'd like to ask anybody in the audience if they'd like to come up to the podium and make a public comment. My name is Erica German I live at 24 Harvest Drive in Scarsdale and I'm speaking on behalf of myself this evening I was very excited to hear about the new student member of the Board of Education and just wanted to offer some feedback that I had about the selection process so one of the items in the proposed selection was that students must students applying students who will be selected for the position must reside in the district and my concern is that

051this will disqualify certain members of the student body specifically children of faculty members or students who may have lived in the district and then moved out for a variety of reasons and made tuition back in i understand that with an adult board member they are voting they're privy to personnel discussions and other private matters they pay taxes but that doesn't apply to the students so my concern is that from an inclusivity well-being belonging perspective you're creating a situation where there are distinct groups or classes of students some of whom don't fully belong in in the mix so I would just urge you to think about whether that is definitely a necessary requirement given the more limited scope of a student board members work thank you would anyone else like to make a public comment Hello,

052my name is Howard Weinberg. I live at 55 Corral Road in Scarsdale. I am representing both myself as a taxpayer resident of the village as well as a company called Green Jewels, which is an electric vehicle charging business that both my wife and I own and operate. junior in Scarsdale High School and a sophomore who is in college. As noted in the board meetings and emails that we received from the district, we know the district is considering or actually has purchased electric school buses and therefore will need to build out the infrastructure to support those. As taxpayers, we're concerned about the high cost of the proposal that the electric... of these school buses are. We believe that the infrastructure is massively oversized, both for the near, medium, and long-term needs of the school district. As

053I mentioned at the onset, as owners of Green Jewels, we are an electric vehicle charging network approved by NYSERDA, as well as the Joint Utilities of New York. We provide turnkey solutions to multifamily properties to... advise them and install electric vehicle charging stations to support the residents. But going to the proposal that the board is currently evaluating from Highland, we believe the board should seek secondary proposals as... When we reviewed the proposal, the cost is $814,000. Let me repeat that, $814,000. The way the current proposal is designed is it is an eight-year contract as a lease. district is going to be paying $32,000 to $35,000 per bus per year to pay for this upfront infrastructure, the electricity, the training, the maintenance, and the services. To put it into context, this translates to almost $5 per

054mile per bus on an expected 6,300 miles. That each bus is driven. Obviously the cost comes down as you add more buses But as taxpayers, you know, this seems like an astronomical amount of money That's almost ten times the cost of fueling gas vehicles as noted earlier Our company provides these similar services to multifamily landlords and HOAs we obtain all the grants and incentives from the state and would be able to we'd love to be able to help the board better understand this technology and we're happy to answer any questions that someone may have would anyone else like to make a comment my name is Casey Hogan I live at 32 Donnellan Road I'm just here talking for myself So first I'm here tonight as a mom of two. Given the purpose of my being

055here tonight, I'm going to focus on my fourth grade son, a neurodivergent child. Bear, that's his nickname, has an IQ of 146 and a diagnosed anxiety disorder called selective mutism that once left him speechless in school and now makes communicating through uncomfortable feelings a challenge. Each year has brought some real wins, but also come with its fair share of difficulties. Suffice it to say, navigating his education has not been easy. Second, I'm here as a teacher. I was a teacher and instructional coach in New York City from 2008 to 2025. I have so much respect for teachers. My personal understanding of this work has stopped me from providing feedback to the school and the district because I know the work is so hard and I want to assume that every educator is working to the

056best of their ability. But I'm here today to speak out and that is because I'm currently completing the first year of my PhD studies at the University of Connecticut in giftedness, creativity, and talent development. Between my experience as a mother, a teacher, and now as a researcher in training, I am asking Scarsdale to do more. Here's just some of what I'm learning that I am not observing enough of in our elementary classrooms. Talking to kids and families about students through a strength-based lens rather than a deficit lens. infusing depth and complexity in more lessons and activities, consistently providing opportunities for cross-disciplinary learning, accelerating students through content they've already mastered through curriculum compacting, offering enrichment opportunities in school for students to explore passions and engage in long-term projects, and assessing learning via products that have authentic

057purposes and audiences. There's so much more I could add to the list or go into detail on. I hope that the district investigates some of these pedagogy philosophies. They do not require major program overhauls or a large financial investment. The University of Connecticut offers lots of professional development, including an in-person opportunity in July. There are books. I'm happy to serve as a resource as well. Gifted education is not just for the gifted. It positively impacts the learning of all students. I want to conclude by saying that Scarsdale schools are so lucky. We live in a community with a lot of bright kids and supportive families who are educated themselves and are well-resourced. Our kids are primed to tackle challenging work, think about big ideas, engage in critical thinking, collaborate with diverse peers, and create... products

058that will make a difference in the world. But they need the curriculum and instruction to unlock these potentials from a young age. I want kids like my son, those who are exceptionally bright and quirky to love school and to flourish. I'm encouraging Scarsdale to investigate more gifted education practices to make this goal a reality. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to make a public comment? Good evening, my name is Erin Rudensky. I live at 8 Archer Lane. I'm a co-chair of CHILD along with Rachana Singh and Jessica Freed. For those of you that are unfamiliar with CHILD, we are a subset of the Parent Teacher Council. We function as both a support group and advocacy group for parents in our district whose children have an IEP or a 504 plan. Currently, roughly one

059in four children in Scarsdale fall into this category, with 14% of all students having an IEP. For those unfamiliar with the term, an IEP is an Individual Education Plan which requires accommodations and services based on the child's disability that is mandated by the state. In Scarsdale, many of the state requirements not only benefit the student with an IEP, but also benefit the general ed students in the class with them. For example, the state mandates a student to teacher ratio. So in an elementary ICT or integrative co-taught class, general ed students without an IEP or a 504 benefit from the small groups within the class afforded to them by an additional teacher or aides in the classroom. If these types of programs were not implemented, these students would have less time with their teachers due to

060the overwhelming demands many students with learning differences or social-emotional needs present to a single teacher. If a full class of 24 students includes six students with an IEP or a 504 plan, think about how much time the teacher would be taking away from the rest of the class to address those students' needs. In middle school and high school, special ed teachers that push into the classroom eliminate the need for the teacher that specializes in the specific content area to interrupt the class to attend to special ed students. These models allow students with learning differences to be in the least restrictive environment. This means that students with disabilities can't and should be educated in the general education setting with their non-disabled peers, unless their IEP determines a more restrictive environment like a special ed classroom or

061special ed school, which is necessary for them to receive a free, appropriate public education. One of the long-term goals of the district has been to offer a continuum of services to all students that live in our district that have a disability or learning difference. We have always agreed with the district's philosophy that the best way to continue implementing this goal is for Scarsdale residents to be able to send their children with a 504 or an IEP to a Scarsdale school. Our most vulnerable students deserve to feel included and be part of the community while accessing their general education and being provided a Scarsdale education. This continuity ensures that all types of learners know they have a place in our school district and are valuable members of our community. They must not be disenfranchised. While we

062understand and share everyone's concerns for the growing costs across all areas of the budget, we feel very strongly that the increased budget for next year's special ed... education programming is both mindful and necessary. While roughly $500,000 is for the rising cost of salaries and benefits such as health insurance for the existing special education team, the other $500,000 is for current Scarsdale students to be able to continue their education in the district. This includes children in the 812 program being able to continue on. on to scarsdale middle school and students in the bridge program being able to continue on to scarsdale high school in the 12-1-1 program besides that this is the right thing for our students it is also fiscally responsible as the cost to send these students out of district would cost roughly 736

063000 that we would need to pay this is actually a savings of close to a quarter of a million dollars. Therefore, we would like to reiterate that CHILD supports this year's proposed special education budget, and it should go without saying that the families of special ed students are equal stakeholders, taxpayers, and members of this community. In addition, we are advocating for the district to conduct a survey of both special ed parents and teachers regarding the efficacy of our special ed program as we embark on the next five-year plan. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to make a public comment? respected Board of Education and respective representative of school district. Following our public comment, my name is Max Gruden. I live at 4 Hill Road, Scottsdale. speaking in personal capacity. So I think a

064lot of people appreciated you hearing out about the public comment a couple of weeks ago, and more than a handful of people reached out to me following that. I think there are people who might not feel comfortable speaking about the math publicly, but I think I've been in... On your side, I've been on public boards and committees, so I know that we all have the best interests at heart, and I feel comfortable that nothing bad is going to come out of it. And I understand that perhaps there are some constraints that prevent us from completely shaking up the education and introducing a lot of other unknowns, and we don't know how. it will play out in the next couple of years. So these things are clear. But what I mentioned to a couple of people

065is that, let's say, if you look at the middle school and the amount of... The amount of content they give in the classroom and a bit more homework, I think there is a way to improve the situation beyond just switching the educational platform completely, but just navigating towards where we want to be. And I think the board is aware from what I've heard. from the board's comments a couple of weeks ago. There are some issues, inevitably, in any education in terms of communication with the parents. I just want to encourage to continue the efforts in resolving that and just improving the quality of mass education. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jessica Gallo. I live at 207 Saxon Woods Road with my husband, Joseph Medrulo. I have a fourth grader who's

066in Quaker Ridge, and I'm here to talk about the cell phone policy. I'm in full support that cell phones should be turned off during school hours for middle school and high school students. I don't want to be redundant to other past comments, but I think we all heard about the benefits of having the cell phone turned off. It could be in the locker. It could be in the black pack. But silenced, that's not going to work. It will decrease distractions, okay? It will increase their ability to probably have better interpersonal skills with other kids because their faces are not in the cell phone. They're actually making eye contact possibly in the hallways. It's going to decrease some of the social pressures. And we're only, it's really just upsides. I mean, when they graduate and they

067go to college, hopefully they go to the library, but hopefully when they go to the library, they'll turn off their cell phones and not have FOMO. It's just work-life balance, okay? And really, if the cell phones, now look, you're gonna probably have exceptions. You take the exceptions, you track the exceptions. Maybe upperclassmen will be taking care of like younger siblings or some of the elderly people in their family. So you track that, you make accommodations, you track the accommodations, you figure it out, okay? But truthfully, it's not being used as an educational thing to have the cell phones on, right? I mean, if the teacher's wanting to use it for a class, great, they go on. Otherwise, what are they? It's a toy. It's a way for them to pass notes to large amounts of

068kids. They don't need that. It's a toy. If you take away the toy, I think we're all afraid of how much they're going to cry. Okay? Let's just try it. Let's try it, and we always can change it. That's it. And I think it would be really wonderful for the kids to come here and actually be. have less pressure on them to have to feel like what's the last text message what's the latest tick tock thing what's the latest like episode on blah blah it's nice take it away it's only a couple hours a day they have plenty of times on the weekends at night to use their cell phones thank you thank you I'm new to this. I've been a prosecutor for 25 years and a criminal defense attorney for 10, but I feel

069more pressure in front of you all than I have in any irate judge in the Bronx because normally they think they're cutting their losses by limiting me to 40 minutes on a homicide summation, and I was told I have to remove one of the zeros, so the pressure's on. In any event, I am jumping on Jessica's shirt tails. I'm sorry. Can I ask your name? Oh, sure. I'm sorry. I'm used to giving my appearance for the record. I figured I had a free pass here. It's Bruce Burns, B-I-R-N-S, living in Scarsdale after a half a century in Manhattan. It's been a wonderful experience for my kids. I think the school system up here is phenomenal. I think my two kids have learned more in the three years I've been up here than I did in

07040 years in Manhattan. But I too am speaking on behalf, my wife told me I was coming to this by the way, I too am speaking on behalf of the notion and the issue with reference to cell phones in school and particularly the need for what I think is proper policing of the use of them. When I went to prep school in the 1800s, we had two pay phones in the entire school of 400, which probably had more viruses and bacteria on them based on the usage for the entire school population for four years. Now, of course, we live in a different era. There are cell phones all over the place. Kids use them for games. They use them to check sports scores. And I can tell you that the first day of middle school

071for my, my wife and I have two sons, Matt and Josh. Matt is in fourth grade at Heathcote. Josh is in his first year at the middle school. And the first day that my wife dropped Josh off at the middle school, she called me and she said, I think we need to cave on the cell phone. Because had Josh had a cell phone, it probably would have saved her about a half an hour on the school caravan line where she could have asked him to meet him at the tennis courts. So for that reason and that reason alone, we felt that there was a particularly legitimate reason for him to have a phone before he went to school. where he has called me on numerous times to tell me he's forgotten his clarinet, his homework

072and the like, or after school to tell me that he is going to an after school activity. I can tell you that as a prosecutor in Bronx courtrooms, there are many judges who don't allow us in the context of our jobs to have cell phones in a courtroom and the notion that kids who are in the middle of middle school or high school are going to be allowed to have a phone on for what I can see to be no specific. reason of importance to me is somewhat inconsistent. I know that if my kid needs to get in touch with me for an emergency, he can walk to the school office and undoubtedly we will be called. The same thing is if we need to get in touch with them for an emergency, we call

073the school office and they will contact him in class. As far as I can tell from my own personal experience, Having been a trial attorney for the better part of 30 years, when I am in a courtroom that allows me to have a cell phone, I find every reason to be distracted by that phone, whether I'm trying to find out an NCAA score. Whether or not there is a law and order addition that I can go to, whether there's somebody who wants to meet me for lunch, as long as it's under the judge's radar, I think I've got free reign. But as far as kids who are in school are concerned, in middle school and in high school, unless there's a compelling reason, I can't see any advantage for a child to be allowed or

074a student to be allowed to have a cell phone in class, whether on or off. excuse me a cell phone in class that is on which serves no legitimate purpose other than a source of potential distraction and that's the reason I feel this way so thanks folks okay you're about 40 40 minutes ahead of schedule of me but I appreciate it thank you this is my first time coming to a Skarsgård board meeting thank you for having me My name is Joanna Mannheimer. I live at 61 Catherine Road. I have five children. Two are in high school, and one of the two are at Scarsdale High School. He's a sophomore. And then I have three girls at Heathcote Elementary School. When I told my children I was coming here tonight, the girls obviously didn't understand.

075My sophomore was not happy. that I'm doing this and we got into a conversation about it and he said to me if they if I if I have to turn my phone off if they take my phone away in school all I'm gonna do is sit there and think about what I'm missing on my phone and I said and that is called addiction but I think that's As he said that, I said that is actually exactly the point. You don't need a phone in school. The only thing you need to be thinking about is your teachers, your work, and your classmates. And it's okay if sometimes you don't know what to do with yourself and your body and social interactions or if you need to wait to tell us what you got on the test

076or anything else. The point is, if he has his phone, even if he's saying, fine, it just goes in my bag and we turn it off now. I'm like, but you're thinking about it. And he's going to the bathroom to check. I know he's on his phone because we're texting him all day. So it's not just about. getting to school and you know turning it off when you're in class it's not having a phone in school period you walk in here it goes away and you don't get it back till you leave and that is my ask thanks thank you Hi, my name is Sarah Steinhaus, 53 Brookby Road. I have a fourth grader, a seventh grader, and an eighth grader. And I'm really, I just want to give you all an update that Laura

077Manzano had shared with you the petition that we were getting signatures for that had 248 signatures when she shared it with you. And since the policy and survey has been circulated, we now have 475 signatures. And as people are sharing the issue and as people are becoming aware that high school kids can use cell phones during the day, people are continuing to forward it and that number and that petition is going up. So it's simply to say that everyone really emphatically supports the proposal that you're putting forward. And I just want to quickly read what... has been signed. We, the undersigned parents and community members, strongly support the implementation of a phone-free policy in Scarsdale Public Schools, ensuring that phones are stored away during the entire school day. Distractions from smartphones... interrupt cognition and are

078correlated with lower academic performance our goal is to foster a school environment from kindergarten through 12th grade that maximizes face-to-face human interaction the research is clear bell-to-bell phone-free environment significantly enhances the learning experiences and prioritizes the overall health and well-being of the students the policy will create a more positive focus and supportive environment for all students and we respectfully urge scars little public schools to adopt this phone-free initiative so it's simply to say the policy as people are learning about it they are emphatically supportive of it and we will continue to update you as that petition gets more and more signatures. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else in the audience like to make a public comment? Hi, my name is Lee Zhang. I live on 177 Rockwick Lane, Scarsdale. I have two children. One

079is a sixth grader in Popham House. The other is a second grader. I'm here to talk about the phone policy because I was a high school teacher, teach ninth grade to twelfth grade in Massachusetts, and later I transferred to a private school. I taught seventh grade to twelfth grade. So in these two schools, they are very different. One difference is in the private school, we didn't bind the phone, so kids can have phone. In the private school, we bind the phone, like very strictly. So as a teacher who taught in two different places who have totally different policies, I can see the difference. So what I can tell is that I totally support to ban the phone because I see how much more the students can benefit from this policy. One thing I want to

080say is that it's not a policy that it will fit everyone. I feel like for us... This is a hypothesis number. I feel like there's 10% of the students, no matter whether you ban or not ban, they will use the phone anyway because they are addicted to it already and they wouldn't change. And there's another 10% who, no matter you ban or not ban, they will not use it because they have a very clear goal for their academic. you know, go. So, they wouldn't, the policy wouldn't influence them. But the majority of the body, the policy from the school will influence them deeply. They don't have a preference themselves. They follow the trend. So if the school support using the phone, and the majority of students are using, they will use it. If they don't

081use it, they feel like they are left out. They feel like they are the special one or the weird one who doesn't touch the phone in the daytime. They have to use it to fit in. And I see that in my high school students, and I feel sad about that. Second part is there's a decision fatigue. So if the students have to decide every day, every moment, every class, every like break, like four minutes break, should I take out my phone or not? Should I check it or not? Oh, what are they talking about in a text group? Should I just chip in so that they wouldn't exclude me in the future? It's like mentally. Mental exhaustion for them. I see that especially in the girls. So I don't want that happen to the kids

082here. Even though my children are still young, I feel the urge to share what I observed to everyone here. That's from the students' perspective. However, from the teacher's perspective, I do see that in the public school where the school doesn't ban the phone, a lot of teachers, even though they have a genuine heart, care about the students. They know it's wrong that they are chatting their phone during the class. They secretly do it, but they are doing that. The teacher wouldn't do anything. A lot of them feel like they couldn't do anything because the majority of the teachers don't do it. So I wouldn't do that. But in a private school, while the school have this clear policy, majority of the teachers are also carrying out this policy. So I am one of them. I

083will do that very strictly. It's like make the decision easy for the teachers too. So I don't want the teacher who have a genuine heart caring about the students in our high school feels like... They can't do anything because they don't have the support from the policy, from the parents group. So that's what I want to share today. Thank you. Would anyone else like to make a public comment? Hi, good evening. I'm Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez, Fox Petal Road. For those of you who don't know, I'm a financial risk person, which means I get paid to look for problems. It's not a cheerful business for many, but I'm a big believer that risk identification, measurement control, and monitoring are critical for any organization to be successful. So in that context, I have four points that I

084wanted to squeeze in in the four minutes. One, not to walk down memory lane, but it hasn't been the first time that the Scarsville School District and the Village have had problems with penalties and with the IRS. This time around, fortunately, The amounts are small. I do, however, urge you to get to the bottom of this issue. Some serious analysis is needed to figure out what are these problems. What kind of controls need to be put in place so that we can minimize, if not eliminate, these kinds of problems? Obviously, with the current intentional decimation of the IRS and other federal agencies, the notifications from the IRS, not to mention reimbursement of these penalties, is likely to continue to take a lot longer. Secondly, on the audit risk, I very much concur. with the comments

085from the auditor that cybersecurity is absolutely critical. Every time that the Federal Reserve Chairman Powell testifies before the House or the Senate and he's repeatedly asked what keeps him up at night, he always says it's cybersecurity threats. So I'm pleased that you're looking at that. Of course, health insurance is also important because it so significantly impacts our budget. And teacher attendance and monitoring where there may be any gaps is also important because it really does affect learning outcomes. particularly a challenge in the high school when you have a language teacher who sometimes might be absent or an honors teacher right good luck trying to get a substitute so i realize it may not be top of the list presently but uh i do encourage you to take a look at it unless i missed something

086and it is possible i didn't see climate change as part of the audit and i don't know if that's part of something else that you all look at but Climate change, you don't need me to tell you, is intensifying. There's some very, very significant effects both to the financial sector, not to mention property damage. Just a couple of days ago, the forecast came out that hurricanes, for example, this year are going to be even worse. So I don't know if this is part of this risk audit, but I do encourage you to put it somewhere. I have heard this bore, and you, Dr. Patrick, talked about climate change before, so I do appreciate it. I just wanted to know if it was part of the formal audit. Thirdly, on the long-term financial plan, yes, I

087know you probably missed me. I haven't been here in a while. Some of you know that this is one of my favorite things. I've been encouraging both the district and the village to implement a long-term financial plan. I believe, Mr. Lennon, I already thanked you in writing. I'm here to do so in person. delighted if one can use such a word that the school district has a long-term financial plan. It's critical for the running of any kind of organization. However, I do encourage you to continue now to weave in stress tests. You know, it's endless as to how many stress tests you can put in, but what were to happen to the district if federal funding were to be pulled away for any reason. How might that impact special ed? We want to make sure

088we take care of any special needs children. They really should be our priority. If we can't take care of them, what would that say about our morals and values? in this district. Lastly, I know that you're going to be voting on the budget resolution. I look forward to hearing how you all vote and what your rationale is. I do want to thank you for keeping the budget under the cap. Based on my research, I see significant lagging, coincident, and leading indicators that tell us that we're going to be in a recession by the end of the year. So I appreciate you being mindful of the stress that taxpayers are under. So thank you for keeping the budget under the cap. And if I end up being wrong, that we might be in a recession by

089the end of the year. of the year, I would certainly welcome your emails with a big LOL, and I'll get it. But at the moment, I'm not feeling very LOL on that issue. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the audience who would like to make a public comment? Seeing no one in the audience. Oh, sorry. We have somebody. Are current students allowed to speak? Yes, of course. All right. They'll be brief, as will I. Hi, I'm Bibby Lemley. I'm in fifth grade at Fox Meadow. And my relationship with my friends have hugely changed and made an impact on everyone as they've gotten phones. And I think it'd really benefit all of us in our mental health if they'd got banned. Thank you. I'm sorry, did I miss the, did you give an

090address? I'll give it for all three of us. We're at 32 Ken Road in Scarsdale. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hi, my name is Caroline Lemley. I'm in second grade. I'm in second grade. I go to Fox Meadow, and I think that it would be good if we take phones away from schools to help our health. Thank you so much. Hi, I'm John Lemley, proud father of Vivian and Caroline, and I also strongly endorse their sentiments and I think it would be hugely beneficial to their mental health and that of our overall student body if they could have this wonderful environment that would be free of phones and the distractions and the toxicity that it can create amongst their social relationships at a minimum at least during the school day which is certainly your

091purview so i am so pleased to hear that the board is considering this policy and i would strongly strongly endorse it and hope that you can implemented i know a school district in upstate new york i'm going to egregiously mispronounce the name sho harry or sko harry a few years ago implemented this and i know initially it was hugely controversial but since then it's my understanding from what i've read at least that there are many in the community that were initially skeptical that have come to really embrace and see the value of it and i think it would be hugely beneficial to this community as well so please put in place a bell to bell ban of cell phones in our schools thank you thank you Would anyone else in the audience like to come

092make a public comment? Good evening. My name is Sonia Seah and I live at 12 Myrnaldale Road. Tonight, I'm here representing Brain Ways for Change, a student-led, fiscally sponsored 501c3 organization based right here in Westchester. Today, I'm here to talk about mental health, one of the most urgent issues facing our generation. The CDC reports that over one-third of high school students feel persistent feelings of hopelessness or sadness, an increase of 40% in just 10 years. And to put that into perspective, imagine a classroom where nearly one-half of students are silently struggling, or in a crowded school lunchroom, or at a teen birthday party. or at a sports last game of the season. Sometimes it's nearly impossible to tell when someone is lost or anxious. And that's why speaking up, making mental health visible, and speaking

093more about this topic in schools has the power to make a life-changing difference for someone. Even more alarming, suicide is now the second leading cause of death in teenagers. And this rate has increased nearly 60% since 2007. These aren't just statistics. These are our classmates. These are our friends. And these are people that we see and talk to on a daily basis every day. And the good news is that this crisis is largely preventable. With early education, open conversation, and a school culture that prioritizes mental health every single day, we can make a difference. Why is this especially important for Scarsdale? Because we live in a high-achieving, high-pressure environment. We all see the signs. We see people's anxious faces. We see the fidgeting every single day. And we see the quiet stress that builds up

094behind students' closed doors, especially the night before a big exam. It's hard. It's hard to balance work and personal life. It's hard to balance future aspirations with our current situations. It's hard to balance our emotions versus everyone else's expectations. And I think that's something that we can all agree on as we sit here tonight. And I think that's, for many students, school sometimes is the only place where they might hear that it's okay to not be okay. And they might find a safe space to talk about what they're truly feeling. That's why this spring, our organization is joining the National Alliance on Mental Illness and their NAMI Walks Westchester to raise funds for crucial mental health programs and services. Over just the past week, our organization has raised over $600, and we invite the district

095to join in our efforts to support Mental Health Awareness Month this May. We're grateful for the work that the school has already done, such as the mental health awareness kits, which we recently discussed with Ms. Pomerantz. With that said, we urge Scarsdale to continue prioritizing mental health for students, not just in times of crisis, but as a consistent focus in students' every single day lives. So tonight, I ask the district to take the following steps. Create more opportunities for student voices and feedback. Hearing from students regularly, not just in response to crisis, helps the district stay ahead of the curve and show us that our student voices really matter. Invest in staff training. Every adult in our building should feel equipped to model open conversations and to support students emotionally, not just counselors, but also

096teachers, aides, and coaches. Consider supporting and funding a school-wide mental health assembly for the 2025 to 2026 school year. The NAMI Westchester's Ending the Silence program creates a unique opportunity to bring in mental health a speaker into the school community and encourage open conversation. We appreciate your time and commitment to the well-being of our students here at Scarsdale High School. We're ready to be part of the solution. We need the space, the support, and the willingness to keep this conversation going. Lastly, I want us all to remember that mental health affects us all. No one is immune, and no one should have to suffer in silence. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the audience who would like to make a public comment? Okay, seeing nobody in the audience, we're

097going to turn to Zoom. Jim? Yes, there is some several attendees on zoom With hands raised I'll take them in order promoting Courtney hunter to panelists if you could just turn on your camera and remember to unsilence your speaker Hi, my name is Courtney Gallo-Hunter. I live at 239 Mamaroneck Road, and I am speaking tonight on behalf of the cell phone policy and just wanted to share my additional full support for the policy proposal. Also wanted to emphasize the importance of turning off devices. So thank you very much for updating the policy to remove the silenced without vibration language from the proposal. I think that's... critically important. And you know in addition I would encourage the board to incorporate some sort of strike system or disciplinary action for students not complying with the policy. Enforcing

098disciplinary action across the school system will ensure the policy is being implemented, taken seriously. and the staff will not be tasked with policing. This is also getting ahead of the pending legislation that is before the New York State Legislature as well in terms of implementation. So I would encourage some sort of incorporation of that so that it's actually taken seriously and the teachers are not tasked with ripping cell phones away, for example. So thank you again. for all of your attention on this issue. And I just, those children were incredible who spoke. I couldn't see their faces, but I wish I was there to see them and just huge, huge kudos and snaps. Well done, kids. Thank you. If you could turn the camera and unmute your speaker. I'm Gabriel Ponzoco and I reside at

09917 Tonshoro. I'm a fourth grade student at Edgwood School. I, as many other people, think Reveal Math is not a good math curriculum. My colleagues have been making petitions against Reveal Math. One of the people in the class got 17 signatures out of 22. Not only is this a big majority, but my colleagues are displaying they do not like Reveal Math. But there was another petition and almost the entire fourth grade signed it. Even two teachers managed to. One reason why people say reveal math is not a good math curriculum is it is too easy. This is true. Most of the people in my class finish their homework quickly. Around 7 to 10 minutes on average. And then in the morning... When we get our homework back, usually it is right. This is not because

100we are smart. My friend, the one who did their homework right, he is not perfect in math, but he did his homework fast and did it right. This shows reveal math is easy. I'm considered a big nerd in math. When we did Singapore math, I was also considered a big nerd. I usually got a few things wrong in classwork. When we did reveal math, I... would get almost everything correct. So we were perfectly fine with single format because it had a good hardness level. In grade three, like all other review math students, we witnessed a problem that shocked us all. The problem said, Zach has a jar of strawberries. He opens them and realizes there are none left. How many strawberries does he have to eat? The answer is too clear. Zero. How can you

101find that in a math textbook? Not only I saw that once, but then I saw a similar problem with a different scenario again. I have it in my hand right here. It says, word for word, Zach and Stacy want to share a container of strawberries. They open the container and realize there's none left. How many strawberries do Zach and Stacy get? Explain. Starting in third grade, we started watching videos on math replay. We started doing it independently at the end of third grade. In the video, I explained a problem it already explained in the textbook. Explaining it in the textbook is already enough. Why does Review Maths think teachers to be replaced with videos. Not only is Reveal Math using videos, but almost every other subject has been using them. What was Reveal Math the

102most? Every lesson, when my teacher is there, we watch videos instead of our teacher teaching us like normal. Many other students do not understand the problems, even the smarter people. This is true. I always sometimes do not understand. I also sometimes do not understand the problems. But as I learned in RSM, a separate math program outside the school to read the problem multiple times if you do not understand it. So I do that. But some people do not know this strategy, making them not understand the problems. I conclude with the hope that we should get a better math education which is not trivial math. This will result in a better and more intellectual Scarcell New York. Thank you. Hello, if you could turn the camera and unmute your speaker. Good evening, everyone. My name is

103Holly Kessler. I live at 51 Drake Road, and I am mom to a rising eighth grader. First, I want to thank the board for its efforts to address the use of personal electronic devices at Scarsdale High School. I joined this evening because I want to express my wholehearted support for requiring that personal electronic devices be turned off and stored away during the school day. I believe that the implementation of the proposed policy will only serve to benefit our students by eliminating the distractions that result from use of these devices and strengthening their interactions as a school community. Finally, I do want to note, and I'm not sure that it's been said already, but for incoming freshmen who've gone without use of their personal electronic devices for the past three years at Scarsdale Middle School, this

104should be relatively painless to implement. So thank you so much for considering this, and I certainly hope that it goes through. And there's no other attendees with their hands raised. Maybe we'll give it a second to see if they raised their hand. Thank you all. With that, we will close the public comment session and move on to the next item, which would be a response to public comment. Just a couple of thoughts. I appreciate all the engagement tonight, of course, especially from our students. As a matter of just people might not know, we have two policies on the agenda tonight. Obviously, the... device policy and then the policy involving the ex-officio student member of the board this is the the process so having those policies on the agenda from where people can see them and

105have the opportunity to give comment in my view this is how that's supposed to work one of our speakers noted that there's been a change in the policy to eliminate the on silence or without vibrate to just off. That's the kind of change that happens with the dialogue, with the feedback. So in addition to everyone who spoke tonight, I also appreciate we had 356 people respond to just an open question about this policy. So a range of views. more support for the policy than not, questions that need to be answered and addressed. And I would just say, just for time and efficiency, we'll repeat this again when we cover the item, that particular agenda item, another change to the policy from its initial... presentation was to really move decision decisions about consequences out of the

106policy itself and into the hands of the codes of conduct at the various schools and levels so that gives us more time to work on you know a sequence of you know responses to violation of the policy should that come sort of more properly belongs in in a in a code of conduct or handbook student handbook then perhaps then in the policy itself so share that and just to reiterate I know Edgar had it on his slide but on at our next meeting which is until May 12th he'll give another update on the math and and sort of where we are with curriculum those are my two thoughts thank you Thank you, especially to the students who spoke this evening Okay. Well next on the agenda would be item 9 written communications. This is Jim

107Thank You Susie just to read the preamble Please note that the Board of Education email is also viewed by the superintendent and district clerk Open meetings law requires all board deliberations that may lead to action or policy changes to occur in public Therefore your written communications and emails will be reported at an upcoming public board meeting board member will respond at their earliest convenience a formal response requires that you include your full name and address and if you're writing on behalf of an organization in the communication more detailed information regarding written communications received by the Board of Education may be found in today's meeting agenda located in board Doc's on the Scarsdale school districts website And turning to the communications, I will note that with respect to written communications, the district received 24 communications on

108district matters and 13 on board meetings, highlights, board invitations, and correspondence since the last time this was reported. Thank you so much, Jim. Next on the agenda would be the consent agenda, and now I will read the 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 of the board of education into a single motion the consent agenda is prepared by the superintendent of schools in consultation with the president and or the vice president of the board items for are selected for the consent agenda when the officers of the board and the superintendent believe there is no controversy regarding them The items on the consent agenda will have the same background material as

109ordinary items on the board agenda. If 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 merely by requesting same at the meeting. The exempted item then moves to the regular agenda. However, All non-exempted items would be moved, seconded, and voted upon without discussion in order to provide greater efficiency to conducting the routine items of business of the school district. With that, I'd like to ask if any board member would like to remove any item from the consent agenda. Okay, well then, I will hand it over to Colleen. Thank you, Susie. There are 11 items on tonight's consent agenda. 11.01 minutes from the budget forum business meeting on March 24th, 2025. 11.02 personnel certified 11.03 claims

110audit report march 2025 11.04 seqra determination capital projects fox meadow playground 11.05 seqra determination capital projects high school field renovation 11.06 seqra determination ev chargers and related infrastructure 11.07 election inspectors and assistant clerks budget vote and board of elections may 20 2025. 11.08 contracts over twenty thousand dollars special education 11.09 stipulation of settlement 11.10 internal audit report risk assessment 11.11 accept the consent agenda i move the board can accept the consent agenda as presented Thank you, Colleen. Is there a second? Thank you, Amber. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye's have it, and the motion carries. Thank you. Next on the agenda would be the information items and discussions section of the meeting, and the first would be the treasurer's report. Lisa, thank you. Good evening. So the report's presented tonight

111for the month of February of 2025. As you'll see, the bulk of the second installment of property taxes came in in February with approximately $57 million from Scarsdale and an additional $1.8 million from Mamaroneck. We also received a quarterly distribution of sales tax from the county. That amount was about $493,000. That payment represents the portion of sales tax from October to December of 2024. So as you'll note, that's the high peak of holiday shopping. So it was a little disappointing when we saw that that sales tax went down about 3.8% from the prior year, same period. Good news is first quarter of 2025, the numbers we're presenting so far look like it's bounced back, so we should make up that deficit. So as far as the budget numbers for sales tax, we should be right

112on top. Interest, general fund interest for the month was 137,000 with the highest accounts earning about 4.21 to 4.25. As I've talked about in the past, we participate in two different cooperative banking programs, NICLAS and NILAF. Those two pools earn our typical higher accounts. That's the 4.21 to 4.25. Those two pools are separate. They have separate boards of directors and... separate companies that administer the programs. So the administering companies have decided to merge. So we were just notified that these two pools will be merging effective July 1st. So for us, it's not a big deal. We already participate in both. So the funds from NYLAF will be transferred to Nye class effective July 1st. Again, it won't make much of a difference on our end. It just decreases our number of banks. So it's basically

113two banks consolidating to one. So if you have any questions, I can provide information on that as it comes in. So I just wanted to put that under your radar. Any questions? question yes on the merge of the two entities to a single bank does that affect like any of the guarantees behind the funds or anything like that no it's still it will still be the same basically when they consolidate because some of the advising staff overlaps the boards kind of looked at it and felt that it was in the best interest of all the participants to just merge the two funds together basically all the guidelines will stay the same all of the collateral Thank you. And you're not concerned that we have then a fewer number of banks or in terms of? No,

114we have quite a few banks. Again, we're constantly watching to see if there's any other opportunities out there. So if anything comes up, we'll definitely expand. But no, at this point, we would be going from ultimately six banks to five, which is still a reasonable diverse amount. Thank you. Are there any other questions? And next would be the Capital Project Steering Committee update. This would be Andrew. Sure. I'm happy to introduce Kevin Walsh from BBS. Kevin's going to go over some updates as we committed to the board throughout this Capital Project Steering Committee, our committee met for the first time on March 20th. And Kevin's here to give you some insights to what we covered in that meeting as well as what's at hand in the future. Okay, good evening. Hello. So yes, we started

115in mid-January on embarking on potential bond referendum to understand and build consensus at a committee level of what might be work scope that might be included in that. So before the March 20th meeting, Myself and my firm went through the district. We met with principals, administration, made sure to update all the building plans, re-familiarized ourselves with how the district is today, and moved forward from there. Presented a lot of that in terms of introductory information to the committee, and then referenced that material with your strategic plan and what the district stands for. And obviously what we're going to be investigating is how the physical facilities support the student experience and the teaching experience in Scarsdale. So referencing the school district as well as our kind of own lens for design as a firm, as a,

116you know, specific to educational design, trying to imagine looking at buildings a different way, the way that learning is a verb, how can buildings respond to that and support the activity of learning and interaction between folks. We've looked at trying to balance practical ideas and extraordinary things. And we'll get to prioritization in a minute. So balancing is another reference. Necessary capital projects, achievable capital projects, and big ideas. Next, referencing finding the opportunities. So this is not predetermined. We're taking a look. So we're looking at existing facility conditions and what could be and placing everything in the lens of long-term planning as well for value. And as we go through... prioritization we need to look at infrastructure which is building condition survey things like basics of boilers and HVAC and windows things like that as well

117as how can we continue the success of past capital projects innovative spaces as well as updating learning environments throughout the district and then helping the committee prioritize to then help the board prioritize moving forward so we started you know with a series of broad strokes to take we're going to have a lot of work scope to look at so as the committee can look and say you know this must be included or this should be included types of scope. We're a little on the fence about this. Let's debate it a little bit more. And all three of those categories seem to be on their way to being included, perhaps in a capital referendum. On the other side would be do not include this. Table it. Defer to the future. or seek a different funding mechanism

118other than a bond referendum. But again, we're starting big. We're trying to look at everything and then help the committee narrow it down and feel that we did not miss or turn. We look at everything. I want to look at everything and get through that. The timeline for this, here we are in the spring of 2025, and with the goal of trying to have a referendum vote in late winter, early spring of 26, what we'd like to do with the committee, and they're going to get a lot of information at the end of this month, we're going to have back-to-back meetings in April, we're going to try to get a sense of the forward direction of what this bond might be in order to inform the... board and the community where that might be going

119and we know how the summer is and we'll touch base once or twice and we'll come back in the fall if we want to hit a vote in early 26 we'll pretty much need to know what we want to do by the end of this calendar year so just to say that's kind of the reference of that getting into prioritization again So the work scope is one thing. The work scope cost is the second thing. And just to give a sense of parameters, if we start talking about building additions if they're needed or wanted or desired or reconstruction of spaces from a spatial point of view, not infrastructure, we want to give the reference point of cost that's about $1,200 a square foot to build new space. It adds up pretty quickly. And if we

120want to reconfigure existing space, it's about half that. That is part of the process, going to be part of the parameters of making decisions and prioritizing the work. So that's that. And we want to consider the financial impacts of a potential bond referendum. There is a tax-neutral number, and then there is whatever it's going to be. We'll let it all be talked about. So again, that's that. Beyond that, I'll be back Wednesday. We're going to start interviewing Scarsdale High School students to see how they feel about their building. I have a series of questions for them. And we'll do this as kind of an in-house research model and use that to try to inform some of the big ideas or even just some basic things. at the high school. I know we have touched on

121improvement of classroom environments at several of the schools to update them. Some of the older ones that have been touched in a while, as well as some bigger ideas about efficient use of multi-purpose spaces. What about science at the elementary schools? Things like that. So we have lots of big ideas floating. And again, it'll be my job, our job to kind of guide the committee a little bit and so that we can try to meet the timeline. with a lot of work to do. If you have any questions, I'm here. Bye. Just a quick question since you mentioned your meeting with high school And I don't know I'm assuming this is communicated to you, but on the off chance it has and I just wanted to make you aware they are discussing piloting a common

122lunch period in April end of April We just had the pleasure of meeting with the student group earlier today and one of their concerns was space Right how the space is going to function if there's going to be enough places for them to eat overcrowding so you know as you as you look at the high school we're not sure what's gonna happen with this pilot but that could be a possible concern moving forward and would be interested to get the student feedback as as we move through that absolutely and I'm smiling because it's a very exciting opportunity to think about what I call exchange space kind of in between of traditional and innovative kind of the in-between spot where kids can go and have a little bit of spontaneity during the day and maybe shake

123up the building a little bit, break up some of the rigidity. Thank you for that overview of your first meeting. I just had two questions. So you did mention your timeline. It is pretty aggressive. Are you feeling comfortable at this point that you'll be able to come back to us with recommendations that we can make decisions? I do. I am confident. Great. And then my next question is a little bit about your process. So, you know, there is the tax-neutral bond versus not tax-neutral. Are we, and it's maybe not for you, but... It might be for all of us. Are we anticipating that they're coming back with recommendations for both types of bonds? Are we anticipating that you're coming back with this is what we think you should do, tax neutral, or you're going to

124give us both options? I'm going to go broad and let you and the committee select where it goes. Okay. We'll have a lot more information next month. Thank you for this early look into your process. We're excited. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. next would be item 12.03 the district-wide safety and emergency management plan and this is probably eric Thank you each year the district must adopt a safety and emergency management plan The after a 30-day public comment period what you have is a draft district-wide safety and emergency management plan there were a number of State changes including the naming of our various protocols and other much less interesting updates that you can see outlined in the attached update sheet there. Really, this is the opening of a 30-day comment period for the public,

125which on May 12th. we will have a hearing for and then ultimately look to adopt this plan for next year the district safety plan is a public-facing version of our building emergency response plans so you will see all of the annexes that each of our building plans have but not the detail of our exact procedures for obvious reasons but this will give the public and gives Gives them an opportunity to take a look at the type of emergency planning we do and all of the things that are required From the state for us to have plans for and be able to respond to Thank you any questions Thank you, Eric. Just something that I noticed and I'm grateful for because I feel like over these years and thinking about the drills, I think a lot

126about the mental health impacts on students and the students who have anxiety and the students who are more sensitive to noise or to whatever it may be. But I see that there's now even additional language ensuring that everything is, you know, that mental health and student well-being is at the forefront of these plans. There are... So we have never done drills that were lockdown drills that were not announced, nor have we ever done what they call full immersion lockdown drills where they actually. simulate what would happen in a in a worst-case scenario the state has there are districts that have done that and continued to do that until this language was put into state regulation so we're adding it to the plan as part of a state requirement but these are things that we have

127never practiced as a district I had a quick question about the maximum temperature in schools annex that's in response to is it actually a law now or it's a regulation it's a regulation and that we are in compliance of that so I just wanted that noted for the community there were some changes since the last time it was discussed in front of the board where there is no longer a required evacuation on the lower temperature rating but a but the law now conforms with our cooling plans that the need to move students in those hot to air-conditioned spaces as appropriate throughout the day. Thank you so much. Next on the item would be item 12.04, a new policy, the first reading of the students and personal electronic devices. We handled this a little bit differently

128than we do most of our policy reads. We had kind of a draft of the draft at our last meeting to ask the community to give their feedback, and I'm so gratified that we did get a lot of feedback and engagement from the community. So thank you for that. And with that, I... hand it over to Drew. Sure, yeah, and there are two versions of the document. The PDF is in the file, but there's also sort of a live Google Doc. The changes that were made since last time we met, though this is the first read, to Susie's point, was the addition of the word laptops in the first paragraph was striking out or silenced without vibration. the third paragraph so devices must be turned off and then later under the section on page two

129entitled enforcement and consequences rather as I had said earlier tonight rather than in policy setting forth the consequences or actions required in a violation, we have dealt with that through the phrase specifics as to the manner and mechanism of retrieval will be outlined in the respective school handbooks. So that is the place. that parents and kids go to find out what rules are and that's where we'll develop those and share those as that comes to be as one student pointed out today in our earlier meeting could be that if we'd set it up so a parent is the only way to retrieve the phone could be a parent's unavailable unable to do to do so so we we'd want to come up with a different mechanism there anyway But to the best of our knowledge,

130this is consistent with what we anticipate coming through as legislation as well. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Just wait. I just want to clarify. Doesn't it still say parent-parental relations in there? It doesn't? okay so that part is totally out it's it's got the new language in there now that says the code of conduct i thought that's and retrieval will be outlined in the respective school handbooks doesn't it say students in violation will retain a secure location for the parent person and parental relations The PDF? Click the live doc. I thought I had updated that. My apologies. I just want to make sure we have the correct doc. Yeah, so let's look at the Google doc. Okay. That would be the, so the hyperlink that's, I apologize, the hyperlink that's in the text

131of the background, that's the accurate. And then I just also want to, you know, thank you to all the community members who have been engaged in this, you know, on this important issue. There's so many complex issues related to you know phone use and children. I just want to reiterate you know some Concerns I have just for the transition to this new policy, you know at the high school level It just once again just to call attention to it You know I have concern for the transition for high school students who use their phones for executive functioning Who have creative practices for themselves over time and are used to having access to these devices at some point during the day is an organizational and learning tool i think certain logistical aspects of the high school

132day such as emails pivoting from something to another from teachers or coaches if a class is canceled things you know an assignment is updated things do happen a lot during the day and then children are emailed and they often check their phones, it's easier for them than their laptops. I also know from my own experience as a parent of two high schoolers and a middle schooler, and from involvement in some of these conversations throughout the years, that one of the most important skills I think that we can teach our children is mindfulness related to technology usage. Soon our kids will leave our homes and are going to have to monitor themselves and create that mental wellness space for themselves and understand when to use their technology and when not to use it. And I understand

133this is a state mandate, but I hope that continued active, independent mindfulness education is done and that... I know a bell-to-bell band in and of itself, I don't think necessarily takes care of that aspect of this work. So I know they do that a lot at the high school with Off and Away, and that's part of the larger project is to help teach and encourage mindfulness as related to technology. So I just don't want to lose that thread. Amber. I appreciate your comments, Leah. I actually think you bring up some interesting points. And I know, you know, earlier this evening we heard from those high school students, and many of us have high school students as well. I think one thing that strikes me is that, you know, some of the parents that have come

134to us today have said, well, the eighth graders, it's just going to be simple for them, you know. and that's their expectation. I think we're forgetting about also the 11th graders who have had their phones to email their teachers to find out practice is canceled or class is canceled or to check assignments. So I think it is going to be a challenge as a transition. I do think it's the right direction, but I would encourage us to be thoughtful about seeing how this progresses throughout the year because it's... it's a little bit more complex at the high school than it is in the middle school when you're going to the same class every day teachers are there for every class there's never any changes to your day so I think I think it's just it's

135a it's a different animal the high school and I appreciate us keeping that in mind as we move forward thank you anyone else Yeah, I agree. First of all, thank you to all the community that has been so active in this. I think it's important that the community engages with us on all policies. So I appreciate you all taking the time to bring your students and yourselves out on a Monday night, leaving your kids at home, which we know is all a risk in itself. But I appreciate it. I think we're all concerned about how devices impact our students. I think we as parents have that concern on us on a daily basis. I think one of the things that came out tonight when we were meeting with the students was how often they use

136their phones for their educational success as well. And they, I think, would be a great resource to continue to engage with as we transition to this new policy. They use it to check their schedules. They use it to get updates from their teachers. So there's going to be some growing pains in that. And the more we can anticipate what those pains are, I think the easier the transition will be to implement this policy. Thank you, Colleen. Anyone else? Thank you. To reiterate what some of my fellow board members have said, I do appreciate this discussion. There's been a lot of work that Scarsdale has done over many years now, you know, outlining the hazards of social media and the misuse of devices. I feel like we're in a great place to institute a policy that,

137you know, isn't just restrictive and monitoring. you know, devices, but more, you know, bringing students along as to the why. You know, why are we saying that devices aren't good for you? And I think, you know, based on our off and away program at the high school, the practices already in place in the middle school and the elementary school, we are in a great position to institute a bell-to-bell band for phones. I think one thing that came up in the student group meeting today that was articulated to us was that students would like to be able to use their laptop to do school work during a free period or lunch. I don't know, you know, might be a point of clarification in this policy whether that would be accounted for. A lot of students have

138extracurricular activities after school, sports, clubs, and getting a head start on their homework or being able to reach out to a teacher during a free, you know, on a laptop. would be very helpful you know and they are all on Google classroom to be able to access that thank you I do think the policy covers that I think it does okay great suppose we could be challenged on that but perfect thank you yes Bob yeah I'd like us to try if at all possible picking up on some of the comments that Amber and Colleen and others Leah has made regarding changing behavior but also allowing communication you know for those of us old enough to can remember you know loudspeakers announcing things I don't think we necessarily want to go back to that model but

139it seems to me that there could be you know through the use of appropriately placed monitors if if a class is cancelled or if something needs to be quickly disseminated that you could have strategically located visual boards that communicate something to a group of people. And obviously that would require some thinking, but I guess the way I look at it is for each of these issues that you're talking about, putting together a little group to try and figure out how to solve it in the context of the, let's say, the bell-to-bell ban. In other words, these are obstacles, but there's got to be a way, in my opinion, to solve it. And I don't know, you know, I'm not, we don't need to do that tonight, but I think, you know, we're also in the

140process of doing a strategic master plan so that maybe we need to incorporate some sort of cool visual. ways to thread through the building getting messages out very quickly that could add a little kind of fun to the whole process. I'm just thinking out loud about through some sort of visual way of not having the loudspeaker. So I think wherever there's a problem, I think we should focus on solving it and not using that as a way to necessarily stop us doing it. Thank you, Bob. So for point of process, this is, I guess, technically the first read of this policy, and we generally have two reads of a policy before we take action on it. So we won't be approving this draft tonight, but the expectation might be that for the next meeting on

141a second read. May 12th. May 12th. So, yes. So we're not going to wait for... the law if it requires any changes then we'll just change the policy afterwards are we comfortable with the way it is this timing should allow us to know the outcome of the law prior to May 12th and should there need to be a change then we would postpone to accommodate that that change so there'd be an a reading with changes okay thank you hopefully by May 12th we have a book well maybe I'm being overly optimistic there but thank you Next, if we're ready to move on, the next item on the agenda is item 12.04, a new policy and first reading, actually, sorry, second reading of the ex officio student member of the Board of Education policy. Would anybody

142like to kick us off on this discussion? Amber. Thank you, Susie. Thank you so much. I have some prepared remarks, so I'll just read what I thought about. Thank you for your work. I've shared my thoughts at the board table in the past two times we've discussed this opportunity but one would like to once again express my concerns with the policy the way it is written I am thrilled that I will have the opportunity to serve on the board of education next year with our first student BOE members we have stated we value our students voices and this will provide us with a direct conduit into the student perspective I also very much appreciate the work that Susie, Jim, and Colleen put into researching this directive and creating a framework for our board discussion. Our

143student BOE members will be charged with attending student government meetings and board meetings, allowing both bodies a unique communication vehicle. They will not be voting members, nor will they have access to executive content or confidential information. As a board, we have also stressed the importance of belonging for our students. This effort formally began my first year on the board five years ago when the board approved policy 0105, the second line of which reads, as such, we are committed to ensuring that all students feel safe, included, and welcomed, and accepted, and experience a sense of belonging and academic success. I am concerned that not all students will feel a sense of belonging by the adoption of the residency requirement in our proposed policy. From my perspective, it is antithetical to our policy for us to profess

144our support of creating a sense of belonging for all students and then deliberately craft a second policy that excludes a small section of our students, namely special education students that may be coming from out of district, tuition-paying students that may have unique circumstances, and students of our faculty and staff. For these reasons, I will not support this policy as written. Would anyone else like to make a comment? Bob, you had your hand raised before. Yeah, I haven't prepared any remarks. I'm not as organized as Amber is. But I have reflected a lot on the policy, and I have to agree that I, after thinking it through, that I believe that it's appropriate for us to remove the residency requirement as a mandate for someone who is on the board that the message that it communicates

145in the context of their role. So we're not talking about our role, we're talking about their role, which is a modified role. It's a different role. I believe that it's in our best interest to allow anyone who's a full-time student here to be eligible to participate with the board. Thank you. Yeah, and this is not gonna surprise anybody because I spoke out against this, you know weeks ago I think when we were discussing it and by this I mean the the citizenship requirement I'm not a fan of it. I'm not in favor of it. I do think it creates Residency, I mean citizen residency. Yeah, I mean living in Scarsdale being in Scarsdale. I think it is a relatively arbitrary thing I understand the point about some faculty children might you know issue that put

146forth the point of view of faculty in board meetings or be inclined to support faculty points of view in board meetings you know I guess we can cross that bridge when we get to it but to me the negative of creating a distinction that I think is still somewhat arbitrary between the resident non-resident students it's just something that to me it's sort of drawing a line that i don't think has real substance to it and i think does harm because you know frankly we're providing this uh opportunity i think the state is mandating it but still we're providing this opportunity this benefit to our students but we're telling some of them that they can't participate in it that it's withheld from them that it's not a benefit that they can realize because of who their

147parents are. It just seems to me to be wrong, I guess is the simple way I would put it. So I'm not in favor of that requirement. Thank you. Well, you know, I didn't initially have a strong feeling on it either way, but I'm compelled. You know, I feel compelled. I think that we're at the point where it's not something, it doesn't need to be a barrier. and i don't you know i know there was rationale initially you know when the subcommittee added it in and you know but i don't know that it's so necessary at all thank you um i guess we have now four um so i don't know i guess you know I don't feel compelled one way or the other. I know when people started to express concern, we went out

148asking other districts what they were doing as this is a new policy. And there were a handful of districts that felt strongly that it should be a resident student. They felt there was possible conflicts of interest to put a student on that could be a... a child of a faculty member. I don't know if that's the case or not. Like I said, we've never done this. There's a few that are still discussing it. And I think we found one that is not having a residency requirement. So this is the first time we've done this. I don't know what the applications are looking like. I don't know if it is a strong issue one way or the other. If this board feels like the residency requirement should be taken off, I'm happy to go in that

149direction. I would say that maybe next year we reevaluate the policy as we were discussing anyway. This is a new position and we're not quite sure how it's going to evolve and develop in case we do feel like. That could be a barrier that we're putting on students who take on this role Thank you to my fellow board members for their thoughts drew mentioned earlier that this is how the process works and you know, I am grateful that we do take the time to do multiple readings of a Policy especially a new policy so that we can carefully consider our positions get feedback from the community and it looks like we are going to be making a change in this policy. I think when we did start with this whole process, we wanted to make

150it as inclusive as possible and include as many students as possible. And this goes to further that even more. So I'm all for it. I know that kind of screws up our timeline a little bit, but I think we should be okay. Is that all right? Thank you. We are compelled by law to seat at least one student board member by July 1st. supersede this. So let me say it another way, if we weren't to complete a policy before July 1st, that doesn't obviate the need to seat students. So some kind of process needs to be underway. But I think we'll meet the timeline anyway. Great. Thank you so much. I just had one other comment, and I don't know if it matters as much right now, because I know it's not the actual policy.

151It's like the next page at the end talking about the process. When we talk about the nominating committee reconvening, if someone comes off. I would like to add the Board of Education to that language a little bit so that it would potentially read after each election the nominating committee will review the process and make recommendations to the Board of Education for alterations or adjustment adjustments the process for the future and then the last sentence think could say at the discretion of the Board of Education because we may or may not appoint or have someone else come on depending on the timing the committee can then appoint someone from the previous set of applicants etc so I just think it may make sense to more closely align with the actual policy to have the process include

152Board of Education discretion somewhat in that process thank you I agree that that would make it more consistent so everyone agree with that or disagreeing view Thank You Leah Okay, if there is no further comment, we will move on to the next item on the agenda, the board budget insight letter. And I guess that's me. At our last meeting, I asked the board if they would be okay with Jim and I drafting a version of a letter that would be included in our insight mailer that we generally send out during the budget season. And so this is a draft of a letter for your... consideration I don't know if there any questions or comments yes I'll just start by thanking you and Jim for putting this letter together I appreciate it I know there's a

153lot of work behind the scenes as an officer so thank you for doing that are we okay to move forward with this draft okay thank you okay item 12.07 would be a gift proposal to the Fox Meadow School We have a gift in the amount of $1,350 to support an author visit for second grade at Fox Meadow, as Susie mentioned. And again, this is the board's practice of gifts in excess of $1,000 or more to review them first as an information item before accepting the gift at a subsequent meeting. Any questions on that? Next on the agenda would be the action items 13.01, the 2025-26 budget resolution. I believe this is Leah. I believe people might have. Could we maybe take like a five-minute recess before? Because we've been going for a couple hours. Would

154that be okay with everybody? Thank you. Quick recess. Thank you so much. We are back in our business meeting. Thank you for giving us this quick recess, this mental wellness break. And without further ado, we will go to action item 13.01, the budget resolution. I believe this is Leah. Thank you, Susie. I move that the board adopt the following resolution. Resolved that the Board of Education adopts the budget resolution set forth for the budget for 2025-26 school year as presented. Anyone like to make a second? Thank you, Colleen. Any discussion? I think we usually kind of go around and because this is a big one, if anyone would like to make a comment. Would anyone like to start? Okay, Colleen. I wanted to start off by thanking everyone who works so hard throughout this budget

155process, Andrew, Lisa, and all the district cabinet members. Thank you for working with us to meet your department goals within these budgetary constraints. To our community partners, I wanted to thank you for your continuous open and honest dialogue, allowing us to gain full community perspective and feedback. To my fellow board members, thank you for engaging in such a productive discussion so we can create a budget that continues to provide our students with a world-class education while being fiscally responsible. This is my third budget cycle and each year it gets more and more challenging. When working through this budget, I continue to circle back to the pillars of our strategic plan, learning, living, and leading. These are the foundations that allow our students to grow and thrive and leave us as global citizens ready to tackle

156real world problems and have a positive impact. So with regards to learning, this budget allows our elementary school students to continue to learn in small class sizes, ideal for providing a personalized learning experience. It allows our middle school students to be supported within the house structure as they transition from little kids to young adults preparing for high school. It allows our high school students to take ownership of their learning and follow their passions by having a wide range of course options to choose from. This budget also allows us to continue to meet the needs of all of our students requiring special education support by continuing to expand our ICT program in the middle school and expand our 8-1-2 program and 12-1 program. for all students with disabilities. This budget also allows us to support our

157teachers' learning with professional development opportunities so they can continue to learn and grow themselves and bring that back to our students. With regards to living, unfortunately, we live in a high-stress world. We all feel it, and our children are no different. Health and wellness needs to be a priority for our students lives This budget allows us to continue to focus on our students mental health by investing in social work support from K to 12 It supports the idea that students need to be outside off devices Exploring the world with investments in our gardening program new playgrounds turf practice fields and wide range of extracurricular opportunities for our students And last, leading. Now more than ever, we need strong leaders. We have a responsibility to our students to provide them with the skills they will need

158as they head out into a very unstable world. This budget supports this goal. We continue to build global partnerships, allowing our students opportunities to work, visit, and interact with fellow students from all over the world. This budget supports our international exchange program, Model UN, and authentic global opportunities and partnerships for our students through the Global Education Benchmark Group and Round Square. The more opportunities we can provide our students to be interacting with peers from around the world, the more equipped they will be to work with them to tackle real-world problems as adults. Unfortunately, no budget is perfect. Each year we see areas that cause concern and do our best to address them. As we can all see, it is clear that the majority of our budget is composed of teacher salary and benefits. I appreciate

159the district taking the time to look closely at the needs of our students and recognize that we can reduce 6.5. positions without impacting the student experience. I appreciate the addition of the healthcare stabilization factor to address our healthcare system and the increased cost it continues to bring our district. As a district, we will need to continue to monitor this closely and reevaluate in the future if this is the best healthcare plan moving forward. While not ideal, this year we continue to draw from our fund balance reserves in an effort to maintain student experience. While I appreciate that goal, I do not think this is a sustainable practice. I know Mr. Lennon understands this and is aware that we need some different options in the future. I am confident that he is the best person to

160help us address this moving forward, and I thank him for his continued efforts. As we move forward with the budget, I do think it's important that we recognize that during this process, there are areas that were shared by our community that cause concern. These are the areas that I am hopeful our district will address as we continue to demonstrate to our parent community that a strong home-to-school partnership continues to be important in what is in the best interest of our students. This budget does allow us to keep the additional elementary school math coordinator. which will allow Edgar and his team the resources needed to continue to address the concerns raised around Reveal Math. The field of education is constantly evolving, and the benefit of that is that when we see areas that cause concern, we

161often have the ability to find additional and best practices to address those areas. I want to thank Edgar and his team for their commitment to our students' education and look forward to hearing about the progress around the concerns shared with Reveal Math in the near future. I'm almost done, I promise. During this budget season, I have personally spent a lot of time with each member of this district cabinet. Thank you. Looking at numbers, discussing fund balance, health care reserves, special education programming and curriculum. Thank you so much, Andrew, Edgar, Eric, and Megan for working with us so closely to create this budget so our students can get what they need to grow and thrive. After being on the board for three years, I have watched this district grow and evolve under new leadership. Dr. Patrick,

162I know you have a very difficult job, and I also know how much time and attention you place on each item of this budget because you want our students to have it all. You make time for any parent that wants to talk or has a concern. You make time for each of your cabinet members. to help them grow and learn. You make time for all your principals, faculty, and staff to support them so that they can be the best versions of themselves. You make time to meet with all our community partners and all of us on the board. You even make time to read to elementary school students, run a workshop at the Middle School Global Citizens Day, and attend high school athletic, theatrical, and social events. I'm not sure when you sleep, but I

163just wanted to say thank you. You set a very high standard for yourself, and our students are the benefactors. To our community, I feel confident we are putting forth a solid budget for you to vote on on May 20th. It is not the perfect budget, no budget is, but I feel this budget allows our students to continue to get the student experience they deserve while focusing on addressing areas of community concern and moving the district forward with our strategic plan. A budget that accomplishes all of this has my full support. Thank you, Colleen. Who wants to go next? Leah. I'll follow you, Colleen. I would like to thank the administration and staff responsible for the work involved in preparing the budget. I believe that this process was collaborative and included many voices. I appreciate that

164this year we've had the opportunity to create a budget within the framework of a strategic plan, as well as with the knowledge and awareness of a five-year financial projection. In my view, having been a community member who watched and engaged in the budget process for a long time, one of the key elements to a successful budget process is putting an emphasis on community engagement, helping inform our community about the decision-making process, the myriad considerations and factors at play, and to understand their views to get the pulse of the community. I also think it's essential for the community to stay engaged, stay informed, and vote. Regarding the proposed budget, I believe that preserving class size a hallmark of our schools is paramount. Overall this budget does that. especially at the elementary level. However, I'd like to

165highlight the importance of monitoring the size of high school classes, specifically classes like AT statistics, to make sure that they're not overly large next year and in future years. Furthermore, I'd also like to make sure that we keep an eye on how and if the reduction through attrition and the reduction in aid hours affects student experience in 25-26. I appreciate the need to be fiscally responsible. We are fiduciaries and we are all living in very uncertain economic times. This budget keeps the tax increase within the tax cap. We have made reductions through this process and it's important for the community to know and understand that. However, I also want to comment briefly on the tax cap. While in my view, it is important for the purpose of preventing major spikes in the annual tax levy

166and to compel fiduciary responsibility, it is also an arbitrary calculation that is not in and of itself reflective of the real financial needs of the district. In that way, it complicates budgeting over a period of time. For our district, as is evident, educational needs have shifted over the past 10 to 12 years, especially since the tax cap came into being. For example, we now have a robust special education program and continuum, increased student mental health supports, safety and security additions and personnel, and now we have an electric vehicle bus mandate to manage and roll out. Further, we've become too reliant on fund balance, pulling from reserves in order to minimize the tax levy and also to pay for recurring expenses. This is not a sustainable practice, and in my view, it must end following this

167current budget cycle, especially to the degree that it's been going. Healthcare has also emerged as a real issue with major financial implications, and we need to monitor it closely. I'm appreciative that this budget supports the continuation of special classes into the middle and high school, creating an educational environment to serve our most vulnerable students in district. I note that there may be tuition paying students for these programs next year, hopefully increasing a point of revenue as well. I think that it's important for robust and ongoing engagement to take place with a special education parent community, including surveys, in order to fully understand how well student needs are being met by our programs and how we may continue to improve in future years. This budget includes capital improvements, such as a turf field at the high

168school. I am supportive of projects that thoughtfully improve the student experience, and I appreciate the inclusion of capital projects in a given budget. If capital needs are delayed or ignored for too long, it can create complications and can create more acute needs. Regarding athletics and other extracurriculars, such as music and the arts, I think these are best discussed in a more holistic framework of what we value as a district. These opportunities are so important to student belonging, mental health, and building community, the many aspects of life that I hope that we value and place an emphasis on for future budget planning. In conclusion, I'd like to highlight how important it is to be student-centered in our work, to listen and be responsive to student voices as best we are able. I would emphasize that parent

169voice is also essential to our work. Parents see their children in the home environment. They hear about their triumphs and struggles. They are advocates for their children. I would like to emphasize transparency, responsiveness, and clear communication as hallmarks of our process now and going forward. I vote yes to adopt the budget and look forward to the work that lies ahead. Thank you. Thank you, Leah. Amber? Happy to go next. Thank you to Dr. Patrick, Andrew Lennon, Lisa Zareski, and all the many district administrators and staff who participated in the development of the budget presented here tonight, or earlier, I guess. You have my gratitude for the countless hours you've spent developing the budget, listening to input from your staff in the fall, considering input from our community starting at the budget forum in November, and

170putting forth ideas for the board's consideration beginning in January. So much has changed since January on a macro level considering the uncertainty around the future of the Department of Education and federal funding sources. At the state level, newly defined mandates around cell phone policies and school tech temperature regulation laws and at our district level trying better to understand the impact of unexpected health care expenses on our ability to maintain excellence in education while balancing our fiscal responsibilities. I appreciate the efforts of everyone involved to help drive these discussions forward as they adjusted to the unexpected challenges while maintaining our focus on our students. The budget presented to us provides our community with the opportunity to adhere to our commitments to our students. While not every program or idea was fully funded and not every position

171was maintained, the board balanced its commitment to our students with consideration for our taxpayers during the development of this budget. This budget continues to maintain our traditional values ranging from smaller elementary class sizes, a middle school house structure, and student choice at the high school. This budget also honors our commitments to every student by supporting the continuation of our special education students as they move from the elementary school to the middle school in our 812 program and our middle school students to the high school in our 1211 program. More than anything, I would like to highlight the engagement we had from our students this budget cycle. This is my fifth budget season as a trustee, and the engagement of our students this year was unparalleled. I've enjoyed hearing from every one of our students who

172took the time to share their thoughts with us and want each of them to know that even if we could not meet every request, your perspectives were deeply valued. In conclusion, I would like to thank my fellow board members for conducting research, listening to our community, sharing their thoughts, and participating in robust discussions at the board table. I look forward to supporting this budget to keep our community steady regardless of the uncertainty around us. Thank you, Amber. Sure. I, too, am very proud and comfortable with the budget as proposed. I think that we have established a very supportive team structure. which has a thorough and clear framework for discussion and resolution. We debate, prioritize amongst ourselves, but constantly integrate community and student comments and feedback. I encourage the community to vote yes for the budget

173as it successfully supports our strategic plan. And I'd like to thank all of you, all of the many parties that put in long hours. Thank you, Bob. Thank you. So just a few words in support of the 2025-26 budget. So budget season is a time for examining expenses, assessing potential sources of revenue, and sometimes making painful choices. This budget season is no different. The balance reflected in our proposed budget continues and supplements our traditional strengths, small class sizes in elementary school, house system in the middle school, strong and diverse course offering at the high school, upgrades to our elementary school playground, and continue to focus on maintaining our special education classes and investments in athletics, school bus fleet, and our safety equipment. As is typical, 80% approximately of our costs are fixed employment-related expenses. And

174our revenues are comprised almost entirely of taxpayer funds, which gives us a very narrow range of expenses to cut. and a limited ability to raise additional revenue without raising taxes. In recent years, Scarsdale has bridged this gap between expense and revenue by utilizing fund balance. This year, we have again tapped fund balance to close the gap. Using fund balance to close an occasional revenue gap can make good sense, since otherwise the balance may grow too large at the expense of addressing the needs of the district and its students. But relying on fund balance to balance the operating budget year after year is simply not a sustainable path. Although I strongly and unequivocally support the budget we have put forward, I, like others, am concerned that continuing to draw upon fund balance is simply not sustainable.

175Therefore, while I do support the budget and will vote to adopt it tonight with enthusiasm, I urge the administration to plan to make less use. I wouldn't say no use but less use a responsible use of fund balance in future years so that we do not drain our reserves until such a time when we do not have them to address the inevitable unforeseen circumstances and emergencies for which they are maintained thank you Jim I guess I'm the only one left thank you I'd also like to support the 2025-26 school budget A school budget can be seen as a roadmap or blueprint of a community's values and priorities. Like ingredients on a food label, a school budget lists what a school community is made of. When I look at our school budget, what do I learn

176about Scarsdale? I see that Scarsdale is a community that invests in teaching and learning. Responsive to feedback regarding elementary classroom sizes, this budget preserves traditional small class sizes held as a pillar of a Scarsdale education for many, many years. I see that Scarsdale cherishes the whole child, maintaining K-12 social and emotional supports put in recent years to support our students through this ever-changing and stressful world. Adding a turf practice field at the high school and beginning an exciting elementary school playground redesign and replacement program, our budget says that play and belonging and mental and physical health are vital for our children. We want to keep our children safe. investing new funds to add door jar sensors and security cameras in our schools. We care and live up to our obligations, both legal and moral, providing

177mandated supports for our students with the most needs, as well as initiating the first phase in a long-term program to fulfill the mandated zero emissions vehicle requirements established by the state. The proposed budget also achieves efficiencies in staffing, with a net reduction of 7.5 FTEs. Being mindful of our taxpayers, the proposed budget stays within the tax cap, which is 3.4% this year. My thoughts on the tax cap have been articulated in the past, that it is an arbitrary number that is regressive in nature. We need to recognize that to be able to maintain what a Scargell education can deliver and not allow it to be degraded over time. In the meantime, this year's budget achieves the delicate balance we strive for between providing for the services and programs we expect a Scarsdale education to deliver

178while continuing to manage the fiscal headwinds facing many school districts such as ours. Thank you to Drew, Andrew, Lisa, and the full cabinet and administration for the many hours they have put into crafting this budget. I want to also thank the community for their feedback, partnership, and collaboration throughout this process and look forward to continuing our important student-centered work ahead together. I guess we already did the second for this, right? So I guess the motion passes. Oh, sorry. I got ahead of us. Sorry. It's getting late. We did a second. So all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. With that, the budget, do we have any no's or any discussion? No, the budget passes. Next on the agenda, item 13.02, the property tax report card. Do you want to take this, Andrew or Drew?

179Sure. This is an annual requirement. It reflects the information included in our budget for the coming year as well as our projected fund balance numbers at the bottom. Thank you. For the action item, this is Bob. Oh, sorry. Sorry, my board docs is a little screwy. Okay, Amber, thank you. No problem. I move the board accept the following, resolve that the Board of Education adopt the attached 2025-2026 property tax report card as presented. Thank you, Amber. Do we have a second? Thank you, Bob. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it, and the motion carries. Next we move on to our many gifts that we appreciate so much. The first one, 14.01, a gift proposal to the Edgewood School. I believe this one is Bob. Yes, I move that the

180board accept the following resolution, resolve that the Board of Education accepts with thanks to donation of $419 for the fifth grade reinforcers as presented. Thank you Bob is there a second Thank You Amber any discussion all those in favor please say aye ayes have it and the motion carries the next item would be 14.02 a gift proposal to the Fox Meadow School and this one is Leah thank you I move that the board adopt the following resolution resolved that the Board of Education accepts with thanks the gift of two thousand three hundred thirty six I'm sorry, $2,366 to purchase an art display aimed at showcasing student work and celebrating creativity as presented in the attached letters and supporting document. Thank you, Leah. Is there a second? Thank you, Colleen. Any discussion? All those in favor,

181please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it, and the motion carries with thanks. And the next item is another gift proposal to the Fox Meadows School. I believe this one is Colleen. Be it resolved that the Board of Education accept with thanks the donation of $65 for the Tower Garden Mineral Blend for Plant Growth and Nutrition as presented. Thank you, Colleen. Is there a second? Thank you, Leah. Any discussions? Am I reading the public content that seems to say the donation is $2,366 again when it's $65? I don't think that matters, but I just... Is that just something, do you see that? Oh, is that an error? Both of them have the same, right, it should be the six, okay. That's just an error, okay. Thank you for noting that, Amber. Well, given a correction to

182this, do we have a second for this motion? Any discussion? If there's discussion, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The ayes have it, and the motion carries with thanks. Item 14.04, gift proposal to Scarsdale Elementary Schools and the middle school. I believe this one is for Bob. Yes. Be it resolved that the Board of Education accepts with thanks the proposed gift for the elementary and middle school PDAs for $33,250 for author visits across all the schools as described in the attached memo. Thank you, Bob. Is there a second? Thank you, Leah. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it, and the motion carries with thanks. And the last of our gifts, 14.05, a gift proposal to Scarsdale District Fields. I believe this is Amber. Yes, thank you, Susie.

183I move that the board accept the following. Resolve that the Board of Education accepts with thanks seven AEDs valued at $15,225 to be placed on each of the district school fields to enhance the safety of student athletes, coaches, families, and community members who utilize these fields as presented. Thank you, Amber. Is there a second? Thank you, Colleen. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Ayes have it and motion carries with thanks. Next we'll be moving to item 15, the response and questions from those present. Our second public comment session of the evening. Members of the public are cordially invited to be present either in person or via remote means and to speak at designated times on agenda items or other non-personnel related matters. Each individual shall have four minutes to speak with a

184verbal cue at the three minute mark. There will be a 90 minute. during the first public period and no time limit for the second public comment. The order of public comment will be as follows. Community members present at the board meeting will speak first. Community members speaking via Zoom will speak second. Community members speaking via Zoom must have their camera turned on when it is their turn to speak. This might be a good time to do that now. The Board of Education shall maintain these rules for public comment in accordance with Board Policy 1230. And with that, I'd like to invite anybody from the audience to the podium who would like to make a public comment. laura manzano 313 heathcote road i have an elementary age and middle school age children thank you to the

185board for your thoughtful consideration of the bell to bell policy i'm grateful for the robust engagement around this issue from parents and students faculty and staff 400 plus signatures on a petition and over 300 responses to the district survey make an impactful statement this is an issue of great concern in this community As we work towards finalizing a policy for 2025 and beyond, I want to state that I agree it is important to include current high school students' perspectives. And I acknowledge that this proposed change will require some problem solving. And we can do that. Printed schedules, message boards, or just two of the solutions already suggested. By the time these potential changes take place, there will be three classes of students who must navigate a transition to a distraction-free day. I have great confidence

186that the initial pain points of implementing a new policy will reduce as each year passes and as we receive important feedback from students, parents, faculty, and staff. Speaking to some of the concerns already raised, in the case of children struggling with executive functioning, it is my understanding that the policy allows for exceptions and accommodations to be made if the case in fact rises to the bar of a necessary accommodation. But again, as already stated, I feel that we are as a district up to the task to come up with a lot of different solutions that we're not faced with just one solution, which is. have a cell phone only to make an accommodation we have a lot of choices available to us as it pertains to school communication by teachers i expect there are some

187real-time needs that may arise but i hope that communications can be managed in a way in an organized fashion that can be drafted sent and received perhaps at a given time at the end of the school day to again support a distraction free day during the school day thank you very much thank you Is there anybody else from the audience who would like to make a public comment? No? Okay. Then we will move to Zoom. Jim? There is an attendee on Zoom, and their hand is raised, so I'll promote them. Yes, hello, you've been promoted. If you could unmute yourself. Yeah, hi, good evening again. Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez, Fox Meadow Road. I listened intently to all of your comments on the budget, and I appreciate, of course, all the work that went into this from

188the district and certainly from the board. I am a little bit concerned with some of the comments I heard. Putting them all together, I realize I'm just digesting quickly what you all said. I get the impression that you're signaling that next year. there may be going beyond the tax cap and that does concern me. I understand and I agree with two of you that it's sort of arbitrary. The problem is that without the tax cap, my question then to you would be, what kind of guardrails are you going to put in place? As a district, we need to be responsible fiscally. I realize that the median household income in Scarsdale is $250,000. Obviously, that's just an incredible amount in the U.S. But remember, median means that half of the households earn $250,000 and half earn

189more than that. So even if the median income were $500,000, it doesn't mean that there should be no fiscal responsibility. And so when I hear that the tax cap is arbitrary, then my question to you would be. What kind of a metric would you place, you know, would you put in place or what kind of a benchmark would you put in place to demonstrate to taxpayers that indeed you're guarding each of our dollars? And that's the responsibility of the board, right? You're supposed to be, you know, always being mindful of us, the taxpayers. Also, I think especially if you if you go away from this guardrail, then parents are going to be asking you even more than we already ask you right now. what are the metrics that you are sharing with us, quantitative and

190qualitative metrics, to show us that indeed we are getting an ROE, a return on education, not a return on equity in this example. So I urge you to think about the importance of fiscal responsibility. Finally, we have a financial literacy class in the high school, which I very much supported last year and thrilled that you have it. So what kind of a signal are we sending to our students? if we're constantly going to be breaking the tax cap and if it isn't the tax cap what else are you going to put in place so that every one of our dollars is carefully guarded and so that indeed you show us that there is a good return on education as i said before i support this budget i will vote for it and i hope that

191all my fellow scarsdale residents take it upon themselves to actually look at the budget at least at the summary and i hope they show up and uh and vote whatever way they want, but I hope they will educate themselves and come in with facts and turn up to vote and improve the very, very low voter participation rate that we have. Thanks again, district and board, for the attention that you pay to these matters. Good night. Thank you. Is there anybody else on Zoom? Maybe we'll give them a couple seconds if they want to rejoin. We will wrap up this second public comment session of the meeting and move on to follow up to public comment. thank you and wrap up items we have some changes to make to the policy and we'll correct the PDF

192version of the student the student advice policy and that's it just a one reminder we will Now that the board has adopted a budget, we will update the budget book to reflect that this is an adopted budget that will be going to the public. And we'll send that out as a reminder to people. Thank you, Drew. Next on the agenda, meeting dates for the coming month. And this is Jim. Thank you, Susie. So meeting dates for the coming month, beginning Tuesday, April 22nd. There will be a special meeting for the SW BOCES vote. That's at 9 a.m. here in room 170, 172. On Monday, April 28th, 2025, there will be a special meeting slash executive session, if necessary, at 6 p.m. in this room. Monday, May 12th, 2025, there will be a meeting with a

193designated group at 5 p.m. at the High School Learning Commons. A special meeting slash executive session at 6 p.m. in this room. And a statutory budget hearing slash business meeting at 6.30. here in this room. Then on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025, there will be the public budget vote and board elections, which will take place between 7 and 9 p.m., and the vote will take place at the middle school gymnasium. Thank you, Jim. And with that, would someone like to make a motion to adjourn this business meeting? Thank you, Colleen. Is there a second? Thank you, Amber. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it and motion carries. Good night everybody. Thank you.