BOE Budget Study 2/Business Meeting 2025-3-3

001Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order and note that all board members are present. We're also joined this evening by Superintendent Dr. Patrick and members of his cabinet. So at this time, welcome to all those who have joined us this evening, either in the audience or tuning in our live stream or via Zoom. For tonight's session, we have added a public comment opportunity at the end of the budget study session before we adjourn and move into our business meeting. There will also be, as usual, two public comment sessions during the business meeting. Anyone who wishes can also email the board at boardofed at scarsdaleschools.org. The board welcomes your feedback throughout this budget process. And with that, I'd like to kick off budget study session number two. Pass it off to Drew. Thank

002you. Terrific. Thank you very much, Susie. I appreciate it. Okay. Well, I add my thanks to everyone present in person and tuning in. Tonight for budget study session number two, we will start with a brief overview of the budget process for those who might be new to the discussion. We'll follow that with an update to the preliminary budget plan that we presented to the board on February 3rd. This updated draft contains additional revenue assumptions and expense reductions equal to the $2 million gap that we ended budget study session number one with on February 3rd. Sorry about that. Uh-oh. Okay. Give me one second. Not sure where our meeting went. I don't think the BOE Zoom is added to that, so let me go to... Sorry, everyone. Thanks, Ben. Okay, I think we are back in

003business My apologies Too many things at once here. There we go Okay, sorry So together with the recommendation to use a signed fund balance and designated reserves to offset the tax levy Tonight's updated draft budget is at the tax cap level from there Good good. Okay. Thank you So from there, once we present that, we will complete the component budget presentations that we started last time, and those tonight will be in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, special education and student services, safety, security, and emergency management, and technology and innovation. Once my colleagues have shared their respective budget proposals, we will take stock of the complete budget picture at that point, answer questions, and discuss next steps as we look toward next Monday, March 10th, in Budget Study Session Number 3. Okay a few

004words about the budget development process as we've included in past slides the concept that the school budget provides the necessary financial resources to operate the school district and to help achieve the goals and objectives of the school district as set forth in the strategic plan so that is the the why here what we're after this model though maybe busy provides a sort of a bird's-eye view of the essential work and organizational structure of our school district the three spheres communicate the critical functions of the work with students and student learning situated in the center of it all importantly our budget is structured to support all three areas of the organization with teaching and learning held up by the operational and student support functions of course the Board of Education and Community Express provide input and

005guidance for all the work through governance and budgetary support. And tonight, these sort of are where these presentations lie in these different parts of our organizational structure. Also, as I've said in the past, this community has made remarkable commitments over time to establish an instructional program. to meet the needs of our students. At each level, elementary, middle, and high, the design of the instructional program reflects long-held community values. These structures foster favorable student-teacher ratios, create smaller learning communities within a larger school setting, and allow students to express agency over their course of study. For the sake of time, I won't repeat that discussion, but I will reiterate that the resources directed toward this fundamental organization of our schools create the strong foundation that allows us to focus on the whole child while pursuing innovation and

006thoughtful adaptations to meet the needs of our learners. And also, as we've shared previously, these are sort of four high-level principles that guide the administration's budget development and decision-making processes that we bring forward to the board and the community. So, of course, we're thinking about our recommendations in the context of the strategic plan, which outlines the priorities we're emphasizing. These priorities continue to reflect student achievement as the central goal of our work. We also consider the mandates and best practices and norms that have been in place or are new and that we have to respond to. And finally, we do look for opportunities to staff our programs as efficiently as possible to minimize the overall financial burden to our community. Okay, so with those concepts in mind, we're going to move to our 2025-6-26 draft

007budget plan. The first slide here is where we left off on February 3rd. with a draft budget at that time of $193,450,410, or a 4.42% budget-to-budget increase. And, of course, that was above the projected tax levy limit. draft budget also included estimated transfer from reserves about 1.281 million and the use of assigned fund balance similar to last year at one point or the same as last year as 1.1 million dollars this is the short version of that where we see the preliminary budget we see the budget to budget increase projected tax levy and the gap that I talked about earlier was reflected there at just over $2 million. So again, that's where we ended our discussion on Monday, February 3rd. So I'm going to spend a few minutes talking through several adjustments that we've made

008to the budget since a month ago, and I'm going to start with talking about increased revenue assumptions. I might ask Andrew to take the first one, the adjustment to the tax cap. Sure. Later this evening we'll hear some more about our EV bus infrastructure plan that I highlighted a bit last month. In the research we've been doing since our last budget study session, we do believe that those expenditures that we've included in the budget are considered to be capital expenditures in regards to the tax cap. So therefore, we have added that $64,000 to the tax cap calculation, essentially allowing us to raise the levy by a corresponding amount. Thank you. As we... approach the new school year it's hard to say that out loud in March but we are getting better information and refining our

009assumptions and our predictions so we did increase the estimated revenue budget by about $257,000 to account for incoming tuition paying students I will talk in a little bit of detail about this but we did have a conversation at our February 3rd meeting related to sports that fall outside of the section one in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's structure these include we talked specifically last time about squash fencing and crew dance is another activity that that we also fund currently in the budget so we went back and looked at heard heard public comment and looked at how we might still see a support for the budget help close some of this gap knowing that these sports do operate a little bit differently some of them having you know rental fees and and

010other types of fees associated with them and we put in the budget the idea that we would ask for parent contribution to enable those activities to run pretty much as they're currently struck that structured and we've estimated that as about fifty thousand dollars now with that said we are also continuing to look at how to reduce our expenditures we have contracts you know with different facilities how might we be more efficient in our transportation do we need the same number of adults that we provide to be to be part of that so that any savings that we think we can achieve between now and the start of the school year in those areas would come off of this amount so that amount that we need to raise would be less and we continue to we've

011already identified some What we think can be some achieved cost savings there so that hopefully this represents a very outside high number of what we might need to collect from our athletes families for these to run. So that's our proposal as it stands tonight. And the final piece would be to add an additional $90,900 of assigned fund balance in addition to the 1.1 million to Fund the architect engineering construction management pre referendum costs that would ultimately be bonded if if we pass a referendum and then return to fund balance That that's the proposal there together these adjustments to revenue and fund balance usage amount to four hundred and sixty one thousand nine hundred and two dollars on the other side in terms of expenditures We've identified a number of additional reductions, and I'm going to

012walk through these. First, in the area of contracted services, we've identified an additional reduction of $100,000 in our facilities budget for contract costs. We've identified $75,000 reduction in leadership development in a contract cost there. That would just mean not doing something that we do now. We've identified $150,000 as we have a sense of related services that we contract out that our students will need next year. We've lowered that budget by $150,000, which we think is an accurate reflection of what we need for our students. We have some software reduction of underutilized services in the technology area. and an additional collection of about $25,000 of reduced costs in professional development. All told, in the contractual area, that's about $382,000. Next, in the area of salary and wages, we are proposing reducing... teacher aid hours in the

013amount of about two hundred and twenty six thousand dollars how that would actually look is work to be done but that amount is roughly a ten percent reduction in eight hours across our general education aid budget we've also identified two additional FTE teaching positions to reduce one of them so it's a little tricky it's actually we've identified three positions we see based on enrollment we are predicting a shrink or a collapse of one of our ICT sections which is two teaching positions so that's just due to a regular enrollment projections that we have right now and the third position is congratulations to her but our high school instructional technology specialist Meredith Dutra has accepted a position to be a director of technology in North Salem School District so we would reduce that position through attrition

014but we also spoke last month about reducing our contingency positions from two to zero and what we would propose with this change is to restore one of those to continue to operate on our elementary class size guidelines as currently constituted so we would restore that out of those three positions we would take a reduction of two and push one back into the contingency category In addition, we have also another $100,000 in reductions related to wage and cost assumptions, some increases we had budgeted in program improvement that we're scaling back, and then also some other wage assumptions there. So that totals about $623,000 in lower expenditures. In the area of benefits, We had budgeted a $20,000 increase Sorry, we had We doubt I was jumping to boces and benefits we have gotten a more realistic calculation

015at this point of our employee cost share you'll remember last year we Negotiated and instituted a health reserve stabilization adjustment. We're now closer to the point where we were able to project what that would look like for next year. Between that and other member cost share items, we're reducing our budget by $250,000 in that area. And then the employee benefits associated with the reductions in the previous line, about $51,000 there. So in benefits, a total of just over $300,000 in reductions. In our BOCES code, we have two reductions there. One is we had, and Edgar can talk a little bit about this in his section of the budget, but we had budgeted an increase of $20,000 in the garden program, and the plan here would be to keep it flat from the current year, keep

016the current program as is. And then we have an additional reduction in... codes that are connected to our predicted but unanticipated special education costs. So we're closer services that we need through BOCES. So we're closer to having a sense of where we're going to be next year and we reduce that line. And then finally, in supplies, tax, and materials, we had budgeted New line for cell phone storage given the governor's proposal We'll talk more about that later tonight in the business meeting But we're pulling that out of the budget knowing the governor has budgeted or plans to include money in the budget for that for school districts or We find some other existing solution such as lockers The high school had come forward and we had included a $45,000 increase in the student activities line.

017We have scaled that back to be an increase of only $15,000 with the intention to come forward each of the next two years after this with another $15,000 to get to that $45,000 increase by the end of three years. And then a variety of other codes totaling $17,000. So that brings us to reduced expenditures of just under $1.6 million. So together, the revenues and additional fund balance plus the reduced expenditures amount to that previously described gap of $2,061,479. So what you see here on this slide is tonight's draft budget plan. with total expenditures of 191,504,833 or a 3.55% budget-to-budget increase. Again, continuing the transfer from reserves, the ERS reserve and the health reserve, as we had previously proposed. the assigned fund balance of $1.1 million plus that additional $90,900 in architect engineering and other pre-referendum

018fees that are in the budget, taking that from fund balance for a total tax levy of $175,813,222, or a 3.4% tax levy increase over the current year. I thought it made sense, since we've talked about a number of different positions, to just kind of give a summary of the positions that we've talked about. Megan, you can catch me if I'm not saying something right here. This budget does still include the proposed two additional special education positions to bring the 812 class to the middle school and the 12-1 class to the high school. We talked about restoring that one contingency position that had been cut from the February 3rd budget. And we had added a teaching assistant position this year in the current year, but after the budget was passed, we anticipate needing that position next

019year. So it's technically a budget add, even though it's not – we hadn't really talked about that that way. In terms of reductions, so that two contingency position just comes back to one. I'm just putting this all on a slide so everyone has kind of a handle on this. We're reducing that elementary position due to enrollment, an elementary coordinator position due to attrition. We're proposing reducing .4 in ART K-12 to accomplish the same program with scheduling efficiencies. We're proposing a world language reduction. That reduction would occur through attrition. Half FTE math position that we had added in this year, we're proposing to reduce at the high school. I just talked about the high school technology support position, eliminating that through attrition. We have two additional teaching FTE that we're still... identifying and having conversations about

020that I've shared with the board and then on the non teaching side we have a data services position that we're proposing to eliminate it's currently unfilled but was was filled earlier this year that person didn't continue and we're gonna try to live without that and then the eight hours that that I talked about but just trying to summarize that on a slide Andrew talk about the tax cap Yes, the exciting slide. So on the left-hand side of this slide, you'll see the 24-25 current year tax levy is our starting point, the same as it was last time we met. Tax-based growth factors apply to that. We add back the pilot revenues we anticipated to receive in the current year and then subtract from that the capital exclusions that were allowed in the current school year's

021tax levy calculation. That is then adjusted by the allowable growth factor or CPI. The lesser of CPI are 2%. It is 2% this year, and it will be that next year as well. There's no adjustment for pilots on the right-hand side because that pilot is expiring and no longer applicable. So then we just adjust for the new year's capital exclusions, and this is the number that was adjusted from the prior board meeting where we showed. where we adjusted for the infrastructure lease related to the EV buses. So this is the line where you'll see that adjustment. And it results in a 2526 tax levy limit of $175,813,222, or an increase year over year of 3.4%. Again, the tax levy cap simply means that if we stay at or below that number, we need a simple

022majority vote to pass this budget. So this slide has been updated as well to reflect all the revenue items that Dr. Patrick referred to a few minutes ago. You'll see the adjustments include the property tax line, which is where that tax cap adjustment came into play, the tuition for those special education seats that we think we can have other districts fund through the placement of their students in our programs. We've got other revenue sources related to the... the non-sanctioned sports that we talked about earlier, and then the adjustment on the appropriated fund balance line for the architect and CM fees that if the capital project referendum that we anticipate going through passes, we would then return those funds to the general fund and charge them to the bond. And this is the updated slide reflecting

023the new revised draft budget as well as the budget-to-budget increase and the levy increase amounts. And you'll see here that we are now technically neither above or below the tax levy limit. We're at $0 difference to the tax levy limit cap, so we get a simple majority vote. Okay. So that brings us to our component budgets, and we will start with Curriculum Instruction and Assessment and Edgar. Thank you, Drew. and Board of Education and entire cabinet and all those in person remotely or who are joining us for this budget presentation. I appreciate the opportunity to highlight the essential areas of this curriculum instruction and assessment that this budget supports. I'll start with some of our guiding principles in the realm of curriculum instruction and assessment and then give some details about what this budget provides.

024Most importantly, students are at the center. We must check back to see that we are using our financial resources in ways that meaningfully, holistically, and positively influence student development in all ways and ask the question, can this be connected to student learning and student thriving? We have framed our educational reports around a practice of responsive change, meaning all change should be research-based, collaborative, supported, and appropriately patient. This budget is also guided by the principle that multiple perspectives and authentic experience enhance learning. A curriculum that invites multiple perspectives develops students' critical thinking skills, builds empathy, and develops the skills that prepare them to negotiate and thrive in a modern global community. Authentic learning experiences and meaningful assessments push our students to think outside of the constraints of single disciplines, apply their synthesized learning, and demonstrate it

025and apply it in meaningful ways. For program improvement, program improvement relies on using internal expertise and harnessing experts in the field to design and update our methods and curriculum to better meet the needs of our students. A substantial amount of this work is done during the summer months when Scarsdale teachers come together to think, plan, innovate, coordinate, and make meaningful changes to the curriculum. We are not a district that reads from curricular scripts or mass how-to manuals, but rely on our experienced and talented educators to innovate, adapt, refine, and improve on existing curricula to make them relevant and inspiring to their students. As many in education know and research supports, that clear adherence to learning standards, evidence-based practice, and common tools and language is important, but so is teacher agency. That means there should be

026opportunities to craft, curate, and adapt quality resources and meaningful progressions as a means of developing curriculum and aesthetic education. The arts are strengthening and affirming for our students and essential to a whole student approach. This is not the only funding for the arts. This is a centrally funded budget item that provides enrichment opportunities beyond school scheduled and PTA funded opportunities and allows for select assured experiences that can be flexible based on the goals of the building and revealed opportunities. Interdependence and Global Initiatives. The Interdependence Institute fosters the development of intercultural skills that teachers and students need to deepen global understanding and broaden their international perspectives. Through partnership and exchanges, students and faculty develop the skills needed to successfully navigate the complexities of an increasingly interdependent world. The Interdependence Institute has also sponsored author and expert

027visits to enrich and inspire the student experience. We've successfully expanded and engaged our global network through admission into the Round Square Consortium, an organization that connects multiple international schools in meaningful and globally important ways. Here, up there is a photo of two of our Scarsdale students taken a few weeks back hosting and facilitating a conversation. This one was called Discourse and Freedom of Expression in an Increasingly Polarized World with close to 30 international peers. It was a very early morning Zoom to accommodate students across several time zones. We are entering our fourth year as active members in the Global Education Benchmarking Group and look forward to deepening our partnerships through virtual and in-person international connections. Professional Development Program at Scarcell Teacher Institute. STA Article 9 funds competitive project grants. Each year over 100 teachers receive

028funds for conference attendance, school year research, or workshops. Individual awards are limited to $1,200 per year. The total funding is negotiated in contract with Scarsdale Teacher Association. The Scarsdale Teacher Institute provides continuing education to Scarsdale faculty. SDI is funded by the district and teacher tuitions. The district funds the administrative salary of the SDI director and provides an allocation for support of the SDI program. The funding level of the SDI is contractually negotiated with the Scarsdale Teacher Association. Our SDI is an important element of the work we do in Scarsdale. The SDI reflects the needs and interests of diverse educators and courses are informed and generated by Scarsdale initiatives and values. Importantly, there is a coordination between STI leadership and district. Director Anne-Marie Nee, Megan Troy, and I meet regularly to coordinate our resources and work

029hand-in-hand to align and support district priorities. A major benefit is that the STI provides essential interdisciplinary collaboration across content and levels, and from it, new learning can result in course creation and structural change. STAC classes, kind of STI mini-seminars, continue to go strong and engage external and internal expertise on a range of topics. Next. Community for Inquiry and Innovation. The purpose of the Community for Inquiry and Innovation, formerly known as the Center for Innovation, is to reimagine teaching and learning, develop new models of instruction, explore the role of technology in transforming instruction, and foster widespread change beyond a single classroom or teacher. An analysis of this work, its scope, reach, and impact led us to expand on the mission of the CFII to be more inclusive and nimble in the challenges and opportunities that are

030facing educators. Powerful structures have grown out of the CFII. ones that have lasting positive influence on student experiences. We are working to broaden the participation by expanding on the original language and are looking to invite a larger and more diverse group of Scarsdale educators and innovators to engage in its resources and structures. More on this in the months ahead. Ongoing professional development is essential to our goal of assuring up-to-date, student-centered, and evidence-based teaching across our schools. Examples of this include the transformational work we've done through research for better teaching, through Skilled Full Teacher, Responsive Classroom, as well as Assured Training for educators that align closely with department, school, and grade level goals across the content areas. This learning can happen on-site through internal or visiting experts or off-site through workshops, conferences, or collegial networks. Sustainability.

031This budget is to fund gardening sustainability initiatives in all seven schools and support projects reviewed by the District Sustainability Committee. This spring you can look for the impressive physical impacts on the Quaker Ridge Garden moving to the interior courtyard as part of a responsive improvement rotation. There are opportunities for us to support the work with our educators who have weighed in on improvements to better align with our curriculum. That little video shows a special project that was done at Fox Meadow where they were, that's the drip, drip of real maple sap to be turned into maple syrup. research and systems evaluation. One of the district's ongoing goals is to use meaningful data to improve instruction. This budget includes funds to bring in committees of college professors who work with teachers to develop, validate, and assess

032high school curricular offerings, including a rotation to evaluate the college equivalents of our advanced topics courses. This budget also provides funds to assess the district's strategic initiatives. Recent district-wide surveying on belonging and developmental relationships falls under this category as well. We are scheduled for a tri-state consortium visit as part of our three-year cycle. The consortium is a valuable assessment tool and the recommendations have been powerful levers for program change, as you've seen most recently in the improvements in the last five years to MTSS structures and primary reading. In May, we have a focus on our K-12 assessments, benchmarking how they reflect the values of our strategic plan, research, collaboration, support, and patience. In past budget presentations, I described the importance of these elements. I described how this relates to curriculum changes in elementary math and

033reading, integrated studies, and the nuanced work in belonging. We anticipate that improvement work will grow from our tri-state assessment review upcoming. Funding for this budget not only provides the resources for positive change, it assures that Scarsdale continues to lead the way. Multiple perspectives and authentic experiences enhance learning. Through critical examining different voices, ideas, and opinion, and having the resources and educator support to do so, students get a deeper understanding of history, current events, and social and societal trends that shape our world. Authentic experiences are engaging and meaningful to students, ones that relate to their sense of purpose and experiences, which connect to our goals on student-centered and project-based learning, and the exciting social entrepreneurship and science research that's fueling and motivating our students. Simply put, both by engaging in multiple and diverse ideas and engaging

034in authentic learning experiences, our students get smarter, more skilled, and are better equipped to thrive in our globally connected world. So, these are some slides that were referred to before the numbers were referred to curriculum research and professional development. This covers curriculum program improvement, district-wide compact learning assessment and data analysis and tri-state collaborations, inquiry and innovation, in-service training and instruction. Now, the reductions from what was proposed in budget section one and BOCES professional learning program and program improvement work help offset the budget to budget growth. Next slide. Curriculum supervision and instruction budget to budget variance reflects administrative salary increase. Salary increases offset by staffing adjustments articulated earlier in the presentation. Inflation adjusted per pupil allocations and salary and wages due to co-curricular stipends and high school extra classroom activity clubs. Next. These budget lines fund

035the professional development program in the Scarsdale Teacher Institute, ongoing professional development for teachers and staff articulated in the Scarsdale Teacher Association Collective Bargaining Agreement. The increase here reflects the contractual salary and benefit changes as well as the expense of contractual summer days for the SDI director. Okay. Thank you very much, Edgar. And I'm going to turn it over to Eric for special education and then student services and then SSEM. Very good, thank you. And thank you to the board. Good evening. Special education's role focuses on providing our most vulnerable students with the services they need to access the areas outlined in our strategic plan, learning, living, and leading. While there are a wide range of students and a wide range of needs, the work can be summed up in really five points. All students can

036learn and all students have strengths. students do best when they're served in the least restrictive environment that's educationally appropriate. We must provide students with the supports outlined in their IEP. Parents must be part of the process. And we must provide an appropriate continuum of services. So as we move on, we're going to start by looking at kind of who we are. Currently there are 627 students with an IEP. It represents about 14% of our population. Our classification rate is lower than that of the state and county, which are 19 and 17% respectively. As you can see, there's been a rising trend in rates over the past 10 years. Specifically, we've gained 256 special education students over the past 10 years with the biggest increases coming in the last six. 504s have also seen a similar

037increase over this time frame, both in Scarsdale and across the state and nation. Next one. Over the last years, our major focus of our work has been to expand the continuum to allow more of our students to be educated within the district. This effort through our SSP programs, which is the Scarsdale Support Programs, and special class programs have significantly reduced the numbers of students needing outside placements. While costs overall have risen given the increasing number of CSE students, the 50% rise in the last seven years, the SSP program and the special classes have realized a net savings for the students needing significant support. Later in this presentation, we'll look at the financial impact, the request for expansion in the special class program will have. However, this number represents much more than a financially appropriate move.

038It's extremely beneficial to the families that can send their kids to district schools and benefit from being educated in the community that they live and the social and academic opportunities that it provides. The state recognizes a number of programs on what it calls the continuum. given we have spoken a lot both in our December presentation on special education and our BOE meeting where we discuss personnel makes sense to take a minute or two to outline the continuum and what we offer within the district IDEA or the individuals that disabilities Education Act requires students to learn in the least restrictive environment that is educational appropriate and it recognizes four main types of programs that districts can provide consultant teacher, resource room, ICT, and special class. And those are in order from least to more restrictive. Next

039slide. In addition to the programs, the state does set staffing ratios to the programs, as you can see here. And moving from here, we'll take a look at some of the programs we offer. On the elementary level, all of our buildings have learning resource center, which services students needing pre-referral services, consultant teacher services, or resource room services. We have integrated co-teaching classes at four out of our five elementary schools with K classes starting every year at two of our buildings. Our most intensive special programs are the Bridge Program, which is a 12 to 1 program, and our Intensive Support Program, which is an 8 to 1 to 2 program, and they are housed at the Edgewood School. As you can see here, there's a consistent enrollment in all of our ICT classes with a range

040of three to four sections of ICT in each grade. Currently, QRS or Quaker Ridge has the most sections, but over the next two years, all four of our schools housing ICT will have comparable numbers of sections. Our special classes are all enrolled at a level that make an in-district program more cost effective than out-of-district placements. Additionally, it's an area we can look to to take on students from other districts as a revenue stream. Currently, there is only one out-of-district student paying tuition in the district, in SHS, but we have accepted two additional students, one to start later this year and one to start in September in our special classes, and there are currently three other students being considered. elementary programs represent the breadth of the special education continuum and have dramatically lessened our reliance on

041out of district placements at the elementary level and allowed the vast majority of students to attend a district school our elementary school programs are in place and we do not see program expansion aside from sectioning moving forward the district has has three has had three to four sections enter K over the past five years of ICT and we are projecting three for this current year coming up Moving on to secondary, at our middle school, we have learning resource centers in all houses, which offer consultant teacher and resource room services. On the sixth and seventh grade, the parallel offers a mix of true ICT in science and social studies and special class options in math and English. The eighth grade parallel currently offers the same special classes with push-in services for science and social studies. The

042bridge program, the 12 to 1 program, is present at the middle school, as is our Scarsdale support program. The SSP is a combination of both resource room and counseling and serves as a specialized program for students with social and emotional disabilities. At the high school, we also have consultant teacher and resource room serve through our learning resource center and the Scarsdale support program, which is similar to the one in the middle school. We do not have ICT options currently at SHS, but our skills level classes serve students, although in a general education setting, who have academic challenges and need a smaller, more structured class. We are currently building continuum at the secondary level. SMS has introduced pedagogic ICT into the sixth and seventh grade and will be moving up to eighth grade next year. There

043is also a plan to expand ICT service to English and math in the sixth grade in this coming year. Both of these changes do not require additional staff for next year. However, if ICT is begun in the sixth grade math and English, it will represent a two-section increase, and that increase will require additional staff member next budget cycle to continue the program into seventh and eighth grade. As you all know, there are students in our 8 to 1 to 2 class who will age into the middle school for the 25-26 school year, and the FTE expansion sought in this budget is to accommodate that expansion. We'll discuss the financials around that and the high school expansion shortly as they actually represent a savings over using outside placements. At SHS, we have the narrowest curriculum, mainly

044due to the lack of ICT offerings. Our skills program does serve as a more supportive class for students in need of more academic support. Similar to the middle school, we're planning to add the 12-to-1 special class to accommodate students in the 8th grade currently during the 25-26 school year. Looking forward this year's addition of the 8 to 1 to 2 completes the special class continuum for the students at SMS if we expand the ICT program into English 6 and math 6 for the coming year there will be a need for an additional staff member next budget cycle we do believe that the additional staff member would complete the need at the middle school level and at this time we do not believe we would need the possible staff member listed in the 27-28 budget cycle

045on the chart here At the high school, the special class program would require a three-staff total, including this year's request. We'll spend some time momentarily going through the financial projections of using an in-district program versus out-of-district placements to review the sustainability of proposing these new additional programs. We have also discussed the need to expand ICT to the high school. However, the timing of ICT is represented here as an ideal. other words this is the earliest we could start ICT but doesn't represent when we have to in order to complete the introduction of ICT to the high school there would there will be a need of one to two additional staff needed the final need will depend on how many students leave our skills or resource route programs and what staffing that frees up for ICT

046with that being said the request for the 25-26 budget is for one additional FTE to service the current eighth grade cohort in our 12 to 1 program This is a combination of the three charts I shared over the last slides and provides the district view of programming needs through 28-29. This projection would complete the continuum of services district-wide. We have tried to account for a range that would be realistic if either the best or worst case scenarios were to occur, and most likely the actual need would fall into the lower end of the range provided. I'd like to focus now on the current request for the special class teachers. As I've said previously, the current FTE requests represent a savings over the use of outside placements. Nine years ago we started the 12 to 1

047program and five years ago we started the 8 to 1 to 2 program. Both decisions stem from identifying a critical mass of students within the district that made it both pedagogically and financially preferable to develop an in-house program. starting those programs we returned students to the district from outside placements and served incoming students to the district the next slide present the cost of our in district programs in contrast to what we would spend using outside programs and forecast that cost over five years excuse the small numbers I will take a moment to outline the cost assumptions for both the in district and out of district forecasts both on a district wide on this slide and for the specific requests this year on the next slide For in-district program costs, we estimated the enrollment numbers for

048next year based on the incoming K students and the survival of all current students in the program. For enrollments moving forward, we have made an assumption of 1.5 students entering the programs each year. This 1.5 addition is lower than the current enrollment per grade, which is a 2.1. In the cost projections for staff, we have used fully loaded costs of all staff needed, that's salary and all benefits for teachers, assistants, and aides. We have added new staff costs when they are identified in the staffing projections. Additionally, we have added other district costs, PD, renovation, supplies, and the district costs fluctuate as the programs move or expand according to the schedule of the special class expansion we showed earlier. For the out-of-district program cost assumptions, we've used the current costs for comparable programs as a basis

049for estimating the cost of sending our current students to outside placements. And we've added the cost of one additional transportation run as a placeholder. Given there are seven students transitioning to the middle and high school now, there would be additional transportation costs as one additional bus would not be sufficient. But it is impossible to tell the actual need until we have the programs recommended. Finally, we looked at how tuition students would further mitigate costs. The district has currently accepted two new students for the special class elementary programs, one who will start later this month and one who will start in September. We are actively looking at three additional students. I've added the revenue from two students for next year and estimate an additional 0.5 students in the years coming up to a total of four.

050To illustrate how revenue adjusts the cost of these programs. These additional students are not counted in the enrollment numbers and their revenue is accounted for separately. Finally, we've used a cost escalation of 3% from year to year. So as you can see, the cost differential is on the bottom, both including the revenue from tuition students and excluding. And there is a significant savings over those programs. If we move to the next slide. This represents the current request separated from the wider special class program. As you can see, if we were to remove the current FTE request from the budget, we would need to increase the overall special education budget by approximately $230,000 in order to accommodate the seven students currently in classes who are at transition points. Thank you for allowing me to take the

051time to set the context for this next slide, which really shows the total special education requested budget, and it represents a 4.7% increase, and that includes the FTE requests. The request continues all current programming and services in addition to the two FTEs. The reduction since last budget version represent a more focused look at our expected out-of-district placements and needs for related services. It also reduces the available funds for unknown costs that do occur within special education, but based on past experience, we believe that this allotment is sufficient to meet our needs in our special education. The next two are shorter with not a lot of context to begin. Student services includes guidance, psychological and social work services, and health services. This budget presents a continuation of all current staffing, counselors, and SHS deans and guidance.

052It includes the Scarchill-Edgemont Family Counseling Contract for youth outreach workers in both the middle and high schools. And the board will be approving that contract later on separately. The current 25-26 proposed budget for the youth outreach workers is $325,000. Psychological and social work services, this includes all of the salaries for current school psychologists and social workers, 11 school-based psychologists, two district-level psychologists and a behaviorist, and two school-based social workers. And funding for the contracted social workers on the elementary school level is also included here. then finally health services this includes all salaries for current district nurses and the nurse provided to IHM school and it covers maintenance of all of our AED machines across the district and our district physician contract the savings since the last budget session are mainly small adjustments and supplies and

053travel budgets for the whole of those codes Our safety, security, and emergency management budget focuses on how we provide an external layer of safety and security to all buildings. These include our safety monitors. Currently, we have 18 monitors on duty throughout the day and through most after-school activities. It includes our visitor management system, our integrated lockdown system, our digital mapping and camera access for first responders, and this year's budget will continue the modest expansion of our camera system and our door jar sensors. Okay, thank you very much, Eric, and I'm going to invite Jeannie Crowley to the microphone for technology and innovation. Hi, everyone. Can you hear me okay? Yeah? Okay. My name is Jeannie Crowley, Director of Technology and Innovation. This evening I will review the technology budget, but before I begin, I'd like

054to bring your attention to the 2.1% that I put on the first slide. You'll notice during the presentation some larger dips and rises in individual budgets, but the key takeaway is we are able to maintain our technology services with an overall 2.1% increase from last year. I'd like to start with some high-level context for our department. We have robust investment through our lease purchase program in one-to-one devices and interactive boards grades K through 12. The lease purchase program also supports annual investments in our infrastructure. These annual investments keep our infrastructure up to date, which is a critical component of our cybersecurity readiness. This budget, next slide. This budget also supports our instructional technology software. Although the subscription costs continue to rise, we have processes in place to ensure that we're thoroughly reviewing the usage levels

055before renewing subscriptions. Through this review process, we've been able to reduce subscriptions of underutilized services, helping offset ever-rising subscription costs. Our first area is technical services. The technical services budget allows our team to maintain public presentation spaces, maintain classroom interactive boards and displays, provide physical wireless access to the network, and if you're watching this presentation on Zoom, it's thanks to the network of the technical services team that that's possible. Next slide, please. All right. Technical services budget has an expected annual increase in salaries and wages of around $11,700. There's a modest increase of $5,000 to anticipate cost and rising wiring and installation fees. Our second technology area is instructional technology. The budget covers the district's internet access, internet filter, library databases, inventory software, student device management, antivirus software, and instructional software. What you see here

056is just a small sample of the instructional software we offer to district students and faculty. We have a wide range of services, including software to support music, 3D animation, robotics, coding, virtual labs, math assessments, writing and reading support, interactive elementary activities, research and citation, academic integrity, science exploration, physical education, software to differentiate for learners with different needs, and software to support our ENL learners. Next slide, please. Some details about our budget-to-budget changes in instructional technology. Although software prices continue to rise, you'll hear me say that every single year, we're able to offset increases in the instructional technology budget by reducing underutilized and eliminating unused services. This resulted this year in a reduction of $16,232 in this budget despite rising software costs. We have expected salary increases that account for about $29,000. Moving down a line,

057we have about $19,000 to anticipate increases in kind of back-of-the-house software, Microsoft, inventory software, help desk services, those sorts of things. And then finally, you'll see a reduction of $6,000 in the BOCES line. Even though the BOCES service went up 4%, we were able to offset by reducing unused services in this area. Go ahead and next. Our third area is administrative services and includes the district's data services team, which I like to call the circulatory system of the school. The data services team maintains all of the district's data for students and staff, develops data integrations to support daily teaching and learning activities, transportation, food services, human resources, the business office, and state reporting. The data services team also provides direct support to those entering and utilizing data in the district. Also included in this budget

058is the technical support for administrators, counselors, secretaries, custodians, all staff in the central office, the bus compound, the grounds and maintenance buildings. As mentioned previously, we've reduced one unfilled position in the administrative technology line. About $12,000 in contractual services is covered by anticipated price increases. This would have been a much larger increase, but it was offset by the completion of the transition to Envision, and it reduced our carrying costs. We got rid of our old finance and HR system. That cost came off, so it really helped reduce the overall rise in this budget. And also in the BOCES service line, you'll see here we had another project completion. We'll no longer have the carrying cost of the old website. That cost will come off as our new site launches in April. This will enable us

059to have a $22,000 reduction for BOCES data services for next year. Next slide. Our final area of the technology budget is a lease purchase program. Through lease purchases, the technology department is able to support devices for all students along with replacing of aging interactive boards in each school. The lease purchase plans helps ensure we have adequate funding to replace end-of-life infrastructure. Thank you, thank you. For switches, wireless access points, the phone system servers, and things like this that are not the exciting part of technology but very important for our cybersecurity readiness. The lease purchase program continues to have robust investment in both classroom and infrastructure technologies. There's a modest increase of $8,000 to reflect a reduction in old debt coming off and then a slight increase in interest. That concludes the technology presentation. I'll hand

060it back to Dr. Patrick. Thank you very much Jeannie I appreciate that just two concluding slides before we get to questions We do have three important budget related topics Discussion and information items coming up two of them are this evening These are things that either are or potentially impact the budget depending on what decisions are made So our transition electric buses as Andrew spoke about a little bit earlier. That'll be during the regular business meeting tonight followed by a board discussion of the joint district village athletic field study so those are two things just want to point out that are deeper dives into those areas next week on monday we are having an information item on our scarsdale self-insured health plan including our consultant patrick calvern who will be joining us via zoom to discuss

061that so just wanted to keep that out in front and then back to a look at our discussion timeline again we are in budget study session number two tonight on march 3rd this is we've just completed for the first time all of the components of the budget tonight and then next week will be a budget plan update based on tonight's conversation and just a full overview of the budget um fall goes according to plan we'll hold the uh we will hold the budget forum in review on march 24th in this room and then on april 7th would be the deadline for the board to adopt the budget in time for us to meet our statutory obligations and then the budget vote and election is on tuesday may 29th and that brings us to questions well

062thank you drew um and to your cabinet for putting together this presentation and it really represents i think um that you heard a lot of what the community had to say between budget study session number one and two. And so we really appreciate that and the deep dives into these sections. So with that, I just wanted to open it up to the board and ask if anyone has any questions. Amber? I'm gonna start by echoing Susie's thanks. This was clearly a lot of work on everyone's part. So I appreciate the time and thought that went into this. My first question is really just about slide 15. I want to make sure I understand some of the potential reductions. So with the art, world language, secondary world language, and high school math, are we anticipating changes

063to students' choices for classes, or are we thinking class sizes might get a little bigger? Is there any thought as to how those might be addressed when it comes to it? I think they're a little bit different each of them so I think our thinking right now is the art and the world language is should be really no change to the student experience it's efficiency and scheduling and how we do that the math would have an impact on class size that's undoubtedly would for at least some sections And the .5 math we had added was originally for financial literacy, and I believe a multivariable calculus section. We would still offer the financial literacy classes, just that some other math class, I mean, including that one, may be larger. We're not actually not offering those classes.

064That's right. Okay, thank you. And then just related to that, we had a proposal for... I think it was a math coordinator in the original staffing is that is that no longer included in this I don't see it as an addition so I just wasn't sure where that landed well what what we're looking at now is the the continuation of not adding the math coordinator but the continued continuation of four coordinator positions and then us shifting our our needs the upcoming year towards maintaining two math coordinators to help continue to support and then looking at ways to help continue the ongoing work in ELA in a variety of different ways. So sorry we would right now we have four is that right? Yes right now we have five full-time elementary curriculum coordinators. When we had

065original some years back we had four. We came to the board three years ago in this process asking for a second math coordinator. But at that time, we had said we expect that to be a two-year engagement or commitment associated with our transition to new materials. And we came to you this year asking to maintain that position. was not an add to the budget. It was a change in our ask. Since that moment we came to you, we have a retirement, happens to be an ELA coordinator, not a math coordinator. And what we think the best professional decision to make would be, yes, to reduce from five to four, given our circumstances, but to continue for next year. two math and then have one ela instead of the other way around okay uh to continue

066supporting the math program and we would reevaluate that because these are certified teachers who can go back into the classroom if that's what you know if that's what's needed um we so we have some flexibility there so we're not really approving a new position because you're just It's not an FTE ad. It's actually an FTE reduction. So we are proposing next year to be, I'm going to say it this way, back where we said we'd be three years ago. You're just allocating them differently? What we're assigning them to do is different than it was three years ago. It would have been two ELA and one math, and now we're looking at one ELA and two math for next year. I think so I probably need to process it for a minute I do find it

067a little confusing but that is helpful so Thank you for all your work I'd like to echo those comments the reduction in teacher aid hours so will there be does that mean there'll be fewer teacher aides just they won't be there for as much of the day do we have a feeling of what the practical implications of that shift will be I'll start and you want to pick up Megan so we our teacher aides are amazing they're they do great work the majority of them are in our elementary schools as you know if you were you know parent of an elementary school student we do have a challenge because they're all part-time there is turnover quite a bit from year to year. So we experience attrition. They move on to other opportunities. Some become educators.

068Some become our teaching assistants. So exactly, like right now, we can't pin down exactly what it will be. We need to work with our buildings to figure out whether it is the same number with, let's say, two or three hours less in a week for that individual aid. or whether we can meet the needs with one fewer aid at that building, and that reduction is all of the hours. It remains to be seen, I would say. Megan, I don't know if you... No, I would just I would say similar to some of our other positions looking at scheduling efficiencies and how we can ensure that the needs are being met but possibly changing and adjusting some of the hours Will there just will there be kind of an ongoing eye on how it affects the

069student experience? Absolutely and then The .5 social worker, I don't know if it was .5, but it was a social worker for smaller elementaries that was brought up initially in the very beginning, but I don't see at all anywhere now. And I remember that was if you found the money. Is that something that's not going to happen at all anymore? So I think given our current situation, it's unlikely. We continue to talk about it with the team, how might we make that work. It was always conditional upon. finding a commensurate budget reduction to put toward that contracted service with Scarce Delegemont Family Counseling. I just have a few more questions. I just want to say related to class size, I'm glad that the contingency is in because I think it's important to keep our norms

070as best we can because I feel like it is a slippery slope. So I'd hate to see us slide too far down it that first year. And I think it's very important for the student experience and the teacher experience to have those norms as much in place as possible. Also, regarding athletics, I think it's important to do our best to keep. these sports. I think we've heard from a lot of parents and students and we know what these sports mean to the students. They very articulately and passionately shared that with us. These sports represent belonging, wellness, physical and mental health, wellness. And so I just wanted to say that I understand what we're in and I appreciate the troubleshooting and thinking about how to keep these sports. In terms of transportation, I know Amber brought

071it up last time. transportation line so that so the 50,000 that you're thinking of as a high-level number potentially collecting somehow to make it work is that including still the transportation that we were paying for is I'm trying to understand or is the transportation out plus So the estimate we gave was a transportation number related to the salaries and wages for bus drivers. So we did take a reduction in the salary line of some of that in those other wage reductions category that we listed in the slide. So if, to Dr. Patrick's point earlier, if we find ways to more efficiently do the things that drive this budget higher, our own staff. renegotiate the contracts with those outside providers and coaching providers we may be able to adjust accordingly but right now the budget as

072it stands does not include that transportation okay and in terms of special special education So I was going to highlight at our business meeting some topics that came up in that board coffee that we recently had. And something that came up from the attendees was, has there been any sort of parent survey about special education in order to more fully understand the parent experience of the special education programs and even more fully the student experience from the parent perspective as we build out these programs? has there been will there be and if so would the results then be shared just to understand as we're building out the programs you know where the strengths where the weaknesses things like that so we haven't done a formal survey of all parents in the district the state runs

073a survey every seven years on the CSE process that was our last year's reporting requirement those Those are public results. They won't be out probably if history is a Tell for another six or eight months, but once those are out. I will share those with the board and the public We run regular coffees Regular meetings with child I run six a year want to at each level both in the beginning and the end of the year specifically to talk about those questions we run regular child runs regular coffees at the elementary school levels I have met with those child reps from each of those schools so that is the way we keep tabs on on that as far we have not surveyed students and then thank you very much and then for Edgar just related

074to curriculum and I know you have a reveal math presentation at the next or later in March but in terms of kind of understanding metrics and how we measure student progress to help us understand if curriculum is working. Can you discuss that at all? I know they're different. many different aspects to it but what is the process like? That's a really good question. So we use different metrics and for those I'm going to make a plug for the 24th to come and see the presentation because they've been working on it. Some of the metrics are ones that we've used in the past. So we have assessment data that we get through like a star assessment and on kids numeracy and how they're doing. But some of the other ways that we're looking to measure it

075is we're looking at students' problem-solving skills, how they're doing on benchmark assessments that are embedded, but also performance assessments that are also part of the program, to see that students are developing their mathematical practices. So since there's been a shift... in the next-gen standards towards an emphasis on these mathematical practices we're looking to lean into those assessments that best describe how kids are developing in those areas and so on the 24th we'll have an opportunity to hear from both students see students in action and also teachers to talk about what these evolutions and the pedagogy and the content have meant as far as the students that they're receiving from grade to grade and how they're performing in the classroom. Colleen? Thank you everyone. Some of my questions were asked, but there's just a few I

076wanted to circle back on. We talked about on slide 12 possibly adding additional fees to the sports, non-sanctioned sports. Do we... anticipate being able to offer some sort of financial aid for students that maybe can't afford to pay these fees and but still would like to participate in these sports is there any kind of one thing I should clarify I think fees is one way to look at it but another opportunity is much like many of the high school clubs do this fundraising activities that can be used to help offset those costs partially answers your question. Perhaps that's a way to help reduce those costs. Great. I just wanted to make sure we were thinking about that. Thank you. And then for... slide 13 we talked a little bit about you said you were able

077to reduce related services $150,000 what what constitutes a related service falls under that category sure related services are focused in the special education area their speech behavior OTPT we often not often we always budget for unanticipated related services we've taken a closer look and and close that amount for services that we don't have now. But we think it's sufficient given our history over the last few years of what we've needed. All right, so you don't expect that to impact student services? No, students receive their services if it's on their IEP. And we think we have enough to absorb any changes that may happen on the CSE process over the next few months. Okay, great. The $100,000 reduction in facilities contracts, do we anticipate that? What would constitute those contracts? Certainly facilities is one of the

078areas that's really seen a rise in inflation-related costs. However, we... understand the challenges we have so that we are looking very closely at what projects we will say yes to in the given year our facilities team is very talented and they take on a lot of work on their own and that sometimes is with our district staff but often it's with contract vendors electrical glass repair companies things like that so there may be a little bit longer Duration of time between when a problem is identified and the fix is implemented just because we won't know if we have those funds available to late in the fiscal year But the revised health plan cost I'm assuming it's based. You know you said you're able to get more data to to anticipate that is that pretty much

079a set Reduction or could there be a shift in cost? that would then shift that number one way or another. So the adjustment is primarily driven through that new health reserve stabilization that we ran through the model and we looked closely at our projected fund balance usage related to or Plan deficit basically through the three-year average that we we agreed to with the STA and rolled out through the larger plan So that increase is largely driven by the employee contributions associated with that We're hopeful that as our health plan continues over the next several months to get better data. Hopefully the trend adjusts in our favor And you know we've taken some assumptions in that area for employee cost share So that number could go down or up or it's not as set. It's a

080volatile health plan. I mean, we've talked a lot about that. Yeah, I mean, there's employee cost shares through two forms. One is at the point of service through co-pays and deductibles. When you're collecting more in that area, it's because people are going to the doctor more. That's not the good area to want to collect. I agree. The other is through the premium contribution. So we have the most up-to-date premium contribution guesstimate right now with the proposed budget. that's where this largely came from the the thing that would cause that to change would be a fewer people elect the health plan and that that could drive cost down right I think the other thing that we're starting to see flow through as we get later in the fiscal year is some of our stop-loss payments are

081starting to come through some of those high-cost claimants as well as drug rebates that we have through our plan so we're hopeful that those two pieces of the health plan continue to improve over the rest of this fiscal year and we can count on some of that for next year. And just as a reminder the stop loss lags because it runs August September to August not July to June so it's a little bit of a lagging indicator for us. I just want to circle back to the coordinators really quickly. I understand the five to four. I guess I'm trying to understand the rationale behind feeling that we really now need two math coordinators where I'm assuming we used to have two ELA coordinators. And are these coordinators mostly elementary school coordinators? Are they focusing mostly

082on what's happening in the elementary school? Yes, they are actually all elementary-focused coordinators. And part of what I'm going to be talking about later at my update, I'm going to talk a little bit about the primary update in reading. In the last few years, since we've had two ELA coordinators, we've created some really robust structures that are in place right now and built a lot of capacity among the teachers. So in thinking about prioritizing the focus of having four, Bridging, prioritizing math at this point to make sure that there is real cohesion, a depth of understanding that continues to build is where we feel like that, for lack of a better word, extra coordinator would be best served to continue that momentum. As a bridge and then for reevaluation. as we get into the early

083spring or the winter of next year to look at what that structure looks like. Thank you. That's helpful. Then I think it was the reduction you said based on the two FTEs. I think we're still on slide 13. Is it 13? I don't know. Maybe I messed it. Is it 13? Yeah. The two FTEs, you said there was a decrease in the ICT section, therefore you don't anticipate needing two FTEs next year. And is that... I know numbers are still coming in. Do you feel like that reduction is large enough where we wouldn't find ourselves in a situation where we actually need to now add another ICT section and then need those two full lifetime? The reduction is not actually in kindergarten. It's in a different grade where we see enrollment overall has. brought it

084below the class cap and because of the increase in size we're also able to reduce the ICT portion of its one section but we can reduce both of the FTEs for that grade level. Okay and my thanks for the presentation. Can we go to slide 15 please? Can you just help me understand the other position additions of one teaching assistant? So if we're adding an 8 to 1 to 2, so 8 kids, 1 teacher, 2 assistants, and a 12 to 1, I believe that should say 1, 12 to 1 to 1, right? It's just 12 to 1 teacher. Okay, so how come it doesn't say 2 then for the elementary? The collapse that we just discussed would also have a teaching assistant. So that would... position is sort of repurposed for the 8-1-2. Okay got

085it so appreciate that. Net. Got it. Following up on something Colleen asked, making that spreadsheet was really helpful sort of just looking at sections across the district. We do have a few areas at schools and grades where we are right at class size so there's risk there. And we're only going to one contingency, so can you just help me understand the process if one of the ICT breaks or multiple non-ICT break and we only have one contingency, how are we maintaining class sizes in that scenario? Yeah, again, depending on the timing of that, right? So sometimes it is during the summer prior to the August 15th. time frame I mean we also are looking at other sections where there could be a collapse if students are moving in or out we've had our secretaries sort

086of looking at who's in the hopper right now in terms of families that are shifting elementary schools you know that that's impacting enrollment in those places as well you know we do have as you indicated a number of sections that are close to capacity we're taking that into consideration and potentially if it's a post august 15th shift or move into a particular a particular grade level then we would have a slightly higher class size which has happened in the past but again that's you know depending on the the movement in the community Appreciate that. I'm going to ask it a little more directly this time. If prior to August 15th we have to break sections and need more than one contingency, is the administration's plan to breach class size limit or to go into fund

087balance? Again, I would say fund balance is where we would go. We've made that commitment to the class size, and that was clear messaging from the board and has been communicated to us. So that's where we would be in those positions. I appreciate that. Eric at the last meeting we talked about not the financial piece but the operational piece of the 8 to 1 to 2 and 12 to 1 in the high school so it was unclear where the students currently using the Cooper classroom or the LRC breakout we're gonna go so do we know where those kids are gonna get displaced to yeah they're gonna use other classrooms within Cooper they'll be scheduled to rooms that aren't being used during the periods that they meet so that's regular classroom so where that will the

088teachers do their prep work then so they will depending on it's a five to one class so often teachers will be at their desks in the room prepping if they need phone calls they'll be given office space to do that okay I just want to make sure that doesn't impact their ability to that's the time they're doing work or they're like I said reaching out to parents and what about at the high school where's the plan for the 12 to 1? They'll be so there the 12 one will move classes like all of the other students so their classes will be scheduled into the rooms similarly to any other section that started. So at the high school we don't need additional space? We don't. Just to add on, just to add on to the room,

089potentially room sharing, there are conference, you know, we've had some classes in the world language department that have done room sharing. There's spaces in the library that are conference spaces that are open for teachers and faculty to use and to make those phone calls and do some of that prep work if it's appropriate. Okay, appreciate that. I forget what slide it's on. There was a slide in Eric in your presentation on special ed about change. I think it was in 2016 of out-of-district placements, which is really nice to see that that number has come down. Later in this meeting, in our consent agenda, we have a census report that talks about private school placements. And during that same time period, we haven't seen... the number of students at private schools go down. We've seen the

090percent actually stay the same or go up, which means other kids are leaving the district. In the December presentation, the percentage over the last seven years has come down slightly. It's stayed relatively. I can bring it up if you'd like. Give me one second. I'll give you the actual number. So right now we're at 9.3% of children are in private school, 482. I'm sorry. Are you talking about? All kids or just special ed students? No, no, I'm talking about both. I'm talking about the relationship. So the number of kids who we as a district are sending out has come down. Correct. During the same time period, however, the total number of children in Scarsdale attending private school is going up. I would have thought, given all those kids coming back, we would have seen that

091number come down. And my question is, have we done an analysis to see if... students are choosing i don't believe your number includes the students that choose to leave for the district it's correct i have the numbers for special ed kids here that i can give you that choose to leave so in 2017 and 18 it was the highest it was slight this is percentage of classified students okay so it's not the whole it's a percentage of the 14 percent does that make sense yeah but it's gonna but the the the number of students classified has gone up so that it's not correct so there that was about 15 a little bit over 15 percent overall and then the students actually attending other special education schools so we have two numbers here one is all

092schools but students happen to have a see an IEP and then a separate number which was at give or take 12% in that same year for special education schools this past year 24 25 that total number is I'm looking at the bar graph I just don't have the spreadsheet up but it's about twelve and a half percent and then it's about eight point something I can't tell on this graph exactly. My real question, I didn't want to put you on the spot for a second, but I just want to ask you to send it because I'm really asking if you guys have done an analysis to look at why the number of students over the same time period where we're saying we're bringing kids back, but we're seeing actually an increase in number of the

093broader population leave our district. I'm trying to figure out trying to understand it might be related to special it might not yeah I just don't know so I've certainly looked at the special education numbers like I said the percentage is going down of the total special ed kids who are out by to apparently placed which what we call it I'm I can send you those numbers I mean the the numbers at the 482 is that what you're looking at I mean it has fluctuated over the the life the 20 years of the report It's been as high as 493 back in 2008-9. 490. It's been as low as 373. Some of this is dependent upon residents' willingness to report. In some cases, we can't force residents to respond to the census if they don't have,

094and we know about them if they're enrolled in our schools. We don't necessarily. We're supposed to. We're supposed to know, but we don't necessarily know. If I just look at the percent, like the highest percent has been a 9.5. We're currently at 9.3. But in that period, we're saying we've brought back a lot of kids. So I'm just trying to understand. I think it's important to recognize the universe of kids we're talking about. The highest we were at of students out of district is 50, at least in the last 11 years. and then we are at 23 now so that's really 27 correct and those are for students that we're recommending outside placements for you know I just try to understand it sort of follows to I think you asked a question like asking people

095about the program and I'm just I don't know if it's related I'm just looking at the data in the census report later and noticing Since that period while it has fluctuated also note that since that period of 2016 is sort of been gradually rising as a percent But anyway, I'll move on Just going back to something Colleen asked about related services So do the students in the 8 to 1 to 2 and the 12 to 1 to 1 and 12 to 1 use related services? Yes Well, it's any student who has an IEP may have obviously the more intensive the needs are for students the more they may need that that being said the pull out there are pull out services there are push-in services and in classes like the 12 to 1 and the

0968 to 1 there's more ability of the teachers to kind of push that service in and do the what I'll call the maintenance work on the skills that are happening in OT and speech. So it's not like they're being pulled out every day. They may go and see a speech and language pathologist for X amount of time during the week, but those skills are then more integrated into the classroom day. So the answer is yes, but not at an astronomical rate compared to other students. I just don't recall seeing that listed on the cost calculations. Just something we can look at afterwards. Yeah, we didn't break out the specific related costs for those students because often Like I said, they're kind of from a scale standpoint. They're a small amount of students So there is

097some increase in that but it's usually absorbed by the building or we did not break that out We didn't you know, it would take an enormous amount of analysis to try it really tease that exact cost out, but it's not. Oh, I understand, but I just want to make sure we understand the financials that we're getting into if we bring in the three, two additional programs. Cindy's not here. Okay, I guess I'll ask Drew my question. She's here. Oh, hello. Okay. Funny. Didn't come up in the other sports questions. So I, it's either for Cindy or I guess Drew. I would love to understand a little bit of the rationale by bifurcating sports where we're asking families to pay or fundraise by sanctioned versus non-sanctioned. I'll start. You can do a better job than I

098can probably. So the... There are a number of challenges that are associated with it. The competitions are not necessarily Scarsdale competitions. I think it's a distinction with a difference for those reasons. The schedules are not necessarily built. They're not at all built by Section 1, or they don't have any relationship there. The overhead that we... incur I'm gonna call it overhead there's probably a better word for it but by being part of BOCES and part of section one and all of that doesn't apply to any of those those sports so you know we talked about crew being originally added through a donation a grant it's a distinction that is I think a logical one because of the organizational structure, but certainly people can argue with that. I don't think there's a distinction probably in the

099experience of kids. I appreciate that because I'm just trying to, when I look at the numbers, which thank you, Cindy, you were very helpful, you know, crew is an outlier. Crew is very expensive. If I look at squash fencing and dance for a second, separate from crew, you know, the cost per player is... Less than many other sports. So I understand from an operational standpoint the differences and challenges, but this discussion to me feels like a financial one. And I personally don't agree with making this the distinction. If we think there's an issue with sports funding, there's lots of things we could do. We could take the average of all sports per player and just anybody over it, add a fee to that. There's other sports that have very unique asks of us that we've

100delivered that no other sport gets. So I'm putting that out there. I personally don't agree with this approach. I will acknowledge crew is the one that's an outlier. But again, if we did something where it was equal across all sports, that would still get addressed with that if that's how we feel. And my last question is for Andrew and maybe Drew. So I think it's important to acknowledge when we say this budget proposal has closed the gap, it is with the use of over $2 million of fund balance. This will be the sixth year in a row that this district will balance the budget through fund balance, which means we are spending more than we are taking in for six years in a row. What is the plan to address that going forward? It's true.

101It's a good point. I think we're trying to get those building blocks in place with the long-range financial plan, with the fund balance and reserve use plan. You know, there have been years, though, we've budgeted. So, you know, we budget the – as long as I've been here, we've budgeted, I think, with the exception maybe of one year, the $1.1 million in use of fund balance. that has always been realized in non-spending of that next year or in the end between increase in revenue and the ultimate spending. So the $1.1 million has behaved, I'm going to say it this way, has behaved as a recurring stable amount. I think our... You know, bigger concerns are around the two major uncontrolled, to some degree out of our control forces, which are the experience of health claims

102and the retirement system rates, which we don't control. That's entirely outside of our control. And yes, we're using, we're proposing to use reserves in both of those areas. Our goal would be to... hopefully reach a point through some of these constraints, the reductions in expenditures, or slowing down of the growth of expenditures to hope for a year where we're actually spending less than we're taking in and that we restore those reserves as we've done in the past. I appreciate that. In the past, I think was the experience and I think that's part of the reason I can only speak for myself while over sort of the past couple years I've been comfortable. But I do think as I think, well one, I have more lived experience. Two, our fund balance is going down so my

103personal appetite for that risk is going down. When the fund balance amount was higher, I also think that The other piece that happened has happened, right? Yes, it is certainly due to the tax cap. It is nobody at this table's fault. It is the reality we live in, though. You see it in this budget. We are pulling out constantly, you know, we are pulling out one-time things. We are pulling out buffer for unknown. We heard about belated services unknown. So the things that were leading to that fund balance getting replenished, at least at 1.1, at the same time, we are pulling those things out of the budget. I don't, you know, even this year, right, we had so much break our way on the revenue side. We had the state aid came back. Our interest

104earnings were much higher than anticipated. You know, this was the year we would have expected. And I get it was the health care that without that we would have realized that. But again, now I don't know. Are we in a new structural environment? These are our health care costs. So I sit here today. I feel this is a very financially risky path to keep going down with this amount of fund balance use. I'll leave it at that. Anybody else? Questions? Bob. I know in the past we've talked about a strategy to try and manage our energy expenses, which are obviously in this day and age globally sort of a wild card in terms of where that's going. And I know we have a consultant on board that is there to help support that. I just

105want to make sure that I understand how that's being handled in that. Up until now, some of the savings that we anticipated, I don't believe we have seen. Is that a fair statement? In the first year, they did not meet the cost criteria, so they refunded us back through a credit on our current year's service charges. So are we back to a strategy where we believe we will see those savings? Is that not because of change of external circumstances not feasible to expect? I just want to make sure that our numbers that we're using ultimately within our costs are realistic and there's not going to be a surprise in terms of if energy costs skyrocket even more than they have been. so so the burden is really on the consultant right now so so they

106have to cover their cost through the savings that they generate so do I think we're on a better path I do think we're on a better path we renegotiated that contract based on a lower expected opportunity based on what they knew after their first year of experience with us and I will say that I think we've continued through our own district resources to take the feedback from synergistic on mechanical or Building management software changes that We can fund through our facilities budget to attain some energy savings that are ours then to spend they don't belong to synergistic So I think I think there's still opportunity there I don't think it's not I don't think it's easy opportunity but certainly it's something that is is worth continuing to pursue and maintaining that that five-year agreement to

107have the expertise that synergistic has to help us get those energy savings goals okay they ask questions Thank you to the board for their questions. I think going last, I might only have one or two. Could you remind me, Jeannie, what our younger elementary school grade device situation is? Is there a one-to-one? How does that look? It's not a direct one-to-one. We have them in cases. K-1-2 have iPads. 3-4-5 have... Chromebooks and then they switch to a fully one-to-one in middle school six seven eight and then in the high school if they choose not to purchase their own device we provide a Chromebook for them so in the lower grades they're shared and they're not you know taking home devices or anything they don't start taking home devices I think until fourth or fifth grade

108also for the special ed program A couple people mentioned the supports, like PT, OT, speech. And you mentioned that they're kind of integrated into the classroom. If a student is out of district, how do we treat those services? do we pay for them on a card are they it depends on the school district so when you look at tuition revenue as a district or as any receiving district you have to up you have two choices you can use what's called the NRT or the non-resident tuition rate which is set by the state or as happens to be 88 a little bit over $80,000 on the elementary level we could choose to charge that as an all-in or we can itemize the services on a prorated basis for the class. So if it's an 8 to

1091 to 2 class, there's six kids in it, we take that prorated portion of all of the salaries and benefits and the like. We take a look at how many speech and language, how many OT, how many PT, whether they're group or individual, and we basically do all the math to figure out whether or not. the number is higher than 88. If it is, we would use that number to charge. When we think about the students in an eight to one or a 12 to one, the students with more needs tend to have a higher resource need. So, you know, and when we calculated out of district costs, I'll give you an example. We used about $86,000 for students who are in the 12 one as a what we would pay going out. commensurate with

110what we're paying for students who are older than the program we have and have students out and then $114,000 for the 8 to 1 which is what the BOCES commensurate you know comparable program is I think that's a good indication of how those costs fluctuate you know Getting back to the related services for one second, you know, we did not break those out But I think it's also important that although we used a 3% Escalation rate here across out of district costs and in district costs. We've also run those numbers at 6% Escalation in the district and 3% outside That still maintains a major savings over five years. I also did it over with a higher starting salary and 10% escalation at the district and 3% increase outside. It still is with tuition about a

111million dollars in savings over at the five-year mark or 500 without it. Do you anticipate possibly needing administrative... support as well like you know I think the the chart shows like teachers and teaching assistants you know in the next five years with the growth of no one of the expectations when we came asking for the assistant director position was understanding that the plan is to expand the continuum through 12th grade for the kids that we have and that would be sufficient that position already anticipates that okay great thank you thank you anybody else Thank you. I guess, you know, thank you again for the presentation and for all your work on this budget. It's not easy cutting $2 million, I guess, from budget to budget. And with that, do I have, oh, yeah. We are

112putting in this budget study session a public comment period. based on all of you out there, we want to hear your feedback and welcome your input into our budget process. So first I'll read the public comment preamble. Members of the public are cordially invited to speak on district related items or other non-personnel related matters during two separate public comment periods. When it is your turn to speak, please state your name, address, and if you're speaking on behalf of an organization. For those commenting remotely, please mute the live stream voice, turn on your camera, and then unmute yourself. 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

113to 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 its discretion, either during response to public comment or at a later time and place. Response to public comment will take place after the first and second public comment periods. And with that, I'd like to invite anybody from the audience to come and speak. Please. Good evening. My name is Jill Schulman. I live at 84 Penn Road I'm mom to Emily Schulman sophomore and coxswain on the Scarceau high school rowing team and Andrew eighth grader at SMS Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening in support of preserving rowing as an official team sport at the high school

114We're encouraged to hear that the board is discussing ways to make sure that the sport is viable into the future What attracts many of us to the town and to Scarsdale school system is the variety of offerings for academic and non-academic programming. We know through our own experiences that exposure to diverse classes, athletics, and non-athletic clubs helps our students grow and succeed and sometimes even helps them find that spark of something that brings them great happiness and joy during high school and beyond. Exposure to rowing was something brand new for our daughter Emily in her freshman year, recruited by her friends who had been recruited by an older male rower already on the team. Emily found an outlet that we know she would never have found if it hadn't been offered at the high school.

115Through this outlet, we have watched Emily and the other rowers grow, become a team. Rowing demands exacting alignment and cooperation where each teammate's actions directly impact the others. Each rower has a unique role and contribution and success comes from bringing out the best in all team members. Rowing offers immense opportunities for leadership and it demands of our kids commitment and dedication. Our kids are practicing six days a week, four seasons a year. These are all skills and experiences. We know that our kids serve our kids well in their futures. As the students and parents have shared tonight and in the last meeting, high school rowing has afforded meaningful and rewarding experiences for all those who participate. We would love to see this opportunity continue for future Scarsdale students. We thank you for your consideration. We're

116a passionate crew, and we would love to work together with you, like I said, to find solutions that work for everyone. Thank you. My name is Irina Spiegel-Turner. I live at 8 Spruce Lane. And today I'm reading comments jointly prepared by the Scarsdale Parent Teacher Executive Committee and the Budget Study Chairs. And I'm one of the Budget Study Co-Chairs. the Scarsdale parent Teacher Council Executive Committee and the PT Council budget study chairs would like to thank the district administration and the Board of Education for hosting budget study session one and two for the community we believe that transparency and early and ongoing communication with district parents and the Scarsdale community is essential to comprehensive and effective budget process we like to provide some general comments By way of background, part of our budget study process

117for the 25-26 fiscal year, the PTC, EC, and budget study chairs are working closely with representatives from all seven schools to identify key initiatives, issues, and budget items that reflect the priorities of the broader school communities. Additionally, you may receive input from school-based PTA budget study representatives regarding specific requests for individual schools. The PTC and budget study chairs appreciate the transparency as it relates to potential reductions and what look like defined reductions to close the gap toward achieving a budget at or below the tax cap. Controlled spending is now apparently needed as informed by the initial budget study assessment coupled with the five-year projection to maintain fund balances, continued fiscal responsibility, and to remain at or below the tax cap. Thank you for continued focus on this effort as we saw today. Given that the

118recent spending trajectory is outlined in the long-range financial planning presentation projects an operating deficit in 2728 fiscal year the PTC appreciates the administration's efforts to suggest prioritize spending cuts in an effort to avoid a negative fund balance along with setting expectations that a reduction in spending requires careful consideration of what can be left out of the budget we all requested the administration do this in a way that has the least impact to the student population and explore creative options that are strategic in nature and look out in the long term and provide this long-term benefit. One such area to explore as some of what we've seen today is to explore the further analysis to creatively provide employee benefits with guardrails to maintain it as a business and to pursue current and additional revenue streams. And

119as we've heard already from other comments, sports are an important part of the student experience, well-being, and part of the school community, broader community, and team spirit. Cuts at this level are less desirable than finding areas of budget reduction that don't directly impact the student experience or uncovering creative ways to increase revenue. We appreciate the focus to maintain the sports outside of Section 1. Aging playgrounds have been included in the budget and should remain a priority since replacement is paramount for maintaining their safety as they have exceeded their expected lifespan. But all capital projects should be closely assessed to address a strategic rollout to spread funding out over time with consideration of the dwindling reserves and maintain a fiscally responsible bottom line. The PTC is impressed with the district's ongoing commitment to effective technology use

120policies in the Scarsdale schools and staying attuned with state requirements. With the current off and away policy at the elementary and middle school levels and the use of cell phone caddies at the high school. practices are among the best in the region we encourage the district to continue monitoring governor Hochul's priorities particularly particularly her focus in the world of the bell-to-bell ban on personal devices understanding at this time the state will assist with funding the PTC and budget study chairs are strong proponents of maintaining small class sizes comprehensive student support and promoting teaching practices and nurture the development of the whole child Over the next few weeks. Thank you. Thank you. And we will email the remainder. That would be really appreciated. Thank you. Yes. During this public study session, we will abide by the

121business meeting protocols of a four-minute public comment. Thank you so much. Would anybody else like to make a comment? Thank you. Hi. My name is Anya Huja. I live at 30 Seacoast Road. I spoke at the last meeting a couple weeks ago. where I spoke about how upsetting it was to hear the possibility of squash and other sports getting cut. Someone here earlier said, students are the center, yet a central part of my high school life is being taken away. Everyone in the team has worked so hard to make it what it is, and I cannot stress this enough. The team has only been around for one year. It just needs time. Every single other sport has had its first season, and look where they all are now. So why these sports? It doesn't make

122any sense. And of course, I want to thank the trustees who raised this question. I have made friends with people I never thought I would have, and I found love for such an amazing sport. So please consider how important this is to so many people. Thank you. Thank you. Would anybody in the audience like to make a public comment? Thank you. follow up on what Anya said. My name is Sasha Dichter. I live at 38 Fenimore Road. I have three kids, Jonah, who's in college, Zoe, who's a senior, and Clara, who's in eighth grade. I'm the parent volunteer who actually started the squash program as a volunteer-led program during COVID. And I just thought, in addition to underlining what Anya said, I thought I'd share that history of the work it took to get this

123off the ground during COVID. I think you can imagine getting people to play an indoor sport with masks at that time took an incredible amount of time. effort and commitment. It was the students though who actually went to Ray and requested to make it a varsity sport. I think that level of initiative should be commended and rewarded, not taken away. And a little context on squash. It is a hugely growing sport. It's the fastest growing in the US and any country in the world. The data that I have says about 2 million people nationally play squash. And the junior participation rate grew fourfold between 2007 and 2017. It's also one of the most physically demanding sports in the world. Forbes actually wrote an article once saying that squash was the single hardest sport to play

124of any other. Second place is rowing, I might add. And it's also though a really accessible sport. So while there's very high level squash, it is also a sport where If you're an athlete, if you're comfortable with a racket, you can get to be a decent player in a short amount of time. And what that means is in terms of access to college and continuing the sport on, squash is one of the sports that you don't need to be playing. As we know in our district, a lot of kids are playing professionalized sports when they're six or they're seven or they're eight. Squash doesn't really have those characteristics. And I would just, again, voice support for continuing to support the students. It is early days. I think they've grown now to three different teams. Squash

125will be for the first time in the Olympics in 2028. in la so let's have our kids still have a squash team when that happens thanks yes hello my name is zane khan 24 o'clock road i'm senior captain of the squash team i just wanted to make a couple points as to why i think the team's important So first off is like the interest that we've gotten in such a short amount of time. This year we had over 30 kids try out for the team. We actually had to make cuts. And each year since my freshman year when the team was started as a club team, the interest has grown. We've had more and more kids show up each year to try out. And I think a big reason for that is because once people

126start playing squash, they realize that anyone can get good. It's not like a lot of other sports, maybe say basketball or football, where you need certain physical attributes, like be really tall or really big and strong. Really, anyone can excel at squash. Literally, you could be short, tall, like skinny, whatever. And I think that's why a lot of kids gravitate to the sport and once they latch on to it they can see that tangible Progress and they really enjoy it Another thing like mr. Dichter said is the growth of this sport around the country obviously squash was just Announced that it's going to be in the 2020 Olympics And also the varsity team just this last weekend competed at the National High School Squash Championships where there's over 195 teams competing and over 1,500 players.

127We were one of the top public schools at the end of the tournament, which was something really special for us because it's a lot of private schools that play. Another point I would like to make is that squash feeds into some of the top universities in the country. Most of the schools that have teams are Ivies or NESCACs. I was fortunate enough to go through the recruiting process myself. I'll be playing at MIT in the fall. But a lot of other players on our team will be walking onto teams in college or playing on their club teams at other top universities. So I think as a district that really prides itself on the success of our alums, I think Squash is aiding that and potentially helping our students go to some of the top universities

128in the country. And just the last point I want to make is how much kids really care about this team. A lot of us were really devastated to hear that it was potentially being cut. And we have ourselves been proactive in trying to potentially cut costs and have a more viable solution. So we've gone to other potential programs and places where we can play. And we've seen if we can get cheaper alternatives. I also wanted to make the point that we're one of the only teams at Scarsdale High School that competes without a coach. We coach ourselves at all of our matches. And this past weekend at Nationals, we were coaching each other. We don't have a coach. So I don't know how many other teams at Scarsdale High School can say that. But overall,

129it's a group of players, a growing group of players that really care about this sport. So thank you. Thank you. My name is Elizabeth Brucker. I'm at 112 Walworth Avenue. This is my daughter, Olivia, and I'm speaking on behalf of Squash. Olivia found the sport of squash almost by accident. I'm a huge proponent of being on some sort of club or athletic team, and she had tried out for the basketball team last year, and she didn't make it. So we said, okay, now what? Squash. She was new to squash. She got so into it, met so many new people. may not have ever been exposed to before. It gave her a huge sense of confidence and purpose and also provides some structure to her day. She doesn't just come home and not do anything. She

130says, okay, I have squash practice at 4.30. What can I get done between then and now to go to my practice, kind of let off some steam, clear my head, and then get back to work? So it would be a real shame for this new sport to be cut. It's like... so many others have said it is new to scarcell high school it's gaining momentum and participation and i would hate to see it cut for incoming freshmen as well as upperclassmen who have dedicated their time and energy to the sport over the last few years and i just want to thank you all and oh i understand that transportation is an issue which Needs to be addressed they were using the same bus for the JV and the varsity and it just wasn't the best

131use of everybody's time so I feel like the the team would be amenable to Other options regarding the transportation a lot of the time the parents were just driving the kids to the practices and to the matches So, thank you I just wanted to add that I found a connection to this sport by playing it with my dad in his free time as he played for fun in college, and he was thrilled when I told him about this new interest in this sport. And it's brought me many connections, bonds with coaches, staying active and sticking with it and learning how to become better, and interactions with others who had the same interest in this sport. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else in the audience? Hi, I'm Tutu Chanin, and I live at 43

132Jefferson Road, and I'm a sophomore at SHS. I'm speaking on behalf of the squash team. I want to talk a bit about my personal experience with this sport. So I first started this sport in mid-freshman year. I was very excited to hear that squash was finally being approved as an official varsity team rather than just like a club. And I tried out this fall and I've really met a lot of people that I really don't think I would have been able to connect with if it weren't for this sport. And I also think that. going to practice. I know how much dedication we all put into this sport. People rarely miss practices. The only practices they miss are because of illness absences. And I think it's just devastating for us to hear that a sport

133that we all put so much work and effort into every day might be taken away from us. And regarding the transportation issue, I do know that our teacher advisor, Mr. Williams, is... proactively working on trying to cut funds and potentially switching to a club that could cover transportation included in the fees to try and reduce the fees. And we just want to really thank you for the opportunity to let us speak on that. Is there anybody else from the audience who would like to make a public comment? Hi, my name is Claudine Gessel, and I live at 10 Kent Road. I think that it's really great that everybody's working so hard on trying to pull this together and try to get it close to the tax cap. It is distressing that the reserve reduction is

134an important component of the process right now as it stands. And I think that the point about these one-time items being just sort of aggregated and trying to get the one-time items into a big item somehow, it's a struggle. And I did this for many years when we moved into the district after the financial collapse, and it went on like that for years. It was very difficult. It's a difficult road to constantly do that. And the bigger ticket items, like the pension plan and the health care plan, are what's really the sort of elephant in the room. And it's true that nobody can really control the pension part of the budget because that's provided by New York State. And there's other people that do that. And I used to do that. And I know you

135can't control that. But the health care portion is. Within the control of the district and maybe next time we'll find out more about it But I just was looking at this chart That was shown last time about the paid claims by service type and it shows a 25 year period and if you look at 2002 today what it's color-coded so it's easy to visually Catch the ratios like just by staring at it And you can see that the inpatient hospitalizations have gone up a lot as a percentage of the total. And the drug costs have gone up a lot as a percentage of the total. And that's the lives. Those are the lives. You can go back and analyze it more, but this chart is showing you what's happening. So if that's what's happening, and

136that self-insured plan was put in quite some time ago, before the financial collapse, and, you know, it might be time to revisit that. Because we can see by looking at this chart in these nice colors what's happening. And this is the trend right now. It's not going to drop off radically in proportionality next year. So I just wanted to bring that up so that next time when the presentation is done, and I don't know how in touch the consultant is with the universe, you know, we'll find out. But this chart is very nice to look at, and it's real. And, you know, anyway, so that's all I had to say, and I'll look forward to the presentation that we get in more detail that will explain this beautiful chart. Thank you. Good evening. My name

137is Rachel Ehrenstein. I live at 1 Rectory Lane in Scarsdale. I grew up in Scarsdale. I'm an SHS graduate. My two sisters also live in Scarsdale. We all played varsity sports. As students, I played three varsity sports, went on to play two Division I sports in college. But there's only so many years as an adult that you can play soccer or ice hockey. And so it was amazing to be introduced in graduate school to rowing, which is a sport that you can continue, you know, sort of... through the master's level and it's been with great joy that I've watched my daughter Devna learn about rowing and become a member of the team. She spoke at last month's meeting about the importance of this sport to her. I recognize and appreciate the attention that has gone

138into the entire budget process, and I just wanted to express my appreciation for the concept of sort of maintaining these sports and perhaps seeking some, you know, parity for how we allocate resources. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else from the audience who would like to make a public comment? And with that, we'll be going to looking at Zoom. Jim? Well, there are currently six attendees on Zoom. And nobody has a hand raised, though. If anyone on Zoom would like to make a public comment, now would be a good time to raise your hand in Zoom and turn down your live stream. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Hello? Yes, we can hear you. Oh, hi, my name is Oana Papazoglu and I design the 17th Anstall Road. Our kids deserve the best

139curriculum materials. uh thoroughly tested and vetted coming from reliable ethically upright producers unfortunately i see now that this is not the case with the ela k-5 curriculum in any respectable business or industry there is oversight when things are failing there are investigations there is then a careful selection testing of products from various manufacturers other than the 41 reports to the shareholders and consumers any monopoly would not be tolerated and any faulty product would be recalled placed at no cost. A curriculum is in the end a selection of products and our kids are the consumers. By harboring and promoting for decades Lucy Calkins failed program Teachers College, Lucy Calkins' home for decades is as guilty as Lucy Calkins herself. Teachers College has lost any credibility when it comes to the curriculum materials it produces. They sold

140you for decades a product that proved faulty and now they have the audacity to charge us for updates. So I come before you to ask, why do we still see on the slide Teachers College units of study? I understand you have a collaboration with TCI for teacher training, but why do you have to use their curriculum as well? In 2024, Chappaqua School District launched a thorough review of their ELA curriculum. curriculum and also contracted an outside firm. One of the reviews key recommendation that Chapa Kawa has already implemented was replace the units of study in reading and writing. I think with high quality instructional materials. Why aren't you considering alternatives? Does teacher college have exclusive and perpetual rights on Scarlet DL CLA curriculum? And speaking of questionable collaborations, please address the new collaboration with Lucy

141Colkin and most flower, her new personal publishing house. I came across the February newsletter by accident, detailing that Scarlet is piloting Lucy Colkin's new units of reading. Access to the newsletter was unfortunately. immediately cut and parents are now being sent to the website. I was told that parents would be reading newsletters out of context, but then I ask you who provides us the parents with the story and the context. Cutting parents access to information does not sound aligned with the partnership and the transparency goals that you have set for yourselves. There is no information on the website or Lucy Calkins. There is no ELA parent newsletter, no presentation. I know more about what Chappaqua and Bronxville are doing in ELA than I know about Scarsdale. I ask the administration to stop ignoring parents when it

142comes to curriculum matters. You have no right to hide the new initiatives like this and to experiment controversial curriculum materials on our kids without us knowing. Lucy Calkins, Fountas & Pinel and their publisher are since December 2024 co-defendants in a class action lawsuit, being accused of deceptive and fraudulent marketing and sale of faulty literacy curricula that have undermined the future of students. Millions of parents, including Scarce Dale parents, would happily join the lawsuit. Regardless of the outcome, Lucy Calkins' reputation is forever damaged. Why do you let her stain Scarce Dale's reputation? As a taxpayer, I do not want the cent of my tax money to go towards Lucy Calkins materials. As a parent, I do not want any of my kids to still see and be educated with Lucy Calkins materials. You talk so much

143about innovation. Lucy Calkins failure is proof that there are things that would be better left alone. Basic things like reading, math and writing. because of Lucy Calkins, Governor Hochul and other states had to mandate a complete turnaround, a call back to basics plan in reading. Unfortunately, the district persists into making dangerous and extremely costly innovations that are never carefully reviewed and that will take decades to undo. Please do not let that happen. Thank you. Is there anybody else on Zoom? If anybody else on Zoom would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand. Hi, thank you for... Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. Okay. My name is Alex Sharp. I live at 8 Wheelock Road. I spoke at the last meeting. I wrote for Scarsdale Crew. I want

144to echo and reference everything that's already been said about... tonight about crew, I want to echo what I said at the last meeting and say some more on that. So Scarsdale prides itself both on, you know, giving kids incredible education opportunities along with several different extracurricular opportunities, all the, you know, student-run clubs, anything that you kind of want to do as a club, you can just submit and then, you know, it needs to get approved, but you can start your club and athletic opportunities. I had the choice between several different varsity sports. I played hockey for seven years, maybe eight years. I can't remember off the top of my head. And it was my spring of freshman year, so Scarsdale Crew, which is when I fell in love with it. And I got some more

145of my friends to do it last year who were thinking, like, I don't know, man, like, Crew. No one really does that. Like, you know, everyone plays like lacrosse or, you know, hockey or football. And these guys did it through their sophomore spring. They fell in love with it. They did the summer. They did the fall. They did the winter. They're coming back for the spring. Another one of my friends is doing it. We bring in more people each and every year. And I don't think it's something that we can just get rid of. And I know that we need. I think that we can find a creative solution about it. I know this is a topic that needs to stay open and stay in conversation. And thank you for not just shoving this under

146the rug and trying to find a way to make it work. Because it means a lot to me. It means a lot to my teammates. And, you know, it's a lifelong sport. I'll be able to do it till, you know. I'm old. Our coach is 70 years old and still pulls like a 642K. That's who I hope to be. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom? The person's on Zoom. No one else has a hand raised. Okay, we'll give it a minute. If somebody would like to speak on Zoom, please raise your hand. Nobody has a hand raised. No, okay. Well, we have two more public comment sessions tonight, so if you didn't get a chance to speak, you will have an opportunity later this evening. Thank you. Okay. So next on

147the agenda would be follow-up to public comment. Just a general thank you to everyone's engagement tonight from my perspective, advocating for the things you care about. And I would also say thank you also for listening, because many of you, I think... probably tailored your remarks after hearing what was was said at the table so appreciate that and just to point out to the the first zoom person we we do have an update in cabinet updates tonight related to the k-5 literacy curriculum thank you to all who participated in tonight's budget study session at this time may i have a motion to adjourn this second budget study session thank you leah second Thank you, Colleen. All in favor, please say aye. Ayes have it. Motion carries. Thank you all. Please join us here next week for

148budget study session number three. This budget study session is adjourned. All righty then. Hi, good evening again. I'd like to call this meeting to order and note that all board members are present. We are joined by Superintendent Dr. Patrick and members of his administrative cabinet. Thank you to those joining us this evening, either in the audience or tuning in on the live stream or via Zoom. Welcome back to school after what was hopefully a meaningful winter break with family and loved ones. Immediately before this business meeting, we held the second of three budget study sessions. Thank you to Drew, Andrew, Lisa, and your team, along with the administrative cabinet, for your hard work putting together this budget and the presentations we review at these sessions. We have a packed meeting tonight, so I will be

149brief in my update. On February 14th, Valentine's Day, and February 27th, Drew and I participated in virtual roundtable meetings alongside other area school boards and superintendents with Senator Shelley Mayer and with Amy Pollan's office to discuss legislative priorities for our schools. Thank you to the Westchester Putnam School Board Association for organizing these opportunities for school districts to advocate on issues that are important to our school districts. As discussed in prior board meetings, we advocated for the Rockefeller Institute's recommendation to treat special education as a separate aid line and based on actual expenses. We also asked for more flexibility with the EV bus mandate timeline and advocated for local control with regard to cell phone policies. As a note, the director of West Putt, Karen Belanger, did mention that Scarsdale has been a local leader in

150the cell phone discussion. So thank you to the high school administration and faculty for the Off and Away initiative, as well as Jeannie and our technology staff. I know we'll be discussing this more later on in our meeting. Though the preservation of Safe Harmless and a slight increase to Foundation Aid is greatly appreciated, other districts generally shared similar issues as we did, speaking to the challenges of unfunded mandates, the desire to retain local control and the desire for stability in multi-year budget planning. The uncertainty around future funding was on the minds of all on the calls. Thank you to Senator Shelley Mayer and Assemblywoman Amy Pollan for meeting with us and for their tireless work on behalf of our schools. And with that, I'll turn it over to Drew. Thank you very much Susie and

151good evening I had my welcome to everyone in person and joining us online tonight and sadly I want to start tonight to take a moment to acknowledge profound loss that we experienced as a school community with the death of our third grade Greenacres student Zachary Snedeker over the break after a courageous battle with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma a form of brain cancer Zachary was a warm and delightful child whose journey through school and life included his twin brother, Matthew. Zachary was an eager learner and loved his teachers, his friends, and the community. His smile brought joy to the Green Acres hallways and classrooms. Our thoughts and prayers and love are with Zachary's parents, his brother and sister, his extended family, his friends, their families, and his Green Acres family, including his teachers. I'd ask that

152we take just a brief moment of silent reflection to remember Zachary thank you very much in other updates tonight I do want to remind the community and if you haven't seen it we have solicited applications from community members at large to apply to be part of our capital project steering committee We're seeking five qualified community members to join parents, board members. teachers administrators and a student on our district-wide capital project steering committee the committee is a multi-stakeholder group that is charged with developing detailed knowledge of our buildings and the educational programs within them assessing current and future needs and the financial resources required to meet those needs and reach a consensus of a scope of work to recommend to the board Pleased to report we do have 19 applications so far and the deadline is

153I think we set Wednesday So by Wednesday March 5th Which is two days from now we'll close that application process and convene a committee to select the five members to join the others So thank you for those who've already applied I was going to do a lengthy winter sports update but given the late hour I'll point out that Cindy shared a great update with the community on our winter sports successes of all our teams including students who are in the room tonight and I'll point you to that I had sent a link to Cindy's update out in my Friday Five this past Friday but i will say wednesday our boys basketball team is in the sectional semi-final at the county center at 4 30 and we are excited that they're still competing and we wish

154them good luck and finally since this is our first meeting of the month i'll highlight march dates important dates coming up march 5th ash wednesday march 8th is international women's day Purim in 2025 will begin at sundown on Thursday, March 13th, ending at nightfall on March 14th. March 14th is also holy, and March 21st is Nowruz. So those are some dates to keep in mind for our community. Thank you. Thank you, Drew. Are there any board member updates at this time? Leah? On the evening of Tuesday, February 11th, Jim and I represented the board at a community coffee. It was a large turnout for a winter night, 14 attendees, not including Jim and myself. Conversation was robust and active, and it provided a nice opportunity for our community members to come forward with their thoughts,

155comments, and concerns. I'm just going to talk about some of the topics that were discussed. Attendees mentioned positive experiences with the squash team at the high school. Comments included that it may be able to be done for less money, parents could drive their children. Parents said that sports like squash may appeal to a different type of athlete and show students that different type of athletes can succeed. Squash is a life sport and if it appeals to our student population, many people thought it was important to keep in the budget and that it offers the same benefits as other teams. Other attendees mentioned that all high school sports help to improve student wellness and mental health and don't think that any of these teams should be cut from the budget. Several attendees commented on communication and

156rationale around Reveal Math and the elementary schools. Parents suggested that someone at the district level should hold an informational meeting for parents who have questions and want to understand the rationale for the curriculum choice. They thought it would be meaningful and important to have this type of group interaction. Attendees mentioned that parents send their children to other math programs outside of school, and there was the sense that clearer communication should be in place. People wanted to understand how it compares to other programs and to see data to understand how it improves analytical scores. Other parents wanted to understand the current ELA curriculum in the elementary schools, specifically what is used and why. There was a question related to Lucy Calkins and concern and frustration was expressed. Additionally, several attendees mentioned they thought it would be

157beneficial to have a more front-facing and proactive approach from the district level as it relates to curriculum. several mentioned that more informal parent presentations would help a lot attendees discussed the budget and wanted to understand what recurring costs could come down issues relate to the high school also came up including APAT rolling grade book comments about seeing grades questions arose about time and manner of assessments being handed back and how that relates to student wellness, especially the importance of having a test in hand in order to study and improve. In addition, several attendees commented about concern for students who are struggling. The question was asked if the math center could be open additional hours beyond the school day. Some attendees mentioned that the middle school teachers have extra help before and after school and thought

158that would be beneficial at the high school level. regarding special education as I mentioned earlier there were questions about a parent survey and it was very robust in discussion and I encourage the community to attend our coffees thank you thank you Leah are there any other board updates at this time Okay, then I'll hand it over to you, Drew. Thank you. Okay, thank you. We have three cabinet updates tonight. We're going to start with Edgar, and while we don't normally do this, we'll have a few slides for Edgar to share tonight. I appreciate that. Thanks. I'm happy to advance them for you. I will. Can I just say next? This is an update on K-5 literacy. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on literacy practice with a focus on primary reading. I

159want to start off by acknowledging the speaker before, the headlines and media coverage of ongoing reading wars and critical assessment of early resources from Teachers College Reading and Writing Project under the leadership of Lucy Calkins. There have been some questions since about why we didn't immediately drop resources from Teachers College or any resources or revisions facilitated by Ms. Calkins following the critical reviews, as some districts have done. As I lead up to the latest updates to primary reading, I will describe the rationale at each step for why we made adjustments to our tools and resources, the timing of those changes, and a strategy that involves research, collaboration, support, and an appropriate amount of patience. Next slide. So this is true. Reading curriculum should reflect modern next-generation learning standards. They should attend to students' diverse learning

160needs, interests, and abilities, which include opportunities for choice. They should include evidence-based structures, progressions, content, and assessment tools that measure and attend to comprehension and word recognition, a cohesive and robust MTSS process, and ongoing reflection, evaluation, and adaptation. Next slide. There's been a great deal of foundational research that is built on this, and it's not new. Scholars in the field have for many years described the importance of teaching both language comprehension skills and word decoding skills in order to produce skilled readers. This is something that Scarsdale has long valued and promoted, and that continues to this day. That said, the way we align, support, and balance reading instruction has grown and has been informed at every step by internal and external research. Next slide. A driver in this has been the research supporting early and

161explicit instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, and word study to develop students' word decoding skill or word recognition. Next. As well, instruction should also include a commitment to learning progressions and language comprehension. For clarity, learning progressions are thoughtfully determined agreements about what should be taught by grade, includes the development of background knowledge, vocabulary, literacy knowledge, practice in reading different genres, and rich opportunities for verbal reasoning, otherwise known as language comprehension. Next. Okay, so going back in a time machine, circa 2016, at all five elementary schools, educators were responding to the research that emphasized teaching both word decoding and language comprehension skills to students. At this point, there was some variety in how teachers across the district and across grades were attending to this, as well as vertical alignment within some schools. Next. Important research and decisions

162went into changes that happened in 2016. Reading specialists were added at each school to respond to the research that showed the positive impact of early targeted intervention for young readers. An additional ELA coordinator was returned to support cohesion across the district. As well, the district recognized the power of district-wide learning progressions and language comprehension and chose to engage and adapt the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project material, or the units of study, and enlist professional development support through assured grade-focused professional development. So please note, decoding was being taught, but in a variety of ways across the grades. All the while, internal feedback was being provided by the district-wide ELA committee. In the early editions of the units of study, it was recognized by the committee that they lacked explicit and structured phonics lessons, but had

163many strengths related to language comprehension. Next. This slide notes the differences color coded to reflect that applied research. Next slide. During the 2019 year, we enlisted the Tri-State Consortium, a diverse cohort of high-performing districts, to act as collegial researchers and critical friends to conduct its own examination and look at the RTI, or Response to Intervention Support Structures, specifically and how it meets the needs of our young readers. The group had specific recommendations related to classroom reading instruction, most notably that classroom phonics and phonemic awareness K2 and word study 3.5 should enlist common tools by grade band and by school. Through this alignment of structured tools and coordinated learning progressions, students were most supported in moving from grade to grade and less likely to be placed into remediation for decoding difficulties. As well, they had helpful

164recommendations for RTI, including encouraging the update to MTSS, a wider scope to include supported behavioral and SEL needs, and recommended a focus on coordinated benchmarking and collegial sharing. Next. Meanwhile, Teachers College Reading and Writing was responding to cognitive reading research and embedded phonics and phonemic awareness directly into the reading units of study. Our reading specialists were using student data to expand the practices they were using, including additional research-backed tools, notably a tool called Hegarty that provided more targeted practice with phonemic awareness. Next slide. Here's a chart that reflects these changes. And now here's a time-lapsed look at the research-driven changes that have occurred from 2016 to last year. Next. Next. Next slide. As we arrive at the present year, there have been additional updates. We have enhanced our collegial research group structures to provide differentiated

165professional development for teachers, this year engaging in an author and trainer from Harvard's Project Zero. We have incorporated phonemic awareness tools, effective with reading specialists, into K1 classrooms. And after a year of piloting them in several classrooms, have incorporated updated assessment tools at the primary level to measure comprehension and word recognition and time them at appropriate times in the development of our students. A special thank you to our primary assessment advisory committee, a dedicated group of representative teachers across all of the elementary schools, together with ELA coordinators, they are guiding this essential work. As well, our MTSS process has centered on meaningful student reading data and tailored goals for students. Next. Here is a slide that represents the current year and the embedded changes. Next slide. As we look ahead, we will continue to follow

166our practice of research, collaboration, support, and patience for revisions we make to our curriculum and pedagogy and that means exploring all promising tools that will help support and inspire our students. And there are also two areas here that I highlighted in blue. First, as we go forward, the importance of integration, breaking down the silos between content areas to enhance learning. at the ELT, or the Elementary Learning Time, with coordinators and elementary administrators. We had a wonderful example of this shared by Jen Kiley, Nat Kean, Lauren Drapek, and the fifth grade teachers from Edgewood to describe how they integrated a unit of study on nonfiction reading into their science unit, applying literacy knowledge while building essential vocabulary and science knowledge. This work was done as a program improvement project and has been shared across all of

167the schools. Here's this next slide is the slide you might see. Here's the little example, the next one of a student-facing slide where you'll see one of the tools from the units of study and how it's applied to a science lesson in fifth grade. The second area that I highlighted, next slide. It was in the area of appropriate patience and the words together were tenacity and humility. I highlighted tenacity because it's important that we follow the science, foundational and new to guide this work, not react to headlines and political swings and trust the expertise of our educators. And the other word that I highlighted was humility, which goes with that. Being open to innovation, being responsive to criticism, and acknowledging that growth is always possible. And I am very happy to answer any questions here

168at the board, but also as I've communicated to community members directly to anybody who has any questions or concerns. Thanks. Thank you, Edgar. Any? I know it was a little longer than a typical cabinet update. It was. But it was timely. And thank you for letting me have my visual. And we broke the rules for you. So how do we assess? whether the things that are happening in the ELA K-3 program and the changes that are being made are effective or are actually helping the students or resulting in a higher level of realization in terms of what they're able to learn. That's great. So we use different metrics. I mean, some of the bluntest tools that we have are the state test results that continue to be great. But also within that, in the classroom,

169we have different measurement tools that measure both word recognition at the early grades, but also comprehension. So different tools that are matched with it. So the primary advisory, assessment advisory committee actually made determinations based on the students' development, the research that they had done, about when to time them so that we could monitor. how students were improving in their reading. Some of this also relates back to what we're seeing of the students that are being brought to MTSS. So that's where kids are struggling in a particular area. As we put these new improvements in place, then we look for less and less referrals in the area and more opportunities for kids to read more and read better. Do you want to sort of explain this record keeping tool? Sure. Okay. So here's a tool that

170this is one of the assessments that we have in the area of word recognition. And this is how students are being monitored on their phonics. The sounds that letter makes, the phonological awareness, their ability to hear and differentiate sounds, and sight recognition, which is the sight word that they're saying. And so these have been dropped in so that we can carefully monitor students and give appropriate intervention. Part of that, though, is a tiered approach, meaning that we want to make sure that we're giving students those opportunities within the classroom to get the structured support that they need, but also if there are students that struggle and need additional support beyond that, there are other areas where they can get the support. and the reading specialists, but also other tiers. So a teacher would have all

171their students' names here and all the scores across, and you can see how individual students are doing, but you can also see how groups of students, how many students are. you know hitting it out of the park how many students in the class maybe are struggling with a particular thing yeah and they're different there are different assessments that that that will see where they are with phonological awareness but there are other tools that are used to get towards comprehension that have embedded questions to make sure that not only are they able to sound out the words and read it but at the end of it they're able to make sense of it Thank you for your presentation. I guess it's an update though, right? Quasi-presentation. This actually might be more of a question for Eric

172though. Dyslexia, you know, it's reading related, but it's a disability. How do we handle dyslexia in our district now? I know it's changed over time, right? The practices around assessing dyslexia. That's correct. So because we have consistent phonics work happening in K-2 across each building, students are doing these types of assessments we look to see who's which students need support it's very difficult prior to first and second grade to differentiate between a student who has dyslexia versus a student who is a slower developing decoder so that's where our reading specialists come in mainly they'll be pulling students so a student who on this classroom assessment we're seeing that they're not hitting their FMP mark we're seeing that they don't have enough letters phonetically the sight words are are not where we want them to be

173or some combination thereof they'll take them and they'll start to work with them in a balanced So our reading specialists will focus in on using both decoding and comprehension strategies with them. And what they'll find is for the slower developing decoders and the slower developing readers, those types of jumpstart programs will move them along and get them over that hump fairly quickly. Those reading specialists can also see when that is not working as well as we'd like them. And that's when we go to different tiers of the MTSS triangle to say, is this a student who has something that's more... that's less developmental and more neurological or more more in the line of a disability or dyslexia type of diagnosis and that's where we may do a referral we may have that student meet with

174LRC teachers and do something like Wilson or PAF thank you Just a few questions more clarifying So I just want so the community knows you're stating phonics is being taught in the classroom and phonemic awareness is being assessed and adjusted on Daily not daily or repeatedly throughout the year so that teachers are very clear about the child's progress from September to June yeah, I would I would just say in the end the evolution over the last years that It was kind of fun to color code it. And I do have to give a shout out to the teams of teachers and educators who have worked on that, who have looked through all the materials. But more than ever, there's a level of assessment and attention to it. And also to address some of what Eric

175was talking about around support, is one of the things that could be happening if... there aren't explicit structures around phonemic awareness and phonics is that there is a misdiagnosis in some cases of students who are not actually dyslexic but haven't had the kind of practice that most students need. And by attending to it in the classroom, then you've helped support that with additional layers of reading support for that more individualized attention and then less referrals later on. I guess my other question is it might be helpful, I don't know if it's really a question, more an observation, if, again, the home-to-school communication around this was a little bit more... robust or clarifying or you know I think from what we're hearing about the community there is a concern that what you're saying is being done

176is not being done so there's clearly a disconnect or maybe what they're seeing at home is not what's being happening in the classroom and I think it would address a lot of concerns if there was a way for parents to get a better understanding of what's happening and how their child is doing. I don't know. It's been a while since I've been in the elementary school. This is where that highlighted humility. I think one of the things that we've done is there is a parent-facing website page where you can look at all the rationale. But when I get the comment, I invite people to have a conversation with me. I'm very, very open to community members to talk to them through it and talk about the nuances of it. Because it seems like when the

177headline or a podcast comes out, it's like, oh my gosh, why don't we just drop this? When there are tools and structures in the unit of study that are really powerful and really good. but it's imperfect. So here's how we've made these adaptations. And to look at a unit of study, for example, that was highlighted up there, a fifth grade integrated one, it does not look or sound, well, it has the same learning outcomes around literacy, like one that it came from a box. It's something that is very uniquely Scarsdale. describing that takes a little bit more time and there is more nuance to it and it's you know There's got to be a more effective way and I'm yeah, I mean I think that's kind of what I'm getting at right you can't be

178speaking to every single parent all the time you have other things that have to happen and so I think this is just highlighting an area where maybe Communication from the teacher or the school could be stronger to address these concerns and prevent those conversations From having to happen all day every day you and you're very I know you take the time to speak to whoever wants to speak to you and that is very much appreciated I just think there are more efficient ways to get that information out and maybe perhaps this isn't a way for us to step back and say, okay, maybe we need to look at those more efficient ways. Sure. No, I appreciate that. I mean, I think that what I've been trying to do is if I hear somebody who's quoting

179some of the most inflammatory headline, I do have a depth of understanding that I think to try to stop the spread of misinformation or partial information. But I will circle back to my ELA coordinators and talk about. Maybe this is something the coordinators could do to help us. You know, it's just something to think about. I think that that is a way that we could be more efficient based on the feedback that's continually coming to us. I appreciate that. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. Megan's next. Just a quick update on Green Acres principal search. No visuals. No visuals. So I'm happy to share we've completed our hiring and interview process for the next principal of Green Acres. And I want to just extend my thanks to all of our faculty, staff, and parents who

180participated. Talika, the PTA president from Green Acres is here, who participated in our interview process. Your input was really critical in identifying the next principal. Tomorrow I'll be sending out a communication regarding our final candidate to the Green Acres community and the larger community, Scarsdale community. And at next Monday's Board of Education meeting, there'll be a vote to appoint the next principal of Green Acres and an opportunity to officially welcome this individual to the new role. Keeping you on. I know. I'm careful with the pronoun. Thank you. Thank you. That's great. And then we'll conclude with Andrew. I'm going to truncate my statements given the time. So the first update is on the stream dredging project. The consultant we've hired, GEI, has done a great job of turning survey data and... Federal flood map data

181into a model for us to model the impact of flooding for 10-year and 100-year storms They've also gone back and started to refine that model to help us identify some of the smaller flooding events that though Are not 10-year or 100-year events Still impact our property based on the floods we all been experiencing here recently So that model is informing that the pre-application meeting we had last week with the DEC to get a sense from the DEC on what requirements they would have for us to dredge that stream, what outcomes they would expect from that work and the impacts that we'd have to kind of prevent or just monitor through that process. So it was a very productive conversation. We hope that the outcome of that would mean we will have a permanent place by

182the end of the spring semester and dredging work could get done this summer with the support of the DEC. So that's the stream dredging update. The auditorium, the glimpses of the finished product are really starting to shine through. Drew said earlier, it looks really good in there. And I agree. The colors are really starting to come together. The woodwork is being completed. Almost all of the woodwork in the auditorium is done now. You can really see the rich, new, fresh look. the auditorium it's exciting almost all the seats were installed today when I was in there the seat lighting will coming next and we're really getting to the finishing touches and it's going to be a really beautiful space I'm excited for it there's two two items that are on delay everything else we anticipate

183it being done by the end of March the first item is the motor for the stage curtain that motor was on delay and it's still delayed so the stage curtains which we haven't been using for years as it is so once we get it installed it'll be a new function for us that'll be sometime in mid-April and then there is a wood veneer product along the proscenium that the product had been delayed because of trying to make sure the stain finish matches the wood treatments around the rest of the space. We finally seem to have gotten that sorted out and that is coming in April and we will likely install that during the April break because we don't want that to be done during the school day. So we're really excited for the auditorium though

184to be functional and usable by the end of this month and get our first glimpses for student performances in April. And then the last update I have is more of a welcome. So I'm excited to announce that we've hired a New supervisor of transportation miss Nadia Pettigano Nadia comes to the district with over 20 years of transportation related experience primarily in the area of private car limousine and commercial trucking experience Nadia's leadership experience is a c-suite executive and a focus on safety process improvement and communication will be a tremendous addition to the Transportation Department. We are really lucky to have Nadia on board. Nadia has already hit the ground running and will be connecting with various stakeholder groups in the coming weeks as she transitions into her new role. And we wanted to say welcome

185to Nadia. Thank you. I think we're all super excited to see the auditorium. Then we're moving along to item seven, public comment session. I read the preamble not too long ago at the end of the budget study session, so I won't repeat it, but it's here on board docs. So at this time, I'd like to welcome anybody in the audience who would like to make a public comment. Seeing there's nobody in person, we will go to Zoom. Jim? There is one attendee on Zoom. Her hand is not raised. Maybe we'll give it a couple seconds. If you'd like to make a public comment on Zoom, please raise your hand. There is now a second attendee on Zoom whose hand is raised. Okay. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. All right, thank you. Rachna

186Singh from Griffin Avenue. I wanted to thank the board for asking some very insightful questions tonight about the budget, especially Leah and Ron. Thank you. I'm going to hold my comments until the next budget study session. However, I decided to speak tonight after hearing Edgar's update. Founders and Pinnell and Culkin's unit of study got really low marks on Ed Reports. Now, Ed Week is not a partisan institution or a publication, and I reject the narrative that any comments are political ships. My son and I actively rejected the Founders and Pinnell LLI data based on data and efficacy. And my son is a data point. So we did not like the FNP-LLI, and we didn't find it effective at his fifth grade. And, you know, after reading all the publications and the report that came out

187in Ed Week, it was rated as one of the lowest performing reading intervention. So thank you. Thanks for taking my comments. Is there anybody else on Zoom? Nobody whose hand is raised. Okay, we'll give it a couple seconds. If anybody would like to make a public comment on Zoom, please raise your hand. Well then with that, we will close the public comment session and move on to follow up to public comment. All right, thank you for your comments. Next would be item nine, written communications, and I believe this is Jim. Thank you, Susie. Please note 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

188be reported at an upcoming public board meeting a board member will respond at their earliest convenience a Formal response requires that you include your full name address and if you are writing on behalf of an organization in the communication. More detailed information regarding written communications received by the Board of Education may be found in today's meeting agenda located in Board Docs on the Scarsdale School District's website. And turning to the written communications received since our last meeting, I think we reflect in the agenda 20 written communications on board matters and I think four or five actually five on board meetings highlights board invitations and correspondence thank you Jim next in the agenda would be the consent agenda and I believe this is amber you want me to read the preamble I guess you've had a

189long night sure I'm happy to read the preamble for you I appreciate it it's not done yet either the board may conduct some of its business using a consent agenda in an effort to achieve greater efficiency of board meetings a consent agenda can 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 vice president of the board. Items are selected for the consent agenda when the officers of the board and the superintendent believe there is no controversy regarding them. The items of the consent agenda will have the same background material as ordinary items on the board agenda. any member of the board feels that any item on the consent agenda requires discussion prior

190to 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 Thank you so much. Did you want to call? I would like to call if anybody would like to remove an item from the consent agenda. No? Okay. Back to you, Amber. Thank you. Thank you, Susie. There are 11 items on tonight's consent agenda. 11.01 minutes, business meeting, budget study session number one, February 3rd, 2025. Item 11.02, minutes, special meeting executive session, February 10th, 2025. Item 11.03, personnel certified. Item 11.04, personnel non-certified. Item 11.05, claims audit report, January

1912025. Item 11.06, Westchester County agreement for electronic voting machines. Item 11.07, smart move, moving voting machines. Item 11.08, census report. Item 11.09, contracts over 20,000, special education. Item 11.10, award of RFP for athletic training, physical therapy, and concussion management services for interscholastic athletics. Item 11.11, accept the consent agenda. I move the board accept the consent agenda as presented. Thank you so much, Amber. Is there a second? Thank you, Leah. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 12, information, items, and discussion. Item 12.01. I believe this is Lisa. Thank you. Okay. Tonight's report is for January of 2025. As you can see, we received about $6 million in tax revenue from Scarsdale and an additional $759,000 from Amerinec for the month of January. The bank balance at month

192end was approximately $68 million, and about 70% of that is held in our NICLAS and our NILAF accounts, which we're earning between $4.23 and $4.28 for the month. Total interest was about $221,000, which again keeps us right on track for where we expect it to be. State aid, we received our $977,000 in STAR aid, and we also received our monthly BLT aid, the video lottery terminal aid from the state. Disbursements, vendor payments totaled about $7.5 million, and our semi-monthly gross payrolls were about $9.5 million. Any questions? Thank you. Okay, so there is one transfer being presented tonight for $50,000. It is to add money for our contractual tutoring costs. These costs are for students who are not able to attend in-person classes. We have to provide tutoring for them. Sometimes we use staff members, which

193are charged with salary code. This represents those that we contract out for. This is a tough one to project and anticipate. It's on an as-needed basis. So apparently, for whatever reason, the springtime somewhat picks up. So we're trying to anticipate that increase in use on top of what we're already aware of. So we're hopeful that this should cover through year-end. Thank you. Item 12.03, the EV bus transition discussion. Yes Emily, thank you for being patient. She always picks the long meetings. Sorry Emily. You all may recognize Emily. Emily is from Highland Fleet. You might recall that Highland Fleet did our electric bus transportation study back in the fall. And last week, or last month, excuse me, I presented to the board a budget recommendation that included our EV bus infrastructure recommendation to partner with Highland

194Fleet. fleet for infrastructure implementation and management over an eight-year period so this evening Emily's gonna be here to kind of talk a little bit more about that specific proposal that we were anticipating to be included in the budget before next year Thank you. Thank you. Should I take a clicker or just let you know you can just say next slide? Okay, perfect Yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak again looking forward to the presentation and discussion Quick agenda just gonna give an overview of what Highland does as an implementation partner the specific proposal We've been discussing for the four buses the four initial buses with a little bit of an economic analysis and also a timeline for implementation and when you can expect things to be happening here. Next slide, please. Super

195brief background, Highland was really created to make it simpler and more affordable for school districts to electrify their fleet. We take on a lot of the more complex aspects that your traditional diesel or gas fleet, you know, the operators aren't used to, like how do you charge the vehicles, how do you train your staff. How do you install all of the equipment that's necessary? How do you finance? How do you get all the grants that you need? Next slide, please. This is an overview of all the projects we have across the country. You can see we're heavily concentrated in the Northeast and our buses have driven over 3 million miles and we have over 800 electric school buses under contract. A lot of those have been funded through the grant programs that you all have

196access to. and we have over 40 school district partners to date. Next slide please. To get into some specifics about what the contract we're proposing actually includes, so for a fixed annual per bus fee over an eight-year contract, Highland provides a set of equipment and services. The first one is the actual electrification of the school bus depot. So that is everything from working with Con Ed to bring in enough electrical power. to actually electrify the depot, to all the engineering and construction and concrete work required to install the charging stations. We commission the charging stations and ensure reliability and interoperability of the equipment and the vehicles. The next piece here is charge management and fueling. So we provide a pretty robust software package, which I'll talk a little bit more about in a minute. But

197that software is really the glue that makes this all happen. You can monitor it. We monitor it. And we include the full cost of electricity to charge your vehicles over the life of the contract. So you're essentially getting a fixed fueling contract. based on how many miles your vehicles drive. The next bucket is charger maintenance. So we provide a 97% uptime guarantee on the chargers, which is pretty standard. That 97% is pretty standard across the industry. That means we are warrantying the chargers for the full life of the contract for eight years. We are monitoring them constantly. We are able to remotely diagnose and fix a lot of issues. And if there's an issue that requires technicians on site. we deploy those technicians and ensure the charging stations are up and running. So you can

198charge your vehicles and get your kids to school. And the last item, the last bucket here is really the training and support. You have a dedicated team of folks at Highland, including a customer success manager, dedicated helpline. We provide in-person and virtual training on an ongoing basis, kind of whenever the district needs it, to ensure the drivers and operators at the transportation department. you know, are comfortable utilizing the equipment and really optimizing the equipment to meet your needs. And we handle a lot of grant compliance, data collection and reporting. We're piecing together a few three different grants here. So we're supporting making sure all of that is implemented properly and reported accurately to utilize those grants. Next slide, please. Some other benefits of our contract so I mentioned the 97% uptime guarantee It's really you

199could view it as a performance based Contract there is no upfront cost or time investment required You don't pay Highland until all of the equipment is Installed on site Commission ready to go your buses are ready for routes It's really, you know, a lot of districts find it attractive in the sense that it really bundles a lot of those operational costs into one contract and, you know, provides a predictable budget over the life of the vehicles, the eight-year contract in New York. And as I mentioned, you really have a dedicated team. You saw we're implementing projects all over the country, so we're really taking those learnings and spreading them to all the districts that we're partnering with, which, you know, leads to efficient deployment of these projects for you all. Next slide, please. This is

200just a quick overview of, you know, these are seven different teams at Highland that would touch your project and really be interacting with your transportation team on a regular basis. You have the folks that are actually building the depot, ensuring it's constructed on time. You have your customer success manager, which will be interfacing with your team. weekly, monthly, on a regular cadence to ensure things are working. We have a training specialist dedicated to your team. We have a grant specialist dedicated to your team. We have an energy manager dedicated to your team, and they essentially help monitor the charging stations and ensure your vehicles are charged for your routes on a daily basis and also ensuring we're reducing the energy costs. Which we are fixing for you all and then we have you know field

201technicians and other maintenance support folks that we would actually be Dispatching on-site to resolve any issues here next slide please so Fleet X is our software and this is just an overview of some of the things that it provides this software was developed by Highland in partnership with a company called synop and As I mentioned, the software is really beneficial for the district operators. They can monitor the vehicle performance, the state of charge and the range and kind of all the important metrics that you need to monitor your fleet. And on the flip side, Hyland is using this software to constantly monitor the use and uptime of the chargers. And that's how we utilize this software to ensure everything is working. You can actually use this program to submit and track support tickets on your

202mobile phone, on your desktop. There's some other functionalities in that software where you can access. Highland resources, training resources, updates on implementation timelines and construction timelines and all that type of documentation. So it's really a robust platform that our customers really, really like. Next slide. Just a little bit about our contract in New York State. We work in a lot of states, so there's a lot of different regulations about these things across different states. But in New York, our contract is currently classified as a capital lease, and it is eligible for transportation aid according to how your district receives aid under capital expenses. I know our team is working with Andrew and your legal team to determine exactly the kind of voter approval process, but kind of the initial blush is that it would likely

203be required to go to voter approval for this type of contract. And the allowable lease term in the state is eight years, so that is what we're matching. Okay, almost done. So this dives a little bit into our pricing. So as I mentioned, we have a fixed annual fee per bus. We are finalizing that pricing very shortly in the next couple weeks as we're working through all the contract terms and negotiations. The plan would be for the district to procure four electric school buses and Highland to provide infrastructure and services as outlined. for those four electric school buses. I have a site plan on the next page, which I'll talk about the infrastructure. The grants, I mentioned those three different buckets. There's the EPA rebate from the federal government and some state funding that can

204actually be utilized for both the vehicle and the chargers. So we've made sure to, and some utility funding as well. So we've made sure to incorporate all of that. Next slide, please. So you might remember this site plan from the last presentation. It's really our recommendation for kind of the full fleet electrification starting with the black box here for the four type C or large school buses. The plan that we've incorporated is to what you call upsize the electrical infrastructure. Long story short, it means installing extra stuff in the ground to make it so that it's easier to expand moving forward without kind of investing everything up front to electrify the entire depot. So our engineers think really carefully about the way to do this and, you know, upsize equipment, put an extra conduit in

205the ground, make the concrete pads for the equipment larger, just so it's easier to upsize over time. And the scope that we were contemplating essentially allows for an additional 30 chargers, just not the charging stations themselves. So most of the costs that you're seeing in our contract is really the electrical infrastructure here, which is setting you up to expand your fleet. And again, not paying for that up front, but paying for it over the life of these vehicles. Next slide. This is a quick... Economic analysis, just looking at kind of the upfront cost here. So on the left side, that is what it would look like if you all were to just pay for the infrastructure upfront. And on the right side is financing it with Highland over time. So you have... You know if

206you weren't financing it with this capital lease structure over time You'd be having a pretty high capital outlay for the infrastructure and the buses And Highland is helping reduce that cost initially right worse We could be saving you know about 400 grand and that kind of initial upfront cost again by spreading it over the life of the of the vehicles here Next slide I think there's just two more. So timeline, the implementation deadline for the EPA program is May 2026. So we're tracking to hit that deadline. And there's a good chance it will be pushed up. This is pretty conservative. We feel pretty confident about being able to implement according to this timeline. The next slide, I won't really go through it, but it shows all of the things. we will be doing between the

207contract finalization and the actual deployment of the vehicles. And that's really all the development, engineering planning work, procurement of equipment, procurement of the buses, some training, commissioning. So all of that happens in really like that eight to 12 month period to set you all up for a successful, easy. Use of your electric vehicles. I think the last slide I have is just a note on source well, so our contract Sourcewell, which is a cooperative procurement agency, put out a bid for this turnkey fleet electrification service. So we were awarded as a vendor under that agency so you can use Sourcewell in New York to procure our contract instead of going – it was already competitively procured. So just pointing that out. I think that's all I had. Happy to answer any questions. I think maybe

208I should just chime in with a couple finer points that Emily alluded to. So one of the items that we're working through right now is this is a novel idea. It doesn't really exist in New York State elsewhere at this point. So I've been working with my colleagues in another school district that's working with Highlands to try to figure out how the state is going to treat this. One of the pieces that is being worked out is... Is this being treated as a capital lease, much like a bond would for the infrastructure purpose, which in New York State, in order for us to move forward, a bond requires a separate proposition and voter approval. We're still working through the details. It is being advised to us that that's the best approach. However, we're not certain

209that it needs to be. So we're working with our attorney. We're working with the State Education Department. work with Highland to try to figure out if that's necessary. So what does that mean? Right now, as presented even this evening, is a budget that includes this embedded in it, both on the tax cap side and in the operating budget. If potentially we were... definitively that without question it has to be a separate proposition, both the tax cap exemption and the cost of this lease would come out and would be a separate item that should it pass would then get added back in. So it's a bit of a confusing approach. We're trying to limit the confusion right now by presenting all of our budget information as one picture as we continue to have these conversations. So

210hopefully we'll have an answer to that in the next few weeks or so. hopefully by the end of this week actually. The other piece, obviously we recognize that our bus depot and our bus compound is on a property that's leased with the Village, so Highland is very aware of that. We're actually having conversations with the Village Department of Public Works to see how our work and the Village's work on the Sanitation Department will coordinate. But certainly that's something that we will need to continue to consider as we are essentially a lessee of that property and how all that infrastructure would impact that agreement. So we're working through that. The grant funding is really important. We know we've got the EPA grant funding and the NYSERDA funding for our bus purchases. All of the pricing that

211Emily has been working through includes that charging grant money going through this process. So we still get the benefit of that grant through the pricing that Highland would charge us. And I think the last piece that I wanted to articulate, because it is unique, is while we're talking about the infrastructure, The billing mechanism for this whole agreement is a per bus annual cost, right? So it's these first four buses, one of which we've already issued the purchase order for this year and three we're requesting as part of the budget next year. This infrastructure would be tied to those four vehicles. If for some reason we chose not to continue with Highland for buses 5, 6, 7, 8 through, you know, 80, we would have the opportunity to maintain this agreement with Highland for the eight-year

212period and look at other options for electrification of our fleet in other ways, either on the existing site with the core infrastructure that's coming through this agreement or in other ways. So it does not tie us in for... The entirety of our fleet over a rollout period of time, it's really just right now focused on the four buses that we're trying to get on the road. I hope that that extra context is helpful. Can I ask a follow-up question because I had a few questions and that was sort of related to one of them. They're primarily around the contract. So if our fleet did grow, then the contract would grow. It could grow as well. So to that point, if we have eight buses in the future, we could have the same contract for eight

213buses. We'd probably do either an addendum or a new contract for that additional bus. The reason being, as Emily highlighted earlier, there's... There's an upfront cost for some of this infrastructure now that's meant to help us build onto it later. So truthfully, while the cost as outlined in the presentation is like $32,000 to $35,000 right now as we've kind of finalized the negotiation on what's included, the next bust may be something less because we have much of the underlying infrastructure embedded in the ground. Okay. I have a few more questions if it's okay. Thank you for your presentation, Emily. And I'm not sure if this is a question for you or for Andrew, but on slide nine, you said the allowable lease term is eight years. Does that mean the maximum is eight years? Yeah.

214It previously was 12, but there's been a lot of discussions about it, so they've made it eight, which is the maximum. And then I guess my follow-up question for you, Andrew, is so we're... I mean, or maybe this is just what you're proposing, but are you suggesting we should do an eight-year lease? Yes. And why are you suggesting that? Yes, because of the state aid associated with it. So right now the current direction is that this type of a contract is going to be aided through the transportation aid state aid category. The state has told us that they are treating this as a capital lease, which would be the same as if they purchased a bus. The previous aid calculation was they'd take the full cost of this lease, sum it up, and then divide

215it by 12 in aid districts over a 12-year period for that purchase. Because of the upfront cost related to EV buses, they've acknowledged the fact that they want to shorten that aid period over eight years. So we want to match this infrastructure agreement to that aid payout cycle. Okay, great. Thank you. That's helpful. And then there was a note at the bottom of slide 10. It was a star that basically said indicative pricing subject to final utility determination from Con Ed. And I know we've sort of been hearing about Con Ed. So does that mean as Con Ed raises their prices, this contract is going to go up based on that amount? I mean, what does that mean? Yeah, that's a good question. So that note was actually in regard to the physical interconnection of

216the infrastructure to Con Ed's grid. So not the ongoing energy costs. We fix those ongoing energy costs. So, you know, we do a model. And if in year three the energy costs skyrocket, that's not something the district pays for. It is part of our offering where we fix those costs for you. So the final pricing was really just that $32,000 to $35,000 because there's a little bit of capital cost that we're clarifying. Thank you. That's helpful. And then I guess my last question is probably for Andrew, but... What happens if these buses don't come in in time? Does the contract still start? Like you've ordered one, but we haven't approved three more yet. And then what if it takes over a year to get those buses? So the timing right now, the first bus we

217believe we'll have before the work is done with Highland, right? The next three, should the budget pass as it's presented today, we will put those buses on order. And we do anticipate having them. well in advance of Highland completing all their work. So I'm not terribly concerned about that right now. I think the heavier lift at the moment, because the procurement of the buses has actually gotten easier on state contract with our existing vendor. We've now had a model of how to order that and get it in the queue. And capacity is growing for school buses. But I think the bigger challenge is this is a complex situation. It's the first time a district is going down this path. We've got the complication of we're also gonna have to talk with a village about some

218of this because of their property So I think you know That is going to be the the longer a lead is getting these chargers actually installed then the bus is coming Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you Yeah, I'm just curious the I assume that the the calculation per bus is based on assumptions about what something costs right to do If as of tomorrow there are 25% tariffs given to equipment and buses, how does that affect what's going to happen? I hate to, I'm not trying to get into that conversation, but it seems to me that we're in a very mercurial moment in time where prices could be dramatically affected. I'm just curious how that gets built into the language. Yeah, it's a really good question. So I think a way to address that is our

219business has really long sales cycles and we understand that. So when we give a price to a school district, we typically have to hold that price. You know, just the construction element of it for six, eight, ten months. So it's just something we have to face as an industry. The contract, really the idea is we're not issuing change orders. We've scoped the project. We've priced it. If there are truly unforeseen issues, like we start digging and there's a 200-year-old fossil down there, there are things that can happen. But the way the contract and the agreement is structured is that we're keeping these costs for you. In your previous presentation, they were down the road, not anytime very soon. Yeah. Potential bus depot sites at like Quaker Ridge and the middle school and stuff. Is that

220still a possibility or have we changed things such that we think that we can keep everything at the bus depot? Yeah, I don't, for the initial four buses, I don't think we've contemplated putting them somewhere. Yeah, I think I have to check, but the bus depot can't quite fit all of the buses. So there is likely going to have to be an alternative site, you know, maybe 10 years down the line. I think that actually also plays in well with some of the things we've been talking about since that last presentation is the charging technology is still changing. And there's even talk at some point about having in-ground charges that the buses just drive over, which would reduce the need for bollards and charging towers and whatnot. I was hoping some of that already happened.

221So I think because we're only buying in for these four buses at the moment, as that technology changes, future agreements with Highland or go-it-alone approaches could factor in some of that, which maybe might not require as much space off-site. Thank you. What's the nearest place where you've completed a project to here? Yeah, that's a good question. As Andrew mentioned, we don't have any projects in New York, and that's mostly because of the regulatory landscape in New York that causes challenges. We have several projects in Massachusetts, two in Vermont. several in Pennsylvania. These are done? These are operational? A portion of them are operational and some are in the like depot development phase where we have a contract and we're building the depot right now. So we have a few outside of Philly as well. So

222I think those would be the closest. And then after, thank you, after eight years, how does it work with using the chargers and the software and paying for all the electricity? Yeah, there are several options, and that will be part of the negotiation. So one option is you all buy out the equipment, and at that point it's basically paid for. So that's a very low cost if no cost buyout. or we can just extend the contract if things are going well. I do want to point out that the chargers, you can use any type of software on them, so it's not like you're locked into using our software for the duration of the chargers' lives. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Sorry it's so late. Okay, next on the agenda,

223item 12.04, the Joint District Village Athletics Field Study. Nick and John, the moment you've been waiting for. And Cindy, the moment you've been waiting for. Thank you. And I'll have a more formal thanks. So thanks, Susie. So just as a reminder, in December of 2023, the district entered into a joint agreement with the village and consultant CHA. to perform a comprehensive athletic field study to assess current and future community needs pertaining to village and school district recreational assets we have the understanding that while we operate differently than the village our residents and students don't necessarily experience that and they just care about the the places and the spaces so CHA was tasked with reviewing the existing use capacity and playability of existing facilities gathering input from key user groups and the public, and using industry

224best practices to develop recommendations for facility improvements and usage by activity. So we're pleased to be able to discuss the long-anticipated final report tonight. for the first time at least. Before jumping in, I do want to express gratitude to everyone who's worked to help us reach this point. I personally believe it was a very positive and effective collaboration with the Village, and I want to publicly acknowledge Mayor Arrest and Trustees Ganz and Mazur, who sat on the committee, Village Manager Marshall, PRC Superintendent Gray, and Public Works Superintendent Coleman for their partnership. throughout this process. On our end, I want to thank Mike Patera, Nick Ferraro, and John Antonicelli, who are here, our facilities leader, Cindy Parrott, who's here, our athletic director, and of course, Andrew. for all of his work on this. And finally, I

225want to thank Susie for your participation throughout the process, and especially Ron, who contributed countless hours in an effort to make sure we ended up with a report that could assist the board and help the community understand the current facilities, conditions, and needs. Collectively, a tremendous amount of time, energy, and good thinking went into the process, so thank you. I'll just share a few... key thoughts starting with the executive summary talking about the recommendations and how they're structured and then at a certain point I'm going to turn it over to Andrew to talk through a little bit of our current thinking with respect to the budget for this coming year just to put that in in a context then we can open it up to all sorts of conversation so first Really, as the executive

226summary of the report points out, there are really three main challenges that we're trying to address or that we need to address or consider addressing. The playability of our existing fields, especially when they experience rain events, puts them at a commission for a period of time. That connects to the next item, which is capacity. And generally, we believe we have insufficient capacity. for the things that we want to do with and for our students in terms of athletics. And then the third broad area is generally planning and communication, and in particular thinking about how would we phase improvements in a way that's equitable, that's equitable among genders of sports and sports themselves, and also use dollars efficiently. to get the most value and help the most people in our community. So that was really the

227framework that the recommendations came through, at least in a simple way of describing it. In terms of the recommendations that you'll find in the study itself, first, the recommendations reflect a compromise when attempting to solve the identified issues and address needs. At this point in time, There does not seem to be a way to realistically solve for playability and capacity without some additional synthetic turf fields in our school district portfolio. As members of our community have pointed out, there are potential human health concerns associated with the components used to manufacture and install turf. There are no doubt positives of synthetic turf, including predictability of playing time in a variety of weather conditions, increasing our playing hours available to our community, reduced water consumption, and lower maintenance requirements in some aspects of maintenance. The question we

228should expect to be asked, and we have been asked, is whether those benefits outweigh or are outweighed by the risks. the aforementioned compromise that the report attempts to strike is to make a combination of recommendations that do include the addition of synthetic turf but also recommendations for significant improvements to our natural turf fields as well So in the report, there are two synthetic turf projects that are recommended for the district. And I'm just starting with those because they appear first in the report. One is to convert the current high school natural grass multipurpose practice area adjacent to gyms three and four to a new 160 foot by 170 foot synthetic turf area. Again, if you're envisioning this, it's east of the stadium and north of the tennis courts. They can be used as a practice

229area for all field sports, helping especially with the start-up of the season and when we have multiple teams competing for playing space during practice time. And that's estimated at a cost of about $1 million. before escalation, you know, in out years and so forth. The second proposed project is to redesign the middle school field layout to include one synthetic turf multi-purpose field that would have a 4660 and a 5070 baseball softball diamond and a 330 by 180 foot rectangular field overlay. and also to improve the remaining grass natural turf field to provide the 330 by 180 rectangle multi-purpose field there and that recommendation could also include the addition of two new basketball courts which would also provide overflow parking and that recommended project ranges in cost depending on which orientation and which components are in

230it 3.3 to 3.6 million dollars so two very different cost sizes between those two projects there are also a total of five natural turf recommendations in a set of recommendations at each of our five elementary schools we've just talked about the high school middle school the remaining recommendations are for the five elementary these include improvements at Edgewood and Heathcote at just over half a million dollars apiece a larger reconfiguration and site improvement at Greenacres totaling just under nine hundred thousand and drainage and reconfiguration improvements at Quaker Ridge totaling about 1.8 million we were to do all of that it's important to note that in an earlier version of the report a draft version a varsity softball field was recommended at Scarsdale High School in the location I just described adjacent to gyms three and four

231where a newer recommendation is that practice field and basically once that was proposed Cindy, in particular, a number of folks, the facilities team, really looked at the plan and thought about it, and it's really not enough space to have a competitive appropriate softball complex there. So instead, the proposal was to build a new varsity softball field at Fox Meadow. along with the reorientation of the Little League field while maintaining a full-size multi-purpose rectangular field and that project would total 1.5 million dollars so obviously that that's a lot of proposed work Finally, there are also recommendations to improve the courts, the tennis courts, and to add some basketball courts, but including the tennis courts at the high school and the middle school. And so the board knows the village did reach out and ask if we'd

232be interested in a conversation of partnering with them, sharing some of the costs to resurface, to prioritize the middle school courts and resurface those as a priority project. Cost estimate I think total is about two hundred and forty thousand dollars So there's a lot to consider and a lot to discuss, including what it might look like to select, prioritize, and phase various projects. It's important to note also that, and this is outlined in the report, that we have three primary avenues for funding any of the recommendations, if we think about it. First, there's work that we can consider taking on in-house ourselves, and in fact, for example, improvements to Dean Field. this fall were undertaken to really improve the surface, seeding it and I don't know the terminology, overdressing it and all of that stuff.

233So just an example, there's some work that we can do. Second, we can also seek partners, donations and sponsorships in conjunction with our community, our booster organizations, ISOs, individual donors and so forth. And we've had – I've had conversations with folks in the community about that idea. There's interest. What it would look like is still very much to be determined. And then finally, we can engage in – the public funding, public bidding and public funding of those through budgets and or through bond-type projects. Those are really just to keep that in mind as we think about this. So I'm going to turn it over to Andrew to ask him to talk a little bit about the project we have included in the proposed budget that you've been thinking about for the last month already. And

234as he starts, I'll pull up a visual of that. So in the budget presented, we have included at the time an unnamed project totaling $1.7 million inclusive of a field project, playground structures, and then interior renovation work that we would allocate to each of those projects to help maximize state aid by doing some interior renovation work. So if I peel back those numbers again, about $1.25 million was the amount that I had included in the budget for a field project. Looking at the CHA report and... Starting with that as a starting point, knowing that we have not yet had in-depth conversations about the actual design work, amenities around that space, and some of the equipment or storage needs that we might incur just by creating that space, we, in the budget, think that the $1.25

235million is appropriate, assuming $1.2 million would be the CHA estimate. plus two years of escalation that they've highlighted in there by the time we actually get this approved through the state and designed and then approved by the state we would need to have that in there and then about 150 000 for those additional scope growth items as we say well since we're doing this we need to do that in that space i also assumed a level of support from our construction manager that we just hired for the bond project CHA is not one of the firms we're using for the broader bond project. We'd want to have that CM involved, making sure that all the moving parts are staying connected, discuss a larger capital project. And then about $18,000 of just other contingency just to

236round the number to $1.25 million. This is kind of a broad brush. Certainly we could trim back that $1.25 million slightly to be more in line with what was specifically presented by CHA. However, I will note that if we come in under budget in this capital project that's funded through the transfer to capital line, any remaining funds would have to be returned back to the general fund anyway as a course of business. So once we close out that project, there's funds left over from the authorization. those get swept back into the general fund in a later fiscal year. So we obviously could have, thank you, we could have gone into a lot more detail and so we wanted to just kind of give a broad overview, put the context of what we've proposed already within

237the budget, and then open the conversation with the board. Any questions? Well, thank you everyone for your work on this report and this presentation. Just super curious as to why you decided this was the project that you wanted to put forward in the budget I don't have a Feeling one way or the other I'm just curious as to what the decision-making process was there And Cindy may want to comment on that as well, but immediate impact. It's It would I think relieve a tremendous amount of pressure immediately for the multiple teams that use Try to use high school fields or district fields at the same time Especially when we go through periods of inclement weather it's an it's Sort of an immediate benefit to many many teams I would love it if you could find

238the $3.3 million for option two in an annual year's budget. I don't know that that's realistic, and I think I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is at least possible to do within our own budgeting and not waiting for the bond. You know, you think about the fall sports and, you know, when we closed Dean Field midway through the season this past fall to do the work that Drew was describing to get that field ready for baseball in the spring, we sent our varsity football team over to Edgemont. Edgewood, I'm sorry, that didn't work out so well because the turf there was not great. We then moved them again, you know, to not have an extra practice space. When we have multiple teams in the fall, we have boys soccer, girls soccer, field

239hockey, and football that all play on turf and only turf. with one turf field. So to have, you know, not have, if a game's happening on the turf and it's field hockey where JV plays after varsity, to not have practice space for the other three teams that require turf for practice really just, it really handcuffs a bit, handcuffs us a bit. You know, looking at spring and now we're starting to plan the scheduling for spring and we've added flag football, a turf. played game. So we're really, really, really, we've had three varsity sports holding practices on that one turf field in like thirds of the field multiple times this past fall. We will have turf sharing all through the spring just to get everybody fair and decent practice time. To have an extra space like

240that for practice is really invaluable. And when you think about You know, one of the things that we are really looking at is, you know, the softball issue is real. I'm a washed-up softball player. I take it very personally. You know, we've had instances in the past where, you know, supply field is a town field. We don't have control over it. You know, they typically open April 1st. This year they're opening March 29th, which those two days really do help. So, you know, if we had a space. where softball can come out onto the turf and we're going to try to squeeze them into turf for about, you know, in those first couple of weeks. You know, we've recently had softball tryouts being held inside gyms. And when teams are set and parents are upset,

241they don't feel their kid had a fair shot or a fair look. I'm not sure how you can argue with that when we've been doing practices for an outdoor sport indoors and making determinations on placement. If we had a space like that where baseball and softball, if the fields are not playable or usable or accessible, to be able to bring them out and use the turf. to practice. We've had instances in the past where our softball team has gone to away games at the end of March, never having touched the outdoors for practice. I'm not okay with that. That to me is an equity issue that we're dealing with, and it's unfair to put our athletes out there on a field when other teams have been practicing outdoors on their fields for however much the

242weather permits, and we haven't even touched. a turf, a blade of grass or whatever. You know, I really think that puts our athletes behind the eight ball early in the season where most places have a weather permitting access to fields and conditions permitting. We are kind of don't have that flexibility. So in the fall, in the spring, to have that for our kids would be amazing. Thank you for that additional background. Let me ask a follow-up question. Do all the teams that currently play on turf or will flag football play on turf, would they be able to use this practice space? It would rotate through. So whoever's got the game on the turf usually kicks off, or we try to squeeze in beforehand. For a 4.30 game, we'll put a practice out there and squeeze

243it in. We can move games to a 5 o'clock start, have the... a practice on the field before that five o'clock on the turf we could get two teams on the turf splitting it and then the teams can warm up for their game on the warm-up field and then come over and play you know it does allow us a whole lot more flexibility as far as how to use the turf beforehand, what we're doing with it, whether it's warm-up for the game or moving a team off of the turf because a game is going on and having the practice there instead. It really gives us options, a lot more options. Thank you. I just want to thank you for that explanation. And I've seen, too, that field in particular at certain times of year is

244just like dust. So it became a dust bowl, right? We call it the dust bowl. And currently, if you've noticed, it's undercover because they did an extensive amount of work. These guys are amazing. Again, the terminology might escape me, but it's now been seeded. top dressed for those who can't hear and and seated and it's got a cover on it so we can hopefully have grass and maybe have it usable at some point late in the season as a warm-up slash practice field but again it's not turf which forced you know four of our programs play on turf and so if if we go forward and we're doing this for this year in this budget will it be ready for the fall for fall sports I would love that but no is that what the

245aim is or I think we'd be lucky to have approval for the project for the summer of 2026 so it's to be completed and then just a question about financing um if we were to do bonds would you have how would you envision that separate bonds for different projects over a long period of time or a large bond for this was a really holistic view right um i i think that this was the first step to move forward that's our recommendation um i think what's not done in this report would then be something that would be kind of folded into our ongoing capital bond project now whether it becomes a standalone proposition within a larger list of propositions or is embedded in a much larger project I think that's something that we are too early

246in the process to determine and you know we also have to keep in consideration realistically for our taxpayers what the village is considering as well so it's it's much more complicated than perhaps I gave justice to you know in the short introduction for this I just the funds that just so I understand the funds that we would be using to pay for this project they're in a separate kind of fund balance or is that million dollars to pay for this if we didn't spend it on this would we be able to you know go back and put it into a reserve or This project is included in the tax cap exemption that if you remember this slide that I showed that kind of has the snake Yeah, yeah, it's in the capital exemption. So if

247we choose not to do this project the capital exemption goes away Therefore the tax levy would be lower. So we can't use that funding to do Something else right? It's a capital expenditure that has that exemption and then I was surprised that this was the field we chose as well, Amber, because this amount feels like something we might possibly be able to fundraise, and I'm curious as to if we... Looked at some of the other fields. I don't know like I know Quaker Ridge is like 1.8 or something for the two and that's underwater Constantly you can't even drive by there sometimes so I just didn't know like has there been any conversation about maybe trying to raise additional funds to maybe do a bigger project That has a bigger impact with whom? Not not

248it not at this point I mean, there are a lot of unknowns, right? There's a lot of questions about exactly how long that would take, what we'd look to do. I mean, I think we had to have this opportunity to present a final report before we really launched formally into any of those conversations, and really we need some direction from the board as well. I think the, just to put a fine point on the rationale for this particular project, was its scope is theoretically digestible, Cindy sort of said, within a budget year, whereas, and even if we did include it, we're still looking at earliest fall 2026 playability. So it seemed to be about trying to get an improvement as quickly as we could. while we do the other conversations and try to, and we

249also know we have this capital project steering committee that's gonna have this input to consider along with many other inputs as a possibility and those conversations with our partners can also take place. Can I just add to that? of the projects that are of the more i guess affordable variety um this is the one that would hit the most number of kids the most number of programs both spring and fall as much as i'd love to say you know so i would love to see if whether green acres at the lower cost over fox meadow is the more viable option for softball it's one program this will hit you know four in the fall and potentially five in the spring with hundreds of kids touching that field each time so that to me was the

250determinant of why we would probably pick this one from our perspective the use of it in athletics would be extensive next item on the agenda would be 12.05 gift proposal to fox meadow school just getting myself situated sorry let me get back to the okay Okay. So this is a gift proposal for seven round cafeteria tables to complete a project that was started last year. The tables, as we think about this, are serviceable that they currently have. The question of why is this core plus and not core is because we wouldn't right now replace these particular tables their rationale for this is that it's a school priority that's beyond that that core and that's what came forward to us from from them it's in excess of a thousand dollars obviously which is why this is

251a information item tonight before coming back if if the board has questions and so forth wanted to say that i remember when they had the other tables the round tables just allow all the children to sit there and it's part of their the community they wanted to build so i always found that compelling thank you thank you item 12.06 the draft board meeting calendars uh 2025-26 so thank you to honoree um for putting together a view of next year um hard to believe we're talking about meetings next year um so typical proposed format sort of modeling on this current year it's just food for thought for the board you can make recommendations we could certainly think about it talk about it we can talk about it two by one as needed any immediate noticings or

252suggestions thank you honorary next 12.07 the cell phone policy discussion So we just wanted to start the recognizing that the governor has made a proposal in our executive budget and there is a draft which I've included in this board docs agenda item draft of potentially what the bill would would be that proposes ban a prohibition on the use of internet enabled devices by students on school grounds during the school day We now know a little bit more of what that thinking was It includes it does include for example wireless laptop devices and so forth though the language includes an exemption that can be articulated by teachers and administrators to say you're allowed to use your device and class for this educational purpose. So one of our fears was the bill could prohibit. We have a

253BYOD program where students are allowed to bring their own laptops in and use them when that's educationally required. That we were worried that it might cause us to have to purchase devices. our read of the current form of the bill is that that problem could be avoided it does mandate some districts offering a storage solution but it does say lockers are acceptable so you saw earlier tonight we removed the budget item for a storage solution it's not clear whether by offering it you have to use it but it we could offer that certainly at the high school as an alternative. And then the other thing is it does mandate a reporting regime. So starting in August of 2026, a year after districts would be required to have a ban, a policy that bans cell phones

254and other internet-connected devices, we'd have to report to the state how it was enacted, how it was enforced, and what kind of compliance there was. so our plan is to sort of monitor this and to bring forward a draft policy that seems to reflect the thinking of the moment I do know that the high school student government has been actively talking about this and expects to share their viewpoint with the board and administration in a written statement I believe sometime soon so you know our work will be probably in anticipation of our march 24th meeting drafting a policy that can then be the subject of questions and public community discussion and would reflect what we think the the best practice would be in accordance with the legislation um i i i did share just philosophically

255a few wrote down a few thoughts You know we've been thinking about this for a while, and just to state the purposes that were really articulated in the high school, at least, as often a way has evolved, has been one, first and foremost, to elevate student learning, to really prioritize focus, deep thinking, critical thinking, all of that, and the devices are a distraction from that. second is to reconnect so for students when they're in more less structured time hallways in the lunch period and so on to be interacting with each other third is try to do what we can to minimize the negative impacts of social media that is a real thing students report struggles with that even even though they want the devices, as we've heard. And then I think reducing the opportunities for

256sort of cyberbullying and harassment, that the device becomes the vehicle for that, whether it's initiated in school or not, that's another thing. So just keeping those four big ideas out there, I think everybody kind of agrees that those are the things that you're trying to... solve or to help the problems you're trying to alleviate. Any questions or comments? Just curious, so I guess the idea is bell to bell ban, right? So it has to be put away someplace, not in the cubbies that we have like in the high school. Or maybe, I guess I'm thinking also about the open campus and how you can go off campus for lunch. I would assume that if students go off campus, even though they would be coming back to school, they would be allowed to take their phones

257with them. I would think so. Yep, I would think so. I guess these are things you have to think through as you design. And there's a way of thinking there, too, where the students who do that are upperclassmen. Right, it's typically only juniors and seniors who are allowed, right? They're closer to being out in the real world, and maybe that's an appropriate kind of differentiation. like self built-in differentiation yeah so I guess you can have I guess then you could have a different slightly different policy within a school based I mean based on age if you have this well I guess you'll I guess you'll work on it right all right thank you thank you I mean I guess you'll work on this too just the time element of you know finding the time of

258the day to then bring your phone to the locker finding the time of the day to then get your phone from the locker time that is although it's for a good cause, but spent, it's taken away from the teaching and learning and other aspects of school, too. I do appreciate that this has been a conversation that we've had for a while and not just, you know, reacting to Governor Hochul or something that's happening on a state level, that this is something that our community has organically been talking about, you know, and bringing the community along as to the, you know, the education piece and the why, you know, as opposed to just, you know, an enforcement piece. I appreciate it. Okay, next. Item 13.01, the STI courses, spring, summer 2025. I believe this is Colleen.

259Thank you. Be it resolved that the board approve the attached STI courses for the spring, summer 2025 as presented. Thank you, Colleen. Is there a second? Thank you, Leah. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Ayes have it and motion carries thank you item 13.02 budget transfers I believe this is Ron Thanks Susie resolve that the Board of Education approves the attached budget transfers in excess of $25,000 as presented Thank You Ron is there a second Thank You Leah any discussion all those in favor please say aye I have it in the motion carries thank you okay and next we are going to go to our third public comment session of the evening I will read this public content Members of the public are cordially invited to be present either in person or

260via remote means and to speak at designated times on agenda items or other non-personnel related matters. Each individual shall have three minutes to speak with a 90 minute cap during the first public comment period. 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. And community members speaking via Zoom must have their camera turned on when it is their turn to speak. The Board of Education shall maintain these rules for public comment until such time as it has the opportunity to formulate, develop, and adopt amendments to its existing policies in accordance with policy number 2410. At this time, I'd like to ask if anybody in the audience would like to make a public comment. Thank you. Zoom? There

261is one attendee on Zoom with hand raised. Hello. Could you please turn on your camera? You're muted and your camera is off. If you could turn it on, please. How's that? Great. Thank you. Great. Laura Manzano, 313 Heathcote Road. I'm calling to, I'm sorry, I'm zooming in to just express my views on the ongoing discussion surrounding cell phone policy. I just wanted to vehemently support our... immediate consideration of the bell-to-bell policy in a way that moves us beyond the caddies and the measures that we have so far. I think it is overdue our obligations towards our kids to protect them from the interruptions and distractions that were all experiencing in the classroom and it's not necessary at the high school level especially when kids that are at the elementary and the middle school level are

262not being subjected to all of these interruptions. This is the beginning of a hopefully a collaborative process with teachers and students and parents. Thus far we've collected in excess of 200 support 200 people supporting a petition for a cell phone free environment in the high school, which will. use to be active participants in this discussion and we'll hopefully learn along the way what other ways we can engage appropriately in the process whether it's written statements or showing up to the meetings or joining these these meetings by zoom we look forward to a healthy conversation and we do hope that this conversation as ms honda mentioned um has been an ongoing discussion and we really hope to move it forward um in a in a definitive manner going forward for the school year 2025-2026. thank you

263thank you is there anybody else on zoom uh no one else on zoom we'll give it a couple seconds thank you and with that we will close public comment um and uh move on to item 15 follow up to public comment forward to the conversation um and uh item 16 wrap up items so we have budget study session number three I just need to say I think the great questions and appreciate all the questions from the board I didn't hear a specific direction to change something in particular certainly Ron expressed concern about the the use of reserves and fund balance So I just want to be clear and forthright. At this moment, I think we'd be coming back next week pretty much with the same budget unless we learn of something in the next few

264days that – oh, I'll stop. No, just kidding. Just kidding. The next few days that changes something of substance either from a revenue standpoint or an expenditure standpoint. Does that seem right? That's what I hear as well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, the next item 17, meeting dates for the coming month. Jim? Thank you, Susie. So the meeting dates for the coming month are as follows. Monday, March 10th, 2025, there will be a special meeting slash executive session at 6 p.m. in this room, a business meeting at 6.30 here, and a budget study session number three here, although I'm guessing budget study session number three will happen before the business meeting, but let's do it at the end of the day. They're on my agenda, but I'm guessing it's... is a budget study then business

265meeting uh monday march 24th 2025 uh there'll be a special meeting slash executive session of 5 30 here in this room and then a budget forum slash business meeting at 6 30 in this room Monday April 7th 2025 there'll be a meeting with a designated group at 5 p.m. in the Learning Commons in high school special meeting slash executive session if needed at 6 p.m. here in the room and then an education report slash business meeting slash board adopts budget at 6 30 p.m. here in this room Tuesday April 22nd 2025 there'll be a special meeting for the BOCES vote at 9 a.m. here in this room thursday april 24th 2025 there will be a board community coffee from 10 to 11 a.m here in this room monday april 28th 2025 there'll be a special

266meeting slash executive session if necessary at 6 30 here in the room and then wednesday april 30th 2025 there'll be a board community coffee from 7 to 8 p.m here in this room thank you so much jim would somebody like to make a motion to adjourn this business meeting Thank you, Leah. Is there a second? Thank you, Bob. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you so much, and have a good night, everybody.