South Country Central School District Board Meeting 11/12/2025 PART 2

001I'm calling uh the business meeting, the November 12th business meeting of the board of education back into order. We completed executive session uh with nothing to report there. Um and so we will now do the pledge of allegiance. And if if um have trustee Calone, please to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Emergency evacuation procedures. Please note the exits and leave the room orderly and quickly if you have to. This school district is completely non-smoking, non-vaping, none of that anywhere on campus. Similarly, it is a hatefree and bullyfree school district. So we now [clears throat] go to um the consent agenda, but we would like to hold the the three treasures reports and do

002those separately. So usually we get [clears throat] uh the superintendent to make a recommendation about these consent items, but pull out four, five, and six, and we'll do those separately. >> The claims audit report as well. >> No, five, six, and seven. >> Five, six, and seven. All right. So, the administration recommends approval of board consent items reflected in schedule C1 through C4. >> And also, um >> I was going to do it in two. >> Oh, you're going to do it twice. Okay. Is is there a motion to approve items C1 through C4? Motion by Trusty Dilo, second by Trustee Velisetta. Questions, discussion? All in favor? It's unanimously approved. >> And the administration rep recommends approval of consent items reflected in schedules C8 and C9. >> I'm sorry, C8, 9, and 10. >> And

00310. >> Is there a motion to approve items C 8, 9, and 10? Trustee uh Calderon, second by Trustee Dilo. Questions, discussions? All in favor? All right. I missed those numbers. Did Did we >> Did you refresh? >> We didn't do the >> We both the treasurers reports out to do separately. We're going to go back and do that. >> Thank you. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, it's eight, nine, and [clears throat] 10 that we just >> Okay. >> have a motion, a second. All in favor? It's their unanimous a unanimous approval. >> I just have one question on eight. Can I ask you a question on eight? um >> the records management officer. >> Yes. >> Go ahead. >> Is there is there a um a salary attached to that or is that just

004an appointment? >> That's an appointment. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, now we're back to the three treasures reports. >> We'll take them one at a time. >> Sure. >> The administration recommends the approval of consent item reflected in schedule C5 >> and items. Is there a a motion to approve item C5, treasures report for June 2025? A motion by trustee Dilo, a second by. Is there a second to approve? >> Second by trustee Pini. Questions or discussions about the trustees report? treasures report. Correct. >> I have a question. >> Treasures report and I think there are some questions and um so I heard [clears throat] I heard from this side of the room. >> No, you said trustees report. I said you're referring to the treasures report. >> See there how easy it is

005to misstate something and have it misconstrued. Thank you for catching it. Treasures report dated June 20 of 25. We have questions. >> Yes. Okay. Well, my first question is going to be of uh legal counsel and this question came up um with Mr. Belmont when he first joined us [clears throat] and also in our audit committee meeting with um with Mr. um Leone. In the my former life, in my former world, our organizations never approved, according to Robert's rules, we never approved a trustees report, a trustees, now I'm saying it, a treasurer's report, because the trustees have no way of really knowing out of these 51 pages the accuracy. [clears throat] What we did in our jurisdictions is we merely accepted the report as having received it. Not approved it, not not rejected it. We

006received it. We acknowledged receiving it. And so it's been recommended to seek advice of council. I don't I'm no long with what we are going through right now with our little hiccup here with the with our budget. I'm no longer comfortable with adopting or approving treasurer's reports going forward. Case in point, we're in November and we're looking at June's operating report. The audit report, >> treasures report. >> A treasurer's report. I stand corrected. Thank you, Trusty Ross. The treasurer's report uh normally uh gets to the board a little bit late because of the end of the year um reconciliations and needs to get to the auditor in order to complete the final audit by October. was late this year because of what is going on and didn't get to them in the time that it

007needed to get to them and we're only looking at it today. The audit was able to be completed. We're going to hear from it a little bit here hear on it a little bit later but yet we didn't formally receive it, approve it, move it forward until tonight. We're not going to formally do that. But yet the audit was able to be completed. So moving forward, I'm asking advice of [clears throat] council and maybe you can't opine on it tonight. Maybe you have to look at it further, but I'm not comfortable with approving treasurer's reports. And so that's my question going forward in and we have what three to um to look at tonight. Yeah, we have three. We have June, July, and August. >> Sure. Can I ask a question on top of that

008which is was this treasures report in June is that the one that has been compiled by Mr. Belmonte? >> That is correct. >> Correct. Because the first one that we were given in September I believe it was >> was for the prior >> was actually no we we didn't we weren't introduced to Mr. Gante until October and it was him who advised us not to to use it because we suspected it was incorrect and it indeed was and so then we got the correct >> which is also proving my case that it was not. >> Madame President >> I think that >> I'm going to bring up a point that listen call it professional caution but you don't ask a question of counsel in an open meeting. It opens a huge door for certain issues

009and confidentiality as we open that. If this is a procedural question, maybe it should be tabled and brought at some other point. >> Procedurally, you're correct on that. She's not answering it. But these are questions that will be brought back. It does affect whether or not we're going to proceed tonight to approve this treasurer's report. And my question about who prepared it feeds into my comfort level of voting on C5. So um if if there's any other questions or discussion >> so then you so council won't answer my question tonight. >> Not tonight. We need to look into it in terms of >> um moving forward because >> it is a procedural one but we'll get we'll get that. >> Is there any reason we can't is there any reason we have to appoint approve

010these tonight? Is there any timely issue with this? >> I'm happy to speak to the law whether in exec session or in public session. That's up to the point. >> I just really But I think the only thing we really need to know is whether or not we have to do this tonight if we can table it to answer all these questions so we don't spend all this time in public when we have a whole audit report to go through. That's where I'm coming from. Right. >> I think that's a good question. So if if it can be tabled without adversely affecting any kind of scheduling. >> Yeah. Subject to Mr. Belmont saying something different. I'm not aware of any requirement that the board approve these three items tonight. Okay. All right. >> My my

011only my only my next question, however, is these are these were made public, correct? They're they're on the agenda as public. We didn't just see them in the administrative. >> They are public. Okay. Because I I don't want to withhold them from the public any longer. I know they've been foiled a number of times. >> They're in public contact. >> So, they are in public contact. Okay. just as long as it it wouldn't withhold them uh from the public seeing them any longer. >> So, procedurally, I think we're going to need a motion to withdraw the motion to approve it. >> Yes, there's already been a motion. >> There was a motion [clears throat] and a second. We're in discussion. So, we need a motion with >> We need a motion to withdraw the approval.

012>> And it has to come from the person who made the motion. has to come from the person who made the motion, which was Trustee Dilo. Would you like to make a motion to withdraw it or >> I I make a motion to withdraw my first motion? >> Okay. And do we have to have a withdrawal of the second as well procedurally or no? >> I I don't believe so. Is there any >> But there's but there's probably no harm in doing it. So >> I'll second the motion. >> Second. >> You've withdrawn. So the motion to withdraw the original motion. All in favor of withdrawal is unanimous. Now shout I think we should apply that to the next two treasures reports as well and come back. >> There's no motion. We can just pull

013them. We don't need to do anything. We just pull >> just don't call it. Yep. >> Okay. So don't make a recommendation with regard to those and we will go full. So now we are down to superintendence report. Thank you, President Hayes. I appreciate everybody's patience. Um, one of the things I wanted to accomplish tonight, um, is, uh, give an update on our strategic plan. to be as brief as possible, but since we just finished the first quarter of the school year and we said we would update the board on a quarterly basis in terms of the status of strategic plan, I thought that would be important. What's also very important to me is um reflecting on, you know, the challenges that we're facing. Um I just want to emphasize that, you know, the administrative

014team, you know, takes it with the seriousness that it merits. And um I say that because I also don't want that seriousness and that focus to overshadow all the other great work that's being done across the district by various stakeholders, from our administrators, our teachers that ultimately culminate in great work by our students. So I wanted to share all this not because I want to defer from discussing our challenges, but because it's as equally as important that we talk about some of the things that are happening in the district as it relates to our strategic plan. So I'm going to get right to it. Um, first and foremost, last year we engaged in a community effort to draft a strategic plan that really uh embraced the input of various stakeholders, community members, staff. Um, and

015the collaborative effort, you know, ensures that our goals, our actions and resources align with student support and success and long-term district excellence. It was a very fruitful process, one that I really appreciated being a part of. From that process, we developed a new mission statement, which I do want to read aloud. Collectively, we empower every student with the knowledge, skills, and rigorous academic experiences they need to excel in their future endeavors, fostering critical thinking, resilience, and a sense of belonging, and a commitment to lifelong learning. It's a great mission statement that again was drafted through our collaborative efforts. This leads me to our vision statement, which I'll also read. We are a high performing inclusive school community that prioritizes students, fosters excellence, and ensures equitable opportunities for all to achieve their fullest potential. Through high-quality

016education, critical thinking, and core values like honesty, perseverance, and compassion, we prepare lifelong learners for a diverse, evolving world. Together as partners and mentors, we create a safe, supportive environment where every student is heard, valued, and empowered to succeed, which again, it's a great vision statement, which leads us to our value, our core values at the school district. And these core values apply to everyone, student, staff, and community. And again, these were derived from the input of everyone who participated in this process. We start with honesty and integrity, which goes without saying. I don't need to read the descriptor, but the integrity is something that I value to a great deal moving forward and how we sort of interact with each other. Second, respect. Part of our clipper pride. I think one of the things

017that the country needs more of is the respect for divergent uh perspectives and ability for us to talk and engage in fruitful debates. Um and again appreciating that people do have different perspectives and experiences based on their sort of backgrounds and their belief systems. Third, valuing every student. Every student in our district should feel like they have a sense of belonging and that their voices matter, that they feel seen and supported for who they are. Giving and doing our very best. It's commitment just to doing what's right for our students. I think we often get caught up in a lot of conversations that stray a little bit from what's at the center of our work, which is our students. We basically collectively work together to empower our students for college and career readiness. Um, and

018I think we should always give our very best, which is the D in pride, the diligence. [clears throat] Solutionoriented. This is an important one to me. Often we gripe and we vent about the things that may not be working our way or things that can be better, but really being solutionoriented and looking forward that when we get together and we put our collective thoughts together, uh, because we appreciate diversity, not just in terms of who we are and our backgrounds, but diversity of thought and the more people get together with divergent opinions, the better the outcome will be in the end. So I think I love the fact that we want to be solutionoriented especially as we move forward and we face these challenges student centered again goes without saying this is why we're here

019as a school district equitable. We want to make sure that there's fairness regardless of what your circumstance may be as a student or where you may come from in our community. We want to make sure that we're equitable and doing our best to create an environment where they can succeed. And finally community engagement. Um that's something that we're continuing to work on and improving through various sort of platforms which you'll see a little bit later. Um and our final our final value is pride. Pride is not just a marketing tool. It's not just a catchphrase. Really represents further core values that represent people who are just contributing members of society. People who are prepared, respectful, involved, diligent, and the most important of them all ethical. You can be all those things. Prepared, respectful, involved, and

020diligent, but you're not a good person. I feel like it's not enough. And that's just a shot of a bulletin board from middle school where it's nice to see not just staff and community members embracing this notion but seeing it actively display in our schools. So getting to our goals, you know, our first goal was academic excellence. These are priority areas with the goal of providing all students with access to tools, skills, opportunities needed to succeed in rigorous and relevant coursework by emphasizing 21st century skills and expanding access to alternative learning pathways to support student interests. So to that end, one of our goals was to have more of a focus on writing across content areas including research. So literacy as you know based on our presentation we had here on October 8th I believe

021it was um literacy is is a big sort of priority for us. We was established a K to 5 committee who's done wonderful work. We're establishing a 6 to12 committee because we want to make sure that we incorporate a lot more writing into our day-to-day instruction. In fact during superintendent's conference day we had Victor Jakarino come for Bosei to provide some professional development to this end. Less screen time is also important. As much as we tout our cell phone ban and the ill effects of too much screen time, we keep keep students in front of Chromebooks for a disproportionate amount of the day. So, that's something that we're actively working on with our director of technology. Um, and again, a lot of these goals are works in progress. I just want to give you updates,

022but we're looking to see that when we use the screens, they're done so deliberately with purpose. Uh, because we do want to engage kids in more handwriting and more sort of discourse. Moving on, more opportunities for problem based learning. Uh we're first of all, we're expanding our civics uh sort of programs. Brook Haven Elementary School in Burn Writz this year. So we engage kids in sort of problem solving skills and working collaboratively. To that end, we're also part of uh most sort of academy um to discuss the integration of AI project based learning which is aligned to the portrait of a gad uh graduate which is ongoing as we speak. more opportunities for uh problem based story. Sorry, that's a a repetitive access to rigorous course work at all levels. Sorry, my slide was incorrect.

023Um to expand access to rigorous coursework. So again, rigor doesn't mean more difficult. It just means thoughtprovoking work that involves critical thinking. All of our assessments are shifting from simple recall to critical thinking and problem solving. So we want [clears throat] to make sure that regardless of what the course is, we engage students in academic discourse and um we're doing uh that by sort of an emphasis in data wise uh cycles which is data analysis looking to see if we could find some achievement gaps um and continuing that work. And finally, more opportunities um sorry we move on to academic excellence. So critical thinking and student discourse. Um one of the things we embedded into teacher schedules at the uh secondary schools is common planning time so teachers can engage by their content areas to

024see ways in which we can increase student discourse. What this means is you recall if I recall when I was a student, we're sort of uh educated by sitting still and staying silent for the entire classroom period while the teacher deliberate information. We want our students to be talking to one another about the content because again simple recall is not enough. So we're looking to sort of expand critical thinking and student discourse and trying to achieve that through the common planning time. Moving on to curriculum development under the academic excellence. We are reviewing our math program K to 5, developing a committee-led process much like we did with our literacy to engage and take a close look at our math instruction uh K to 5. We also established a secondary uh literacy committee again to

025focus on literacy skills because most of our assessments regardless of the content area are basically reading tests that involve critical [clears throat] thinking. That's one way to look at it. And I want to again sort of recap the presentation that we had here on October 8th with regards to good work that our teachers did uh with regards to our literacy programs. Again, they talked about all the different research based methodologies that they're using in our classrooms and developing this unit of study which included morphology, phonics, content mapping, all aligned to the portrait of a G uh of a graduate. And what's fantastic about this process again is sort of built on teacher agency and collective efficacy. Our teachers work together with our literacy coordinators and our administrators, Mr. O'Hagen, Miss Fair Thompson to develop work

026that's based around the science of reading work that our teachers receive training in. We have teachers receive certifications in the science for reading. And the other benefit of engaging in this process by using our teachers and building capacity with the BTA and other stakeholders is that curriculum writing is supported by grants whereas any new product or third party vendor that may come in with a reading program is not. That would have to come out of the general fund. We're contemplating for example piloting uh magnetic reading as a reading program that comes at a cost of about a quarter of a million dollars a year which again does not cannot be uh funded by grants. So we'd rather invest in our teachers to build that capacity and to address literacy across the district and so far

027we've shown growth and we're going to continue that work. So we're excited about that. Um, [clears throat] and in the same priority area, academic excellence. We talked about class size and master scheduling. So, our administrative team has been working closely with Mr. Huntsman and developing master schedules across our buildings. I did want to share some data. I apologize if I'm small, but average class sizes for uh kindergarten in um Kramer is 16, crits 19, 21 at Brook Haven, for first grade 21, 26 at Critz, 21 at uh Brook Haven. The second grade 20, 18, and 24 respectively. Third grade 19, 21, and 20. That column or that chart in the middle there basically has every section and every class size. If you notice, most of our classes are 22 students or smaller. Uh we have

028some outliers in our dual language program at Brook Haven. We have classes of 24. We also have a class of 25 and 26 in first grade at Pritz. One of the sort of uh restraints we have, we have community schools is because of our enrollment, if you have first graders, it's impossible to split that class in three. So those classes tend to be a little bit larger. you see the same dynamic um in some of the classes um see if I find them but then that uh we see in second grade at Brook Haven we have a class of 26 and 25 and 25 so we running three se a few sections which are pretty balanced but again to add another section will um not be sustainable when you look at grades four and five

029all the classes pretty much hover around 21 and 22 um there are no classes that are larger than that um at Brookfield When we look at the secondary schools, we have a lot of different courses, but I kind of just summarized our core academic subjects. Um, just so I can read it along, at Billport Middle School, the average class size for math is 22, science 23, English 23, social studies 23, and for sixth grade classes, which includes the reading and writing component, they're at average classes of 22. At Belport High School, our average math classes are 22, science at 24, English at 22, and social studies at 23. And the high school class sizes are based again on non-elective courses, including advanced placement courses at Billboard High School. So, our class sizes are still relatively

030small when you compare our district to other districts on Long Island. Um, but I just wanted to kind of demonstrate that we're trying to be as equitable as possible in the distribution of our classes and students in class size. Which leads me to a little bit um diverge a little bit about our demographic study and our enrollment. In the year 2017 and 18, this district engaged in a demographic study um that sort of gave a sort of a projection for the upcoming 10 years. during that time during that study um the enrollment in 2016 at the end of that year was 4,325 uh students and of those students not of those students additionally we had 336 students attending non-public schools which includes private and parochial I didn't look deep enough to see if that included

031charters at the time I don't believe it did but in total we had 336 kids attending non-public schools or roughly 7.2% 2% of the kids in the district. This study predicted our enrollment for the year 2025 to be 3,761. A dramatic sort of decrease. The actual enrollment as of the October uh enrollment report is 3,658. So we have seen some declining enrollment. In terms of non-public schools, um we have approximately 6% of our kids attending uh private and parochial schools at 220 total. This is based on 2024 as we'll get our beds data from this year later in the year. If you look at the trend 21 and 224 followed by 227 213. So that's been pretty static. And in terms of charter schools um we're at 27 students attending charter schools. Um in the

032previous year it was 28. So again, if you add these two numbers together, that hasn't really changed and that sort of um statistic hasn't changed in terms of how many kids are attending non-public school. What has changed is our demographics since the study was completed. I shared this chart last year just to demonstrate how our costs over those that set period have increased by $22 million despite the drop in enrollment. And the reason I bring this up is because our projections in this last study that was really comprehensive and looked at our building use enrollment um ends in 2027, just two years from now. And since we're facing these challenges and we need to create or develop a corrective plan moving forward, it's important that we engage in another comprehensive uh demographic enrollment analysis to

033make predictions of what the district is going to be facing in the next 10 years. Um this was a recommendation made by Mr. Belmonte which I think is worthwhile and certainly worth the the investment because first the study is aidable but it represents a responsible investment for future planning efforts. So this will look at our facilities. It looks at everything from birth rates so that we get a clear idea of what we're facing in the next 10 years. Moving on >> before you move on. >> Yes. The board had asked you um to do some outreach to families to see what can be done to encourage them to stay to keep their students in our district. What outreach have you done to try to keep that students? >> So, right now, we just said mailing

034out a newsletter for this year. We want to schedule a meeting with our real estate uh brokers and those types of uh outreach. But you know what the statistics show is that basically the same relative number of students have been attending private and fur schools in our communities for at least the last 10 years. >> Have you met with any families? >> That's families uh private school students. So certainly I've met >> perhaps we should try. >> I think this this was a discussion item and it was not a a [snorts] board directive. It was a comment and a discussion. So I think that for purposes of tonight it's good to see the comparison to the study that was done in 2016 compared to now. Interesting. >> All I heard was a you know an

035analysis and a cost. I heard it's aidable. I heard that. But all I hear is you know cost and all I hear is money that we don't have. So I want I would I would rather hear let's try and do more to encourage families. Let's see what would I mean what are we not offering that that I mean what is it we don't have that we perhaps can offer uh and encourage families to be here to stay here. I think >> I think that's a personal question to have with somebody number one but number two we don't lose money when people go to private school we actually gain money. >> Okay. >> So I much do we gain >> it doesn't matter. We don't spend as much to educate them. All we do is give

036them books and a ride to school and we still get the same amount of aid as if they're our students. Correct. So we don't we don't lose money when they when they when they go to private school. >> And according to according to the studies across the state, I believe News Day has it published through 2223. Enrollment across the county across Long Island is down overall. We're not the only district that's seeing the decline. I believe Bayport Bluepoint has a 21% decline. Pat Med has doubledigit decline. The only schools that I I recall seeing an increase was Brentwood. >> Then why is it a concern? >> Because we we're built to cover these many people. We we have we have multiple schools, multiple buildings. That's a practicality for any business or any entity. You're shrinking

037in size. You serve 5,000 people before. I'm going to serve 35,000 3,500 people tomorrow. >> But we reference the people that are going to private schools. So then why >> the numbers are the same. So you have a dwindling population and now it's 6% of a smaller number. Before it was 7% of a larger number, which means that the total number is actually reduced not only by 1% 7 to six, but the fact that those numbers are based off of a greater number to a lesser number. The 6% total actual bodies is less than the 7% that existed before. >> Well, I want to I want to know why those numbers mean something. >> Those were included because I know I wanted to give a full picture of our enrollment and our community. So I

038included those. I think it's important to know how many of our kids are going to private program >> and we've asked that question. I know I asked that question because the narrative is more and more kids are more and more families are unsatisfied with education. They're going to private school and this proves that that's not true, right? Because we know that these numbers there's people who go for religious reasons, vaccination reasons, you know, um maybe services or whatever else. So, >> no, I can tell you I know at least two families that live in the district that go to private school. They live in the district because we provide busing. There's districts like Bluepoint that have no busing whatsoever. So that's one of their considerations when they go there. There's not a knock against us.

039They just they they want they believe that's a better choice for them. >> And I don't want to speculate in terms of the mindset of families here, but my experience families that move into certain districts come in with the notion that their kids will be attending certain schools on Long Island. Had that experience in Nassau County. Uh we've made a concertive effort um to just advertise. And I think the best approach is to continue advertising the great things that are happening in our district. I've always been a proponent of public schools. I think we offer a lot more than private schools. There might be more parent choice, I think, in terms of the experiences that students have in private schools because they're paying tuition. But in terms of the diversity of course offers off offerings,

040our expansion of college level courses and just the idea that you get to exist in a diverse community like ours, I think is invaluable. Well, I know uh with the presentation we had last meeting um uh and what the guidance department was able to put together, we did we did very much appreciate the that information and suggested that it would be worthwhile to share that with the real estate agents. So, I look forward to see what you're going to present to the real estate agents. >> Well, I would like to ask just I know you can't go back and look at 2016 numbers, but for the this year's numbers, the touching on what um Mr. Ross said was there's 220 kids going out. Do we have that by a grade level breakdown just to kind

041of see if there's an increase as we >> It's an interesting question. >> We could get that in the update. >> Yeah. >> If 2016's available that'd be great. I know that's going to be probably >> Yeah. But uh definitely for uh 2024 >> over um next was uh the student experience. Um that goal or that priority area was to foster a supportive connected learning learning environment where students feel safe, secure and valued by prioritizing meaningful relationships, balancing the use of technology and instructional practices and promoting social emotional well-being. So to that end um one of the goals was have more access to mental health professionals. We've accomplished that just by virtue of our partnership with um Northwell Health. We're going to be seeing that presentation to share exactly the scope and of that uh

042program in the January meeting. Um but what's amazing it's a grantfolded and both seats aable when we continue this partnership with Northwell Health. They provide access to mental health professionals, professional development workshops for parents and access to the Riverhead location with another handful of uh uh school districts um so that we don't have to necessarily send our kids to Dash or just Don Brook. Uh the Riverhead location is a lot more accessible and a lot more convenient for parents. They also make referrals for uh all of our community members, including parents, regardless of their insurance status or what insurance they may have. Um in terms of normalizing counseling for all, we're making a concerted effort through our grade level assembly programs. So by just advertising all the resources we have embedded in our school district

043including our social workers, counselors in reality any adult adult that's willing to lend an ear so long as it doesn't sort of cross over to the uh area where we need a mental health professional and supportive responses to victim of instances is something we're really focusing on too. A lot of time when those are incidents or students make poor choices, you focus on aggressors. The kids involved in the incident and we don't spend enough attention on our victims. So, that's a concerted effort we're making with our support staff in our buildings to make sure we follow up and provide whatever um supports they need. Moving on, in the student experience in terms of accountability and behavioral support, we implemented a cell phone policy, which is a work in progress. We got off to a better

044start than we anticipated, but of course, there was always hiccups. And so, at this point, we're going to be revisiting the use of um non-in uh enabled devices like old Waltmans and stuff to see if that's a distraction. uh also earbuds and those little things that we're kind of uh tweaking out. I'll be meeting with the uh teachers and the high school administration just to kind of go over it. Um but it's going pretty well and what I've heard back from students at the high school level um when I met with the student advisory group that Madison was a part of um is they they're kind of enjoying it. Um those that kind of like adhere to it of course are people who are going to try to sneak a cell phone all in. They're

045not naive. Uh but in terms of the classrooms, um students seem to be a lot more focused and attentive by virtue of not having access or easy access to their cell phones. Systems of checks and balances for code of conduct implementation. We're meeting on a monthly basis with the building administration to make sure we all understand our code of conduct in a consistent manner. Um in fact, some of those discussions led to amendments that we made this year to the code of conduct. [clears throat] So that's been very fruitful. Consistent consequences is a piece of this. This is a small photo um because we're also being proactive and I was had the fortune of stopping by the middle school on Monday morning and saw a grade level assembly where Dr. Aello spoke about expectations including

046consequences for certain behaviors like violating cell phone uh policies. This picture is actually of our athletic director talking about character and sort of the values that we need to do especially if you're interested in participating in our uh intercolastic sports universal re-entry meetings. K to 12. If a student is suspended long-term or is excluded, we want to make sure that when they come back to our programs that they have the appropriate supports. If it's anything that involves substances, we have teen intervene and Miss Wilkins Robinson uh uh participate, our social workers participate. In fact, I'll be attending four re-entry meetings tomorrow at the high school as a part of this sort of uh push to have more universal re-entry meetings and to emphasize good decision-m uh delayed restorative interventions in certain scenarios. For kids to

047engage in restorative practices or restorative conversations, they have to be willing participants. So, we used to sort of give it a shot. If the kids said no, we kind of would drop it, but based on a feedback from stakeholders, we're revisiting those conversations, especially if some times passes. Sometimes the kids cool off and they're more uh open to having these conversations and student input into response to behaviors. Again, by virtue of my student advisory committees, we're putting together a survey through thought exchange that I'm going to distribute at the high school that we spoke about and the students got to look at and give me some input uh that we're going to distribute to students to get some of their feedback in terms of everything that is involved in our school district. And along those

048lines, um I met with the middle school advisory student advisory group and they're super spirited and honest. Uh but it was a great meeting. I loved hearing their feedback. It was a very cross-section of students uh who opened up and uh we had a very fruitful conversation which was earlier this month. And some of the work that they're doing and elevating uh student voices is through Compass Unity. Compass unity is an organization that's funded by the DFC grant which stands for our drug-free communities grant. It's spearheaded by Miss uh Wilkins Robinson and we engage in educating our kids about substance abuse. Uh intrachool visitations. Next month our varsity athletes will be visiting uh the middle school to talk about the dangers of vaping and substance abuse, especially how it affects their athletic performance so we

049can tie it that way. Community awareness. Miss Wilkins Robinson attends meetings at our local uh barber shops. There was actually a meeting at a barber shop that was very well attended. She also uh corresponds with the Suffach County Police to identify any area stores that may be selling vapes to minors and targeted interventions through our uh teen intervene program. So, the student engages in vaping or substance abuse. And again, this is all grant funded for a grant that we applied to a couple years ago. Um and in this picture of the Compass Unity, we were just judging some of the posters of middle school uh kids created to create some drug awareness for Red Ruben Week and Mr. Hartwell, the young man there, is actually part of the National Guard. He's studying substance abuse with

050youth and trying to implement some reforce resources through the National Guard to help our students out presentations, which is great. We're also looking at St. Charles Hospital, which is also sponsoring a free substance abuse prevention treatment program that we sort of uh shared with our community. So, we're doing great work in that regard. Continuing with the student experience opportunities and experiences, um staff buying into restorative practices. This is an ongoing practice. Um we did um reduce the amount of restorative coaches we have in our buildings, our K to5 buildings, but we're still engaging in restorative practices. We have our coaches uh at our secondary schools and still promoting the use of restorative talks. In addition, regular use of community circles is a part of u way of getting our kids to sort of connect in

051a non-threatening way. Um I think in one of our board advisory committee meetings, we engage in a community circle and it is a great sort of process to talk and connect with people. We're still encouraging that practice. Uh building a culture of enjoyment. It's an important one. I think especially as we face challenges, it's really important that we remain optimistic and um confident that we're going to meet these challenges and rise above them and that at the end we'll be better for it. So, as much as I am unhappy about the situation we're in, I'm very dedicated to serving this community and moving forward in a positive manner. Certainly, me as a superintendent, it's not going to change who I am at my core. I still believe in South Country. I believe in the the

052ability of the trustees. We're acted expeditiously in response to this and I have confidence in our um dealing with John moving forward. But again, part of our strategic plan is to build that culture of enjoyment. I just shared some pictures from our pumpkin picking to our belated costume race for practically long trunketry, our fire department coming in and giving learning experiences to kids that are not just valuable but fun. Uh more community building. Again, it's about our community ser uh resource network, meeting with our or community organizations, bringing community groups into our schools like seed. I'm certainly working with the South Country Education Foundation who will hopefully accept their grants later in the agenda tonight at our next board meeting. I'll give you the my formal recognition, which I didn't want to do prior to

053the board vote. Uh but yeah, we wanted to make sure we could build communities, not just the district and outside agencies, but within our school district, and more opportunities for mentorships and community involvement. uh Bport High School, for example, we have about 15 local uh organizations and businesses are willing to give opportunities to our students in terms of internships and jobs and we're trying to create more outreach in that manner as well as expanding our college and career affair to include more careers and jobs that kids can do while they're in high school. So, excited about that work um moving forward. And in terms of uh engagement and student enjoyment, you know, it's really a pleasure to attend the football alumni game. Uh the response from the community was great. A lot of people came

054out. It's also great to see generations of student athletes come back to support. Um a great event. A lot of the trustees were there to witness it and it was hard for victory that led to our playoff birth, which I wanted to again keep talking about the student experience and enjoyment. Um, I had the pleasure of going to um, Smithtown East for the girls varsity volleyball game. We were not victorious, but they played with a lot of pride. And they even engaged, I don't know if you can see the picture, but uh, the student athletes were kind of bench pressing each other after aces were served, which was uh, kind of wacky to watch and fun. But even though they were sort of uh, never had a lead in the game, the girls were very

055uh much having fun and playing with their hearts, which is really nice to see. Which leads of course to our football playoff game. really tough loss to um Northport. Our Clippers fought in the very last few minutes. We scored two touchdowns so that we lost by just one touchdown. We can give credit to all of our student athletes and of course Justin Serantina who plays top 20 in golf. Um we're going to be sharing all of the number of color athletes that we've had for the fall once we the season's closed out. And I also wanted to announce that middle school start uh sports started this past Monday with tryyous and next Monday we'll be starting our winter season for the high school. Moving on with some more community enjoyment. It was fun going to

056Frank Pong for the trick-or- treat street. Um a lot of creepy characters in the audience, especially the one with googly eyes. This was a little bit mean-spirited, I have to admit, because that there you see two skeletons and it read last Super Bowl party for the Jets. So, as a Jet fan, that was uh didn't sit well with me. And of course, I want to give a shout out to Mr. Rosinski, Miss Olberg, and our PTA um president, um Mr. Scarsman, sorry for uh participating as Bowser, Mario, Luigi. They're on patrol, making sure the kids were safe. But it was good walking around. Equally as fun was trick-or- treat street at the high school. What I love about that event is that it involves students, staff, and elementary school kids together all participating in different

057activities and and and just fun times. Um some more pictures of some more characters from that night. A lot of Loraxes and um there was engaged some face paint thing happened and I had my face painted as well. Um so credit to the young student who had courage to face paint the superintendent. Moving on um operations. So this is a third priority area for us and that priority reads as we will enhance school district operations [clears throat] by fostering a supportive work environment upgrading facilities improving communication and transparency strengthening parental involvement and increasing community engagement through active participation and partnerships. So all staff input is something we're working on again with thought exchange. Much similarly like we did our strategic plan. We want to start involving our staff in safe spaces where they can sort

058of communicate their concerns and their ideas to make our experiences better. Um we also reviewed staff inequality across schools in terms of the assignment of like teaching assistants and teachers to make sure classes are equitable and equitably uh supported across the district. Additionally, staff recognition is something we started um work on. Uh the middle school's kind of taking the bull by the horns. In September, you'll see a picture of Miss Rebecca Donovan who was the champion of the month and received the championship belt. And for October, the champion of of the month was Gabby Coin, who was named at a faculty meeting. So again, we want to engage in more staff recognition um because of our staff do amazing things. And in terms of sta uh staff morale, when you're going through some challenging times,

059this becomes one of the biggest challenges. And for me, this is something that I really want to actively work on to again give um assurances to our staff and our community that we're going to be meeting these challenges with the due diligence that it merits. Um and that we need to keep our heads up, especially now. It's important that we maintain our positive outlook and, you know, engage in some community sort of input so that we can sort of meet these challenges together. Staff morale is something that I certainly appreciate. Moving on to our facilities, um ensure ADA compliance in all buildings. We're pretty much there. We installed ramps at Kramer, at Head Start, a ramp in our high school auditorium, and as needs arise, we respond progress to the ADA compliance. Um, maintain a

060high expectation for cleanliness in facilities. That's always a work in progress. One of the things that works against school districts, and this is going to sound like I'm being a little um laticious, is that our cleaning products have no odor. We're not allowed to use anything that produces or emanates a smell. So, sometimes things are clean, but just they don't smell clean. I was used to my mother cleaning my room with ammonia. Imagine that, Madison. I survived it. But certainly that smell of pine saw something signified to me that things were clean. And now we're using products that have been made in our world. But more importantly is upgrading all facilities and infrastructure. That's something that we've been engaging in in the last three years really like sort of aggressively with the uh changing of

061some uh units, roof units uh the rooftops in the middle school for air conditioning. Uh the roof at the family engagement center. all these capital improvement projects that have been done internally by us. But I also wanted to highlight the aidable car uh capital projects that have been approved by our community that have been completed. Our turf field was completed a couple years ago. Our security camera upgrade has been completed. Our magnetic door replacements has been completed. Our safe haven vestibu is completed. We're just doing some of the last minute sort of um IT work on the doors. Um but dust reveal is up and uh providing a little bit another layer of safety at South Haven. Door security mechanisms complete. Those are the locking mechanisms that give us access to our classrooms. Critz windows,

062we finally broke ground on that after a delay in supply and demand. We're anticipating a completion at the end of the winter of this year. They will be working while the school is in session. Um we have energy performance contract which I'm going to talk a little bit more about in a second, but that's been started. with respect to completion of that project in uh the summer of 2026. Our fuel tanks are still pending uh Department of Health, Southern County Department of Health approval. It's been approved by the um state and those are fuel tanks that are buried by Brook Haven and South Haven. [laughter] Um and our high school boilers, they're still in the planning process with the engineers. This was just approved last spring in May, but our track bleachers and gym windows

063at the high school already with the state department. We're just waiting for our project numbers so we can proceed with those projects. But what's most exciting is that our high school auditorium will be completed on schedule. And in fact, we're going to be hosting our National Honor Society induction ceremony in the high school auditorium on November 24th, just a couple weeks away. So, I'm really excited about that. You don't see it there, but the carpet's been laid. They're doing some last minute tweaks to our to our lighting system, lights installed. We're just upgrading our our theater lights, but looking forward to using uh the uh auditorium to grid air today. Continuing facilities, I want to talk a little bit about our energy performance contract uh back in November of 2023. Um ESG presented or a

064contract which was developed by energy systems group which represents a comprehensive investment in infrastructure renewal and operational efficiency for the South Country Central School District US. Through this initiative, the district will receive substantial energy savings, capital invest reinvestment, and long-term operational benefits again without increasing tax fair burden. The scope of the project is about $9 million, which is again funded through guaranteed energy savings, available rebates, and uh building aid, avoiding new capital debt. Um, but guaranteed financial outcomes for this project is $380,000 per year in verified energy cost savings. A 25% reduction in overall energy consumption that includes both electric and thermal, 12 to 16 month implementation period with immediate payback to reduce utility expenses and again full compliance with New York State the education department's EPC guidelines. So again, the UPC uses a self-funding

065model where guaranteed energy savings and operational efficiencies fully upset project costs and it basically creates a positive cash flow performer uh maintain a positive net cash flow through the 20-year term. So really excited about that work. Some of the key um sort of um benefits is again infrastructure renewal with cloudy taxes, improve uh lower uh learning environments by implementation of LED lighting and digital controls, operational and maintenance efficiencies. Our infrastructure was not set up to control energy consumption. This will be a thing in the past once this uh project is completed. Environmental community impact. There's going to be a 25% reduction, as I said, in district-wide energy use, which lowers our car carbon footprint, which is always great. And finally, the guaranteed performance and accountability, which is guaranteed by ESG. So, if we don't realize

066those savings, we all make up the difference, which is exciting. But in conclusion, the EPC enables South Country to reinvest in essential stool infrastructure with no upfront cost, new taxes, and guaranteed returns by upgrading outdated systems and adopting modern energy management practices. We secure long-term financial stability, environmental stewardship, and improved facilities for students and staff. So great to see that uh get underway. And I thank you thank John Balonsi for his involvement in it. He has a lot of experience with EPC's experience. And all this was kind of captured communication. I'm going too fast. This is my last slide. Um in communication in multiple languages by the adopting our new website and parent [snorts] square our website and parents is easily um translated at a touch of a button for our community members. Again I

067want to encourage community members to use parent square. It's one of mechanisms that we do all of our communications. Um in terms of what types of communications communicate the community will get. They're not going to get notifications if like report cards are posted but anything that affects our larger community school closings. Certainly updates from the board are going to be done uh via parent square in addition to posting on our website. One of our goals is also to upgrade our website that's been done and again we'll continually uh modify it and enhance it and multimodal outreach to all families. In addition to our social media handles, our website, Parent Square, we're also printing out a community newsletter because I do know a lot of members of our communities are logging on to the computer. So,

068it's nice to get a little uh sort of uh newsletter that highlights some of our student achievement. There should be one coming in the mail in the next couple weeks. All of this again um in terms of our academic achievement and instructional practices were captured in all the various trainings we did during our superintendent conference day that was held on November election day I believe was November 4th um um but yeah it was just such a robust repertoire of things that we offered from STEM instruction literacy instruction um our music teachers got to attend an off-campus event as well as our art teachers so really fruitful day so I just want to thank our administrative staff and our teachers who are involved into planning this and making the day a great success. Um again I

069encourage folks to log on to our website for any relevant information and updates and again a lot of things great things are happening in our district and will continue to happen. So, please visit our various social media handles. Utilize parent square for parent communications. And next week, or next week, tomorrow, we'll have our financial aid planning night at the high school at 7, which will be hosted by our guidance department and staff from Hopster's financial aid office to provide information to our high school parents who are contemplating financial aid and fast forms, as well as our curriculum fair tomorrow at 6 p.m. at our high school. I encourage [snorts] trustees to stop by. This is always a great event where students highlight uh their content areas. So if you make it tomorrow at 6, come

070on down. Um, and that concludes my superintendent report. If you have any questions, I want to thank the board for their commitment. >> Questions? >> Thank you. >> Seeing none. Thank you very much. the trustee and advisory committee reports. I'm going to start with our student exeicio [clears throat] member. >> Good evening. Our student advisory committee met for the first time led by Mr. Santana. I'm very excited about the changes we talked about in the future of the committee. I also had the opportunity with my history class to attend the Hispanic heritage um event in the um school library which really celebrated student voices and different cultures. I loved hearing Mr. Santana's story. It was very inspiring. Our student council also held the districtwide trunk or treat. It was a great opportunity and it was

071nice to see everyone in their costumes. And I'm working with Mr. Favll on collecting food donations for some local food pantries in our community. to just help out a lot of people in need right now. And the student council has been working on a lot of fundraisers that we're very excited to get off the ground. >> Thank you. >> Interesting fellow. >> Sure. I think um the segment of the trunk treats. I did my fair share of trunk treats um my son and my daughter um throughout the district. They were all amazing. I think we got a chance to wear several [clears throat] costumes. Um the had a chance to also attend the alumni game um as well. Saw some people haven't seen in many many years. It was a great experience. Got to go

072to the breakfast um football reference first time this year again. So again, another proud tradition that I you know was glad to take part in. Uh so yeah, that's pretty much it for now. >> Just Steve Ross. Um, again, [clears throat] keeping note with nobody needs to know what my regular calendar is of popping in and out of schools. Um, of all the trunk or treats, I kind of uh I heard a lot of different comments. Uh, the uh folks over at Kramer Street had some ugly weather um and some circumstances, but uh apparently the principal didn't take no for an answer and immediately changed, brought things inside, made things happen uh and left lots of smiling faces. Uh lots of comments were made to me about that. So uh shouts out to uh Mr.

073Clark at uh Kramer Street for uh not giving up and being uh taking the initiative to make sure that it still went forward and not looking for the easy out. Not an easy thing to do, changing on a changing time. Uh so to his credit, one thing that stood out otherwise uh a lot of work to do and just keep moving forward. Trustee Calderon. >> Oh, sure. Um, so I was invited to attend uh the center of excellence induction ceremony which is being held at the high school tomorrow. Uh, this program began as a club for first generation collegebound students um and has since expanded to include um high achieving students that are recommended by their counselors. So, I look forward to being there in support of our students tomorrow. Um, as well, I attended

074uh Halloween related events. Um, was able to support the PTA. Uh, yeah. And just we're all working very hard. So, that's all I have. >> Trusty, please. >> Thank you. I'm going to hold my report until the end since I know we stand in between us and the uh the audit report except to say I supported every single pie uh Thanksgiving pie um fundraiser and my freezer will be full >> of pies for the remainder of the winter. >> Thank you. >> No thanks. Um, I have a few things. Um, at Brook Haven, as a follow-up to my report at the last meeting, uh, regarding civics in the schools, uh, grades K through three voted for movie for PTA night, um, this time the school voted with me. They picked Lilo and Stitch over Mario

075Brothers. Um, which was a great, again, civics lesson for the students, the voting process. Um, and then then the meeting was shown during PTA movie night, which I believe was last week. Um, Brook Haven also has begun a Thanksgiving campaign to help South Country community. Uh, paper fe paper feathers were sent home with students to decorate as part of their Theodore turkey display. Love that it's Theodore, not Tom. Um, many families including staff throughout our district and the stop and shop blooming for good proceeds. Um, again, if you buy flowers at groom at stop and shop ends in 99 cents. Food pantry gets a portion of that. um have generously assisted with this. To date, $579 has been collected. Um, thank you to the teachers in the high school and middle school for meeting with

076parents this past Friday. Parent teacher conferences. They get to deal with me as parent. I give them a lot of great points for that. Uh, the teachers I spoke to all had great information to share. Um, I encourage parents and guardians to take advantage of these days to have meaningful conversations about their children with their teachers. Um again, uh today I was lucky enough to go to the middle school. I sat in two presentations. Um I want to say thank you to the veterans who shared their stories today at the middle school and to the staff coordinating their visits and sharing their classrooms with them. Um and then just one other things um at this time of year food drives are happening in all our schools. Uh please donate what you can and where you

077can. Uh special from Brook Haven. and a thank you to the high school staff for their donation of 20 bags of food to the pantry at Brook Haven supporting families in the district. >> Thank you. >> I I also went to the alumni football game and you probably could find me at my usual spot in the seat in the stands on the 50ard line. But what was so good about that this year is I was sitting with parents of members of the cheer squad. So we were able to have a nice discussion about um the benefits of that program for their students. I also um visited a classroom in 9inth period today at the middle school where the uh students were very engaged with the speaker. The speaker was a young woman um at least

078bilingual. Um, and I say that because part of her job with the Air Force is to interpret. Um, and I know she does it for Spanish, but um, I think she's got some other languages that she's a little competent with. Um, and all the students, no cell phones, asking questions, having conversations. It was really a pleasure to spend 40 minutes in that classroom today. So, um I thank thank you to Miss Goodman because it was her classroom. And now we're doing uh the guide to board meetings. Do we have any any more cards? Just one. >> Just one. >> Okay. Um the commentary that's available now is for agenda items only. There'll be an opportunity for commentary at almost the conclusion of the meeting for non-aggenda items. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. Uh

079we have only one card so this will be a three minute segment. Um, any comments relating to a personnel matter or to individual students um will not be entertained in public. Um, it's a time for the board to hear comments from the public, not to engage in a question and answer period. Um, but if asked if anformational question requires only a short answer, uh, it may be addressed, but there won't be a dialogue. District residents seeking additional information will be guided to an administrator to address their questions or concerns. So our our speaker is Kareem Odicon. >> I'd like to defer mine to the end of the meeting >> for non-aggenda. >> Change it to non-aggenda. >> Okay, I'll leave it up here. >> Thank you. >> All right, so Let's see. Next up, >>

080the financial, >> right? Yeah. This point, I appreciate his patience. I'm going to invite Mr. Michael Leone up to the podium. Um, >> and I I just wanted before you start to thank you uh for giving the presentation tonight. It's on the heels of the work that you you did in in talking to Mr. Bel Monte so that Mr. Bil Monte could give a statement at our last meeting with regard to the amount of that overspend because there's been so much questioning among board members, the community to get that number pinned down and now we're hearing from you with regard to the annual um independent auditors report. >> Yes. >> Thank you for being here tonight. >> My pleasure. So, [clears throat] good evening everyone. My name is Mike Leone. I'm the engagement partner from

081Colinowski and we're the independent external auditors. Uh, we completed our work on the June 30th, 2025 audit and I'm here to present the results. Before I get started, I do want to mention and I want to acknowledge that this has been an extremely challenging financial year for the district. Uh, there was a significant decline in fund balance and budget overspending. Could you speak up a little bit more, Mr. >> Yeah. And budget overspending has understandably raised some concerns. So, uh, what I will say is throughout the audit though, um, I have been communicating with the board, the administration um, and information has been shared very openly with me. Uh, and I do understand that the community has been uh, awaiting the final audit uh, to understand the financial impact. So, tonight I'm here to present

082those results. Uh what I will say is I did mention as uh an mentioned uh I met with the audit committee and the board last week. We went through the financial statements in great detail uh and the findings. So this evening my focus is on high level discussion and the key findings. So I'm going to cover that in four areas tonight. First thing I'm going to cover is the audit opinion. Then I'll go through the financial results for the general fund. Then I'll talk about some material weaknesses that were uncovered and had to be disclosed and are in the within the financial statements that's in accordance with government ordinary standards. And then the corrective actions that the district plans on taking. Um after that I can answer questions that are audit related and anything that's

083operational or relating to procedural or future actions that would be something for management. Uh but I'm more than happy to chime in. So let's first start with the audit opinion. Uh the audit opinion is an unmodified opinion. That is the best opinion that we can render. So what does that mean? That means that we conducted the audit in accordance with our professional standards and we obtain reasonable assurance about all the financial statement numbers that are disclosed and the disclosures and they are fairly presented. What that does not mean is it does not mean that we did not uncover some operational issues which we're going to discuss since I did mention there are some material weaknesses um and that's required to be reported by government standards. So let's move on to the financial results. Um so

084as I mentioned there was a significant decline in the fund balance. So the general fund fund balance decreased by approximately 16 million. It was 31 million last year is now 15 million. Uh the primary amounts that are left within that fund balance are in restricted reserves. The district also ended the year with an unassigned fund balance deficit of 1.8 million. and the district also exceeded the voter approved budget by $3.5 million. So these are weaknesses and findings. Uh so let's talk about what caused the $16 million decrease. Uh so the district did happen to uh incur some unanticipated expenditures related to special education, transportation um and health insurance which was a contributing factor. But I think um all equally important was that there was a structural imbalance in the preparation of the 24-25 budget. And

085what I mean by that is in previous years the district over the last three years is receiving some COVID funding that was temporary funding um and the district was able to utilize general fund [clears throat] salaries and and related expenditures um because they were receiving grant funding on that. So that's your general fund. that general fund that money is able to be shifted over and the funds are earned in the special aid fund. What happened is when this grant funding expired in 242 um that information and that financial information should have been brought back to the general fund budget. Um and it unfortunately was not not all of it not fully. So that resulted in causing not only unanticipated your unanticipated expenditures is one piece to it, but then this piece with not having enough

086in the budget is causing that $16 million deficit that also contribute to the fact that you know you had a $1.8 million deficit in your undign fund balance and the overspend. So all of these things combined um kind of created an an unusual situation um and and that's where you ended up. In addition, the 16 million is not just identified with that. There's also 2.3 million of capital uh project expenditures that were approved by the voters to be transferred for um track services, bleachers, and and other services that the voters approved back in May of 2025. So with all of that on the financial side, what are the material weaknesses? So clearly you have an overspend of your budget which is a material weakness. Uh you're not allowed to overspend the voter approved budget. There

087can be budget revisions that are that are applicable with funding and and because you have certain contingent necessary course um expenses. So that did occur. So when we talk about the budget overspending of the three and a half million, what caused that? All right. So, a few things caused that. One, not real time monitoring of the budget was not was ineffective during the year. Additionally, communication of when things within the budget when there was overspending that could have been going on during the year occurred that was not communicated appropriately or explained to the board to fully understand that where actions could have been taken earlier to address these issues. Uh so when you look at that I mean there's monthly reporting that's provided but that that information has to be explained in detail especially when

088you have a situation like this. So we've made a number of recommendations that we feel are necessary. They're all included within the report. You'll see in the back of the report there's a government auditing standards um compliance with laws and regulations. [clears throat] There you'll see those two material weaknesses and that's on page 71 and page 75. when you do get a chance to look at the report. So what do you need to do going forward? You need to analyze the spending trends and mandated costs during the budget development. Provide regular detailed budget actual reporting. Uh and then we're going to also talk about what management's um plan is too. Perform timely budget transfers and over expenditures are projected. Implement strong controls to prevent purchase orders from exceeding budget appropriations. and ensure that the board

089fully understands the financial reporting and early warning indicators by providing timely reports. The other issue that is a material weakness is your financial condition. So your fund balance decreased by $16 million. Your unassigned fund balance is in a deficit. So those are the financial issues. So uh what needs to be done based on our recommendations is implement some cost reduction measures for 24 20 25 26 and thereafter to try and reverse this situation. Develop a multi-year fiscal recovery plan uh with goals that you can set and achieve reasonably without disrupting so much within the school. Um, always ensure recurring revenues um match recurring expenditures to make sure that you don't run into the situation where you will have a decrease. You always want to try and generate surpluses as a district. Uh, clearly you did

090not this year and you wound up using your appropriated reserves and your appropriated fund balance. Um, in the past you've had that ability to use uh even though you appropriate that, you've had the ability to use that, but you've also come in under spending your budget and coming in over on your revenues which have helped with your fund balance. That was unable to happen this year. Uh, consider short-term financing options short, you know, for your cash needs. uh monitor and report financial conditions monthly to the board and definitely maintain transparent communication to the community throughout. Uh you want to be very very clear when situations like this occur um and that you're reporting that information as timely as possible. So the corrective actions that John and his team have come together and put together are

091definitely involved and he can talk a little bit more about it but I'm just going to kind of summarize stronger budgeting process uh using historical spending data knowing when costs you know building the budgets making sure that you're taking into account these expirations of COVID funds and what really belongs in that budget and what necessary cuts may be and what spending measures may be necessary monthly monitoring. You have to make sure every month that you're looking real closely at this. If we're overspending an area, we're making sure that we're taking care of that and and and what's the issue and how do we handle that? Um putting in various different system safeguards to make sure that you [clears throat] can't exceed um budgets uh and these and these appropriations. And of course, there's got to

092be a training process on this, right? Everyone needs to understand the financial reports that are being issued on a monthly basis and what they mean. um and how do we react to that to make sure that we're not in a situation. So, this is, you know, an unfortunate situation. Um it's going to take a few budget cycles to repair this. Um but I think, you know, John and his team are looking real closely at at some of these things. Um and we're going to implement measures. I know that they want to implement certain measures by January of 2026. And then with considering the financial condition, the multi-year that instituting this over multi multi-year to try and resolve this issue as it relates to the financial. Um so that kind of summarizes that uh again your

093timeline starts in 2526. You have to look at these things now, right? You still have part of the year. You want to look real closely at um if there are cuts that you can implement to to restore some fiscal stability um and then fully ret, you know, full recovery targeted for possibly 2028. Perfect. So, that summarizes the audit results. Um, if there are questions that relate to the audit, um, I'm more than happy to answer them. As I mentioned, if there are questions that relate to procedural or corrective actions, I think John, um, invite him up here and he can answer that. But again, I'm more than happy to answer any questions. You know, unfortunately, as external auditors, we're not part of budget process. We're not part of real-time monitoring process. We also have to

094maintain our independence. So we we can't we come in after year end. We audit your financial statements. We give you a number. We give you an opinion. We let you know. We do look at compliance areas. We do look at various areas of controls and we'll appine upon them um with respect to any findings that we have but when we don't do an internal control audit. So just want to be very very clear with respect to that. So uh are there any questions? >> I have I have one. Could you just clarify? Yeah. >> The material witness the material weaknesses that you mentioned. >> Yeah. >> In and in all the years that you've been doing our external auditing >> has have you ever found material weaknesses in our finances >> since I've been here

095as partner in 2022? No, I have never found material weaknesses in your finances. >> All right. And so it's related to the the budget overspending and you attribute that to the budget um failure to budget the COVID funds and unexpected expenses that we've heard about. Um and uh those are those are basically procedural kind of things that are being dealt with under the cor corrective action plan that's being done through the business office. Is that correct? >> That's correct. you know and and within the body of the report as I mentioned specifically the pages 71 to 75 and I want I want to make that very clear because I think people should look at the report throughout the report there's we talk about this situation and specifically those material weaknesses are identified in the back

096of the report of the government auditing standards and it's they're very detailed very detailed as to the cause the the um and what the recommendations are and then of course in response the corrective action plan which is really really to turn things in the right direction. >> Any other questions? I see. >> Yeah. Can >> can you just explain or perhaps elaborate the the numbers that are pushed around? You have the $3.5 million that's the overspend versus the $16 million >> reduction. In most of us common terms, reduction in my bank account means I spent. So, if I have a $3.5 million number of overspent, >> my bank wouldn't allow that. But in this case, you're talking about the two different buckets or examples. And to make that a little bit more clear because it

097really does create a little more of a fog for the non-financial. >> It's a great It's a great question and I'm glad that you asked it. So, when you think about the $16 million uh decline in the fund balance, that's actual expenditures. So, how was your re what were your revenue sources? What were your expenditures? Um, you had other funding sources. That was $16 million decrease. On the budget side, you started out with $143 million budget. You had some budget revisions, but your expenditures still exceeded that. So, that's budget, right? So, budget and actual are entirely different, right? You budget your expenditures, but what your actuals come in come in different. So, if you have unanticipated expenditures, they're not budgeted. If you have um COVID related stuff that was not budgeted, it's going to come

098in over. So that's going to cause you that $16 million, but on the on the what you budgeted and where you ended up with revisions was $3.5 million. >> Let me if I can explain it clearly then I understand it. >> So then as am I to understand then that the budget for the 2425 year essentially accounted for or planned on spending $12.5 million of monies above and beyond the revenues that were coming in. Although that was approved, we also spent $3.5 million too much. >> So the budget did not No, that's not the budget did not plan on spending 12.5 million. That's what was a result of the budget being structurally imbalanced and the and the unanticipated costs, right? When it comes to the budget, because if your budget was fully if your budget

099was fully anticipating these things, you would had a higher budget, right? You didn't. he had a lower budget because of the co related structural imbalance and unanticipated expenditures which were not included in the budget. So that's an unfortunate situation. So I understand how that you can see you have some trying to understand what the budget difference is versus the actual difference. That's that's really why >> what was the what was the last year that we received the co funding? Was it 22 2122 or 22 23? >> So it started >> back in 20 I think it's 2122 and it carried forward to 2324. It was over three years. It was 12 million. >> It was three years. >> You got it in trenches. >> We got in we got we got 12 million over the

100course of three years. >> Three years. Yeah. and it ended in 20 early 2425. Um so that >> so one of the things that and I I mentioned this in the audit committee last week was we had a significant budget underspend two years ago >> to the tune of $17 million. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So now that's two years ago. Was that how much of that $17 million how much co money were we getting a third of that co money in that year? And if so, if that's only a third of 12 million roughly, where did the rest of that come from? And how do we go from such an underspend to now an overspend? >> Yeah. So, you over the period over the three-year period of time, you received the 12 million, I think

101it was 4 million, one year, 6 million, and then 2 million. Right. So, as as the phase out, >> right? So a lot of those costs when you received that funding you were able to provide those services with existing general fund budget which moved over right to the special aid fund as I mentioned in the audit committee meetings right now when that expired right that funding washes up it's no longer there that those costs still exist unless you do cuts >> correct >> and it comes back to the general fund which causes your issue. So, in prior years, you may have underspent your budget, but you could see, as you mentioned, you had a much larger undersspend in some of the prior years because of shifting the money into the special aid fund, leaving you

102with a larger budget with the budget difference, right? Because you didn't have to utilize general fund actual expenditures, right? They were using the special aid fund. >> Okay? >> So, I know that that could sound it sounds it's you have a complicated issue here. And that's kind of what I'm kind of getting at because I've heard you give me the explanation I think twice now. That might be the third time >> and and it it's still difficult and I know it's difficult for the public to understand it. >> But it it is as a board member when you say, "Well, two years ago we were underspent by 17 million. Now all of a sudden we're in a situation we're overspent by 3.5 and had to pull 16 million out of out of reserves." it, you

103know, it's somewhere in those two years things went haywire and >> when something when there's such a variance in those two numbers, >> yeah, >> you would think that would jump off the page and it really didn't or else we would have seen it. >> So that phase out didn't help the situation. Uh but I think you know the the problem is is that from a budgeting standpoint that was critical to make sure that we were understanding when that was going to phase out and what was included in the general fund budget, right? Because costs are going to return even if you move them because they're funded by a grant. They're going to return to the general fund and you either have to pay those expendances or you're going to have to initiate cuts. And

104for the record, the previous administrator in the business office had warned of that and and we knew that and the board had at least we thought planning for that. So when it didn't happen, it's somewhat of a slap in the face. >> Yeah. So I think I think it's an unfortunate thing, but again this is the budgeting process. Um so I think you know having John on board now um taking a really really close look at these things um is going to resolve this stuff moving forward and and you know make the decisions to make the necessary cuts or whatever is needed to restore fiscal stability. >> So let me ask and I'm not sure if this is for yourself um we started the year this year now with a fund balance deficit of 1.7

105million. >> Yes. that needs to be paid down from this year's current budget immediately. So that's we're that 1.7 is not going to be accounted for in our current budget for this year's cycle. Plus, we included a $5 million fund balance in this year's current budget cycle. So we are currently 6.7 million. That is correct. >> And then taken from our $147 million. >> Yes. You have to look at real closely at 6.7 million because you think about the 1.8 million. Yep. And then the 5 million that you anticipated appropriating which you cannot use because you don't have it. 6.8 million in costs that um already you've got to think about for 2526 and how do you plan on fixing that? >> So those timely budgets >> that's why yes. So definitely >> extremely important

106this year. >> Yeah. Really really important and it's really important to be taking a look at this. So, if you recall through our meetings when I when I first found out about this in the August time frame, I immediately brought this to the level of where it needed to go and made sure that the superintendent of the board were aware of this. Um, because my feeling was, you know, it's not only just the overspend, it's this large loss and how are you going to fix this going forward and taking immediate action. So, but again, we we we had to go through the process of finalizing the audit. We couldn't rush through that. We had to extend out making sure we're looking at things to make sure the numbers are financially accurate to reflect what uh

107you know the final results were. >> Thank you, Bob. >> Sure. >> Oh, questions. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um thank you, Mr. Leone. >> Of course. Um, and I'll pick up where you just left off about it's not only the overspend, it's the loss of the um of the surplus that we built into uh the next year's budget. So, of $5 million. So, uh I'm not satisfied with that. We didn't pick it up. And when I when this was first disclosed to the board, that's what I immediately looked for. And I apologize to my my cohort here that I I'm a paper person and I just I'm I've been I've been going through, you know, past minutes, past resolutions because I'm just not satisfied that we didn't pick it up. But you you keep

108reemphasizing communication. And communication here is key. and it's impossible to pick it up if we're not getting the communication in a timely fashion. And that communication are those treasurers reports. So, going back to March, March 19th of 2025, um, and I said it in an earlier meeting where we were presented with a treasurer's report from January in March and we were only presented with that report that day and I was upset with administration for once again giving us a 50 page report that day that we was impossible to go through and I asked for it to be tabled and I was in retrospect angry with myself for doing that. I should have insisted that it be presented in its entirety because that's where we would have picked up what was what was happening because it

109was at that point that a lot of negative balances were starting to show up in that treasures report. And I so appreciated when Mr. Belmonte came on board to validate that treasures report should not show negatives and he attested to that his very first meeting here and uh and and it was a welcomed it was like it was a breath of fresh air that our business assistant superintendent was presenting that fact and where we hadn't had those presentations before and that we will have those presentations going forward. Um and so it was it was that day. Also another thing as far as communications go >> [clears throat] >> uh that I will speak with Mr. Belmont about and the board president about they uh what also happened at that meeting and I didn't realize this

110until your report pointed it out. approved [clears throat] a budget resolution that night, that same night, in a consent agenda. And for the people that may not understand what a consent agenda is, it's when you approve a whole number of resolutions um to ex to to expedite a meeting so as to not go through each one individually. You saw we pulled out some items separately um so that you're not here till midnight. Um, and one of those resolutions that we approved that night was this budget revision for $750,000 to increase an appropriation code for special education to be offset by an unassigned fund balance taking money from reserves. That [clears throat] is what we should have picked up because it wasn't a budget transfer. We weren't taking money from one line to another line. We

111were taking money from reserves, which was the red flag, the first red flag that we didn't have money in the budget to move from one line to the other. We had to go into reserves because we were out of money. So, as I mentioned, I think in one of our meetings, that's like the biggest one of the first things that you look at when you're getting these resolutions that are put forth. Anything that relates to an unassigned fund balance means that funding, there's not funding out there for it. You're using your existing equity, right? So, what's the reason for that? That's really critical. So, I think it's it's imperative to understand that. So your point is more than well taken because right the key to this is communication needs to be timely. The information that

112you're provided whether it's in the treasurer's report it's 50 pages long needs to be explained so that it's comprehensive understandable so decision-m can be made. Right? Because those are the those are the real important pieces to this. Right? just putting a a huge report together and just saying here you go and expecting someone to completely understand it. I think that's why you'll get the benefit of John giving you the that explanations and I think that that needs to be presented in that forum so that you could make informed decisions as >> while resolutions >> are written out in their entirety. They're included in the but in the minutes in their entirety they're not read necessarily read at the meeting when we when we vote on them. something that perhaps we should consider in the in

113the future because they get lost in the shuffle. >> Yeah. >> And we don't talk about them when we when we're actually voting upon them. And and also when I went back to check the minutes of that same meeting, we not only approved this resolution in a consent agenda, we approved it in an omnibus resolution, which means we took many many items from from uh you know A B CDE E F to expedite the meeting even further and we took many more resolutions together as one. not talking about them individually. And this was included in that omnibus resolution and we didn't even talk about it. It was recommended by the superintendent. That's how the resolution reads, recommended by the superintendent and we didn't even have so much as a whisper of a discussion about this

114resolution. And then we had a subsequent resolution on the last meeting of the school year on June on June 11th for $2.3 million >> out of that same unassigned fund balance. And those were the red flags that we approved and you put it in your initial report to us. So communication is absolutely key. The red flags were there. We knew it. The superintendent recommended to us to take it out of reserves. And because your initial report was $5.7 million was the overspend. But because of those two resolutions, the the the overspend technically was $3.5 million. >> Correct. >> And that's what all this paperwork. >> If I guess clarifying question on that point, those two transfers were for statemandated services. Correct. >> Correct. >> Yes. That is so we were >> be very very clear.

115>> And when that happened so the public knows we're permitted to use money from the reserves for that. So everybody understands I understand >> but there was no discussion that's that's not my point. You had your question I have mine. >> Okay. [snorts] >> Um and I believe the first one was was an extraordinary circumstance where that funding was for one student. >> And so people understand that the way the law has changed school districts have to educate students until their 22nd birthday which means one day before they turn 22. >> [clears throat] >> county services who split some services with some of these students and things like that. They end to 21. This is a problem in education and this is popping up in school districts all across Long Island. This is only one

116portion of it, but this is this is something that's being discussed in Albany because there is a gap. County health services stop when you turn 21. School districts due to a a court decision in Connecticut have to continue services until the day before your 22nd birthday. that one year when you have extraordinary circumstances and chances are if somebody is still in school when they're at that age they're they're receiving significant services and this student was something I've never seen in my 14 years where the cost of their education because of their condition was tremendous and we had a portion of it and then we were saddled with the rest of it due to this issue. So when that happens and such like the other cost overruns which I don't remember what the $2.4 $4 million

117was, which is why it's not considered in the budget overrun, is permissible to go out of that because we can't predict that. So that, correct me if I'm wrong, has nothing to do with poor budget construction because we don't know about unanticipated costs. It's impossible to know that. The other piece of it, the co portion of it, we are 100% at fault. There is no excuse. And you know, I I can say from my time here, [snorts] like I said before, the former assistant superintendent for business warned us of this. This is coming between co and and it had a lot to do with we talked about this for years about the mismatch of the building aid to the bond projects. That's a contributing factor as well. There's a lot of contributing factors to this

118that led to it. I'm not using it as an excuse, but again, people need to understand where these costs came from and why why we had it happen. So, but that co piece, it's on the district, it's on the board, it's on everybody who sat here, myself included, and I certainly am not shying away from that in any in any regard. To say that I would have done it differently thinking back then we were given assurances that coming out of the co money any any expenses added to that were taken out. There were not supposed to be salaries in there. New administration came in in the business office and that didn't happen. We've seen that it's come out in the audits and everything we've seen from Mr. Belmont and Mr. Leone can sure enough tell

119us that that's exactly what happened. Had that not happened, this would be much more manageable because there's nothing we could have done about unanticipated costs. Is there anything I said that's inaccurate >> and that? That's, you know, I think it's it's it's a fair statement again and just as important as Cheryl's issue of communication. >> Sure. And and there's no doubt that Cheryl's point is well taken on on communication, right? >> It's you know, we received assurances and we trusted a specific administrator and that was a mistake and everybody who was on the board at that time and in the administration deserves owes the community an apology. There's just no there's no other example or or explanation for it. But people need to understand it's not just that. There's a lot of other things between

120busing, between health care insurance. I mean, I can't understand how healthcare insurance can go up in the middle of a budget cycle. I can't imagine that there's not a law preventing that from happening. How do we have a fixed budget and our insurance company could just give us a 10 and then or a total of a 15% increase? >> Okay. So, >> I think one of the things that uh works greatly in your favor here is um I've spoken to John a number of times and with his depth of experience uh you know I I think he's taken a very very hard look at what what's in the budget um and the costs that are needed and what what potential cuts could be. So I think in in that respect moving forward I think this

121is this is a good thing and a good decision to have. John in here assisting with this. So, um hopefully this goes, you know, as smooth as possible um and as quickly as possible for the fiscal recovery. But, you know, keeping in mind that I mentioned it's probably going to take a few budget cycles to go through this and fix it. But but to the point about the health insurance in the uh in January, not January, in July 31st, a $168,000 transfer was made to cover the increase to the annual premium. So it wasn't a midyear uh increase. And also um >> but that's not the dollar amount of the increase though. >> The dollar amount of the increase when you guys discussed it was 800,000. So I'm also still a little confused. We're asking

122for questions and not making statements here. >> We started in the very beginning. We got the whole list of every transfer that had >> No, you have you respectfully trustee, you don't have the entire list. You have pieces of paper in front. You have pieces. You have pieces of paper in front of you when you are choosing which pieces to say. >> I take an issue with that. You do not sit here and cherryick what makes you sound better under these circumstances. >> The entire list is right. >> The questions are for the auditor to inquire of him, not for you to stand on his soap box and make statements. The entire list is right here. We had two significant transfers from from the from the reserves. That's all there is. The transfers from the

123reserves. There's only two as far as transfers from the budget. There's the list right here. Okay. And it started at the reorg meeting. And when >> those are the same large reports that you made an issue with and remove them from tonight and you want to prophesize them in front of the public and say, "Hey, look, they're right here. You took three reports to three reports off the table today. Sitting on the board. >> You weren't sitting on the board when this happened. >> No, I wasn't. >> You weren't sitting on the board. >> Needs to stay out of this while the board members get under control here and we need to finish your comment. >> Thank you about >> Thank you, Madam Chair. The point is that when you pointing to communication and pointing

124to get, you know, decent information and and truthful information out of the business office, which I trust we will get in the on the agenda. You can't you can't trust the agenda if the agenda is saying we're asking for a transfer to correct codes and then you read the backup information and the backup information says to cover a shortfall due to rising cost of transportation and the rising cost in transportation the request is made on the at the reorg meeting. So the so the signs were there that the that the costs were increasing. Of course that is not your problem. What I'm what I'm saying is the signs were there. We knew it. We needed to call we call a halt to it. And when we were only getting the treasures reports, I mean the

125the horse is out of the barn at this point. We were only getting treasurers reports uh you know in uh of in January January treasures reports in March and it was impossible to see what was happening. Now we know because we have a new professional on board who told us what the problem was within six days. I I have a comment to make on that um trustee that the treasures reports are one issue but the communication of the information within it is a different issue and that is a piece that I'm trusting the new um assistant superintendent to straighten out for us so that that will be a corrective measure that's in place because for the the two transfers out of the reserves, particularly because they were mandated expenses and there's literally nothing else that

126could be done about meeting those expenses at that point. >> The second one wasn't mandated, they were salaries. >> The other one was >> the first one was mandated, but the second one was salaries. So, I'm expecting a corrective measure out of the business office, out of administration, [cough] so that when hopefully none of this ever happens again, but in the event that things like this happen, it's clearly communicated that this is a problem. The red flag being there is not one um that the board is expected to be able to pick up. We have to what we've picked up now is that we need work done within the business office that's being done in order for us to have a level of comfort about the about what's being reported to us. And okay, I've

127got two people. Go ahead. >> No, I I just want to make a comment back to the the statement about I took items off the agenda. I didn't take items off the agenda. If you want it if you want those uh treasures report spoken to. All I all I asked a question of legal as to how I thought we should vote on the treasures report. How they came off the agenda is not up to me. That's up to the chair. >> Up to us collectively is important. But I agree with what you did. I agree. >> If you want them pres I mean if you want them started they should be >> we agree. My point being is that we can't cherrypick pieces from a pile of paper that's in front of you that we

128all agree when we it was taken off the agenda. We all agree that it needs a thorough vetting and a thorough read through before it's voted. I agree with you. But we can't take that same information and cherrypick and throw it in front of it to make your point. We have to be consistent. And I think that's one thing that we all agree on that there was no consistency out of that business office and that going forward we need it >> that we need to have regular numbers, regular timing, regular reports. >> I didn't cherrypick. I've been working on this for weeks from the moment we were told about this >> for weeks. I've been working on this. Trusty Ross. >> Okay. >> Mike, can I understand the $2.4 million transfer? It's my understanding that

129those were in similar to the first transfer that they were for mandated services. >> Is that accurate? [clears throat] It >> is accurate. Thank you. If >> you look at the June 11th resolution, June, I actually have it here. It's um an increase of $700,000 to uh health insurance, an increase of $950,000 for Bosey's related special education services, and $800,000 for unanticipated expenditure related to contract transportation, which >> which is directly related to transporting the special ed students to their buildings. So, they were all mandated services that we had to do, which is why we were permitted to take the money out of reserves. >> Thank you. So to just >> I just want to clarify that point >> and to clarify that that was an appropriate use of the reserves for those >> appropriate

130mandated by right >> and but the flaw is that um the dots were not connected for the board with regard to what impact this would be having and going forward. It's my expectation that those dots are going to be connected so that we don't need um so that we are able to um not only understand what is going on but to understand the implications of it going forward because as you've pointed out these material weaknesses have put us into a a situation this year that creates some major challenges in terms of keeping expenditures for this year down, not to mention how it will impact the budgeting planning for next year. So, I think we're going to thank you [laughter] >> and um >> look forward look forward to hearing from you again. [cough] >> At

131least we didn't throw anything at you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thanks a lot. >> If I just make a quick comment, I appreciate what Professor Pacini mentioned in terms of, you know, as a superintendent, you can't separate yourself from this. And so, this is something that like I take really seriously. You know, hindsight's an amazing thing. You know, we've been since I found out about this, the date specifically is August 29th. Um, you know, you go back and you try to find times at which we should have been alerted or perhaps been more aware. You know, I think the fact that we went through years, two years of having no material weaknesses in our in our audits, um to Patini's point, a budget surplus that at one point it was

132$17 million. Um it was hard to sort of predict this happening and the assurances that we received from administrators on my team that the criser funds or the federal funds were accounted for. So certainly in the short time I've been with Mr. Bel Dante, you know, we've had a lot of deep conversations about the type of reporting that needs to happen. I do also want to recommend that, you know, we all engage in refresher and financial oversight uh for the trustees and I want to be included in that as well so I can better monitor this and better know what questions to ask, what to look for so that we never find ourselves in a situation again. >> Yeah. I would add to that that one of the most critical things when it comes to

133the budget preparation, again we're not involved in that process, but it's literally you have to work with many departments. You have to get good information and you have to vet that information and challenge that information to make sure that the budget is accurate so that you properly reflect that. So I think you know that is one of the challenges. Um and you know that's why I I have faith in John uh based on his experience that you'll get that information and you'll get good information with respect to budget. >> Okay. So, thank you again for just >> can I say a few words in the spirit of communication and just kind of I guess I should stand um and just kind of bring the board up to speed as to what we've been doing and

134where we are and what we can uh expect going forward >> and and then can I say >> um and really get input from the board. Uh we we've identified a lot of things here and Um, the board should know that over the last several weeks, we put a lot of internal controls in place uh in that business office that have never been put in place before. Um, the board is going to see reports that will reflect our current obligations. You're going to see reports where incumbrances are done on salaries where they have never been done that way. um we're going to be able to monitor this budget in a contemporaneous [clears throat] way. Um more importantly, I hear a lot of um things from the board about many issues. Um, I want to assure

135the board that when I'm here, anytime there's going to be an increase or a resolution brought to the board that we need to take money from reserves, we will have a conversation prior to that. The board will know that it will be on the agenda. Um I can share with the board that we will have a resolution coming shortly to appropriate additional funds to the 2526 budget in the area of workers compensation. So that will be coming. And the other thing that I really want to talk to the board about is the treasur's report. Um you have a very comprehensive packet there. We know it's 50 some odd pages. Does the board have any interest if we break that packet down to be better understandably um what we have done in other districts we take

136that packet and we may put the treasurer's reports and the bank statement separate [clears throat] we then might take all the revenue reports and put that separate in a separate resolution and all the appropriation reports and this way it's easier to talk about the report in sections than trying to digest a 55page report. I just throw that out there. Whatever the board would like, we can >> certainly >> I think I can speak for the board on this one because your question was would the board have any objection to doing something that makes more clarity in this issue? This board would have no objection to improving clarity. So, um that would be beneficial, I think. >> Yes. >> And I see all the nods. So, we've got consensus on that one. >> As far as

137um timing, just to let the board know, uh we did bring up uh the June, July, August reports, as you know, um we will have at the next meeting September and October and the board will be up to date. And um one thing that we talked about at the last meeting, those appropriation status reports will not have any negatives, you know, um and if we do have a problem, we'll be back to the board talking about it. So the budget is currently being managed on a contemporaneous basis and I just want the board to uh feel comfortable with that. And to follow up on that, with regard to the outstanding treasures reports, we're going to be consulting with council about uh whether this is a situation where it can just be presented to us and

138we acknowledge [clears throat] we received it or whether it needs to stay the way it is where we're accepting a report. It's like we're approving it. But we'll get further advice from council on that one. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. No further questions. >> Thank you so much. >> Bye, Mike. >> Okay. All right. >> All right. We're down to F2 >> and three. They're both first readings. >> Yeah. So, our policy advisory committee's been hard at work uh revising our policies to make sure they're contemporary and aligned with NISBA recommendations. We presenting two of such policies tonight. One is the authorized use of district zone materials and equipment and the other has to do with harassment building prevention and intervention. Um like I said, this has been discussed with our committee and

139revisions have been made. So, I welcome the board to read through them. Uh we don't need to take any action tonight. the actions taken by the second reading. >> Okay. So the next item you have is F4 conferences and events. >> Yes. This was asked to be put on the agenda by Trusty. >> Oh, actually this is me. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, I did attend the uh New York State School Board um association uh digital conference that was held in New York City, but I attended it at 25 South Country Road um digitally. It was uh 15 hours worth and at the board's request I am reimbursing the district the $250 that it costs to attend. Would you pass that to the clerk, please? I I need to um clarify. >> Go right ahead.

140>> The board did not say that you needed to reimburse a registration c the registration fee. >> Okay. That is not how I understood it. And I went back and looked through the actual video and I took a transcript of the verbatim discussion and I made a pledge that I would reimburse. So, I am reimbursing the district due to the fiscal crisis that we're under the $250 that it costs to attend and my check is written accordingly. Any other conference that I attend this year, I will pay for myself and that's just the way it's going to be. Anybody else who attends a conference, you're going to have to engage your moral compass to do what you want to do. That's up to you. I'm not going to pass judgment. You have to do what

141you have to do. Accordingly, I was approved. I was previously approved before that discussion uh that Madame Chair is uh is mentioning. I was approved to attend um a national conference in Washington DC uh for the National School Board Association uh in Washington DC and that cost was $740. I only asked for the registration at the time. I was paying for the hotel and travel myself. I have since decided not to go to that conference. So, I'm just advising the board and the district I will not be going to that conference. I am rescending um my request to go and I have notified the district clerk to not register me for that conference. So, there'll be no registration, there'll be no reimbursement. I will not be attending. However, since then I have asked to attend

142which is free of charge the Eastern Suffach Bosey's um board member breakfast which is this Saturday um and there is no charge for that. So I will be attending that and I have also asked to attend the Longwood Regional Legislative Breakfast which is February 7th there. That is also no charge. So I will be attending that and I have also asked to attend the scope educational services women in leadership conference on January 9th and 10th at East Winds. There is overnight expenses but it is so close I am not going to do that. So the cost is $485. I don't know if you want the district to lay out the money or if you just want me to lay out the money since I'm going to pay for it myself. How do we want to

143handle that? >> Well, let me just clarify what you said that basically it because of your feelings. >> Yeah. >> Of obligation. >> But I want it known I'm attending on behalf of the district. That's the reason I'm going to be there and I will bring the educational content back to the district. So I'm not just going on behalf of Cheryl Feliz. I'm going on behalf of the district. >> Well, it's my understanding that the only approvals that need to be given by the board is if expenditures [clears throat] are going to be incurred by the district. And since you're saying not to procedurally, I don't know if we have to do anything right now. >> Okay. We had a discussion because of the fiscal crisis that board members should we asking the district not

144to go to conferences. It was my understanding we asked the district to to cut out all conferences. Are are any conferences taking place at this point? >> Only ones that are grant funded, but not to my knowledge. >> Okay. So I thought we were responding in kind. >> Are we paying for any other conferences? >> I don't think we have I don't think we have any pending. >> So we weren't. We said if you want to go to a conference, you pay for yourself. >> Pay for yourself. >> I'm still confused as to why this is an agenda item. >> Yeah. >> I don't I don't get it. >> Because it because we got the notification through the district >> of what? >> The scope educational conference. >> So the only But like if you

145want to go just go. Well, because we got the notification through the district clerk and I was advised if I want to go notify the district clerk. So, I did and it was put on the agenda. >> You asked to put it on the agenda. Superintendent said, right? >> Because the instructions were if you want to attend, >> notify the district clerk. And so, it went on the agenda. >> Okay. So now I'm asking but I'm trying but I'm trying to narrow it down that basically you're planning to attend >> but there's not going to be any cost to the district >> and under our policies and procedures. The only thing we would have to approve is if >> the last time >> the district already paid for it and then we had a little

146then we had a procedural change. Well, it was a discussion. It was [clears throat] comments about trustees being careful that I'm attending on behalf of the district and I'll pay for it myself. >> So, thanks for letting us know that you're going to do that and um we now have let's see I think we're down to G. >> The administration recommends approval of curriculum items reflected in schedules G1 to G4. Okay. Is there a motion to approve item G1 through G4? >> I'll make a motion. >> Uh, Trustee Pacini, second by Trusty Velisetta. Questions or discussions? >> I just have a question that uh still looking to know you know the amounts that we're approving on GM1 and two if someday we're going to get those amounts >> in the update. So this is approval

147of taking the trip and the reason it has to be approved by the board is because it's out of state andor overnight. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. So all in favor of G1 through G4 unanimously approved. >> Madam President, I have a question. >> Yes. >> Were we supposed to vote to um accept the order? Is there any voting needed in that last section? >> Yes. I think we need to vote to um we have to accept that the audit report. >> Thank you. >> So [clears throat] there needs to be let's go back to F1. Um is there a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> A motion to approve item F1. Um Mr. Puchini. Second by >> [clears throat] >> um Miss Calderon. >> Yes. >> Okay. [laughter] All in favor moving forward.

148>> All in favor? It's unanimous. Thank you for catching that one. >> Um, >> all right. Now we're down to H. >> The administration recommends approval of personnel items located in items H1 through H6. >> Is there a motion to approve items H1 through H6? Uh, Trustee Dilo, second by Trustee Felicetta. All in favor? Again, that's unanimous. And now I >> I the administration recommends approval of business items reflected in schedules I1 through I5. >> Is there a motion to approve business items I1 through I5? Trustee Dilla, Trustee Felicetta, second. Um, any questions or discussions? >> Yes. On the um budget transfers, could the um assistant superintendent just speak to the um transfer about the summer school instruction? So, summer school, is this for last summer school or upcoming summer school? This was the last

149summer school. >> The last summer school. So, was was everyone paid >> or this is everyone was paid? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, there's no problem. They won't pay. Okay. >> And wait, just there's one more. >> More questions? >> Yes. One more question. >> Um, there was one to cover a salary that wasn't in the budget. That is correct. >> But again, they were paid it just so now we just now they're in the budget, but they were >> right. We had to move the appropriation to cover the salary. >> Okay. And that was just an oversight on behalf of the previous administrator. >> I would imagine >> we don't know. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All in favor of approving items I one through I5. >> Oh, I Okay, we'll approve it, but then

150I want to make a comment. >> This was unanimously approved. >> Okay, we also just approved um Are you going to make a comment on it? >> Yeah. >> I know where Trusty Fiz is going with this, but I really want to thank the South Country Education Foundation >> for their generosity. uh we'll have a formal acknowledgement of the grants that we approved tonight at next at our next board meeting. >> Okay. >> Cuz I know that um representatives usually like to come. >> That is correct. >> And and um >> I I save the recognition until obviously after the board approves. >> Okay. Okay. >> Thank you for that public commentary. We have one card. Um >> and it's Kareem. >> [clears throat] >> Um, I was just, you know, now that we've heard

151from the auditor, it seems like the board got this last week. Um, and it seems like there's still some confusion. The budget that was approved by the taxpayers, uh, for 2425, so last year assumed that we'd be using 4.25 million of reserves. Now we're using $16 million of reserves. I'm just asking. I know two and a half million was the capital vote, 2.4 million was the, you know, that the additional healthc care, transportation, special ed discussion. Uh, but how do can someone just walk me through like how do we get to 16 million? >> And I should add that two weeks ago I asked this question on the board's website um where you input questions. So, this shouldn't be a surprise to the board. >> Okay. Yeah, we're going to be posting response and updating

152the FAQ um as well um also with some questions based on our financial audit. So, we just went waiting for the audit to be presented >> and the answer to your questions will be posted. >> No. >> So, >> and um so that his questions will be included in the revised FAQ. >> Absolutely. >> But I think there's questions from the board about this too. I mean, this is getting at the crux of what people have been talking about. No one here can go through and say we went from 4 to 16 uh for a budget that we approved, you know, in May of right May of 2024. Um and we this is six five plus months after that year is finished. Like we should be able to talk about this by now, right? You

153guys had this last week. >> Okay. Well, just remember that when I made the introduction to public commentary that it's for you to make a statement, for us to listen, but not to have an exchange. So, we've already gone beyond that. >> I'm not asking for an exchange. I asked a simple question. >> Chris Ross asked that question which you asked that uh and I assume that was what you were getting at. Um, this is not and you know, again, we're talking about transparency constantly. I foiled data that was supposed to be given to the state on October 15th. It's November 12th. I still didn't get it. Doesn't feel transparent. Um, we have to build trust with taxpayers and parents. Uh, after, you know, last May was a a disaster. Um, and it only got

154worse. I had a parent tell me that after last board meeting, they cried because they know what's going to happen to our district. we need to refer you to the administrator who will be able to help you >> answer that question. Um, and if you've got any further comments within your three minute section, >> I think the board should be able to ask this question, answer this question. >> This is not an opportunity for you to ask questions of the board. It's to make a statement. >> Okay, another statement. I mean, we were told just in April by Superintendent Santana that last year's budget, quote, "Every line was combed through and the district quote spared no expenses in looking at every expenditure, looked at every contract, every consultant before we looked at staffing cuts." Turns

155out that wasn't true, or if it was done, it wasn't done in a way that was understood by administration. So I I would like to see a corrective action plan that addresses the lack of um oversight when we are talking about you know going through every line, every expense, every contract. You know people lost their jobs, dozens of educators, 50 something full-time employees. >> That's not accurate. >> What do teachers and teachers 23 >> 10 people were laid off? >> Total of 10 people were laid off last year. And I'm not minimizing the number >> positions cut. Positions cut. >> You just said 51 people lost their jobs and that's inaccurate and that's what you do. You make comments like that that confuse the public. >> I don't want the problem. You're talking to me

156about a problem. >> Yes, I am. >> Oh my gosh. >> All right. We're not going to set a precedent here. >> Yeah. >> Of >> you are on the board. You don't even know how many what federal funds we were getting for the last three years. >> I absolutely do. >> It's terrifying. You were just asked the question. You're not. >> Why do you think I asked that question? You think I asked it because I didn't know it? >> You clearly don't. >> So, wait. So, so Dr. Og what? So, when somebody walks into your office and they get a medical test, >> do you just tell them they have cancer right there or do you wait and go, you know what? I should look at a few things. >> You jump to more

157You jump to more conclusions. >> Yeah. And you know that the second they walk in your office, right? >> No. No. Look, we're talking about five months ago, guys. Time is up. >> Time is up. >> And this is not an example of how our public commentary works or will work in the future. It's not happening. Closing remarks none. >> I make a motion to adjurnn. >> Okay. Second by Trusty Calderon. up. All in favor? Thank you.