001meeting. I'll ask you all to please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Miss police, would you lead us in the pledge? I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Just a few reminders. the the emergency exit locations in the back of the room and to my right, your left. In the event of an emergency, please leave in an orderly fashion through these exits. This is a smokes free uh smokefree school district. Smoking is not permitted on the building anywhere. I'm sorry, it's not a smoke free and a vape free school district. That's missing. Smoking and vaping is not permitted in the building or anywhere on school grounds. This
002is a hateree and a bullyfree school district. Moving on to um item C. I apologize approval of board consent items reflected in schedule C1 through C5. C1 through five. Can I have a motion? Miss Feliz, seconded by Miss Kavanagh. Um, I just have one quick question for the item five, the new school board member dinner. Is that in anticipation or we spoke to all three trustee elects in there? That's in anticipation. In anticipation. So, okay, great. And I have a question on the treasures report. Can I just ask a few questions on the treasures report? Should I direct them to you? Yes. Okay. All right. So on um page 17, page 17 um it's uh item number A21 2110 131 where it says it shows again. I'm sorry. Uh page 17. It's the number 17.
003The handwritten 17. Oh, okay. Handwritten 17. Yeah. Handwritten 17, which is 18. Should be 18 on the board doc slide. Can I have that number again? The one number. Yeah. Yeah. Hold on. So, it would be a 2110 131 D-00 salary teachers home. Okay. Right. So, it's showing a negative balance of uh of 48,000. Does that mean we overdrive that line? Yes. Okay. So what you know where are we going to or are we overdrawn or we are we're not overdrawn. So this mean these are budgetary numbers not doesn't represent money in our general fund. So we had budgeted for $120,000. Those are all the kids who are in home instruction due to various reasons medical long-term suspensions. So we just had an increase in that this year. So it shows that we budgeted $120,000
004for that line but we expended 168,000 so far. So what so what do we do to refund that line if it's overdrawn by 48,000 do balance transfers? We do. So when do we So we're going to expect to see a budget transfer. Yeah, there'll be a budget subsequent because this is the March, correct? So we should we we did we see it already or we're going to see it? I'm not sure. We will see it. All right. All right. So then the same thing happened in uh next page 18. with teachers aids on 164-5. Same thing happened in that line. Actually, there's no budget for that line, but we expended $8,000, but we encumbered um $11,000 and now we have Yeah, that could just be like a I'll find out. I'll put it in the
005update. That could just be sort of a correction. Would you do that? Thank you. 164 trying, you know, trying to get a handle on you, you know, because this is this is the year that we had this this overrun. So trying to get it a handle on where this overrun came from. Well, I don't know that it's an overrun. Basically, these are just budgetary numbers. Remember, budget's a tool. Doesn't represent real numbers. Well, this the you know, we keep being told that this that this the overrun cost overrun came out of nowhere. It ca had to come out of somewhere. No, we know where it came from. The cost came from our transportation costs, our health insurance costs, increased special education costs, and a decrease in in state aid all working sort of in tandem.
006All right. But we still have to look at these numbers too as to try to plug that that gap. So, um, another line we have here on you also said that you had put like a freeze on textbooks. Correct. That's for next year. For next year, not even even this year. Didn't you put a stop on purchasing? We stop purchasing in February unless there's things that come up. There are emergency situations, but typically this year, we typically stop our purchasing around March. Okay. And so everything needs to be encumbered by then. Um because um there are exceptions of course like graduation costs and things that come up, but we stopped the purchasing in February unless there was some sort of a need. So then that would make sense for this because this is this is
007March uh the March um treasures. Which number are you looking at? Okay. So next page 19. So, we're talking about textbooks for high school. Um, line A 2110 4 uh 80-07. So, we have a budgeted line of 61,935. We expense. Which Which line are you looking at? I'm sorry. That's okay. It's about a third of the way down. Textbooks high school 2110480-07. Yeah, that's the line I'm looking at. 2110480. So we So that line in particular, we budgeted 61,93035 and we spent $39,481. So we still have 20 $22,000 left in that line. But did we stop spending for this year across the board? The the direction to all of our administrators was to stop adding new purchases after. So, does that line does that $22,000 remain available? So, again, these are budget numbers, not general
008fund numbers. So, that budget line is still available. And I think you're confusing next year as opposed to this year, right? What was that? I think you're confusing next year's budget as opposed to this year's budget. No, I know these are this year's numbers. Okay. Y um page 22. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Page 21. Handwritten page 21. And again, um it's like uh five six numbers down. It's going to be uh A2250 [Music] um.120-05. So salary Spanish speaking elementary special ed you're right never mind and that's salaries never mind okay so that just actually no let's go back to that so that's that's salaries so again we're showing that is but it's budgeted this is 05 so this is Kramer Street so we budgeted for that um what lot are you looking for uh 0
00905 22 2250 12 05 it's like seven or eight down so it's Kramer Street. So So what's budgeted for that line is 298,000 right? It's got a negative 142. It's got a negative 142. So if we budgeted for salaries for that line, we should know what the salaries are going to be for that line. Why are we showing that there's a negative balance? We should if we get new special students throughout the year, right? Yeah, absolutely. That was we also added So when do we adjust when do we adjust those lines? By the end of the year then that's what when we get an audit report all the stuff will be recorded. So as more students come in. So now so but we say we have a decline in enrollment but now we're saying we
010have more students come in. So we have to add so it cost more special ed students. More special ed students. Correct. Okay. So when do we make those budget adjustments to account for the budget from last year? the budget from last year is static and so we make but so the transfers so when for accounting purposes you want to make sure everything gets squared away some of these things may stay a negative number it just means that we underbudgeted for those um specific lines where you see a negative again the negative doesn't represent like how do I say it like negative bank balance from an accounting perspective you need to know where you were to where you're going is are you answering me or is the I can if you'd like okay is should I
011be asking Joe the questions I think everybody can any of the trustees can comment, but the answer is basically this is an accounting tool. So if you budget $100 for something that ultimately cost you $120, you underbudget it by $20. So accounting words, this is what kind of guides us when we um sort of draft a budget for the upcoming school year. So once a budget is adopted, then we look back and we look back at the prior year and you look through all these lines and you sort of make these adjustments. That's part of the accounting process. But again, these numbers don't with the actual um the expense stuff represents actual numbers. But again, these are just budget and there if it's encumbered, that money is not spent yet. It's just money that right
012because you know what's coming in. So you want to make sure you put that money aside because you know what the expenses are going to be. Understood. So let's go down. You'll see positive and negative numbers. Yes. All right. Let's go down to the to the last item on that page. Contracted services 2250 44 401 correct 00. So there we have uh budgeted a million 52 um 500,000. Um and yet we have available negative 277,000. that we have it available that basically means that whatever those contract services are which are districtwide to be both um those expenses increase. So our budget we underbudgeted for it uh but doesn't mean we don't have the money to pay for it. So where are we going to pull the money from? We have the money. We have this
013doesn't represent actual dollars, Cheryl. There's like this hold there's positive numbers on the sheet as well, right? So unless at the end when it rectifies as a negative, there's not an issue because we don't we don't approve the spending plan, we approve the dollar amount and you do it and we like all the time. There's no budget transfers on agenda as I recall. No, there's not not any today. No. All right. Okay, you'll see some of the numbers are positive pretty substantial amounts as well. So it's like um remember there's only one general fund and so these are all budget lines and the budget was established last year, right? If you remember that doesn't change what it is. The expenditures can change. That's right. Any other questions on the treasury report? Let me just check.
014I don't I don't believe so, but let me just check. All right. I think that was it. Okay, we have a motion and second. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimous. Moving on to item D, communications and announcements. Yes. A lot of sl a lot has happened in the last two weeks. All right. Fast. All right. Thank you. So, this is my superintendence report. Um, first and foremost, I want to first start by saying um I'm really appreciative of the community support passing our budget. This is sort of a a bittersweet sort of feeling because along with the budget we had, you know, substantial sort of uh staffing reductions that always sort of stings and I sort of feel for those people who are affected. But ultimately, we pass a budget that's going to be
015able to support our programs and continue the momentum that we've established over the last couple years. The budget prop included Proposition One, which is our proposed budget, use of our capital reserves to finally rectify our sort of deteriorating crack at the high school in addition to a couple boilers at the high school and some of the windows in the uh at the gym that have been leaking and damaging the gym floor at an expense to the school district. So, I just want to thank all the South Country voters, all the different organizations that helped us in in developing the budget, the board of trustees for their unwavering support even through this challenging times. I just want to appreciate the pressure that you may have felt from community members. It was a tough budget season. And
016I want to thank the South Country staff for their collaboration and making these decisions and helping move us forward. And of course, I want to thank Chris Flynn. I always give you a special shout out. I don't know what time you start during the budget vote, but I know it's before 7 a.m. and you're there to well after 10 o'clock. So, thank you for being so diligent in how you organize um and just manage the whole voting process. It's always a smooth process. So, thank you very much, Chris. Thank you. Um so, just to give you a sense of what the school budget pays for, we've got a lot going on in the last two weeks. First and foremost, I'm really like excited to announce that last year we got about seven graduates achieved a
017seal of literacy. That number went up to 40 students and they're achieving the seal in three languages, Spanish, French, and Italian or Italian I should say because none of the students did it in multiple languages as far as I know. Um but that's a potential too. So I really want to give a big shout out to Manica Tentuan and all of our world language teachers um Stephanie Murray also helped and um Mr. Puma, Miss Erica Del Rosa judge their presentations. But it's really cool to see these kids earn this additional accolade and our hope is to see that number grow in subsequent years. We also had a great couple of days of civic engagement in our Billport Middle School at Civ one. I want to special thank you for New York State Senator Dean Murray,
018legislator Dominic Thorne who presented to the kids and also sat for their presentations and their topics included after school activities, mental health, lateness of class, study center and electives. Um it was a great day of just watching students present. We actually had presentations in two languages. Some of the students presented in Spanish which is pretty cool. And I know the event was enjoyed by uh Trusty Pacin, Trusty Dillo who attended um and Trusty Barry as well. It was a great day of civic engagement. We didn't stop with one day with an additional day of civic presentations for our seventh graders. And I really want to give a big shout out and thank you to town supervisor Dan Panacle and town clerk Kevin Laval who attended and presented to the kids. you know, the students get
019a kick out of having actual elected officials speak to them. Um, and I want to thank Trusty Police, Trusty Hayes, and Trusty Lillo for attending on that particular day. Um, their topics included vaping, water quality, school lunch, which comes up every year, air conditioning, lateness class, a wait room, and turf fields for the middle school. So, really great. And again, I want to remind the board and the community that little over 90% of our students earn the seal of southern readiness as graduates. uh uh at graduation. It's a great accolade to all of our social studies teachers, Miss Beavenon specifically at the middle school and Dr. Blazic who was here for for being our connection to one of our political and physicists. We appreciate your efforts. Um and again, big shout out to the entire
020social studies and special education department because we did have NNL teachers who have worked with our special education students and English language learners. I also had the great pleasure of attending Live from Bport Saturday Night. The variety shows theme was Saturday Night Live, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary. It was really a great show. Certainly made me feel nostalgic when they did characters such as the Blues Brothers, the Cone Heads, King Tut. Um, it was just a fantastic night. We had solo performances, musical performances, comedy skits. I just thought it was really fantastic. So, big shout out to all the teachers and staff involved and the fantastic students who put on a wonderful show. Moving on, in terms of the performing arts, we had a great concert at Brook Haven. I was unable to attend
021the uh evening event because I had a very special event that I'll cover in a later slide. A big shout out to our music staff there. Not just that, we had our art show at Brook Haven. And I just love one of the biggest uh perks I have as a superintendent is that I get to see the growth of our students starting from third grade in this case and kindergarten. We talk about the fine arts and just the progress they make along the years to see them perform as third graders and then continue on all the way to 12th grade. Um I also attended Kramer Street concert that was last night and art show. Uh it was a lot of fun. The kids were on their recorders. Um they did some choreograph dancing, some solos.
022Big shout out to the music staff there and also attended their art show into the wild which is themed with animals which was a lot of fun and again I love to see the creativity not just from the students but the teachers who sort of inspire them to be creative and to put out such great work. Moving along the same lines went too fast. I attended the spring concert at uh for Frank P. Lawn. I'm almost always amazed at the sheer number of students who participate in these concerts. I mean, the pictures kind of capture it, but the amount of kids in our string orchestra and our band and our chorus is just remarkable. I do love that the music staff at Frank P. Long has students present the songs that they're singing with a
023little background and give us a little bit of education about the song selection. So, the kids did a great job narrating that. So, again, a shout out to the music staff at Frank Pong. And I attended the chamber concert at the middle school which is also fantastic featuring our South Korean singers, our chamber uh orchestra, our our clarinet choir and um that was also a fantastic event and the first time we started highlighting some of the middle school art was just equally impressive. I'll give the shout out at the end because it continues. I went to the first spring concert at the middle school which was um again ultra impressive. I feel like each year I watch these kids perform. get better and better and even in terms of like this first concert was all
024sixth graders again the sheer number of kids who are performing on that stage is remarkable to me and so I love the fact that we have such a robust uh music program in our schools um they did a fantastic job which almost outdone because they're all equally fantastic by the second spring concert featuring our seventh and eighth graders which again you know I love bragging about it but a big shout out to Angelina Wson and all of the music teachers and everybody involved in making these things happen. Um, one of the funny things about this concert is, um, our middle school sound system see need some little tinder loving care and at one point we were getting feedback for microphones. So, we actually had to uh sort of uh do a little duct tape remedy
025and that duct tape was our validictorian that literally kneel down and held a microphone in front of the stage for the entire performance. So, we're happy to see her come back to participate helping um volunteer with our music students in the virtual program. It was a lot of fun. I want to thank you very shout out for making it happen. Um we are going to be looking to update that analog uh soundboard so that we don't get the interference. But apparently every time a truck passes we get interference. We have to fix that. Um chamber concert at the high school again pretty uh pretty fantastic. um this um all these kids who perform in these groups do so after school. This is not part of their normal music curriculum during the day. That's why they
026have a separate concert. Again, so many of these students are achieving such amazing accolades. We have one student who was a junior who's going to be auditioning for Giuliard, which is really an amazing accomplishment. But these kids really are getting great accolades. Young adults, I should say, high school students as well, but offended by all the kids. Um and then there's no surprise that again South Cornfree was selected as the best uh communities for music education. So big shout out again to our music staff and Wson for all the fantastic stuff they do with our students. It really is uh remarkable to me. That's the performing arts part. We also have an amazing fine arts program and these are just a few of the images of all the artwork um I saw at our district-wide
027art presentation. I know some of them are small, but uh I'm going I must have taken over a hundred photographs because I was so impressed by the artwork on display. So much so that I separated on two different slides. On the left there you see the senior boards which is a collection of some of our seniors and the work they put together. And some of it is just like mindboggling to me. It's um so impressive. Um and they use all these different medium. So again, I'm not naming teachers specifically, but big shout out to all of our teachers, our art staff. Um, just like I tell music teachers, I don't know how you manage like 110 kids and get them to work in synchrony and you hear when kids are out of tune. Art teachers,
028I don't know how you manage kindergarten kids with paint and all this stuff. I remember I used to get frustrated with my own kids when they try to do arts and crafts. So, big shout out to all of our art teachers for producing such wonderful and inspirational work. Um, some of our uh South Country happenings happen outside of the school district or in school district. We had a Compass Unity parent uh workshop and discussion surrounding the uh detrimental adverse effects of marijuana. Uh this was hosted by Compass Unity, Miss Robinson, as well as a representative from the Suffach Department of Health and this tobacco action coalition. Trustee Patini joined me in this workshop which is uh pretty informative and I wish more parents would come out to sort of learn more about marijuana use because
029marijuana use and the marijuana that people have access to these days is not the marijuana of yester year have potential risks associated with it. So, we're going to continue working with Compass Unity, which is funded through a grant, which we were able to get for five years, uh, to continue our sort of drug awareness work, substance use awareness work. I also was interviewed by the newspaper club at Frank P. Law. It was a pretty intensive interview. So, it was a great I got a kick out of that. I love my interactions with students. I also attended the dual language kindergarten parent meeting. Again, we're happy to keep our dual language program intact despite our staff reductions and budget cuts. Um, it really is a great program. I benefited from the dual language program as a
030child as an English language learner, as a kindergarter, and I learned all my English in public school. So, I certainly someone who really is a big advocate. I also got to participate in the career day at Belfor Middle School. It's a group of very enthusiastic sixth graders who have all sorts of ambitions. So, it was great to get engaged in conversations with them about college and just planning for the future. and whe whether they're too young to really know exactly what they'll be doing as adults. It was great to engage in conversation and field questions. I also attended the Delpour Middle School spring flank for our sixth graders. I say we have a big rambunctious group of seven sixth graders. They were getting their groove on. It was a lot of fun. So, I was
031happy to join them for a few moments on that Friday night. And I finally got out to see some spring sports. Uh specifically lacrosse game and a softball game. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon. I was so glad I was able to get out of the office finally and enjoy some sports with Trusty Barry, Trusty Dillo, and the rest of the crew there. Um, it really was an amazing uh afternoon. I just want to give a bout shout out to Warren. I know you've been playing lacrosse, but to all of our spring athletes for again a great season that somehow quickly is coming to an end. Outside of the school district, I got to go to the annual South Country Ambulance Officer induction uh ceremony along with trusty police. Um, really great event. A lot
032of notable people were there. So, I was glad for the invitation and I really appreciated of the ambulance company's support, not just in terms of responding to uh emergencies, but in terms of the professional development they gave. Uh they did a stop the bleed training for our staff, do CPR training for our staff. So, I just want to give a shout out to the ambulance company. Um, I also got to attend the New York State Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendent annual conference, which is a highlight, which is also important because basically what we do is we try to advocate to serve all students. Um, but it was great to meet um with uh Commissioner Betty Rosa, uh, New York State Superintendent of the Year, Ray Sanchez. We got to meet an author, Juan Bordes,
033who did a great keynote address, which is really energetic. But really the highlight, the man at the bottom, he's a former assembly man and councilman from New York City, Diego Molinares. He's also the president of the Higher Education Services Corporation for New York State. He helps kids u pay for college. Um but um when he was a councilman, he met my mother and he was like my mom's favorite politician. So I'm not endorsing he's not in politics anymore. Um but when I showed her the picture even at 84 years old, she got teeyed and she said, "Oh my god, he's such a wonderful man." She worked for an organization that he ran uh years ago. So I was glad to touch base with him and kind of give him that feedback of how he impacted
034my mother, which is really nice. And the reason I missed the Brook Haven concert was got I got the honor to um attend the our community salutes event. This is where um we commemorate all students who enlist in the military upon graduation. For Billport High School, we uh acknowledge two kids. Uh Luis Satalichi, he's going to be joining the army right after graduation. and Gail Cortez who will be a Marine. So I wanted to give him a big shout out. And the highlight of the evening is one of the speakers is always rear Quinn. He's the class of 1978. So to speak to him and get his perspective how things change in Bport and have him speak to our current student uh is amazing. But it's such a wonderful and patriotic event that uh you
035leave there just really good. And I want to thank uh Trusty Pacini for joining me for that event. We also engaged, several of us engaged in uh in support of mental health awareness week um where we want to stop the stigma on mental health and and make sure we educate kids to sort of talk about how they're feeling not just in terms for their own benefit but for the benefit of their peers. So, Principal Clark accepted a ice bucket challenge um where he had a bucket of ice water dunked over his head and so he challenged me to the challenge. So, I had to one up him. I got two gallons or two buckets of ice water dumped on me in a full suit and but I was outdumped by Jackie who did it in
036her full dress heels. Um sorry I had to include you in this one and she did this and she had students dump the water over her which is uh proposition. So um but she was a great sport and um yeah so it's um I just want to thank all the staff members. I know several teachers engaged in the ice bucket challenge students. It really was a a feel-good sort of uh sort of activity that um spreads awareness about something really important. And if you're interested in all that stuff, again, follow us on social media. When I first started a couple years ago, we really had a very little social media presence. Now, all of our buildings, different departments have a pretty robust social media presence, advertising, all the great things we're doing as a school
037district. And again, that's a credit, sorry, to all of our teachers and staff who really make u the learning experience here in South Country so special. Again, if you want to be keep in touch, we have a community portal that community members can subscribe to. Um, all of our social media links that I mentioned can be found on this link as well as my superintendent corner which is updated on a monthly basis. Access to my contact information, my social media handles as well as my weekly update that gets published every Friday. And I'm really happy to announce that this antiquated uh looking website is no more. Uh we'll be launching our new website on July 1st. So really excited about our new website. It's going to be fabulous, user friendly, and I'm excited to sort
038of launch that at the start of our new school year. That concludes my superintendent report. Thank you for your continued support. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to trustee advisory committee reports. I'll start with our student trustee, Mr. McGregor. Um so on May 1st, we had decision day, so everyone got to show off their college gear and where they were going. Um, on May 4th, outdoors club and student council, we had our beach cleanup at Smith's Point. So, we walked along the shore and picked up some garbage. Um, on May 7th, we had our 30 days to go ice cream social, which is really surprising. It this year went by really fast. Um, so we handed out a lot of cups of Italian races. Um, on June 7th, we have our white water rafting
039field trip. Um, so a lot of students are looking forward to that. Um, and for next year, we already started um looking for options for homecoming and what we're going to be doing for pep rally and the parade. And we are planning for freshman orientation, which this year is June 30th instead of in August. So, we're looking forward to that. Thank you. Awesome. Great stuff. And you didn't wear your own college decision sweatshirt here tonight, so that's I'm just miss. Thank you. Uh, first I want to just say congratulation again to our district clerk and the fine job she did with the election yesterday. Every year your team does outdoes itself from the year before. So congratulations on a job well done. Thank you. Um, just to echo some of the comments that the superintendent
040made. Um, civic day was again uh another wonderful job. Always always happy to be at Civic Day and and happy that the elected officials responding kind to our students. They do really love when they when they appear. Uh the variety show was as what uh what it was built to be. It was really really wonderful this year. Got to attend the um um uh Brook Haven Elementary School concert, the third grade concert again, which was also wonderful. Um Compass Unity was able to attend that. I had to leave a little bit early, but I was able to attend that awareness um workshop, too. Uh you know, very important the work that Compass Unity does. So happy to be there. uh attempted to go to uh lacrosse senior day. So I got to see all your
041posters and got to watch you warm up. I got called away at home with having to pick up something so I couldn't stay for the game. But I said to uh that uh it was a very intense warmup uh and a very aggressive uh sport. So hats off to the to the young women that that play that sport and I hope you had a wonderful day. And then also got to to attend uh the unity basketball at the same time. So, uh, also, uh, unity basketball was a was a wonderful event, too. So, those are the things I got to enjoy in the last couple of weeks. So, thank you. Good. Thank you, Mr. L. Um, just a couple things. Um, just want to give a shout out to the unified bowling season. U, Miss
042Rutder, Mr. Sadderly, and Miss Thompson are the coaches. It kind of gets overlooked. It's a kind of an in between season. It's fabulous to uh see the kids working together and how they cheer each other on. Um I can say my daughter uh she was partnered with one of the with a student who is about a foot taller than her and much stronger and he was so excited after he got a strike he almost knocked her down with a high five. Um, but it's just a wonderful uh a wonderful program that we have which leads into the unified basketball which is going on now. Um, I love the program. I think it's great. If you haven't been to a game, you should go. It is kindness to the max between these students um from the
043different schools. Just the way they interact with each other, it's fabulous. Um, I believe their next K home game is Thursday the 29th. So, if you have the opportunity, I would say go. Um, another shout out, uh, Frank P. Long had their fourth grade 24 game tournament. Um, if you have never tried the 24 game, it is very difficult. There used to be an app. It is. And you can play the game on your phone. I don't know if I think there still is. Yeah, it is insanely difficult. And to watch these kids in a matter of seconds look at a card and get the answer, it just blows me every blows my mind every time I see it. Uh thank you to Miss Na'vi and all the staff who make that possible. And also
044congratulations to the champions. That was fabulous experience. Um and a last note was I got to attend civics day at Brook Haven. So it's not just our secondary kids who are practicing civics. Um they did a whole presentation about uh healthy habits uh with their teachers and uh what was great about it is they made these posters that were displayed at the Boys and Girls Club. So they really did reach out into the neighborhood and um they worked with Brook Haven Library as well as Cornell Extension to learn about planting seeds and what vegetables work and and what doesn't. But it was just fabulous that civics has reached all the way down to our kindergarten students, not just secondary. That's it. Thank you, Miss Cameron. I don't have anything. Thank you, Miss Hayes. I enjoyed
045a lot of the activities that have already been talked about, civics day, the high school variety show, middle school chamber concert. And let me just comment on that. One thing I really liked about it is since it was a smaller number of kids in each group, they had them all present on stage or out front for the whole time. And you know, one group would do their pieces and then the other and then they'd go around again. And I liked that because I could watch all the kids watching their fellow students with what they were doing. So that was that was very good. I enjoyed the chamber concerts at the high school again. Um, art show and two concerts at the middle school. Um, the, um, I also appreciated the art show and the music
046that was provided yesterday during voting day. And I got a lot of comments from voters who went through about how impressed they were at the wealth of um talent that was shown both you know in the art and also enjoying the music. Um and again our clerk Chris Flynn made it all look effortless with regard to her organization and hard work. Um, I attended the middle school PTA as the liaison between the board and the middle school and they um are getting organized already for next year um finishing up all the things that they've done this year. They've been very active and they in particular on teacher appreciation week they went all out to let the teachers know how valued they are and um there was a lot of good feedback from that as well.
047I attended an equity committee meeting that had a special guest um who's the director of um equity for Boseies and he did like a presentation um and was very it was a very good presentation. and I'm glad I was there, but um our staff's already ahead of that and they could be teach, you know, doing the presentation themselves and I don't want it broadcasted to sound like I um I'm not appreciative of what Boseies is doing because I am very appreciative that they have that office now that can be a benefit to other schools. that are so far behind us. So, that was quite rewarding. Thank you, Mr. Barrett. I just wanted to say great job uh on the election. Very proud that the uh district approved the uh budget. I want to congratulate the
048candidates who were selected. Uh and um you know certainly the job is not done yet but uh you know certainly uh can appreciate the work that you guys uh and gal uh have in front of you uh for the future and next year. Uh which brings me to uh you know obviously all of the items that I attended uh that uh were certainly an enjoyment uh but amongst them uh was uh one of the uh things and it actually cost me a um a um attending uh one of my own child my own daughters uh event uh this year uh in which um uh I want to at least brag about while we're uh I've got the forum to do it uh is uh that uh she ended up with the 12th most strikeouts as
049a softball pitcher as a freshman at Bport uh in the county. Uh and uh in doing that uh um I I believe uh you know I know that uh she is uh more strikeouts than uh as a pitcher uh than anyone who is not a junior or senior in the county as well. So very proud of that as well. And um you know ultimately um you know excited about all the activities uh and uh very proud of uh the uh senior class uh as they round down their days uh here at Velport High School. So thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um I'll try to be short, but I don't think uh first and foremost I want to congratulate the superintendent on a successful budget. We all know it was a difficult budget year. Um the
050superintendent directs an incredible staff and you all know who you are and thank you for what you do uh from the administration. Everybody and staff that contributed to this effort deserves, you know, a lot of kudos. When you have a difficult year, sometimes that goes overlooked. Uh the budget passed by roughly 70% and that's keeps in line with where we've been the last couple years. So, and I and I thank the community for that. I also congratulate our three new trustees and and welcome them and look forward to working with them. As much as I'm sorry to see my friend Joe go, um, but I'm happy to be working with some some new people and look forward to having a full board of seven trustees again because we've been six for a while. So, it's
051it's it'll be nice to have seven again. Um, so so thank you. Um, I also have to commend the art staff and everybody goes into that art show. It is great. I I love to be able to get up there and spend a little time and, you know, run into some people and drag my daughter around with me. and we were there probably an hour longer than we had to be because we kept running into people that we haven't seen in a while. So, but it's a it's the point is it's a nice community event when people are coming out to be able to spend a little extra time over the school and see the incredible artwork and greet some uh community members. Um there's a list of things to I I I don't want
052to feed you off cuz I know we all said it, but Compass Unity event was great. Um I really appreciate Mr. Robinson's efforts. I I don't make it to those meetings a lot. That was probably my first one and I really thought it was a great topic on vaping and it was it was interesting to hear perspective of students and other people who are in it every day and some of the things that I see in young people that are in my life whether it's my kids or their friends mirror what's going on and and and and I see one of the biggest threats is is these vaping of the ecigarettes more so than marijuana or some of these other things and I I feel like it's an extension of of these energy drinks. I
053feel like they moved on. And when you talk to young people, and I work with a lot of young people, and if I asked I asked them a lot, you know, why are you doing this? And they all say gives me a jolt, wakes me up. So, it's like the new caffeine jolt that they used to get out of a out of an energy drink. So, uh I thought it was great work being done there. So, thank you for that. Civics day is always great. Thank you to our our legislators who show up and those that put that together. I know Miss Blazic's here. There is no greater um opportunity or privilege for a board member than to be able to directly converse with students uh especially in an advocacy role and especially at that
054age, right? We talk to high school kids all the time. We see them and stuff like that, but to to actually listen to them make a presentation and advocate for things that are important to them is really it's cool. I wish there were more opportunities to do it. Um I did have a uh national school board meeting last week. There are a couple of interesting things. first as our special guest was the new regent Felicia Thomas Williams. Um she didn't really say much. She was really there to observe and listen to um us talk. It was a perfect meeting for her to be at as we talked about budgets and and some things that have arisen through education over the la recent couple weeks and months. Um she seemed very intelligent. She was very studious,
055took a lot of notes, asked a lot of questions. She's a former administrator. I think she was a building principal in Brentwood for around 30 years. um was retired and coaxed out of retirement or she had a business I think but um very nice woman who pledged to stay involved with the NASA SuffK School Board Association. We've always had a nice um relationship with Roger Tillis but you know he's a busy guy. So um you know we only get him once twice a year this new region that promised to to really just be a little bit more accessible. So we're looking forward to that. Um and it is nice that that she's an educator. No disrespect to Mr. Tillis but he was an educator. um and he is still a trustee a region for another
056year. Um one of the statistics came out of my last meeting and I know it was shared news day by the director of NASA school board and I did think and I know the budget's over but it is worthy to talk about this statistic. 54 school districts on Long Island received 2% increase in state aid this year while receiving zero last year. So 2% over the course of two years. South Country falls in that category. During that same two years, inflation is up 7%. those and and I don't really bring that up to justify our budget as much as the epidemic that's happening in education. This is only going to get worse as as inflation rises and the tax levy if it's not adjusted, which isn't even on the radar. The issues that we're seeing
057now, and we saw a lot of districts lay off staff, um it is only going to get worse, it feels like, if something doesn't change. And I don't know what that's going to be. We'll have to see. Um next year, I think, is an election year for the governor. Is it next year? Yep. Um, that's always a good year for money, but you know, who knows what's going to happen after and how that's going to go. Um, there are proposed changes to DASA in Albany. I have a copy of the bill I gave to the superintendent. Um, I don't think it's anything major, but it does include uh board trustees and comments and policies, etc. that are discussed in schoolboard meetings can be subject to DASSA. Um, whether or not that passes or not, it
058doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of momentum for it. I don't think the changes are I mean nobody should be bullying if you at a board meeting anyway. The concern from some of the advocacy groups is what is interpreted as that. If there's a discussion about statistics on a specific, you know, um ethnic group or something like that, could that be taken out of context and could that create problems? Those were some of the things that were brought up. So, there's more to see on that. The other one, excuse me, there is a bill in Albany. Um I don't have the bill number. It does appear that there is a lot of support and that it will pass. It is sponsored by uh Senator Mata and it is co-sponsored by Senator White and it
059is um strictly for Long Island school districts and it is to um require school districts to enter into a project labor agreement with um with the construction unions. Construction unions do have a point in the fact that they lose a lot of work to outside to um companies out of state. I don't know what the numbers are. I don't know what the study is, but there's some big numbers being thrown about of lost wages for Long Islanders. It is it's an interesting um bill and discussion, and there's probably going to be a lot of talk on this over the next couple of months because number one, it's very difficult to enter into a labor agreement or or um labor negotiation with a group until you're really in the midst of the project, right? Um but
060there is some discussion and it's we'll wait for confirmation. If you have a project labor agreement, you are able to avoid the Wix law. And if you're not familiar with the Wix law, basically the Wix law means construction costs a lot more money in school districts. So I always use the example of the the fence at Vern Crest. A community member wanted to offered to put a fence around from the baseball league because we had so much vandalism with the dirt bikes. He said, "I can put a fence around this this property for $15,000." We obviously can't just do that because we used the the the service in Boseies and and because of the Wix law and we ended up paying I think $96,000 for the fence around Prince. So those are examples of how
061construction jobs at schools cost a lot more money. This may be a way to circumvent that and save money. So that's why it is worth paying attention to this especially as you know this board is going to need to start discussing bonds and capital work and things like that. So, um, I'm not an expert on this, but you will probably see a lot of discussion in News Day, the media, etc. Um, and then finally, I did attend our community salutes, and I mentioned that because that's an amazing event. I think it's 10 years old now. Um, there's probably not enough done in my opinion, and they characterize it. Uh, Mr. Beakio, the former uh, uh, president of Floyd and now the director of NASA public school board has been running this and founded this this
062chapter. And the quote of it is, you know, we're the first ones to say thank you. And it really is wonderful. And we always have a handful of students, although we only had a couple this year, right? Two. Two. We only had two. Potentially three. I think we had six last year or something like that. Um I know of another one who wasn't mentioned there. They weren't they were they're not officially signed up. I know who you're talking about. They didn't sign the dot. That's why cuz I asked that walking in why that person wasn't there and they're not officially signed. Um so um and we tried to get it in. they the high school tried to get it done in order for them to be eligible for this event and there is a cut
063off of a couple weeks before like May 1st or something like that because they order some stuff for them etc. But again if the super having a retired admiral from the US Navy who's a Belfer high school graduate who speaks every year is amazing. Um there's also somebody who speaks from time to time at this event. Uh his name is Steve Castleton. I think he is the civilian liaison to the secretary of the army and he is also the representative for the New York Jets to the military and he handled the our community the the military appreciation stuff. He's instrumental in that and it was really kind of a nice moment. There's a young man who's a junior at William Floyd School District who has been on that committee. You might know him Mr. Fleta.
064I don't know his name. He's been on the committee for 10 years. He's an 11th grader. He's just always been around. So they so Mr. Beckio brought him on to the committee. They presented him and his family with special tickets to the Jets game when they do our the uh military salutes and him and his family will be holding the flag on the field. So it was a really nice moment and there's just so much emotion there and it is so well supported by our local um politicians including legislator Lennon. Lennon Lennon Lennon Lennon who I I don't know where he's even from but he is Northore. He's a Northshore guy, right? Um he is I did not know is a is an active major in the reserves and he is he works with the
065Pentagon right somebody said he works at the Pentagon he is I don't really know exactly what he does but it was just interesting to hear his perspective he's a marine and it was really amazing that so with that I apologize for taking so much time I'm done and we'll move on I just ask a quick question about the NASA SuffK school board can we pay dues to them how do they afford to do what they do well they raised a lot of money they so especially in the last couple years since Mastercio took over there are um the we do pay dues. I don't know what they are. I don't remember exactly what it is. I think it's um I think every district on Long Island is a member other than like two or three.
066Okay. Um but one of the things they've done over the last couple years, a lot of the dinners have come down of course because of sponsorships. Okay. Um they Mr. figure has done an amazing job of pulling in especially um like if I think it was two years ago we held an event at the Cradle Aviation Museum and it was all on wind energy but more about manufacturing jobs and the manufacturing community is really doing a good job and the LAA is instrumental here as well in trying to connect with school districts to provide educational opportunities so that they can join a workforce immediately and when you talk about manufacturing jobs It's not like, you know, Bugs Bunny on the line banging the the bomb on the hammer. They're they're they're desk jobs. Like, you
067know, manufacturing now is is math, a lot of those things. So, they brought in a lot of the contractors from the the the wind farms that are being built. Um there's they're doing a lot a lot of great great work. Um I've been able to connect them with some other companies that I know a lot of the um networking companies do a lot of sponsorship for a lot of them are there and that helps fund a lot of a lot of what they do. Okay. So, let's go. Thank you. a lot of the uh they get a lot of sponsors. One thing I failed to mention about our community salutes is uh four of our seniors sang the NAP national anthem which is spectacular and oh they were amazing. The NASA SUFFK school boards association
068they have a joint dinner in January. That's a big deal. Superintendent and school boards attend along with vendors. It's kind of a big big event. So Billport or South Country was invited to be the musical performing uh district for that event next year as a result of these four seniors who sang. So I'm really excited to kind of showcase us on a on a broader which for all the years going to these meetings I'm like man how come we're never up there and I never asked so I'm glad that Mr. Beckio did ask and and invite us and it is great and I was like you know what I never want to ask you know but but it it is great and they were amazing and they wow the room and it's uh it's it's
069great. So anyway, okay moving on. Do we have any cards for No. Okay, moving on to items F. Am I wrong? No. Do you have the meeting schedule and then the Y um this is the first reading of the policy the policy. Well, let's start with item one, right? Take those individually. Yeah. Well, the second one isn't a vote, right? It's only the first reading. Correct. So, we're going to vote on item F1. Um I can take a motion and do that now. motion. Okay. So, uh you're making a motion. Yes. Um item F1, motion by Miss Philly, seconded by Miss Kavanaaugh. Any discussion? Yes. Discussion. So, um with respect to the the time um uh frame between the first meeting and the second meeting, July 1st and then August 13th. Are we planning a
070retreat between that time? U potentially. Yes. Well, we we discussed that at the reorg when we have the new trustees, right? Yeah. Okay. No, that that's okay. I'm just saying I mean that's six weeks between that's the format we've been doing. So basically there's a lull in the summer and July that affords an opportunity for cabinet people to take some much deserved time off um and then we really get heavy in August. So we have the reorg meeting July um it's a little earlier this year and then July we do a lot of the staffing work to prepare for that first August. I would just like to see us meet a little bit more than less because of again budget issues. Yeah. Yeah. So we won't be there more opportunities for us to meet. Yeah.
071So we number meet with cabinet. We don't have to meet with cabinet, you know, necessarily, but we have the same number of board meetings next year that we had this year. I'd like to see more. Okay. Well, I mean, I think if that's my only if the need arises for an additional meeting. I second your comment and I'm not going to be specific about when they should be, but I I feel like there have been things that we've needed to discuss and they just kind of get swept aside as things go on. So, yeah. So, I mean, if anybody like during the year if there's topics that come up, we have the option to add meetings, right? Uh, I thought so. Well, you need a quorum to add a meeting. So, we'll put those we'll
072put those thoughts down on paper. We'll make those requests. Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh, seeing uh, so there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? I have a a personal conflict. Uh, August 13th. If we could move that meeting like up a week, if that's possible. August 12th. August 12th. August 12th. It's a Tuesday. Oh, I I guess I have an old print. um the week that the one that's August 12th and I have I have the August 13th in front of me too. We moved it because the um dinner for the new trustees is on August 13th this year. The scope dinner which is normally on a Thursday was which is or they invite all new trustees was moved to the Wednesday. So to give an opportunity for the three new trustees, we
073moved it up a day to August um 12th from the 13th. So it should be listed as August 12th. It should be listed as August 12th, which it is. And then, um, we have another meeting on the 27th. So, we do have two. All right. I must have figured this out last week. Okay. So, all right. There's a there's a request to move the August meeting up a week. A week to what day? To whatever that Wednesday is. That would be the 6th. August 6th, if possible. Um, is there an objection from the administration? The only thing is we're doing a, you know, again, we're not going to have monumental staffing changes, but, you know, having it on the 12th just gives us a little bit more time to get people on the agenda that
074need to be approved for the school year. That' be my only comment. I have a real important reason not to be here the week of the six. Okay. Okay, that's fine. Then I can zoom. No, so let's leave it at the 12th. Okay. Any other discussion? Just a a question about Zoom. You still have the availability to Yes, you still have the ability to zoom. Absolutely. Yeah, that's the other option. You can attend by Zoom. So then we're going to leave it at the 12. We're going to leave it at the 12. Okay. Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Um and then the next one is the reading. So we are required to have an official policy regarding the the board exeicio. Um and so this
075is u we went over the policy with NISBA. So this is a recommended policy. I don't know if there's any uh discussion or um but this is a first reading because we would like to put it up for vote in our January uh sorry in our June 11th meeting. Any questions? My comment is I'm on that policy committee and I am so pleased at having this policy put up for this board as opposed to the sample that was given to us by New York State School Board Association. It's streamlined. It's to the point. It takes care of what we need to do legally now that we are required to have our student exeicia members. Um so I'm happy about this one and once again we're ahead of the game ahead of the game. That should
076be our motto. So it's a good point because when we talk about the NASA sub meetings there's only I think one maybe two districts that um that currently have an exicial member but and I um they're just a we're supposed to do it a little differently than we've been doing. So, we'll have to make some change like there's more provisions for the student trustee to get involved in conversations beyond just reporting what's happening and things like that. So, and I think the policy covers that, right? Yeah. And the um so part of the um update tomorrow is that there going to be a virtual meeting for ex official meet students for the upcoming school year that they're going to kind of go over. Who's hosting that? Uh NISVA, I believe. Wait, but they're hosting it
077for the student members or for members. Okay. But and when does that take place? In June. It's a later date. So, we're going to have who our exitial trust members going to be the policy as it's proposed first reading is it will be the president of the student council. And when do you know? Uh we should be knowing when the next few weeks. The next few weeks we'll definitely nice heated election. Yeah. Okay. Great. Okay. Moving on to item G. Did you vote on it? Yeah, we did. That was separate, right? Yeah, because that was the only one. Yeah. All right. G the administration recommends approval of curriculum items reflected in schedules G1 and G2. G1 and two. Can I have a motion? Mr. Lilo. Seconded by Mr. Barry. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those
078in favor? Opposed? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are you in favor? Yes, I am. Okay. Motion carries unanimous. um personnel. So we'll do one through nine and then one through eight and then 10 will be separate and I'm gonna take care of. So the administration recommends approval of personnel changes reflected in schedules H1 through H8. H1 through 8. Can I have a motion? Mr. L. Seconded by Miss Kavanagh. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimous. Okay. Moving on to item H10. Resolve. The board of education approves an employment agreement with Mr. Antonio Santana for services as superintendent of schools effective July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 and authorizes the board president to execute said agreement. Can I have a motion? Mr. Little seconded by Miss Kavanagh. Any discussion? I think
079I would just like to make the comment. Sure. So the um effect of this contract is to extend the existing contract for one year. Right? It changes only the end date of the contract. No other terms are changed. Correct. It it technically it's a new contract because we can't expect the one yet. I don't know if we get too technical, but yes. So it adds one year to the uh to the superintendent's contract. Any further discussion or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor opposed. Motion carries. Five, four, one against. Just want to thank the trustees for the support and I pledge my continued diligence and advocacy for this school district. It's very beloved to me. I have to do H9 which I omitted. So the administration recommends approval of personnel changes afflected in H9.
080H9 can have a motion. We missed it. We went one through. Sorry. Isn't that one through a consent? I said what I said the the original He said 1 through eight on the original um um motion. We both of us missed it. Should have been one through nine. One through eight, but nine is the consent. Nine is the consent. You're right. That's why I didn't objected to my should have listed my myself. All right. Sorry. Moving on to I is the last one. Okay. The administration recommends approval of business items reflected in I1 through I8. I pull up. Oh, we are. Okay. I 1 through eight. Can I have a motion? Mr. Little, seconded by Miss Kavanagh. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimous. The administration recommends approval of business items
081reflected in schedules I nine. I nine. Can I have a motion? Motion by Mr. Little, second by Miss Cavanaaugh. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? Motion carries. 541. Extension. Mr. Barry. Administration recommends approval of business items reflected in I 10 through I29. I 10 through 29. Can I have a motion? Mr. L. Second by Mr. Barry. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Motion carries unanimous. Um, no more card. No cards for non-aggenda. Correct. Any comments from board members? Closing remarks? No. Motion to adjurnn? Mr. Little seconded by Miss Kavanaaugh. All those in favor? Motion carries unanimous. Let everybody go next. Tied up at the end of first quarter.