BOE Public Hearing - 2026-2027 Budget / Regular Meeting - 5/5/2026

001to provide an opportunity for the transaction of business as authorized by the education law including the following items. Present to the voters a detailed statement of the amount of money which will be required for the 2026 2027 fiscal year. to discuss all the items here and after set forth to be voted upon by voting machine at the budget vote and the election to be held on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026 and to transact such other business as may properly come before the meeting pursuant to education law of the state of New York and acts a mandatory thereto. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance and please stay standing for [laughter] a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance Thank you. >> May I have your attention for a brief announcement? >> No. >> Upon fire alarm activation,

002immediate evacuation to the closest emergency exit is required. The emergency exits are located. Please exit away from the building so as not to interfere with the fire department and proceed to the evacuation areas. Please follow the school officials directions. And once assembled outside the building, everyone must wait until a school official gives an all clear before reentering the building. At this time, we're going to enter into our public hearings. First up is our watermill museum budget. >> [snorts] >> My name is Rachel. I am the director and manager at the museum. Um I'm going to need our presentation so I don't miss anything. Um um if you probably took a field trip to the water museum and hopefully you have a fond memory of that trip. Um, this is the first time our museum is

003on the school budget cast line and it's my first time speaking for this board. So, thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about our museum, its history, what we've been doing, and what we hope to accomplish in the future. I'd also like to acknowledge that our museum is honored to be in the company of so many wonderful institutions. We're fortunate to live in a community with so many resources available to all of our residents. The educators who come to our museum often talk about the importance of hands-on learning and how our space has so much to offer students of all ages. The original watermill was constructed in 1644 by Edward Howell who had initially traveled from England to Massachusetts and then was part of the group that made its way to conscience

004point in 1640. How's profession was to build and restore water powered grist mills and we know from our town records that upon his arrival he was asked to find a location to build a water powered mill that reserve the community. Howard was familiar with the geography of the new Bay Area and settled on Lake Miladana which is now more commonly referred to as Milond. Over the years the mill changed owners locations and functions. Originally used for milling porn and grain, the water here was also used to power a paper mill, a pulling, a fabric mill, and even to make ice cream thanks to the abundance of dairy farms and the shortlived ice harvesting business in the area. Our museum was formerly established in 1969 by the ladies auxiliary of watermelon who purchased the mill in

0051942. The daily functions of the water mill ended by the late 1800s and the auxiliary have been renting the building to use as a tea room and as a teaching facility in the New York school for the blind. Recognizing the historic significance of the water mill, the group made a commitment to restore the water powered wheel and create a museum whose mission would be to both preserve the building and educate the public about the history of the Hamlet. That mission continues with a board most of whom grew up in Watermill and a community that supports us as we tackle major capital improvements so that we can keep the mill running and the structure sound. The watermill is a historic landmark and is on the national registry and we take great pride in its preservation. The

006engineering behind using water to create energy dates back centuries and that technology is still used today. Our hamlet is unique in that we have both a water powered and wind powered source of energy and it's been and it's proven to be an important teaching tool, similar technology, different sources of power. Last year we started a partnership with the Bridgeampton Museum and the museum educator who has developed a school program comparing the BB windmill in Bridgeampton to the cor windmill and watermill in our hamlet. Being able to use our backyard to teach the science and engineering involved in harnessing a natural resource is pretty special. And we plan to continue expanding this program by developing a curriculum that can be brought into the classroom and on-site visits aren't possible. [snorts] A few examples of the programs

007that we hope to develop this year will be for grade four science and history. how energy is transferred from place to place and how communities use scientific ideas to protect Earth's resources. Students can investigate how turbines generate electricity and how early water melts influence local communities. Programs for high school students will focus on physical science with designing and evaluating devices that convert energy from one form to another. kinetic wind or water power is converted into the mechanical energy of spinning stones. There's also the study of the industrial revolution and how technological developments changed modes of production since water mills were the primary source for early textile and flower production. In addition to housing the water bill, the museum has a number of exhibits that illustrate the history of the area, including the changes in agriculture,

008the fishing and railing industry, and the impact of the railroad and the industrial revolution. We're continuing to experiment with some new dates and times for our children's programs which involve learning the history of the hamlet. Specifically, the connection between agriculture and the importance of the mill and providing a sustainable food source. We also have a gallery that features local artists. Being located on the banks of Neil Creek also provides for an abundance of teaching opportunities. We are in the process of revitating our wetland garden and have plans to convert part of our outdoor space into a teaching area for both students and adults. We will also be planting a sensory and pollinator garden in the upcoming months. The South Fork Natural History Museum will be working with us on a series of programs this season

009and the Center Sanctuary is one of our free lectures scheduled in January. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Blue Maron took up residency last year at the Wheel is back this summer. The museum is really a unique space that already offers a number of teaching opportunities with the potential for even more. Our hope is that the museum becomes part of a curriculum for more of the local teachers and institutions. And if we're fortunate enough to have the taxpayers approve our request for $125,000, we would be able to expand our programming, work with the museum educator, and continue to preserve this local treasure. The museum also has the opportunity to convert one of our additional buildings into a yearround teaching lab for students and adults. And we've also been working with other water borderland organizations

010on plans to construct an archive building within the hamlet that will be accessible to the public. We spent the last two years digitizing most of our archives and updating our collections database which will be available to the public through your Heritage. Submission to our museum and all of our programs is free and the additional funding would allow us to expand in ways that will hopefully bring all of you into the museum and be become part of your regular program. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you very much. Um, next we're going to hear from the Southampton History Museum. Park art center. >> I don't know. >> We have we have a presentation. Someone is running late, so we're going to skip to the history museum. Gotcha. Hi everybody. Uh, thank you for hosting um us all

011tonight. My name is Sarah Calf. I'm the executive director of the Southampton History Museum. We are proposition number seven. Um we're asking 290,000 which is zero increase from last year and 100% of this funding supports our mission based work um which is all engaged in local preservation and education activities. The museum was founded in 1898 and incorporated in 1910. It's one of the oldest local history organizations on Long Island. Our mission is to preserve and educate about Southampton's history and culture through our unique historic sites, archives, collections, and programs. And one thing that this funding helps us do is offer free admission to all four of our historic sites, all 14 of our historic buildings, all exhibitions, that's special and permanent exhibitions, and almost all of our public programs. Occasionally, we'll have a program like

012the one that's coming up Thursday with an artist that requires some materials and then we have a small fee for those programs. But almost all the programs we offer are free to the public. Um I wanted to highlight something we've been really focused on. Last year we went through a strategic planning um with the board and the staff which is the first one we've done for about five years. Um the museum was really hit hard by COVID and we're just now really coming through it. Um and I know a lot of you guys are probably in the same position. One thing this funding really helps the small uh nonprofits do is is make it through times like COVID. Um and so we uh worked on strategic planning with the board and our staff and our

013community members and we're focusing on strengthening connections in the community. And one way we did that last year was through our homeront tort exhibition. Did did anybody see him while it was at that hall? Um, so this exhibition featured 60 community members who served during World War II in some way, shape or form. Also some folks who were somehow touched by the war. Um, there was one survivor of a concentration camp, for instance, who ended up settling with his family in Southampton after the war. Um, it was just a tremendous way to connect with the stories of this community and the families of those who are still around and remember these folks. We felt it was really important to do this because it was 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Um, 80

014years is a long time. There's very few World War II veterans still with us. Um, but there's still a lot of families around. So this is a really important time to reach out to those folks and make connections. And so one thing that we did while we were uh doing this exhibit was document the stories of those folks um try to get photographs uh learn about where they came from, who their family is, where they are today, and then preserve those stories, make a record for our archives and for the community. um and then use those resources for education. So things like the exhibit as we were going, we were putting up new panels. And so we were doing that as we engaged with new community members and as we discovered new veterans and and

015other guests who had guys any else who had served and then that allows us to commemorate that service. Um so they're all connected. It's it's not just doing an exhibit because it's cool to do. It is cool to do. World War II is super super important part of our shared history really globally. Um but to connect it to the stories of individuals who serve from this community and all of those folks there up on the screen served in some way, it was incredibly meaningful. Um and we did a lot of programs that were uh connected to the exhibit. So we had lectures, we had u family activities like a basic training activity, um exhibition receptions, everything. Um I really want to point out that as you guys may have noticed, Rogers Mansion has been under

016construction, which is fantastic because we're getting some much needed repairs. But that meant this exhibit couldn't be at Rogers Mansion, which is our traditional special exhibit exhibition space. [laughter] Um, so we partnered with the village of Southampton and the villages commission on uh veterans patriotic events, which is the same committee that does the Fourth of July parade, you guys know. [laughter] Um, and this year is going to be really important Fourth of July parade because of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Um, and so we we've really built a fantastic relationship with the with the folks on the commission and um it's been two years uh because before the World War II exhibit, we did a World War I exhibit and we worked with the commission and also the folks from the Veterans

017of Foreign Wars. There's still a few of those folks still around who used to meet in the Veterans Hall uh and they still do, but the commission is also still there. And I just wanted to thank some folks who've been really important in this work together. Lisa Mc Williams, Susan Steinbe, Bob Frisnik, Bill Jones, Pa Fry. Um, and one amazing thing that came out of that exhibition work was the wall of distinction ceremony that uh was just held at the high school a few weeks ago. And I really want to thank Darren Phillips and pay a bride and Dr. Morurell. Thank you so much for your fantastic um introductory remarks. They were you you could tell you really looked at everyone and said something so meaningful and I know it meant a lot to the

018folks who were there, the families and the it was fantastic. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> So we Hello. Oh, hello. Sorry. Um, four of uh the soldiers who we had done panels about were graduates from the high school and had um killed in action during World War II and four of them were included in the wall of distinction. So, I want to thank you everybody in the school district for doing that. It meant a tremendous amount of those um fallen heroes. Two in particular had the gentleman on the right is the uncle of a man named Hines Wolves who was killed in World War II and the gentleman on the uh left is is Welops right Sanford. And them and their family had come uh Mr. Wopes came from California. He had

019moved from Cal from Southampton to California years ago, but he came back just to attend that ceremony. And to have that opportunity 80 years later is it's just amazing. And so th this is the kind of work that is so meaningful to a local history museum when we can find these stories that have been all but forgotten and bring them forward and connect them to people today and then be able to honor um the sacrifice of these these men who you know lived and went to school here and gave their lives to to this community. Uh, another amazing thing that happened, one of the four the soldiers who were honored is Warren Lutz. Uh, he was a pilot who crashed over Germany. >> He was killed in the plane crash, but uh, his remains and

020his dog tags, which are one of which is on the bottom right, uh, were sent back to sent back home after the war. The dog tag was hanging out at Veterans Hall in a box and we had found it while we were working with the commission trying to, you know, just look and see what was around and we found his dog type which is how we we identified him and we did research. We still haven't reached out to one of his descendants. So, we're hoping one day we we hear from them. But a thing that happened that was amazing was the three other medals, his purple heart, his air service medal, and a personal lord's prayer medal. Those were given to the museum by an anonymous donor who came forward, had heard about um our

021exhibition and had seen the story of Warren Lutz. We had it on our blog post and they found these things. They they have they're associated and so they were able to come to us and and give them uh as again to the museum. We have all of the medals together and so again document, preserve, commemorate, educate. >> This is a tremendous record of this community and the service it has given to to the country and the world. Um, and for anybody looking to do that kind of research, uh, please come to our archives and research center at Rogers Mansion. It's open year round by appointment. We have a huge archive, a lot of books and resources, a lot of local history books, a lot of special genealogy books. Everyone is always welcome. Please reach out

022to us and and come and do this work with us. This year we're gonna do uh an exhibition celebrating a guy named Stephen Ser. He was born too long ago to have gone to the school, but um he's he's from Flying Point. He ended up playing a really important role in the American Revolution in London and overseas. And he's probably the most unforgettable forgotten Revolutionary War hero from Southampton that you've ever heard of. Um, and so we're again we're trying to extend our work we did with World War II into all the wars and all the work uh we're doing at the museum trying to document, preserve, educate, and communicate stories from this community. And please come on Saturday to our heritage fair which is free uh for everyone. We're going to have the uh

023animals, the llamas, the sheep cheering. We're going to have a lot of historic trades and craft demonstrations. We're going to have a ton of reenactors from all periods of revolutionary war up to World War II. It should be a really fun day and I hope you can all join us. Thank you very much. Thank you. And next we would like to hear from the Parish Art Museum. Hello. Hello. >> Good afternoon. Uh my name is Monica Ramirez and I have the privilege and the honor. You can hear me well. >> I'm serving as a director of the Parish Art Museum. Uh this is my fifth summer because we have our our summers here. It's an absolute honor to be able to introduce the work that we do at the parish here. I want to acknowledge

024my my education colleague Nathan Malik. Can you stand up? Because if you have children in the Southampton school, they most likely have taken tours at the parish with Nathan and my colleague Lexi Robertson. [applause] So at the parish we we uh we serve about between 40,000 and 50,000 people every year. We have more than 120 public programs and more than 15 exhibitions every year. We have a public galleries, tours, uh film screenings, workshops for children, for families and adults. We have an exhibition that has been going on for about 75 years. Uh Nathan, the art the arts, um which is our great pride. Uh it's the art student exhibition. It has a longer tenure than many of the major museums in New York City. and a couple of museums actually followed that program when they

025created their own museums in in the city. Uh it serves 2,000 students and we like to say that there's 2,000 potential new artists coming into the pipeline of the parish uh because there's so much pride in in having their art shown from kindergarten to high school at the museum with an award ceremony. We also generally have the Bridgeampton high school students play the marimbas. It's a fantastic day. uh and it's a day where the museum actually reaches its its capacity. Um so we have we are delighted with that program and that serves the community. We're also very proud of our access parish program. It's a program that this year uh um celebrated its 10th anniversary 10 years serving folks living with disabilities from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's to cancer survivors to women living in the prison

026system. So, Access Parish serves uh 1,300 people and it also serves them several times during the year. There are some programs that are bi-weekly, there are some programs that are monthly. We used to have programs that were weekly, but we had to, you know, reduce that given some shortage in federal funding, but we're still going strong. And we also have free hands-on activities for people of all ages in the creativity lounge, in the lobby of the museum. going to the lobby in the museum, that cafe, the shop, and the outdoor sculptures are free for the public. And of course, you know, through through the tax living both, anyone living in the Southampton school district and also the Takahoo school district have free entrance to the parish. We also extended that free entrance to the folks,

027our colleagues in the Shinik Nation Territory, young young children under 15, uh, college students and art teachers. So, we're trying to expand more and more the amount of folks and spaces that they can come in for free. uh to the parish. We do great work I think and we want to be able to give that opportunity to as much as many people as possible. Uh so we've been around the region for 128 years. We are preparing for our 130th anniversary and uh we are the leading institution in accredited by the the American Alliance of Museums in a 50 mile radius. What is important at the parish beyond all our programs, exhibitions and workshops and education programs is that we are the main repository for the local culture for the local artists for the local history

028in terms of the arts. We are one of the biggest uh repository for American impressionists through the work of William Chase and also the abstract expressionists who are the most beloved artistic movement that America launched to the world. We are one of the biggest repositories and those for our local artists. So we carry that legacy with seriousness and with free work. Um your support actually helps us you do um steward that collection. So we do have in our museum collection more more than 4,000 objects and many of them are national treasures. So a lot of the tax money is also going into preserving, conserving and sometimes uh treating for conservation some of these masterpieces that I will talk in a little in a in a moment. And um you know we have some of the

029most important actually the history of art of the United States can be traced through the collection that we c that we have at the parish and so that's something that we make available through our exhibitions to to the local communities and to the nation as well. So for the tax lady vote, what does the local community have access to or how does the local community benefit? Um you know these are these are everyone all the groups that can come in for free at the parish and of course we hope that we can expand those pools and those communities every year and also serve them a little bit more in depth. So you know extend the breadth but also give them the the depth of of our offerings. Uh the benefits of the local residents are

030that they can come to the museum for free any time but they also have access to the exhibitions to curator le tours to artist le tours to the exhibition receptions uh select workshops. There are some family workshops and some workshops for children that we make sure that they're free for for the for the local community as well as musical concerts. And uh also very important is free enrollment to the after school classes and uh serious discounts also to our summer camps and sometimes even scholarships to our summer camps for students in this school district. Uh we have 48 school visits at least to the museum uh by most of the students but we also have life skill programs groups come and visit us at least once a month and also uh exhibition tours with students

031that request it. Uh we have some other programs that target specific communities. We have the art school program, a paid internship program for teenagers in the region to come to the museum every Monday and learn from from a different staff person kind of like the trade. So we're hoping to incentivize different pathways in our community and hopefully one of them will be in the arts. but they come once a a week and they meet with Lexi and she talks about finances and budgets or with Nathan he talks about education and creativity or marketing people or the curator. So hopefully showing them different pathways uh you know for them in the future. Uh and I'm delighted to say that this year the arts team program is actually going to do a visit into to close the

032the year in August. They're actually going to visit the house of one of the most important art collectors in the nation and they're opening their house and they're happy to tour the teens and their family. So all the all the kids are looking forward to that and we're very happy to be able to show how people can actually live with art and take it very seriously and hopefully invite them into a profession of the arts. We also have arts and collaboration with the Southampton's um high school and we also have events and awards with we also host the South Southampton prom which is fantastic. It's also one of my favorite events that it's funny because many people at the parish have family members in the prom and you know they they try to like stay

033away but we we all are checking out you know the family anyway. It's a lovely celebration and we're honored to host that every year. Um and we also have the Southampton arts honor arts honors induction program hosted at the museum and and I've always extended the parish for any sort of events that the school district needs. I mean we we love to have you guys. uh we have three family member and activ uh members and community programs. These are programs that we sometimes take offsite and so we also are keen on making sure that we bring some of the parish programs offsite. Uh like I said our annual annual student exhibition it's a huge blockbuster and uh that brings you know about 1400 people and growing to the museum and we represent 26 high schools

034to that event. We also are key on having several community days every year where where we do like an arts festival. We have hands-on activities and music and food and artists and uh we do several of those every year and uh in order to kind of like bring in the community and you know free of charge and and more like highlighting the the creative community in the region. We have um activations. So we bring we bring nationally renowned artists to do hands-on activities with with the children here in the community and have that exchange and we also connect with museum educators and do those and teaching artists uh during these events that family community day and the next one is coming on June 20 >> June 14th June 14th is our next community day and

035you're all invited uh we're celebrating 10 years of access parish this is a super important program. Many times it's actually invisible to the public. It takes place when the museum is closed. We need to create some environments for some folks living with disabilities and we need to control sometimes the sound, the light and and certainly kind of like the flow of people. These are our community partners. South Hampton, East Hampton, and Hampton Bay skill life. This is when some kids age out of the program that you guys offer in the high school. We are very happy to have them come to the museum at least once a month, take a tour, have a hands-on activity, sometimes eat a snack. Alzheimer's disease re resource center also works with us once a month. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital

036Center for Parkinson at least once a month. Alliance Foundation for Autism East and Special Players, Explore Explorers Club, the study group Southampton Hospital. We work with the cancer center with cancer survivors and also their caregivers and new hours for women and children that's inside the the prison system with some women um currently living there. So, these are a lot of very important programs that we do year round and that really serve these communities in depth at least once a month. We're committed to that and hopefully we can continue expanding these programs with a frequency as funding comes in. We want to be able to provide these programs more more frequently. This is a professional survey that we did with these folks that work with all the national museums. We wanted to know whether our access

037parish programs, you know, for folks with disabilities were successful or not. And so they gave us these kind of uh graphics where they're showing that a 100% of the programs have 100% success. Absolutely everyone that came to all our access parish programs felt in felt in a particular way before attending the program and they absolutely felt better all of them for all the programs after the after attending to one of these uh workshops. So we uh we know this is successful. This is a model. Actually, we received a grant to show these as a model to other small regional museums around the country, letting them know, you know, that there it really takes limited resources to be able to serve so many people with such depth. So, so we will be publishing this and making

038it more available. Our exhibitions uh span the local community, the local artists, the local history, and also kind of like the national artists that have been influenced by our region. We did a show like that last year with Sean's colleague who is an Irish artist that spent a month in Montalk and his whole career changed after spending a month in Montalk and having access to nature. This exhibition was very successful and it was visited by the Wall Street Journal as one of the 10 best exhibitions of 2025. So, but this exhibition was instrumental in really bridging the local the local uh environment with these national renowned artists. Uh that was last year. We're very proud of the series of programs exhibitions we did last year. This year is a very important year for us because

039we are doing five exhibitions. So we're dedicating the whole year at the parish to do five exhibitions that commemorate the United States 150th anniversary. The exhibition that we currently have right now is dedicated to the local environment. A lot of local artists looking at how our region was is very important in terms of agriculture in terms of its natural environment and all the artists are looking at historical ways in which the approach to nature and the environment has been about uh resilience, restoration, rehabilitation as opposed to other strategies of exploitation and domination of nature. So, a lot to learn from a lot of the artists currently on view and we're having a lot of visits from the schools and a lot of exchange with these artists that because they're not all they're available to us

040for talks and panels and sometimes for tours. Uh the exhibitions in the summer uh all the exhibitions are exploring the themes of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as stated in the uh the declaration of independence. So, the one that we have right now regeneration is about life. Uh the pursuit of happiness is going to be explored by two artists of color. One of them is sample figures who has tick ties in the sack harbor area with the local black communities and their histories there. The other one is a Latino artist called Tony Bada who was born in Puerto Rico but you know spend a lot of time in with a lot of the abstract artists here. So, those are the two shows that we're going to show how these communities through their through

041their own stories and their own narratives contribute to the fabric of the United States um as a whole to the whole country, but through the particular stories of their communities. In the fall, we're going to have a historical exhibition of the abstract expressionist movement with very important loans from national foundations that have found famous artists from the abstract expressionist movement. They found paintings that were done here in the island. So we're going to highlight that. And of course this is a international renown movement. So we're going to be very local that we call global but being very local at the same time. We have uh in the fall also our important collection of American impressionists. Some of these works were the first ones to give image to these ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit

042of happiness. Many of them actually cited here in our region. And that created kind of like the whole popular imaginary of what people understand our region is, but it's basically grounded a lot in the environment and in the life that the artist came to pursue. So that's our 250g anniversary. All of that playing out through this year. We will also have a handful of more sculptures outdoors. We're hoping to be able to install some more sculptures in in what we call the meadow. So we will be able to have about seven sculptures that we will be offering as a tour that might come and spend time for free outside in the meadow and explore a lot of these sculptures. Many of them we will also be linking back to life, liberty, and the pursuit of

043happiness. Um your vote makes all of this possible. We are proposition number six, but we want to uh do a shout out to our colleagues from proposition five, proposition seven, all the colleagues here in the room, the historical uh society, the I read Southampton Association, Southampton Art Center, the Southampton African-American Museum, and the Watermill Museum. without without the colleagues, without a network, a galaxy of strong people in the arts where we have colleagues, we have community, we would not be able to do the work that we do. So, we're very grateful for the for the colleagues and we hope uh your vote also supports not only the parish but the road as well. Art matters. We have a really deep and broad impact and I'm very grateful for the support that the education board gives

044us and I hope that we're doing good by by the resources that that you give us. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU SO MUCH. Next we will hear from the Southampton Youth Association. Good evening. My name is Andrea Nardi. I'm the executive director of the South Africans Association and thank you all for having me tonight and my partner here. Um, we are proposition number eight on the pallet this year. And I'd like to start this presentation by starting just always sharing the history of the Southampton Association. We were founded by Southampton High School students. It was the superintendent of Southampton at the time in Southampton High School students who said, "We need more recreation in our community. We need a safe space where children can be children." And from that our organization

045was born. Now most of our programming does not uh serve high school students anymore but we uh employ high school students and I'm very proud of the volunteer and employment opportunities that we provide for them. Um, right now we're serving over 400 students um, in the district and about 309 families across our programs. The majority um, just to share a little bit of the data, the majority of our about 70% elementary students. So that's prek to four and then we have about 20% middle school students. And in the past few years, we've gone down to Toddler and nursery and that makes up a little bit less than 10% of the students that we serve. We have a vibrant diverse community um ethnic diversity, socioeconomic backgrounds. Last year we were proud to give I have two

046devices here. Um about 23 partial or full scholarships for our summer camp program. So, it just goes to show that while there are a plethora of activities here in Hampton, SYA is committed to providing affordable and high quality opportunities for the kids here in our district. And with your support and the support of the organizations here, we have continued to be able to do that and improve the quality of our programming throughout the years as well. This year, we did 23 recreation programs and events. Um they ranged from summer camp which is our first program of the year that enrolls about 230 students each year. Um we have a volleyball clinic this year that was very popular. We've been trying to offer more enrichment opportunities. This year we were able to partner with the Rogers

047Memorial Library to offer a comic creators club. The kids created comic books. Um it was very artistic but also very grounded in literacy and because of the partnership with them we were able to offer that program for free. Um we also offer we offered chess this past summer for our prek kindergarten and first grade rising first grade campers and um we we offered our mania again again this year too that is not enrichment. It is just a lot of fun. It is about 80 to 100 kids um and that's another free event. So, we try to offer some free events during the year when we can. Um, and if it's not free, which most of it is not, but we try to make sure that it's like very, very important. Um, I will say when

048I first became executive director of the Southampton Youth Association, one of my personal goals was to make sure that we did not define recreation as sports. And so with the support of the Parish Art Museum, the History Museum, Rogers Memorial Library, we've been able to expand our programming to art programming, music programming, like I mentioned, the the comic creators club because recreation, sports is included in recreation, but there are so many other things that our children want to have exposure to. Um, we've done gardening with Amber Ways Farm. We we we have just been able to offer so much that I think gives kids the opportunity to try things in a safe space without entering the competition without the pressure just to be able to try it and then if they grow interest we are

049always happy and willing to connect the kids to more serious version of whatever that may be. But for SYA we stay grounded in the recreation. Um, we also believe strongly that it supports kids mental health and that if kids have outlets, recreational outlets, they actually perform better in school. Um, we hired about 40 students across the year. Um, high school students this past year. High school students in particular say they enjoy working for SYA because they're able to participate in sports and their programs and still do SYA. So we have some students who may work for us for the fall but then not for the winter because of their winter you know sports schedule it's too much or when they have a break they can come in and work for SYA but then go back

050to the commitments that they have at school and then in the summer we employ the students um as counselors and as junior counselors and head counselors for our summer camp program. So an investment in SYA is an investment in the youth in our community. Um it also supports um maintaining our equipment and then our investment in our team growth and development. So we are growing our team um we will have some exciting news coming um when our new year begins but we are working to grow our team so that we also have more capacity to do more fundraising um and can support our budget with fundraising as well as support. Um, I mentioned a little bit about this as well, but the partnerships over the past three years have just been really essential to us.

051When we weren't able to run our gymnastics program, Hampton Gymnastics East allowed us to bring our summer camp kids on Fridays to Hampton Gymnastics to get a taste of what that experience is. Um, to use the facility, to still have some opportunity to participate in gymnastics, and to gauge their interest. So, I just can't underscore like all of the folks in the room who support us. Fowlers who allows us to bring our kids to summer camp right now for the Parish after school program. Our kids go into the Parish Art Museum. They're able to view the art, understand the art, and then create their own versions of it. And I think creation is like the highest level of anything our kids can be doing. And so to be able to do that through everyone is

052is is um I think a benefit to our kids here. Um also I mean I I always share this but usually when people say I was an SYA kid, they don't share like oh I became an expert in black football or I loved SYA because that's where you know I became like a champion insert sport player. They talk about the relationships. They talk about the counselors that they had. They talked about the role models. They talked about um the directors at the camp that they build close relationships. They talk about it being their first experience as a camper within their first job and how it's impacted them in the future. And so we don't have tight data on this yet, but we have so many counselors who either went off to become teachers, social workers,

053or are in the field supporting children in some capacity. And we like, you know, in large part to some of the work that they were able to do with us with SYA, part of what's like underneath our mission is that with hiring so many young staff, it is workforce development. So there's learning happening on the job all of the time for the students who come to work with us. And we understand that responsibility and we don't take that lightly. And so it's it's one of if you want to work with SYA, you have to love to work with high schoolers as well as young children because the work that we're doing with them um is really impactful for their careers and lives. We are taking a new stance on social media. Um unapologetically, we will

054no longer be using children's faces to market our materials. We will not be using children for flyers. We will use Instagram to keep families updated about our programs. And similar to some of the pictures you see on the slide, you may see children in images, but not their faces. Um, SYA believes that part of our role is to protect children. We're in a world with a lot of unknowns right now about social media and the future of it. And so even for our counselors who are underage, we will not be requiring consent saying we have proprietary, you know, um, ownership of images in perpetuity. That will no longer be a part of our stance as an organization. So you may see it change and the way that we're posting, but we know that our families

055love pictures and they love seeing what their kids are doing. And so we are in the process right now of changing platforms to playgrounds. Um we're changing from campsite to playground. We've updated families about this today. It will be a slow transition through the month. Within the platform we will share images of children so that you can see your children doing fun things in our program. But on social media um we will not be sharing that anymore and happy to talk with families more about that. It was not a light decision. Um but excited to engage more into the conversation model. So um we also support high schoolers through a scholarship that we began in 2019. It is the Reverend Marvin Doa character and community scholarship. This scholarship is for students who are committed to

056higher education. So they have committed to college and they show they show a strong record in service. So that is really what this is for is to support students who want to be of service to their community in the way that Reverend Dojo was to his community. And you can't see that slide because I changed it on my computer and not the screen. Sorry about that. Um we are also part of the East Funding for Children with seven other organizations. Many of you know this now. We do fundraising with Cinderella. We are able to use the funds from that fundraising to support the growing scholarship. So it's amazing. It's a roundup at Cinderella that happens in the summer like through the beginning of September. And these organizations, we divide the funds and SYA primarily uses

057this money for scholarships. Again, we have so many partners and not just organizations, but individuals in the room and outside of the room who always support SYA, whether it's a silent, you know, gift for a kid for a scholarship for summer camp or connection to a program or a suggestion about a program, feedback. We are a community organization and we only work because of the support from you and the heavy support from the Southampton Public School District where we utilize the facility. We come into the space and by the way that is also very impactful for our kids. We have prek at summer camp so they are rising prek students so it is their first um exposure to the school that entrance to the school those classrooms it is not a full day but it's

0588 to 12 they get an an introduction to what it will feel like to come into the building. Um, and it is helpful for families and parents to be able to have that exposure. So, I want to end this presentation saying thank you to all of you who were a part of SYA way before I was a part of SYA. Um, and just who have continued to support us as an organization throughout the years. So, thank you so much. We are Proposition number eight again and um, thank you. That's it. [applause] Okay, thank you. Next, we've got the Southampton Art Center. >> My name is Christina Stfield and I'm the executive director of the Southampton Home Center. Uh we are a young organization. We're only 14 years old. Even though we're in the beautiful building

059that was formerly the Parish Art Museum, which is 127 years old. So we're located in the heart of the village. Our mission of the Southampton Art Center is committed to building community through the arts. It presents, produces inspiring, inclusive, socially, and regionally regionally relevant programs across all disciplines, welcoming, connecting, and collaborating with diverse members of the New York New York's East End community and beyond. It does this by presenting yearround programming for and to its community, exhibitions, films, theater, music, classes, workshops, lectures, panels, discussions, and tours. It also serves as a museum presenting curated exhibitions, preserving its collection and preserving its historic building for future generations. >> We normally do four exhibitions inside the building. Uh the one on your upper left hand side was an exhibition blaster on flags. It it received national recognition.

060It was on CBS Sunday morning uh where they talked about these historic flags from George Washington's time all the way through the contemporary and it really enhanced the community. People came in from all different walks of life. We had veterans come in. We had school groups come in. Uh we had the Boy Scouts come in and people were coming back at several times because they wanted to read all about the history. The history really came alive from the world. Uh the image that is to the right of that was an exhibition on graffiti. So we like to try to do a variety of exhibitions. Uh we trace the history of graffiti early on and then we actually had a graffiti artist in Turkey who was very well known in the city who wrote all all

061over the subway cars and we had him actually worked in our galleries and um let himself do it. So we're very excited about that. The lower image on the lower left hand side uh was for a private collection of contemporary artist um by Christine Max collections and we were thrilled to have works by renowned artists there. And the exhibition on the right was an exhibition on books. We talked about books, book binding, a big book banner, what what people think about books today and what is the future of books. So we like to really keep a diverse uh group of exhibitions coming forward and really enhancing our communities. Uh this year we were very excited to partner with the Southampton school district for an exhibition called First Life celebrating student arts of South Bmpton. We

062actually had 750 pieces of artwork by students from the prek all the way through the high school. This was an initiative that we were very happy that we was funded for and we look forward to doing it in future years going forward. Um at our opening we had 400 students there and their families. Uh we had performances from all the way from the elementary school through the intermediate and the high school. And it was just a very very exciting experience to see a young child come in and search frantically for their artwork and finally find it and point it out and say this is mine. This is mine. And just that that you can never change that. I was exposed to art when I was a very young child and it changed my life. And

063so I feel that art enhances life and so it gives us the opportunity to really welcome all students. Um we don't judge art. Every piece of art goes up on the wall and every child has an opportunity to see their artwork displayed in a museum in that quality. Uh we had a number of student tours both South Canton and uh Chuck Hall and other schools to get the homeschoolers in and we had hands-on we gave them a tour. We had hands-on activities including scavenger hunt. I love the pictures on the road, right, where the students were able to just sit on the floor, lie on the floor and really look at the art and create art right there in front of them and really talk about why why did they choose that piece? What what

064what was it about it that influenced them? Why? Why? Why? Why? And that getting those conversations going is the most important thing for students, especially when they're when they haven't been exposed to art before. Um through this program, the first five program we had every weekend we had activities, hands-on activities, and these were all free with the membership cards that were given out to the,200 students from the South School District. Um we had a workshop that was on Jackson painting. We had a workshop on book binding. We had photography workshops, light drawing, watercolor, and we even had artists and residents Brendon Johnson who came in twice and actually painted in the galleries. So people were able to come in all day long and see his progression while he was doing this. Um we also have

065extended hours during the school breaks, the winter break and the school break where we have art classes every day for the students and these are all free of charge. We also again open our facilities to the explorers and the colors group which is a group of special needs adults and give them the opportunity to come into the art center. They often have chance to create food. They have a chance to sit and eat in our studio space. Uh they are taught. They go around the exhibitions. We give them a tour and they also have a hands-on workshop. This is something that is done on a weekly basis for them. And it's something that we really feel often times these adults don't have an opportunity to socialize in any kind of setting outside once they graduate

066from school. So it really enhances their life. Parents tell us how important it is and it gives them a sense of socialility. We are very much known for our documentary screenings, our documentary films. We just had a doc equinox which the whole student on the ecology. We celebrated women's history month with women architectures. Uh we did an exhibition. We had a film on um or black history month on uh a man who was a preacher who became an AIDS advocate. It's a wonderful film. And we also did the mountain film series which we do in the fall which uh encompasses all documentary films. We also do a tremendous outreach to the Latino community. The Hampton's Business Expo is a group where we allow it's over, it's over 600 small businesses. They come and use our

067grounds. They use our facilities. They have classes. They're teaching them how to run businesses and how to reach out and help themselves and help their fellow uh fellow young businesses get off the ground and what they need to do to enhance those things, how to get exposure, how to work with the press. So, we really really feel very happy that we're able to support these kind of programs in the community that we have. >> Um we also do wonderful programs with the veterans. Um we had every year we do a veterans program and we've also invited the grands to come into all of these special exhibitions to get a special tour coming forward. Uh we do community theater. The community theater group really works with a lot of senior citizens. Uh people who often don't

068get out of the house. So it's a wonderful opportunity. We also collaborate with Hampton Jazzfest where we bring worldclass music to our facility as well as bringing international performers uh to our community as well. Uh we try to keep all of these ticket prices quite low so that it's accessible to the community. We also do a series of talks on the environment on art on social issu is issues on historical issues any issues that have relevance to our community. We offer our space to our fellow institutions for screenings and talks um at oftentimes for free or for a limited amount of money. We're very excited that um you'll see in the paper this week that we're opening our new gardens uh the gardens of hash have been uh which are which are owned by the

069village. Um we're in a state of disrepair and so we've just gotten some major funding and we're so excited because the false village is going to open and we invite you all to be there on July 4th before the parade starts. It's going to be a ceremony with the mayor. Um there's going to be brick pathways. These are all ADA accessible pathways, gardens, fountains, picnic areas, benches, and places for people to really just sit down and enjoy the village. Um, we're very excited about this collaboration and people coming in and just enjoying our facilities. Um, the exhibition that we are mounting right now, which is going to open May 16th with an official opening on May 23rd, is the largest collection of presidential memorabilia. So again, we have everything from George Washington's flags, his political

070buttons, banners, posters, works for Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, all the way to the presents in our present time. And we make the event history coming alive on the walls of the Southampton Arts Center. There's also going to be a podium uh so you can pretend that you're in the press room of the White House and take a picture and you have a microphone on so you could actually speak into the microphone. So, we encourage you all to exercise your freedom of speech as that opportunity. Um, as I said, this is the first year that the South Human Arts Center is on the ballot, and we are very excited and we're very thankful. Um, we are asking for $175,000 because we like to continue all of these programs, all of our free programs, our

071free membership to students to collaborate with all the schools that are here to collaborate the veterans, the Latino community, all of the underserved communities to reach out to members and to keep our grounds accessible and to keep our facilities accessible. So, we thank you very much and we really appreciate your support. [applause] Thank you. And next, African American Museum. >> Happy. My name is Simmer. and co-founder, president and CEO of Southampton Museum. First, I'd like to thank the Southampton School District and the village for ongoing support of the South Museum. The mural that you see >> was actually created by David Martin on the reservation. He depicts the great migration, the history of the beautiful barber shop. Juke joint and pierce concert. If you see him aware, Emmanuel Seaw came here as a carpenter and

072the boss by trade in the late 40s during the great migration. He ventured here to uncharted territory to Southampton and he had the audacity to purchase property at 245 North Sea Road where he made half beauty parlor and a half barber shop and Evelyn Baxter was a she also ventured here from Virginia to the great migration and she is actually my auntie. Um, so I was about 12 or 13 years old. I used to come and answer the phones for my auntie and do coffee runs for her at the I don't know how many people diamond which is now donut >> and that's where I used to go little extra change to have me get my little goodies. Kirstson was born gentlemanly at um the whale there. He was born at Cooper's Hall here in

073Southampton slave March 17, when his mother was enslaved to the Cooper Sanders. Fast forward. Pierce concert was credited for being instrumental along with Captain Micada Cooper for rescuing two wreck Japanese ships. During the time he gained his freedom, inheriting his grandfather's house on Palm Lane, start his own furry taxi business on Lake Abon. He was a member of the Presbyterian church. And they confirmed with us that he started before he passed away, he started a widow's fund and an educational and they confirmed that the educational fund is still active. He has a monument that's erected near the lake. I don't know if you have seen that >> near the northwest corner of Pain and the third in the north end cemetery >> in Southampton with his wife and two children who died as very young

074age. His tombstone there reads though born a slave he possessed those virtues without which peace are but slaves. Also depicted in the um mural there is Katherine Spellelman. She also had been a mutitionian. She ventured here also from North Carolina. And also Randy Conquest was in in the photo as well as well. He was the last owner of the barber shop. >> Also, I want to talk about the juke joints. There were three juke joints that I want to talk about. One was literally next door to the barber shop. It was called Fives. Arthur Fives Robinson had built that. also is a juke joint that was at Golden Square. And if you go in the back of Golden Square where that bar is, that's where the old juke joint was there and it was called

075the cold. >> The last juke joint I'm going to mention is the juke joint that was in East Hampton called the cottage in. It was actually owned by my father. And at the cottage end, I discovered from Steven Boom of the 11 spoonfuls. They got kind of that first start at my dad's place. And they actually have a picture of the um >> the juke joint in this picture. Steven Boom is the bass player. Also, I found out in this book, which I didn't know, my sister and I used to go there with my dad and play on this stage. And lo and behold, I find out that people like Iina Turner, Ray Charles, James Brown, Retha Franklin, and Eddie James would perform there at my dad's drum, which I had no idea. Sam's unique

076gem and a great asset to the village of Southampton. It's the first African-American site to be historic. We designate the village of Southampton. It's the first black barber shop to be transformed into a museum in the country which people have we have we have brought people from far and near adding to the economy of the village staying in hotels and eating at restaurants. Our mission is to promote an understanding and appreciation of African-American culture by creating programs that will preserve the past, encourage learning, and enhance the life of the community. Sam will research and collect local history, produce media events, create exhibitions, and community celebrations. Sam will treasure the past, tend to the present, and transform the future. Our official grand opening after 16 years of many hurdles and challenges was Junth, 2021. And it

077just happened to be the same weekend Junth was made a national holiday. In accordance with our mission, we are honored to have such a great collaboration with the South School District. Last year, Sam was asked to present a Junth program for the South Intermediate School and we did that for the entire fifth grade that consisted of about 70 students in participation. It was an amazing amazing heartfelt Junth care and we're happy to think about I think we're coming back again this year to do another Junth event. Some of the um historical impacts that we have >> in the museum is on the upper level and we have a lot of stuff there that talks about or shows about the um tools that we use in the barber shop in public. >> The digital tap is

078augmented virtual reality we offer. It has an excellent and a fun learning tool to exploring the local history. >> We have relevant art artifacts that again upstairs in the upper level. And I want to point out two um particular ones in that in that picture. You see the green bottle up there that actually was doing research. We find out that there was some kind of liquid in there that was for missable purposes. And then that metal steel object you see underneath there, we discovered was an attachment to a horse and buggy. All of these were unearthed during the time we transferring the barber shop to the museum. Our group tours also include huge sorarity groups as far as DC and Virginia. We have had several bus folks coming to visit the museum. We have groups

079of uh one group we had a 50 women or attorneys who came and most recently we had a group called the early birds and they came in a 50 seat chartered bus. They scheduled a personal tour and he attended our annual art and soul event and who states that their goal is to connect the world through art. We have a permanent exhibition on the upper level and at the lower level we have rotating exhibitions and this year we opening exhibition is going to be artists from Zen. We're excited to to show that we have self guided tours the Hampton's civil rights back backtory and Pierce concert tour. Our events include an annual black history program exhibition annual annual junth event. We have art and soul hamptons that we collaborate with the South Hampton Arts Center

080and our annual fundraising event which will be held again at the South Hampton in at the end of the season we do an Amastto commemoration celebration on August 26th and that that's in Montto on Culladin Point beach and that's where the ship came in August 26 1839 and two years ago we made history in collaboration with Discovery Homicide In Connecticut, we have had the remake of the ship return to point for the first time since August 26, 1839. Our goals first, I want to be full disclosure. Last year I had um executive director with me and unfortunately due to travel and lack of uh affordable housing, she's no longer with us. So with that, we're looking to hire a program manager and some interns. We want to enhance a holistic herbal uh community garden which

081we already started on the grounds. And we want to restore the 1940s joint juke joint painting which is from the pole bin um which is which was at the um which was at the uh Southampton which was at my which is at a place I just mentioned before. >> Boulder Square. I hate these moments. And this was donated actually from the Southampton Historic Museum a couple of years ago, which is really really awesome. And so we're trying to restore that as well. >> We also want to restore the lights over the joint paintings because it's not really um showing properly. And we also want to add panels [clears throat] to better display the historical um history that we have on there. And I'm always proud to show you our two interns. That's Kimmy and Kellen.

082They've been with us for probably four or five years. And they've just been so instrumental in helping out with our outdoor events and um I kept hoping they come back. They're both in college and doing very well, but they are going to come back and um help help us out, which I'm so happy about. Community connections. This year we had um Natasha Dan Natasha Jeff reached out and she gave us a proposal and she wanted to connect with a lot of community um artists. Also we had an artist here that was participating with a beautiful quilt. We won't name who it is >> not necessarily. [laughter] >> It was absolutely beautiful beautiful quilt. And also the thing that really was inspiring was it was a senior citizen from the reservation who had never ever displayed

083her art and she was able to display her art and to see her um talking about her art and enthusiasm was just priceless completely priceless. And also what I want to point out is you see on the far left you see someone jumping. There was a couple that came to book a tour with me and she came in with this boom and I looked it up. I was like, "Okay, they came to Southampton African-American Museum specifically to celebrate their 25th anniversary, wedding anniversary." >> And the broom is an is a traditional broom that's used during slavery time to jump over the broom to show their marriage, you know, signify their wedding. And so I was able to really get that lucky shot. they were actually jumping off the bottom steps of our downstairs over to

084the museum. So, it was just very heartwarming for them to be there. And she just shared so many kind words. She wanted me to make sure I knew that to remind me how significant and important it is to have this edifice in this time. Again, I want to thank the district, residents, both of us, we are proposition 10. Thank you. [applause] Lieutenant, May I ask for clarification, please. Uh, for the younger members of the audience, could you please explain what a joke is? >> I was I was going to ask that, but I said I want to make it short. I know. Okay. For the young people, first of all, has anybody seen The Color Purple? Okay. So, there's a scene in The Color Purple where they go, Black Color Purple. Shoot joints were a

085place where African-Americans gathered as a safe place. They played music. They partied and it was a way to let their hair down. You know, most of the time during slavery, they weren't able to do those things. So, the Jew was a place where people were able to come and gather and um just really have a good time. So, it was a Did I explain any more? You want to explain more? Is that good? Is that good? Thank you. One more thing you mentioned a couple times. Many people don't know what that is. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I had in my notes. I was trying to look at my note, but Boulder Square is now a Union B. I think it's called Union Burger. It's called Union Burger now. So next time you go in there,

086if you get a chance, go to the back. You go all the way in the back. You'll see I have the joint that we have in the museum has that same bar. That's the same bar that's been there since 19 in the 1940s. >> And so that's um and it used to be um basically, you know, all black and people from the reservation that would attend that junk. It was pretty cool. And like I said, if you get a chance, you got to come visit us at the museum and you'll see those joint pictures and um [applause] >> Thank you. And now it's finally time for our own Southampton school budget by the one and only Genie Mandel. [applause] >> Good evening everyone. Um and thank you. Um, every year this meeting is always such

087a learning experience for me because I learned so much about your presentations and also all the resources that are available to members of this community. I just want to let everybody know this is not the same for every community. So this community is very well very blessed in terms of the resources that are available not only to the students but also to the adults of the community. Um so this is um my fourth presentation in terms of the budget unlike the other entities that presented tonight. Um so for the people who have been here they are very familiar with the school budget in addition to what I'm presenting tonight. Um a lot of the information about the budget is available on the website. Um during the last um board meeting I did a presentation on

088how we access all the information if you want to go into detail and see line item of the budget for next year that hopefully will be voting on. Um we also have binders that are available in the school buildings if you are um the old type who actually want to see the paper. So everything is available and in addition in the next few days you'll be receiving the uh budget notice in your mail as well as the six day notice um that will also be uploaded to the website if you prefer to go on the website and access that information in terms of um well I always like to start this presentation with a quote uh we do matter to change the world. We carry all the power inside ourselves. We have the power to

089take and I would like to say congratulations to the class of 2020. Um so I always present this in a question and answer format um because at this point I don't want to give you just slides. Um I want to give you real answers in case you have questions. So, what's the dollar amount of the proposed 2617 budget? Um, it's 84,536,962. That's the amount that we're going to be asking the voters to vote on. Um, in comparison, the current year's budget is 82,23646. And that's the next year overyear change of $2,300,56. that translated into a 2.8 um 2.8% or 2.8% um year-over-year increase. In terms of the tax levy, which is the majority of the budget uh for 2627, the tax levy that is going to be the voters to vote on is 65 million

090488022. In comparison to this current year of 64,8396.6 6 and that's a net change of $648,396 over 1% yearovery year. Um that's a minimal increase in comparison to prior years. Um this year we were very conscious in terms of um the tax levy increase u based on conversation we had with the board and knowing that um we have other resources as as you'll see later that we have applied to minimize the amount of the tax levy um such as our reserves. Again, we built those reserves and this year we um a great opportunity to use some of the reserves in order to minimize the tax. Um what's the maximum amount of tax levy that we could have um proposed this year? It's 66,297, but obviously we did not ask for that entire amount. Um we

091could have increased the budget by 1.4 4145 million or 2.25 we only limited it to as the previous slide to 1%. Um on average uh if the house in the community is assessed at about $2.6 million for 2627 uh the school portion of the tax bill will be approximately $5,634.97. That's subject to change because um at the end of the well around September or so we usually receive the final tax assessment from the town and that's when your final tax rates or tax bill is determined. Um this school year which for which we have the final tax bill for the same assessment of the tax bill is $5,593.92 for home assessed at $2.6 6 million. Okay. So, the projected tax rate increase for this year is about 73% or $415. Again, that is subject to

092change once we receive the final assessment from the uh town of Southampton. So, we will be asking you to vote on the budget, which is proposition number one. Um, proposition number one will be the budget. Uh, proposition number two is to elect a new board member. Uh, proposition number three will be to uh, use $2.7 million out of the reserve um, 2017 capital reserve to do some projects. And the proposition number four is to use $400,000 out of the uh technology reserve to purchase some technology equipment for the next school year. Again, uh any money that is being used out of the reserve is not going to have any impact on your taxes because that money was set aside in prior years based on the savings from those years and it's been used this year.

093But we need the authority from the voters in order to use that money. Um, and I'm I'll be happy to answer any questions that anyone goes to board. I know you've heard it about four times. So you are familiar with the numbers by now. Um so if there aren't any question um I again I always like to um to extend my um sincere gratitude and thanks to the community who will be voting on the on the um budget um in two weeks. Um on behalf of the executive team, Dr. Morell and Dr. zone. We took every step to make sure that we gave you a fiscally responsible budget to vote on. Um, we looked at every line items and make sure that everything that's being asked in the budget is something that is needed to

094push our kids forward and so they can be successful. Thank you. [applause] Thank you, Jean. We appreciate it. We know how much work it's taken and um we're looking forward to the voters coming out and supporting us. Okay. At this time, we'll take public comments um regarding the 2026 27 budget. So, the public hearing is hereby adjourned at 8:06 p.m. The board is returning from an executive session where the employment history [clears throat] of particular people was discussed. Will the clerk please call the role? >> Robert Zach is absent this evening. Rodney C. Pearson here. Monique Proctor >> here Dudley here. >> Jermaine El Smith White >> here. Noah >> here. >> Does the clerk have any additions or deletions to the agenda? >> Okay, we have a few announcements. The board of education will

095hold a work session meeting on Tuesday, May 19th, at 6:30 p.m. in the SIS library. The 2026 budget vote and board of education election will be held on Tuesday, May 19th in the intermediate school music room. Poll hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. for registered voters of the Southampton Union School District. Absentee and early voter ballot applications are available online and can be requested from the district clerk. Voter registration will be held tomorrow, May 6th, from 100 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. in the district clerk's office. Please note an error in the printed district calendar that says voter registration. Well, voter registration will not be held on Thursday, May 7th. Meet the candidates night will be hosted by the League of Women Voters on Tuesday, May 12th at 6:00 p.m. in the Intermediate School

096Library. The intermediate school spring concert will be held at 5:00 p. a.m. on Thursday, May 7th in the high school auditorium, followed by the high school art honor society induction ceremony at 6:00 p.m. The high school cornhole tournament will be held on Saturday, May 9th at 12:00 p.m. The wellness committee will meet on Tuesday, May 12th at 300 p.m. via Zoom. The facilities committee will meet on Tuesday, May 12th at 3:30 p.m. in the district office and the policy committee will meet on Thursday, May 14th at 4:30 p.m. in the district office. The elementary school spring concert will be held on Thursday, May 14th at 6 pm in the high school auditorium. Public comments will be heard on agenda items only at this time. The board of education encourages public participation in school related matters

097at board meetings. Any group or organization wishing to address the board must first identify a single spokesperson. The presentation should be as brief as possible. Speakers will be permitted to speak for up to three minutes. The board will not allow public session discussions involving individual district personnel or students. All speakers are to conduct themselves civily. Obscene language, lialist statements, threats of violence, and statements advocating racial, religious, or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated. Persons making presentations at the board meeting will address remarks to the president. They may direct questions or comments to board members or other district officials only upon approval of the president. Any public comments regarding the agenda? Okay, at this point we will move on to our superintendence report. wasn't changed. >> But it's always Wednesday just tomorrow, May 6

098from 1 to 5. Thank you. At this time, um I'll begin with our enrollment report for the month of May. From month to month, we only lost one student. So, our um enrollment is steady at this time and that is an enroll enrollment count of 11:52. And the student who left went out of district. Few quick announcements. Once again, Southampton, we are considered a best community for music education. We have received this recognition for the 11th year in a row. To receive this recognition, Southampton demonstrated outstanding achievement in its efforts to provide music access and education to all students. The district was required to answer detailed questions about its programs, including funding, music class participation, instruction time, and support. Many many thanks to arts director Nancy Kaine and all the music teachers in our district

099for continuously providing extraordinary music and arts opportunities for our students. Thank you and congratulations to the music students and and their teachers. And while I'm thanking teachers on behalf of the executive leader leadership team and the board of education we extend our warmest wishes. >> [clears throat] >> to all teachers, teacher assistants, teacher aids, and all staff um on this special teacher appreciation day today. We thank you wholeheartedly for your tireless efforts in the extraordinary work you do each and every day in the classrooms, in the community, on the athletic fields, and in every space where you inspire and conduct life edifying work on behalf of our students. We sincerely appreciate and thank you for all you do. Thank you for our teachers. [applause] Also, um, congratulations to the elementary school under leadership of Principal

100Denowski for their amazing amazing performance of Jungle Book last Friday. It was so heartwarming and sweet and the students so adorable. They did an outstanding job. It was an excellent theatrical performance. Um it was quite it was really amazing. Um I loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I want to thank directors Alisa Jerry and Cora Berman and everyone who participated in ensuring the program's success. It looked like a lot of hard work went into it and it absolutely showed. It was truly outstanding. Thank you. And again, congratulations to Dr. Mitchell, Mr. Flu, Mr. Flo, Mr. Ruizi, and Mr. Rapeno on our championship robotics team who were able to participate at the global competition in Houston, Texas this week. Thank you to all the numerous donors and parents and community members and our board of

101education that made the trip possible and that supported our scholars. We are so happy uh that they were able to go. They did do an amazing job in Texas for such a young team and we are extremely proud of them. We're only looking up and looking forward to competing again next year. Congratulations to the high school principal as well on a great robot. Thank you. [applause] And that will do it for my announcements. >> Thank you, Dr. Brown. Um, now we'll hear from our other administrators. Mr. Mingo, do you have >> Yes. Um, thank you. I I don't have much um except for we met last Tuesday the 28th to go over many of the financial items that you see on the agenda tonight. Um if there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer

102them. The other members of the committee can also answer them. >> Thank you. >> Dr. O assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Thank you very much. Um, just a couple of announcements for our parents, community members, and board of education. Um, first and foremost, we continue on with our New York State testing program tomorrow. So, tomorrow, all students at the elementary school will be sitting for the 3 to 8 math assessment. So, that will take place for grades three and four tomorrow and also on Thursday. So, tomorrow, Thursday, we continue with New York State math assessments. Um next week all students uh across the district will begin the next portion which is the um listening, reading and writing portion of the nicest log assessments that will take place next week. Um for those in the

103high school parents um for those of you that have high school children, we are in a major testing period as well as we're administering all of our AP exams. So all of our exam schedules are up. Um students also have been receiving communications from Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Robinson on those actual sessions. Um so it's a heavy heavy testing period time right now. Um but all students I have to say have been rising up to the occasion. Um we're seeing all those positive messages coming in on test days. Um so it's really really uh it's been a very smooth and successful period at this time. Um the next piece that I want to talk about is we started be uh sharing our summer programming. So, one piece that we did release today is for our

104star program. Our star program takes place from 12 o'clock to 4 pm. It runs immediately after our our own um summermies and also SYA. Um and students will have the opportunity to participate in the STAR program. So, we did release a flyer that has registration material um posted on there as well. And again, if parents have any questions about that, feel free contact information is on there. We'd be happy to speak to you. Uh, also parents, um, we are in the process of planning our academic summer programs, uh, which is our Southampton elementary school academy, our Southampton intermediate school academy. We also have students that are part of our extended school year, uh, students that come to us to receive mandated services and programming. So in terms of that those schedules again those programs are

105being um designed right now they do run concurrently with star program from July 6th through August 7th. Lastly we are working on the high school our high school credit recovery program and regent program. Again, we don't necessarily um have all of the enrollment for that program and the set schedule until we get through our June regent exam period, but you'll start to see some of that information be uh coming out. So, again, just for parents and community members to begin thinking about summer programming for children. Last week, um we also participated in a really great um spring learning book at the elementary school. Um, so a team of administrators, district administrators, Dr. Dr. Morurell, myself, uh, we had Mrs. Williams also, we had Mrs. Denowski and Mrs. McCoy joining us with a bunch of teachers,

106uh, also who walked alongside of us and we as a team went together as really kind of collegial friends um, really looking at some of the initiatives that we've been focusing on. and they uh at the elementary school some of the the initiatives that we've been looking at are joyful learning for kids making sure that all students have that really positive learning environment. We also looked at levels of student engagement and student voice in the classroom. Uh we looked to see that teachers are articulating and sharing clear learning objectives and learning targets and also we looked at some differentiation uh and the ability for our staff to differentiate in the classroom. Again, we had a lot of overall lows that we found uh really really good positive feedback and then we were able to identify

107some places that we continue to um really focus in on, hone in on and find those stretch points. Um but overall it was a really positive um really positive visit. Um and the elementary school was just doing a great job. the staff uh everyone there involved was so cooperative and really really just a a great positive visit from from uh the team. Last but not least, we also last Saturday uh we were you heard me speak about this last time, we were pulling for our Special Olympics team that was participating in the Polar Plunge at Splish Flash. happy to announce that the team raised about $10,000 with the help of our community. So, it was a very successful um initiative. And then on top of raising all of that money, we got to go into

108the water at Super Splash with our students and staff. And I have to tell you, it's always a blast. The students challenged us to get all the way to the wall in that freezing cold temperature in water, and we did it together. And it was just a great event and raised a lot of money for our Special Olympics team. And by the way, who are going to the New York State Games um or to the the um excuse me, the games across the country representing the New York State team this year. So, we're just so proud of our Special Olympic team, our unified team, and everyone there that is there to support. So, congratulations to all. Thank you. All right. Um, moving on to our uh committees. Um, audit and finance. Who would like to

109update us? >> Um, you know, so we had a uh a good meeting for audit finance. Uh, not only did we go over our usual reports, as Jean gives a great job, uh, laying out for us on paper and, uh, we go over each one of those reports um, pretty thoroughly uh, until we can get it bring back home and then go over it again. So, a lot of lot of paperwork to do the uh, do this here for me. Um, we also touched on a couple things um, in our in our talks. Number one, I thought it might be good to talk about um the onboarding process for the um you know, for the uh board members to one of those items should be something to sit down with Mr. Mingo and go over

110those uh pieces of paper that we get every month, which are they're they're difficult. Um there's a lot of information on there. Uh Jean Jean does a great job explaining. And I think that might be something for the next board members to come on and kind of get a good feel for. Um he's really good at explaining and if you're if you're doing that for the first time, it can be pretty intimidating. So uh I think the reaction was good and um maybe we'll put something together for next uh next term coming around. Um the other thing that we talked about was the credit card uh and the basic operation of it. uh how it's used and I think that Jean and Doug Morell I think we all talk about maybe getting some protocols so

111we're kind of all on the same page with it. Um understanding that it's a tool that has to be used um but maybe that the board members can be brought up to speed on that in some other way. So I think that was the reaction for that was good too. I think uh the ideas um you know I have some ideas that we'll talk about in the future and I think they had some great ideas also that they could help us understand that how we use that and why we use it. So that's basically what we touched on. It was good meeting. >> Thanks Jeff. Um, we have a personnel committee report. >> Personnel was everything that you see on the 141. Okay. And we have no new report for the merger committee, facilities committee,

112wellness committee, and onto policy uh committee. Morning. Good evening everyone. So, we met on April 27th and we have good news. The health and wellness regulation is now up for first reading tonight and is ready for your viewing pleasure. If you don't have any to read late night, we did spend quite a bit of time at this meeting on social and emotional learning and how to integrate that into the district wellness policy. We decided that it deserved its own section uh which redefined social emotional listening of learning thinking of um how to modify the intro statement and target you know the goals and the objectives a little more clearly. So that is done. It was a very productive meeting and again it's it's available for you to view. At our next meeting we do plan

113on touching on FMLA. and that needs to be updated. And um thanks to Trustee Monique Proctor, we're also going to be taking a look at our policy for safe zones. Our next meeting is going to be held on May 14th. >> According to the oil. >> Your mics are low. We can't hear you. Yeah, >> I only have one practice that all right. Um, so may I have a motion to review policy 5405-R Health and Wellness Regulation for first reading as presented and second. >> Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the RO for the vote? >> Pearson. Yes. >> Yes. So hearing. >> All right. Consent agenda items. Are there any consent agenda items from 12.01 01 through 12.17 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about. May I have a motion

114to approve consent agenda items 12.01 through 12.17 as presented in the agenda? Motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Will the clerk please form a roll? >> Yes. So, Carrie >> [snorts] >> Okay. On to financial onto financial action items. Are there any financial items from 13.01 through 13.09 09 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about. Are there any financial items from 13.01 through 13.09 that any member wishes to hold out for separate action? May I have a motion to approve financial items 13.01 through 13.09 as presented in the agenda. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role for the vote? >> Yes. Jermaine. >> Yes. >> On to personnel action items. Are there any personnel items from 14.01 or two that any member wishes to

115discuss or has questions about? Are there any personnel items 14.01 one one or two that any member wishes to hold out for separate action. May I have a motion to approve personnel items 14.01 and two as presented in the agenda. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role for the vote? Yes. >> Yes. >> So, are there any personnel items from 14.02 02 3 through 23 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about. Are there any other personnel items 14.023 through 23 that any member wishes to hold out for separate action? May I have a motion to approve personnel items 14.023 02 3 through 23 as presented in the agenda. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Will the clerk please call the role for the vote? >> Yes. So carried.

116May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 21st, 2026 regular meeting as presented? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Will the clerk please call Malone for the vote? >> Yes. >> So carried. Public comments will be heard at this time. The board of education encourages public participation in school related matters at board meetings. Any group or organization wishing to address the board must first identify a single spokesperson. The presentation should be as brief as possible. Speakers will be permitted to speak for up to three minutes. The board will not allow public session discussions involving individual district personnel or students. All speakers are to conduct themselves civily. Obscene language, lialist statements, threats of violence, and statements advocating racial, religious, or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated. Persons making presentations at the

117board meeting will address remarks to the president. They may direct questions or comments to board members or other district officials only upon approval of the president. There any comments? Okay, this is our um time for new business items that are not on the agenda. Um, this gives the board an opportunity to raise any questions or anything else. Um, we have Zach here now. Zach, do you have anything to add? >> No, you're doing great. I was watching on the [laughter] bus. I'm glad >> uh nothing new. Good evening, beautiful souls. Thank you for being here tonight. I would like to take a moment, a moment to connect the dots. the dots of the injustices of our school board. On April 16, 2024, we hired our superintendent, faculty morale. This appointment was marked by division and

118unprofessional treatment. We then had the one board member who by the way was the only trustee at the time to vote no to the hiring of Dr. Moral. Shortly after that very trustee gets elected for the board president position and becomes our new superintendent. first year board president. So, we put the very one that voted against our district leadership to the position of the president, although she voted against the superintendent's hiring. Now, [clears throat] the meetings leading up to that hire were so toxic. So very toxic that the board president at the time threatened to harm me physically. Okay. Had I done that? Yeah. Then new board members join the following year. uncontested elections, one related to a city board member and the other related to the district clerk, creating serious conflicts of interest that

119does not allow for fair and transparent operations of our school board. The district clerk's husband joins the board July 2025, raising further conflict of interest concerns and creating questions of the board's integrity in our community. Simultaneously, he continued to show his clear disdain for Dr. Morell that is well documented on our YouTube videos as well as in our local newspaper. There was a clear change in tone when Dr. Moral was spoken to. I appreciate that tone tonight. That was beautiful and respectful. Thank you. Now, this is a call for transparency and equity. The school governance. Community members deserve clear factual insight into how decisions are being made. Recent and past patterns raise concerns. I want the community to see and recognize these patterns. Please have pattern recognition for the following leadership roles assigned without transparent

120criteria. Example, new board members elected to leadership roles with little to no experience. Disparities in student opportunities also do continue. such as trips to Italy and France. That of course are amazing, beautiful opportunities for our students. But how do we create equity for the collective student body to experience these amazing opportunities? Interestingly, however, when children of color were included in an intentionally diverse field trip last year to the New York mix game, it was met with such opposition questioning. Although there was not $1 of district funding expended for this trip, we have sat at this board table many nights where government's decisions have eluded excluded some of us from the decision making processes. I have received minimal email correspondence from our board president or vice president in regards to to governance decisions this entire year.

121Truthfully, some of us are in the dark. We're in the dark about the merger discussions and many others. Yet our superintendent is being reprimanded about murder updates to the board and we don't even know the direction our board is taking on the merger because we are excluded. These patterns based on public records point to a need for increased transparency and accountability for our entire community. This is not about the mission. This is not about division but about ensuring fairness and representation for our student body at large, families and community. We encourage our community members to review public records and please stay informed. I will finish with this. Throughout my time on this board, I started out with the slogan of bringing unity to our community. And I'm trying not to get emotional. People who have

122emotions, but I'm here. It's okay to show your emotions. Okay? Like I said, I started out with the slogan and I'm still continuing with that slogan of bringing unity to our community. However, I have received reports alleging that some community members are pushing divisive and hateful rhetoric throughout the community at this moment. This is very disheartening. However, it means little to me because I know the goodness of this community. The goodness of this community, our community, Southampton, will prevail. I'm going to continue to step forward in grace, love, light, and care for our children. Please let us be the best examples that we possibly can be, especially as we have student board members who look up to us for guidance and inspiration. Please, I implore us all to begin to walk with the essence of

123light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge, knowledge over ignorance. And I say that with my sincerest hope and gratitude for you all. Thank you, Mr. Trustee. >> [clears throat] >> operates. We don't have private discussions in theuding that there are private discussions that are taking place behind. The second thing is that you're everything that we do as far as making decisions takes place publicly and more than likely discussed in a committee, but it is but it is decided upon publicly. So if you're not following the information or you're not feeling that you have all the information, there's responsibility to ask questions either on public comments or during the business or at any point during the meeting because everything was discussed either publicly or committee. So falsehoods just so inappropriate and also calling up trustees

124that that aren't here like was very inappropriate. >> That was not inappropriate. That was me speaking up to my experience on this board. >> Thank you. >> Truthful. >> Yes. You need to be truth. What was the lie? Well, is it that there are conversations that take place that you and I are fully a blessed information? Everything happens publicly. So to elude that there's private conversations is categorically false. >> Thank you. Pleasure. >> Okay. Uh Germaine, anything >> to thank those of you that came out tonight for hanging in there. These are long meetings. We do appreciate the support. Um no matter what the reasons are for your coming tonight, thank you for being here. >> I just wanted to piggy back very quickly on what Dr. I presented to um regarding our music program.

125I went to the spring concert. There were many of us there and again it's quite a show and I'm so happy that my own students, my own children were able to really thrive in that program and um I'm can't wait to see what happens next year. I know we're losing two fabulous teachers, but it's the program's just going to keep improving and it was great performance. >> Anything? >> Yeah, I have two things. Um, I went back to the school uh two weeks ago and uh while I was sitting here at the board last two weeks ago, I was we were talking about building program. Um, I know like um Mr. athletically like my coach, she like kind of ended it with like everything's going to be okay. I believe everything will be. My only

126my only um concern is like I have an IEP and it's called the individual wise educational plan. Um all my life I've kind of like been able to figure everything out and done everything to the same standards. It's just taking a little bit longer. Um, so this year, um, I actually I'm in the high school in the 12th grade and I've emailed doc I, um, emailed the secretary of, Dr. Morell, and I was wondering if I can go over to the middle school because there's somebody who, sorry, I'm getting emotional. Um, has an IEP and is one of the best motivational speakers in the world. His name is Jordan Toma. And I have a book with him. I didn't bring it. I was supposed to prom I would do that, but I kind of let

127it down, but it's all right. she's here right now. Um, anyways, I've heard that kids with IPS will be able to push into one program and not be able to take the whole Windows course. And that kind of upsets me a little bit because everybody should be treated equally. Um, no matter if they have special needs, autism, anything like treat. So, that kind of um disturbed me a little bit. Um, I don't know if anybody can explain that to me a little bit better because I've had multiple teachers come up to me and talk to me about that and they just they have a hard time with it. Um, I'm also uh talking to the security guards, custodians a lot more. Um, their voices need to be heard just like our voices are in these

128meetings. Um, they matter a lot. They keep the building safe, they keep buildings clean, they work overtime, they work really hard. Um, the 12 period is saying all this stuff. I don't know why it takes me to say it say it, but it does um they need to be met with a little bit more um from from the top our um most important people in school that are running it and they need to be they need to be heard a little bit. Um I've talked to countless security guards and custodians about it and they just feel like they just need a little bit more presence in the school. Um I've also came up with a really cool idea with the security guards woman and uh in the start of 2026 school year all administration board

129meetings and principles in each school should introduce themselves each year to our students positives get to know students form u a connection and introdu and it will be very um promising to introduce yourselves to them. Uh, I feel like this will establish like a really good connection with everybody and it'll only bring us up from there because this will show you the inside scoop of what students are like are are going through every day. Like maybe Miss Dy sorry to point you out like you might know like one of James' friends a little bit better if you go there and talk to them. Like I don't know. I just think it'll be a really cool way to just connect with people. um because you guys come here every week and a lot of you guys

130are um a lot of you guys are in school a lot but some of you guys um are aren't and I think this will be a good way to um get you guys in school more and stuff like that. Uh so I feel like that should happen like every every year like when you come to the beginning of the school year get to know everybody and start it all fresh. Um negatives nothing. Um, so sorry uh ill emotional, but I just try to speak the truth and um, thank you. >> To your to your FIRST [applause] ideas to your first point, all students will receive equity in the dual program. It doesn't matter if you have an ID. If you are if you want to be enrolled in that program, we are going to be

131addressing that. I think you're making some >> Yeah, I think >> about that. So, I think I think that's okay. The other themes that you talked about, I really, you know, I think those are some great ideas. I look forward to talking to the board and talking to the executive team about, you know, making sure that everybody has a voice and especially our security and our we >> ours. Yeah. um um security in our um oh my god I don't like to say custodial I like to say engineers school building engineers um I love I love um I have a great relationship with the many of them and I'll tell you it it goes a long way um they know my name I know their names and uh they it's just a good relationship and

132I think if we kind of push that out to everybody creates good relationships with all the staff. Everybody's uh everybody's important around here because if just one one piece of that puzzle miss is missing, you're going to know it. You're going to fill it and we need to make everyone feel welcome. So, thanks for bringing that up. >> Well, thanks for your dedication. Appreciate it. >> Thanks for your feedback, Mill. We appreciate it. Mattea, last but not least. [laughter] Good. >> Okay. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:53 p.m.? >> All in favor? >> Thank you everybody. Have a good night. safe.