BOE Public Hearing - 2025-2026 Budget / Regular Meeting - 5/6/2025

001Hearing of the qualified voters of the Southampton Union Free School District, town of Southampton, Suff County, New York, is being held in the immediate school music room and is called to order at 6:36 p.m. Sorry, we're in the library. for the transaction of business as authorized by the education law, including the following items. To present the voters a detailed statement of the amount of money which will be required for the 2025 2026 fiscal year. to discuss all the items here and after set forth to be voted upon by the voting machine at the budget vote and election to be held on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 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. If everyone would please

002rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all remain stand for a moment of silent reflection. Thank you. I have a brief announcement to make. Upon fire alarm activation, immediate evacuation to the closest emergency exit is required. The emergency exits are located to the sides and to the back of the library. 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. Once assembled outside the building, everyone must wait until a school official gives an all clear before reentering the building. Um, so we have a few presentations tonight and first I would like to ask

003Miss Brenda Simmons from the Southampton American African-American Museum to come to the podium and give her um presentation to us. and she's gonna be accompanied by first, right? First, I really would like to thank the school district and the village of Southampton's community um for allowing us uh this funding to help sand grow. The mission statement is to promote an understanding and appreciation that help you do it just fine without it. Our mission statement is promoting understanding and appreciation of African-American culture by creating programs that will preserve the past, encourage learning and enhance the life of the community. I would like to first say receiving these funds has afforded us the manifestation one of our main boys and she's standing right beside me our beautiful new executive director Jessica [Applause] Elliot and I'm going to

004go over the 2024 videos and what we did last year the adjusted table um we're excited to implement um and create programs in collaboration with the cottage teacher center implementing a program using digital tapestry augmented virtual reality app. So we actually did a an app through the digital app digital tapestry that helped them with their professional training development training. So that was pretty exciting. So, we start off generally in May kicking off with a our first opening exhibition and we generally like to focus on young artists that hasn't been known and don't don't get any you know impressed and we really like to usually give them their first solo exhibition which is usually a highlight for a lot of artists. In June, we have our F Jun team celebration. And last year, we highlighted a

005Southampton graduate, which I think I saw her, Tavia Jeff, who is now an author of two amazing children's books. We actually interviewed her yesterday at last. I think was wonderful. You can clap. In July, we usually collaborate with Art and Soul Hamptons in the Southampton Art Center. It was called Art and Soul Hampton. And last year, and our usually every year, we have a wonderful flute named Dwayane Kerr. He actually was the flutist for Erica Badu, an R R&B singer. And our special guest this last year was Art Sims. He's the illustrator for Spike. we interviewed him. So, it was an impactful impactful evening and um it was during the day that part of the day and then we also have we give a culinary experience and you wouldn't want to miss it. I'm telling

006you, you want wouldn't want to miss that. And so we take a little break. And so the evening we have another opening exhibition. And last year we had Alvin Clayton and it was a wonderful wonderful um exhibition and we also had um a film about the ballet a ballet and then after that we surprised everybody. We had a live ballerina performed for us. It was amazing. It was great. and more yum yum culinary experience. In August, we have our we had our second annual Almastad celebration. And we made history last year. It's the first time that the ship came into Culligan Point. I don't know if you've heard I know you s seen the movie. Everybody seen the movie Amos with um Mrs. Spielberg and he he never really he said the ship came into

007Long Island but he never really said where and it actually came into Mour. So we actually had a collaboration with Discovery Amastad and the ship came in to Culligan Point Beach for the first time. So we made history since August 26, 1839. And the ship stayed there for a whole week. People were able to come on. We had youth days, we had educational days. So, it was a really great event. And before I turn this over to Jessica, you can do the next one. I had the pleasure of meeting Ingred Griffin probably about three or four years ago and she does an amazing amazing amazing onewoman show of Shirley Chis on Shirley Chis and we had the pleasure I had the pleasure of introducing her to superintendent and she performed here and it was just

008a wonderful collaboration and at this point executive director So, thank um I've been here since probably December. And first, I want to say thank you all for being so welcoming to me and my new position. I love the fact that every time Brenda and I go out somewhere, she literally knows everybody and everybody is so warm. Everybody, I've told people countlessly how much I've fallen in love with this area. And people have been telling me, "Oh, you must really like it because it's not even green. You know, the grass is still brown. Everything is there's nothing on the tree." But this place is really, really a home and it's warm and it's welcoming. So, first, let me say thank you to all of you. Um, just for being welcoming of me. And also again to

009reiterate what Brenda is saying, thank you all for the continued support of the Southampton African-American Museum. I think it is important to understand and know that with the funding and the support of you all, we are continuing to expand Sam in ways that she's dreamed and that we're now making into fruition. So since my onboarding um I had the beautiful pleasure of meeting with the Southampton High School um under the direction of Natasha Jeff and during that time I met with a group of young girls we they're a part of the after school program called Black Girl Magic and these girls are absolutely dynamic, captivating and absolutely wonderful. we had a conversation and I invited them to work with the Southampton African-American Museum, which they did. And that's how we're going to end this part

010of the presentation. But working up to that time, we've had the opportunity to host countless schools in this area and throughout Long Island at our facility. um providing them with tours, asking them questions, them asking us questions, them engaging with the digital tapestry which Brenda mentioned earlier. That has been a tool that can really propel the learning of students far beyond our imaginations. Um I'm look around the room. Many of us grew up with textbooks, right? They don't. Okay. No. Um you have to have a mix. You have to have a good mix of different types of literacy when it's dealing with children. And with the digital tapestry, what they're able to do is they're able to take their own tour around the museum. They're able to pause. They're able to rewind. They're able to

011hear things in their own kind of like little closed bubble, which some some students need. I need it as well. But it provides them with the opportunity to take ownership of their learning. And I think if we're going to provide good opportunities to 21st century learners. That's the kind of learner that we want to be working with, right? That's the we want people to take ownership of their learning. And with the uses of the digital tapestry, that's what they're able to do. We give our tours. We talk to them. Sometimes they miss it, right? Um but for a lot of them, I watch them get so much out of using this app. I watch them get so much out of being able to control their own experience. And just so we're clear, this particular app

012is not just available to children. It's a it's available to everybody who walks into the museum. So when you come in, I will have them ready. You can plug in your headphones and you can do you can do the digital tapestry as well and take a journey throughout the history of the Southampton African-American Museum. So I look forward to seeing everybody. Right. Um I look forward to everybody coming in. The program that I think I'm most proud about up to this point, right? Um was my work with Natasha Jeff. I saw her come in here. Okay, there she my work with Natasha Jeff. Again, I'm new to the area. So I met her in December. She invited me into her after school program and I said, "Do you mind if I talk to them?" and

013she said, "No, I don't mind." Now, if you've ever been in a high school, you know that sometimes, you know, and that's a scary world, right? You have to be you have to be of a certain kind of toughness to be able to to go, you got to have some courage, right? Um, but I didn't need that. Her girls were so warm. Her girls were so amazing. Her girls were thoughtful. And they not only did they listen, but they thought about the questions that I asked them and gave me answers that far exceeded anything that I could have come up with. So, as Brenda and I were discussing what was going to be our newest exhibition in the lower level of the museum, we landed on thinking about the analysis of what it means to

014be a black woman in the US. And so, we thought, well, why not talk to these girls about what it means to be a black woman in the US? Granted, they're still in their girlhood, right? And we honor that. But this opportunity gave them the chance to talk to women who are in their womanhood. It gave them the opportunity to receive resources. It gave them the opportunity to ask questions and tell us what it was like for them to navigate this pathway into womanhood. What resulted was me asking them to be a part of this exhibition. I needed them to create I wanted them to create a piece of art that told their own story. So again, I told you I met them in December just before winter break. So we all know as educators

015we kind of know what that means, right? So when they came back from winter break, Natasha asked them to conceptualize what it meant to be a black woman in the US and how they were going to showcase that. So these young girls not only conceptualized the piece of artwork, but they then created the piece of artwork, which I don't think many people could have done, grown folks, I don't think many grown people could have done that in that amount of time. What they created is what you see on the screen. It is absolutely beautiful. It is absolutely breathtaking. I had to tell Natasha, I'm sorry, but you're not getting this one back. Stay with Sam. We made t-shirts of it. We absolutely did. Um their their celebration of them in March made the front page

016of the newspaper. These girls talked to the press. They gave their thoughts. Again, these are the independent learners that I began talking about, young people who are not afraid to go ahead and forge a future that they designed for themselves. I am so honored to have worked with them. I am so honored to have worked with Natasha and I look forward to what Sam can continue to do with the support of all of you. And I thank you. Does anyone have any questions for us? [Music] Yeah. After everybody presents, we'll have public comments and then anyone that you'd like to Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, next we have the Parish Art Museum, Casey Meyer, please. is not here. I'm sorry. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you

017everyone for being here for the presentation. My name is Monica Ramirez Mont. I'm the executive director of the Parish Art Museum and it's my absolute privilege and honor to be able to present to you today. The Parish Art Museum is a place where our community has been gathering for the arts and the creativity and building the community for more than 125 years. Um that's uh we have a very important museum collection in the region. Our our collection spans from the you know um American impressionist contemporary artists very much grounded in this region. So, we are the stewards of a collection of about four 4,000 objects particularly most of them particularly made and created or inspired by the by the east end of Long Island. Um, the Parish Art Museum is in is we're tremendously grateful

018for the tax levy funds and we basically support 50,000 visitors through the year. We offer more than 120 public programs and more than 15 exhibitions annually. Um, a lot of the exhibitions are really of national and high caliber art and exhibitions that really further the field of art. Not only further the field of art and and participate in the academic expertise of the arts, but we also serve our immediate communities and immediate artists in these communities. We also offer uh free tours and public lectures. Um uh the tours are weekly. The public lectures are not weekly. We offer workshops for children, families, and adults. The Southampton school visits throughout the year and also we come to the to the school here. I was just here with you guys with the principles. Thank you for the

019invitation. Women's month. Uh we do the art student show that feature more than 2,000 artworks by the local students and includes artworks from 46 schools here in the region. We also have the access parish program that offers 128 programs for individuals with health and cognitive challenges and we serve more than um 1,200 uh people through that program. And we also offer access free access to the creativity lounge which is hands-on activities for people of all ages and those are always available in the lobby to the museum uh for all the residents in South Hampton and Takahoo school districts. These are the exhibitions we have just this year. We have in the facade of the museum the Rafael doano hammer. It's called the collider but it's basically an art installation that responds to the cosmic rays

020that are hitting at the museum. And we have some sensors that are kind like picking up on those cosmic rays creating the activation of the light on the facade. So while it looks like a very beautiful kind of pulsating waterfall of light, it's actually indicating you know our region to the larger continent to this artist initiative. We have another exhibition called fresh paint that rotates about every three months that presents some of the most important artists living and working today. It presents works that they have done in the last six months. That's why the program is called Fresh Paint and it is to be able to offer the the region here some of the most interesting artists and some of the most responsive artworks that are being created immediately given that a museum uh with

021this kind of programming sometimes it takes us three or four years to develop an exhibition and the fresh paint program allows us to be very responsive. It's done in partnership with the Flagart Foundation and with our team councils. So our team councils that come once a once a week to the museum once a week to the museum and they what they do is they actually these teenagers it's a paid internship program that allows them to look at all the possible professions that they can have inside or the cultural world and they are actually interpreting this artwork for us. So that's one of the one of the programs that they do is they serve us in in looking at what young adults are seeing in art that's been very responsive to their to our times. We

022have the Shir exhibition Born on Fire is the the first uh museum exhibition in New York of these Iranian American artists. We have a tremendous exhibition. The photo that you see there is a series of interviews that she did in New Mexico which is a geography similar to the one that she had in Iran which she cannot go back to. So she interviewed people in New Mexico and asked them about their dreams and that exhibition kind of like portrays some of the dreams of the folks that interviewed. Sean Scott is one of the most important abstract painters living today. He's being compared to Rothco and we have a very important survey opening this next Saturday. you're all invited and uh he's presenting Sean has art in every single country of the world. He's one of

023those artists that's highly well very well represented globally. But what he's doing for the parish is a series of paintings that he did in 1982 in Mtok where he spent a month and that experience with nature changed the career uh changed his body of work and from that point on he became very well known. So he wanted to come back to Long Island and have an exhibition be shown at the parish to be able to show the artwork that inspired his career, be shown in the same context that was produced, the same kind of light, the same kind of natural environment that inspired the work to have it be shown again. The exhibition comes with a very substantial academic publication and will most likely travel uh around the country in the next couple of years.

024We will have also an exhibition by James Havl. He's kind of like a minimalist painter uh that was trying to explore through his whole career the perfect tone of gray. We know that gray is a color that embodies all the colors in the in the rainbow. And so he spent his life looking at different variations of gray but based on math and sequencing and permutations. And so we hope that we get a lot of school visits for that one to see what actually math and parabolic kind of lines look like when we turn them into visuality. uh James Howell painted in Bontto. So also very grounded in the East End experience. And then we're going to have in the fall Nina Yanovitz again a local artist that we're taking a show that's been organized in

025Florida. But we feel that bringing the show here to the east end by the work of Nina Yankovitz is important also to present all the talent and the artists that are uh contributing to our culture here in the east end south. So, I was talking about the the parish more than right now we have more than 4,000 words because we've been acquiring uh new artworks every trimester. We get donations and weed by the board. But you can see that some of the artists in in our collection are you know Eric Fishell, Donald Sultan, Mary Hman, um you name it. um uh uh Eddie Martinez, many of them artists of national to international communist and we do have them in our museum collection and we deploy our museum collection to do a lot of u the

026exhibitions that we present also through the year. Um for one of our most important programs are the free school programs for the Southampton for Southampton. We do more than 35 school tours and workshops with South Hampton prek, first grade and and the life skills uh individuals. And we have 121 students engaged with our visiting artist uh initiative where we actually create artists who work with the kids before they present their exhibition in the art student program. We offer off three off-site community partnerships and we have about 41 events and workshops with about 402 attendees in collaboration with several agencies like the Southampton collaborative club and our dear friend Southampton youth association summer and star summer programs. Thank you Andrea for your partnership on that. We also do a lot of out of school programs after

027school programs. We do 50 56 events and workshops with about 660 attendees. Also with the Southampton youth association and after school programs for kindergartens and grades fifth to to fifth grade. We have open studios for families and we also have the arts and eats which is a teenager program where the where the teenagers come once a month to the museum to also learn about potential you know labor force in the museum or to ask their questions or just to have the museum not be something alien from them but be something that's an institution the artific I bump into a lot of adults out there in the world that that tell me, you know, I've shown at the parish and like, oh, which show I missed it. It's like, no, no, it was a student show,

028you know, some 45 years ago. So, we've touched a lot of lives and hopefully we, you know, folks feel proud that they've shown at the parish, but I hope that a lot of that means that they elicited their own creativity and that they, you know, practice self-expression and that they took that into their adult life. So 72 years of this incredible program, a lot of important museums that we get compared to in New York are not even 72 years old. So this education program has more history than some of the major museum in New York major museums in New York City. Uh about more than 2,000 individual students, youth present in this in this exhibition. It includes um the work by 46 local schools. the caliber of the exhibition keeps going up and that's very

029much because of the engagement of the art professors and so while we get all the congratulations like this show is amazing actually all the credit goes to the art professors in all these schools that take this exhibition seriously and know what it means to the to the youth and their families and they do every year an extraordinary work I have to say that the day of that opening which is when we have the kindergarten and the middle schools coming before 2 p.m. and then from 2 p.m. Later we get the teenagers and you know it gets a little bit more dark and more uh you know charged as as the hours go by but it's the most successful attendance day of the parish through the year. we get 1,200 people at least and uh we've

030never we never see those attendance numbers uh ever uh unless the next year for this exhibition very very important exhibition that we're very proud of and so uh 1,00 almost 1300 pe well 1,200 people serve with our community outreach programming. We have the free family and community outreach programs. We work with SEMI uh family literacy programs. They come to the museum once a month as well. And uh we have our community welcome days. Those are very important because those are kind like huge kind of like festivals that we try to do with hands-on activities and food and performances and music. And uh we get about 400 folks coming into each other community. Those are free and we're going to try to do them also the next year in partnership with other foundations that are also

031trying to tap into our communities to offer services, you know, and educate on diabetes and things like that. But this community welcome days are very important and free to the public. And we have access parish. You may know about our access parish program. We were just on the newspaper because we had a federal grant of $200,000 for our access program which is done in partnership with about eight um local agencies to serve individuals with special needs. And that federal grant just got rescended by the current administration. So while there's still uh some some push back uh at at the legal level, we are trying to you know um continue the fundraising. We have some board members dedicated to this program. It's a very important program that serves about 1500 people or more uh different different

032needs for different individuals, but we want to make sure that everybody that we can serve has equal access to the arts and therefore we customize the experiences to the museum so that everybody can have a successful visit. So most of these organizations visit the museum again once a month or even more frequently when the museum is closed where we can have an environment that can be customized for the particular group of folks uh coming to the museum. A couple of new programs were done in partnership with the Alzheimer's disease resource center which they told us you know there's there's a a study a research study that just demonstrated that drumming is important for folks living with Alzheimer and Parkinson. So we did a fundraiser, we got our drums, we're offering that program. Same with dancing

033uh with Alzheimer's. And so being associated with these local agencies allow us to tap into their resources and their expertise and for us to the very talented art art educators that we have to also design exhibitions where every single individual is going to be successful is going to uh find itself and it self their self-esteem or their self-expression. and we are serving in depth with conviction and with integrity, you know, folks with special needs in this community. What's important about that federal grant that we received was that they the federal government or that agency saw the value of the access parish program and how we worked at having a huge impact with limited resources as a regional museum. So those monies were also meant to to write a model case of what we were doing

034and to be able to share that with other regional museums so that it could also serve in depth and with conviction of these particular audiences. So a lot of that is still going to happen and you know with the with the federal grant being cut we might just do some of the visits less frequently but we're certainly committed to the access parish programs. So what do the the residents what are the benefits for for the taxpayers in the Southampton district? It's free admission to the galleries. You saw 15 exhibitions, top caliber exhibitions uh every year, talks with the most important artists living and working today, workshops, community days, 120 free public programs annually, free receptions that include, for example, the student art that is just a lot of fun and incredibly well attended. access to

035the arts for all. Not not just, you know, whoever is able to come in in museum normal hours, but for those that need a customized experience like Access Parish. That's what we are ensuring with our tax money that that's going to happen. And also the arts education, the conservation, preservation, and growth of the local heritage, culture, and the arts through the conservation, preservation of our community. having an institution of this category this region. I think it just benefits us all to have an institution like the parish continue to try to maximize its resources for the benefit of of us all. Thank you. Art matters art matters more now than ever. Okay, next up we have the Southampton History Museum with Sarah Couch. I'm sorry if I Thank you. Hi everybody. Um, good evening. Good to

036see everybody. Um, I'm Sarah Ca, executive director. Um, this is my second year doing this presentation. Um, so it's I've been learning a lot about the community and I recognize a lot more folks than I did last year and that's great. And um, I just want to say again, the last time I was before this board, I mentioned that the reason why I ended up where I am today is because of my high school teachers. And so uh, we continue to do education at the history museum. It's at the core of everything we do and it's been at the core of my work in every aspect of my career for the last 20 years. So uh and it's all because of my high school. So um thank you all for everything you do and and

037all my colleagues and friends here from other organizations. Uh especially these days with funding being cut the local and we're so blessed to have such a fantastic community with so many amazing people and amazing resources that we can help each other up during this really difficult time. So, um, uh, without any more of that, let me, uh, where, uh, Southampton History Museum is Proposition 10 this year. Um, we're asking for not quite a 2% increase from last year, and that does amount to about 30% of our budget. And this almost covers our staff. So, we have six professional staff. Those are people with training in the field of history. So um from education to historic preservation of very important structures. So we we own and protect and preserve very important very significant uh 17th century

038structures that are left in our community that that needs some expertise. So uh we have six staff, four full-time, two part-time. Um, we have former teachers. We have uh experts in preservation trades and and um archavists, anything you can imagine. So, we're small but mighty. And all of our staff, this um funding really helps our staff. So, and it also, as all you know, um and even in the school district, it's very difficult to get really good qualified staff. And at a place like uh history, the history museum, we really need high caliber people with great experience. Um and we want to also train more people coming up be it through the high school and uh also through college and uh graduate programs um in our field. So we have archavists, we have curators, we

039have historic uh preservationists in the future. So um we are established in 1898. So I think the parish art museum is kind of that old too. We have, you know, it all was happening down in our neck of the woods there and we were incorporated in 1910. So that's over 127 years um that the museum has been working to preserve and educate about the local history of Southampton. Uh we are a 501c3 nonprofit and we are chartered as a museum by the New York State Board of Regents. um like our colleagues who are here today, the other museums with charter um and one of the things that we've been doing since I've come uh so as you all know 127 years the museum has has kind of evolved and changed over the years and since

040I've come on as the new executive director about two years ago we've had a lot of changes um we've had a lot of struggle with co at times that was before I came on But when I started two years ago, we're still struggling with a lot of things to get out of it. We're not alone in that. Um so, you know, we're starting to come out of it and one thing we realized in the brave new public world is um free admission makes a lot of sense to us now. Um so all of our historic sites, so we have four different historic sites that we either own or steward with 14 historic structures and they all have changing exhibitions. um that's not counting our collections and archives, which is is is on top of the

041buildings and sites we operate and and protect. And so that funding helps the continued preservation of all of those things we steward and protect for the community. And um we think it makes a lot of sense for it to be free because um in the village year the the yearround and um part-time home owners I think it's up to about 4600 residents. Um but as you all know in the summer it goes crazy high. So we're up to about 12,000 maybe more. So that's a huge amount of people visiting this community who can learn about the rich rich culture and heritage um that goes back historically 400 years and then with the shinik our our neighbors um and we've been working a lot with the shinnik since I came on the noa project has been

042a fantastic uh project. So there is a very rich history that we can reach people who visit from not only around our region but from around the United States and re really around the world. We're a global uh attraction and I'm sure Parish and our friends know that very well. So it's a great opportunity to to share and connect because um the story of Southampton does connect with bigger pictures. Um, and so that's something that through this um, support from our community, we're able to do uh, offer free admission at all of our sites. Uh, our headquarters is at Rogers Mansion Museum Complex. Um, uh, this is kind of the epicenter of where all our our activity happens. It's where our offices is are. Um, and uh, we are there year round. So although the

043public uh the interior and the exhibitions are open usually March through December and of course you guys know we have construction going on there. So we're going to we're trying to work it so the house buildings will be open this year. We're close to figuring out what that's going to look like of course to make sure everybody's safe while the construction's going on. Um, so Rogers Mansion, we've actually been there since 1943 and that's over an 80year public private partnership with the village of Southampton. And in partnership with the village, we're we're doing the restoration work there now. So that building is going to keep going for another couple hundred years, we hope. Um, and there Rogers, we have period rooms as we do in all of our structures over there. It's it's based around

044the Samuel Parish era. uh because he's so important uh and and influential in the community. Uh you can see so you can see his museum and then you can see his house and and everything else. Um and it's also where our special exhibitions go on. Um it's also that the Rogers mansion complex is the epicenter for our educational programs. We do do educational programs at all of our sites, but we we tend to focus on uh the Rogers edge because it's really the most accessible kind of site with parking and it's very easy for people to come and visit. Uh all of our educational programs are free. So that's K through 12, that's homechool, that's Boys and Girls Club, um SYA, we we had some uh some SYA groups come for some uh educational programs.

045Um, again, it's it's about sharing our history, especially with local kids, um, to to get a sense of where the big events. So, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is coming up next year. Um, you know, it's very abstract when you learn about it in the textbook. Um, but there are incredible people in this community and stories here, right here, that really connect directly with the story of the revolution. And so that's something we we want to do there is is connect uh not just kids but everybody all the visitors that we have with the stories in our community. Um that it's not just something happening in Lexington and Concord or or in Washington DC. It happened right here in this community. um and many people played a really important role in the

046founding of our nation and continue to to this day. So it will be difficult to to connect um not just kids learning about history, American history especially, but just anybody in general with the big stories. Um, so that's the work we do there. And we try to do it in a way that's memorable, that's hands-on, um, that can enrich those those educational um, curriculum. Uh, so it's all under New York State based. Um, we follow those standards. Um, you can see some activities. All of our activities have some interactive hands-on component. Um, I think these kids are are doing some scrimshaw. So not with actual weld, but with a synthetic weld. So they learn about historic scrimshaw uh whaling. Uh I believe this program was also um our friends at Sam uh the fierce concert

047story. We tell the fierce concert story um in addition to the whaling captain story of course Rogers mansion. The Rogers family really important whaling family. Um, so we tell the story of of different groups and folks who contributed to our community and then the so kids can really get a a feeling of what history might have been like by by doing an activity. So quill uh writing with quil pens is another thing we do. Not only is writing with the quil really cool and fun, it's just writing um you know these days, just writing with anything that's not a a a you know digital thing is is quite an experience. So to write with quills is very fun. Um, and that's something we're trying to do not with ch just children, but with all age

048levels to re-engage the historic physical like experience of history that there's a a real lived component to it that the museum can offer. Um, so I mentioned the buildings, the archives, uh, and and collections are extremely important. We have, uh, a ton a ton a ton of stuff. So over 30,000 uh books, maps, manuscripts, photographs. Um all of that is preserving 400 years of local history. Um so that's extremely important and that's available for free. Um it's open year round by appointment. We're open right now too during construction. If you really got to get in to see a a family, uh there's something that you want to see a whale on, we're available. And we do get research requests year round. uh our wonderful archavist Mary Cummings, who's a a lifelong uh village resident, fabulous

049scholar and author of many books on local history, including a fabulous book about um the Southampton Hospital. Uh she's our archavist and you can get free research assistance from Mary Cummings. Um, also Lori Collins who is uh one of our uh she's our museum manager and also educator when we have the educ education programs. Um, tremendous she's been with the museum longer than anybody for years. Tremendous source of of information. Um, so we do get folks from across the country, if not the world, looking for halies who came in the 1640s or, you know, how and and anything you can imagine. Um, and we're able to connect them with with the the teaching history, their family. Um, and that's all free by appointment. Uh, just let us know you come, especially with the construction. Um,

050something else we do that's totally free is community events. Um, we do at least three when we're not under construction. This year, again, the construction is really kind of throw us off with this, but um, every year for many, many years, we've hosted at least three senior seasonal events and those are completely free. Uh we do spring high tea, we do the witches and warlocks and the holiday open house. And those are totally free uh for seniors as as a a celebration and a and a giving back to them in the community. And they're very very popular and really fun. Uh we also participate in Southampton Fest and of course we do our annual fair and it's coming up almost. So it used to be in fall, we thought let's try it in spring. So,

051something else we're trying new um to see what works. So, there's so many fall artist fairs, we thought, let's do a spring fair. Um so, if anybody is around this Saturday, please come. We're going to have um 19th century music in the s barn. The acoustics there are excellent and the uh traditional musicians are excellent. We're going to have sheep shearing and alpacas. We're going to have blacksmithing. We're going to have all kinds of historic crafts and it's totally free. So, please come and see us. Uh, we also steward the electro silver shop. Uh, this is open year round. It's open all year, uh, Wednesday through Monday. So, six days a week, 11 to 6. It's free to go in. And our fabulous, fabulous artist and residents, Alyssa Sagante, will tell you all that you

052could possibly ever dream of wanting to know about Eliza and silver smithing. Um among other things uh Elias Pelro is a very famous uh patriot and so does Smith in our community. He's he's a very important craftsman of silver in in revolutionary era America known internationally as like you know in the decorative arts world is a big deal but the building's actually much older. It's probably it's about 1686 and it was a drive store. So, it's one of the oldest continually operating places of business in the United States, if not even more field. Um, so it's a fantastic little piece of history with somebody who can who can offer you jewelry making lessons. Um, so the jewelry making lessons are a program that we offer and you can work with Alyssa. Alyssa is fantastic. You

053can get a series of classes and she'll work with you to design based on your skill level. Uh what a fantastic experience in a fantastic historic space. Um we've owned since 1910 the Consequent Historic Site Nature Walk uh the landing site of uh the the English settlers the first English colonial settlers in New York State landed here in Southampton. Um, and so we've owned and protected with that since 1910. And we do a lot of programs, a lot of partnerships there, including um, this Pete Topping from the Bconic Baykeeper. And that's a picture of the chronolog. That's part of their uh, citizen science program to track sea level rise across the Mcconic Bay region. And so this is a fantastic place to do that. And um not only is it a beautiful place to to

054walk, to reflect on history and the the change that that area has seen over 400 years, but it's a beautiful beautiful place and you can help uh Bay track our environmental health and change by participating. Just pop your phone in there and take picture. So very cool. And um that uh site is in adjacent to a designated shelter sanctuary and 60 acres of very important rare maritime grasslands at the copious national wildlife which is just to the west. So a very important site not just for history but for for uh natural uh resources and u the the maritime ecosystem. Uh since uh 1959 we've owned and protected the Hollyy House and Gardens. So this is another 17th century building with period rooms. We also have special events programs. Right now it's open by appointment. Um

055and also seasonally we're hoping to get this open regularly again this year as everybody knows. Um we had a little bit of um some concerns structurally. those were addressed and and she's she's good. She's going to last another 400 years. Um but we're just working now on scheduling uh especially with construction going on. So, you know, if you got to see it, um please let us know. Everything's always available uh as long as it's safe. Um so, to conclude, I I just want to say please support us. Um, we we do so so much. And I also want to encourage everybody to support my my dear friends and colleagues at SAM and the parish and SYA because you you guys really we work together all the time and it really does every everything we all

056do together really makes this place what it is. And so we really depend on our community to to keep going. And thank you all for your support. And I hope to see you soon. Please come on Saturday. Um, it'll be really fun. Thank you. And now I would like to come to the podium. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Always a pleasure to present to the community, to the board, um, school of administration. So, thank you for having me. As she stated, my name is Andrea. the executive director of the Southampton Youth Association. Um, and I'm going to tell you a little bit about um, what we've been doing this year and what our goals are for the upcoming year. Um, we're requesting $460,000. That's about 85% of our budget. Um, the other chunk of our

057budget comes from Toko um, school district. Um, it goes to staffing, lowcost programming, um, employment opportunities, scholarships, um, and access. And so um I actually cannot see my side even though I'm wearing glasses. Um but it is important that um you know to me XY is not extra. Um XYA is essential to our community and it's part of what makes us unique and special. And so it started with a letter. I know I always tell this story but I think people need to hear it. XYA began it and was started by high school students. Um it was a very very trying time in the Hamptons. Richard Spooner, who was a former high school principal and superintendent, um wrote this letter um and he collaborated with some other folks in the community to use existing resources

058that were here. It was at a time when the district had cut funding for some out of school time programs because they didn't have the funding at the time. The drugs in the community were really, really spreading. And so it really started as creating a safe space for high school students to get together and be kids. And so since then, you know, it was run off volunteer work, volunteer, lots of parents in the community. Like this is a community program. And so it just continued to grow from there. Um I like to say that it is one of the only places in the communities where kids can now take their first steps and get their first jobs um and continue on into their careers. Um in 2020, we decided to go down and offer programming

059as early as 18 months. And so now we um offer programming from 18 months um through high school. Most of our high school support is through employment. We employ 14 year olds and so we employ from junior counselors. We also provide volunteer opportunities for high school students and employment opportunities year round. One of the things that some of the high school students say is that they appreciate the employment opportunities with SYA because when they have sports, they're able to still like maybe they're doing something in the spring, they can still do that, but maybe work another season and kind of be in and out. It's not something that like they have to commit to all year and are, you know, bound to in a way that they can't go have a very um work experience.

060So, I'm gonna have to probably get a little bit closer. Um so we this year we began a before camp program. Um that is a program that came from staff. So staff at the Southampton Intermediate School were saying you know it's hard for us to get to work and then for our kids to start at SCES which starts later than SIS. And I think that's one of the beauty like the beautiful things about SYA. We create programs that people need. We're all about filling the need. There's never been a time when somebody has called and been like, "We want this or we're interested in this." And we've been like, "Oh, no, you can't." But we wanted to figure it out. Um, this year we also started a volleyball program which was led by the varsity

061volleyball coaches here in the district. Um, we do vacation camps. We've done we've the spring break and the midwinter vacation camp. Um, and then our uh stay and play program, which is something that we want to expand. Um, we're doing at Sako. We provide a supper for all of those kids every single day. But that also came from parents and families saying we need an option. Um we didn't even know how we were going to do it in the beginning. Just kind of started it and figured and figured it out and we're still figuring a lot of it out to be honest. Um because afterare is expensive quite frankly and so we're trying to make sure that those kids get what they need are in a safe space are having fun and are having an

062enriching experience as well. But I will say because I need to say it in this space, we would like to expand that program to SCES. Um staffing that program has been very very difficult and so reach out as you hear about folks who um want to do that because families at SCES have also expressed um a one for that. This year we program um and then we did one event. We did our egg media event again. We needed more space than we did at SCS. Um that event is crazy. It's like this year we had 3,000 something eggs go in like 10 minutes. It's nuts. The kids like go running all over the place, but then we brought them all in. We did lots of arts and crafts. Um played music and we had counselors

063come in and a lot of the parents and the kids were really excited to see the counselors for the summer because they got to work that event which is what I'm saying like you got a chance to just work that event all year. there's still opportunities for the high schoolers that come to work with them in SYA. And so, um, all of our programs were the same. I mean, we do fall flag football for those who don't know. Um, we do spring flag football, wrestling. Um, the mini Mars basketball is run fully volunteered. Um, our board member and varsity coach Herman Lamson runs that program and the varsity boys basketball team volunteers their time to be counselors for that program to run. the team, they're like superstars to the kids. So, you know, I always

064tell people, nobody ever comes back to me and says, "Oh, I love Desa so much because I became, you know, an amazing soccer player." It's just not what they say. They talk about the relationships that were built. They talk about the safe and like friendly space that they were in with kids and families. Um, and they talk about like having a safe space for recreation, which is not just sports. We do, you know, the art programs. We do our drumming club, but they talk about being able to be someplace as a kid and explore in a really safe space. And when our kids have like really developed some interest, we we send them to the other programs, right? Like if you want to do something more competitively, we're willing to talk and support you through

065that. But we do the entry level, the fundamentals of those programs and we're proud to do it. Um, and it is a lot of fun. So, we had uh we've served 494 kids this year. That was about 335 families. And then we had 231 kids enrolled in summer camp. And then over 40 students um employed throughout the school year as well. And then, you know, we offer Oh, and I'm going to let you hear from some of the students and families real quick, but we also we offer lots of scholarships and opportunities for kids and families. Um, I know that it's not the most formal process, but we don't say no. We don't say no to kids. The guidance counselors from the school reach out. They give us a heads up about families who need

066support. Sometimes families reach out directly and say like, "Hey, this is what I'm doing. This is what I can do." We are a community program and so we will figure it out. Even if there's a parent, you know, there are a lot of quiet donations that come into SYA that we end up using, you know, for kids and families to participate in camp and other programs as well. So, we don't say no to kids. This is a yes place for kids um in our community. And so, I want you to hear a little bit from them. [Music] He shows us and then we do it. I like soccer and I do soccer at SYA. I like drumming because I like having challenges with drummer with audio. You can go to the gym and you can

067do art and um you can celebrate the holidays. I love Sy because I play football. You can go outside and you can play in the gym like and have super high. I love SYA because of the summer camp, live football, and my favorite counselor is Greg. I'm a parent at Tucker Hall and I love SYA. My kids go to their afterare. They do all of their programming. It's just a great organization that really cares for kids. Um, it's awesome and I'm very grateful. I love SYA for the after school program, Mini Mariners, flag football, all of it. Being here with the kids, uh, getting outside, fresh air, activities, uh, everything. They're always open to what the community needs and they provide a safe, low pressure place for children to learn new skills and students. I

068love SYAi because of all the well-rounded programming that it brings to our community and all of the relationships it helps nourish between both the youngest of kids and older kids in our community. Thank you for showing that. I mean, there's there's really like no way to really to capture it. Some of the parents were kids in SYA and then counselors in SYA and it's just um it is you know we talk about like the out of school time program a lot of people like the disconnected but when kids can't be kids and when kids are stressed and when kids can't be themselves they can't learn and so having these spaces are really important to support the learning as well in school and so we we plan to continue doing that with their support and and

069we appreciate the kind words from all of our families as Um, I did talk a little bit about some of the scholarships. Um, in 2018 after Reverend Dojo was my dad passed, we decided to establish a scholarship fund. We give two to three scholarships every year to high school students. Our scholarship is based on service. Um, it's not based on grades and that's intentional. Um, it is based on service to our community. And so last year we gave three scholarships. We were proud to give $2,000 each last year to those three students. Um, and then like I said before, we give year- round scholarships to summer camp. Sometimes partial scholarships, sometimes full scholarships depending on family need. Um, so that children can participate in programs and that parents can work and do what they need

070to do as well. Um, like you know guilt-free, stress free, it is hard to drop your child off and trust them in the hands of someone else. And so we try to make sure that we're creating those spaces and parents are always, you know, providing feedback so that we can do it better. Um, just an example, last year we charge $400 for summer camp. The average cost for summer camp in Southampton is about $1,200. That's for a program that would run from 9 to 1. Um, if you don't believe me, you can Google and check the camps yourself. We charge $400 for five weeks. And so it is a significant difference. Um, we do charge out of district families double. I get a lot of questions about that. Um, we do that because they're not

071contributing tax dollars. And so we might even go up on that because it is still a steal, but we unapologetically do that because um, these this program is for, you know, our local kids and make it priority for our programs. Soccer Shots runs our soccer program, a very developmentally appropriate program for kids nine and under. If you go enroll in soccer shops, you're paying about 180 for the session. If you enroll in SYA, you're paying between $60 and $90 depending on our season. Our monthly stay and play program this year was $145 a month for families. Um, usually an after school program would be between $250 and $400 a month for families. And so again, we're working really, really hard to make sure this is sustainable over like the next five years. Um, but this

072is what we've been able to do. And so when we piloted Before Care, we did it for free. Before Care was free through December, we started charging $50 per child when January began. We weren't sure how it was going to work. It was something that we really felt like we owed and wanted to give to the SCES community. Um and so these are some of the price comparisons for so for some folks who either may not have children or may not be as familiar. Um this year we have some bagels. winning new bands. The bands that we've had, we've had for over 20 years. If you've been on them, you know they are, you know, the kids. Well, I won't use the the words that some folks have used, but the bands need to be

073removed. Um, we want to expand our stay and play programs. We want to increase our year- round scholarship availability. We're finding that there actually is more need of scholarship um for our programs. And we would like to also hire more bilingual staff. The high school staff that we hire often is bilingual, but we have more of a need to communicate more effectively with families and parents. And so we want to be able to do that. Um, and I also, you know, I want to thank everybody who invests in SYA. Like investing in SYA is investing in our youth. And so it's investing in the youth of the community. And it is because of the people in the room, the parents and the families that SYA exists. there isn't an extra million dollars coming from any

074place like this. This happens because of all the folks here and the folks before us who knew that this was a need and maybe for different reasons at the time, you know, it is still a need right now. Um, and so I appreciate all of you. I appreciate the feedback. I want to hear from you more. Tell me about the programs that you want to have. Give me the feedback. I'm not sensitive. Give it to me straight. Let's figure it out. Um, but I'm really excited about summer camp for this year. doing another five weeks and so that I don't get beat up by a whole bunch of families. We are opening registration in two weeks. I know you would like it earlier, but I need to wait for the budget because it's just a

075little bit of an incentive. So, thank you so much for your time and here's an opportunity. Before I turn it over to Mr. and go. I want to thank everybody for coming and uh giving us their presentations. And just a little personal note, Andrea, did I say right? And um I know your father's so proud of you. So much. And I and I'm sure everybody else's fathers are proud of them. You have done an amazing job bringing SYA forward into the future. And And next time the girls can come and sit with me. They can take notes. Um that being said, I am going to turn um to our next presentation. Mr. Mingo, you have a tough act to follow here, but take it away. Thank you, Madam Andrea. He's a clicker clicker. Uh I

076agree with you, Madam President. This is a tough active problem. Um SA sounds like a very fun place and I think I mentioned it before. Um recess was my favorite subject in school and I think I would have done well at SYA. Um, so the, uh, presentation tonight is basically a Q&A session. Um, I want any potential voters out there to have their questions answered. Um, I did several presentations before where I went into the details of the budget. So, this budget is a collaboration with, you know, all the building principles, uh, the directors under the leadership of Dr. program and in collaboration with Dr. Boter. Um this is a process that took several months um many many meetings a lot of analysis uh to get to this point. So um so I'd like to

077open up by saying congratulations to the class of 2025. I always like to start with that and uh something I learned from Dr. Morel. I'd like to open with a quote. Um, teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. It's a Chinese proverb. Um, I'm sure we all have been influenced by a teacher at some point in our lives. Uh, sometimes several teachers. Um, so I wanted to give homage to the teachers. So with the FAQ, so as a taxpayer, you you want to know what's the budget for the 2025 upcoming school year. So the total budget is 82,23646 uh compared to this current year which was at 79,937201. That's a yearover-year increase of 2,299205 which which represents a percentage increase of 2.88. Uh in terms of the tax levy, the tax levy

078for next year will be uh established at 64,839626 and that's compared to this current year uh for the tax levy which is 62,9431. I always want to remind everyone that um you know at this point we we asking the voters to vote under 64 million but there's always a possibility that that amount may be reduced that depends on how we close out this calendar year. If there is any fund balance remaining, uh I usually present that information to the board and uh primarily with the audit and finance committee and we make a decision on whether or not to give some of that funding back to the taxpayers. We did that last year when the year closed out. So that's why we got the voters approved 63,94331, but ultimately we only taxed 62,9431, which was a

079million dollars lower than what was exported um back in May. Um so the again the prop the proposed um tax levy increase is short of $1.9 million yearover-year and that represent 3.2% 2% um increase. The amount that we're requesting of the voters is the maximum amount that we can request under the tax levy laws that's established by New York State, the New York State governor. Um the 64 million839626, that's the maximum allow. Um, and that's also the 1.9 million is the maximum year-over-year increase that we could ask for, which is equivalent to a 3.2 3.02% increase in terms of of a taxpayer. So, if your house is assessed at let's say $2 million, your school budget for next year will be $4,3714. Again, if we decide to reduce the tax levy, that amount would be

080less by whatever that amount is. Um, compared to this year, a $2 million house will um the tax levy for that house or the school portion of the tax bill would be 4,24540. And in terms of the tax rate, your tax rate year-over-year will increase by 1.45% 45% or $6241 for a house assessed at um 2 million 021 925. The next slide is a breakdown of the New York State aid portion of the uh budget. Um the governor or the state legislature just voted the budget for next year and that component which is the state aid assigned to the schools come out of that executive budget from the governor's budget. Uh it doesn't represent a significant portion of the school district budget. It's only 4%. But you know in terms of dial value it's about

0813.3 to3.4 million. Um so what we asking the voters in um proposition one is to approve the budget of 82 million23646. That's what all the voters will be voting on on May um 20th. So that's proposition number number one. Proper position number two will be to uh fill two positions currently held by um Mrs. Cara Cland Winfield and Mrs. Jacqueline Robinson and whose terms expire on June 30th. Propos proposition number three is to take some money out of the capital reserve to do a number of um well actually that's the capital reserve for property acquisition which was the funding source that we used to purchase the district office and also renovate the district office. So there was about $860,000 left in that reserve. So, we're requesting to use the balance to do to finish the

082work in the district office. The next proposition number four is to use some funding out of the 2017 uh 10-year capital reserve. Again, there are a number of projects about 11 projects that will be funded out of that reserve. Proposition number five um addresses the capital the use of funding from the capital reserve for technology. Um again this funds you know smart panels um workstations, iPads and other equipment for the school district. Proposition number six is from the uh Capital Reserve for the bus replacement where we requesting um to purchase two 24 U passenger buses and one activity or coach light um bus in the next school year. And um proposition number seven is to reestablish the bus reserve because those reserves are set for a 10-year period and we had some last lapses in

083this one. So we're reestablishing um the bus reserve uh for another 10 years. And as a reminder um any funding coming out of the reserves have no impact on this year taxes. So these are funds that were set aside for a specific purpose, but the only way for us to make use of those funds is to come to the voters and express the use of the funds and have them vote on it. But it has no impact on this year's taxes as a reminder. And just as I started, I'm going to end the presentation with a quote. Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. So, first I will ask the board if anybody has any questions on anything um related to the public hearing only right now. So, I will

084so I will open um up to public comments. Public comments will now be heard on the 2025 2026 budget presentations. If anybody has any questions or comments, please come up to the podium, state your name, and ask your Congratulations to everybody on the work you're doing with these museums. It's amazing. Thank you. I'm Denise Williams. I'm the director of education for the Chinatown Nation, a community member and a collabor collaborator with the Southampton School District. We've had an amazing year uh growing closer together. I really do have to say to everybody, thank you Jamie, thank you Jean, thank you Dr. Morell, thank you everybody. One of the things that I didn't see in the budget was uh the Yale University uh 3 to five year plan. Um, it is something that we engaged in under

085Dr. Dino's administration. We were promised to uh continue this. It was not going to be a one-stop, you know, new box of crayons every year kind of thing. We're supposed to continue. The assessment year is completed. They have included both the uh assessment and evaluation of communication input from the community, the Shin community and the teachers and staff and administration for Southampton. We're waiting to present Dr. Cutter and Dr. Vel from Yel University are both waiting to present their findings. They are very concerned about the things that they have uh that have been revealed to them. Let's put it that way. Uh they have offered to come and speak at the board. I think we owe it to the community. We are using their tax monies to pay for it. We need to have them

086here to talk about and discuss their findings. Guys, this is Yale University. I mean, we are so privileged to have had them. I asked Dr. Carter what it typically would cost for such a a great implementation of services that support the needs of a school district. And he said typically such uh service delivery would cost like $500,000 and up per year. He is cost he is not charging that much at all. Yell University is picking up the uh over 75% or greater of the cost and we're just asking that the budget include the monies that they have requested as was promised under Dr. Dino's tenure and supervision superintendency. Um and that's it. Uh I have the report, you guys have the report. I've been sharing it with some of my uh colleagues in in the

087uh Shinnikov community. I also know that a lot of the findings from that report would address some of the community concerns. I'm going to leave it that way. Um and I would just ask the board to discuss it again to revisit what was promised in 2023 24. It also ties into your tri-state findings that were delivered and spoken about in 2024. The findings are similar. The basis from which those findings were obtained diverse only in that the Yale University study included community input. The tri-state study only included the school staff and administration. Yet, there were lots of things that were similar in the findings that needed to be addressed. We should also report out on the recommendations of Tri-State as well. So, uh, my ask is please revisit the Yale University budget promised for a

0883 to fiveyear implementation. We specifically spoke when we uh, first went into this saying we did not want a new bicep crayons every year. We wanted a three to fiveyear plan that would really address support staff concerns that underpin a lot of the uh frustrations and anxieties that uh exist amongst both the community as we know and the staff as we know through these uh evaluations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other questions on the budget presentation this time? Okay. Okay. Then um so we will end the public hearing at 7:54 p.m. And I reconvene the regular meeting at 7:54 p.m. The board is returning from an executive session where the employment history of of particular people was discussed. Will the clerk please call the role? Cara here. Robertley here. Proctor to Jaclyn Robinson

089here. Sumi Sherwood here. Germaine Smith here. And Ruth B. White here. Thank you, Mrs. Pearson. Does the clerk have any additions or deletions to the agenda? There have been no additions or deletions to the agenda. Thank you. The next board of education meeting will be a special meeting on Thursday, May 15th, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. in the district office conference room number 218. It is anticipated that the board will move directly into executive session for the discussion of the employment history of a particular person. The work session meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at 6:30 here in the intermediate school library. The 2025 annual budget vote and board of education election will be held on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the intermediate school music room. Absentee

090and early voter ballot applications are now available on the district website or by contacting the district district clerk for more information. Voter registration will be held in the district office on Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. That's tomorrow. If anybody needs to get out and register, come on down to the new district office. Uh, the high school honor art honor society indu induction ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 8th at 6 pm. The high school cornhole tournament will be held on Saturday, May 10th at 12:00 p.m. A meet to candidates night will be hosted by the League of Women Voters on Tuesday, May 13th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. here in the intermediate school library. Southampton High School will host a college essay master class with Dr. Austin, assistant commissioner of

091office, office of access, equality, and community engagement services on Thursday, May 15th at 5:30 p.m. at the high school. I really encourage all parents to please bring your students to um learn about writing college essays. It's an important skill to have, not just for college, but uh writing in general. The elementary school will present Disney's Frozen on May 16th, 2025 at 6 p.m. Dr. Mor, would you like to introduce our next program presentation? Absolutely. Thank you, Madam President. You're welcome. If any of the presenters would like to head out right now, I'm not asking you to leave, but if you would like to go home, feel free to leave at any time. And thank you again for coming. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to introduce At this time, I'd like to introduce the

092um electric bus presentation. Yes, we have uh Mr. Adam Kaufman from the Wendell um company. Hi, we're looking to hire his firm as a consultant about the electric bus um implementation that is a requirement by u the New York state government. Um he'll talk in more detail about the process. Sure. Um yeah, so like Jean mentioned, my name is Adam Calfman. I work for Wendle Companies. We're an architecture and engineering firm. Um what I discussed with Gan was uh New York State has a mandate about uh their bus fleet and their conversion to electric vehicles by 2035. That's the mandate as it stands today. Basically what Jean's talking about is a study to look at what it would cost the district and what the district would have to do in order to make that transition

093to electric bus fleet. So um at this point basically it is um subsidized by the New York Research and Development Authority in NAERTA. Um so they will pay for 75 to 100% depending on your district status um for that study and really it gives you a road map. It gives you information. It allows you to make informed decisions. Um right now as it stands today the New York New York has mandates for 2035 to be fully electric busy. So I know it's kind of late. I could go into more detail that would bore some people, but um is there um anything more that the board or people would like to hear? So, can you speak a little bit about the other districts that you're working with? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, I you know, and when

094I was when I spoke with Dean, I had a presentation up that showed a little bit about it. Um so, like I said, this is a New York state mandate. You are not the first district to have uh this conversation. Um so, Wendill itself is working through this with districts throughout the state. Um, we're headquartered in Williamsville, Buffalo. Um, and we have offices throughout New York State. Uh, the local office is Hop Hog. That's where I'm out of. So, um, we're working with roughly 50 districts throughout New York State and 17 of them in Long Island. Um, we're working with East Hampton, we're working with Sag Harbor, we're working with Minnola, we're working with South Hunting, kind of scattered all over 17 total districts. Essentially um each year the district has reporting requirements of what

095the progress is for um you know the work you've done in that space and how you plan to accommodate that transition. So this plan again uh it it helps to make informed decision help to meet reporting requirements. It also brings additional incentives when it comes to making that transition. So if you do this study you get uh more incentive money for buying the bus and you get more incentive money for buying chargers. Um, and it also gives you a little bit more tools as a district if you had hurdles to making that transition. So, you do the study and you had an issue that you needed to communicate to the state of why you wouldn't be able to make that transition by a certain date, they give you a two-year extension for certain things. So,

096this study again, the state wants it to happen. Uh, New York Research and Development Authority, NAERTA, is tasked by the state to make sure that school districts get the resources they need to understand what this takes. Um, and basically my firm helps with that. Um we do an analysis of the routes, every single route, every single bus where they're driving, the distance, the duration, uh the battery capacity that would be required to drive that, the charging requirement um in order to use the bus in the morning and then come back and use the bus in the afternoon. So, uh there's a lot of analysis, there's a lot of working with uh the local utility, PSCG, which we have a very strong relationship with. Um and they have incentive programs as well, rebate programs that will

097help to subsidize the capital impact on the district. Um so again, overall what what what I'm presenting on today is a transition plan, a study to give you guys kind of a road map of what that would take to make that transition to a fully electric bus. Thank you. Do any of the board members have questions? Question. Um I remember you a couple years ago I believe that you came here correct it was a different company. Oh different company. I'm sorry. Okay. I'm going to add you so I apologize but maybe you could talk to you could speak about maybe this is out of your purview but the um infrastructure like as far as peace because I think when we visited this before the town wasn't quite ready for electric buses in the school district.

098So what has changed? Yeah. So, I will say this. I have not done a deep uh dive into Southampton as it as it is today, right? That's what this plan would definitely answer. I'll say this. Um PSCG has hosting capacity maps. They're maps which indicate the distribution capacity between each area on the island. So, based on where you are and the site that your buses are stored and that you need to charge at, um there's distribution infrastructure there and it has basically what that available capacity would be to charge buses. And as part of the study, we work with PSCG and we'll we'll submit, you know, different forms that say this is the amount of power we need. And say they said that's not available, right? They give us a cost of what it would

099take them to upgrade that distribution section, right? Because it goes back to a certain point where there's different um risers that lead into this. Um essentially, you'll have a cost and an answer of what it would take to get that power here. That's not a guarantee that that power exists today. Um so I don't know the answer that it does exist, but I'll tell you this. If you do the study, I will have that answer. Okay. Of the 17 districts or other areas, are there any districts that have started implementing electric buses? Yes. Um, and what challenges have they faced? So, there's a bunch so different challenges for different districts. Some people do have power capacity, right? In Long Beach, they haven't built yet, but they do have um, you know, they would need a

100megawatt. they only have 600 kilowatts in ter engineering terms here but um so power capacity is one of them. Obviously available capital capital planning is a big impact on districts here. Um you have distance uh limits essentially with a battery that you might not have with a diesel bus. So if you're going to go on a trip upstate, right, a battery electric bus probably isn't the right fit for that. But if you're driving routes that on a a regular basis, Monday through Friday, picking up students that are within that range that a bus would do, it's a perfect fit. So there's limits to the technology, right? There's there's capacity, there's charging limits, right? If you drive the whole battery in the morning and you need to recharge that for the afternoon, do you have enough

101time? Things like that. Um so there's technical engineering um hurdles. Um and there's there's capital planning hurdles that are associated with you know getting buses and uh purchasing them and getting the infrastructure here that that's needed. So um each uh district has their own kind of things that they battle with, but um it's definitely I wouldn't say it's turn the switch, right? There's there's challenges to it, but uh we we'll basically outline what it would take and and what you would need to do to get there. What about weather weather impact? Yeah. No, that's a great one. So cold weather uh basically reduces the range limitations on that battery, makes it harder to charge as well. Um what we do in our study, we're always studying worst case. So we're starting studying like zero degrees

102outside. So in our study, we'll say, hey, this bus won't work or these routes won't work. And that's typically going to say on a very very cold winter day, it won't work. It might work 90% of the time, but that's not as you know, you guys need to know on the most stressful day, can this, you know, pick up students and drop them off in the right areas. That's what's really important. So, it's a great comment. Weather definitely impacts range and it impacts charging rate. And, you know, what what we study is not what you'll find on marketing material, right? They may say 150 miles. We may say we're not more comfortable than 60 miles that that bus could drive. Do you know the mandate includes backup fuel fuel buses like regular like are we

103so the mandate includes all pupil transportation um and that is by 2035. So anyone that's transporting students is supposed to be an electric vehicle or actually it's a zero emission vehicle. Hydrogen would be acceptable but the commercial availability of hydrogen is is low right now. Really limits you to electric buses right now. And can you just remind me how long you said the study takes? study takes start to finish six months that has to go through an approval through NAERTA. So if if you guys so chose to uh you know uh go forward with this it would go through eight weeks of review process between us submitting it you guys looking at it getting it to NAERTA and NEERTA reviewing it approving it having a kickoff from that kickoff we budget six months till you

104have the report in your hand. Thank you very much I appreciate you taking my question. No problem. Sure. I mean, you touched base on like maybe using the bus or not using the bus for certain options like a long distance trip. What if you have an unforeseen issue and it's not on a long distance travel? Say there's an accident on the road and you're stuck in traffic for x amount of hours. Is there like a backup battery? How does it work? I want to answer that. Um, I guess my my best answer is if if you you know if you got stuck in 5 hours of traffic that would impact the bus. But I think the the the point of what how I would approach that there is, you know, there will be routes that

105we say, hey, if it's too long and there's traffic, we don't trust that it would drive it, right? That does exist. Um, and so when we say something will work, I think there's a level of confidence and safety there and how we model and how we account for battery capacity that that unforeseen circumstance would be accounted for there. So again, doesn't mean it works with everything and part of the study is answering does this work for me. Um, but as part of the model like and everything's not perfect, right? There's there's things no one can predict for, but the goal of what we're trying to do is account for those unforeseen and highlight where we don't feel comfortable. Can I just take it back? Um, just out of curiosity because I I really don't know

106anything about electric buses, but you see all these, you know, power charging stations all over the place for cars. Is are they universal? Do they work for buses or you have to have a separate one for buses? They will not. So, um, in general, chargers are not universal. They try to standardize it, right? There are certain port sizes and charger levels. talks to the rates of power that you charge at. Short answer is no. Um, you know, there's the right charger for a bus. It doesn't mean that one bus uses doesn't mean that some chargers wouldn't be compatible. It just means that not every charger is. Um, and there's different charging rates that a bus would want. So, those everyday chargers to charge your car isn't what a a battery electric bus would prefer. Question.

107Yeah. Basic question that people might get the truth. Is there a human on this bus? There is a human on this on this bus for now like operating operating. Good question. [Music] We're going to come up to public questions right after this. So you can come up and ask your question then. Sure. Um, so thank you. Uh, Jack was set out to be electric, but there's a certain year, right, that you can't purchase. You have to start purchasing them. That That's a That's a great point. Um, so, um, it's not only 2035 that all school buses on the road have to be electric. 2027, two years from now, no new diesel bus purchases. So, they give you eight years to kind of ramp up. Um, do you think having this study will help push those

108dates back a little bit? Because I don't think like the idea of electric bus and different but the infrastructure we have out here is going to be an issue and charging stations you need and now electric and every school district in the state doing the same thing. Um I I don't think our system on the east end has that capability. So by having this and then going back to the state and saying um listen we don't have the capability to do it even if we did purchase all the buses will the state then grant us um few years on that until it's all built up or so I'll give you my best answer here. I don't work for the state. That's first. Um but I um the study gives you tools right to communicate if

109you have issues right so if you need to go communicate to the state that it's not feasible to you for xyz reason right this gives you that substance to do that it's not the goal of what this is but it gives you you know the understanding of what it is I'll say more explicitly um there's a two-year extension if you do this study um and you have reasons that need to defer things that don't work things like that um so so gene if we were to move forward or do we have to we get some the board would have to make a decision. Um I have some very strong opinion about the whole process but I'll keep them to myself because I don't think the state is ready for this. I don't think there's the

110availability of buses if every district was to start the process. Am I correct? Uh I don't know the answer but I understand the concerns. Yes. But we have to go through the study in order to crystallize the vision. So we'll have to so we'll discuss it and then put it on for the next meeting. Mr. Captain, if you don't mind, may I ask this gentleman had a question in the back? Yeah. I just I just wanted to know is this a retrofit or is this brand new buses? And if there is a retrofit, how much is that and how much do new electric buses cost? I'll give you my best answer without giving costs. Um right now the study can evaluate both. We're typically evaluating new buses and I think there's probably I'll give you

111a gut feel I do not notice off the perfect $120,000 difference between retrofitting a bus that you're taking a bunch of old bus reusing as much as possible um compared to buying a new one. So it's it's it's an expensive process to retrofit a bus as well as buying a new one. So 120,000 unless you want to get and these electric buses are about twice as expensive as a regular bus right now about um again the state is subsidizing a lot of it. So again that kind of summarizes that all but um just a question I have a 45 foot RV and I have solar panels on it that help charge the batteries. Do these buses have that capability as well? The standard bus will not. Um that doesn't mean you couldn't get that made

112for it. But the the the standard bus product is not coming with the solar. It goes to the point of you know um being able to recharge it while it's out there in the sun for you know the issues that were just raised here in terms of um the length of the battery you know charging and um that is something that definitely helps me. out. I know um with the with the char with the solar panels down the middle of the top of the gloves. Yeah. No, I think they are the manufacturers. Again, this is a more bus manufacturer focused question. Um but they're evaluating that type of stuff. Again, it has cost impacts on the overall bus, but um if that was something I don't think it's commercially available to speak straight to it

113today. Uh but again, if it did exist, we would we would tell you what the impact would be. Thank you. Thank you everybody for your very thoughtful questions. Um and Mr. Cal for coming. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great night. Thank you. So next we've come to our public comments. Public comments will be heard on agenda items only 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 in public session discussions involving individual district personnel or students. All speakers are to conduct themselves civily. Obscene li obscene

114language, lialist statements, threats of violence and statements advocating racial, religious, or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated. Persons making presentation at board meetings will address their remarks to the president. They may direct questions or comments to board members or other district officials only upon approval of the president. So, if anybody wants to come up with an agenda item question at this time, please feel free. Okay. So, we will move on to the superintendence report. Yes. John, can I have the enrollment report? Good evening. So, our enrollment is down by three students from last um month. Uh April 1, we had 1,277 students and May 1st we have,74 students. We had approximately um seven students leave the district and four students entered for a net loss of three students. The four students the um

115exiting students are as follows. Four of them were from from Southampton High School. Three had housing issues and two of the three are siblings. and one moved back to uh their home country. Um at the elementary school, we had a prek student move back to their home country temporarily, but the family says they will be back. And at the intermediate school, we had two students, one transferred to Tucko school and one moved back to their home country. That concludes my enrollment report. Um, I would just like to um highlight just the amazing, wonderful opportunities that we had in Albany this past weekend. Um, as we were designated by the New York State Education Department as a My Brothers Keeper community, um, our students, we had two of our MBK uh, students become state recognized fellows.

116Um they were able to shake the hands of the regents, the chancellor, the commissioner, and to be in fellowship with over um 80 different school districts representing 1,000 um people at the conference and um be in fellowship with their fellow brothers across New York State. There are only about 40 MBK communities in the state and we are one of them and I am very proud of the work of Sean Smith and Dr. Marine Fuentes, Natasha Jeff and the district community um for their leadership and their work. uh the Shenik Nation for all the work that we have done collaboratively. Trustee Smith, his leadership and his thumbrint on the action plan. Um also Chairwoman Gory the Thank you. very powerful uh contributions to the action plan. We will share that with the board soon and then

117that action plan will be available to the community. Thank you. Can I just ask a question? What does it mean to become a fellow? You said we have um I forget the numbers on So, we have two that became Yes. So, we have we have we have um quite a few my brother's keeper uh students um that Mr. Smith has been working with for several years. They're about, you know, upward to about 14. The two and New York State fellows, you can't have fellows if you're not identified as community. That's the first thing. The second thing is that each district that is identified as a community are able to send up young men to uh um be recognized specifically by the state and they receive myriad supports. So they receive opportunities for mentorship. Um they

118receive opportunities for leadership development. Um internship opportunities, work, paid internship opportunities. Um and it's um it's grant funded. They do book studies with their fellow brothers across the street. virtual book studies they engage in when their voices are elevated and um they're just given a whole lot of guidance and support uh college uh preparedness and readiness opportunities as well and they're giving this a lot of guidance and support to lead in their community. Service is a huge component as well. All fellows have to develop a community service project and serve their community and it has to impact the community in a measurable way and that's what it means to be a fellow. Um the MBK community itself is a whole district approach to edifying all children and um our action plan actually speaks to literacy

119development for all children in grades prek. All grades all children should be reading at the end of grade three. We're looking at graduation rates um and how that's impacting all of our children. And so by becoming a MDK community, we're now able to compete for competitive grants that will cover a lot of the processes and approaches that we want um to you know to use in our in our district whole district approach. I think it's a great opportunity. I just was curious how um two would become fellows. So they're um getting a little more leadership training maybe and then they come back and share that with our local or am I Yeah, they um so each district based on your size you get a certain number. So larger districts get four and smaller districts such

120as ourselves we get two and they do they they speak at the state level. They meet with the commissioner. They meet with the assistant commissioner. they uh they represent our district on a state on a state level. So there's a lot of uh obligation that they have to make us up and we're very proud of them. Mario um Linares and um Nishan Williams, they are the ones to watch. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for taking them. I loved all of the pictures that you sent to us and your time there. So thank you. So, we'll move on to um our next administrator report. Um Mr. Mingo, do you have anything else you'd like to add this evening? Um I don't have much. Um all of the um items that you see on the financial

121agenda have been vetted by the audit and finance committee. Um we had our meeting last Sunday. So, if there are any specific questions, um I'd be glad to answer them. Basically, these are the same reports that we usually look at. If anybody has any questions, we'll um do that when we get to that section. Um Dr. Botcher, do you have any group? Um just something quick. Uh we're still engaging in our New York State assessments. So this week we continue our assessments for New York State math um 3 to 8 which begins tomorrow at the elementary school and the intermediate school. As you recall we went full CBT this year 3 to 8. So that's full computer I'm sorry we went full computer based testing. So all students are being tested um with the with

122their technology. Um, so that's been a transition and everyone's done such a great job from the teachers to the students to the um, administration has just been really great to watch, especially working alongside Julia herself to make sure that things run smoothly. So just big congratulations and uh, we continue um, AP testing at the high school. Thank you. Thank you. And also one more thing, it is teacher appreciation day. So, um I do feel like I need to say that and you know just recognize and extend my appreciation for the teaching staff and the TAs and the aids and all the work they do each day. Thank you. I know we have a few teachers here this evening. So, thank you for being here. And it's also, I believe, nurses appreciation day. So, we extend

123that to all the nurses that work in our district um and everything that everybody does for the kids because that's why we're here, right? Um and I know Dr. about you. There was a little glitch the first day of testing, wasn't there? Um, there was a glitch. It was a statewide glitch. Um, so the very first day of testing, there was a statewide um glitch in which many kids could not get on technology. So, we did have to postpone the test for a little bit so that um we could get everybody on. But we did we postpone for an hour and then it was up everybody. We just kept in touch with uh Eastern Kentucky. Great. Thank you very much. Yes. Can I just uh I want you didn't talk about um I know that

124on Sunday the bond exchange assessment survey that we did in the district closed and there has been a lot of you know conversation with the community. So I just wanted to see like how many participated like um anything that you wanted to share. I know that we haven't we haven't gone through anything. We haven't you know seen anything really to be able to evaluate but I just curious because it did just close. Yeah it closed Sunday evening. Um Dr. Merl and I actually already met with thought exchange. Was that yesterday or Monday? yesterday, one of one of the days, right after it closed. Um, we had an hourlong meeting with thought exchange to go through the data. Um, it there's a lot of information. We had over 800 participants between students, staff, and um, families.

125That's incredible. I just want to say like we're having last year, we had somewhere around 200. It's really nice that we had the participation that we had. So, that's great. Um, I look forward to seeing that report. Yes. And we'll definitely get that, too. Okay. Uh we'll move on to our committees and advisory committees. Audit and finance committee met on April 28th. Um and went through all of the items. Anybody want to report on anything or I just have one question for Dr. Sure. Um um is there any update on I did see on our personnel list um that we have a group now for our strategic plan for SIS? So yes, we have um not related to the strategic plan but for the Zipst um plan. Yes. So we've had two or three meetings

126thus far and we have another meeting on Thursday. So you will see appointments on the agenda for people um to be involved in that process. So, I don't have an update right now, but we had have had two or three meetings where we've reviewed data, chosen some goals, and then we'll continue on and then we'll be updating you as we um have something concrete to share, which should be in a week or two. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And I guess I'll report on audit finance. Okay, Jean, you did a great job. I don't really have much to report. I will report this that um we had zero findings on our audit. Awesome. So that is something very positive. Thank you. Thank you. The personnel committee met on April 29th and reviewed everything on the

127for approval this evening. Does anybody have any comments? Usually there is a retirement related to you too on the agenda too. Um and the merger committee has no new report. U Mrs. uh policy had a meeting on April 25th. We do have um a policy up for first reading and expedited adoption. I don't know if anybody wants to comment on that. I know we did touch base on it the last meeting. I think um it's the policy for the ex official student member of the board. Um does anybody have any questions or comments that they would like to make about that? Brian, do you want to sum up the policy and talk about I know we talked about it, but we went over the what you guys are going to have. what the final decision

128was on. And just to make everybody aware, if you're not aware, as of July 1st, the state is uh requiring every board in the state to have um a student member or one or two. Um correct. Yeah. So, uh thank you. We actually did meet as a team, as a committee, um to discuss the the policy. Um we I actually presented on that uh report and recommendations. I think it was a couple of meetings ago, but then we had to roll up our sleeves and discuss the policy. One of the the pieces that we discussed is what would the um selection process be. So, um we spoke about how we would go about that and one of the things that we decided also the number of of students and exitio students. Um we did decide

129within policy that it would be best if we had two students that would be on this board because we know that things come up, things happen. And so just in case that there were any conflicts, we would always have a student present. Then we also spoke about the selection process. Um the superintendent Dr. Morell and I would be leading that process. Um once our policy is adopted, we would uh be soliciting interest from our student body. Our students would apply to um apply for the position. They would then come before an interview committee that would consist of Dr. Morell, myself, and um other design on there. And then from there, we would be making a recommendation to the board of education um for our student selection. And we would like as part of that after

130we make that recommendation to introduce the students to the board of education and have them here presenting and being able to answer questions if need be um as well. So, looking forward uh to that and hopefully we can roll up our sleeves. And I do know and I was looking around the room because I know we had some students that were here earlier. It was getting late that were very interested in this policy tonight. So, um certainly we're we're looking to uh explain this to our students because we have a couple hungry students that would like to um have their voices be heard and be a member of this board. Fantastic. We also we also discussed during that to have possibly the um possibly the the term staggered so that it wouldn't be uh correct

131one student for four years a nth grade student going through to give more students the opportunity to experience. So it's a fouryear term. It's a one year term. So like you would say maybe have a junior and a senior and then and not have the same ninth grade reapply year and get that right position to to keep it there. And then the criteria was they just had to be in the school for at least one year at least one year prior. So and that's prior to the um election or submitting interest you have to be a bonafide student of the district for a minimum of one year. Thank you. I have a question. Um Jackie and I were at the actually at the misba um conference, the national conference and we met a couple of

132students that were um on representing their school boards and is the process just a one one layer interview process because the kids that we talked to actually were two three layers. So so we spoke about um the layers in terms of an interview process coming to us and then that next piece would be what with that recommendation coming and be put forward as well. But um as part of that we would be presenting our recommended candidate. So we were looking at that two phase process. Okay. Question. I just like to say I wasn't in this as well as that one to me. Um, and I actually got the chance to sit in with um, a student that's already on a board, I believe in Buffalo, and we ended up being paired up for a activity

133um, to just basically see how could we spread word, what are some ideas that may be innovative to get all of the students K through 12 involved. Not that they're going to be on the board, but it can be inspiration. Um, and within that we came up with the idea of a podcast and maybe having the one or the two of the students to go to each school. Each school would have a representative and they would take whatever data on whatever topic they're concerned about or would like to see in the district. Um, and they all bring it to the table and have a little podcast. This way it could it could be um like a multiaceted learning experience for all of the students and it would give the students a voice and then when

134they grow up they might be on the board. Um so that's one thing and then the second thing is um as first year board members do come on board we're supposed to have a mentor um as adult board members. So I really would think that it would be a great idea for the students to be assigned a mentor of one of the board members. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. We did really meet a lot of amazing students at the um conference in Atlanta. It just was is eyeopening the the way that they speak and you know their thoughts and expressing it really was very beautiful. Um that being said may I have a motion to review policy 2245 exeicio student member of the board for first reading and adoption as presented. Second. All in favor?

135I Any opposed? The motion is carried. We have no policies for a second reading this evening. May I have a motion to review policy 9240, recruiting and hiring and policy 9240R, recruitment and selection regulation for a first reading is presented. Second. Any discussion? I just have a question. What um there's some changes and there's there's a hiring. What's on what's difference now between the hiring committees and this is there is it just cleaning up the paperwork on it or No, there was no policy. Okay. There was nothing. Yeah, because I know we had some I just didn't know. Yeah, it was it was a full it was a full creation of policy policy that existed when you pull it up. You can see the red line changes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But on just I'm looking

136at the red line changes because like on um administrative positions we already had committees but there's I guess that just stays in red even though it's not chang as you can see it's totally lined so the policy did not meet the needs of the district. Okay. It was not in our needs like an overhaul of that entire Okay. All right. Yeah, cuz I just thought because there was hiring committees already. I just thought some of that would have been in black, right? Not all in red. The hiring the hiring, I know, like we had parents and the chikok um but the selection was a little was a little willy-nilly. It was it wasn't it wasn't systemic. It was ch it changed too much. There was no concrete hiring process. It was just there were too

137many changes from committee to committee. That's something that we wanted to address when I came in. Okay. All right. That's our GI questions. Yeah. It's more systemic about how we pick them, who's going to be there, and why. So, it's more equitable. Yes. Any other discussion? Um so all in favor I any opposed so carry policies currently under committee review um the policy and the regulation I just we just um approved for the first reading that's 9240 and 9240R policy 224 45. We just prove that. No, we didn't prove it first. The student one. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Right. No, that's okay. Um, so then we have policy 5695 students and personal electronic devices. Please everybody read the policy and um send in your questions, comments, come back when we uh bring it

138up again. It's going to be an important one with changes coming from the state. Policy slated for committee review. Policy 4531, field trips and excursions. Policy 4531R, field trips regulation. Policy 4531E.1 field trips exhibit district field trip approval form. Policy 4531E2 field trip exhibit parent approval form. Policy 43E3, field trip exhibit checklist and response. Policy 5300, code of conduct. Policy 5420, student health services. Policy 5420R, Student Health Services Regulation. Policy 6640, Inventories. Policy 8414.6, idling prohibition for buses and other schools. Madam President, I just um I just want to say, you know, publicly code of conquer has been a subject matter for many, many years, 70 at least as long as I've known. And I would really like the policy of the district to make it a priority to move forward with code of conduct

139and get something done within the year. Maybe not this year, but definitely within the next 12 months because it's really it's something that's been discussed at Nauseium and we've got to really um work on it. Thank you. Consent agenda items. Are there any consent agenda items from 1201 through 12.25? 25 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about. Are there any consent and excuse me any consent agenda items from 1201 through 12.25 that any member wishes to hold out for separate action? May I have a motion to approve consent agenda items 1201 through 12.25 as presented in the agenda? Motion second. All in favor? Any opposed? So car. Are there any financial items from 13.01 through 13.21 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about? 133 and 1312. just um Barnes

140& Noble. What are we using Barnes & Noble for? Other than obvious the obvious books, but more specifically and I apologize that I that you didn't get my hands up. Um I thought I sent an email, but apparently I never sent it and I was looking for the response, but I don't need to drum this up if I see 1312 in there. You see Barnes & Noble, one for [Music] was curious about digital provisions 18,000 [Music] well it's on the salary one So if you look at the summary, let's see on the first page, Barnes & Noble 12,139 digital provisions about a little further down 118,000 and then just curious and then the SL Barnes & Noble again 1312. I love Barnes & Noble. So, it's just we bought restoative practice books um called Circle

141Forward for the district for all the employees um to utilize in their classrooms. So, that was part of it. I think that had to be purchased through Oh, okay. A lot of times we get that stuff through publishers. So I was just surprised to see it's available. Great. Thank you. Oh, what about um the other one? The digital I just lost it. Digital provisions used for the security. I'm thinking it door. Yeah, it's a warning system uh for the doors and to alert the security staff when doors u are kept open. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, any other questions? Are there any financial items from 13.01 through 13.21 that any member wishes to hold out for separate action? May I have a motion to approve financial items 13.01 through 13.21 as presented in the

142agenda? Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carried. Are there any personnel items from 14.01 01 1-6 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about. I will hold out personnel item 14015 for separate action. Are there any other personnel items 14.01 through 4 or 6 that any member wishes to hold out for separate action? May I have a motion to approve personnel items 1401 1 through 4 and six as presented in the agenda? Motion. All in favor? Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve personnel item 14.015, 015 the retirement of Joanne Robinson with regret and gratitude for her 24.7 years of service as presented in the agenda. Second second all in favor. Any post? Motion is carried. Thank you Joanne. [Applause] Are there any personnel items from

14314.027 through 46 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about? Are there any personnel items from 14.027 O2 7- 46 that any member wishes to hold out for separate action. I have a motion to approve personnel items 14.027 through 46 as presented in the agenda. Second. All in favor? I I any opposed? So car. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 1st, 2025 public hearing, the April 1st, 2025 regular meeting budget adoption, the April 8th, 2025 special meeting, and the April 23rd, 2025 work session meeting, Eastern Suffach Boseies, I'm just going to say ESBO CES because I forget what the acronym is now. I'm sorry. Budget board vote as presented. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion is carried. We are now at our second

144round of public comments. 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 in public session discussions involving individual district personnel or students. All speakers are to conduct themselves civily. Obscene language, liable 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 board of the president, I'm sorry. Uh,

145please come up to the podium, state your name, and as I regulate, um, Sean Smith, uh, teacher, Shikok advocate, uh, Shik Nation member, Stockton graduate, and MBER. Um, so I just had to come speak tonight because I saw this anonymous letter that went out to the community. some of the community um I didn't but there was a lot of false information in that document I just had to address specifically when it comes to NDK just because it's something I started here in 2019 uh along with board trustee Smith um in this letter it said that the liaison positions were a part of MDK that's not true uh our liaison positions myself the elementary high school leaison uh that comes through our sha contract that's number Uh it is grant funded so tax dollars don't pay

146for our trips. We actually use grant money and we actually go out and find partnerships to take our kids to DC to take our kids to New York City. There are kids all around. Um especially the DC trip which those you guys were here years ago. We used to do the DC trip for our eighth graders. We stopped before our current seniors were able to go. Those kids, a lot of those kids were able to go with me this year to DC funded completely outside of district. Um along with that there was you know complaints of uh segregation. That grant actually is only for indigenous students. So I wrote the grant again in 2019 and we've had it signed twice uh under the previous superintendent. Um still supported by Dr. Moron's board. But that grant

147is allocated only for indigenous students. So, at the end of the year, I have to write a whole report on who the money went to, which students, how many, what percentage of our population actually involved in the program. Um, it's for primarily for boys, but we do service girls as well through our tutoring program, which is K to 12. Um, we've helped kids graduate that need credit over the summer by helping them get credit hours through the NBK budget. Um, we have amazing tutors that are not just Shancock tutors, that are not just tutors of color. Um, We have mentors that are not just Shinikai mentors. Um so some some other inaccuracies in um NBK communities started the conversation started two years ago under Dr. D. It was again supported by Dr. M's board but

148it was done prior to so I just find it very interesting some of the complaints that are being thrown out there and allegations that are being thrown out there. um NPA communities now will be for all students. Again, priority will be for young men of color, but it will be open for all students. And when I say priority, I mean like the hiring, the curriculum, the topics we cover. It's meant for young men of color to learn how to survive in this world. Um, we also have been targeted for our native for our native students, black and African-American students, most recently our Latino students. So for someone to have issue that we are focusing on those populations, I think it's an issue itself. Why would we not focus on those students if we know there's

149an education gap there, right? Can I just interrupt you for one second? What you have to say is very important. Um, your timer did go up. I'm going to give you another three minutes. Thank you very much. I appreciate um a lot of those students have been forgotten. So why not focus on them now? If we uplift them, we uplift everybody, right? Um, so my ask is that our administration and this board continue to support these programs that are vital for our young people because again they have been left behind in certain cases and we are trying to bring them back up. So, thank you. Sean, do you mind clarifying like the target what targeted means, you know, cuz um I don't think everybody understands what that Yeah. So, we say, sorry, can you guys

150hear me? Yeah. Okay. So, when we say target and Dr. B, I know you involved this as well, so I'm wrong and clarify. Um, but when we say target, we mean there's an educational gap between our Caucasian students, our black, our Latino, our Native American, and then also our um financially disadvantaged, right? All those groups we've been targeted over the past, I want to say six years, J, right? Native and black students was back in 2019, 2020. No, yeah, we had like three or four years of not having the identification. Correct. And then now Latino and Yes. So that's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. We got flagged on the test scores lower and that's and that's what we're going through now. Oh, I actually have one more thing to add really quickly. Um, also the

151MK community meetings were open to everybody. Um, a lot of you guys showed up to the very first one. Those meetings went to the whole community through parent square, I believe. Um, as well as us personally reaching out to people. anyone could have been a part of that plan to put together what the needs were. Students had to have a voice. That was one of the key things that every step of the road you had to have. So, a lot of our MDK young men and our Black Girl Magic uh young ladies were a part of those steps. They donated their nights, came here and spoke about their experience. Um so, for anyone doesn't happy with this, they could have been here and been a part of that conversation. So, I I just hope again

152that we're not swayed by an anonymous letter. Um Thank you. Thank you. And I like how you say that the students um I'm sorry because I have like the attention of goldfish sometimes, but they donated their time and I always say to the students that come to our meetings that your time is your most valuable asset and for you to donate that back to for a cause bigger than yourself is amazing. So I applaud all the students that did that and came forward. So thank you. I think I see a few over there. But and they and they donate a lot of their time. Our meetings are after school, right? Our trips are on vacation. Like we've donated a lot of the kids have donated a lot of their time and the mentors have been

153amazing. Some of them are here. Um so I just think everyone's support the Shintop partnership has been amazing and will continue to be amazing community. So thank you to everybody. Thank you. I just while we're in public comments, I will um my own public personal comment. I don't put much value in anonymous letters. Um, the letter was sent to me via a text message. Um, I didn't receive it any other way. I spoken to a lot of people over the weekend that knew nothing of the letter other than what came out in the press. Uh, but again, I don't put value in a nonity. If you have something to say, you come come to our board meeting, stand at the podium, ask your questions, and get the answers. Um, I spoke at length with Dr.

154Morell about the letter, and my comment is no comment because I'm not going to value an anonymous, you know, dialogue that you can't come and ask us. And I, you know, so that was I did not say anything publicly. That is my public comment, but I'm not going to comment on it because come to the meetings. I always beg people to come to the meetings and speak up. Um, that's my public comment. Good evening. Good evening. Kiss. I understand um that this letter um is anonymous, but it is very concerning to the Shinik community. My name is Lance Gums. I'm vice chairman of the Shink Nation. I'm also the regional vice president for the National Congress of American Indian. Um, this letter was very disturbing in a number of ways, but what was even more

155disturbing was the envelope that we saw the letter came in. Um, there were printed names on the envelope. Shikai community didn't get an envelope. They didn't get this letter, but I know a lot of people in the community that did get the letter and we're questioning how the names were ascertained um for this for this letter. Um it's clear that there were segmented people that got the letter. Um, there were communities that got the letter and all of them had name tags which had to have come from someone in the school district. Um, there was no question about that. Um, you know, when we looked at it, the piece that you know usually says to the parents of blah blah blah, that piece was missing. Um and it's very disturbing to us in the shikai

156community that you know when we talk about taxpayer dollars and and these things that um we like to talk about all the time and you know it's always said that uh you know doesn't pay into the the taxes um that go to the school which obviously we do from from the state but it's very concerning to us that these um envelopes and these addresses were printed and it had to come out of the school district somewhere. And so we are requesting a full-blown investigation into this to find out who did this and how um these addresses were or whoever did it was able to get these addresses out of the school system. Um and we want that to happen. Uh this is not going to go away. It was a letter that, you know, really

157was demeaning to our community, to the black community, to the Latino community, and whether it's anonymous or not, they had help from inside. And as such, we want an investigation into that to determine who was responsible for leaking these um these names out to whomever this anonymous person was. But it was clear and it's clear that there was help from inside the school district inside I don't know where where how but it's clear and so we want this investigated and we're not going to just accept you know this these blanket statements that it was an anonymous letter and I you know I understand and we all felt that way you know if if the person is such a coward and all they feel so strongly about this that they couldn't get up in front of

158the community and really address this. You know, they're cowards, but nonetheless, they had help and that help came from within the school district and we want this investigated. Thank you very much. Thank you. I didn't ever see an envelope, so I was unaware of that. All right. There are envelopes. We have a copy of the envelope and it's clear that it came somewhere out of the school itself and we want it investigated. Thank you all very much. Christine Gory, tribal member and um Southampton school district parent again on her way out. Um um I was forwarded a text as well. Um, that's how I was. I was not only uh forwarded the letter from a parent that resides off of Shikok who lives in the town of South Afric um it was post and like

159Mr. Gum said there was a piece of paper that looked like it was cut from a law with just the name the address in Southampton town. Southampton, New York, and Ziplo. Um, she also made me aware that a few other mothers in her direct neighborhood also got the same. So like uh I'm not going to give any real value to anybody who cannot show their face in making these types of blanketed and um illiterate and negative statements um to a very strong community that um participates heavily amongst themselves and everyone else. So, but to piggyback on what was said about the um the um that I also agree needs to be investigated as to how those were obtained. Not just for the fact that it was given to just a um marked uh amount of

160people in in the community, but because that's a breach of uh personal information. that can cause a lot of issues to parents who have custody issues that are happening. These addresses are being given out to people um to do these types of malicious things and they don't even know the the impact that they have and the dangerous things that they could be doing by ascertaining this type of information. So, if you're not going to investigate on our behalf, um at the very least do it on that gap. That that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh Senica Bowen uh treasurer of the Shikok Indian Nation elected official also a community member of Southampton and I graduated K through 12. So long long time not as long as me I promise. Um, so one

161of the things that I wanted to address, um, uh, Vice Chairman Gums and a community member Gore pretty much stated that, you know, we're looking to see how someone was able to obtain, um, addresses because that's not something that's readily available. That's not something that's readily available to all of the staff this year. Uh so I would imagine that would be uh a select group of people that have the kind of access to address this to be able to send targeted uh information to spread this kind of misinformation. So uh Sean Smith spoke about um MBK and how it started and what was about and who actually approved that. And um part of it's a little disheartening to me because it says it's not about color. Uh but there's a lot in there that's directed

162at our superintendent who happens to be of color. And um I just wanted to say from the Shinik community that we do stand behind you. I know that when you first came in here it was a bit contentious uh as your your not so warm welcome to the Southampton community. Uh but Shinik still stands behind you and Shinnik also stands behind um all of the children of Southampton. Not just Shinnikok in particular. It's we want to ensure that all of the children that go to these schools, whether it's elementary, intermediate, or high school, are getting the proper education. We know that the school has been um highlighted a couple years and I'm not sure if they've been rehighlighted again for a different uh group, but it seems like a lot of the minority groups in

163Southampton are at a disadvantage, which is a shame considering how much money uh this school has, how big the budget is, the resources uh that this school has access to, and to find that our children aren't above at a level or above the level that everyone's supposed supposed to be is a shame. Um, and I know you guys are working to try and turn that around. Uh, but these type of letters that come out that target the minority communities here is really hurtful because we are a part of this community. I was just telling a couple tribal members and somebody else before, Shinik was here 13,000 years ago, still continues to be here. We're not ancestors. We are not history. We are very alive, very well, and we're going to be here for time in

164memorial. So, um, for for anyone to believe that somehow we should be viewed differently or somehow we're not a part of the community because we don't pay taxes in the way that everybody else does. U, I said this before, the town of Southampton is here because of Shinnik. The Shinik Indian Nation, just to give a quick history lesson, in 1640, we were here. We gave space to Southampton to be what it is today. Unfortunately, that that worked against us because we ended up losing a significant amount of our land uh and so on. But again, we're still here. We're still fighting. And to have something like that come out which is targeted against our community, very hurtful. And I hope that you guys take this matter very seriously uh and look into how or who

165may have been able to access you guys' systems to be able to give someone or whoever they were working with to kind of to get this letter out there. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening Lisa Glory chair Nation. First of all, I would like to thank Dr. else putting out the statement that you did in reference to this letter. Um, we we appreciate it. Um, but I think that letter would have been better received if it had come from the board itself. Um, madame president, no disrespect, but sometimes silence is not always golden. And I believe that an explanation or a statement could have been put out by the board to the communities that voted you in. So I just want to thank you again, Dr. Noah, for putting that putting out that statement. We

166are behind you and your success can only depend on the support of this board. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else want to make this evening? Is there any new business that is not on the agenda that anybody wants to bring up tonight? Um, yes. Oh, comments. Um, we have the wall of extinction um coming up on um this Friday night at 6:00 p.m. at the school. So um I'm on the committee. We have a lot of great people that are being inducted into the law here. Um Mrs. Develop was a teacher here for a long time. um Cara Romanowski who uh graduated in the the9 the '9s and went to Naval Academy and then uh started a nonprofit um help soldiers and people in the military. Um David Dull who um was a

167valid Victorian here and um ended up working for Exxon Mobile as an executive and had donated all a bunch of stuff back and he did the uh science equipment a few years ago. I'm sure Brian was here for that and knows very well and that was fairly generous. Um Judy Johnson who's still in the community and she was a teacher here for a long time. Um Kathy Masterson um who graduated from here. She's a you know awesome person. Was the AD in West Hampton for a long time. She's at East Hampton right now. Um of course Herm Lamison um is going to be inducted this year. Um, usually as a committee we don't induct anybody until they're retired from their job, but I think Herm has earned that after 500 wins to get in there.

168So, uh, we're very excited to see Herm and, um, Velas is the 1982 field hockey team who, um, who won the Class C and actually won the overall county championship that year. So, um, if anybody's interested in hearing about it and stuff, um, this Friday, it's going to be a great ceremony. Um, and then also there's Frozen next Friday. I know you guys mentioned in the elementary school my niece is one of them what is she Anna Elsa she's one of the girls I don't know which one but um going to be very exciting so I'll be checking that out and a lot of good things I just want to also thank everybody this week because we had our concerts last week um with the third and fourth grade and also all the intermediate school

169and music teachers and everybody do such a wonderful job um with all the strings things and the the instruments and it's it's really special to see that we have that stuff. So, thank you to all the kids and teachers that participated in that. So, Mr. What do you know what time the wall at this thing should have? It is at 6 o' I just um wanted to I know Dr. Moral spoke about this earlier, but I wanted to on behalf of the board to thank everyone who worked um over the course of um this year, maybe multiple years on the on us achieving the community status and um I know we'll be sharing more about what that means for the Buffalo district going forward. But thank you to the board members, parents, students, community members,

170staff who um put in a lot of time to achieve that. Thank you. Yes. Um, I would just like to say, um, again, speaking on the anonymous letter, um, I'm African-American board member, so I also felt targeted in that letter. And as an African-American woman, supporting our new superintendent, again, who was also African-American, I did feel like, and I did state it to the entire board that I felt the need for us to show the backing of our superintendent However, it wasn't done. So, that really kind of speaks volumes. Silence doesn't speak louder sometimes, just like the community member said. So, I really feel like going forward with our new board members, we need to be in support. We need to understand our our uh position as board members. We are here to support, hire

171and fire the superintendent, fiscal oversight, and what else? Anybody else remember the other part? Oh, okay. So, we're here to support our superintendent and I really feel like it was a a disservice to our community and I agree wholeheartedly with everything that every community member said up there and I believe that there should be an investigation. Thank you. Hello. Good evening, Preston Brown, Shinny Park tribal member, also an MBK mentor and um reading the letter, I was I was hurt and it cannot be called anything less than shameful, especially growing up in um graduating from Southampton High School and remembering the racist comments and even the um microaggressions that we had to face. And this was 82 that I had graduated and seeing that that is still prevalent here and now. And when I looked

172at the communities that are targeted, the black community is 1% in the school, and correct me if I'm wrong, Native American is 7%. So, eight, let's break it down individually. Eight students is going to cause who's also at the very bottom of the educational scale is going to cause an uproar in a community as wealthy and as abundant um as Southampton and resourceful. It's a shame because that letter was prejudiced and I thank you Dr. Moral for saying something and I have to also a minister when I look at it it's nothing but evil. It's contentious and it's dangerous and I appreciate because I was waiting for your rebuttal. I was waiting to see and you did an awesome job and I appreciate it for deflating all those lies. But also it's a board, it's

173consensus, it's leadership that really needs to make a statement and I agree with uh chairwoman Gory. But um man, I have to congratulate Sea, Miss Jeff. I don't see Oh, there she is. It's amazing what they do with these children. And when I come in, I'm a social worker. I can go into jails. I can go into uh treatment facilities, rehab, facilitate programs, and I feel confident going in, and I can speak and I can share. I had to step back when I went into this uh the classroom with the high school students because I have to relearn the culture. I have to listen to where they're coming from. And I just can't come out um the way that I normally present. And it's amazing how they empower our children, how they uplift our children,

174how they're work, they're working with our children for community organizing for community speaking, for building and finding a voice when a voice has been silenced for so long. And I just appreciate the work. And thank you for giving me the opportunity, man, because you guys are awesome. I appreciate Another mentor. Hello Brown. Um, addressing Madame President and the rest of the board. But since we have to address one particular person, um, you know, I really hope that you, if not to what was said here tonight, that you listen to your other board members, um, because the letter that was sent out is really showing a a deficit um, within and this word keeps getting brought up even within this meaning of community. And what does community mean if it does not mean that we do

175not value each other? Um if that does not mean that we uplift each other is if that does not mean that we help each other grow. Um and just listening to tonight that silence is not something that we can always take a part in. And believe me, I do understand um not giving that the attention, but because the communities that were listed within this letter were communities that are consistently to this day um to this very moment consistently silenced. Um that is not something you cannot be silenced with silence. Um, these are this was the time for you to step up. And you know what? How beautiful and unfortunate that someone was able to write this letter and feel that they were lacking, but beautiful because they didn't have to be here. They had the

176privilege of writing it anonymously. And I hope that they are watching right now because that still shows that the people who are here, it's because we have to be because we have to have a voice because we have to fight. And it's unfortunate that you feel because we are here and we show up that you are lacking. And once again, I bring that back to you. um just listening from community as well as board that you take the time to grow and that comes from the top to the bottom. And if you have a university as prestige as Yale who is offering this in professional de and at such a low cost, why would you not take that to be a that and that affects everyone within the community? That's not just one group. That's

177not just one student. It's not just students. It is students. It is all communities. It is teachers and it is each other here all of you and why would you not take that time that money to invest in that and I hear that my 3 minutes are up but that is really what I had to say. So thank you again. I know you've been waiting I'm I'll allow you to speak but we public comments were already closed but No, no, no. All right. I just have I just have one. So, yeah. My name is Michelle Johnson. My daughter's and my son went to school here. Um, and they went to board school. Um, my concern was about the history. What would four year olds need to know about Shikok history? And I think that everybody

178in this room needs to know about Shinnok history because we're here. We're here for that purpose. We're here. God put us here just like he put y'all here. And we have every right to have our history be explained to you so that you can understand so we could have a better relationship with one another. We shouldn't be dismissed year after year after year. And that's just all I have to say. And I think that it it would behoove you to do an investigation and really get to the bottom of the problem and root out those people who are still being so hateful. It's not necessary. That's all I want to say. Thank you. Thank you. And I thank everybody for coming tonight and um talking to us. Um we we are listening and watching what's

179happening and um we appreciate you being here. Thank you. At this time we've come to the adjournment of the meeting. Do we need to return to executive session for any reason? So, may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting at 9:20 p.m.? Oh, wait. I just May and we're really good at, you know, honoring different cultures and cultural heritage, but US, New York. May is Asian-American, Pacific Islander, and Jewish American represent. Thank you. So, may I have a motion to the meeting at second? All in favor? I. Any opposed? So, carry. Thank you. That