001Good evening, and welcome to the May 19th, 2026 meeting of the Spackenkill Union Free School District Board of Education. The board will take a vote to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's evaluation. It's anticipated that the board will resume public session at approximately 7:45 p.m. I'd like a motion to enter into executive session. >> So moved. >> We have a second. Thank you. All in favor? >> Aye. >> It's 5-0. >> Good evening, and welcome back to the May 19th, 2026 meeting of the Spackenkill Union Free School District Board of Education. I'd ask that you rise and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
002indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Item 3.01 is comments from the public on consent agenda items only. Public comment? Okay, and with that, we'll move on to any board comment on the consent agenda. Anything that needs to be brought to discuss further? Okay, and with that, I'll ask for a motion to accept the consent agenda as written. We have a second. All in favor? >> Aye. >> It's 5-0. >> With the passing of the consent agenda, we have uh just approved the knew math teacher at the middle school. Mr. Doughty, you want to stand up? >> Uh absolutely. Uh good evening, everybody. Uh yeah, we're really excited to have Katie uh DeCicco joining us. Um we were lucky that we had a we had a great pool of candidates. Um really
003exceptional candidates, and I got to say Katie really wowed us uh during the interview. Brought us a double blessing, so we are really excited uh to have her joining us, and we can't wait uh to to have this this format department. So, Katie, welcome to the district. >> Thank you. Very excited to join the team. >> Mr. Boyle, did you get to go for ice cream with the extra time? >> Not yet, but I'm going to my class. >> All right. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. Okay, with that, we'll go on to item 8.01, board correspondence. We have an email with regard to the senior tax exemption, which was uh answered by our school business administrator and myself. Good night. Uh that brings us to 8.02, comments from the public on non-agenda items.
004Okay, 8.03, comments from the board. >> Oh, sorry, I didn't get down. >> Just a quick uh comment about the Dutchess County School Board Association meeting I attended uh May 7th. Was it May 7th? So, the week before last. This was a meeting where annually uh all the representatives from the different districts uh talk about their budget um situation, so it was very interesting in the meeting to hear uh perceptions around the district. Um a A of concern, I think, across the district, as we talked about before, as I've noted before through these meetings, a lot of concerns about rising costs, increasing enrollments, and certainly about state aid. Um so, there was some discussion about that. Also, a real emphasis, I think, on the part of more than a several more than several um representatives
005at that meeting about the difficulty of of not reaching the tax cap. You know, um problems that they can create in the future uh for budgets. So, some interesting discussions that were illuminating to me. Uh just a quick read. Out there were 12 districts represented at the meeting, and of those 12 uh four are proposing uh caps uh that remain the same. Or I'm sorry, proposing tax levies that would be at the cap um limit. One district proposing uh an increase above the cap. Uh I think there might be two districts that were in the other district that was represented at the district taken to the poll. Uh but of the 12 that were there. And then, uh under the cap uh seven districts of the 12 are proposing tax levy increases below the cap.
006So, interesting discussion. That was just Oh, the other very interesting part of of uh that meeting was a presentation from our former superintendent, Mark LaVigne, about the uh big read project for next year. Um very, very interesting. So, this is something he's talked uh to us before, and he's talked around the county before about it. It's a production of a play. Um the reading of a play, that'll be the book that's been selected, and then there's going to be a production of a play. The name of the play at the moment escapes me. I'll let you know, Paul. >> The fateful hour? >> Fateful hour, there you go. Thank you very much, ma'am. Yeah, so this is the play that's about the constitutional convention in Poughkeepsie uh regarding uh you know, uh confirmation of our
007constitution, ratification of our constitution. Very, very interesting. He gave a little synopsis of that and the plan is to, uh, have, you know, people through the Poughkeepsie Library District, this library, uh, read the play and then there going to be a couple of performances that they're hoping to have in the fall or throughout the early part of next year, next school year. One for, uh, school population specifically and then one for parents. And they're going to try to hold this in part of our theater, but that's the plan anyway. So, there's a lot of interest, a lot of questions about that. If there's enough interest, could there be more than one performance? He thought that could be accommodated. So, there's there's some discussion. There'll be more, uh, more of those, you know, planning's ongoing, but
008there'll be more discussion next year about how we might be able to encourage uh, have our students attend uh, that performance. Uh, so, very, very interesting. It's nice to see Mark again, but, uh, really interesting to hear the discussion about this project that's just taking off. >> So, I met with him and he gave me a copy. I met with all the superintendents at one of my meetings and uh, we spoke about it and it's it's going to be something, uh, you know, with the 250th, it'd be a nice, uh, big meeting. I gave a copy to a social studies teacher. Um, and uh, and took it for a year and then they're taking a look at it. So, yeah, it's very interesting. It almost fell. >> Yes, right. Very close. If it were not
009for this convention in Poughkeepsie. >> Poughkeepsie was the capital of New York. >> That's right. >> So, a lot of fascinating stuff. The person who wrote it went and got my old student, went back, uh, to look at different documents, historical documents to sort of sort of the >> Records of the meetings, yeah. He found records of the meetings, yeah. >> Dan, didn't you see the play? >> I did, yeah. I saw the play a couple of summers ago and it was excellent. And then we had one of the actors in the play came to Todd, uh, was it in the fall or was it last spring, and kind of did a theatrical showing of, um, one of the founding fathers. Was it Jefferson? >> What's that? Yeah, Jefferson. >> Jefferson. >> Was it Jefferson?
010Yeah. >> Oh, he was in the play? >> Yeah. >> All right. >> Yeah, really good. So, they had really good actors. >> That was great. Something to look forward to next year. So, that's that. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Uh, got two quick things. First and foremost, if you haven't voted and you're watching this live, you've got 33 minutes to come down and support our budget and our board trustee. Uh, the other thing, Memorial Day's coming up. Uh, this one's a little extra special as we approach our semi quincentennial for our country. I hope we all have a chance to take this mini break to revive a little bit, to enjoy family and friends, but I would just ask that you reflect on the American heroes over the years, over the course of
011those 250 years and plus that have really, you know, made that ultimate sacrifice, and they're the reason why we enjoy the freedom that we do. So, I appreciate uh, all of all of our veterans, of course, but, uh, particularly for those uh, that we celebrate Memorial Day for. I hope we all just really can look back on that and appreciate what they've done for us. And with that, I'll pass it over to comments from the superintendent, 2.04. Try to make it easy. Maybe turn yours off and we can use yours, too, close. Let's see. Thanks. Hello. Um >> So, not much more. I would appreciate with the Mr. Collins said about the moral day that is coming up. Um and I would reiterate thank everyone who voted today. Thank you for voting and if you
012haven't already, please come out and vote. I appreciate the support from everyone in the community. And thank everyone for coming out to vote. And wish everyone a very happy weekend. >> And with that, I'll ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> All right, passes 5-0. Thank you. We'll see you on June 2nd.