Board of Education Meeting: April 14th, 2026

001Good evening and welcome to the April 14th, 2026 Bethlehem Central School District regular meeting of the Board of Education. I would ask that we please rise and join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, up first we have uh New York State Senator Rob Rolling here for basketball championship recognition. If you could give Stacy like 3 minutes, she left her phone in the car cuz we got to got to memorialize this great moment. So, if you have something wants to go or she's going to be back here in like 2 seconds. Is that okay? Yeah, absolutely. >> good. So, anyway, um So, give me the

002opportunity just to say uh a few things. I don't know if you noticed, but I am wearing my Bethlehem Central alum pin tonight, uh which I'm very proud uh to have as a graduate of this great school district in 1976. So, I am getting ready to celebrate my 50th anniversary of being a high school graduate, uh which was kind of a big deal for me cuz wasn't really sure I was going to be graduating on time. Um legitimately, I didn't think I was, and I did. Uh also to uh besides being of course a a proud uh Spartan, when I I went to all schools in the district. So, I went to kindergarten first, second, and third at Nassau, and then we moved, and I went to Martha Lawrence fourth and fifth. There wasn't a

003sixth grade, so there, so you had to go to Hagen. So, I went to Hagen for sixth, seventh, eighth here, and then the first class that went 9, 10, 11, and 12 at the new high school. So, the The thing about that was is that I had the opportunity to have friends in the entire district by the time I got to high school because I had gone to all the elementary schools that were there were there and there. Of course Martha Lawrence has been a free school for many many years after that. So I was blessed I was blessed to be you know a a Spartan. I was not a basketball player. I was track and cross country and mediocre with both but I I did it. And many of my good friends the late

004Terry Brown was a standout basketball player in '75 in '76 and we would go to the games. That's back when Spackenkill was in the Bi-Valley League and we would compete and actually did win every once in a while got got up into the top tier soccer team under then coach Neil Lorenzo was powerhouse and actually cross country was pretty good too. I was not good in cross country but there were really good runners in cross country and when I saw the the run that that you made wanted to make sure to be able to stop in tonight and to say thank you, proud of you and have some certificates to give you tonight from our senatorial office on the occasion of being the section nine uh class A champs and that was a big win.

005Remember reading about it in the Poughkeepsie Journal against Red Hook. That was like a really big accomplishment fellas. So really thank thank you for that on behalf of me as a Spackenkill boy and someone who you know worked here in the town of Poughkeepsie for 26 years as a cop did a lot in the school district of course and it's always good to be back here uh this middle school, former uh um junior high school. I have uh some just some congratulatory notes to uh the athletic director, Marco Lanzoni. Marco is here. He's not, so we'll put this here. Uh assistant uh head coach, Matt White. If he is here, Matt, please. For you. I'm happy office. Thank you so much. Uh you're welcome so much. Yeah. Coach Kenny Herrera. Okay. Uh I'll leave this

006up here for Kenny. Assistant coach, Josh Riley. Okay. Uh manager, Seth McMahon. And manager, Akil Wilkes. So, these are here for the management team. These are uh Senate certificates from our office. Um and I will And these also have a little congratulatory note. Also, um Jamie Gubaga. Jamie here? Is it Did I pronounce that right, Jamie? I did? That's right, sir. What What do you do? No, I got to get it right. What It's Bugba. Bugba. Congratulation. Want to come up here and I'll I'll hand it to you. You got to grab a pen, right? He's only a freshman, so it's okay. Okay, I didn't say that. Jamie, congratulations. >> Thank you. Here you go. With the Sir Jamie, right here. Yeah. Get a picture, Jamie. With the senator. I knew you'll be here for

007a while to make SURE YOU GET JORDAN SMACK. JORDAN NOT PRESENT? OKAY. DYLAN SULCER. All right, Dylan. Go on. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Martin McQuaid. Good. Yeah, good. Seth Zonda. Congratulations, Seth. Thank you. Good luck. Xavier Laura. Jaylen Thompson. Patrick Pagano. Jesus Amador. Just saying. Just saying. No, you're Okay, done. Nicholas Decker. Jeremy Acevedo. Acevedo, excuse me. Not here. No Jordan? Okay. Albert Hasbrouck? You're welcome, Albert. Thank you, Don. Great job. And is it Cason or Cason Cummings? Cason. He's not here. Cason, okay. So if Again, thank you for giving me the opportunity, Mr. Superintendent, school board, uh for being here today uh with you all. It's always good to be hanging out with the Spartans. And I And also, uh I'd be remiss if I didn't introduce Stacy

008McDonald who is the director of district operations. You're welcome. Mr. Hoyt, would you like to say a few words about the team and your season? Sure. Just a few words. Few words. Um so we had a we had a tremendous year. It was awesome. Um we have eight of our 10 guys here tonight. We had a small roster this year, uh but we were so close. It was one of the most unselfish teams that I've had since I've been coaching here at Spackenkill. These guys were just tremendous to be around every day. They made it uh real enjoyable. I've had a bunch of those guys for like three and four years, um but it was just tremendous. So we won our division, right? And then we won our uh league title, which was the first

009time since 2017. Um and uh we beat Red Hook who uh sorry, Mr. Lynch. But we had We beat uh I knew that was going to I didn't say something. But we beat Red Hook up at Red Hook, which was just tremendous. It's not an easy place to play and win, and to win a league title on the road was just uh tremendous. We had There's 18 teams in the league, uh and for us to win that was really just an amazing year. But uh these I have eight here tonight that are just tremendous. The 10 guys that we had on the regular season were just uh a really, really special group. So, uh it's just an honor to be their coach, which is amazing this year. We want to thank you for your coaching

010and uh for the team. I'm sure you guys are thinking of leaving. So, can we just come over here and take a quick group picture with everyone? Maybe the boys could sneak in the back, and then you could uh There you go. Sneak in the back. Yeah. That's good. All guys in back. I'm going to stand next to Hal. I'll share in the front. There you go. Uh Mr. Lenz, can you take a picture that I'll be able to capture? Okay, don't move yet. All right, thank you. I know what you guys ARE DOING. YES. HE'S GOOD. HE'S GOOD. HE'S AND UH I love talking to you. Okay. I know and how much How much do you love baseball field? Thanks, Andy. Yeah, I did. Yeah. >> Thanks again everybody for letting me do that.

011>> Change seats if you want. There's uh Take care. Bye-bye. All right. Up next we have 2.01 Superintendent's Recommended Budget for 2025-2026-2027. Dr. Ferro. Thank you, Dr. Ferro. Thank you. Do you have a clicker or I got Clicker? I can Yeah. So, this is a repeat of the last uh presentation, so I'm going to go through quicker, but if there's any questions I can always pause and come back. But this is a similar presentation to last time. So, for the agenda we're going to look at at these items in this presentation. It's a bunch of them. Uh a lot of it is going to be talking about the district and then uh the second part is really talking about uh the numbers. So, we have conservatively budgeted our state revenue forecast in this budget. Our

012reserves are still healthy and as a plus in the comptroller's fiscal stress report is positive. Cuz it those have have been pretty uh uh steady uh through the years. I'm presenting a budget that is under the tax cap. Um we uh part of our decisions is to provide a budget that reduces the possibility of significant negative fluctuations in the future. This budget uh continues with that. Maintaining a student-centered learning environment, communicating the academic successes, and seeking additional revenues outside. Um, here's a sum it up. Items that we do that make Spackenkill Spackenkill, our after-school programs, our virtual tech academy, uh, have really, uh, done wonders for us. We've done a lot of work, uh, with a future in consultant, uh, in AI with Jerry Crisci. And we recently come up with AI guidelines to help,

013uh, our district and our school and our students, um, you know, utilize AI correctly. It's an ever-changing, uh, you know, future with AI, but we're trying to stay with it. Our avid program has excelled, um, doing a really good job. Uh, some of the things that, uh, we've done with the avid program is foster discovery, supporting younger students, and future readiness. P2 has excelled also this year. We were, uh, we achieved green shield status, which is amazing. Our elementary schools, uh, uh, this is across the nation, uh, has this status, cuz we've, uh, implemented with fidelity. Um, and it's going across all the buildings. So, award-winning culture, fostering relationships, tailored approaches, restorative practices, student mentorship, and a core philosophy that other people matter has been, you know, throughout our district. The Let Grow experience, this

014came out of, um, our anxious generation goal last year. And our elementaries have really taken the Let Grow experience to a different level. So, uh, they've done some things uh, this year as far as trying to encourage more of a play-based childhood versus the phone-based childhood. And we actually were recognized as a um Let Grow district, if you will, by the Let Grow company because of the way we've implemented that. It was pretty special, too. We're a lighthouse district, which I think we're one of a handful. Under 10? Yeah. In the nation. Some of the other district successes are listed here. Niche ranks back in calendar on school district in Dutchess County. Best place to live and teach. Uh nationally, the district's in the top 4%. The high school's been recognized by US News as

015as as the middle school and Hagen. Nassau was not because it does not K-2 schools do not qualify for them. Um the high school got the amazing award this year. The exemplary high-performing school, known as the Blue Ribbon award. And that is the second time they've won that. The only high school in Dutchess County ever to win that, and now we've won it twice. And our graduation rate was number one in Dutchess County. Here's some others that are listed. I'll go through these a little bit more quickly. Utica National Safety Award, our Excellence in Sports. Um some of our teams did very well. The basketball team being highlighted here tonight. Um many of our students in high school have CPR AED certification. Just going to say, is uh Claire, are you one of them? Mhm.

016All right. Uh Odyssey of the Mind is going to Worlds, which is amazing. Um our music has done well. Math team has done well. And our bands took first place in Music in the Parks. So, getting down to some of the numbers, uh Spackenkill real estate is doing very well, probably the best um in the area. We spoke to a local realtor, and there's a quote there. Uh generally speaking, each house that goes on the market in Spackenkill ends up with multiple offers and a fierce competition. Overall, during the 10-year period reflected in the report, home prices Spackenkill consistently increased at a higher rate than the county. So, that's just uh awesome to know. Our tuition program has been doing well. Uh we are around the fit the number 50, and you can see there

017um what that is bringing in. So, this is the proposed budget for next school year. Uh you can take a look at that. So, uh the proposed budget for 61 million dollars. Uh the tax levy is 34 plus million. Um increase amount from last year's tax levy to this year's tax levy of 589,000. Uh 1.75 increase on the tax levy. What goes into this? Uh salaries, uh which are collectively bargained and already in place, so we can take we know how much we have to pay out on that. Our BOCES services, our transportation, special ed costs, health insurance, that's a big one. Debt service, um and replacing a facilities vehicle this year. Additional instructional staff, uh we're adding a school uh psychologist this year. So, each building could have one. We didn't sharing and So,

018we're going to plan to try to have each building have one. Uh adjustments to salaries uh to reflect increases in New York State minimum wage uh has been uh something we've had to do over the past year or two. Uh replacing all the damaged facilities, classroom maintenance, uh typical stuff with that. Instructional needs, textbooks, software, and other technologies. Cybersecurity actually has been a big one. Uh we are looking to purchase a new facilities truck this year. Uh the key cost budget drivers, you know, what really what what counts for most of this uh budget are salaries, health insurance, the BOCES costs, retirement costs, debt service. So, really 85% of our budget really is already kind of figured out without us doing much because there's a little all of the um not fixed costs, but they're

019they're costs that we don't control. Uh overall budget proposal is a three-part budget, administration, program, capital. And you see the program is the bulk of it, 76, 77%. That's really the uh where the students and what's going on for the the program of of instruction. Um this is the proposed tax levy. So, this year uh we could have went to 2.06 would be the uh tax cap for us this year. Uh we did come under that, which is always been a goal that we've been trying. So, as I said before, our tax levy is 1.75, an increase of about uh $589,000 from last year's tax levy to this year's tax levy. If the budget happened to go down, uh we would we could go to a contingency budget um if we do not uh seek

020a a new vote. Um so, the district could choose to adopt a contingency budget after the proposed budget is defeated once rather than a re- re-vote, or we could opt to uh put it up again. If it was to go down twice, then we would adapt a contingency budget. Contingency budget would look something like this. It basically would be a $589,000 increase. That that money would come out. So, it would be the same as last year. Um so, we would have to come down $589,000. That usually comes from equipment, transfers that we use, and supplies. Not much we can else take that from. Budget calendar. So, May 5th is not the next meeting, the meeting after, but that's when we would have the hearing uh for this budget. And then the vote is May 19th.

021And this is online, so there's a link here to all of this information. I I did go through that quickly cuz this is a uh redo from last uh meeting, but uh are there any questions? Any questions? And Val already, too. I don't have any questions. Um so, um Uh but just a quick comment. Uh reiterate what I you know, mentioned last meeting 2 weeks ago. Uh thanks uh to uh debt of gratitude to the people who involved putting together the budget, Val and her team, and Paul, and and everyone involved. Uh it's a lot of work. Uh we understand that. It stretches over many, many months. So, appreciate all the hard work that's gone into the budget. Uh continue to think it's a prudent budget. Uh you know, we're in a you know, a

022period of again rising inflation it looks like, so I'm sure people are concerned about costs. And you know, the budgetary increase 6.9% 6.95% increase may catch some people's eyes, but but uh nevertheless I think that the budget is quite prudent. I mean the um year-to-year budget increases have been uh controlled, I think. Uh the increase this year to 6.95% the whole budget the overall budget is only about a 1% increase from last year's. So I think that reflects the efforts to control the costs and keep things as manageable as possible. And I think it's also worth underscoring that the contingency budget is only 1% less than than what the proposed budget is as well. So I think those things reflect the careful conscientious work that's been done in preparing the budget. And and I think

023we should be um quite happy in our district that the tax levy increase is is well under 2%. I know from attending uh meetings of other representatives from Dutchess County school boards, I attend uh monthly Dutchess County School Boards Association meetings and there's been talk all through the year about you know, the rising costs across the county and and I think as far as I know from, you know, information discussed at those meetings our tax levy increase I think is the second lowest in the county. Uh so I think that really reflects positively on on the success of the district as a whole. There are a lot of factors that go into that, but uh not certainly not the least of that is the efforts on the part of the administration to control the costs

024and and manage our district prudently while maintaining, you know, the level of services that we're also proud of. You know, last week's uh last last meeting 2 weeks ago, you know, demonstrated through the data that we we all had a chance to review uh how uh well our district's doing in terms of the economic success and the other factors that, you know, you've touched on here uh Dr. Fani Welle, um also point to the the real success of our district. So I think we have a lot to be proud of. And I'm really happy to see that the budget um you know, manages our success in a in a way I think that's fiscally responsible. So, thanks to everyone. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Um I missed the last meeting. Um I did watch it

025and it was uh very very informative as far as the the added on that document. Um but I I wish I could uh gather my thoughts and speak as well as Richard Cannon and being able to deliver those. I am not a master of that. Um but I did write something down that I would like to read. Um I I know I have not or I've at least been trying to express um my concerns with the 1.75% tax levy um over the last couple of meetings I was able to get to. Uh I'll try to make it quick. I read it to myself in my head twice in 2 minutes in my head, so hopefully it's uh less than 2 minutes out loud. Uh but I would like to echo a lot of what Richard

026just said. I'd like to begin by thanking everyone who worked hard over the past few months uh to put the budget proposal together. Uh I also want to make it clear that I fully support the students, teachers, staff, and the admin who makes Baden-Powell such great school district. Um at the same time we have to recognize the pressure many of our taxpayers are under. Seniors on fixed incomes are dealing with rising energy costs, and new families are feeling the impact of higher gas and grocery prices. The inflation has affected everybody. Um right now though, we are in a really unique position to support both the district and our neighbors at the same time. Uh we have the opportunity to increase next year's budget by approximately $3.3 million without increasing the tax levy. Um when else

027have we been able to significantly to the school's budget um and add a new transportation vehicle, and still avoid placing additional burden on our taxpayers. 1.75% tax levy increase represents roughly $589,000. Without that increase, the difference in next year's total budget would be approximately 60.5 million versus the 61 million including the levy. Both are still a substantial increase from this year's $57 million budget. Last year's or last year the budget increased by 3.2 million, and included a 1.75 tax levy increase. This year even without raising the tax levy by 1.75, we could still achieve over a 3.3 million dollar increase. That's a total of $6.5 million in growth over the last 2 years. I understand the goal of keeping the levy increase consistent, and I just supported that approach. But given the significant increase of

0283.3 million dollars already built into this year's budget, I don't believe the additional $589,000 tax levy increase is necessary, especially when considering financial pressures many of our taxpayers are currently facing. With the fact that we've been able to add a couple million dollars into our reserve funds at the end of each year. I support our school in everything that we do, but we have a responsibility to our taxpayers as well. This is one of those rare years that I feel where we can support both of them at the same time. For that reason, I would propose we consider approving the superintendent's proposed budget minus the 1.75% tax levy. And doing so would still allow us for an over 3.3 million dollar increase in next year's budget, and the purchase of a new vehicle without increasing

029increasing the burden to our taxes. Both supporting our district and our neighbors. >> And that's all there Um, is there any further comment on the budget presentation 2.01? Okay. Um, moving on. Uh, public comment on consent agenda items only. Any comments from the public on consent agenda items? Okay. Not hearing any. Uh, consent agenda resolution. Uh, there any items to be discussed further or any board member wants to pull? Um, I'd like to pull 4.02, 4.03, and 4.04 for further discussion. Okay. Is there any other agenda items board members want pulled? Okay. Uh, is there a motion for the consent agenda minus 4.02, 4.03, 4.04? So moved. Second. All in favor. Aye. Aye. 4-0. Okay. Uh, 4.02, um, further discussion? Um, so I I have read over my my feelings on it. I won't, you

030know, make you guys all listen to me a a second time on it. Um, I I would like us to pass the budget with um, $3.3 million increase um, minus the the tax levy. Um, that's what I would like us to consider. Um, but I wouldn't vote for something here that Yes, there's something that I wouldn't vote for. Uh I'm totally with What do you think of that? So, I just procedurally have a question whether that's doable. I mean, can can we approve a budget that's different from the one that's been proposed? I mean, I would Now, I was going to jump in in a second, but you would have to totally look at it, but we can't we can't just take that money out and say approve that. We would have to totally look

031at where that would be and what that would But, that would be my assumption. It'd be a lot of changes to that. We probably would lose the position we're looking to get. We probably wouldn't get the vehicle, I would imagine. Um we'd really have to analyze it from that aspect. You know, part of the reason we have the presentation of a couple weeks ago was is to try to learn this stuff as soon as you can, but we still have time cuz we don't adopt uh we don't have the hearing yet, but do we have to adopt the budget today? There's a timeline to adopt the budget, and I believe it's you got to submit the property tax report 25 days before the vote, so I have to Let me just quickly look at my

032calendar or something. Yeah, we have to look at that. And we we I would not think we'd be in a good position to adopt something with less money today without us going through and figuring out where that would be. Is value added coming at all? Um absolutely. The $589 that would be in the contingency budget would eliminate all equipment. So, there would be no transportation There'll be no um vehicle for our facilities, and would be no equipment cost for any of the buildings or any instructional needs or anything else. If we're doing it that way. Um, other than that, I would have to go again line by line and figure out an equitable way to reduce the budget for each of the buildings, for facilities, for um, the district, for special ed and everything else.

033So, that's not something I can do off the top of my head. I have to look and see see what would be the most efficient and effective way to reduce it across the board. And I know you're not prepared, but most of the increase that we saw were was from the new position, the vehicle, and really just costs of those 85% of the drivers. You want to speak to that a little bit? Like what was left to what for what for what for us to decide? Is is equipment, is materials and supplies. Um, the salaries are what they are, the benefits are what they are. Um, the retirement is dictated by the state. That service is what it is. BOCES, we would have if we wanted to cut back on BOCES services, a lot would

034be your special ed, a lot would be your CTI, a lot of which is our technology costs. So, that would be us unsubscribing to services that we have historically used. Is there any way to get a further breakdown as opposed to just like equipment and supplies so that it's broken down a little bit further so that we know exactly what it is? Um, there's a supply line for each building. There's for like the high school, each of the major, um, academic areas have a supply line. Art, music, technology, MTS. Um, most of the the elementary schools have a supply line just for general supplies for their building in general. So, it's it's mostly educational related supplies. Also, there's a supplies for our guidance counselors, there's supplies for special ed, um, there's maintenance supplies, there's instructional

035supplies. And that's all just lumped into that one Well, it's the budget is broken down by building. So, Hagan has a whole lot of codes for their supplies and their equipment. Same thing with the buildings. I mean, I would feel a lot more supportive of it knowing what some of those numbers were versus the the general miss audit. At least I'd feel more justified in approving it if I knew a little bit more about how we're coming up with an exact of a 1.75 as needed versus a 1.7 or a 1.5 or a 1. So, how we're coming to that exact number on top of us already getting in 3.3 million, asking for another 500 on top of that from our taxpayers. For me to be comfortable with it, I'd have to put it in

036board votes and it passes, I I would totally support that. Um, but I would I would be in support of it as well I knew a little bit more about the numbers. Um, but the specific tax levy, that number is kind of almost backed into once I have a general number what the expenses are, which is the budget. I look at the estimate of state aid of what the governor's proposed budget is. I take a look at the revenue that the district can generate internally and most of that is just really interest and the tuition cost. And whatever is left comes into the way. You know, further thinking on on my side, you know, this may be a helpful and fruitful discussion, but I think we're in kind of an awkward position here having this

037discussion now on on the on the you know, in the meeting where we're scheduled to adopt the budget. I mean, maybe there's some wiggle room there in terms of the timeline. But the budget's been in front of us for a number of meetings now with the proposed 1.75 tax levy increase. And so only be having this conversation now seems to be irresponsible frankly of us I think as a board. If we'd had these questions and wanted to engage in this kind of discussion, it should have been weeks ago, meetings ago uh frankly. Um I I understand the logic let me finish my point please. I understand the If there is a logic to this, I mean I I I understand one one logical rationale is is that this would amount to a 0% tax levy

038increase from this year. What that means I think for us, we've talked about this before over a number of years is that subsequent years would require an extraordinarily high tax levy increase to get back on track, to make up lost ground, um to maintain the services even that you know, that we currently have. I think it puts us in a really difficult position you know, as as a district going forward. Um you know, I've been on the board now for eight years. I remember conversations you know, back when Tom Keith was president and uh discussions about the the dangers of a of a donut budget, you know, with 0% tax levy increase. Yeah, we discussed those um you know, all that times then. And I think it's only grown more clear over time um how

039dangerous that would be for us as a district. I mean we'd have to be in front of the voters asking for I think a significantly larger tax increase in the future, tax levy increase in the future. Uh if if we're to contemplate something like this. So I'm I'm concerned in that respect. I mean we're not concerned just about this year. I understand your point Jeff about the timing. While we're while it may look fortuitous um you know, we've got to think about the future as well. And and And I have been confident that the district's been doing that and trying to maintain a steady manageable increase in the tax levy over the last several years. So I have significant reservations about, you know, prospect of of what we're talking about now. Um I I agree

040again, Richard. Um I did bring this up at each one of the meetings that I attended. Um I did not make it to the last one, but I'm I'm sorry. I I did voice my opinion on this for each one of the meetings that we had. Um and um I'm not comfortable personally voting on something voting yes in public here to something that I would vote no for um privately in a box. So, um I would you know, I again, if it if it passes, I will support it, but I'm I'm not going to support something here and not later on. Um additionally, I I had requested the numbers um on March 20th. Um I requested the line-by-line numbers. Um and I did not get them until everybody else got them last night or the

041night before. Um so, it wasn't that I had not asked for them at all um or that I hadn't been voicing this the entire time. Um but, that that's just, you know, my feelings on it and um you know, my opinion on it. Um you know, with the $3.3 million increase, I think that's a very good and substantial increase for the year even without the tax levy. And I'm not at like a hard zero that has to be a zero. I I just would be interested to see what these numbers are to justify the 1.75 exactly versus a um a 1.1 or 1.2 or 0.9, whatever it might be. Um and I just haven't felt that I got those numbers, so that's why I'm saying what I'm saying. Well, getting the getting the numbers is

042one thing, but us having an opportunity to discuss the implications of that, I think, is is another matter. And And we haven't had the opportunity to that. We have not taken the opportunity to do that. We have not requested the opportunity to do that. I did. I requested the numbers on the 2.5. >> You expressed reservations, Jeff, I believe, if I if my memory serves, reservations about the increase. And and I think those were logical questions and logical concerns. But I don't recall a request that we consider in any kind of um direct way, you know, a lower tax rate increase and what the implications of what of what that would be going forward. Cuz this is not just a an isolated decision, as I as I think I've noted. As I see it, it's

043a decision that would have ripple effects into the future, significant ripple effects. So, I think we needed an opportunity to talk about what those ripple effects would be. I'm okay with that. But we're at a point now, the reason I feel this is awkward, we're at a point now where we're up against the schedule, uh timeline that's going to make discussion of this, any prudent, responsible discussion of this, very, very difficult. Uh that's the argument that I'm talking about. If the feeling was so strong that we really needed to consider a lower tax rate increase, I think we should have been having this conversation meetings ago, rather than today. And I don't recall a request that we do that. Yes, there may have been a request for more information. We've got more information. It's been

044presented to us now a number of times. Um but I don't recall a request that we discuss this in terms of the implications and take a serious, hard look at at what some of the different, you know, scenarios might be. I'll I'll jump in. Is that okay? Yeah. Uh some of these concerns and and and learnings, I think, are fair to want to know. Um we had a meeting um and he's he's here today, but we did have a meeting uh, an agenda review meeting, um, with our board president, and we talked about this stuff, and we talked about the complexity of it, and how um, you know, a lot of the what our public is is feeling is initially coming from our budget. It's coming from a lot of environmental and fact factors of

045inflation, and also what's happening with home values and things like that. Um, but the the meeting made us think that, "Hey, we might need a full day talking about budget implications and and effects of of this, and and, you know, maybe the the board could shed some light on what they're feeling a little bit, and then we would be able to talk a little bit about what we control and what we can't control, and and a little bit of a understanding of of of budgets and what a zero would mean, what a zero would mean, and actually show that. Um, and the feeling was that would be a great thing to do in the summer, um, that we thought at that point the budget, you know, was fair for this year, but as I have

046said in the past, I think things are going to be coming in in the years in the future with uh, with budgets, uh, you know, COVID money has ended and things like that has happened, and we're seeing in our county, I think, and I thank Val for this profusely, we are we have just been in a better fiscal shape than than maybe others because I know that there's a couple districts in our county that have to go over their cap this year. They have to ask the the voters for a supermajority vote. Um, and there's most others are either at their cap or close to it. I do know that we are the from what I can tell, I think you said it too, I think we are the second lowest most people are in

047the three scores as far as tax rate. >> is well over three. Yeah. Most are four. I know one district has a six. I I think there could be a time when we have to face something like that. So, the thought of having that summer time workshop seemed to make sense. Like, how do we need the board to fully understand what we're funding and how we're funding it because I think when they see that there isn't much control. Um you know, we talked about salaries and contract negotiations and things like that as something to look at. But, we also are just you know, the board had just when we talked about that we need to increase in salaries and how are they getting the minimum wage and things like that. So, a lot of these

048items we've been aware of. Um I think it's just a reality that we're all facing that in the county and the state. Um and that type of workshop I thought was it was a good idea to kind of go through and figure out and how to develop next year's um and and to look at that, you know, and for the board to understand if we did take a zero, what would that mean and and the showing that usually that means a high fluctuation. But, maybe we do it anyway, you know, after the board sees that, you know, so it just made sense uh with that. Um but, I this is a board decision. Uh you know, uh to me that that route made sense, you know, uh really take a deep dive and and make

049that be the goal of of of our summer retreat um and try to analyze it and get these questions uh answered and asked and searched and um but, that is, you know, it's up to you to decide. I do not think what would we have to do if they don't adopt the budget today? I don't know how much time we would have. So, if you do not adopt the budget today, we have to school district has to submit the property tax report by April 24th. So, that would mean we would have to I mean if we're doing it tight. I mean safest would be to board approve it the day before so Val has time to submit it the following day. Am I correct? All right, so with that so you do have you have

050a week and then that that that is really the limit. Well, the the other piece of this is we have to print and mail the uh budget brochure which has to go to print and then get back to the district in order to mail that out before the the the hearing. So, we're going to change budget numbers. There's a lot of information in that that will need to be redone and be ready. What's the deadline on that? Um to be honest, our public information officer was planning to send it out this week to the printer. Once the board adopts the budget, she said she'd drop that week. We also have to figure out what to cut in a in a week's time. Um you know, with all the administrators and try to figure figure that

051out. And then obviously going forward, we still have to keep the same schedule. We still have a board meeting. We have a board meeting on the 23rd. We still have to have one on the 28th. We still have to have one on the 15th and going forward because we still have to do a public hearing. Both these go on the 28th. We can't So, in other words, we have to just stick to the same schedule. We just have to add a meeting in April. We need to really find out when the other one is because she is Is she going to mail that out tonight? She's not going to yet. But even by that timeline, I mean a meeting next week would mean we'd have to discuss this at that meeting and then vote. Yes.

052And then that's the time vote because I do need a future. >> Well, let's continue have that conversation. Did what I say make sense or would we not would not rather do that? I think it'd be very difficult for us to even be ready in a week. We could, we'd have to cancel meetings, we probably wouldn't be able to have a couple of our several meetings this week. I don't know what the board's involved with because this would be um Yeah, we're not I'm not saying I'm not saying that I'm not saying that. I'm just saying we would do that if that's what the board wants, but I just want reality to say that this isn't Val and I and mainly Val developed this over months and months of it it'd be hard, but we

053we if that's what the board wants us to do, we can do it. We'd have we'd have a meeting next week, maybe two. One to discuss it and then one to to vote. Um but I don't want to put words in in the the board's mouth. I mean if we were to lower the tax levy by a little bit What's a little bit? I don't know. I'm just trying to say give the board give the board a sense if it went down to 1.25 what's what's the price difference or what what what would people be be looking at the difference of? Um just so they have an idea. >> Well, I'd have so many questions. I mean I I have questions about what the implications of that would be not only financially, but in terms

054of services that might have to be altered. I mean what I meant by the awkwardness of this is is that we've been again for you know, meetings now for many many weeks contemplating um you know, this budget and we're we're in a position now of discussing whether we can re-contemplate an entirely different budget, frankly, you know, and make a decision on it in a matter of days, I think that's irresponsible of us, frankly. And and I have to admit to feeling personally frustrated even by the prospect of that. I mean, what you outlined that we can really, you know, studying this over the summer for a night in future makes a lot of sense to me given that we can see what's on the horizon. I mean, many of the factors you noted, called environmental

055factors, those are issues entirely factors entirely outside our control. You know, what we have control over is our budget. And we have a primary responsibility to the students in the school district and responsibility to our community. But for us to be making decisions about trying to slash our budget because gas prices are rising or something, I think just seems completely ludicrous, frankly, to me. I mean, I understand people are under pressure, but, you know, we have a job to do. Um, we're not politicians, you know, with with the ability to influence uh, you know, all these other factors, potentially. I mean, we have, you know, a responsibility to this school district and to this community. Um, and I just think there's so many things that would go into it. You know, what would the financial

056implications in the future be if we cut it down to say 1.25 or 1.5 or something this year? What would the implications be for the next year? What you know, what logically might we be looking at, you know, as the tax levy increases next year? Uh, what services would be affected this year? I mean, I just think there's so many questions. And it would be hard to say what the implications would be because a lot of it depends on what the state aid is, that's the biggest number for us to start the budget. We don't even know what the state aid is for certain this year. Correct. The budget was not set. They just They just extended the deadline for that today. Yeah, right. That's difficult. And I'm not saying this for Reeb, but I

057mean, something like this could mean cuts in programming or personnel. Um, we would just have to analyze all that. I'm not saying maybe it wouldn't, but I mean it could. So, we need that analysis. So, I I suggest the summer time, but I I don't That's what I'm suggesting, that's what I recommend, but the board can say something different. Uh, I think Jeff has expressed some concerns that that are real um, to him and then and probably to others. And I think it probably deserves the analysis that we can give it. Uh, that I I don't think we can give in a week. But we're at the you know, what what what the what the board uh votes on uh, we will attempt to do. I'm not looking to uh, cut positions. I'm not looking

058to cut what is needed from the district. Um, by no means is that what I'm looking for here. I'm looking for We said that the clarity the same thing that Richard's looking for. What are the potentials of lowering it? Uh, what are those numbers? Um and how is it different than the voters voting it down and us not getting the 5.89 and the implementations that we saw uh, of what that would be. Really like to have known what those were. Um, I apologize if I didn't uh, express that enough at the uh, previous meetings. And uh, subsequently after the meetings requesting the information. Um, I'll try to do better at that next year. Um Uh, again, I I I'm in support of whatever the board decides. If it's I will totally support that. I'm just

059not comfortable um, again voting for something here that I'm not going to vote for again at home. Any other Well, 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 have been pulled again. So, there are there are specific questions or concerns about 4.3 and 4.4 and or 4.4. You pulled You pulled them. Yeah. Yeah, they're all budget. They're all budget related. They have to be No, no, I'm just No, I'm asking. Well, no, yeah. It's going to happen. Yeah. And they all have their own deadlines to be submitted to the state. So, to put them all together, there's no further discussion. Is there a motion for a 4.02, 4.03, and 4.04? Is there a motion to vote? Just to be clear, so you're asking to vote for a budget adoption for this budget adoption. That's what That's what you said,

060but I don't want to want to be clear that you know I'm just asking if there's a motion for these three items, whether or not Oh, may I hear your name? How do you want to word it? Yes, so you're asking Yeah, we're asking to vote for the budget adoption as as is as written as is what you're asking. I mean, that's what the agenda is. So, I just need to make sure that that's Oh, yeah. I mean, that's what the agenda is, so yeah. Is there a motion? Well, yeah, so moved that we should vote on it. Yeah. Second. I just need to sit there for a All in favor? Aye. Uh all opposed? Who was the second? Who was the second? I did. Thank you. Who was So, what are we voting for

061now? You just voted for the I voted yes. Three of you voted yes? That's correct. Correct. And one no. Three yes. All right. One the two dots? Hi. So, just for clarification, so the budget was just adopted, so we're going forward with that. >> Correct. But, the board has we made it clear that we're going to have a workshop in the summertime for a retreat to really look at everything and maybe prepared for next school year. Yes. Okay. Thank you. So, I'm sorry. So, we did 4.01 4.01 was consented. Agenda was all four. 4.02, 03, and 04 is three. We'll adopt them separately. Correct. Okay. All right. Uh 5.01 is kind of similar to the consent agenda. It's the first reading of all the policies rather than reading them all individually. Is there any board

062discussion on any of the policies that are proposed for a first reading? No? Okay. Uh do I have a motion for the first readings of the policies? So moved. Second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Just for Just quick clarification, who which of the board members were were at the policy committee discussing those with Sasha? Dan. Uh 6.01, update from district principals. AIP, Mr. All right. Yes, they're going to uh in uh we had our AI update with me district wide, but a lot of the buildings did uh their own little AI goals, so they're going to briefly I think it's too long uh briefly talk about that. And then next week is obviously with the goals presentation, which AI is part of, so it all should kind of melt together. Do we have a

063starting point? Who is that? Elementary. Elementary's first? Yeah. Thank you. All right, so um we'll start off with our elementary AI report uh which really started over the summer at our admin retreat with Dr. Penuel and he always starts to um traditionally starts to speak about potential um goals for the district and at some point it became clear that AI was going to be a part of it. Um Mr. De Sousa and I uh followed up talking about how we could apply that goal at the elementary level. And it's interesting. I mean, we've we've talked about AI uh quite a bit. Obviously, at the elementary level, certainly K-2, um it is less directly about the students using AI. It's more them um be They are part of AI but through teachers. So, our goal uh

064was to significantly increase teacher adoption of AI tools. And I think even more importantly, to save teacher time in planning and preparation. And when we strategized about how to do that, uh we really talked about three different things. Number one, we wanted to kind of um survey our staff to see where they felt that they wanted or needed the most support with AI. Um step number two, uh we worked with Marcelo Burn who uh every time we go to an AI conference, I know we've we've we've stated this frequently, but we always feel like we're ahead and I and she's a huge part of that. Um so, step number two was once we had the data from the teachers with their needs uh was to develop a um a professional development plan that was really

065tailored uh to those specific needs. And then the last step where you see measure um has not been accomplished yet. That will be an end of the year uh teacher survey really um because we've we've had several professional development sessions. Uh we've worked through this. We want to know how they feel now compared beginning of the school year. Some of the data that Mr. De Sousa and I looked at over the summer, uh there was a national Gallup survey which was which was fascinating at that time. This was in July. Uh 60% of teachers used AI. Of those 60%, um they were saving 6 hours per week which really jumped off of the screen for us and the article that we read. Um it's no secret that uh as we've as we've added things to

066teachers' plates, we haven't taken many things off and to to have the ability to do some of the administrative tasks or things that AI could support um teachers with was really appealing to both uh Mr. De Sousa and I. Um so of those teachers that were utilizing AI, 61% said that it improved their practice. Um and then the last part was quite shocking. I um out of those teachers that were utilizing AI, 68% so this would have been based off of last year um had received no training on AI AI at all. So fast forward to the beginning of school um through our tech office and Mr. Farrell, uh we sent out a district survey where staff members responded. And I think the news the I mean really the two numbers that I have up

067there, I think were both um excellent. So, 74% of our staff had already been using AI at the time of the survey. And 93% of them believe that it was beneficial. I think that's a testament to our teachers and also to Marcella. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. De Souza, who's going to talk about some of the specifics of kind of what we rolled out. Um so, when we pulled the data with Marcella from the elementary buildings alone, um there were some highlights that really stood out. One of the biggest things that both staff shared was administrative efficiency. How do they make their jobs easier? How do they save time on the non-instructional task? So, that was certainly a growth area that we targeted. Nassau had particular top support areas that we

068were going to hit like communication, emails, newsletters to families, data analysis, so they were data driven instruction or data informed instruction. Um and the a kind of a different take for Hagen because, you know, we have the older kids, especially fifth graders, how do we direct student AI interaction in a safe way, right? How do we get them to use it properly to help them with things like their capstone project or to interview people from the past when they're learning about different topics. So, teachers have dabbled in a lot of different ways through differentiation and through AI. So, what we did was kind of lay out a map of the different professional development choices. Teachers got, you know, autonomy to pick three out of the four that they really, really liked, two of which were

069on superintendent's conference day, and then they picked the morning teacher tech that Marcella runs so so greatly for teachers. And you can kind of see the topic areas there. Things that stand out, really AI is changing every day. So, we're actually learning AI as we go even in tech committee meetings or other, you know, just kind of random conversations, but they have integrated it and we're trying to get a in touch with each part that they integrate especially for students. So Brisk and School AI are two things that teachers have been trained on and you know, have a pretty elaborate menu of options from writing IEP goals to lesson planning to project-based learning. So that's really cool for them. Differentiation, something that really kind of creates assistant for you or they call it Brisking. They're

070they're really built in. Gemini is something that is now helping people in its own tab that's open. I was joking around with someone this morning. They came to an 8:00 meeting because AI told them they had an 8:00 meeting. They were doing something else and they're like, I can do this efficiently so you get to your 8:00 meeting. So that's how good AI is getting. It knows your schedule better than you which is awesome. So and then student use like I talked about, we really want our students to spar with AI. That's the phrase that they like to use. Make it a partner in their learning, not not the answer, right? It can tutor you and help you and guide your thinking, but it should not do the thinking for you. So we're trying to

071get fifth graders especially those tools when they're doing things like their capstone project. And then re-redesigning our assessment. The portrait of a graduate is all about project-based learning and experiential learning. And sometimes that can create a sense of anxiety of building something new like I have, but the nice thing is AI is a is a great tool for that. You put a couple prompts in and it can give you a nice uh outline for what to do. And then of course moving forward what we want to measure. We want teachers to tell us did did it did they actually save time? Did they feel like there was perceived improvement to their weekly workload and administration burden because that's really the part of the job that's not fun. Um you know, doing all the tasks outside

072of the classroom, you know, working with the kids is the best part. So, we want to know that um what tools did they find most effective so we can invest our time and our energy into those tools, and which did they not find effective so we can steer away from them, and then what they thought about the PD impact on their on their classroom. Was it Was it something that was real that was turn-key for them, or was it still something that they are having trouble with so we can plan next year for uh PD sessions that are that are current and and you know, uh effective. All right? Okay. Thank you. Uh any questions, comments? On the board? So, I have potentially lots and lots of questions, but but I but I won't ask

073most of them now. Uh you know, I you know, my own background in education, you know, has made it clear for a number of years years ago, in fact, that you know, it it was not a matter of, you know, will we or won't we, you know, adopt or embrace AI, but how. And and I think you've given us a nice outline of how you're approaching the how. So, I'd be, you know, really curious to hear in more and more granular detail, maybe offline, you know, about what what some of the observations are so far. I think that survey that you've mentioned at the end of the year should be very revealing. I I'd I'd certainly for one would be very interested in being able to get a kind of high-level I'll give you a

074brief one cuz it I I found it revolutionary. Um you know, like we all live by our digital calendars now, but a lot of things still come home paper or you know, you get dates and things. So, one thing that is pretty revolutionary with AI is you take a snapshot of that, send it to Gemini, if it's linked to your Google calendar, it punches it in. So, you're not creating separate invites for every single thing on your calendar. Um and it was pretty seamless. So, those are like little tidbits that teachers are learning that they're like, "Wow, that's a time-saver to go in and not have to put all the meetings that they have individually cuz that takes a while." Right. And I guess that would fall within the what you you referred to as

075the administrative kinds of tasks. I mean, that makes certainly so much sense to me. Um you know, I think for me the bigger questions are are on the instructional side of things. You know, how are are these tools potentially useful? How are students finding them? You know, I'm happy to hear that you're kind of uh cultivating a kind of sparring mentality. I think that's really healthy. I think more than anything, you know, my background again in education uh showed me quite quickly that uh students need to be um you know, uh shown um how to evaluate AI, you know, critically, how to think about it critically rather than just adopting it as a tool that is going to save them time or do things for them. It's sort of obvious at this point. Have Have

076you seen again, just to keep the questions, you know, uh kind of high-level at this point, but have you seen even prior to the survey any reservations, concerns surfacing from teachers, things that they're concerned about or Definitely, you know, you know, things like confidentiality, um certainly something that, you know, we want to make sure we're maintaining and doing the right thing and not, you know, getting out of hand with our data and those type of things. >> Yeah, that is security issue. So, that So, you know, being very secure and our Marcella and our tech department give us, you know, good guidelines to to practice and follow. Um you know, there's there's certainly reservations. I I think it's less on our end because they're not going home and necessarily typing a five-page paper. Um so,

077you know, the kids not really taking something like that and producing it through AI cuz that's not what they're producing. Um but they they have found a lot of use for it, especially in the capstone where kids have to come up with an inquiry-based question on kind of very vague and broad topic. Uh it really helps refine their question and then they can go off and target and even gives them suggestions of where they should do their research. Um so, it's a nice road map, I would say, rather than doing the capstone for them, because that's that's the whole that's the anti- >> Yeah, I mean, it's an interactive kind of interlock using the AI as an kind of interlocutor to go back and forth with it. I think it's the way in which it

078can be particularly useful. I mean, you know, I think we all know that that these tools that chat chat tools in particular, um you know, the large language models, they're they're built to serve people and to please people. So, you know, it'll suggest the next thing that it could do for you and then the next thing and then the next thing. And I think one of the dangers that I saw very quickly is that's, you know, within a very short time you could be at a point where it's doing more work for you than you ever intended. Um and and you'd continually be amazed at, you know, what it's able to do at the next step, but but you end up very far away from your original goals, perhaps. And so, I it can um

079I mean, that's my it's sort of just a kind of broad level concern that that that I've had for for quite some time is that uh while it appears to um you know, be very good at uh these tools be very good at helping you do what you want to do, they they can lead you down paths that, you know, may be different from what you originally intended. Yeah, no, we're very cognizant of the fact that we don't want it to replace the creativity and the idea generation and those type of things need to stay authentic to the student. Um you know, but if we can help it's kind of like a hurdle help, see, kick them in the right direction. Um it's a nice tool to have. Yeah. Good. Look forward to, you know,

080being able to learn more. Thanks. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Anything else? Nice nice to meet you. Uh 7.01, recognition of newly tenured teachers and assistant principals. Angela, please. Yeah, there was just two more. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a Angela, please. As always thank you for having us here. And first I want to start off by saying that we we we were involved Mr. Susan and I and Marcel Byrne and and teachers from all four schools were involved in AI Circle. meeting over in Ulster County BOCES. And during that time it's been I think we've had three meetings and so we were able to share ideas and see what other where other districts are, what they look like. And I got to say that we were in a really good place. We a

081lot of districts haven't been discussing AI at all really and we were appear to be very much ahead of the curve and we were a district that people were looking at to speak to, see our ideas so that was you know gratifying. We also you know like people like both elementary school principals mentioned it is such an evolving field that probably things that we were saying when like November are kind of getting outdated by March. I mean it's amazing how fast these things happen. But one of the things that came out of that was that you know we agreed to have a kind of purpose and a project and and from that which part of the information that came the district guidelines Mr. Frowley was involved with which were I'm not sure that was the

082board seeing the district guidelines. Yeah, I'm not sure. Or or it's already seen? No. They've been released but probably not will probably for next board meeting. Got you. So so the district guidelines so and so they've been they were really I think they've really excellent and you know compared to the elementary schools I'd say Todd is going at a little slower pace. Um, so cuz part of it was we wanted to you know, wait and see those guidelines. Um, that being said, um, at the high at the middle school this year in terms of supporting the program, we had um, Marcella Burn. She led uh, the faculty twice in professional development during faculty meetings on different uh, tools, uh, notebook LM and Gemini. Uh, she also led we have as you're aware we have the

083Positivity Project virtual Fridays. So, twice in October, uh, we had Marcella come in and she led instruction uh, with the with with students on the same things which is which is really good. Uh, we know that the students are you know, they are they're um, especially middle school students, they're already some of them already kind of know about it and are are familiar with it. Um, but it was good to to to get some instruction from Marcella. Uh, in terms of looking at some of the work that students have been that teachers have been doing, um, some of the work that I I've seen them do, one important thing is is that they can um, level texts. So, that's really huge for differentiation. So, one of the tools one of the things that they're doing

084with AI is that you can take a text, drop it into uh, an AI engine and say I want it at a Lexile level of you know, third grade, fifth grade, seventh grade, whatever that is. Um, and then they can also generate questions from that. Uh, they it's really nice for they've been using it for enhancing images. For instance, you can take an image uh, say in social studies and turn that image into something that's three-dimensional and working and they can visit it and they can look through it and they can look through it kind of like what virtual reality was a couple of years ago. Uh, it's great for question creation and they've also been working on you know, enhancing docs and slides uh, and other things through AI. Uh, also as as was

085mentioned, Marcella Byrne uh, does I mean she really has been a leader in terms of bringing AI to the staff. And she's been offering professional development throughout the year. Many of the teachers at Todd have been involved in professional development. And the plan looking forward is to begin to take so that so the the guidelines, you know, have been just released released to the staff. So, you know, over you know, beginning looking into next year, we're going to look at looking at a bring more of what the elementary schools are doing, which is sort of really interacting directly with AI in instruction. You know, I forgot the term they use. What is it? Duping it out? What do you say? Sparring. Sparring. They're sparring with AI. You know, that's going to be something that, you

086know, I don't think we're quite at that place yet. Some of that might be the development of student and the you know, the wisdom of the middle school student. They already know a lot. But that's something that will be developing over time. But in terms of say some of the fears that come up from AI, right? There's a lot of fear of, you know, that's that it's going to students are going to use it in a way that is, you know, that is not proper, that is going to stump stump their learning. And while, you know, those things do come up, you know, you know, it's something that I think we're we're we're we're looking at. We know that. So, the the teachers are developing and they have to keep keep developing learning tasks that

087are going to either be clearly AI use AI, don't use AI, what type of AI, to what extent you want to use it. And all those things are going to develop over time. But considering where we were at two or three years ago when we had our first when our friend first came to work with us, we were all pretty scared and worried about AI. And I'd say that we're in a different place. That we're in a working place with it. Um and we're hoping and we'll continue to do that. Um and we look forward and I know personally, uh you know, AI is uh is really great. Um you know, the better information you give it, the better information you can get. That kind of thing. So, that is That's where Todd is right

088now in the AI process. Any questions? Um I I have my full support especially for our teachers when it comes to anything they can do to save their time. I mean, I remember I think it was Miss Burns' presentation to us a summer or two ago showing the the answer development that you had spoken about showing the you know, you have four multiple choice answers and you probably come up with two or three good ones and then that fourth one is just a throwaway. And I spent so much time just coming up on four questions. You know, help them with that. I mean, I see our our teachers on the on the bleachers grading homework after school or you know, working at home all night. And so, anything we can do to you know, cut

089that back and and give them more time that I think that's a great tool for them to be using. Absolutely. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Miss Moy. Oh, okay. I did not see you there. Hiding behind the podium. How's everybody doing tonight? Thanks for having us. So, um uh we'll try to be brief. We're going to mirror some of the things that you've heard already uh here with Miss Moy. She's joining me tonight. She's going to talk about a little bit about our goals. But I would say, you know, leading the high school, we uh we we have kids that come into the high school already using AI. And we're not blind to the fact that uh most of our students are using it. Uh and it's a scary thing and it's it's an exciting

090thing, but we strongly believe that uh it is our responsibility to make sure that uh we teach individuals, staff, and students uh to use it appropriately and to not lose uh their voice. And that goes for the teachers and for our students. Uh something has stuck with me my whole life. Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism, "Be sure yourself and your own reach to know how far how far your genius, taste, and learning go. Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet and mark that point where sense and dullness meet." And very simply, that means know what you don't know. And we are in a place right now in society with well, I'll just talk about New York. Portrait of a Graduate, uh cell phone bans, anxious generation, anxiety, teen levels of anxiety and suicide depression,

091throw in AI. This is a bear to handle. Um and I can't be happier with the team that we have and the leadership and the vision that we have that really is rooted in knowing what you don't know to students and staff. Um And and helping students become valuable members of society because we will quickly be left behind if we don't learn to engage in this appropriately, but also not to lose who we are as people and our own voice. Um and and that's our that's our vision and that's our goal. So, um just We we do I'll let uh Ms. Moy jump in now, but uh we've done a lot of work with AI and we have a lot of work to go. Um Yeah. Sure. Hi everybody. Thanks for having me here tonight.

092Um so, what you're looking at here is an infographic that I created. Um I wanted to backtrack for a minute to just start with where we started at the beginning of this year. So, when I started in the summer, Mr. Lewis and I talked a lot about our vision for the year and we created an AI goal together, which I would call it in summary a year of exploration of AI and um our teachers are really really taking advantage of opportunities. Our goal was to integrate artificial intelligence tools into teaching and administrative practices to enhance student learning outcomes and operational efficiency. So, we've been collaborating as a staff um to increase our knowledge um over the course of the year. Uh recently, as part of our our year-long goal, we rolled out a survey. It

093was brief, a few questions. This was the first question. So, have you attended any trainings regarding AI this year? So, 75.8% of the teachers that responded said yes, 21.2 said no, and three are still planning to um this year at some point. And I'll speak more to specific things and offerings within the district that they've taken advantage of. Um but what I did was I took the the data, the raw data from the survey, and I put it into Notebook LM and asked it to make an infographic, and that's what you're looking at here. The next slide, and I only have two, so I won't take too much of your time, but this is another infographic. So, what you're seeing here is the results of a longer question uh response question. Um it was open-ended.

094It was please tell us any surprises, successes, what have you seen um and how is this enhancing your community um and and your and your students' lives? So, I put all of it into Notebook LM and said, "Please give me an infographic that breaks this up into categories and summarizes and highlights uh the commonalities that we're seeing as a staff." And this is this is what it what it gave. Um now, what you're not seeing is all of the reading of the data, analyzing the conversations that we're having about these things as well, um, that go into it. But, I do want to just briefly highlight three examples from the survey that I thought were really important. So, one of them, uh, a teacher reported being able to able to help support students with disabilities,

095uh, using a variety of AI tools. So, what, uh, they talked about was um, being able to help a student who has a lot of difficulty reading a complex text and having that tool help break down and synthesize the information and help them understand things like themes and and make more sense of what they've read, um, which helps them then be be more able to complete their work. They also expressed how AI helped them organize lesson planning ideas so that they were able to focus on delivering more engaging and meaningful instruction, which was a huge priority, and using resources such as Notebook LM to help create studying resources to prepare students for, uh, upcoming exams. Um, so, there are also things that are happening outside of the classroom, which you may or may not have

096seen so far this year that have been really great. So, our clubs and offices are using, um, AI to create posters to let people know of upcoming events or reminders such as yearbook deadlines. Um, and this year you may have seen Mrs. Bogden's activity that she did where she requested that each staff member send a picture of themselves um, either alone, with a family member, um, and their favorite book. And she reached out saying that she wanted to explore more opportunities with AI and wasn't sure how to get started. And I had gone to a conference and I I said, "Well, maybe you could try this." And she, on her own, she used Gemini for the first time. She created these really cool posters. Um, once that went up, other staff members wanted to be

097involved after that and it ended up taking up the whole upstairs hallway and the kids and the and the really enjoyed it. And so that that was really great. Um and then uh Marcella, again, everybody said she's done such a wonderful job. Uh I spoke with her, she gave me some data. 20 teachers participated in a variety of AI trainings over the last 3 years, most of which are continuing to do that each year since. So, we have a lot of participation with with that. Um we did ask about concerns and worries and and fears or hesitations about AI. And what I will say is that the overwhelming thing that came out of it is that nobody wants this to replace instruction and and learning and take the place of something that everybody stands for,

098providing enriching instruction. And so, moving forward, at the end of the year, we're going to send out another survey to kind of say, "Okay, this is what we've done this year." Kind of like a needs-based survey. What do you need for next year? Um how can we collaborate to support each other? What do we want to see and what direction do we want do we want this to be going in next? Did I miss anything? No, I The only last thing I would say is if you walk around the school, we we've made a lot of changes in the last couple years from our studies with anxious generation and everything we've done with cell phones. So, you you would see less computer usage in the classrooms, more um organic writing and um teacher-student interactions. But

099that doesn't mean that we are um ignoring what the world looks like now. We're trying to find balance, we're working towards that. We make mistakes, we're not perfect, um but those conversations are are had constantly. And we're really proud of what we are modeling as a staff when it comes to phones and computers and um being present um as well as how we use this uh in the schools and when it's appropriate and when it's not. So, we we're going to continue doing that work and and we're proud of where we are. I have a question. Um in any of the conferences you've been to, has there been any discussion about um AI enabled glasses? Glasses? Yes. Um so, interesting you say that. The only thing I could say right now is they're banned because

100they fall under cell phone policy. Um we do occasionally have students that will wear them because you can also get prescriptions with them. Um and our stance right now is if there's any sort of assessments, um they cannot have them with them. They can't wear them. They have to take them off. And overall, they students understand that. Families understand that. They usually have a another pair. Um I and also for Regents exams, they're not able to be used. I do think as we head a couple of years down the road, you're going to see more of those. I have Metas and I use them for certain things. Although, I did learn that Meta works with a company and they have Again, it's AI's AI, but there's humans behind that. Still so early developing. So, um

101if you have those glasses, it is fact that there are people behind that and you're basically giving the rights up to what you're seeing and taking pictures of right now, at least, so that they can analyze what it's seeing and then use that down the road. So, that was a little eye-opener for me because I was using it for first-person video. Um I did an AED training video where the AEDs are in our building. And to have it first-person to see me going through the AED um the whole device was beneficial for the staff because they could watch that and it's a training video. But, uh we don't use that for videotaping any any students or anything like that. I haven't. But, uh we we have it's it's I wouldn't say it's a problem, but

102I think that that's where we're headed in the future where you're going to be able to see things in those glasses. I think we're already there. Um and it's just something that we have to develop. I mean, when I was a teacher, I remember and I'm sure Miss Moy can relate to because we were both middle school English teachers. I vividly remember getting Chromebooks, classroom sets of Chromebooks for the first time, and being so proud that all my kids were were had their Chromebooks out and were typing, and I was teaching them how to use it, and teaching them Google Classroom, and and really proud of that work. And we're just in a different place now where a lot of kids already know how to do that because of what they're um what they have

103access to. So, we have to shift back to some of the more interpersonal skills, um and that that's just a part of the conversation. But, right now we we we can say it's consistently said every day at 7:25, they hear me on the announcements um what the rules are for that. Thank you. I don't Uh I really appreciated this presentation. This was really, really great. I mean, this district's approach to to AI is um is amazing. The confidence that each of you have in discussing what you're doing at your schools and the district um is is just makes me feel really good at the direction that we're going as far as AI as a as a district, especially knowing um how big of an issue it could be um in education. It seems like it's

104really going in the right direction, so thank you for the presentation on this, and thank you guys for coming up and speaking today. Thank you very much. Uh the medical glasses that you mentioned, actually, that is a a great tool, but also scary as well. We've seen those uh being used in places that they are not supposed to be used, and uh you know, it's uh scary to think that somebody could be walking around with those in a um situation where you may not want to be recorded in. So. Um 7.01 recognition of newly tenured teachers and teaching assistants. So, this is probably why everyone's here tonight. Uh thank you for sticking through everything. Um something that was pre-planned, so don't don't read into this, but I'm going to have to excuse myself. That's why

105we we changed the meeting to 6:00 p.m. I was hoping to to be able to get through it all, but I have a personal appointment I have to get to. But, I know you're going to be well taken care of. Uh the principals are going to speak, and and I know they're going to do a nice job. Make sure Mr. DeSouza doesn't go too long. Uh but, prior to me leaving, I got to meet with everyone who's receiving tenure here in my office, and it just was awesome. I'm so proud of uh the people we hired and the people that they've become. I I I think I probably said it to most of them, I can't believe it's been 4 years. Like, I remember sitting with them in my office, you know, debating whether to

106hire them or not, you know. Um but, it was easy decision to hire them, and meeting with them again showed that we made a great decision, and our processes are great, and they're just amazing people and have done amazing things, and you're going to hear about it tonight from the principals. Um so, congratulations to everyone. Don't take me leaving personal. Um and it's great to see all the staff that are here and the families that are here to support um every Remember this, Cherubino, your parents got to take you out to dinner. That was part of the deal, right? Already done. All right, you already ate. I'm done. All right. So, I'll turn it over to Mr. Lynch. Are you starting us off? I am. All right, so I'll turn it over to you as

107I exit, but thank you, everyone. All right. Um it's my honor to speak about Brittany Bornstad here. So, um I first met Brittany almost exactly 4 years ago at the SUNY New Paltz teacher fair. And for those who haven't experienced it, the candidates the candidates get exactly 15 minutes before we all get yelled at and the next person rotates in, no matter what. So, it's tough to make a a good first impression. And even in that tiny window, Britney really stood out. She was well-spoken, passionate, and super hungry to learn. We could tell immediately that she was a go-getter. And looking at her resume, she had things like Skyline Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and she was a multi-year captain for Mount Saint Mary soccer. That 15 minutes turned into a very large interview committee,

108which I know she remembers. And she was really up against We get great candidates. She She was up against um some some new teachers, but mostly veteran teachers with a significant amount of experience. Good for her, we don't hire based off of experience alone, and we saw an incredible amount of potential within her. Her work ethic, her core beliefs, and we truly believe the committee believed that her drive would pay dividends over the course of a hopefully a 30-year career for Ms. Becky Koke. And 4 years later, I can safely say she's on her way, and we won the bet. Britney has grown so much that it's time she now sits on the other side of the table, sometimes helping us interview teacher candidates herself. And it we had a nice moment um in one

109of our committees where after we asked a candidate a particularly grueling question, she looked at us and she said, "I'm so grateful you didn't ask me that question 4 years ago." And I paused and decided how I would respond, and I eventually looked at her and said, "Brittany, we asked you that question. You must have blacked out." But in seriousness, the reason she doesn't remember that question question isn't just nerves. It's because she has evolved so far past that version of herself. This growth was no accident. And in speaking to her mentor, Caroline Niffen, who was here, who remembers Brittany 4 years ago, a new teacher fresh out of college, spending long summer days prepping her classroom and so soaking up every piece of information like a sponge. From mastering the curriculum to developing classroom

110management and fostering genuine, deep, deep partnerships with parents, Brittany was obsessed with laying the absolute perfect foundation. And in what feels like a blink of an eye, that raw new teacher has truly blossomed. Today at Nassau, Brittany is the confident, knowledgeable, and well-loved educator we all see in the hallways every single day. And she is still as reflective as they come. I also reached out to the rest of the first grade team, which is also here, and they echoed this sentiment. They highlighted her grace under pressure, noting that she's the calm in the center of the storm. They spoke about her heart, how she deeply, deeply, and truly loves kids, and how she knows every student's favorite color, and exactly what they need to feel safe enough to receive learning and actively participate. As one

111teammate put it, "To see that initial hard work translate into such a profound success is truly, truly inspiring. And I couldn't be prouder to work with her." But perhaps the highest praise came from a colleague colleague who said as an educator themselves they would be thrilled to have Brittany as their own child's teacher. Brittany, you're an outstanding educator, a selfless teammate, and a and a rare person that can challenge kids to a level where they're they're struggling close to failure and they're having fun while they're doing it. And that that is that's almost impossible in first grade especially. I have no doubt that you're making this world a better place and we are incredibly lucky to have you at Nassau. Congratulations on your tenure and cheers to an incredible career. Let's sneak this way a

112little bit. Um so I'm actually going to start with Olivia Rothfus. Um she unfortunately cannot be here tonight. She has a family thing going on and and certainly um wish she could be here. Um so she uh we first had the opportunity to bring Olivia to our district. Um when we did we knew we were getting someone special. Um in fact we kind of joked that we stole her from St. Martin's um and from the moment she arrived it's become clear that decision was great for for our students and our community um particularly at Hagen. As an AAS teacher she works with many of our students who need the most support and she approaches that responsibility with incredible poise, energy, and compassion. Delivering small group instruction is not easy especially when the needs within that

113group can vary so widely. Yet Olivia has a remarkable ability to differentiate within those groups so that every student is supported while still maintaining high expectations. She incorporates movement. She changes up her approach and keeps students engaged in ways that lead to real buying. That speaks not only to her instructional skill, but also to the relationship she builds with kids. You see it in the morning when everyone's hugging her in the hallway. Uh Olivia is committed uh is also committed to growing in her practice. She is currently working toward her Orton-Gillingham Associate Certification so she can deliver the kind of intense and explicit phonics instruction that our students need. And she approaches that work with the same level of professionalism and dedication we see every day. She understands the importance of strong foundational literacy skills

114and is committed to delivering that instruction with fidelity. Um she's meticulous so she makes sure everything is documented uh beyond. Beyond her work with students, Olivia has become a valued member of Hagen. Uh she brings positivity, humor, uh she goes to Sharp so she also brings good pranks. She is has meticulous attention to detail in everything she does. And she's an excellent advocate for kids and someone who our colleagues trust and enjoy working with. When we were hiring a AS teacher, it's kind of a unique spot um especially because and there's a lot of classroom teachers here tonight. Uh when your kids, cuz they're yours, leave your room, that's a hard thing to let go of um and you want to trust the person that they're going to. So her as a newbie into Hagen,

115it was almost seamless. In fact, that not only did they trust her, they wanted her to take their kids uh because she was so quality. Um I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Olivia also fully embraces our community aspect at Hagen. Um she participates in all our school events. But, you know, as a newbie coming in and hearing about our overnight trip to Sharp and staying over and, you know, cabins, she was like, "Yeah, I'm all about it." And she jumped right in and hasn't hasn't missed a beat. She's made every sharp reservation trip and she brings that same energy, smile, and enthusiasm to those students as well. She's also incredibly athletic and super competitive. I didn't realize that. I'm fairly confident after playing football with her, she has the best spiral on the

116staff. So, if we're ever to start a football team, she's the quarterback for sure. Ultimately, great educators combine skill, compassion, and deep commitment to students and Olivia demonstrates that every single day. Our students are better supported and our school community is stronger because of her. And in education, when you find someone who can build a relationship with students, deliver strong instruction, and collaborate with colleagues the way Olivia does, you hold on to them and you give them tenure. So, it's my pleasure and I'll accept on her behalf Olivia Rothfus for tenure. So. I'm touching it like it has a mic. Um. So, I also have the pleasure you know, recommending Jackie Haddad for tenure. Jackie has served as a teaching assistant before that she even did a little stint as a monitor at Hagen. She

117has been in our third grade ICT room for 4 years alongside Mrs. Muran and Mrs. Crittenden. Um. And during that time, she has become an incredibly important part of that classroom and incredibly important part of Hagen. One of Jackie's greatest strengths is her intuition. And TAs need good intuition. She has a natural ability to read a room and anticipate what's going to happen before it does. And before the teachers even ask her to. In a busy classroom environment, environment especially in ICT setting where the needs of students can vary greatly, that type of awareness and foresight is invaluable. Jackie is always thinking ahead, stepping in where needed, and helping the classroom run smoothly for both the teachers and the students. She's also incredibly compassionate with our students. Jackie is often the person students seek out

118when they're feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, or dysregulated. She has built a strong relationship with kids, and they trust her. At the same time, she brings what to what people often refer to as a warm demander approach. She is caring and supportive, but consistent and clear with expectations. Students know that Jackie is someone who will support them, but hold them accountable in a respectful and thoughtful way. Beyond her work with students, Jackie has become a valued member of our staff. She works closely with Mrs. Muren and Mrs. Crittenden there in the back to support instruction. They have basically become an inseparable trio. Um they are everywhere together. She is dependable, thoughtful in her approach, and always willing to do what's best for kids. Uh this is a quote from uh Mrs. Muren. There are so many moments

119where she feels less like a teaching assistant and more like a partner, another teacher in the room who I completely trust. She brings calm when things are feel overwhelming, and she brings heart into everything she does. And beyond all of that, she's someone who's supported me, made me laugh, and been there in ways that go far beyond the classroom. That friendship means more to me than I can put into words. On a personal note for me, Jackie and I share something very, very important in common. We're both huge Knicks fans. Yeah. >> Um as any Knicks fan knows, that requires a certain level of loyalty, patience, and blind optimism. But those loyalty and patience and just sheer optimism, not blind, Jackie brings to her work every single day. Uh and while we're talking about Jackie's

120consistency, I should also mention that she may be the one of the most consistent dressers I've ever met in my life. Jackie wears black every day. If Yeah, tonight too. You can look back. In fact, when we designed our Hagen Pot or Project shirts, the black one quickly became her favorite. So, every other color color choice we have made, me and Mr. Lynch, let's just say every time I hand her a shirt, her look is a very honest one about my design. Um we'll go back to black eventually. Ultimately, great teaching assistants bring compassion, consistency, and a deep understanding of students. Jackie demonstrates those every single day. Our students are better supported because of the work she does. It is my pleasure to recommend Jackie Aladad for tenure. Uh so, good evening again, and I

121am um feel very proud and honored to be uh speaking about John Spruby and his tenure. Now, I know everybody in here is special getting tenure, but not everybody gets tenure in their classroom like Mr. Spruby does. So, um if you want if and as the board meets here every week, they every month every 2 weeks, they know they kind of know John's classroom because uh you're in it. So, if you want to see some of John's personality and who he is, uh you can just look around anytime, and you're going to see that. Interestingly, John also uh was interviewed uh by Dr. Fanueli in a library as well. That was at the high school library uh the day of uh the high school graduation 4 years ago in the morning before before the graduation.

122So, he began and ended it uh in a library, and um, librarians are like really vital important people in a in a school. Um, they are they cover literacy, they cover literature, they cover writing, they do the media. Certainly with portrait of a graduate coming down the road, I can see the librarians role growing even more with that. Uh, they evaluate digital sources, they cover cultural competencies, they go over inclusiveness. Uh, they curate the library collection which um, to be honest with you before John became librarian, I didn't really get into that that much but seeing the work John does and the work he puts into what books stay, what books go. Um, all of those things are really important and John has just he's done an amazing job. Uh, he came with he came

123with a lot of experience like kind of lots of experience in all different places, museums, elementary schools and I think um, he might not have said this but he was looking for a home and 4 years later I think you know, it's clear that John has found a home. You know, when I think about John and his personality, he's very gentle. He's very thoughtful. He's very measured in what he says and how he says it. He is a planner. He plans things out. So, if we wanted to if he wants to discuss anything that we have to discuss, I'm going to first get a document outlining what those things are that we're going to discuss um, and he's just so exacting and he he's at the same time he's welcoming to the library, he he's

124very open but he holds students accountable. He holds staff accountable. He holds me accountable but the person he holds most accountable is himself. So, John is very accountable to himself and he wants to do a good job and he knows what he needs to do Do that. And then and part so there's a library piece which you're looking at and which he's involved with and everybody can know, you know, knows what that's like. But the other piece that a lot of people don't know sometimes that librarians are teachers. And they're educators. And John has been and that's been something that has been a It's been a great tradition here at Todd. And John is my the third librarian stepping here and John is just he's picked up the mantle and he has, you know, he's

125made such growth as a teacher because, you know, librarians don't teach every day. You know, it's not like they're teaching five periods a day. So, you know, and watching him grow over the last four years because, you know, if you don't know this yet, teaching middle school students isn't always easy. And you know, you really have to get to know them and he and it's just to watch you grow through your, you know, your evaluations and seeing you informally has been amazing. You know, and watching, you know, you make that adjustment because you've taught both student you've taught elementary students, you've taught adults, but watching you get to middle school and working with you has been really rewarding for me. You know, watching you grow. He's work He works with all departments, you know, basically

126with there I've seen science teachers in here, social studies, English. They come here. He also goes to the classrooms and they work together on all kinds of different lessons and he just does a wonderful job. The library is also uh It's like a hub and a meeting place. So, this is a place that students come to. You know, students need to come here. Students students and they're not coming necessarily just to read books. They're coming because they feel safe. Because they feel accepted. Because they feel wanted. Because they feel strange and they're wondering if anybody else feels strange today. You know, whatever it is. You know, they feel whatever they feel, you know, whatever is going on with them and library is like an important place for like a big busy a big part of

127our of our school. Um and it's also where we go during lunch. You know, lunches are here, you know, lunch periods they come here and John has done a really nice job, especially with all the snow, cuz getting some of the students out of the cafeteria is really helpful. But, he's just done a a great job. He um Ms. Needham was here. Is Ms. Needham still here? She has She has She has left. So, Ms. Needham works with him closely and they do a great job together. Um he's also involved with clubs. He does the library club, Pokémon, Dungeons and Dragons. He helps out with homework helper. And I mean, it's just been such a pleasure getting to know you and watch you grow as an educator. And to find you know, and that you

128found a home. You know, I'm so happy and I feel very honored and very grateful to you. And congratulations on receiving your tenure. Thank you. All right. I'm bringing it home. Um some advice to everybody. Congratulations. Just some advice I've said in the past. You're not asking for it, but I'm going to say it anyways. Um when I when I got tenure as a teacher, I struggled with kind of thinking that it was a big deal. My principal actually said, you know, this is kind of a big deal. And I just said uh yeah, but it's not going to change anything for me. It's not going to change my work ethic or what I do. And I just think it's very important that it's it's good to remember that it's it's an investment. You're an

129investment. You've invested in the district and the district has invested in you. Um and kids rely on you. And it's really important to just continue learning and growing. Um and it's an exciting time, but just keep that in mind that you know, for me I was a tenured teacher. I gave it up. Then I I here. Tenured AP. Gave it up again, and now I'm here again working towards tenure again, but just always continue to grow and learn and stay open-minded and just feel really good about what we've invested in you and and the trust that we put in everybody here. Um there's just my words that you didn't ask for, but I but I've got to talk about two what I would call people two real ones. I'm putting the stamp on this. Two

130real ones right here. I'm very happy to be here to talk about uh Ms. Gates and and Ms. Tate. Um I I say that because high school is business. It's it's, you know, come in, do the work, and both of you came in. I was fortunate to be here from the start of your career um and still learning my way during that time and just seeing people that can come in and and adapt to the environment and hit the ground running and be flexible uh and be open-minded and and a team player to all and I describe that person as a real one in my mind and I appreciate that from both of you. So, um congratulations. So, I'll start with uh Ms. Gates and Priscilla Gates, one of our wonderful math teachers. Uh some

131of these these words here were created by your department and myself. So, this is your department throwing you some love, too. Uh it's an honor to stand here today to recognize Ms. Gates and as she receives her tenure. Priscilla is the kind of educator who truly lights up every room she enters. Uh and her impact on the math department and the wider Spackenkill community has been nothing short of transformative. Priscilla has proven herself to be a versatile instructor and a future week leader within our department without a doubt. Uh we have determined that she has some of the most exceptional math skills in the department. We've we've uh we're going to put that stamp, too. So, she's going to take over some of our higher-level courses when that time comes. Whether she's navigating different levels

132of math or stepping into the role of an amazing co-teacher, she handles every challenge with a down-to-earth attitude and a high-energy positive spirit. Her classroom is more than just a place where formulas are taught. She has created an engaging, welcoming environment where math becomes fun and accessible for everybody. An integral part of our initial avid instruction endeavor, Priscilla has remained a pillar of support for our site-based team and her peers. Priscilla was one of our initial teachers that went on the training, continues to do that, taught our first avid elective, and then with our schedules, we made some shifts and she has still been there to support our site-based team and is somebody that everybody goes to for some of our building-level avid resources. Her willingness to try new things, her can't her her intelligence

133inspires everybody around her to push boundaries in their own teaching. What truly sets Priscilla apart, however, is her heart. She develops deep, positive relationships with both staff and students, making it clear to everyone she encounters that she truly cares about their well-being. Her energy is contagious and her vibrant spirit brings a sense of joy to everybody in in our school. Priscilla, we feel as the department says, too, we feel incredibly lucky to work alongside you. Your transition to 10 years is a celebration of your intelligence, your positivity, and the dedication you bring to Spackenkill High School every day. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> All right. Miss Diana Heath. It's my distinct pleasure to Again, this is from your department, too. We work together and collaborate with the teaching assistants and the teachers that you work

134with this year. Uh as you receive tenure, this hard-earned milestone. Since joining our community, Diana has established herself not just as a reliable colleague, but as an essential thread in the fabric of our daily operations. Diana is a consistent and reassuring presence in our building. I I want to highlight consistent. Like, I don't feel like we get to see each other that much, but it's one of those things that in my role, when I can rely on somebody and count on them and I know they're there and I know they show up and I know they're uh they're on point, it means so much and I don't get the chance to say that often enough. So, thank you. Um whether you're tackling brand new material or navigating the complexities of a challenging school day, you

135approach every task with an admirable eagerness to learn and a steady, professional hand. And with teaching assistants specifically, we we need we rely on you to to learn that material so that you often times can reteach it. And that's a hard thing to do because you're in multiple subjects and you have a lot of periods and you're bouncing around from I'll mention Spanish to, you know, English and all different uh other subjects and it's a challenge and I think it goes unnoticed a lot and you do it wonderfully and professionally. Uh you treat every individual, staff, and student alike with unwavering respect and dignity, setting a standard for courtesy that resonates throughout our halls. Uh within the special education department, Diana has proven to be an invaluable asset. She possesses the rare ability to balance

136diligent student support with a light-hearted sense of humor that keeps the atmosphere light and calm. Her colleagues frequently speak of her grounded nature in high-energy environments, her collaborative spirit as a team player who anticipates the needs of others, and her deep emotional intelligence. Above all, she's known for being kind, considerate, and an exceptionally good listener. Your impact extends across disciplines, reaching into the world language department, where Mr. Boozy feels like you truly shine. Uh in the Spanish classroom, you frequently go above and beyond your prescribed duties. Uh your dedication is matched by your impressive linguistic skills as Ms. Pinna Kelsey and and uh Ms. Balek can also agree. Your tenure is a well-deserved recognition of your hard work, your professionalism, and your heart. We're truly fortunate to have you on our team, and we look

137forward to many years of excellence you will continue to bring to our school. And for me personally, thank you. I I don't get the chance to say it enough, and I'm I have to take advantage of it right now. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. So, there are tenure certificates both being approved. They were They were just all approved tonight, and our board president was not here to sign them. Um your tenures are all approved. We just don't have signatures on on the board president and on them, but congratulations. Um this is This along with the retirement ones at the end of the year is one of my favorite parts of being in Spackenkill is that we're a small enough I know I say it every time, but that we're a small enough district to be

138able to do something like this and and hear about each tenure individually. Uh uh a school the size of Arlington or Wappingers district or even Hyde Park for to go through all the tenures that they must have to approve in one year and speak about each individual one would be an impossibility. We're really lucky enough here to to hear that. Um and we're we're lucky as board members just to approve the recommendations from the uh administrators uh on their behalf. Um And we're we're also lucky our community gets to hear how great all of you are doing at your jobs. I think that's really important for our community to hear each and every one of you. Um So that the the investment that goes into this is is huge and for them to be able

139to hear that is uh significant. So thank you for all the administrators that spoke and congratulations to everybody who received tenure tonight. Anybody else? I'll just certainly add my another congratulations as well. Your administrators know you certainly better than we do, but it's just wonderful to hear the testimonies and it I hope really validates and affirms your your confidence in the jobs that you're doing to hear that kind of support. But to me what's also so wonderful at these events is uh to see the support you have from your colleagues. And then see so many familiar faces in here, quote co-teachers, who took time out uh two plus hours now, you know, out of their their uh warm evenings, you know, to come here and support with you and sit alongside you just says so

140much. I think not only to you, but about us I think as a whole district. So it's wonderful to see that as well. So congratulations to you, to your administrators, to your colleagues as well. So thanks so much. Okay. Um moving on, 8.01, I was advised there are no board correspondences to go over. Uh are there any uh comments from the public on non-agenda items? No. Okay. Um any comments from board members? I just have, you know, one comment that I'll I'll keep kind of quick. I attended the Dutchess County School Board Association monthly meeting last Thursday and had an interesting discussion about cybersecurity issues. A presentation from the Dutchess BOCES Director of Technology, Mark Stein. Lots of useful information there that I'm happy to, you know, elaborate on perhaps in the offline in the

141future as people are interested. But one thing I wanted to draw particular attention to is an issue that Kelly Lappin, the the organizer, the chair really of the DSCBA, brought up toward the end. Uh Members of the D- DCSBA had received an email from the Lower Educational Lower Hudson Education uh Council regarding um the prospect of electric buses. And it contained both a petition that that group has prepared and a template of a letter that they're um offering to districts uh you know, and and suggesting that districts uh perhaps write uh and personalize and send to um the New York State Public Utilities Commission. So, there's a lot of information in the petition. It's 10 pages long, uh but I want to bring that to everyone's attention and uh again, the single point is that

142the LH LEC is requesting that districts uh endorse this petition in the form of a letter uh that we would draft together presumably with superintendent, although there's also the option for the board to send a separate letter its own. So, this is something we can consider and discuss. Uh it's not really time or wouldn't really be appropriate to do it tonight, but I talked about this earlier with Dr. Fannueli. Uh he had alluded to this in his update to us at the end of last week that they have been meeting on his end with superintendents. And and so um he thought it'd be a good idea to bring it up from this side. And so Sandra's distributing copies of the petition and the template letter template. So I guess the idea would be if we

143could have an opportunity to review those over the next days, couple of weeks before the next meeting. And yeah, I have a copy right here. And we'd have an opportunity to talk about it at that point at our next meeting. So. So you should have two documents, yeah. Each two documents. One of each. They are single or double-sided? Single or front and back? Thank you very much. Anything else? Uh I'll thank you all for uh coming to tonight's meeting. Last part is 8.04, comments from the superintendent. I'm going to talk to her. Um Dr. Molton. Do you have any comments you'd like? No. No, thank you very much for asking. Just wanted to make sure. Uh with that I will ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting. So moved. I'll second. Second. All in

144favor? Aye. And