001Good evening and welcome to the May 20th, 2025 meeting of the Spack and Kelly Union Free School District Board of Education. The board will take a vote to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of seeking legal advice which is protected by attorney client privilege. It is anticipated that the board will resume the public session at approximately 7:30. Do I have a motion to enter into executive session? So move. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? I I 5 Z. Okay, we'll see you around 7:30. Okay, welcome back to the May 20th, 20125 meeting of the Spack and Kelly Union Preschool District Board of Education. I'd ask you rise and recite the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one
002nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Item 3.01 is comments from the public on consent agenda items only. We have public comment on consent agenda items. Any board comments? Anything needs to get pulled and discussed? Okay. With that, I'll entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as written. So move. Do I have a second? All in favor? I passes 5. So that brings us Oh, sure. We we actually approved a new teacher. Um Mr. Lanzone, I didn't uh prep you, but he wanted to tell us about the our new PE teacher. Sure. I uh wrote a little something. I wasn't sure if Kenny was going to be here, but I he promised that he's going to watch the uh the meeting today. Um so the process behind our new
003Fizzad teacher, uh it was long, thorough, and incredibly thoughtful. We reviewed over a 100 resumes, uh did 30 screening interviews, brought 11 candidates to a committee for interviews, observed demo lessons, and held final interviews with with Dr. Fannueli. Um that's why it's incredibly proud um that we're here tonight to appoint uh or recommend Kenny Herrera for our physical education position at Nassau. U Mr. Herrera is joining our is not only joining our faculty, but he's also coming home. Uh, as a former student at at Nassau and a proud uh, graduate of Spagnakill, Kenny knows firsthand what it means to be a Spartan. And excuse me, I get I get a little emotional when I talk about former students. Uh, Kenny was a seventh grader when I started here in ' 07. So, I've known him
004from, you know, this hall all the way up to a grown man and and just really proud of what who he is and what he's become. um as a student he stood out for his dedication uh his work ethic and his natural leadership ability and I think those characteristics have carried over into his professional career. Um after graduating Courtland Kenny came here and he coached uh a couple varsity sports for us and he also substituted at the high school and middle school and at that time he showed um a strong ability to connect with students um and uh um had really signs of being an excellent educator. over the past three years. Um he has deepened his experience. Um after coaching for us, he applied um for some positions in the local area. Um didn't
005get a position. Uh applied for a position in Ithaca. Um had no connections in Ithaca. Um no family. Decided to move on and he knew he needed to gain some experience in teaching and coaching. So, he made that leap and we were sad to see him go at Spack and Kill um because he was he was one of ours and he was a great coach for us. Um but I think that experience going north teaching and coaching, he coaches a couple varsity sports there and teaches at the middle school and high school. I think that really um built a strong foundation to be an excellent educator. Um over the past three years, like I said, he deepened his experience in both teaching and and coaching. And uh we are really thrilled that he has chosen
006to return back to Spack and we were thrilled that he applied for the position. Um it was definitely competitive. Uh a lot of strong applicants and I'm really proud of the way he handled himself each step of the way and he definitely earned it. Um Kenny, we're so proud of you. We'll welcome you back. you embody what it means to be part of Spack and Kill family and uh we really look forward to the many ways you will inspire and support our students. So congratulations. [Applause] You know, if I could I just break protocol a little bit and make a comment too, you know, at this time because I uh I've known Kenny a long time too. Uh even longer. uh in my son Mark uh my second youngest son Mark started school in kindergarten
007and it's back killing I've known Kenny ever since and uh couldn't feel more strongly you know in support of the decision that's been made uh I know it was made have the utmost respect for the way the decision was made but just so happy for Kenny and and his family I think back kills the real gain is a real winner in this uh you know he's going to be a terrific educator here I think and and enhance our coaching you know program in so many ways and just uh very happy. So I just wanted to break break protocol just a little bit and and offer my uh congratulations uh to Kenny and to the district in its process. It's rigorous process. So congratulations to everybody. Great. Thank you for that. Welcome home, Mr. Herrera. Okay,
008that brings us to 5.01. This is our second runoff vote for the Duchess Bosey's board. So I'll read the ballot again. Uh this is a runoff vote for one seat to fill vacancy with the term beginning April 23rd, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026 on the board of cooperative educational services. The trustee or board of education of each component school district by resolution may cast one vote for this vacancy. So again, we have uh Mr. Mark Flehower from Reinbeck and Mr. Bryce Holland from Pikipsy. Um how do we do we want to have a discussion? We want to maintain our previous voting. Um maintain I appreciate that as well. One district one district was unable to vote last time. So there's 13. So with this vote hopefully there'll be an odd number district one district.
009So it was 66. So there is a seven in the 13th district. So the tide will be broke. Could you never Okay. So with that I guess what we'll do is um we'll start with Mr. Fleshour and um I'll start the vote off. I'll say may and we'll just go down the line. N and Mr. Holland, I'll say I I I I I Okay, thank you. Okay, that brings us to item 7.01, EV bus transition plan and clean green schools presentation by CPL. Where would be a good place to present? Um, right here. Right kind of where you are. Okay. See the camera behind you? That's that'll be nice. All right. Well, good evening everyone. My name is Chris Lean. I'm one of the architects. that work with the district. Um, I have here with
010me today, uh, Greg Royer from from CPO as well, and I'm going to have him take the lead on this presentation. He's basically talking about the electric bus transition and and, uh, where we go from here. So, take it away, Greg. All right. Thank you, Chris. Uh, so we started the I guess first of all, is everyone familiar with the U mandates that New York has set for 2035? Are you familiar with the the latest change that just occurred? So, it's been I know we've been talking about this for over a year. Um there was word that they were going to allow for an extension uh for the first deadline, the 2027. Uh that is official now. Uh so, you can file at some point. I don't think it's in the portal yet, but at
011some point you'll be able to file for an extension to uh July 1st, 2029. Um, so once that's available, if it if it makes sense to do that, that is an option. One one caveat to that is districts that have completed a fleet electrification plan are going to be eligible and then other districts that haven't are going to have a a tougher time getting that extension. So, uh, you guys are in in good shape with with, you know, where you are in this process. Um, so I'm just going to kind of walk through. There's a lot of details in this. Um, feel free to stop me if you have question just so the board has clarification on the two years. It they didn't change the back end of when you have to have your fleet
012done by, but they gave you two more years to start, right, with that. You can still purchase diesel for the next. You could if if you if you if your waiver was approved. If your waiver is approved, right? Um but they they want to see your plan. It's it's not it's not simple to get the waiver, but I just want clarity. The back end hasn't changed. It's just but maybe it will, but but that's where we are with that. Yeah, that's a good point. So, I think likely what's going to happen. So, NAERTA just put an RFP out to outsource a large portion of the clean transportation effort. Uh in that RFP, they do mention districts doing a three-year update to their FEP leading up to 2035. Uh so I think what's likely going to
013happen with, you know, increasing the size of the the team that's pushing this out across the state is that they're going to use all those three-year rolling updates uh as we get closer to 2035 to figure out, okay, do we need to kick this out 5 years? Is it 10 years? you know, where are we in that process? So, uh, we've got a window to to get some of this done, but the state is, from what we've seen, going to keep the pressure on districts to to keep this going. So, there was a legislation being presented that the uh they're trying to make waiverss in general for smaller school districts. Do we know if there's been any movement on that? So, the feedback we've gotten is that's dead on arrival. So, we we've seen a
014couple over the past three years um get introduced, but haven't gone anywhere. So, that's what's expected with that one. Um some of the talk also was for the real rural districts that have a large miles to cover. Yeah. Um but I I don't even know if that's going to happen. That was one of the pushes cuz the batteries aren't set for that distance yet. Like the I don't even think that's happening. Yeah. And I think a lot of that is just without concrete data because we actually have done the largest geography in New York State which is Sarin Lake. They run about 650 square miles. Uh and we were able to get I think all but three routes to work. So based on our phasing plan they were going to you know save those to
015close to that 20 35 day. So I I think with proper planning you can mostly get there and then as technology increases you know the expectation is that you'll be able to get all the way there. Um so with your district I was just telling Chris this is probably one of the easiest assessments we've done because all the routes work with the smaller buses. You've got the space at the middle school. It's just it's very easy. So, uh, I think during the transition, you guys will have a pretty easy time getting that completed. Um, so I'm actually going to jump ahead here. So, as part of the fleet electrification plan, we take all the routing data, the utility information, um, you know, what utility data we can gather to determine what size feeder is coming
016to the, uh, in this case, the middle school. Uh and then we collect all that data, run it through a routing analysis to help us determine what are uh the minimum charger sizes we can get away and what are the minimum uh bus battery sizes. Um should I be holding this differently? Um touch. So it, you know, in the case of Spatten Spack and Kill, uh, the smallest class A or short bus with the smallest available, uh, level three DC fast charger will work for the district on all your routes. So that's that's good. That's easy. It's, you know, less utility upgrades that need to happen. Uh, the cost of those smaller chargers is a lot less. Obviously, the smaller buses come with a a lower cost. Um, so yeah, pretty straightforward. Any questions on
017that? As part of the assessment, we also look at um managing the the charging network. So, you know, when you have your AM and PN shifts and the drivers are plugging into the charger, we don't want them just, you know, getting max charge to the battery and, you know, unplugging when when needed. We want to manage the electricity that's going to that battery and that's done through a charge management system or a CMS. Um, so the energy models that we run, if you look at the bottom chart, it shows the unmanaged system, I think it's about 250 kilowatts. Uh, and a managed system will bring you down to about 50 kilowatts. Um, so it's not a huge increase on on the district's uh electrical demand. So from a cost standpoint, Val, that's you're not going
018to see a huge increase on your average daily charge profile, which is good. And then next, we just have some information on the feeder that's coming in to the middle school. Uh currently, there's about 3.8 megawws of available headroom. Uh so adding that you know even at your worst case scenario you know if you have an early dismissal and you you do have to use the max capacity on those chargers uh you're well within the available space on the grid. So uh that's not a concern. Again this is probably one of the easier situations that we've come across which is which is great. So just a just to so that means we wouldn't require a service upgrade. Um uh so there wouldn't be a feeder upgrade, but you would have to add new service um
019coming to the Chargers. Yeah. Um but I mean from the main trunk line where it come to change that. Nope. That would all be good. Now one thing I will say is that feeder is in a region that you know we expect to see additional offtakers, you know, be added to that circuit over time. So, it'll diminish, you know, what's currently available, but I think your system is small enough to it's really not going to be a concern, you know, between now and when the upgrades need to occur. If you notice on there, you probably see that there's a telephone pole power right for kind of where the dumpsters are at time. So, that's where the buses are. So, access is luckily kind of right there. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's super easy. And I think
020we have it on this this next one where where the line's coming in to the left of the drawing. It's just tapping in. And then to the the bottom right, that uh rectangle basically would be a potentially proposed battery storage unit and then transformers and new service that would be required to uh energize the chargers. So you've got, you know, where you currently park. It's just a matter of reconfiguring that space and and adding in those dual core chargers. Now, obviously, this is a really rough schematic. This isn't a final drawing, but um you know, the civil team that's currently working with the district, they took a look and and they're confident, you know, just expanding this existing drawing will be pretty easy for the space that you have over there. Yeah, that's that utility
021call that Mr. F. So bottom line is short run. Yeah. Really? That's the utility right there. Did you try to set this up with the last capital project by making that park those parking spots bigger and and paving them in the hopes that this is where it would land. So the next couple slides are just a couple things I wanted to mention. nothing that's uh required at this point. So vehicle to grid uh is something you may have heard of. It's coming through all the utilities at some point essentially because you're going to have all these battery packs, you know, 156 * 12 buses is a lot of potential energy storage to just be sitting there in the summertime. So what vehicle to grid allows is for you to inject that power back into the
022grid during peak demand periods and the utility will pay you some fee. We don't know what that looks like yet because the programs haven't been established. Uh but we do know it's coming. So there's a lot of uh work going on with the public service commission to to iron that out and what the new rate tariffs look like and all that stuff. So that's something that will be available in the future and we can certainly help you know navigate you know if that makes sense or not. And then next battery storage I know there's is there a moratorum locally on on batteries? A lot of municipalities have a moratorium. Yeah, a lot of them do. Fire risk. Yeah. And a lot of that is related to the the ion and cobalt phosphate batteries because they
023burn at about 25,000°. So getting enough water on site to put that out is near impossible. So you have to just kind of let it burn out unfortunately while it's dumping chemicals into the air. Um what we look at is an iron phosphate technology that burns at about 450°. and the way they're set up. So that ConX box looking storage unit has modules in it. Uh almost like a server wreck where you slide the battery packs in to a, you know, main circuit. Uh and if one of those burns out, you don't have to just get rid of the whole system. Just a matter of replacing modules and getting the battery storage system back up and running. So that's much safer. And I think likely what's going to happen is things are going to transition
024to that technology and there's some others behind it that are uh being researched and developed right now. So uh I think pretty shortly here we'll have other options aside from uh some of the fire risks we've we've seen out there. But what's important about this, one thing I do want to point out is if the utility goes down, uh, when you're doing a charging cycle and school gets dismissed early or there's some type of, um, situation where you got to get the kids home quick, uh, but you don't have the power, that's where a battery unit comes in because it's it's holding that energy energy to be able to deliver to the the buses so that you can get the kids back home. Um, without it, you know, depending on the frequency of outages, uh,
025and if it falls on a day that you have that situation, early dismissal, whatever the situation is, um, then it's calls to parents to to come pick your kids up because the buses aren't charged up enough. Okay, next is some budget information. So the two columns on the right, one's got with and without incentives. Um so really the breakdown is um with a battery storage system and available incentives uh you're looking at about a $2 million upgrade for the district. Now, one thing I will say about the incentives is the way they're structured. They're expected to be taken over time, not all at once. Um, so if you tried to apply for all the available incentives through the state today, they're going to decline you and say we'll give you enough for, you know, one
026bus and a couple chargers and do the next the following year. Um, so it's got to be staged over time, which, you know, I think is easy enough just based on your situation. You know, it's a pretty straightforward system. uh can easily be, you know, upgraded. One thing I would suggest is starting with, you know, doing that service upgrade, getting some of the underground conduit in place, and then you can just add chargers as needed over time. And then this is just a breakdown if you were to do uh three initial buses and chargers and do the battery and the infrastructure you know at once. As you can see that the cost to just add those subsequent charges is your main cost is that first initial upgrade. Any questions? This is just a breakdown of
027some incentives. Uh so NISBIP or New York State School bus incentive program uh that's what covers the delta between the fossil fuel and electric bus. It also covers uh chargers as part of the program. And because you've done this and you're listed as a priority district, um your incentive per charger is $55,000. So I I think in most cases it will cover the majority of cost of of the chargers. Okay. Okay. Any questions on the fleet electrification report that's been I think I would only ask what is the difference if the buses are housed in a temperature controlled building. Does that reduce the energy usage or does it elongate the battery life or anything like that? Yeah. So, good question. Yes, it would reduce charging times, but you're also running heat to condition that space.
028So, there's that interactive um situation. Um but really, it's just as long as they're plugged in and it's doing its preconditioning, which is going to be important whether it's inside or outside. Um you are going to use a little more outside, but these battery packs are pretty small uh on the class A bus. So it what we've accounted for is shown in that that table. Um so really not a huge impact. Okay. So as part of this we're we're looking at um additional assessments. Uh so train uh HBAC company uh is working through a contract that C or an application that CPL submitted. Uh they're doing an ashray level two energy audit for all the buildings. Um so part of that is to see what they come up with and look at doing an energy
029performance contract at some point um to reduce you know the replace lighting HVAC systems, things like that. Reduce cost, but more get some of those old antiquated systems replaced uh without any impact to the the district's budget or or tax base. Um, so we're working through that. Uh, we did get an update yesterday and I'd say they're about 40% complete with that study. There was a delay with uh purchase orders to mix, which is a shocker, right? Yeah. Um, but we did get those. So, we told them to move full speed ahead. I think they've collected all the data they need. They've been on site a couple times. It's just a matter of kind of wrapping that up and and getting the report ready. Um, and then also as part of it, my team is
030working with Chris and his team uh on more of an energy master plan. So, they kind of go hand inand with future mandates and kind of the state's overall goal. Uh so items that are identified in that study, we're going to you know work with Chris and his team to see how they align with future capital planning and uh you'll have really a complete road map of of what can be done in the future. mention that and then as is part of that overall energy master plan uh we'll look at additional clean energy sources I know the district has a fair amount of solar now uh but we'll see if that can be expanded at all otherwise we'll you know just paint the complete picture and uh probably have something ready in the next few
031months to present back and kind of go over next steps. I think that's it. Thank you everyone for having us tonight. Really appreciate the time. Final question. What are the dates kick off when purchase order received? Say again. What are the the dates? Oh, okay. Yeah. So, the purchase orders were received on April 9th. We had a a kickoff call. It's not really a formal kickoff meeting. Uh Naerta calls it that, but really it's a 10-minute call to say, "Hey, I'm your project manager from NAERTA. If you have questions along the way or, you know, need any help on our end, feel free to reach out." So, that's happened. Uh that's what prompts them to to issue the purchase orders. So, at this point, we're going to do you know our assessments. Uh and then
032once that gets, you know, close to being final, we'll report back with an update. And then that'll go to to NAERTA for approval. And then once that's approved, you got your final uh audit and energy master plan. Val, anything to add? Oh, I just want to appreciate Greg and Chris for all the work they've done. They kind of talked me through all this highly technical jargon, right? And I definitely appreciate them, you know, taking the time to walk us through it and step by step giving us a good starting point and and a way to plan to do this whole conversion and as an extension of that get a good energy audit so that we can we have a facilities plan. So now we're going to have an energy plan to go along with that.
033Keep in mind this does not include the buses more infrastructure. Yes, they've also been very helpful in getting all those the grants that's paying for all of this and they will work with us to get the applications done for the incentives when we get to the point of starting to buy buses and charges. What does the market look like in the bus for the buses right now at present? So there's about 300 buses deployed across the state. Um they're NAERTA is hoping over the next 3 to 5 years that we're going to be doing closer to like 500 a year and then that's going to exponentially ramp up as we get closer to that 2035 date. Um but we've pro we probably work with about 75 districts and I'd say 10% have already purchased buses
034are starting to get the chargers installed. Um, so we're seeing movement on it. Um, but as expected, everyone's not thrilled to be, you know, making this big switch, especially with what's going on with the current administration. Those are all over the place about that, too. Is what's going on with the federal government going to affect these projections for New York State? Not really. New York's pretty islanded from what's going on at the Fed level. I don't expect to see much change here. In fact, we're seeing a lot of energy companies start to move into New York uh because of what's going on at the federal level. Uh they see New York as an opportunistic market to to play in because of you know things too. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Is there any idea what like some
035some of the districts are pushing back on this? We have to get voter approval to purchase this stuff. If our voters just not right, won't approve doing this, what does New York State have to say about that? Cuz they're mandating it, but we need our voters to approve it. Yeah. Any any information on that? It's a good question. I mean, the the incentives for the charge, you know, at least in your situation, for the buses and the charger should offset. So if you were, you know, going out to vote on a, you know, a diesel bus, the delta that's covered by the grant should be around the same cost and then the charger should be covered mostly. The infrastructure piece, that's the the question mark. That's a good question. The feedback that Sarah Madison gave
036was just make sure you really educate your taxpayers of the cleaner air that's going to be out there and My response was that people are not going to be sold on that excuse me. So we'll see anyone else. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Item 7.02 is our elementary update. I don't think you want to give me and Eric that microphone, right? We don't need um so we have a couple of items that we're going to go through just you know happen happenings at both Hayden and Nassau. Um and then we'll take you through some of the changes in terms of uh um report card stuff that we've been working on. So uh May and June feel like there's something every day. I'm sure in your personal lives it's pretty a
037hectic calendar but in school life it's it's very hectic like even today we had the book fair we had uh the bike rodeo for our third graders which is always a great event uh the town of Gy uh police come out and get you know properly size the helmets they do all these different safety drills with our third graders um and I went out there a couple different times and they were really excited um and the town of Pipsy police thought it was a very well-run smooth event. Uh credit to our PE teachers and our nurse Sharon uh for putting that on. Um and then inside everyone's going to the book fair. There's a lot of excitement around that. And then we had uh our practice for the junior Spartan running team which their 5K
038unfortunately with the weather forecast on Thursday we had to shift that. Um Thursday looks like the most miserable of the days and that was supposed to be our 5K day. So we are moving into the following Thursday on the 29th. um which also happens to be concert season. Um but we're hoping to start the run early enough where our fourth graders that night is their concert at 7 where the run is over by 5. Um trust me as we went through all the different dates and navigating that uh we were running into so many different obstacles with other buildings or even just the field use. So um we're excited to get it in. Hopefully the 29th is a perfect weather day for the run. Uh but we have over 150 kids. So, we want to
039make sure they get their their moment to shine. They cross that finish line on the field. It's such an amazing event for Hagen. Uh, everybody kind of chips in and and it becomes a big community event. Um, and I'll be DJing my way in into the booth. Um, and little throwback for me. So, um, we're excited for that. So, come out next Thursday and check that out. Um, in the midst of everything, we just finished up our testing season. So, we have that window with CBT now from kind of end of April to middle of May. Uh, we did our ELA, we did our math, and we did our fifth grade science test. So, uh, we're proud of the kids and and the teachers and the work they put in in preparation for that. Just
040yesterday, our second graders from Nassau came to Hagen for a third grade visit. They got to meet the third grade teaching team. They got to get a little rahrh speech from me. Um, they're all always so shocked that one of my best friends is Mr. Lynch. Um they're like, "Wait, you know him?" Um so, uh they're they're pretty excited and they got a tour from fifth graders around the building and got to see the lay of the land and a lot of them will come back in the summer. We do meet and greets with third grade teachers, so that'll be cool. And last week, we're at Sharp. Um you know, we we spent two nights and three days there. Um lots of cool events and and we we have expanded our program there. Uh Miss
041Ms. Kennedy uh added yoga and meditation to one of the stations. Miss Scorlet comes and does a STEM activity where the kids have to kind of build a bridge that's going to get animals across um in nature. So we we've expanded our program from the normal hikes and events that we put on. We did the Birds of Prey presentation one night, the American Revolution presentation one night. Um and the kids really get into it. And I remember the same guy who gave the American Revolution presentation when I was in fifth grade, he still does it. uh he he's quite a he's quite a ham and gets up there and does a good show. Um so it it it's an amazing amazing kind of nostalgic event for me but a great memory for fifth graders. Um
042they get a lot of free time to go out and play. I know we talked about that with the anxious generation last week uh last board meeting. Um that is the perfect trip for it. So um and things coming up next week we have our Albany trip. The fifth grade fifth grade is also going to the Renegades game. They do a STEM day there. Um, so that will be exciting. That's happening on the same day. Um, we also have the fifth graders going to Todd in the beginning of June for their tour. We have the Bronx Zoo for the third graders coming up. And then, of course, moving up ceremonies um is on June 20th. So, lots going on. That's it. No, that's it. Yeah. Nothing Nothing really going on here. His his is going
043to be no better. So, go ahead. All right. Hi, everyone. Um, Mr. Duza didn't mention, but you took Mr. Curtis this year. I did. Mr. Curtis, I don't know who he bumped up with, but um you can tell he's still a little bit tired, so we did have some late nights there at Charlotte. But um yeah, a couple things I wanted to update everybody on. Um Mr. Damato, who was here, um was a big help in getting our uh school garden put in. Um it's at the end of the second grade hallway. Uh we partnered with a company called Land to Learn uh Ambassador College. um it's helped us kind of get that garden um going and all the excitement associated with that. So, the students were getting their hands dirty. Um another thing that's
044kind of connected with the anxious generation, the anxious generation, we actually have an area just to the left of the garden that literally is for kids to dig and kind of get their hands dirty. Um so that was exciting. Uh we also had our music in the school's assembly for Mr. Andreas. It's our version of a Nassau kind of concert. um each grade level. We're always amazed with what he kind of has them doing. And then, you know, it's always a big surprise um with the staff drum line, which seems to kind of grow every year. Uh this year, um he had light up drumsticks for us while in the dark shirt, so that was pretty cool. Um we saw Detective Cohen at Alex le Alex's lemonade stand. Uh we we made a bunch of
045money for for charity um cancer research. So thanks for uh Duchess County Sheriffs and also Tipsy and TP for being there and supporting the program. Um that was an excellent event and it's been really busy um with our incoming kindergarteners. So we had kindergarten screening which is always a a really exciting day. Um we continue uh and so in co we started posting it outside and we are undefeated with weather and uh you know I I do not because it works because it works every year. Uh we also invited our our prek students to the Nassau book fair and kind of they got to for the morning kind of follow along some kindergarten students who were their um kind of their mentors which was neat. Um, we had our creation station presentations. Dr. Molford was
046there, Mr. Frell, uh, Dr. Danieli was there. That's a new thing that we're doing, which is kind of um, it's optional. It's work outside of school, but we kind of wanted to see what kind of interest there was in students kind of making their own uh, inventions. So we had um mechanical hands, we had um Morse Morse code, we had um my my personal favorite was a a homemade papa shop, which was pretty cool. Uh kids kids shoot baskets. Um and we have a new club starting up called the Movement Club. We kind of we kind of set off um Mrs. Howard and and Miss Bournestad. Originally, we were going to kind of do a a kind of a um a primary version of the running club at Hagen and um we met with Mr.
047Alwood for about 5 minutes and realized that probably wasn't the best idea. So, we turned it into kind of a sports club, which has been a big hit. Um, all right. So, we're going to we're going to shift gears uh to the presentation that's on the on the screen. And I think started off with a little bit of background information. So, um, several years ago, there were some modifications made to the the common core standards and they kind of renamed them as the next generation standards. And so we knew we had to do some updating of our report cards and we created this kind of joint Nassau Hagen um it was called the report report card committee. It wound up going in a bunch of different directions which was which was fun. But um so
048a couple things that we did on that committee. I'll kind of I'll back up a little bit. So Dr. Fanueli had us read a book um over the summer, the administrative team uh called On Your Mark by Thomas Gusky um who's kind of an assessment expert at the University of Kentucky. And so we kind of had that knowledge in the back of our head and felt that a couple chapters would really help us um kind of paint our pathway for this committee. So, uh, we read a couple chapters. We kind of, um, found our purpose and then there were a couple there were a couple school districts that had already updated their report card. So, we decided to visit one of our neighboring school districts and we visited Bale Farm Elementary in Arlington and kind
049of learned about some of their ships. Um but what we did was we kind of created two main goals in um our new report card and as a result of those goals and Mr. Duza will talk further about this. We wound up in the place where we we wanted unanimously wanted to move to trimesters and he'll get in more detail but kind of our goals that we kept going back to were making our elementary report card more informative and and also simple. Um and also this is the big one that we we really have heard from teachers for for years to maximize the instructional time and kind of um the thought was that by the time a quarter was over and instruction began again, assessments were just starting again and so we wanted to have
050those windows kind of be longer. So what does it look logistically as a change? So right now obviously we have four grading periods approximately nine weeks per quarter depending on breaks and off days and spring break. So it's fast. I remember as a teacher that second to third quarter transition wasn't much of a teaching block. Um so you didn't get a chance to really see that growth um and spending time in instruction. You were trying to get things for report cards. Um trimester wise it's three grading periods in total approximately 12 weeks per trimester and it gives us the opportunity for more in-depth instruction and it really benefits all um you know major stakeholders in our buildings if you go to the next slide. So students for students it's really more time for management more
051time for growth. Um we know that overassessing does create a little more stress on the student. you know, we're constantly trying to know where they're at and to know where they're at, we have to assess them. And to put that on a report card means you have to have some some data to back that up. So oftent times they're the they're the downstream effect of that and they have to do these assessments quite frequently. So now with that information being less pressure on them, we can tailor our feedback and support and see the fruit of the labor. For teachers, it's more appropriate pacing for their teaching, more meaningful assessments. It's the whole quality over quantity idea. Um, and gives a clearer picture where students are at when they're having the conversations with parents. Um, and
052for parents, you're going to get more comprehensive reports, more time to see that growth, um, and address issues in real time. um and more robust and meaningful conferences because instead of having it that week before Thanksgiving, it'll now probably be that second first to second week in December. Um that gives you a longer time period to know the child, give more detail in those conferences um and how we get ready for the next trimester and help support our kids. Um, so really this is an opportunity for us to see um, you know, where kids are at, but also give them the time and the ability and the teachers the time and the ability to really make uh, significant changes, especially in the middle of the year as we move into the second trimester. Um, but
053that doesn't mean less contact cuz if if a parent wants to reach out or anything like that, that that's still going to be available and something that teachers will take a lot of pride in and I'm sure they would contact parents if there was a concern um in that regard too. So um we we are not the only Dale Farms and Arlington has move have moved through trimesters elementary wise um and they have seen a real big benefit. the teachers were and the principal um kind of gave us the the the the information that we really felt was significant to that change. So questions last. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. So it should be implemented next year. Yes. Mhm. Good. Cool. Want to thank them for their work because we really talked about this probably two
054years. It's been a two-year committee. Just didn't want to do it without the the proper, you know, uh due diligence and doing that site visit I think, you know, was was a great idea. Um and this just probably fits uh everyone was in agreement, but we thought it was worthy of a board presentation because it is a it's different. How long this is bail? been doing it. I want to say two years like that. Yeah. Enough time to see Yeah. Yeah. See it take root. Yeah. Great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thanks for your work. Okay. That brings us to 8.01 board correspondence. We had an email with regard to the senior tax exemption that the district clerk has addressed. Um 8.02 comments from the public on non-aggenda items. Any public comment on non-aggenda
055items? Okay. 8.03 comments from the board. I saw the uh acceptance the two grants and that's awesome. Again, a lot of work goes into those. So, appreciate the uh the work that goes into, you know, writing those grants and getting them for the students. Um uh the governor has a cell phone mandate. I don't know if I missed that last name. Was that dismissed at all? Uh so I didn't really hear it other than myself. So that is accurate. Uh we are working internally and we'll by August 1st we need to have a a plan adopted by the board or policy. Um it is pretty much it's more than what we thought. So it is going to be uh um not on their person during the school day. So we're working on some logistics and
056there's there's some things we have to do and put in a policy so that uh parents would have access you know basically it's going back to call the main office uh that sort of thing. So we're looking through uh going to do that internally and then something will be coming to the board probably in July. The state provided any funding for whatever there is funding. Uh I don't know how much we're going to be eligible for. Uh we we plan on using we have the we have lockers, you know. Um so it seems as if that's what the principles are sort of leaning towards. Uh but we haven't flushed that out yet. But it looks like, you know, if they want if they want to bring their internetbased phone, smartphone into the building, they'll have
057to put it in uh their locker or somewhere from bell to bell. the beginning of the day. She says this extend or is this just our own policy that extends to smart autism? It does. It listed anything that's internet uh that could get the the internet. So, it does not include, for lack of better term, any flip phone um that has maybe cellular where you can call or text, but um anything that's internet based, anything you can get your social media on, anything like that um can have it. So, it's interesting to see where this is going to turn if if people are going to have two phones or have a a flip phone instead of if they're storing in their lockers, do they are they able to go and check on them in the
058middle of the day or what check out? Well, they're not supposed to. That's that's part of the there's from bell to bell. So, we'd have to figure out trying to sneak to do that or something. That'll be up to the administration to figure out how to do that. I'm wondering if you're going to start to see people with hipons somehow, which we'll have to address. I'm glad you brought it up. It's good, but we will we will have something uh ready for the August first deadline. Anyone else? Yeah. Yeah. Ditto on the grants. Uh we appreciate all the effort that goes into those. Uh and you've got about 12 minutes to go vote on the budget and the board trustee. I'll turn it over to our superintendent. Item 8.04. I have a nice uh surprise
059for one of our board members here. So, we just received this literally uh last week and we got an email today. Um, so one of our board members is being recognized. So the New York State uh school boards association's board excellence recognition program is designed to acknowledge those school board members who strive to continue to expand their governance knowledge and skills. And one of our members has taking taken some more training. Mr. Dan Kohler you So this seems pretty cool. So we want to recognize him and and we talk about the board in general, but you know, specific to Dan that, you know, uh you don't get a lot for being on the board. Um you give up your time, you give up your energy. Um so it's it's always good for us to have
060a reason to recognize and um thank you for taking on the extra training, which you just probably did on your own. I don't even know it's going to lead to a uh refrigerator worthy certificate. Um but congratulations. [Music] Uh put this somewhere. Oh, why don't you come in front of us? Two. Thank you. Thank you. Um, other than that, like uh Mr. Coler said, if you haven't voted, get out and vote. Probably will see this after the votes closed. But, uh, thank everyone for coming out today and voting. Uh, great weather day and um hopefully uh, you know, everyone got out that day. Okay. Thank you. So, item 9.01, motion to adjourn the meeting. Do I have a motion? Do you want a second? Second. All in favor? I 5. We'll see you next time.