001All right. Good evening, Springs uh School Board. We're uh streaming to YouTube. Phone lines are open. This meeting is being recorded. You may begin. >> QLTV. Welcome everybody. Uh thank you for coming tonight. For those of you here and at home from somewhere else, Suzanne, will you take roll call first? >> Certainly will. Eric Frederickson >> here. >> Patent. Emma Field Dermit Quinn here. >> Kate Saris is not in attendance. >> Please stand for the flag of the United States of America to the stands. One nation, indivisible, liberty and justice. >> All right. So, the first item on our our agenda tonight is we're going to have a public hearing uh concerning the proposed use of the repair reserve. The time is now 7:09 p.m. Uh if there are no objections from my fellow board
002members, I'd like to invite Sam Schneider to give us presentation. >> Thank you very much. I'll try to make this as fast as possible because I know as important as the repair reserve is, it is not at the top of your mind to see things. All these students are here. So, let's just go through this rather quickly. So, the repair reserve obviously was set up by the voters in May 2025. It functions as a savings account. It allows you to take care of work that needs to be done here in the building before those individual items become larger and more expensive items. There's almost $3 million in the repair reserve. We're proposing that uh with our projects tonight, we have about $715,000 of projects that we're looking to do. We would like to try to
003accomplish some of these during the summer, which is a great time to uh do work. So what does repair mean? The magic words here that that the test words are worn, torn, broken, inoperable. If it meets one of those or some of these other conditions that you have here, you were able to use repair reserve money to fund the repair. Uh fairly straightforward process to access the repair reserve. Obviously, we the administration has identified projects that we feel merit uh the board's attention and appropriation of money for repair reserve. The board then holds the public hearing, which is what you're doing here this evening, and uh to educate themselves on the repair and then they uh will have a vote where they can express the official opinion about whether they want to authorize to appropriate
004money out of the repair reserve. There is an item on your agenda later on this evening that would authorize these repairs should you feel that they are appropriate for the district. So, let's talk about the projects real briefly. The first is replacement of the basement window. This is the window that is down the uh fairly steep ramp that leads down to I think that's where your office approximately is where your computer office is. >> The window is a single pane glass with wire in it. It is dangerous. It is not what be installed today where you building this wire glass is inherently unsafe. So we'd like to replace this. There going to be some work on the lentils. There's going to be some work uh to replace the window itself. you'll have a much tighter
005seal to the environment which I think would benefit the energy use of the building. Uh the second is the renovation of the faculty room. This is the bathroom that is just outside the hall here uh by the first classroom. There are a number of issues with this bathroom. Uh but we're talking about being able to take it down to the studs, replace the fixtures, replace the tiling. It also includes an appropriation to remove asbestous tiles that are behind the door which you can see in the corner of the picture on the left. That is one of the last remaining pieces of asbestous tile in the district and it's time for them to come out. The tiles are quite old and at the moment as long as they don't crack they're not fryable but we need
006to make a move here. Uh so there'll be a a renovationist bathroom. I know that there has been some concern that this is an expensive project. Unfortunately, and we've talked about this several times, the project's never going to get any cheaper. The bathroom is never going to heal itself if we allow this to go and not take place. It will be more expensive when we revisit this. This is probably the best time uh to do so. If you choose not to, that's perfectly within the board's uh right to do so. But we do know that the cost will be more next time. We've gotten several different competitive quotes on this so that we have a you know way to compare and this is where the cost is. Uh boiler tube replacement uh is is uh
007what the inside of the boiler looks like. It's aging. It needs to be replaced. Uh the tubes need to replace. Summer is the only time to do this work because we need to shut the system down. It will take some time to do and obviously you can't do this in the winter. We want to get this done before the boiler actually is in much more dire need of uh repair and leaving. So this is a perfect time of the year for this work to be authorized so that we can take care of it when the boiler is not needed. A hallway tile replacement. So this is on the in the hallway that leads all the way down towards the gymnasium. You can see in the picture here there's cracks uh in the tile. Uh obviously
008it in addition to the cracks in the tile doesn't look good in your central hallway to have this. So, the contractor will come in, pull these tiles down, replace whatever is in the back that needs to be uh addressed, and put new tile up, and it will all match. We have some continuing interior and exterior door replacement. We've already done some of this work. Uh I'm sure you've seen it around the classrooms. This is to continue uh the work around the building. You can see that we have some delamination of the interior doors. Some of your exterior doors are bent in uh interesting ways. And you can see that the hinges there are rusting and becoming unreliable. Uh and finally you have network hardware switches switches access points and computers. Far be it for me
009to uh state that I have a huge amount of expertise in this area but you're reaching the end of your useful life on the servers and other network switches and computers. We live in a computer age. Students use computers in their instruction. We have to make some changes and upgrades here. And before you grind to a halt, it's time to make change. Again, this is a good time to do it over the summer. There's ample opportunity to shut down the system to make the kinds of changes that need to be made. >> Same. That's a picture of our wires. >> That is a picture of your closet. All taken right here. So, and I I thank Jonathan for his retire. So, those are the projects. Um, any questions? I mean, you so much. Are there
010any questions from my fellow board members on this? appreciate the presentation. >> Yeah. How far on the when you go back the paddle box there, we know that's a mess. >> How far back are they going back and all that? Like they go back to the classrooms with it or they >> the network system with the switches. Uh we have the specific quote from uh the service provider. I don't remember it off the top of my head, but I'm sure that the superintendent would be happy to provide it to the board in a weekly update if you'd like to see those. >> I had one. You knew it said window, but I mean there were other a couple of other windows in that picture. >> So, it's the it's it's those that that window those
011two windows right there are coming out and both of those windows again are single pane single pane glass with wire in them. I understand that at one point, you know, I I know that at one point wire glass was seen as a safety issue. The problem is we need to get out. We can't >> and so >> yeah, that was my last question. So, new new windows will be egress windows. There will be there will be I don't know the answer to that but it will be safer than if you had to if you had to do it. >> Would you find out they are egress? Whatever there's two rooms in there, right? >> We'll find out. >> Whatever the whatever the contractor space doesn't look big enough. >> No, I think there's a door
012there too. But whatever the contractor spect is there >> it's just two sets of windows with a different angle. No more uh wired glass in this area. Yes, >> in this particular area. >> We also have exterior doors that have wire around the building and we plan on replacing those as part of the door project. >> The door that's there with those windows that's getting replaced. >> That's part of the exterior door project. Yes. >> Any other questions from the board? >> I'd be remiss if I didn't uh just thank Greg Cooel who's the facilities director in East Hampton who contracted into municipal agreement. He has put in a ton of work to put this together for the the district and has been working with the contractors bringing them in here getting competitive quotes and
013making sure that we're getting best value for the dollar here at the New Republic. >> Sam, we mentioned PLA. Can you explain that a little bit? >> Okay. So, there is a uh a bill that is under consideration in Albany by the state legislature. It was under consideration last session which would require municipalities and there's two versions of this bill. One would be to require municipalities only in Nassau and Suffach. There's another version that requires across the state where municipalities would have to enter would be limited to entering uh contracts with contractors to do this kind of work uh to contractors that conduct what's have what's called project labor agreements as PLA. What that functionally means is that we we would be limited in our ability to contract with any contractor that was not a
014union shop. Now, let's back up a minute. Right now, when we pay wages, when we pay a contractor to do work, they are required to demonstrate that they paid wages to their employees, not just a minimum wage, but what is called prevailing wage. The state labor department publishes a book that lists the prevailing wage for all sorts of kinds of work that contractors do. uh we have to ensure that we have to have some assurance that the contractor is paying his or her employees the value wage under this PLA. It would be required that the contractor would have to have an agreement to have an apprenticeship program which effectively means that you're only going to be able to contract with unionized shops which is going to knock out most of the contractors that you do
015business. It has been estimated by the state association that John association state association of school business officials that we could see increases in construction costs as much as 35 to 40%. I will say that there is uh some concern particularly as how this is here on the south for the far eastern Southport because there are very few contractors and so we are and there are also very few contractors that are willing to come to us. So we are going to severely constrict the pool of people that we can work with and that is going to drive up our costs even more than the normal cost of having a PLA would be. There's certainly arguments that can be made of why people are in favor of it. I'm not going to take a position on that.
016That's for the elected officials to do. I will tell you that there is deep concern about how the cost how that will impact municipal construction. It will not [clears throat] my understanding is that the legislation will affect prospective contracts, not contracts that have already been put in place. So, for example, if you were to authorize the bathroom project this evening, we are pretty much ready to award a purchase order to the contractor and then we would be set with that even if the legislature passed the PLA law the next day. Our understanding of how the legislation works is that it would not affect pre-existing contract. >> Thank you very much. Uh I'll also take uh questions from the public if there are any with regard to this presentation and the public hearing side of the
017repair reserves. Are there any questions or comments from the public regarding the repair reserves? [laughter] >> Well, thank you very much. So there is an item as Sam mentioned on the agenda later this evening to appropriate funds from the repair zer. If there are no further questions I ask for a motion to close the public hearing on the repairs. Do I have a motion? Is there a second? Second. >> Uh all those in favor. All those opposed? All right. Motion carries. The time is now 7:21 p.m. And now we're going to reconvene into the public uh session. So we have a lot of people here tonight. This was like a special presentation that had its own set of public comments um about you know the allocation of money for for things that we have to
018do at the school. If you were to come to another board meeting usually we would just start now which there's actually we start with a public comment. So it's that's why it sounds funny that I just asked for comments um because it was comments for the repair reserve. But now you're going to have opportunity to make public comment on agenda items only this evening. And before we do that, I like to set the table uh just in case there are ever topics of controversy. So the way we like to run our meetings is we do this. We say, "Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to convene into the public comment period of our meeting. It's absolutely crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues. Appreciate all of your comments. While
019we may not be able to respond to your concerns and questions tonight, we do take them very seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be so we can respond thoughtfully at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time. I also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws, we're unable to entertain any comments or questions about school personnel or any individual identities. On these matters, we would ask you to go through the appropriate administrative channels. And finally, we intend that our schoolboard meetings serve as an example to our students that members of our school board and members of our community can deal with controversial issues in a civil manner and demonstrate mutual respect. In that spirit,
020we ask that all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility and respect for any divergent views that may be expressed. and we ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly at the podium uh rather than the audience. Thank you so much. And with that said, are there any public comments on the agenda questions to see? There will be one more public commentary that's on kind of anything, but this first public comment is just on agenda items only. So, LTV, if there's anyone uh not present with us tonight that would like to call in, let us know. And if there's anyone here, >> yeah, good evening. This is uh Matthew Shon calling in from LTV on the landline just to demonstrate that the phone lines are open and operational and we have
021no additional callers for public comment >> at this time. >> Is there anyone present that would like to come up? We're just trying to get to the box. So here Thank you. [laughter] >> So So with that said, we're going to move to our principal report and Mr. Kel, take us >> away. >> Good evening. Before we get to the stars of the show who are are back here, I want to kind of set the stage and and talk about a growing trend here at Spring School. And that growing trend will be our robotics teams back here. Nothing but friendly competition, of course. But three years ago, we had one team that was the Thunderbots. That's uh no, the Lightning Bots with Miss Pod and Miss Mr. Schwab. Great job. They were their coaches. We
022also two years ago we moved towards the Thunderbots who are coached by Miss Hamilton, Miss Frasier. They're here as well. And then this year, brand new to the school, the Firebots. And that would be Miss Kalahar and um Miss Rocker. So our vision, I'm talking to the students. Our vision is to work collaboratively and empower kids than and empower students. And ultimately there's nothing more that aligns to that than this program right here. So our adults, our coaches, they're not going to speak. Our students who are going to come up and lead the show. We're going to have our Thunderbots with innovation project. That's all. We're going to get >> Yeah, because they're going to be That's the same. >> Good evening. My name is Sophia Raal. >> Hello. My name is Francisco Vasquez. >>
023Good evening. My name is V. Master. My name is Luba Chanikov. Hello, my name is Tomas Cruz. >> And we are happy to be here. Thank you for inviting us. >> As this year's theme is archaeology, our focus question is, how can we prevent looting and weather related damage from affecting archaeological digs? When working in nature, numerous challenges are faced. A large number of these issues are due to environmental factors and conditions. These problems can be detectable to the thank you and wellbeing of not only the site but the archaeologists themselves. One highly publicized incident involved the death of a 24year-old archaeological worker from Louisiana due suspected heat stroke. This is just one of many incidents caused by extreme weather conditions. Other events which have been reported include flooding of the site and hypothermia. Our
024goal as a team is to prevent these tragedies from repeatedly occurring by creating an eco-friendly collapsible canopy to cover the dig site. An international criminal police organization led operation in late 2024, early 2025 involved seizing of over 37,000 cultural objects, including archaeological finds from looters. Looting of archaeological sites can be extremely harmful to the research done by archaeologists. Not only can it affect funding if the litters take tools and supplies, but it can also affect what we know about our world and history. Say a looter were to go to a site and take something that could tell us a lot about how humans used to live. Who knows how long it will be until we find another object like that, if there even is one. As an example, ludas in Death Valley and other places
025often attempt to etch, lift, or permanently damage ancient hedoglyphs. That's where our project comes in. In 2013, 2350 archaeologists were surveyed about um the problems with looting. 97.9% of them said that exists. 89.6% of them said it exists in our country and 78.5% of them said they personally encountered looting. When signing this project, we had three things in mind. Sustainability, simplicity, and functionality. We achieved this goals by including solar panels for renewable energy uh a motorized lowering mechanism hinges on the frames for take down and having our design be efficient in multiple aspects. >> Our project relies heavily on motorized poles and solar panels as well as heat resistant water resistant and puncture proof material. During working hours, the poles hold the canopy up to provide shade and prevent rain water from coming to the
026site. After the workday is wrapped up, the poles will lower into the ground, creating a cover for the site. >> The materials of our design provided a challenge. We wanted to keep this design simple and efficient. At first, our plan only included materials with heat and water resistant properties. But that was not enough. One of our team members, Wy Roser, reflected on it and came to the conclusion that not only we would have to include the qualities we already mentioned, uh, but it would also have to be puncture proof to prevent looters from cutting through the roof. Our first thought was Kevlar. Keller fibers are incredibly strong, five times stronger than steel for the same weight, allowing them to absorb and spread energy from a pen training object. Although this was not our final decision,
027it was a step in the right direction. Upon further research, we discovered kevlar slowly breaks down under UV ris to be an issue in the long run. Eventually, we set on a mix between Kevlar and carbon fibers. This hybrid will provide the strength of kevlar while keeping moving resistant properties of carbon fiber. >> On January 21st, we met with an actual archaeologist from Ireland, Dr. Bernard G. Over before this meeting, we made an outline of how we wanted it to go. The outline proceeded as follows. Present the project, gather feedback, ask questions, then close the meeting. What we when we made this outline, we kept in mind that things may turn in a separate direction. Whether it be due to him answering questions we were later planning on to ask or realizing some questions may
028be repetitive based on responses. His feedback prepared us to change small details on the project to make it fully functional in the field. For example, he gives the advice on a minimum size the design should be 10 m by 10 m. He gave us the idea to revise our design to include rubber wheels on casters. Also, did you know that soil that sun can draw out soil, making it harder to dig? Neither did we. This is just one of the many things Dr. Gen taught us and confirmed the necessity of a UV resistant roof over a dig site. >> This diagram here um shows how our project work. During the day, the cover is uh raised so that the workers are protected from the uh UV rays from the sun and can dig. Then at
029night, the cover comes down covering the dig site which uh stops the dig site from being looted and protects against weather. [snorts] >> Thank you for your time. Is there any questions? [laughter] Oh, that's just digging. >> [laughter] >> This is our model which if you look in here there is a functional solar panel on the top which is providing this light and then the model also lowers to the ground to give you a visual on how the design would work itself. Oh, >> awesome. >> Can you I don't want you to do it because potentially ruin it, but can you can you show the people here tonight a little bit because [laughter] I I feel bad I know that our audience can't see everything that you're showing us. I think that was pretty cool.
030Guys, this is fantastic. Before they go, the Thunderbots, we'd like to recognize our seniors on the team who will be heading over to the high school, but Wyatt Mas and Francis there any questions? tomatoes did you make? Uh we made an original one which was made out of cardboard chopsticks and back scratchers [laughter] and then um built us a better model for like the second competition we >> and next we would like to welcome up the firebs who are going to share their robot design and we're going to let them take it away. Obviously, we could tell that there's more than just the Lego robotics part of this organization. We're researching, we're building, we're innovating, and here we are. Firebox, all you to our built team from scratch. This is the first year that competed
031in Lego and two of our teammates are here today and um box was um research and saw. Um here we have our the arms we used. Um this one right here was used for um brush by Mac reveal uh to push uh the wooden not the green uh rectangle. Um and uh this uh yellow square, this yellow rectangle was used to push up the ship the ship. Uh this uh this uh black extender uh was used for surface brushing to knock to knock down the two ends. And uh this purple basket was used to put flag in it and then put the flag under the ship. >> Yeah. Uh and one thing I liked about robotics was uh how like all the missions like function and how like they worked. Um, this is our surface
032brushing blueprint for where you knock over the sides. Um, it's not that complicated. It's only um, four pieces, but it still gets the job done. And yeah, um, this is our forest blueprint. It It's like it's small. It's also up there off the screen for a bigger view. Um, I have the real thing right here. As you can see, it's very tiny, but still um it's still functional. We still we were still able to get points. We were still able score. Um, it's very the making small arms like this is important because we don't want to waste our time like bumbling making having big arms putting them on the robot and it takes up a lot of our time because we only have about two and a half minutes to get to have all of
033our missions done. And there are 15 missions which would if we weren't as stressed out which would probably take us like [laughter] um but there's dress so it takes us like we only were able to do a couple missions but we still happy we're happy with that with the mission that we got. Did you guys have more fun uh sorry I held up an app, >> but did you have more fun building or competing? >> And that's probably an individual question. What did you guys like most about? >> Um I think I liked competing then just because it was like fun to watch the robot actually um like in action. Um, I would say I like the building part better because at competition, uh, I get a bit stressed when you roll on just building.
034I don't really >> Yeah. >> I like competing more because then we get to see all of our builds in action and what they can actually do. >> Very cool. Yeah. >> Um, I like both building and competing, but what I like most like not in the options, but I also I like our teamwork because I like very much what we were able to accomplish on our in our first year. >> These are some of our um as you can see they don't require much to um run the missions. They're quite simple. Um they still get the job done. And the one all the way to the left is our forage code. The one in the middle is what's on sale where you raise the market. And the map reveal code is the one where
035you push the square to the other side. I just think you said something that just blows us away because we know how or how much work you guys put into coding these things and we actually know how difficult it is and for someone like you to say it's not that yeah I think it's amazing. Yeah, you guys were fantastic for the first year. >> Thank you. One more time. Are the lightning bot Hi, we're the lighting bots. I'm Henry. >> I'm Chase. >> Oh, and I'm very sorry. [laughter] >> Um, this is my first season on robotics. Um, and as you guys already know, I'm Henry Svin. Um, I learned how to speak publicly and perform under pressure in stressful situations. And my favorite memory from the season was competing on the game board during
036the our high stakes competition. This was when we put up our best score of 300 points and that was an incredible feeling to share with our team. Um, this was my first year of Lego robotics. Um, and I really enjoyed um, playing and making friends over the season, but also competing with um, with them and as I really enjoy watching a robot compete because it's like success. >> As I mentioned before, [clears throat] my name is Chase Barski. This was a this was my also my first year of robot. This season I learned how to not get frustrated even even when things didn't work out. My favorite part of the season was playing on the game board and being a and being the person to kick off a run. Now that I have a year
037of experience next year, I'm looking forward to improving our efficiency. >> Uh hey, my name is Joe Harmones. This is my third and final year of the FL program. For the past three years, I was a builder on our team and it helped me become a better teammate. This helped me become a better teammate because I had to listen from others and took my own advices to help to help um find what was successful for our team uh and help our team thrive on the team. In those three years, I met lots of people who I talked to every day, almost every day. And uh our recent field trip was to Hasha University to watch the high schoolers play. And I met the high school team of robotics and champ. Uh I got to see
038what the high school team was about and what team members I would be in next year with. I look forward to joining the high school team next year. So, uh, I'm pretty sure you guys already know that my name is Emmy and this is my actually my second year on robotics. There's a lot of things that we've done in this school, a lot of things I've accomplished. And if I were to name all my favorite things and you'd be here all night, [laughter] but if I were to have to name my favorite thing, it's probably that surgical journal that gets peel right before you start competing on the game board. That extend when you're like facing your robot. Um, moving your attachments, etc. Like getting ready to go. Being in robotics has really helped my
039self-esteem and has helped me become a better researcher which also interlinks with the future career paths that I'm interested in. I overall our team has progressed throughout the season even though it did take us a long time to hold a robot about a couple weeks. Um, we progress a lot and I think we should all be very proud of ourselves. >> During our season, we were required to create a robot that can compete that can complete missions as well as creating two presentations. The innovation project and the robot design project. The robot design project is basically a story of how we got to this point right now. And the innovation project was our creative solution to a research problem in the field of archaeology. Since this season's theme was art uh for our innovation project,
040we created a centralized database where archaeologists all over the world can share their discoveries and post it on this app. Um we have three different access levels for the general public. The education access which gives a little more information about each artifact and a professional access which uh art archaeologist can post and um log notes about their uh discovery. I have the app on my phone if anyone wants to see it. [laughter] What is the app called? >> Uh, artifacts. >> Oh, very cool. >> No, wait. Did you create the app or >> Yeah, our team created the app using Canva. >> Canva. Okay. Was it like live coding or did you actually use >> uh we used it was like a mock website that we used through like uh we some AI like comparing
041our ideas with that and uh you could post artifacts new artifact and you can select the type whatever type it goes under the material the condition the exact GPS PS location, but for the education and the general public, it'll just be like a generalized location. So the summary, but the archaeologist can go deeper. >> Yeah. Yeah. and overate conc. And you can add all these different things. That's >> cool. Mhm. These are robots Bobby and Bobby Jr. I'll get to the second. Um, but these robots are based off of robots that we used off of resources.com I believe it was. And it came with a universal attachment that we modified to complete our missions instead of ch completely changing our code. Take this football piece for example. Before it wasn't there and we had to
042run a code that it would run and hit a lever, two levers on the side. It would usually hit one called forge, but the other one it wouldn't hit it straight on and it would go over or under and that was called. So, we added this purple-l like piece that would uniquely skim both the levers to complete both missions. >> Could you show that the audience that real quickly saying so many cool things everyone's >> um the name originated because we had a debate between two robots. The cubebot is the name of this robot which ended up winning and the Droidbot M was the other robot. Um, we didn't go with the Drawbot M because its gears would break the other gears a lot and they wouldn't actually move up and down. It would just
043grind >> and Yeah. >> So, a tremendous amount of problem solving. And you doing this after a competition or within the competition? >> This is before. So, you've seen it in action before. >> Okay. And you're able to So, I I have some familiarity. I think it's it's good for people knowing you you're given a course like at like a school, right? That would mimic what you're seeing. >> So through trial and error here, you're able to troubleshoot. So then you get to the competition which is pretty stressful, right? But you've been able to kind of work out some of those issues and then you're bringing it to that competition at that time. That's great. Um, for our junior robot that we made so that we can run two missions at a time during practice,
044we named it Bobby Old Junior because it um there was a certain code that names the v the engines and one was Bob uh Bot M was Bob. So, in honor of um Bob, we put Bobby Bobby cuz they're doing [laughter] um we um for one mission, we made these little spikes for a mission. So, because it wasn't gripping, we had to push down the bucket and it wasn't gripping the bucket hard enough. So, we made these little things so that would slip off. So we could press it down and so and it would completely go down. >> How did you make that small little piece? >> The one you just the one you said you made the small grip. How did you make that? >> Um we just put they have uh come with
045little spikes like um there's little things that you can attach in the hood. So we just put these inside of the other Legos. I don't know if you're using 3D printers now or not. >> That's awesome. >> You guys were programming. Was there two members on the team or three who just did programming or did everyone do a little program? >> So, one person would run the mission and like placements and everything while the other person would code it in two or three. >> Okay. But we would alternate um in between each categ when you were on the game board, you each took a different mission. >> Everyone was included. >> Okay, cool. >> Um I did Forge and Who Lived Here? Emma and Reagan who aren't here. Emma did I believe tip is scales
046and Reagan did heavy lifting where you had to lift up this object. >> Okay. Um I forgot the name of mine but um we would use it we had to um swipe a lever so that the uh or surface surface conveal part of the map while also lifting another object so it would also reveal another part of the map so that we could uncover it. Oh, I created a code for a shipwreck type of mission where you had to uh lift up the ship while also making sure it doesn't fall back down. And I also coded Minecraft Explorer, which uh was my mission that I started with in the first of our run. And you had to move forward and then it was like a little turn and then you had to pull up this
047wide like uh flipping thing and lift the mine shaft the mine cart to the other side to gain. >> Uh my my mission that I had to place I believe it was called surface brushing if I'm not mistaken. It was a code really easy to make. I'm pretty sure I had Chase make it for me. >> Uh, it was just a code that goes up and down versus an easy 20 points that I thought of. >> All right. Welcome. >> Yeah. Oh, in regards to the ship mission that Chase was saying before and mentioning before, uh, a funny fact, like an interesting fact about it is that when we originally like tried it out during the competition, [laughter] >> we originally tried it out during the first competition. Um, I accidentally instead of hitting the
048ship that we had to like raise up, I accidentally hit this part of the sand which dropped down and gave us the point. So then we figured out that we hit that which was like right on the mission which made it very efficient. So we could gain the points for your points are really important when you can come right >> and then that's it. >> [laughter] >> Which one did [clears throat] >> Oh, >> you're welcome. >> Hi. Um, my mission was heavy lifting and we Henry, Emma, and I all voted the robot to like go outside of the board. We weren't really like sure if it was legal yet. So at like the competition, Miss Cody didn't want to mention it yet. Like [laughter] >> like it went outside and then like went into
049the little hole, flung it up and came back to us. Yeah. Thanks for making it. I'm so impressed, guys. Thank you guys. Can I just go very briefly back to your presentation a couple of months ago where there's so much stuff done with project based learning like the new the new curricula and it's amazing to see how much these guys have learned about archaeology. about setting up their sites, but reaching out to people for research. >> This is this was fantastic. And I know they're all going to go. [laughter] >> While there are still some some parents here, I do want to mention that this will be on the LTB YouTube channel. So, anyone who missed it or wants to see a better angle, we'll be able to view that very shortly after. >> Awesome.
050>> It's really good though. It's easy to when everything goes right, but to see these guys when >> when goes bad, it's amazing to see them working together and it goes bad a lot. [laughter] >> It's great to see them. Uh what a great problem solving opportunity to do. You know, you can't can't cheat that really, right? When you're in an environment like that, you have to find a way to make something where there's a material aspect to it. And I think it teaches you some amazing things. So they're they're amazing. >> I still have no clue what they're actually doing. Cheer. [laughter] >> That's that's the cue. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, I even made an app. I mean, >> um, so no, that's wonderful. And Mr. K, was that everything from your principles? >>
051Yeah, right. >> And you guys touched on it as well. And it's not just academics from a book or from a computer. It's the skills that they acquire through being in these clubs where they're communicating with each other, they're collaborating, they're presenting, and they're doing it all on their own. So, and that's going to last and that's going to stay with them forever. >> Yeah, absolutely. Those um sir's team I put them in touch with a friend of mine who's head of archaeology for AOC council and he's back in Ireland. He's like his the history he delves into is incredible. But when he had a Zoom meeting, he called me and he said he was so wonderful. [laughter] He said for kids their age, like the questions that they had, he was blown away by
052the kids, their questions, their presentation, the teachers, everything. Just Yeah, he could see why I love this school so much. He said he just he was impressed beyond belie. >> Nice to hear. >> That's Well, thank you so much for sharing that. Um, I know it's always, uh, you can never assume that, you know, kids late at night are students. You know, they're coming and they're sharing their experiences and I really appreciate them and you guys taking the time to set that up. It makes our board meetings really special and I I love to be able to recognize them, too. Uh so we'll move on though now uh to our budget presentation and uh but this time we'll have our fourth budget presentation which includes a review of any changes and adjustments. There is an
053item on the agenda later this evening to adopt the budget as well as the New York State tax report. And at this point Jonathan take it away for us. >> Thank you Eric. Uh today we are presenting presentation number four. Like you said it's review of changes and adjustments to the budget. Um this first slide, this talks about the budget formation. We've gone over this previously. We're wrapping it up now. Um and then we have our budget goals. We want to develop a budget goal that maintains the programs. Our budget we are presenting tonight does stay within our property tax cap limit. Um, we're building on the prior community support that we've got and and you know, we want to be as mo as efficient as possible with our budget every year and I think
054this budget really does that. Um, the budget recommending for adoption is as follows. Um, as you can see there, those are the numbers and we have the changes over last year there. We were able to get the numbers we needed earlier than usual. And by that I mean like insurance costs, health insurance costs, the Bose increases. We received those earlier than usual. So we don't really have any significant changes for today. Although it is called changes and adjustments for >> Yes. Um we do have on the board resolution to approve the budget. We have a line by line um budget there if anyone wants to take a deeper look into what makes up these expenditure lines but they are just the prior presentations all summed together there for us. >> Wonderful. And those are always
055available right on our website. >> Yes, everything is going to be available tomorrow on our website. >> I check the link. All these links were great. So thank you for that. >> Not a problem. Um this is our anticipated revenue budget. Um, as you see there, that is tax cap compliant. I do want to note that we have a decrease in the appropriated fund balance. The goal for the district is to use the appropriated fund balance as the contingency plan for our students that we tuition to the high school. We don't want to tax levy the builtin contingency in case we get more students throughout the year. We want to use our appropriated fund balance for that. That way we don't have to cut programs in case we get more than anticipated students throughout the
056year. So what we're trying to do is we're trying to bring that down to the level that we have built into the budget. Um and I think you should be close to where it needs to be now. Um this slide right here, we just want to talk about next year's budget cap. Um if you recall in our previous presentations, we went over the property tax cap calculation. Um, part of that calculation is capital exclusions, which are adjustments to get to the final tax cap number. It's not always at flat 2%. We have the retirement of debt coming up, as well as um building aid coming in now that we've wrapped up uh the capital project. The state's actually in the process now of approving our final cost report. So, we're going to start getting building
057aid on those. Both of those shrink the amount that we have in our capital exclusion. So, we're predicting next year it it's going to be more than likely that the budget will be at 2% or even lower for the tax cap. So, the goal, you know, we could say you could reduce the cap tax this year, but for future years, I think we're at a nice level for our tax cap this year and anticipating that next year it might be lower than we would hope for. >> So, the projection is is hopeful. >> Yes. Yeah. It's this this budget. We're not just looking at this year. We're looking at the future years as well. And especially with the tax cap going to come in while we're in it's always going to be at 2%. >>
058Yeah, that's good to hear. >> Um the next steps here, um I believe as of today, I have not heard otherwise that the state has not approved their budget. So when that comes through, we're going to know if there's any uh changes to the state aid and we can make adjustments at that time. Um next slide is what we have left. Um May 12th is the budget board of education meeting. May 19th is the vote. We encourage you all to go vote. May 19th, if you need an absentee ballot, you can reach out to our district clerk. Next slide. [laughter] Any questions? Not not the district to the next slide. Um, all right. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the superintendent. >> Thank you. >> Thanks very much. And yeah,
059for I don't know for you though, if you guys have any questions for Jonathan while standing up there. >> No, I before we got the whole thing. >> No, thank you very much, Jonathan. >> Clear. Let's be clear of getting clearer as well which is great and I can't believe uh you know May is around this point. >> Feel like we you guys really started early you know and it just shows you how fast time moves. This is already the fourth presentation. We're adopting it and voting in you know started in December and somehow we're in May. [laughter] >> Feel like we have a lot of time but it was quick. So, thank you very much all of you put that together and make sense to me and think we have any questions on that.
060So, that's great. Um, so we'll move on then to our consent agenda items. Uh, we have uh a few items on this. So, first off, I have for a motion to approve items 6.1 and 6.8 on our consent agenda. Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> All those in favor? Hi. Any oppose? No. All right. So, um, was there any comments that you need to make? >> What was that? >> Is any people you just voted on here in the audience? >> Uh, that my superintendent. >> Okay. You want to do while they're here? >> I think you're gonna wait. I think they'll wait. >> [laughter] >> chunk the agenda. Okay, moving on to uh our business items section. Uh ask for a motion to approve items 71 through 79 under the business items
061on our agenda. Do I have a motion? >> Do I have a second? Well, sounds like two came in. All right, Jonathan, can you review the business items for us? >> Back to me already. Um items 7.1 to 7.5 are our regular monthly uh reports for the board. Um nothing's really changed in there. Um we stopped getting tax money that the payment should resume again in uh June after they start getting their second half payments. 6.8 um is budget transfers throughout the year. We've had changes in the teaching assignments and even when we developed the budget last year to September teaching roles changed. Their overall salaries haven't changed. We're just now allocating them to the expenditure code they should be in as well as um we have an adjustment for Boseies. Um the same thing
062with Boseies. The overall expenditures haven't changed just where we need to allocate that in the contract um line to the codes has shifted. 7.7 that relates to the adoption of the budget and the property tax CAD property tax report card which is due to the state. Um we had our final budget presentation just a moment ago where we went over the um total budgets for those codes. Um online there is the expenditure code budget up there. That would be a line by line item like I said earlier if you wish to review it. 7.8 is the approval of the repair reserve expenditures. We had the um public hearing earlier that went over our plans for those amounts if the board chooses to approve those. 7.9 is a contract um for BCDA services for the remainder
063of the school year. Um we have just additional services that are needed. So we need to have another uh contractor come out to provide those for us. the um how do you I mean now that you've had a couple of repetitions with it, do you feel you have a good handle over the co the recoding if you will and consolidate sort of you know I think that's something you've been working on >> if Yeah. Um so last year we consolidated a lot of budget codes to make it um easier and more simplified and reduced the amount we have. This year we carried forward the prior year changes. So if you look at that it's >> it's pretty transparent. Last year we had this amount. This is the amount the change. Um >> other than that
064the codes don't really change. >> So I was going to ask the state comes up with uh the chart of accounts and we kind of tailor to the needs of the school while remaining within what they offer. >> Right. I I mean it's pretty clear to me. Is there any though that you'd call attention out to us that was a change that if we're used to reading one thing that you would highlight or is it I mean I didn't personally pick it up but I didn't know if you you know you're thinking oh this is a code change I wonder if this is >> no I think if you notice large um like shifts in codes it's usually in the salary codes which is just the reassignments of staff right okay >> an example would
065be um you know for our regist registar. We found that since she's bilingual, we can have her because she assists with a lot of uh Spanish speaking registration, we can put her under ENL as well, that code, which generates more aid. So, it's useful to have it there. So, major changes usually are just to benefit the district because >> Yeah. Well, [laughter] but that by having a handle on it that way, I think that's important. It optimizes, you know, >> um parts of our budget. That's actually that um any big moment here without [laughter] any questions on uh the business item section. >> No, that was my question. [laughter] >> All right, here we go. We have a drum roll, but uh all those in favor of approving of these items 71 through 79, uh
066I I >> Any opposed? All right, we have a budget. >> This is great. Motion carries. >> Um, it's cool. I mean, sometimes when you roll these in, like the big moments get >> so much work came up to that 30 seconds. >> I was She set me up to follow the kids. I was like, "Oh god." >> Yeah, the kids. But yeah, that was I didn't want that to go totally unnoticed. Excellent work everybody on that. and hang in there. [laughter] Number eight is committee updates. Um, we can move quick through this one, but it is we haven't done this in a while. Um, we want to just go through quickly and update some of the board committees in terms of what's going on. U you know, Eric and I, you work and I
067work together a lot on communication committee. What what would you say has been our um talk in the town uh the last meetings? Well, our last meeting was very very focused, I I do have to say. Um, but it it was on two modes of communication. One being the the budget newsletter and not only to include all of the necessary information and data that we would typically put, but if there's a there's potential to add some of the great things that we do here at school that just highlight the amazingness that makes spring. So, that was one. And then the other one was collaborating with our PTA even more than we do now. The PTA does have a social media site. And again, this is another platform for us to share all the great things
068that we do here that um parents wouldn't necessarily see. And uh it's always great to when there's an opportunity to see your child or family, friends, etc. doing the amazing things outside of the the academics. Yeah. No, I for that. Um I think it's good to know especially next year when we uh you know put the committees up again. I think you know at least in terms of the communication committee these are these are the opportunities where you know behind the scenes we can communicate and figure out ways to learn from you know our experiences and share them in a forum that is really communicative. Uh it doesn't feel as high stakes as like a board meeting or something like that. So to me that that's where the real benefit of these committees comes in
069is it there's a lot of work uh that comes to these votes that you know really quick sometimes you're approving these things um but through the committees through the work that everyone's doing this is just the tip of the iceberg uh for so much discussion through so much work uh and things that are very well thought out so you know I think it's important that when people experience that through the committees they get to see some of that participation come out. Um, and then it shows up in tonights like this where we vote on these things. But there's what often what we see is just the very end of a lot of thought and a lot of work that all of us but particularly administration our staff puts together. So I think uh that's worth
070calling out. Then we have our policy committee. I don't know Jonathan you had some updates on that. Uh we finished the review of uh the new policy manual. We're probably 99% through making the adjustments that we need to make. Our hope is to get it um this week sent off to Erie Woosei so they can make the changes and send us back um the first draft to be presented um to the board. >> Wonderful. Yeah. And that's no small undertaking. Case in point, >> 660 pages. [laughter] >> You read everyone >> and I've read everyone. Yes. >> Uh we have buildings and grounds. >> Yeah. As you saw from um the repair reserve presentation, I think. Um we met early on in the year mostly and really did walkthroughs and looked at all the different
071projects that needed to be done. And I'm I'm very proud of what we've accomplished. Um, as you can see, if you look outside now, the sopets are all being done and uh the gutters will be finished by the end of the week. The Koopalo should be done by the end of next week. Um, we've also had, I don't know if you've had the opportunity to see the playground with the new surface on it. It looks really terrific. The kids love it. Um, we also in the last repair reserve, we have the sidewalk uh the sidewalk work being done and the uh stucco that's all on the side of the building. So, it's going to really make a difference once the sets, the gutters, and all the stuckco are done. And now we for this um
072repair reserve meeting, we are having the windows done. So that whole side of the building now that as you exit on Edward Colts Lane will really be um brand new again uh by the end of the summer. We're excited. Most of these projects that we appro approved tonight will be taking place over the summer. Uh so we're excited to just keep moving forward. Our goal is to maintain and so that things uh don't cost more in the future. We're happy to be having the work done on the boilers. uh very very important piece. Um and as our maintenance staff will tell you, this has been a really good year with uh getting maintenance done around all of our uh infrastructure and systems. So very pleased with where we are. >> We got to thank >>
073Yeah, we do thank the public for approving that reserve and we're obviously in a very phased way putting it to work. And the comment was made tonight and I think you know we see today how uh expensive things can get over time and and sometimes very quickly and so everything that was proposed tonight has been proposed you know there's also this thought where clearly through the pictures you know we're not doing things that uh are secondary there's safety you know as well as aesthetic and they're never going to get cheaper than they are today. And so while we we have it and identify it, you guys are acting really quickly and taking care of our school. Um are there any other committee updates? Is there a wellness one or we're good? >> Yeah, I'll share
074I'll share. I'll just >> I know we're kind of um you know, we need it quite quite often. Um we've had some troubles kind of getting things going. Uh but we have a plan in place. um for momentum at the health fair that we've been trying to um we've been brainstorming a lot of ideas this year. Uh and I think we're in a good place with this happening for next year. Um so one of our members is creating a poster, an interest poster. She's going to post it up for during kind of teacher conferences just to get some interest for the fair. Uh we had some of our members go to the East Hampton High School and see their health there, get some ideas. So we we took a lot of time to look at,
075you know, what it could look like here, but we just realized that we want to do it right. So in order to do that, we need some more time. And I think, you know, for next year, we're we're really on the right track for that. And we just we're looking forward for the next year to get that done. >> Great. I appreciate that. Um, yeah, especially for a first one, you know, it's nice to to kind of bet it out as much as you can and then take your first swing. So, if you need more time, it's worth it. >> I think cultural fair is like a great model. So, something similar to that, maybe not as big, but >> like the world's fair. >> World's Fair. World's Fair. Yes. >> No, I think Yeah,
076I would always envision that is that's such a successful event and that you we can learn from that for sure for any fair actually with the health being considered great >> wonderful all right so we'll move on >> okay [laughter] finally I feel so >> the first thing I want to do is just we're really really excited um to welcome two new teachers to our special ed department and I truly don't want you to take it personally that so many people left before we got to um we do like to have our students present first thing so that they can get home and take care of all the things that they have to do. Um, but we had a really nice process. Uh, we were very happy. We had a a really strong pool of
077candidates and we are very confident in the two people that were asking you to approve this evening. Um, both their abilities, professionalism, expertise in their fields um, really impressed us. So, we're excited to welcome them to the spring school family. So, I'd like Elizabeth Robbins and Katie Ston to please stand up and for all of us to give you a warm. >> We invite you to school. It's a wonderful place and look forward to uh a lot of good years together. >> Welcome. >> And then just want to move on. Um we're very grateful uh we to accept uh as we do it seems like almost every week uh generous donations from our community uh we have two donations tonight to our art department and the first is kind of dear to me because I
078remember this student um when I taught here a little redhead so of course I had a special affiliation to him and uh he was he was just a a great kid and he just donated $3,000 um his name is Ryan Sherman uh to the Spring School art department. He's a 2005 Spring School graduate. And he wrote us a little letter and he said, "As a born and raised spring kid who was inspired under the direction of Miss Collins, who most of us know, I wanted new. I wanted to give back to the program that encouraged my creativity. And I appreciate all our educators and everything you do. Ospreys Forever with love, Brian Sherman." And he donated $3,000. very big deal to the art department. So, thank you very much. And then we also had a
079very nice donation as well um from uh for $200 that came from an artist Eva Fay and her husband Abby Turkal who recently worked with our students during the art festival at Guild Hall. And as always, we're just so appreciative of the community um when they give these generous contributions to the school. So we thank thank them both very much. And then now just uh as I do each week each month the enrollment update and as you see our enrollment has been very very steady. Uh we do currently have 39 registered prek students up from 29. So we're in a very good place very similar to last year. Um all our enrollment is basically the same. We've added four students prek through eight and we have five fewer students in the high school. So, we're
080just uh at basically the same enrollment uh when we look at preK through 12. And then I just wanted to end up with uh highlighting some upcoming events. Uh this past Friday did mark the end of our third quarter. So, our parent teacher conferences will take place Thursday and Friday of this week. And then next week, our grades three through eight testing and ELA math and science begin on Tuesday, April 28th. And this is the first year. Um, all of the tests are going to be computer-based. So, it will be a little challenging, a little different, making sure everything is working well and organized, but we're um we've been practicing and we're excited that uh our kids are going to be just fine. And as we say, I think each year and as Mr. Kel
081has said, this is just one type of assessment that we use to help us uh really look at our programs and what we're doing in any areas that we need to strengthen. We have lots of different ways we assess kids. So, this is just one of those way and we encourage all our kids to just be relaxed and do the best they can during the testing time. And then we're excited um for the first time this year, we're going to have a prek informational night for our incoming prek families. And this uh arose from our prek teachers who really wanted to get a head start on meeting old parents, having them come in, taking them having them look at the building and getting to meet the teachers and ask any questions. and that's going to
082be held on May 4th. So, we're excited uh to have that evening. And then just upcoming, it's spring. We have a lot going on uh you know, all around the district. And we have our middle school dance that of course the kids are very excited about that'll take place on May 8th in the gym. And then we also have our end of year 8th grade trip that our students are going to Philadelphia once again. And um that's on May 14th. And the PTA, we want to thank them. and they help sponsor that trip along with all of the events that we're going to have coming up during the spring that we'll be talking about ongoing. So, as Jonathan said, hard to believe it's May, but we're excited to have a really strong end of the
083year and uh thank you to everybody and thank you so much for being here, our two new teachers. >> Thank you. Congratulations to you guys. Are there any questions we'll go back to the superintendent report? >> All right. Well, let's make it official. I ask for a motion to approve items 91 through 94 under the superintendent's report recommendation. Do I have a motion? A second. And all those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? None. All right. Motion carries. So, uh, one of our final sections tonight is our public comment number two. Uh, this can be on topics that are not on the agenda. LTV. If there's anyone calling in or if there's anyone here tonight that would like to make a comment, uh please uh make yourself known. >> We have no callers on the
084line. Eric, >> once in the house twice. All right. Well, thank you everyone uh for a wonderful evening. I ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting. I have a motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? May I motion? >> So it's official. Your teachers of the sitting school.