001All right. Good evening, uh, Spring School Board. We're live on YouTube. Phone lines are open. You may begin. >> All right. Thank you very much. Welcome everybody here tonight and those at home. Uh Suzanne, would you do roll call for >> I certainly will. Eric Frederickson >> here. >> Patrick Ray Band, >> Emma Field, Kate Saris, >> and Derma Quinn here. >> All members in attendance. >> Thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. So tonight we have uh spoken with our principles report Mr. Ch. >> Good evening. So, we we have another very special board presentation for you guys. Next board meeting, we'll we'll dive deeper into curriculum, assessment, progress monitoring, everything we're doing ultimately to reach those lofty
002goals we set. So, we've been working hard from day one, but we also do a lot more outside of just the classroom, which all of you know well. And I have Miss Firemark here with a couple superstars from the diversity club who are going to share not only about World Kindness Day, but what they've been doing in just a short period of time this year. So, Good evening everyone. I'm Vicki Firemark and I'm the Spring School DEI coordinator. I've had the honor and privilege of being the adviser for the diversity club for the past four years and it's just been an amazing ride. Each year I get to see amazing students like the ones next to me just grow into amazing human beings. They're thoughtful, courageous leaders. Um they help to organize events. They lead
003important conversations, support their classmates, and create really safe spaces where all students feel seen and heard. Um much of this work that the students do, it occurs after school, but they also give up their recess time as well. They're very committed and it's inspiring. They're consistently demonstrating their sore um core values. They love to be of service. Today, for instance, you'll see in the slideshow, we went to the Springs Food Pantry and they worked for two and a half hours tirelessly creating the food bags for distribution for tomorrow. Um and they can't wait to go back and they're already generating more ideas of how they can be of service. what can we do in the community um to help as far as optimism. They t tackled tough topics all the time um with hope and
004belief that things can change for the positive. They're accountable. They own their mistakes when they make or do something wrong. They take accountability. They learn from those mistakes and they hold one another to really high standards. Um and lastly, they are very respectful. They listen and honor different perspectives and they like to take that into consideration before making any decisions or any changes. So, I'm very proud of their hard work um and the positive changes that they brought to our school. We prepared a short slideshow and it highlights some of the club's accomplishments thus far this year. We hope you enjoy it. Um and what I probably should have done first now that I'm doing it last is introduce the students that are here next to me. My apologies. So we have these are all
005actually sixth grade representatives right now. So we have Camila, Natalie, um Isabella and college. >> Welcome. Thank you guys very much for being here. And some of them are coming right from musical rehearsal. So they had a full day of school. They stayed after for diversity club and then they went right to musical practice and now they're here. >> So we really appreciate coming tonight. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. kiddos raised $72525. We were able to get today and they were very very people. So, the donation key right on time and their work and their efforts today to help prepare was just what they needed. >> Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. I'd like to personally thank the board and our administrators because without you guys, none of this work
006would be possible. I feel like I'm the lucky one because I get to be kind of like in between everybody and without you, we wouldn't be here today. >> Thank you guys very much. >> Thank you for being here. We appreciate you being examples of our school's values, service, optimism, accountability, respect as embodying that through your club and through your individual actions. And we just want to say thank you. These are things that shouldn't be overlooked in life to including your kindness, mindfulness, and what your club represents. So, thank you again. >> Thank you. >> And you guys have been here a while. Please don't feel you have to there's no etiquette and you can uh you can leave as well like you guys again >> Mr. helped you was that the conclusion of your
007>> Yeah, that that was that was really it. And ultimately, if we look at the the longterm goal of New York State and for a graduate which was released by by the state, it's certainly more focused on on high school, but we start with the end in mind, of course, and the the biggest portion of the portrait of a graduate from New York State and center and the core is being culturally responsive. So having our wonderful students already begin that process is fantastic at at this level. >> Wonderful. No, thank you again. Always wonderful having the kids, our students represent. >> Yeah. Get our air conditioning turned out. >> Um well, thank you again. Are we ready to uh move to our next part? So, uh, we're going to now hold a public hearing concerning
008the proposed use of the repair reserve. Time is now, say, 7:22 p.m. Uh, if there are no objections for my fellow board members, I'd like to invite Sam Schneider to give us a presentation. >> Hi. Well, welcome back to another repair reserve hearing. Uh so obviously, you know, we've seen a lot of positive work that we've done here uh in the building with the use of the repair reserve. We were able to put some money into the repair reserve at the end of last year fiscal year. So let's talk about some new projects that we want to take a look at. Uh so obviously the repair reserve was created by the voters in May of 25 funds periodic work. We said this before, it's worthy of saying it again. The work that we do with
009the repair reserve is smart financial policy because it allows you to take care of projects now before they become bigger and become more expensive. We're going to take a look at some projects this evening of repairing important structural deficits here in the building that if you allow them to linger longer are not going to get better, they're going to get worse. This building is the largest public uh investment in this community and the board has an obligation to maintain the investment that taxpayers have put into this structure. So you saw that what the the the repair reserve has repair reserves. The the words here that we're looking for are worn, torn, broken, andoperable. That's what we're that's the legal measure of whether something can be done with the repair reserve. So again, threepart uh methodology
010of access accessing money in the repair reserve. The administration have identified projects that we think are worthy of attention. We hold a public hearing. The board uses that public hearing to educate themselves as to the projects, what they are, what their importance is, and then the board can has an item on its agenda later on this evening to appropriate money out of the reserve. Let's take a look at the projects. The first is the exterior fascia and kupula. So I want to just contrast the photos that you see on the right in the weld field are photos of the rock that currently exists on the fascia in the older parts of the building and you can see the Koopa. If you get up to it on the roof up close, it's not in good shape.
011I want to contrast that with the photo you see on the left that's in the green field. That's metal fascia. We are proposing under this to take to get all this rotted wood out of here and replace it with metal fascia which will last much longer. It won't be as susceptible to decay from the elements and will help to maintain the building. The price that we have here is hopefully more than we're going to need, but until we actually get the facial pulled off the building, we don't know what rot may exist underneath. So, we are purposely budgeting some extra money in anticipation of the fact that there may be additional rot that is not currently visible. And as long as we're go taking off, we're going to go and take care of whatever rot
012may exist. The exterior paint and stucco. You can see again uh on the on the right you see some pretty stark examples of how the paint and stucco have deteriorated over time. These are things like anything else you would have in your house. you have to maintain it or it's going to deteriorate. So that's an example of how we're going to paint that. Let's talk about the exterior steps. Again, I want to contrast what you see in the white field versus what you see in the green field. The green field represents what is a relatively brand new uh exterior concrete step that you have here at the school. You can see that it's one solid piece of concrete poured in place. It's stable. It's designed for people to be able to walk on safely. On
013the right, you can see examples of steps in this building that have deteriorated over time. You have some significant cracking. You have steps where you can see the steps going down to the basement where some of the steps have a metal end cap, some of them don't. This is particularly difficult for contractors who have to access downstairs. It promotes slipping by having uneven steps. You can see brick work here that leads into the building. This photo in the lower left of the white field was taken right by the entrance to the entrance that's immediately adjacent to the art room. And you can see that the railings have rusted fairly well. I wouldn't want to touch that railing. I don't think a lot of people want to touch that railing. So, we need to make some
014improvements here. And so essentially what we are proposing here is that all of this deteriorated brick work is going to come out and you're going to end up with exterior steps that look like what you have on the left that already exist here at the building fencing. Uh I I love this photograph here that you can see because the fence is so old that this tree has literally grown around it which is a statement I guess on the power of mother nature to uh to grow around anything that humans may do. But this fence needs to be replaced. It abuts the neighbor just to our side over here. We're going to replace it with a brand new fence. It's going to have privacy slats in it. I know that that neighbor over there has from
015time to time expressed some concern about what on our side of the property, his side of the property. So, we're going to get rid of this rusted out fence that the tree has taken over. We're going to replace it with a new fence with privacy slots in it. The playground safety surfaces. So, this photograph here in the top shows uh the wood chips that exist on the what I'm going to call maybe another word for it, the kindergarten playground that's on this side of the building over here. There is some port in place rubber safety surface, but a lot of it is covered in wood chips. Wood chips are wood chips need to be refreshed. They have they are not providing any safety service for you, any noticeable safety service for you at the moment
016because they they decay. They settle with time and as they settle down, there's less and less safety service. On top of that, they are not handicapped accessible. We are proposing to take all of the wood chips out and replace it with a turf. It's it the turf is actually it's being installed as uh just to give you some information in the brand new playground that we're installing in East Hampton and John Marshall Elementary School. It's been used in a number of elementary schools on the east end. It's looks akin to what you might see on a putting green of a golf course. So, it's not the long artificial turf that you'd see on a football field, but it's much shorter. Provides an excellent safety surface. It's very maintainable. Basically, all that will have to happen
017is periodically the custodial staff will just have to rake it up with a special rake that will refurbish it and give it new life. It's excellent safety service for children who may fall. and it's handicapped accessible which I think would be a plus for students who may need that. That's all the projects we have. Again, money because of the we can't tell exactly what's behind the rotten fascia. We have appropriated in the proposed budget a little bit of extra money and anything that's left over at the end of all these projects gets folded right back into the reserve at the end of the year for future items. All right. >> Thank you very much, Sam. Um well, first off, were there any questions from the board? >> No, other than the metal um on our
018budget, the other budgets are pretty much in line with what you're expecting. >> Yeah, I think so. I mean, the the the the safety service on the playground is is fairly solid. The fence uh number is fairly solid. There's a little bit extra money built in for the steps because we take something out and again there's cracking underneath that we can't see that may require a little bit of work. We have a little bit left over, but again, whatever is not used rolls right back into the reserve for the future. I will tell you that your uh the facilities director that you contract with East Hampton for Greg Cobell, he's identified a whole bunch of other projects that need attention to. These are the ones that we had prices that are ready to go and
019we wanted to roll them out so we can get on the contractor's calendars and do as much of this as possible. Some of these may have to wait for better weather. We're getting into the time of the season where pouring concrete is not feasible. So, some of this stuff may have to wait, but at least we will be able to issue purchase orders, assuming you vote for this and get on the uh calendar of the contractor so we can get this going as soon as possible. >> The grass that you were talking about that is kind of got a a cushion surface underneath it. Is it? >> It's a several different layers underneath. It starts with a solid concrete base and then there's plenty of cushioning that goes underneath. is an infill in the turf
020and it's it it's it's designed for playground use. So, it's engineered for heavy foot traffic, heavy, you know, kids like to kick and and stomp and jump or whatever it is that kids do in playgrounds. It's designed for that use. It really has worked out quite well in other schools that have installed it. you just put rocks in there and I wouldn't >> we're a little short on rocks right now, but this is this this might be a this is a a good alternative. And unlike you the the engineer wood fiber that you have there, it lasts. The wood fiber stuff every, you know, two years, 18 months, two years, you got to basically refill it because it settles with time and it gets all over the place. So this is a far better approach.
021>> So I'm not on committee on house. I'm not building anymore. I forgot that. So, you were placing the steps on that side, right? And the >> everywhere that there's >> What about the concrete out there that's on you? >> That's also going to go with this, too. >> I didn't see a picture of that. >> It was a little hard for me to get a photo, but the way that the sun will shine here. >> All the stuff that's cracked is is going to go. >> All coming up the flat surface as well. >> Everything that's cracked is going to go. If a panel of concrete is in good shape, we're going to leave it. But anything the flat work like there's that >> the walkway that goes Yeah. right right into the side
022of the building is really cracked and damaged and uneven and that is part of the project itself. >> Part of the project just asking for >> Yeah. expenses expenses. >> No, we're going to we're going to do as much of the flat work as you know as is required around the building. There's a there's a walkway on the far side of the building. It's kind of an emergency exit walkway that too needs some some care. you know, we want to leave things in better shape and, you know, have it in a in a good setting, in a good footing. >> So, that cost includes the walkway over there. Right now, it's just like dirt, right? >> The part that's concrete is going to be fixed. So, >> the greenhouse going out the old greenhouse. >>
023Yeah. So, you know, we're going to the the contractor's been here. he knows what the scope of the work is and it's just a matter of making sure that we have appropriate weather to pour the concrete and all the work will take place. We'll schedule the obviously the steps with the exits around whatever the superintendent you know says we're able to do reasonably and if we have to do it during the summer or during vacations that's what we'll take care of. >> All right. >> Um it was good to see I you know because with the photos you didn't get a great sense of the scope of the project. Obviously that's a significant expense but beyond the photos so the public knows I mean there's significant pathways yes also >> I mean if you just
024take the fascia as an example I mean there is a significant amount of linear feet of fascia around this building that is wood that has rotted around rotted out and if you go along and you look you'll see it and so you know all that has to come down it's a lot of scaffolding work that the contractor has to do a lot of metal that has to be put in place but again that kind of stuff is what allows the building to be maintained and its uh efficacy as a structure to be continued. >> Right. Thank you for the explanation. Uh and you know it it is a lot of money to do all of this but I think you said it but it's worth reiterating. Uh not only are these things safety concerns but
025they will never be cheaper than they are today to do. I mean is that a fair way to put that? >> Yeah. I mean, prices >> expensive as this is, it's >> prices only go up and prices only go up to buy the same thing. You're not going to be buying the same thing if you do this three three years from now because the rot will only get worse. The concrete will only get more cracked. And so, it's, you know, it's important to maintain these things. You say, of course, safety for the the building, it it's not going to get any better. safety, accessibility, cost, aesthetics. These are all the reasons to >> put this into our priorities now. And >> and it's not like there's it's not like we're doing everything as you said,
026there are there are other things in an old building that need to get done. So, as expensive and wholesome as this seems, uh these are cherrypicked items out of out of other things that are out there. These are what in your view are the biggest priorities right now? These are the priorities that we have right now that are ready for, you know, board action. We have some other items that we want. We're still scoping out the projects. We're still waiting for contractors to give us numbers that we feel are solid. And so, we don't want to put something before you that isn't, to use a phrase, ready for prime time. So, you know, we'll be back with another hearing coming up when we're ready with another group of projects, but these are ready to go
027and we want to get the ball rolling if you're in agreement. So just and I think you know it's just an important question you know to look at both sides of it but uh do you view this as a sustainable expense in terms of the money that we have in the repair reserve and and utilizing it in the best way possible? >> I I think it's I I think not only is a sustainable uh expense I think it's the responsible thing to do. You can not do this and the building will deteriorate and you will have to fix it at some point and if not you a future board will have to fix it and it will be more expensive and you know people may have suffered an injury because it you know there's crack
028in the pavement or on the the steps. People will not get the benefit of of the safety surface that we want to put in place in the playground. the neighbor will continue to have to have a substandard fence that you know he deserves a regular fence as well. So, you know, all these things are a responsible thing to do with the money that's been appropriated in the reserve. >> Thank you. Appreciate you covering that. Are there any other questions, comments from the board? No. >> Okay. At this time, we could uh take questions from members of the public. Is there anyone here tonight or uh or somewhere else that would like to call and make a comment? Go ahead. We'll go with in person. Uh first person to raise their hand. Come on up. >>
029Thank you. I'm David Buddha. Couple of comments. First of all, again, I'd like to uh suggest that the uh the uh meeting should have the benefit of some kind of oral some kind of um amplification system so the people in the audience can hear you better, especially when the during the winter when the heat's on, it makes it hard to hear everything that's being said. Um, the next thing is, um, I expected this presentation to have been put on the website. I think it probably was a technical glitch, but it was not. In case you're not aware of that, this presentation, I mean, just from previous experience, I expected it to have been prepared in advance. I expected to have been posted, and I think in for some reason, it was not. There was a
030little, if you look at the um, if you look at the screen, you'll see that in the lower leftand corner of the box, there's a little uh, what looks like a section symbol. That's what happens when something is not attached. Uh when you have attachments, the website looks different. So, it didn't happen. You know, I I appreciate that you did present it tonight. The only problem is that from where I'm sitting, I couldn't see some of the numbers. Um 100 uh 1 million point and 1.5 million obviously adds up. Uh there is money in the in the repair reserve now that we have established that uh last month based on the $4 million was left over from last year's budget. Uh none of these maintenance items that were uh presented tonight um concerned me really
031with only one question about the playground surface because the young kids playground I guess that's K through two. The equipment was replaced fairly recently. So, I don't know whether or not you had done anything at all or any consideration had been given when that was done to the to the surface material, whether you've just changed your mind, whether or not the wood chips didn't work out. But, um, obviously, there are better high-tech, more expensive alternatives, but it's a new playground as far as I know, except maybe one or two pieces. So, I'm surprised that you're >> Well, the cheese >> the cheese had to be put back in. That was a repainted uh relic from the old playground that the public really wanted in this. So no, to your point, yes, a lot of the
032equipment is new, but there are some old favorite stuff that are in there as well. >> All right. But you've decided now that you need a new service. >> That's correct. >> being recommended. >> I you know, the that playground predates my involvement here. I will tell you that the the wood chips need to be either, you know, either refreshed, recharged, how whatever you want. we need more wood chips or you need something else. >> I just need to add uh sorry to interrupt that we did have a lot of um suggestions from staff that students were out there and when they throw the wood chips they're very dangerous. They're sharp, they're pointy and people were saying that they felt that they were not safe for students anymore. uh the last time that it was
033filled uh the chips seemed to be quite large and sharp on both ends and they feel that the chips are a safety hazard to some of the students. >> I like the rocks better. >> Yeah, because those don't hurt when you throw them. But regardless of of throwing in the the the you need to do something. So I you know we we're recommending this because it's not throwing good you know good money after bad. You're going the wood chips are never, you know, you're going to have to constantly maintain them. Every 18 months or two years, you're going to spend more money to refresh them. This surface is going to last a lot longer. Is it going to last indefinitely? No. But I think that it's a better value for what you're getting for your
034money. I can't speak to why they selected what they selected when they did. But, you know, the the contractor understands the scope of the project. He is going to work >> the company's going to work around existing structures. Nothing is changing with the structures. They are going to install it all around the existing structures. So the playground will in terms of the stuff the kids play with be exactly the same. >> Right. >> Just to address your point, Mr. Buddha, I think uh there seems to be a learned lesson element here. I think maybe they were refreshed at the time. It was possibly an interest to reduce cost to the best of the ability. Since then, we've learned that there are increased opportunities for injury with the current surface. uh that is not handicap accessible
035and it needs to be done and now that we have uh you know it's obviously worn down enough we are at a position where we now can choose a new surface and I don't know if that fully answers your question but that's certainly the rationale behind where >> it's fine again you know there no gold toilets in this pro presentation these are all reasonable maintenance and necessary maintenance matters for safety and appearance and and preservation of the structure so I really had no other questions about that but I do have some questions about procedure. Um, I may be one of the handful of people in the town that read the November 13 published notice of this hearing. Uh, that gave the public at least 5 days notice of this hearing. And it's unfortunate that the
036presentation did not get uploaded at all. I'm sure that was just a snafu. What I what is missing at least as far as I'm concerned is I don't recall ever at a prior meeting or from reading the agendas of any prior meetings that you have ever adopted a resolution to direct the district secretary to to publish the hear uh the notice of the hearing which would give the public additional notice in advance that there's going to be a hearing and the nature of the hearing. The standard procedure at least in all other municipal bodies that I observe is that when there's going to be a public hearing, there has to be a resolution adopted to schedule the public hearing and to direct you the appropriate official to publish the uh the notice of hearing. If
037that happened, I missed it. If it didn't happen, I think that's an oversight that needs to be explained. Lastly, um I'm a little confused about where these numbers came from. I couldn't quite see it. It looked like $120,000 for the fencing. That's that's a big number. Now, obviously, when you are preparing to expend money, you develop a cost estimate. You haven't, I'm sure, at this point, entered into any contracts at a total cost of 1.5 million, although it's various vendors and some may be on some kind of state uh contract, but I assume that you have not yet selected vendors. you haven't had, I assume that you will probably have to do some public bidding for some aspects of this proposal before you actually can consider awarding uh contracts. And that's why I'm surprised that
038the resolution that's on tonight's agenda related to this hearing states that if it's adopted that you will that the president of the board of education and the superintendent are being author would be authorized tonight to sign any necessary contracts with vendors and service providers to effectuate these repairs. Isn't that quite premature? I assume you have no vendors. I assume you had no bidding. I assume that you have no contracts. So, I'm not sure why that last uh resolved paragraph in the resolution for tonight's action is even there. Could someone explain? Am I missing something about the procedure? >> So, f first of all, let's back up. Not only are there no golden toilets in this proposal, there are no toilets in this proposal. So, I just want to go on the record of saying that.
039uh you know the the uh all of the contractors that we are planning to use with this are on pre-existing contracts that have been bid out by other municipalities for which we are allowed to piggyback. We don't have to do any of the bidding ourselves which is honestly better for us. We don't have large per large large purchasing power here and I would rather be able to use a Boseis contract or a contract negotiated by the town of Brook Haven or some entity that has larger purchasing power to be able to get a better price to the taxpayers of this district. So, I will tell you that every one of these contractors that we're proposing to use has a pre-existing contract that we're set to go. You know, if you vote to appropriate this tonight,
040we can issue purchase orders tomorrow for all of these things because we've already worked out the pricing under the pre-done bids by other municipalities for every single one of these contractors. You know, residential fence RFC, residential fence corporation, you know, to to choose an example, has pre-existing contract off the top of my head, can I tell you it's from Suffach County from Boseies? I don't know. But it's one of those that's who we use and the price is fairly straightforward. You measure the length of fence. It's a big number. It's a big fence, you know, and that's what it is. It's all pre-done. And one of the things that we prefer to do, and I say we referring to Mr. Cooell and I prefer to do with these repair reserve projects, is use contractors that
041are on contract because we don't have to mess around with bidding or any of the any of the procedures that introduce an element of unknown. Right? We're coming to you with a number that we're going to spend or less. We are we have no authorization to spend more. And so I want to be very careful when we put numbers before you that I feel somewhat confident that this is the number and that's what the pre-existing contracts allow us to do. Is does is that does the law allow you to deal with entities contractors that have any previously bid contracts with other municipalities or is it only schools or is it anywhere in the country anywhere in the state or the region or how does that work? >> Well, I I you know I I would
042you can educate me. >> I I would I would advise you to take a look at the district's purchasing policy and the New York State purchasing law rather than me speak about it. But I will tell you that we normally as a matter of course make use of contracts that are negotiated bid out negotiated by other schools, other municipalities, other collectives. Boseies is a great example. There's, you know, there's a number of them. The county does them. Larger towns do them. There's a cooperative run by a school district, Clarkstown School District upstate. They run something called uh just fell out of my head but again it's a collective of school districts that allow them to participate and I would rather use those because you're going to get better buying power every single time. >> Okay,
043I appreciate that. I was only aware of the Boseies contracts but obviously >> and in fact Boseis I should say not only Boseies has as part of its purchasing cooperative not only most of their component school districts but they have a number of towns and villages and fire districts that are within their catchment area that participate in it. Anything that's done according to the law of New York State when it comes to purchasing is fair game for us to use. >> All right. Lastly, and on the last thing on this on the hearing, does anyone have a comment or response to my question whether or not there was a previous resolution authorizing this hearing and the directing that the notice of public hearing be published in uh last Thursday's STAR? >> Uh I'm not aware
044of any requirement in the general municipal law covering the use of repair reserve that would require such procedure, but I would invite the board to consult with their attorney if they have a question. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, actually thank you, Mr. Schneider for going over that. That was a good question, too. I think that was a nice piece of education. You know, what you're getting with these cooperatives is you have a vetted standard, efficiency, cost savings. I mean, it's it's a wonderful thing that when you're going out on your own doing these things, you're subject to any vendor's standards. And to have these things available to us that that have that kind of history and buying power that we can take advantage of. >> And Mr. Frederick, excuse me. It it also helps because
045the vendors are used to dealing with municipalities. They understand the unique realities that we operate with. We don't pay till the project is, you know, reach certain stages. They have to do the work first. They have to carry certain insurance that would be well in excess that any private contract might have. They have to pay prevailing wage, which is extremely important. They're familiar with all these things. If you, and I speak from experience doing this, if you conduct a local bid, you're going to get contractors who are very well-intentioned, but may not understand the intricacies and the unique applications of municipal work. And often what will happen is once they learn what does prevailing wage mean, they will withdraw their offer, withdraw their bid because they can't meet it. >> Right. No, that was a
046that was exchange of of learning. I really appreciate that. Uh are there any other questions? Uh LTV either calling from away or here tonight. >> We have no callers on the line. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Uh so uh there is uh an item on the agenda later this evening to appropriate funds from the repair reserve. If there are no further questions, I'm going to ask for a motion to close the public hearing on the reserve. Do I have a motion? Motion. Do >> I have a second? >> All right. Motion carries. The time is now. 8 uh 750. Oh, wow. 850 up there. >> 750. Okay. Why? >> All right. So, we're now going to uh uh reconvene to the public comment session. Uh I like to say in the beginning
047that we are about to convene to the public comment period of our meeting. It's absolutely crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues and always appreciate all of your comments. While we 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 appropriate staff member get back to you at the right time. I also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws, we are unable to entertain any comments or questions about school personnel or any individual identities on these matters. We'd ask you to go through the appropriate administrative channels. Finally, we intend that
048our 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, we ask that all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility and respect for any divergent views that may be expressed. We ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience. Thank you. So, we did have some comments for the hearing, but that was separate. We're now going to have uh comments for the public uh commentary. These would be on agenda items only. Are there any comments from the public here or elsewhere tonight? We have no callers on the line. >> Callers. >> All righty. Again, this might have been the same kind
049of technical glitch, but with respect to item 5.7 approving a memorandum of agreement with the uh teachers um association, there was no copy posted of that MOA, at least not accessible from the website. I think this one's happened in the past. It's a matter I think of making that uh document >> publicly available. >> It's right there. >> It is avail It is there. >> It's right there. >> It was not available to a user of the website. >> Okay. The Would you like me to explain the MOA? >> If you would, I couldn't find. We are starting a national junior honor society in our middle school and the MOA is to add that to the teachers contract um because we're going to be appointing two advisors this evening um that are going to run
050the club. So it's just a minor change for the way the resolution is drafted is un especially because it you might have been given a copy but trust me if you go to the website you can't access you can't see it it's just not >> I'll check >> there's a problem and I know it's not intentional it's just a problem so I didn't know what kind of agreement that was >> secondly and I'll again the corrective action plan which is item 6.6 six, same problem, same snap through. Um, I didn't even remember that you had any major issues with the audit that needed to be responded to, but that document, whatever it may be, is not accessible to the public who's using the board docs. >> Um, no, it's showing up on our on our
051>> It's not showing up on the public. >> Okay, I'll check we'll check it. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Um, and again, if you look at your at your uh website, I think you'll find the difference between those documents that the public can access a different icon in the lower corner as opposed to the ones where you could public cannot access. So, it's just something that needs to be >> Thank you for bringing it to our attention. >> Possibly something we could do where we can not just check these things if we're logged in, but have someone check in logged out. I think maybe happened once before. >> It might be because I can we can see it logged in and >> and >> it's a matter of making the document available.
052>> Yeah. No, thank you for bring that to our attention. I think that's something we could try to >> And then one more substantive thing with regard to item 6.3 the acceptance of the treasures report. I take it Jonathan Lee your district treasur is not here. I have a question and uh maybe Sam can actually answer this best or better. I watch the uh monthly treasury reports and I'd like to know why in the past the repair reserve which is part of the general fund and the capital reserve each month you can track the changes the expenditures the additions based on the interest for some reason last month in October it seems that a separate uh that all of the repair reserve money was put into the general investment category under the New York Cooperative
053Liquid Asset Security System and not under the the specific line for the repair reserve, which means that you have not been tracking any interest for the repair reserve and putting it under that code. And when the expenditures are made now from the repair reserve, it seems to be inconsistent with prior practice because you now have all of the repair reserve coingled under account a 2011 instead of the uh A230. So I'm just wondering if that's a something that needs to be corrected or whether there's an explanation for it. >> Well, I I can't speak to how Jonathan did his entries. I will tell you that when money is invested from a school district in the liquid asset fund, they track the they have a series of subf funds in the All right, so let's talk
054let's back up. Class is a cooperative of various school districts that pull their money. It gets invested in a secure investment on Wall Street and it turns out interest that's well in excess of what a brickandmortar bank can produce. So school districts, this is only for school districts. The cooperative is only open to school districts. Uh, invest money there from time to time in order to be able to generate interest when you don't need to have it in a checking account in order to be able to pay bills. When you open your account, when the district opens his account with your class, they open a series of sub accounts. So, you might I'm going to make up an example. You might have a sub account for your repair reserve money. You might have a sub
055account for your cafeteria fund. You might have a sub account for extra classroom activity fund. All of that gets pulled into what I believe you are seeing in the treasures report. But when we actually get the statements from your class, it delineates out where you've put the sub money and delineates out the interest that is attributable to each of those things. Again, I can't speak to how Jonathan produces treasures report. I can tell you that class tracks these things as a matter of course and gives you statements that so long as you have it set up with each of those sub funds that I gave as an example. You're going to get the monthly statements back that show it. >> Well, in fact, you do have three sub sub funds. One is the general investment
056New York class fund, one is the repair reserve New York class fund, and one is the capital reserve New York class fund. And in the past, the repair reserve money was in that sub fund. And any interest that was earned monthly was identified as being attributable to the repair reserve. And all interest generated by the substantial repair reserve of 4.1 million plus would go into the future benefit of the repair reserve. There seems to be either a delay or something that is not intuitively obvious as to how this is being accounted for this time around. It's different than in the past. Maybe it's because you have changes in your procedures or personnel. >> Again, I I can't speak to how Jonathan has prepared the treasures report, but I imagine we will allow him to explain
057it at the next board meeting. If a change has to be made, he will make it. If an explanation can be made that shows what he's doing, I'm sure he will do that as well. >> It would seem to me it's just a matter of allocating the interest and putting it into the appropriate sub. Thank you. >> That's it. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Anyone else here tonight for commentary, public comments on agenda items only? LTV. >> Uh, still zero callers on the line. >> All right. Excellent. I will conclude uh public commentary and uh we're now going to move to consent agenda. Uh I ask for a motion to approve consent agenda items 5.1 514 on our consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? None. Motion
058carries. All right. Moving on to business items. Uh I ask for a motion to approve items 61 through 617 under business items on our agenda. Do I have a motion? Have a second. >> All right. All those in favor? Slightly opposed. None opposed. Motion carries for those business items. >> Actually, and well, I should have asked um for Sam to review the business item before we voted on review. >> All right. Uh let me give you a couple highlights now that the horse is out of the barn >> running around the field. Uh >> it's already talked quite thorough, but let's go through. >> All right. Uh the corrective action plan is minor. You have two open items from the prior year's audit. So for the audit for the period in June of 24 that
059hadn't been resolved, one related to training of uh extra classroom activity advisors which we have already corrected and the other so minor I cannot recall it off the top of my head. Uh I will highlight 6.8 which is your annual contract with the flex third party administrator. So, if you're not familiar with Flex or for the benefit of the public, this is an opportunity for employees to divert a portion of their earnings to an account that's held in trust in their name. It is pre-tax dollars and that they can use that account for eligible expenses mostly related to doctor's visits, pharmacy visits, dental visits, etc., etc. The advantage to the school district here is that by making a pre-tax dollars, you are not paying any payroll taxes on the money that the employee is earning.
060the employee doesn't have to pay any pay, you know, uh, social security or FICA taxes themselves and is exempt from federal and state tax and you get the savings on the payroll taxes portion. So, there's a distinct financial advantage for the district to offer that plan. Um, 6.10, you know, we've heard it, uh, obviously you heard what I will term an excellent presentation on the repair reserve. You can fill in your own adjective. And uh if I could just say a word about items 6.11 through 6.17. So uh we are trying to submit the final cost report for your very large bond project that has been functionally done for a long time. Unfortunately the paperwork doesn't match the expenditures in that all of these change orders that we have on this agenda were never approved
061by the board. So when we take the accounting entries of what was spent, they don't match with the contract awards of what the board has approved. So we need these items here to be done, albe it extremely late, but better late than never, so that we can file the final cost report with the state and begin to get the state aid flowing on this project. So that's why all these things are here. I can't speak to why it wasn't done at the time, >> right? Neither can I. But that I mean that's why it was this those last items were something that's play in the past and we're just going through proceed. >> It doesn't right. It doesn't represent any actual money that we are now sending out or receiving back. All of this has
062been done and closed for a long time. But we need to uh ask the board to approve these items so that we can file the paperwork with the state and be done with this. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate that to say it out loud. Um all right. Excellent. Well, we have gone through that already. Are there any questions though on the United Retroactive? >> Okay. >> All right. Uh, thank you everybody. We're going to move now to section seven and new business. It appears we have a policy review here. Um, I ask for a motion to uh discuss and approve item 7.1 under new business. Do I have a motion? >> Do I have a second? Now, I'm gonna allow you to actually talk about it before we vote on it. Nancy, can you review
063this item for us, please? >> Well, Kate, you can review it. Kate's on the policy committee um along with Jonathan and Matt Shimiss and they had their meeting. And Kate, I'll let you go ahead. So um as part of our extensive review of the policies for the district, the policy committee is recommending that we move the honor role, the higher role and the selection of the valorian Victorian policies out of um out of the purview of the board of education and to the administration. So we're not making any changes to these policies, but we're just moving it away from the board. are it's really our opinion that this is more of an administrative matter than a board matter. >> Makes sense. Yeah. >> Yeah. I should mention the board tonight we had uh we did
064our board retreat, you know, which helps us get best practices from the New York State School Boards Association. Uh as part of that process, we uh we do learn best practice in governance and finance and it's a team building exercise that we get to do which is wonderful. And oftentimes one of the uh perennial subjects that comes up is governance and roles and responsibilities. And uh it helps define what's under the board's purview, you know, versus uh you know, at the 30,000 foot level versus getting into the weeds and being at risk of micromanaging. And in the spirit of that, it looks like this policy, you know, is something that um is better suited to be handled by our administration and doesn't need to actually sit in the policy section. And as such, tonight we
065uh we'll vote on that. So that's good. But I thought it was a good opportunity to talk about um that your board um does uh does get education like it's a form of continuing education and it's a way for us to look at new standards and and keep up on everything. So wanted to take that opportunity to share that with everybody. Um are there any questions with regard to this policy change from the board? >> No. All right. It sounds like we're ready to vote on it. Uh all those in favor of uh of this policy I any opposed? None. Our motion carries. Uh so looks like we have well that was a committee update of sorts but now we have some formal committee updates. Uh so first do we do we communicate now Eric
066and I budget er Eric principal Eric with a K. Um Mr. Kell, would you like to do I know I had to leave a little early for another committee, the last committee meeting had. So, >> I'm happy to do it unless you have >> more notes than I do. >> N I shared notes really and we're we're just we're in the early stages of this year of a really wonderful committee where we're bringing in members of the community. We're communicating with them through multiple channels. Our website again is where we want to focus our attention, but we also have uh our journalism club sending out emails frequently to committee members, Miss Janice as well as on the communication committee Sue and she she receives those emails, sends it out to the community. But we really
067want to highlight those the opportunities for the outside to come to the school care that's appropriate. And that and that's ultimately what we're the conversations that we're continuing to find those avenues because we do have such a great community outside of the the school walls who who want to help and want to contribute to the the future. So finding and identifying those needs and then the channels to reach out to them is really where we are right now. Our next meeting will focus on the the same. >> Right. Yeah. I think I'd add is about a third of the members of that committee are are members of our community. They're not in the school at all. And they're wonderful in terms of um giving us insight as to what the community might want to hear
068about in terms of uh events or goings on at the school that we can be more inclusive of our community at large and and the ways in which they might participate. Uh we've also established uh an email address that people can sub uh subscribe to to get information. They can opt into information about the school. The school curates that information and at some type of cadence whether it's bi-weekly or monthly um that they get an email uh giving them, you know, updates with the school. Do we have the email that we could share live right now? Is that possible? >> Yes. Um it's communityrschool.org. communityspringschool.org for you listeners out there who want a little extra information. >> Go ahead and email that >> and hopefully we can maybe get an email out about the project.
069>> I just received from the journalism club the other day. >> Amazing. >> Just going over it. It was supposed to it I scheduled to go out either tomorrow or the next day and it mentions Turkey Trot. mentions our Veterans Day celebration um and several other things bake sales that you know going on in the school and it's a different pairing from the journalism club every time they send it. So last month it was two um members and then this month it's two other members. So Daniel Hamilton does a great job including different writers. >> Different writers. Yeah. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah, I'll do I do also want to add that it's not just us sending information out to the community. The community now has the channel really through myself and then I send
070it out to whoever needs it for whoever is most appropriate. So, there's tons of great opportunities for our kids throughout this community and neighboring communities that can provide experiences for families, for our kids themselves. and and so we disseminate that amongst our school population as well. So it's us sending great information out about school ongoing but also community comes to us in terms of hey this is going on your kids have this great chance to learn or explore whatever it is. So we we're starting a really great partnership with the greater community. >> That's yeah that's wonderful. Um and you know we the committees enrollment is ongoing. Uh if anyone is compelled to join uh certainly they could reach out to our you know our school at any time but uh the committees are in
071in full flow right now and uh it's it's wonderful to have people out there giving different input and insights and being able to make recommendations to the board uh you know in a way that the board can't always see everything. So these committees are are a pair of eyes and and a way to collect information to make a better decision- making process for us as well. Uh I know the policy committee already had a comment on the policy, but is there anything else out of the policy committee? Moving to that one now, Matt or Kate, you know, you guys want to add anything to that or are we are we updated? >> Tight schedule of policy reviewing all the policies. So we're we're checking on >> Yeah, I mean it is a full policy overhaul.
072We're really looking to update everything. It's a huge undertaking, by the way, to that committee. So, thank you guys and all the other members of that committee. That's it's not a it's not the usual. It looks like a brick, you know, when you look at that. Thank you for the continued work on that. Uh in terms of the buildings and grounds committee, uh Nancy, did you want >> Yeah. Um so, we had our first meeting. We did a walk through with the committee. uh both the exterior of the building and the interior. The projects that we had today, tonight in the public hearing, you saw mostly exterior projects. Um we're at the pro in the process of getting quotes on all the interior projects that were uh looked at by the committee. Uh once we
073get those quotes, we'll come back as a committee and look to prioritize what things we think are important. obviously health and safety first and then going from there to see what projects are important. The committee will bring it to the board to discuss what projects we might want to move forward to uh maybe this year or going on a two threeyear plan going forward. >> Wonderful. Thank you. And finally, we have our wellness committee update. Emma, is there something to report on wellness? >> We have met one and a half times. We'll say >> one and a half second meeting. But um I think I don't know that we're ready for an update just yet because I don't want to we need to see the like willingness of involvement in certain events. But we do
074have we're starting to plan what I think would be a really fun wellness event for the school, the students, community all together. And um and we also came up with a few ideas that could potentially, you know, work with policy. >> Wonderful. Yeah. >> Having to be with them all. >> It's just nice to have a committee like that to just have a space to discuss something so easy to overlook schools. you know, not every idea gets to manifest into into something, but just to idealize thing, whether it's, you know, something for the the staff or the students, you know, social emotional learning, health, fitness, you know, it's just it's cool to have that forum. And, uh, you know, when you guys have some ideas ready to share, we're ready to listen. >> Yeah. Um,
075that's all the committee updates for tonight. uh we can move to our superintendent report and recommendations. So I ask for a motion to approve items 91 to 93 under superintendent report and recommendations. You have a motion second heard a couple. Thank you Nancy. >> Okay. Um first I always am appreciative when you get donations as a school. We had two donations that are asking you to accept this evening. The first is from Goldberg's Bagels and they donated uh 300 bagels to our life skills program. Uh the students were selling those bagel bagels for a fundraiser for different field trips that they go on throughout the year. So very appreciative of that. We also had a community member um who donated uh $300 to our elementary music department and we're very thankful for that donation as
076well. So, we're once again very grateful uh to people who donate to our programs here at the school. And um now I just have uh our enrollment, our update, and some school news. And just want to talk a little bit about some events that we've had here at the school on November 7th. Um it marked the end of our first marking period and our elementary teachers in collaboration with the administration developed new report cards that align with our state standards and uh particularly our e new ELA curriculum. Uh parent teachers conferences were held on November 13th and 14th. Everything went very smoothly. Re received a lot of positive comments um from parents about uh their students having a good experience so far this year. Um, we also had our Veterans Day celebration on November 10th.
077It was really a special event. Our K5 students and staff honored our local veterans with song and dance at spirit meet. And afterwards, our middle school students served breakfast to the veterans and presented them with thank you cards recognizing their service to our country. So, we appreciate uh the teachers that put this on each year. It's really a nice way to thank our veterans. And just want to mention um that this evening, as you saw in the agenda, we appointed two advisors to the Junior National Honor Society. This is a new program that we're imple in introducing to the school and we're excited for this opportunity for our students. And then today also our uh K through five students participated in fall harp rally and students were quizzed on information regarding life cycle habitats of
078various birds. Our staff and I give them a lot of credit, dressed up as ospreys or turkeys and competed in fun activities while students cheered for their favorite team. The turkeys were victorious and in the spirit of kindness congratulated the ospreys on a job well done. So it was a very fun event uh for our students today. Just some upcoming events. Um as Kate had mentioned uh we have the annual turkey trot and that's going to be on November 24th. Um, and it's at night begins at 9:15 a.m. And then on December 7th, um, something that's been brought back, I mentioned at prior board meetings is the lights of love. And that's going to be the lighting of the Christmas trees and it's will be at 400 pm at Ashawa Hall. Some of our students
079will be present um, and singing songs as well. So, it should be a really nice evening. Um, we also have the PTA Elf on a Shelf holiday shop that's going to take place at the school the week of December 8th through the 12th. It's a really nice time. Students get to go into the uh to the shop and buy Christmas gifts for their families and friends. And also just want to mention that student artwork will be on display at Field Hall until the first week in January. It's really beautiful display. I give our art teachers and our students a lot of credit. um makes us proud uh when we go in there and and see the the work that they've created. So um that's just a little bit of what's been going on in the
080school. Uh it's been it's going it's flying by and uh it's the holiday season so I'm looking forward to yeah very busy time between now and our winter break. Then I just want to share our enrollment report as I do uh each board meeting. And just to take a look uh down a little bit uh scroll down a little and as you'll see um our enrollment has increased by 12 students since this time last year in our preK through 8th grade. And just so you're aware, additionally, we just found out today we do have about 10 new res uh applications um for registration between preK and 9th grade uh just in this week alone, which um will be students who are entering during March of December. So, our enrollment is steady and actually uh increasing
081slightly over the >> 10 new students just this month. >> Yes, so far. And and we're getting additional students here. Thank you. First of thank you to Goldbergs and a community member for their donations and um always appreciate when you list all the goings on and that makes me need to thank the administration and our staff for for putting on all these events. There's so much to manage in a school and I never want that to go overlooked. uh with all the formal stuff that needs to get done that we we always keep our students first and that there's so many activities, events, things like that year round. So very much appreciate that. Um with regard to uh the superintendent report, are there any questions from the board? Any comments from the board? >> Nothing
082to approve there, but um I appreciate that very much. Thank you so much. Uh so um although actually no I guess we do have to approve the one thing. Are there any uh all those in favor of uh approving items 91 93 uh >> approve I any opposed? No motion carries. We've been here a long time and I have to go back to work after this meeting. Forgive some of the uh not reading the time the fatigue. So, um we're good with that. We're now going to move to public comment number two. These are comments uh that are not necessarily on the agenda. Is there any comments both here tonight or on the phone that needs to be made right now? Anybody here? All right. Let's end strong. Thank you. Um the enrollment report was
083published and made it on the website and available to the public. And if you look at this page, you can see the difference and you know the document is shown there. When I go to the website, if you don't see that document there, I'll go back page that box tells you that document is part of the website the public can access. So it once it was published today, posted today, it was accessible. I just want to point that out. I don't I didn't I don't always get the enrollment until right before the you know I tried to >> right I'm not criticizing the time example of a successful link versus an unsuccessful now have the >> correct >> exhibit A and B >> right and obviously I the Treasury report and all the other revenue
084reports and all the other many of the other reports were publicly available and that's why I able to look at them before the meeting and make an attendance I would like to think an intelligent comment about some of the documents because I can read them in advance now I would strongly ly urge you to take Sam's advice to speak to your council to find out whether or not you can, should, or must do something more to let the people know at the public, your constituency in and outside of the school that there's going to be a public hearing. Matters that have are subject to public hearing are important. You're expending large sums. To have a public hearing that is only publicized by a little newspaper ad five days before in the star is not that's
085the bare minimum and I would suggest it's not even the bare minimum because to schedule a public hearing maybe not under general municipal law perhaps under open meetings law or some other state or education law requirement to have a public hearing you have to know that you want to have a public hearing. You have to, you should have to adopt a resolution directing your your district secretary to publish that. You've done this now at least twice. And I don't understand the procedure. Whether it's required by any law that Sam knows about or not, it's something you should do. And why? Because we have press in this community. We have two papers. They may not be here tonight, but they watch the meetings. They learn about things that are coming up. They can investigate. They can
086report. they can communicate to the public, hey, there's going to be a public hearing next month. $1.5 million of needed repairs are going to be authorized. People might want to know that in advance and not just have to find out, as I did, by going through the weekly uh legal ads, that there's going to be a public hearing tonight. >> Why not? We'll take >> I appreciate you. >> Yeah. Are there uh any other comments either at home LTV or >> Yeah, we have we have no callers on the line. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you everyone uh for your comments tonight and your participation. I'm now going to ask a motion to the meeting. Motion. I got one. Do I have a second? All those in favor? I. No one opposed. Motion carries.
087Meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you, LTV. Have a good evening.