001Springs School Board. We are live. Thank you. House tonight. Yes. In attendance tonight is Ericson, Patrick Bray Bent, Mfield Field, Kate Sar, Derm Quinn. Yeah, that's good. this evening. Whereas an employee may board of education submitted a letter of resignation dated March 13, 2025 selecting a retirement date. And whereas the board adopted a resolution on April 8th, 2025 accepting that letter of res. And whereas the employee has requested to resend her previously letter resignation. And whereas the district has already planned to fulfill the duties previously performed by the employee. Now therefore be it resolved that the application by the employee to resend her letter resation is not I ask for a motion to resolution motion second. All those in favor at this time like to congratulate vice president for earning a level one board achievement
002award excellence recognition program. This program is designed to acknowledge school board members who continually expand government skills. Mr. Reagan, please stand. The entire board and the Springs community congratulate you for receiving this award and thank you for your many years of service to the community. Give to you naturally. Thank you. We're doing our best to uh you know maintain our continuing education the best that we can be in this position that we um we're going to move to public comment number one. And as I mostly do, I just like to set the table for public commentary. Bear with me. get the fun stuff soon. And then back to ladies and gentlemen, we are about to convene into the public comment period of our meeting, it's absolutely crucial for us to hear from our community members
003about their concerns and issues and appreciate all of your while we may not be able to respond to your concerns and questions tonight. We do take them very seriously. want to have sufficient time to process the research issues made so we can respond thoughtfully at a future meeting or have the proper staff member. 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 identity. These matters, we would ask you to go through the appropriate administrative tasks. Finally, we intend that our schoolboard meetings serve as an example to our students that members of our school board, members of our community can deal with controversial issues in a civil matter and demonstrate mutual respect. That spirit, we ask that
004all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility, respect for any divergent views may be expressed. We ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience. Thank you very much. At this time the board is going to start public commentary number one. This is for comments. Uh anyone joining us online or tonight agenda items only. So if you have watching the agenda, please come up to the podium. I uh before we do anything, I just want to let the board know that we're having a little bit of an audio problem hearing you guys uh without feeling a little bit muffled. So, we if our callers online are having a hard time understanding, just let just know that we're trying to get through the technical difficulties right now. The equipment
005was working beforehand, but it's uh seems to be having a problem right now. Just letting everyone know. There um we have one caller on the line. Do you want me to unmute them? Yes, go ahead. Okay. Hello caller ending 8764. You're on the air. Hey, good evening uh school board. I hope you can hear me more clearly than I can hear you. There is terrible audio problems uh listening both on the video directly or through the telephone. This is David Buddha. I'm calling to uh ask that you discuss thoroughly uh item 4.7, the approval of the numerous intermunicipal agreements between the Spring School District and the East Hampton School District when the time at the appropriate time. I don't believe that I I request that you take the matter off the consent agenda and that
006you deal with it separately and vote on the U matters not as an individual. What I noticed is that um I w I followed the budget process carefully, but because of the way the detailed budget is presented, there's really no way to know what staff changes, what staff economies you're able to uh effect by way of parceling out nearly $300,000 worth of services to the East Hampton School District. You are about to retain a transportation coordinator from East Hampton for $75,000, a facilities director for $52,000, a business official who I we know well from the budgeting process, Mr. Sam Schneider, has been involved in the budget process for uh two years now, and also about $112,000 for payroll and benefit services. Though the other inter intermunicipal agreements make a lot of sense and aren't even
007questionable at all, the bus cleaning, bus repairs, and supplying an electrician for maintenance uh services on an hourly basis as needed makes a hell of a lot of sense and certainly is going to be uh economizing for for the eth for the spring school district and school um taxpayers. But with regard to what I think is a new position of having a East Hampton official be your transportation coordinator at a substantial salary, a facilities director at a at a reason reasonably substantial salary and the continuation of the business official uh from East Hampton when originally when Mr. Schneider was brought in in February of 2024. He was engaged, quote, to help Springs prepare its budget and manage its finances until a permanent successor to Steven Guini can be found. Now, obviously, you have a district
008treasurer and a the director of operations who I assume will continue next year. Uh, I don't know what currently you you you employ by way of transportation coordination and facilities directors, but what I think I'm asking is that you simply explain how this makes economic sense for springs, what economies, what positions have been either eliminated or reduced in scope as a result of engaging in these nearly $300,000 worth of intermunicipal uh agreements. That's my inquiry. I hope you can hear me and I hope I'll be able to hear you better as the meeting continues. Thank you. Thank you. And that's our only caller. All right. Thank you. We're getting a little a little deeper here. with our business official and treasurer business official receiving the business official of the year award in New York um
009as well as our treasur company. Those business questions will probably answer at a later time I would yes to speak on a couple of those Mr. Buddha. Um, just so you're aware, the transportation uh coordinator is replacing somebody who is retiring in the transportation department. Uh, we're very excited about our shared services in in making sure that we're able to be more efficient and more cost effective with uh our transportation operation. the facilities uh coordinator we have had this year and he replaced somebody that was making significantly more money than he was uh who we resigned from the district to take a position elsewhere. So we have a cost savings there. Uh the business official we need to continue at this point our district treasurer who he is mentoring um is working towards his business
010official degree. So that business official uh in his he needs to be here in that capacity as per state regulations um for until that occurs. So we are working very hard for actually being acknowledged uh statewide for the shared services that we've put in place uh on the east end as being exemplary for what the state is looking for on regionalization and sharing costs uh throughout the districts. are excited we've been invited to uh present so that we can uh talk to the state about how this is working and saving districts all around uh money by sharing services as best we can and so we will continue uh to try and do that. So I hope that answers some of your questions and please feel free to email me Mr. Bter as Mr. Frederickson said,
011our business official and our district treasurer up at an ASPO conference and if you email me with questions, I will be happy to respond and get back to you on those. Thank you, Na. And to uh just to commend our administration, you know, the state had come up with this shared services idea and while they're still planning the roadmap for that, uh we had modeled that even before that happened. I think we almost well we have to wait for a formal uh plan of what that is in terms of what was offered. We we had checked nearly every box I believe. So in terms of getting support that could be difficult to find for our school and saving money while we do it as we pull our resources between the districts. uh that has been
012such an asset to us both in the professionalism of our administration and our needs um to the economic savings it provides to our taxpayers. So uh it couldn't be a more win-win situation to have that particularly as the state is thinking in that same way in terms of how we could be fiscally responsible budgets and how we pull resources. uh Springs has had that need for a long time and we have been uh we have been full throttle on executing on that and and the state is apparently recognizing that as well. So I think that um I think that was something we needed to underscore there. Uh with regards to the rest of the public commentary, is there anyone going once going twice that would like to come up? All right, let's move to our
013student recognitions. It's that time of year when we recognize some of our graduating students for their accomplishments. I ask the board and our administrators uh to come forward. Mr. King, please come to the podium to recognize our students for their accomplishments and service in the physical education department. Hey everyone, good to see you. Uh tonight I'm going to be recognizing some students that did some really amazing things throughout this year. Uh to start uh these five students uh to my right um they I'd like to recognize them for giving up their recess throughout the course of this year uh almost every day um to volunteer with younger students in grades K to three. This is a program that kind of evolved starting from last year with actually a few students that were sitting over on
014my left. uh they decided instead of going to recess that they would rather be inside and help out some of the young students uh work on their skills, you know, motivate them um bring some enthusiasm um and just give some positive energy to the class. Uh so they came in each day, they ran some tag games, they did some warm-ups under our supervision. Uh again, brought some positive energy. Um it was the highlight of the day for these younger students. they'd really look forward to them coming and you know they looked up to them as role models. Um and thanks to their leadership these younger students were able to stay active throughout class, had fun, built confidence and they really made some meaningful connections with these students. Um we were very happy to have them
015each day. Um and tonight I would like to recognize them uh with certificates of service in physical education. Um, so first Samantha Weston Rios, Lucas Gonzalez, Kosov, Kayla Maro, Isabella Tubaton, and Isabella Villa. Tonight, I'd also like to recognize two outstanding eighth graders uh that were asked to play a sport up at the high school level this spring. Uh they will both be receiving certificates for excellence in athletics. Um, and I'm very proud of both of them in the way that they represented spring school up at the high school. Uh, the first athlete is Declan Baldness. Uh, Declan was called up to play baseball at the junior varsity level this spring. Uh, his coaches said he was an excellent first baseman that came to practices and games with a positive attitude. always had excellent sportsmanship
016and helped motivate his teammates. He played in 13 of the team's 16 games, batting .456, which is really good in baseball, and added 17 RBI's. Because of his success at the JV level, he was even asked to practice with the varsity during their playoff run when his season had ended. The future is very bright for Declan, and I look forward to reading about all his accomplishments in the years to come. Congratulations. And finally, we have Skyler Gulard. Sky was asked to join the varsity track team this spring and she had a really amazing season at the East End Classic which consists of all freshman and sophomores on the East End. Sky placed third overall in the 200 meter and fourth overall in the high jump uh jumping a height of 4'6 in the Suffach County
017freshman sophomore meet. Um, Sky was the top time for East Hampton freshman with a time of 29.54 and sixth overall of Suffach County freshman in the high jump. Because she had such great scores during the season, she ended up qualifying for the Suffach County Championship in the 100 meter and 200 meter, placing 15th in the 200 meter and 16th in the 100 meter. And that's mixed out of all different grade levels, which is really impressive. Being able to compete at this high level, at this high of a level now, can only mean great things are to come in the future. Congratulations, Scott. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Congratulations. Wow. You guys should be very proud of yourselves as we are. Um we can't wait to see what you do when you reach the high school
018level. Uh now we'd like to acknowledge and congratulate our 2025 valadictorians and saludiatoran. Mr. Kell, please come to the podium. evening. Thank you guys for all your help throughout the year. Our athletes, well done. We're validictorians. We have four this year and a saludiatoran. And ladies, first I just want to congratulate you all. And I'm speaking on behalf of your teachers who have put in countless hours of support. Surely your parents, your family, administrators, we're so proud of you. It it warms our heart to have this group here. Just looking at your accomplishments over the two years that I've been here, I've seen so many great things and there's so much more to come. So, congratulations to all of you. This is these are awards for academics, right? So, your commitment to academics, your character,
019your perseverance, your hard work, your collaboration is all paid off. Awards, certificates, and your speeches will be coming up in a couple weeks. And we're very excited to hear that and provide you with those awards as well. But audience and and board, these are these ladies here. They're much more than scholars. We have athletes. We have actresses and public speakers. There's so many great attributes to to this group here and sky is the limit for all of you. I'm certain that this is or these awards or these certificates or this recognition that you're getting now will be one of many to come in the future. So, we're very proud of you. This is our time to share with the board and introduce you to LTV so you can go back and watch as well. But
020we're going to call you up. We're going to get a nice photo here and it's going to be a lovely memory for all parents. I'll share the photos with you as well. So when I call your name, if you could just stand up over there and board, if you don't mind joining us for a photo, that would be very incredible. So we have Raphaela Demartis. [Music] ladies if you don't mind. We don't mind. Go up here. If you look at mine, it'll be great. Here we go. Perfect. Then I'll share this with your families as well. [Music] Yeah, why not? Absolutely. We'll get it afterwards. Come on down. Congratulations. We're so proud of all of you guys uh for what you're doing. We're proud of you for what you did now and what we know
021that you'll achieve when we get to New Hampton High School. Uh thank you so much for your efforts and and being a model and example for the school. It really does mean a lot particularly as a school that you know we have prek and kindergarten. You know they look to you guys whether you even realize it or not and to accomplish what you have gives them something to aspire to as well. So thank you. Uh I actually with having said that we we're going to move to like consent agenda items and everything else. I I don't want any of the students or families if uh if at this time please don't feel rude. Um, of course you're more than welcome to stay, but if there's homework or you received your awards and want to go,
022it I'm giving you cart launch to to do that right now. It's totally okay, parents and students. Uh there is no offense taking if you leave a board meeting early. Um, and if you want to stay, we we love that, too. Nice job. All right. So, we're going to move to our uh consent agenda items. I'd like to ask for a motion to approve items 4.1 to 4.7 on our consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Second. All right. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? My motion carries. We're now going to move to our business items section. I ask for a motion to approve items 5.1 to 5.5 under business items in our agenda. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? All right. So, for our business items 51 to 55,
023we have any questions? Our business officials are at the ASBO conference as we're as we mentioned before, Mr. Schneider is receiving the business official of the year award. Uh if there are any questions especially in detail, Miss Tarnney will get back to you once they're returning. Um but is there anything that you've seen here that at least on a basic level uh that you would like to ask very no? Okay. Yeah, we uh you always do thoroughly look through these things and we understand most of it and sometimes uh if there's a question that we need to tonight we don't. Uh so all those in favor I I All right. Any oppose? No. Motion carries. So at this time uh there's an opportunity for the PTA to come up. I think there's a representative here
024tonight. Um Oh, wonderful. Um, I just want to say actually just before you go over the many accolades that we uh we recognize how much our PTA provides uh for our students and staff throughout the year and like to thank you and every member of the PTA for your dedication, hard work. Um, you guys have done some incredible things this year um for not just our students and our building and our staff as well. Uh, so I'm just excited to hear, you know, already what we know is amazing, but it's great for you to share it with the community as well. Well, thank you for having me. My first time speaking here, forgive me if I go off topic review. Um, so first and foremost, I just wanted to say we personally had a record-breaking
025year for our fundraising. Um, which is going to set us up really nicely for next year in a capacity we've never had the ability to provide before. Um, we are voting on our budget next week, which everyone is welcome to come and see each line item individually, but just to give a few like cute things, few key things that we're working on. Um, we have specifically increased funding for PARP for next year in hopes that the PTA can cover the cost of all the incentives each week for children both in fall and in spring. We have increased our scholarships. This year we were able to give two scholarships to graduating eighth graders and two scholarships to graduating East Hampton High School seniors that were Spring School alumni. Um part of that application process to us
026was that we were privy to what the potential expenses of their college education would cost and what we were giving felt like it wouldn't even book. Um so we have quadrupled the cost of those the amount that they'll be receiving in those scholarships. So, high school seniors hopefully will actually have a contribution to their higher education directly from the school they came from. Um, we are also drastically increasing our field trip budget. We've add we are proposing to add an additional $15,500 to that budget. The majority of which will go hopefully towards the eighth grade overnight trip. It was presented to us this year by several parents that that is a really large undertaking for a lot of families. And this past year we were able to contribute about $100 per student, which sounds like
027a lot, but in the grand scheme of the cost of the script really didn't make a dent. So we are proposing next year that we cover roughly $175 per student. So we increase just the eighth grade budget by almost $7,000. Um, and we've also added a full line item for prek for next year now that they have enduring school perview as opposed to scope. We've been trying to increase activations for them each year. This will allow us to provide them with what we consider field trips, but they're not allowed to actually go anywhere. Um, so we will be bringing the field trips to them. So, this covers um enrichments that they don't receive or aren't able to receive from the school itself. So, music classes on a monthly basis, art programming, hopefully things like bringing
028something like goat on a boat to them. Um, we had a Jackson Pollock program this year, so we'll continue to do that hopefully in a much more thorough manner next year. Um, and then aside from our typical activities that we normally do every school year, this past year we will a were able to purchase a kiln for the art department. Um, and there is a bit of funding left for them to purchase supplies for that kiln for next year. So there's a line item the art department next year to keep building on that program. Um, we were able to contribute to replacing the milk fridge that um, we were able to plant a garden in the courtyard thanks to a grant that we obtained from a group called Rewild. Thanks to Hermit for all of
029his help with that and helping us plant a very, very heavy tree. Um we um in addition to the stuff I mentioned for prek next year, we're also hoping to contribute to small things that get them very excited like our community helpers program where we have the fire department, the police department, um just local community helpers come explain who they are, what they do, how they help our community. Um we also were able to do things like bringing them yoga classes and tennis clinics. So we're going to continue to keep doing all of that. In addition to that, we are adding or proposing to add two what I consider large items to our lineup for next year. One is going to be um custom paving stone fundraiser which was actually one of the obviously brilliant
030ideas from Megan Payne before she passed where people have the opportunity to purchase a custom engraved paving stone that will end up making a walking path from one courtyard door through the garden to the other courtyard door. So, we're hoping to launch that in September. Um, and then also bringing a program to our community. We are sort of debating between two. One is called the Grit Ninja program, which both Mach School and John Marshall already bring to their school. It's an outdoor physical engagement program for children completely at no cost. Um, families are welcome as well. And the other one that we are working with is trying to get the Long Island Ruff Riders to come out here and do a soccer exhibit and something interactive. Um, soccer seems like quite a popular activity for
031our community and we're hoping that that will help us engage a broader scope of community members than who we see at normal activities. Um, just as a side note for everyone, voting to approve our budget will happen at our last meeting, which is next week on the 17th in this room at 6:30. Please come. In order to vote, you need to be a currently registered member of the PTA. If you're not sure if you're registered or not, you can just go on to the Giveback website and enter your name. If you're already registered, it won't allow you to put anything new in your cart, so to speak. So, you can check that way. At that meeting, we're also voting for our new board for next year. Um, I will be staying on as president. Caroline
032Cromer will be staying on as treasur, and Liam Molter will be staying on as one of two secretaries. Nominations are open if anyone would like to join us as co-president, vice president, or as our second secretary. At a bare minimum, we have the three positions we need in order to maintain our 501c3 status and recognition with the state. So, the PTA will continue to exist regardless of what other nominations we receive. Nominations are due by this Friday, the 13th. Please email them to the general PTA email address and come vote. In order to vote for board members, you also need to be a registered and paid up on your due as member of PTA. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much. Sound like great ideas, too. Can't wait to see what transpires next
033year. Um, thank you again. We're going to move to our superintendence report and recommendations now. Uh, we have a number of recognitions as well as our u report on our district goals which is a a very important board objective. uh that using the information from uh tonight's feedback will help us set new district goals for next year. Uh and I think it's important that we we recap on progress that we've made and opportunities to learn so that we have informed decisions uh as the board takes a role in in helping decide what uh is important to the school and and to be able to specifically define that. So we we create a roadmap for administration through to our our staff to to follow and achieve. So with that said, uh I ask for a motion
034to approve items 7.1 to 7.7 under the superintendent report and recommendations. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? All right. Thank you. Nancy, can you please review these items for us? Yes. Um before I begin, I do just want to thank Danielle and the PTA. I am really in awe. I've been uh in education for a long time and this PTA contributes so much to this district, to our students, to our staff, to the community. I just want to give you a round of applause. And I just want to begin u first we do have a retiree. She's not able to be here this year, but I just want to mention her name. Uh her name is Mary and Flarity and she has been our head bus driver for over a decade
035and uh she will be retiring. We did do have flowers and a proclamation for her which I will bring her tomorrow morning but I just want to uh thank her for her dedication and her to the district and her ser service to all of our students. So uh thank you Marian Clarity. And then at this point this is one of my favorite things to do as a superintendent. Um, I get to observe those teachers and staff members, teaching assistants that are up for tenure. And that's after three or four long years of service to the district, proving themselves, being observed, uh, being given evaluations, uh, being mentored, uh, being given guidance, uh, to become highly qualified educators. and we have three of them tonight that I'm very honored to be uh presenting uh flowers to
036and to be uh asking the board to approve their tenure. So, the first one is going to be Morgan B. Morgan is receiving tenure in visual arts and um I must say it was just absolutely a pleasure to be in your class and observe you as I'm sure the other administrators will agree. Thank you. We welcome you. Okay, our next employee is Morgan Man and Morgan Man is being uh given tenure in physical education and health and I must say it was really a beautiful really special um time for me to observe her lesson. It was so well done and so professional and it was an honor to be in your class, Morgan. And the last I did have the flowers be blue and white, Matt. But I must say um Matt is being given
037a tenure as a teaching assistant in this district. He's here I come here early in the morning. Matt is always here. He's here late in the afternoon. Not only does he uh provide very special service to some of our students with special needs. He goes above and beyond. And he's here early morning meeting our students before school even starts. He's he coaches. He is involved at chaperoning and sports event. He is such a dedicated employee and it is truly my honor that Matt is receiving. So congratulations. Yeah, thank you. We're fortunate to have you all here and we really look forward to uh working with you for many years. Okay. So, we also have a couple of appointments. Um we are appointing Dean Marie Mazataro as a special education teacher. Uh she was a leave
038replacement replacing um an employee that is no longer here. Uh she did an incredible job. We received really good reviews about her and we're very happy she's going to continue working here. The next appointment we have is for custodial worker one who is also replacing somebody that retired and very uh we're very glad that he is a local community member that lives close by. Um he comes with really great credentials. So, we're fortunate to welcome him to the Springs community as well. And then at time, we just want to go over some of our district goals. Uh the board has asked us to we the board and the former administration created district goals back in 2022 2023. Those are the goals that we've been working on. And the board asked us to give an update
039on where we are with those those goals, what we may need to update things, if we've been successful, and we move on to new goals. So, Mr. Pel and I are going to tag team and uh present those goals based on different aspects of our school operation. So, uh we can go here. The first goal that the board of education um had to the district was to increase social, emotional, behavioral, mental and physical health in the district. And Mr. Chel is just going to discuss that for a little bit where we are and where we may need to go. Thank you, Nancy. And so this goal obviously was was set like Nancy said in the time frame of the 2022 23 school year. The the return from COVID as a administrator through through that transition
040it it was a a very intense and and specific time that had to be very well planned out. And while social, emotional, behavioral, mental, and physical health are all extremely important to us today, it was even more so then. And so some of the these goals that you'll see or part of these goals are a little bit out of date. But it doesn't mean that what we're going to be adjusting or working to moving forward won't align specifically to this goal or to the overall general theme of the goal. what we do have already in place for our students. We have multiple programs and if you want to forward to the next one. So we do have DARE, we have SecondStep, Banana Splits, we have a mentor program where our students are somewhat buddied up
041with an educator in the school who checks in on them, supports them, is their biggest cheerleader. We have guided social work. We have school psychologists. We do multiple inschool presentations whether it's from teachers, administrators. We have a really great one coming up on June 16th. Jared Campbell, he'll be here who we'll be making songs, encouraging our kids, and uh really just bringing the community together and and celebrating positive um behaviors, etc. We do um at this point throughout the year we we've gotten here now over the summer as we finish up we're going to go back to analyze the programs that we have see what's working how can we improve what we are currently having uh what we currently have in place and then how um we can make adjustments along the way as well.
042We we had a communications committee meeting today, but we also have all these other great committees on um or within the school and with the board of education, but we do have a wellness committee. It would be great to sort of lean on them to try to hone in on that goal. And then throughout the next school year, there's a clear path for that committee to work towards and to make sure we're hitting all of our social, emotional, and physical needs of our students and staff. Okay. So, um, goal two is, uh, to improve governance and communication. And as you can see, this is really about, uh, working as a district. And this is something very important to me to look at how, uh, we communicate within the district. I think it's been something that
043has been brought to our attention that we need more of. Uh we need better communication with our staff, with our community, and it's an ongoing goal and something I think when we start working on these as a board that we're going to continue. It's not something that we've uh actually reached yet, but something that we have to keep working on. And one of the things we've been doing this year is just we have a very new administration. So, we're looking on figuring out a chain of command so that people know who to go to with different issues and problems. Um, I I'm I'm trying really hard not to uh not not not to uh you know to let other people solve problems and not just to try to deal with things by myself. It's an
044issue I have uh sometimes. But anyway, we're working really hard to establish those chains of commands so people know who to go to. it's teaching and working in a school district, whatever department it is, whether it's transportation, whether it's uh you know, whether it's the facilities department, whether it's teaching assistance, whether it's teachers. Um it's a lot of work and there are daily things that happen that people need support with and we want to give people a clear idea of where they need to go and who they need to talk to when they need to support. It's it's very very important as well as parents. Um, and it's very important for parents to know who to call when they have a concern or an issue. And one of the things, one of our goals, uh,
045going forward that is a goal here, but that we really are continuing uh, to work on now and hope to have in place at the start of the school year is having a parent handbook, having a staff handbook. Uh we hope to have a parent handbook by open house so parents know exactly in that what is the code of conduct who do they call if they have an issue whether it's with registration if they have an issue with transportation who should they call because it can be very confusing when you call the school and you you have all different directories and places of where you're supposed to go. So we're trying to make it clearer so that uh we think it's very important uh it's an issue that has come up that it's frustrating sometimes
046uh for parents uh not knowing how to contact people and the same with staff. We want our staff to have a handbook so that they know all the proper procedures to put in place whether it's for time sheets uh end of year different things all those things that there's a lot of forms there's a lot of paperwork when it comes to teaching when are assessments due for students uh curriculum lesson planning all the expectations that we have for staff within the district we want in a h in a handbook so that it's very clear and it's something both uh Mr. health and our other administrators along with myself and teachers are working on together. Um always wanting to increase community outreach. Uh we have started uh doing a little bit I we did do a
047presentation at the Springs Community Advisory Committee this year for the budget presentation. It was very wellreceived and we want to do more of that. I think it's really important getting out to they appreciate it so much. Just getting out to the community letting them know what's going on here. We so appreciate the support of this community for this school district. It's important they know what we're doing and that their tax dollars are being well spent and that they're really supporting the students and the programs that we have here at at Spring School. And we do have board committees. One of the things we need to work on is having more specific goals for those committees and making sure that uh you know sometimes less is more and having the committees have a specific goal in
048place that we can really measure and see if we were able to reach that goal through the end of the year. So those are the things that we are working on in governance and communication. Um this is one of the areas uh that we do need continual improvement on. Mr. Okay. Um Oh, that was cool, too. Oh, that's what I just said. Yeah. Oh, this is me. Okay. So, this is an area I think we've actually accomplished uh quite a bit this year. And this is engage in uh strategic planning for fiscal responsibilities and facilities. Uh we've worked in collaboration uh with the buildings and grass committee this year on really looking at what projects needed to be done to maintain our building. Something very important making sure the inner workings of the building, the
049boiler systems, the heating, the air conditioning, all those things are working. They're being maintain maintained that we have proper contracts in place whether it's with our groundskeepers outside all the es especially maintaining as anyone knows that has a home it's really important to maintain the building to maintain the inner workings so that it doesn't cost you more in the long run. So we've worked very hard on that. Also, the buildings and grounds team did a walkthrough looking at all different projects that needed to be uh worked on based on what is allowable through our repair reserve fund. There's very specific things. Uh you can go to the next slide um that are involved with that. Um the repair reserve fund can be used for anything that's decayed, deteriorated, weathered, broken, torn, or inoperable. and we
050walked around as a committee, looked at the different things that we can do, and we've accomplished, I think, a great deal of work this year from replacing lockers, the bus loop, uh getting all the dead trees out, uh outside, even the library here, all new shades with all the blinds that were broken throughout the building, all the asbestos. We've already removed a lot of asbestos and redid redid tile uh this summer. The rest of the asbestos in the building is being remediated and new tile uh put down. So that will be the end of the asbestos in the building. Uh we're very happy for that and I think uh a lot of thanks to the buildings and grants committee and the board of education for supporting the work that we've done. Also very fortunately on
051at the budget vote in May, the vote is approved to create a new repair reserve fund which is going to enable us over all all the years ahead uh to put money in that repair reserve so that we have a savings account for when things do go wrong with the building we're able to repair them with no additional cost to the taxpayers. Um there this is an old building. It's a beautiful building and it's very important for us to maintain it and have a nice environment um for our staff, for our students. So, we really appreciate uh the community for approving that and we appreciate the board for all their support. Um the other area with uh business uh we were charged really in a goal from going back a couple years, we had a
052lot of turnover in the business department previously. So there was a lot there were a lot of things that really needed to be streamlined and updated and improved upon. The district was susceptible to fiscal distress in prior years and we've been able to get out of that. Uh we are no longer designated in fiscal distress. We've put in a lot of new systems. Thanks to our shared service with East Hampton to our district treasurer for working together. We've been able to streamline the budget um and really get the budget under control. We've been very fiscally responsible. We're ending up with a nice a good solid fund balance this year so that we will no longer be in fiscal distress. And the most important thing and that we want to do is make sure that we
053don't have ups and downs over the year and that we have a balanced budget so that we can stay within the tax levy limit and um be really responsible to our taxpayers while keeping our programs for our students. So this is an area that we feel like we've been very successful in so far. And uh go four, student achievement. So go four bring student achievement back to pre-COVID levels. I just have to say this quickly. Whenever anyone asks me how springs or how how is it over there when when I'm on shelter or just anyone that that I'm talking to, I always start with um we just have the best students. We absolutely have the best students around. They are just amazing every level. What what I don't say quite enough also is that we
054also have a really really really great staff of dedicated educators. And as you'll see, we we are back and we're actually above the pre-COVID levels. If you go to the next slide, not to say that we don't have growth, and Eric, we were actually talking about this today. There's always going to be academic goals that that we're going to strive for. We're always going to try to get better and better and better. And this is something now where we're putting our school in a really great spot where we're not going to say we're going to have 100% proficient by the end of next year, but we can start creating 3 to five year academic goals to say by the time we get to this level or to this point in time, we are going to
055be at this level. And it it's exciting because the the foundation and the base is there. And as the school is progressing under uh our new administration, we're we're very confident. We're we're just on that like tipping point ready to to take off in a really great direction and I'm very confident in that. As you can see based upon the the precoid the last assessments that we have from the state we were ELA at 50% proficient 44% in terms of math we we jumped to 52% proficient at this point based on last year's data. In ELA 54% in ma math we're right there in math with state average. were above the average in in ELA as you have seen as we've presented before throughout the course of this year as well. And so there a
056lot goes into this. Not only does great teaching every single day in our classrooms occur, but there's other things that we do as a school to get our students to not only to grade level, but those who are already at grade level push them even further. So we do have early morning help session that that's takes place here every day by Miss Macaulay. She comes in zero period which is before school starts. Help students who may need help with extra homework or support with their studies. We have an MTSS program so that all students receive the the education they need at their at their specific level along with AIS for any students who may have not performed as well as they wanted or we wanted on the on the state assessments. We will catch them
057up throughout the course of the year by additional services and targeted interventions. We have a fantastic ENL program where our students not only learn the English language but excel in all academic areas. And then we have our instructional planning. This is this is sort of our next piece that we're we're looking to master as we we progress. So we want to make sure that all of our systems, our educational procedures and process into our line. And the way to do that, Richard Defor puts it very easy. It's basically what do we want students to know or learn? That is our standards. How do we know that they're learning it? That's how we assess them. What do we do if they don't learn? And what do we do if they already learn? So those four simple
058questions are going to be our framework and how we're going to move forward. And in doing so, we're going to start over the summer with curriculum mapping where we're going to take a look at the standards, prioritize the standards, and vertical align. And so through that, we're going to have a clear process, scope and sequences, assessments, and teachers will have a great chance to get a head start on that planning. We've invested in a program called Atlas, where that's an online curriculum mapping program based upon the conversations and the demonstrations that we had and the small time that we were able to play with it. is going to be a great way to house all of our academic materials where I as an educator can go in and look at plans, look at curriculum, look
059at maps from other teachers, as well as progress and update and change throughout the year. So even if a teacher was to retire or leave next year, their plans will be there shared with their teams and with the school. So we could always use that as a basis to move forward and just continue to grow and adjust each year based upon students needs. So we're excited for that. And then we'll just continue to monitor, continue to be responsive to our students needs and not only um bring those up who need it, but also push those who are already mastering the standards to higher levels than they've ever been. So great things to come academically and we'll uh we'll go from there. Yes. So, uh, just moving forward, um, the board and the administration, we're going
060to be meeting over the summer in early fall, uh, as the board has requested to really look at our goals, see where we've been, look at the goals that we want to have as a board. Um, there are many more goals than just, uh, curriculum as well. And one of the things I love about Springs is all the other experiences we provide for our kids. And one of the things we do want to do with this curriculum mapping software is make sure that our kids have experiences K through eight so we know what field trips they get to go on, what they see in the community. So we can look and we want to be sure all of our kids get to go to New York City at sometimes get to see all the nature
061and different uh opportunities they have here on the east end. So all of that is going to be in this software as well. And the nice part about it is any teacher can go online and look and say, "Oh, what did they learn in first grade? What books did they read? What field trips did they go on?" And you could actually look at that to make sure you're building upon it on the next grade. So, it's both vertically and horizontally aligned. And it's really good that it will all be in one place. And you can also look and say, "If our kids didn't do well in this certain standard, where do we teach that standard?" and it automatically shows you where you taught that standard so you can see, oh, we need to strengthen this
062in this grade or this grade. And we think it's going to be a really great tool for our teachers. And it's something that we're excited to do um to look for a well-rounded education for our kids to make sure they don't go to the same place every year if they're going on a field trip. Um, and to make sure that all of our kids get a broad range of experiences, that they're being challenged academically, that we're providing them with proper instruction to be successful, and also providing them with the special special experiences that only happen here at spring school. So, um, this is just, uh, the board goals are going to be determined as we work, uh, during the summer and and the fall. And it's just, you know, here that we do want a
063road map. Um, and we want a roadmap for where we're going so that we can really be constantly assessing how we're doing and making sure that we're in constantly improving for our students and for the community. Well, thank you both so much for this. It's uh it's something we've needed for a while. This readout, I know personally it was really helpful to me. I I think it's something that the parents and community it's you know if you set goals uh in the beginning it can help form your roadmap but unless we have a readout like this at the end we don't really know where the destination was and and did we stop short along the way or uh you know how do we define success for our school and how are we allocating our resources
064and what meaningful outcomes are we getting. uh this was tremendously helpful to me and I think it's going to inform you know goals are something that you realize them you refine them they're recurring you know they they happen in different forms and I can see now that some of these goals like we might have had a stopping point on but you know there's more work to be done but we've we have some measured progress now both qualitatively and quantitatively and it's just going to inform us as to what we need to do moving forward so I know for one that I appreciate this very much and uh I'm looking forward to refining them and creating some new ones probably you know in late summer early fall uh that we can that we can measure ourselves
065against and also keep the parents informed in terms of I think this has come up over the last couple of years you know how do we know the goals we realize are informing the community as to a point of view and seeing how financial resources are being dispersed in the school and what successes we have sometimes you have a program, you know, it's successful, but this is also giving us a a place to inform ourselves where our program's currently working. You know, is a tradition uh just kept because it's been something we're used to or is it working? And it's forcing us to evaluate and make decisions and uh like Mr. Kel said that we're we're starting to get an enablement to create a a multi-year academic plan uh so that we become less reactive
066and more proactive. So, uh, this was fantastic. Do the board members have any comments or questions on what was presented or show? Yeah. Thank you. Just want to end with um our reorg meeting if it's okay with the board would be July 8th, uh, which is the second Tuesday in July. Yeah. Which we'll post and then we'll create our board meetings for the following year. Wonderful. All right. So, well, let's make the, uh, appointments of and tenur official tonight. Uh, do I have a motion? All those in favor of approving 71 through 77. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Congratulations to our creator. And thank you again for that outstanding report. At this time, we'll move to our final public comment. Uh this is can be anything uh that was
067not on the agenda tonight. Is there anyone LTV or present tonight that would like to approach the podium for our final public comment? Any takers online? LTV, we have no callers on the line. Can you turn on the TV? It should be coming out of this. Okay. Yeah, we have no callers on the line. It seems to be good out there. Okay. I'm texting. We got the Okay. No, that was before. Are they might not be there? Should be. I think I reboarded them over here. Well, it looks like we uh don't have any takers for final public comment. So, at this time, I'm going to make a motion to adjourn our meeting tonight. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? We have We have no call. In favor? I. Any opposed?
068No. Motion carries. Meeting adjourn. Thank you everyone very much.