001That's going to They're going to take with them that they will never forget. So, we are going to start our night by congratulating Aiden Anthony. >> [applause] >> Hello everyone. Uh my name is Aiden Anthony and I will be attending the Lehigh Honors College where I'll be pursuing a dual major in both finance and mechanical engineering. One pivotal experience I will always keep with me is the dynamic of my period one AP Lang class. Our teacher, Mr. Diamond's warm attitude was welcoming and it made me feel like the class was just a group of friends having a great discussion. Our days of sentence diagramming taught me what really random English terms, like what a gerund is. But most of all, I think that class made me realize my broader potential in subjects I may have
002previously struggled with. Mr. Diamond's unique teaching style showed me that with a new perspective, you can succeed at anything. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thanks, Aiden. And next we have Hibba Basit. >> [applause] >> Okay, Hibba's not here, but we appreciate it and we will definitely recognize her in school tomorrow. Next we have Benjamin Courtney. >> [applause] >> My name is Ben Courtney. I'm currently undecided, but I intend on studying finance and computer science next year. I think that my favorite memory throughout Suffern High School was having the opportunity to compete in DECA and go up to Rochester with all my best friends. Being able to meet so many people, compete, and win with them was really exciting and really exhilarating and it's motivated me to pursue a career in business. I'm grateful for all
003of them. Thank you, guys. >> [applause] >> And next we have Fionnuala Courtney. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Finn Courtney and I'll be attending the University of Delaware Honors College and I'm majoring in biology. Um my favorite memory at SHS SHS is being a part of the class of 2026 club club and planning events like junior prom. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And next we have Liam Courtney. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Liam Courtney. I'm not as cool as my sister. I'm still undecided for college. Um I plan on studying economics or finance. And my favorite memory about Suffern was probably playing volleyball. I played soccer for like 8 years, but my freshman year I decided to switch and it was probably the best decision I could have made. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And
004now we have Molly Courtney. >> [applause] >> I'm the last Courtney. >> [laughter] >> Um Hi, my name is Molly Courtney. I'll be attending Connecticut College and I'll be majoring in English. And my favorite memory was participating in the district tour for the spring musical and getting to spread Suffern music throughout the elementary schools and just getting to inspire all the kids. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And next we have Molly Dicker. >> [laughter] >> Hi, my name is Molly Dicker. I'm going to be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst and I am majoring in accounting. My favorite memory from Suffern High School was my sophomore and senior year interior design classes with Miss Schonfeld. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And now we have Ariana Edmond. >> [applause] >> Um hello everybody. I'm Ariana Edmond
005and I will be attending George Washington University in DC for biology. Um and my favorite memory I would say at Suffern High School would be my French class. Um me and my French class have been there for 4 years with the same teacher, so I feel like we've made a lot of memories and formed a lot of friendships together. >> [applause] >> Good job. And now we have Alexandra Friedman. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Alexandra Friedman. I'm going to be studying nursing at the University of South Carolina Honors College and one of my favorite things about Suffern is honestly the teachers. They were always supportive. One of my most supportive teachers was Mr. Johnson in AP Chemistry. I had him for 2 years and I honestly made my best friends
006in that class. >> [applause] >> Do you next slide? There we go. And now we'd like to recognize Goldie Glauber. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Goldie Glauber. I will be attending Villanova University with a major in neuroscience on a pre-medicine track. And something I loved about my time here at Suffern High School was the STIR class and all the memories I've made there with my friends. >> [applause] >> Now we have Morgan Grabensky. >> [applause] >> We'll recognize Morgan tomorrow. Next is Kieran Guerrero. >> [applause] >> Hi, good evening everyone. My name is Kieran Guerrero. Um in the fall I'll be attending the University of Pennsylvania studying romance language. I'm going to do a dual dual romance language major in French and Spanish. And one memory from Suffern High School that I will
007cherish is the extracurricular program and the ways that allowed me to involve myself in my community in so many ways and also make a lot of connections AND FRIENDS, SO. >> [applause and cheering] >> NOW WE'D LIKE TO RECOGNIZE DANIEL HODGE. >> [laughter] >> HELLO EVERYONE. I'm Dan Hodge and I'm currently undecided, but I plan to study nursing in college next year. One of my favorite high school memory is is winning our first county championship on the swim team. Uh led by our captain Ben Courtney, of course. Um So, for those who have swam before, they know it's not such an easy sport. It's actually very difficult and very straining for a a long long season. But being able to improve throughout my sophomore and junior year seasons leading to me contributing to the eventual
008county championship win is something that I'll always cherish. >> [applause] >> And next we have Sarah Joseph. >> [cheering] >> Hi everyone. My name is Sarah Joseph. I am not undecided where I will be attending, but I'm between UC Berkeley and Cornell University where I plan to study computer science. One of the experiences I challenge I treasure the most from Suffern High School is the opportunity to participate in our science research program known as STIR. Through this program, I got the opportunity to author my own research paper exploring the use of AI within our district. I had the chance to gather perspectives from both high school and middle school teachers and students. And this helped me understand the impact of AI in our school district. I got to use this to make informed decisions about
009its usage. I'm especially grateful for the guidance from Ms. Webber and Ms. Minnick, and I wouldn't be able to do it without their guidance. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next slide, please. Uh Dylan Kaplan, I believe he's still on the field uh playing baseball. So, uh we will I'll recognize him tomorrow. All right. And next we have uh Samantha Kaplan. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Hi, I'm Samantha Kaplan, and next year I'll be attending the University of Maryland, and I'm currently undecided about my major. Um one of the memories I'll always cherish from Suffern High School is being a part of the Class of 26 Club and planning events like prom and decorating our spirit hallway every year. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And next we have Siddharth Krishnan. >> [applause] >> I believe he's
010on the tennis court. I told you, our students are highly involved. So, >> [laughter] >> okay. And next we have Jiho Lee. >> [applause] >> Uh we will recognize her tomorrow. We now like to recognize Ivan Lee. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you. Hi, I'm Ivan. Um I will be attending the University of Michigan next year, where I will be studying philosophy, politics, and economics with a minor in applied mathematics on a pre-law track. Um my favorite memory of Suffern High School would be um joining the swim team. The swim team has given me my closest friends, Ben, Dan, Lincoln, Aiden, um and like it has helped me like learn to push through the perseverance and put persevere through hard times. Thank you. >> [applause] >> And next we have Ethan Lin. >> [applause and
011cheering] >> Hello, everyone. My name is Ethan Lin, and next year I'm going to be attending New York University for uh electrical engineering. Um and the one memory that I and one person that I'll miss forever in this school is uh Mr. Quinn for being the one teacher that I could always joke around WITH IN CLASS. >> [applause] >> AND NEXT WE HAVE ISABELLA LUNA. >> [cheering] [applause] >> HI, EVERYONE. Good afternoon. Um first off, I would like to say my name. My name is Isabella Luna. Um I would like to like to thank God that I'm here, and also next year I will be going to Ramapo College. I will be studying um music education. And one thing that I will cherish most is my relationship with my teachers because I have always been
012able to account with them. And like if I when I need extra help, just ask them questions. I've always felt comfortable with them, and each each teacher has their own personality, which I like. So, that's Yeah, that's it. >> [applause] >> Next we have Ayushi Mehrotra. >> [cheering and applause] >> Hi, my name is Ayushi. I will be attending Princeton University next year. Guys. Um and I'll be studying computer science. Um one thing that I'll always remember from Suffern High School is my friends and also my experience with my teachers, who have always supported me and encouraged me to beyond academics and grades um encouraged me to believe in what I believe in and stay passionate. Thank you. Next we'd like to recognize Liam Oloff. >> [applause] >> Uh hi everybody. My name is Liam
013Oloff. Uh I'm undecided on where I'm going to college, but I intend to take a pre-law track. Um my favorite high school memory comes from this year playing tennis. Uh we played against Harrison High School. It was one of my toughest match, but uh once I won, everybody came and rushed the court. Um we we won the match, and it was truly an exciting moment for me and the entire team. Thank you. >> [cheering] >> Thank you, Liam. And now we have Annette Merkin. >> [applause] >> Um hi, my name is Annette Merkin. I'm going to Siena Honors um University for um a combined BS/DO program. And one of the things that I'll forever cherish during my time at Suffern High School is the Suffern music department. I definitely think the Suffern musical music department's
014been like my second home throughout my four years at Suffern High School. Whether it's been um throughout musicals or various concerts with people I've known for all four years, I'll definitely remember um the Suffern music department as being so important to the person I am today. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thanks, Annette. And now we have Mika Pate. Right. Hello, I am Mika Pate, and um I will be um at the University of Virginia next year studying architecture and possibly also dual majoring in aerospace engineering. And um >> [laughter] >> and something that I will always cherish about um Suffern High School like Annette is the Suffern music department and um Mr. McCarter. Mr. McCarter has been an amazing teacher for all four years, and I almost actually stopped playing violin after my freshman year,
015and Mr. McCarter convinced me to continue playing, and that was the best decision that I probably ever made. Um I did pit orchestra for the first time this year, and it was an incredible experience, and I honestly wish I did it like more times in my high school experience, but um yeah, I also do chamber, and yeah, it's such an amazing experience to be able to be part of the Suffern MUSIC DEPARTMENT. YES. >> [cheering] [applause] >> MAX PERLMAN. I BELIEVE HE'S also on the baseball field right now. All right. Lacrosse. Sorry. Yes. Do we have score updates for baseball and lacrosse right now? No. Okay, we'll get back to that. All right. Okay, next we have Matthew Posner. >> [applause] [snorts] >> Uh hello, everyone. My name is Matthew Posner. Uh I will be
016attending the Indiana University Bloomington Kelley School of Business and studying uh business intelligence and data science. Uh my favorite memory uh throughout Suffern High School was my relationship that I've built with two of my teachers, Mr. Lofberg and Mr. Schwartz, who throughout my high school career, through tough times, through good times, have always been there to chat with me and help me through any time that I need support. >> [applause] >> Thank you. >> [cheering] >> Uh so, I do see a couple of our baseball players. How'd you guys do? Yeah. All right, there we go. All right. There we go. So, I'm going to back up a little bit. Uh Dylan, we did say your name, so we just love to invite you to come up to tell us a little bit about where
017you're heading to school. And to keep going back. Give us a second. Okay. One more. There we go. Hello. Um my name is Dylan Kaplan. Uh next year I am uh attending the University of Wisconsin. I'll be studying finance in the business school. I just want to thank my parents for pushing me to do to do my best at all all times, and my whole family. And thank you. >> [applause] >> Great job. All right, we're going to move forward again. One second. Are we there? Yes. >> [applause] >> Okay, next we have Lincoln Prusadelli. >> [applause] >> Hello, everyone. I'm Lincoln Prusadelli. I'm currently undecided for where I'll be attending in the fall, but I'm planning on majoring in business administration with concentrations in finance and communications. And I'm also planning on minoring in
018nuclear engineering and industrial systems and design engineering. Well, what I'm going to cherish most about Suffern High School are all the extracurricular experiences. Uh I've learned a lot. Like it gave me opportunities to grow as a leader, uh learn business, which is ended up motivating me to pursue this degree, and also just build amazing friendships, many of which uh with people that are here, and I'm super grateful for all of it. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And next we have Shaya Brazell. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Shaya Brazell. I will be attending Boston University, and I will be studying biology on a pre-med track. And one thing I will never forget about Suffern High School would be my 10th grade AP Seminar class and the connection that I made with Ms. Minnick and
019all the advice that she's given me throughout my high school career. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Next we have Sarah Abenavitz. >> [applause] >> Also playing in the chamber orchestra tonight. Hi, my name is Sarah Abenavitz, and I will be attending Purdue University's Honors College, and I will be studying political science. One thing I will cherish about Suffern High School is Mr. McCarter and the entire Suffern music department. Mr. McCarter's kindness, support, and dedication to his students has truly changed the trajectory of my high school experience in a way that I could not be more grateful for. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Now we have Jacob Santiago. >> [applause] >> Hi, good evening. My name is Jacob Santiago. I will be attending Purdue next year um studying engineering, and I would say my
020favorite um Suffern um memory would be joining the student advisory council run with Dr. Adler, and we basically um just looked and listened to what students around the school had to say, and then try to make an impact within our administration to make a change and make a difference. And I'm truly thankful for Suffern High School's support through my four years, and I'm truly grateful for it. Thank you. >> [applause] >> And now we have James Shoudy. Thank you. Hi, my name is James Shoudy, and I'll be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst Honors College for mechanical engineering. Um and my favorite memory from high school is my first ever spirit week, um especially the day with like the the bouncy castles and the popcorn. I just remember walking outside and getting to hang out
021with all my friends like Liam, Dylan, everyone here. It was just awesome. You wouldn't think high schoolers still like bouncy castles, but they're obsessed with it. It's amazing. So you should stop by next year's spirit week. All right. And next we have Brody Seltzer. >> [applause] >> We will uh recognize Brody tomorrow in school. And now we'd like to recognize Katherine Smith. >> [cheering and applause] >> HI, I'M KATIE SMITH, AND I'M currently undecided in both my college and major, but one of my best experiences in Suffern High School is probably the Themes program, where you take three um AP classes, which is literature, European history, and art history. And the class is very small, and it's really become a tight and close community, and it's also the classes helped me become more of an
022informed citizen. So I'm really grateful for it. >> [applause] >> Next we have Aaron Sparrow. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Hi, my name is Aaron Sparrow, and I'm going to um going to be attending uh Seton Hall University studying physics and math. And I'll always remember all the various orchestras that I've been a part of, um and experiencing all a lot of new uh new and interesting music. Um I'll also remember learning physics with Mr. Balerine. Uh he made physics really engaging and fun. It's really uh shaped the trajectory um of my science path over high school. >> [applause] >> Next we have Alexis Weinstein. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Hello, my name is Alexis Weinstein. For college, I'm deciding between the University of Michigan and Cornell University, where I'll be studying economics. For me, I
023it's hard to pick just one experience in Suffern that I'll remember, but rather I will cherish all the different opportunities like the steer program, DECA, teachers that go above and beyond, and even our vibrant spirit day. All these things will be irreplaceable that I will never forget. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Now we'd like to recognize, excuse me, one second. We'd like to recognize Grace Wilson Cahill. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you. Um Hi, my name is Grace Wilson Cahill, and I'm I'm currently both undecided in both my school and my major, but um the thing I cherish most about Suffern is all the connections I have made with my teachers over the past four years. Um they've been beyond supportive whenever I was stressed out, needed help, or just wanted someone to talk to
024to help navigate the pressures of school. Um and they all um helped me grow into the person I am today and helped me find more confidence in my personality. Um and like more specifically, even though there's so many teachers I would like to thank, um I just want to specifically thank Ms. Minnick, Ms. Blyde, Ms. Ferro, Ms. Cleary, Mr. Schwartz, Ms. Crespo, Ms. Mr. McCarter, and um so many more teachers for always being there for me and being my support system, and I'll never forget them, and I'll miss all of them. >> [applause] >> Next we'd like to recognize AARON G. >> [applause] >> HI, MY NAME'S AARON. UM IN THE FALL, I will be studying at Dartmouth College studying economics and finance. Uh one thing I will cherish most about Suffern High School is
025definitely going to be the everyday moments with the people around me, whether it was just laughing with friends in the hallways or just the small simple moments that made everyday feel familiar. It was always those small moments that ended up meaning the most. >> [applause] >> Thanks. We'd like to now recognize Joy Yin. >> [applause and cheering] >> Okay. We will She's at Yale right now. Okay, I guess we'll take that as an excuse. >> [laughter] >> We will celebrate her tomorrow. Okay, and finally we have Isabella Zhang. >> [screaming] >> Hi, my name's Isabella, and I'll be attending University of Rochester studying mathematics. Um my favorite moments in Suffern High School was in the musicals and the talented people I met throughout my high school career. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. So
026you saw what I meant. We had members of the uh chamber orchestra, baseball team, all over and all walks of life come in. I also heard another theme, which is just the the deep gratitude for teachers who made our students who they are today. So uh if you're a teacher at Suffern High, please stand up. I believe we have Mr. McCarter, Mr. Kaplan. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> Um So again, we want to we want to thank our amazing teachers. Um thank you, families, once again again for all your sacrifices, for being such a support, um and every time we recognize our students, um part of the credit goes to you and all the work you do at home. Um so at this point, uh Dr. Gunneson, um we are concluding our top
02710%. If you want to say a few last remarks, and then um we'll move on. Thank you, everyone. Thanks for coming tonight. >> [applause] >> Once again, a huge round of applause for our top 10% for the year 2026. I appreciate Dr. Adler recognizing, obviously, the sacrifices that that you as parents have made, all the work and dedication that our top 10% students have have had. Uh you recognized our teachers, our Board of Education administrative team, um but really, we need to give a big round of applause, and I'm going to ask Dr. Adler and his team, Ms. Castaldo, Mr. Dr. Douglas, and Ms. Minak, who's not here tonight, just to stand for a round of applause for their leadership. Thank you so much. >> [cheering] [applause] >> All of the great experiences that our
028students have on the athletic fields, in the pools, on stage, the personal connections that they make with teachers and classrooms, both before, during, and after school, and the friendships they form together, are all created after a lot of work with the building leadership creating the environment for those types of things to take place. And I know that they don't get recognized every single day, but I wanted to take that moment to thank them for all their work and dedication in making your experience that much better for being here at Suffern High School. I'd like to thank everybody for coming out this evening. We are going to take a 5-minute break. You are all welcome to stay for a Board of Education meeting. We are going to have some great presentations, capped off by a wonderful
029presentation about our upcoming budget. You're more than welcome to stay, but you don't have to. So, take your few minutes. Enjoy the rest of the evening. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> All right, everyone. If I can ask our board members to make their way back to the table, we will get started momentarily. >> Okay. All right. This is not a fish bowl. Stay with me. I know. I want you to be comfortable. Okay, everyone. We're going to get started with our board meeting in a few minutes. Uh, this meeting is open to the public, so you don't have to leave. You're welcome to stay. We're happy to have you. Um, but you don't have to stay if you don't want to, even though it's really interesting. So, um, you know, whatever you like. Thank you
030again to all of our, um, food service workers who put together this really wonderful event for us tonight. How we doing back there, Shahrukh? Good? Okay. I'm ready to go whenever you're ready. We're live. >> Okay. All right. Good evening, everyone. Uh, welcome back. This is the regular meeting of the Suffern Central School District Board of Education for Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. May the record reflect that all board members are present, uh, except for Ms. Joy Yin, and we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, our first item is the public hearing on the 2025-2026 proposed Code of Conduct. Uh, that is is
031just, um, for this portion of the meeting. Is there anybody who is here to speak specifically to the 2025-2026 proposed Code of Conduct? Okay. Looks like not, so we're going to move on to our student board member report, and Mr. Robbie Schwartz is with us tonight. Good evening, Robbie. Good evening. Hi, my name is Robbie Schwartz, and I'm not actually in the top 10%. But, I'm just I'm here. Thank you. At RP Connor Elementary School, the UPK team, Dr. Dawson, Ms. Burr, and Ms. Cogan, presented at the Transitions Conference on Friday, highlighting how they foster belonging, kindness, and connection in their classrooms. We are proud of their thoughtful work in creating inclusive, supportive environments, and look forward to sharing highlights from the event. RP Connor and Cherry Lane will host their annual community night on
032Tuesday, April 28th, at Suffern High School, beginning at 6:30 p.m. This year's event will celebrate cultures from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Italy, Israel, Brazil, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, and the Philippines. Thank you to the families for their support in making this event possible. At Cherry Lane, the fifth grade math explorers taught the entire Cherry Lane staff how to do a week-long PBL project as part of their initiative to build a growing library of student-created math how-tos. They presented their project at a staff meeting, where they shared their thinking, answered questions, and modeled how the unit could be implemented. A few weeks ago, members of Girl Scout Troop 40201 completed a bronze award project focused on improving pick-up and drop-off procedures at Cherry Lane. After identifying confusion and long lines, the students designed a new traffic
033sign and are finalizing a video to help guide families. Over at Sloatsburg, Sloatsburg Elementary is excited for their PTA-sponsored assembly this Friday with BMX Air. This high-energy BMX assembly pairs jaw-dropping stunts with heart-centered lessons on kindness, anti-bullying, and respect. It is an unforgettable experience that empowers students to embrace a never-quit attitude while building a more supportive school community. The Sloatsburg Band Battle Family and Community Night is on April 30th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Suffern High School. Montebello, among the many things happening in April, this month is Autism Awareness Month. On April 20th, students in fourth grade were visited by representatives from Blue Path Service Dogs, an organization dedicated to providing service dogs for children with autism. During this visit, students had the chance to learn about autism and the importance of accepting and
034embracing others. PBL units are often running at Montebello, and last week, students had multiple visits from community members, including a local fly-fishing couple talking to students about their upcoming trout release, and Sloatsburg Mayor Dusty Mark Bitterman talking to students about another upcoming project. At Suffern Middle School, on Wednesday night, Suffern Middle School will co-host their Multicultural Night with Suffern High School. Held at the high school, the night will be filled with food, music, dancing, and is a great opportunity to meet and mingle with other families in the district. It begins at 6:00 p.m. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, I'm not going to say it three times. Come and watch the sixth graders perform in this hit show on Friday, May 1st at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, May 2nd at 4:00 p.m. Now, the high school. Tomorrow night, the
035Suffern High School and Suffern Middle School French and Latino clubs are hosting a joint Multicultural Night. And continuing with our Honor Society inductions, students will be inducted into the Art Honor Society this Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Mu Alpha Theta, the Math Honor Society, is hosting its induction next Wednesday. On Thursday, April 30th, is the STIR Symposium in the SHS Library at 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 1st, is Decision Day, whether students are heading heading to college, joining the workforce, enlisting in the military, or pursuing other paths. This event recognizes their hard work, growth, and achievements. Seniors are encouraged to wear gear that represents their future plans, and will be celebrated during unit lunch. Thank you. I have select choir, so Okay. Thank you so much, Robbie. Uh, and now, uh, we are going to move on
036to the minutes of the regular meeting of April 7th, 2026. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes? Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Moved. Mrs. Hodge, second? Uh, who was that? Mr. Frazier, thank you. Uh, all in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Uh, now, Superintendent's comments. Thank you very much. I'm going to have a a couple of, uh, brief notes here before I invite Excuse me, invite Dr. Balbuena up, uh, to give her presentation this evening. Uh, but first of all, congratulations to Kim Cleary for receiving a 2026 Outstanding Social Studies Supervisor Leadership Award from the Westchester Lower Hudson Valley Council for Social Studies. >> [applause] >> This is certainly a big deal. The honor recognizes Kim's exceptional dedication, innovative teaching practices, and commitment to fostering
037a deep understanding of social studies among her students. Her work exemplifies the very best in our profession, and her efforts have clearly made a lasting impact on both our high school students, staff, and our community at large. Simply, the work that she has done for the for the Seal of Civic Readiness and the, um, History National Honor Society really takes her influence and spreads it pre-K through 12 in this district. So, that is a very well-deserved award. Um, another staff member who has earned an incredible award this year, um, especially since it's his last year in serving as our hockey coach and one of our school counselors, is Rob Schelly. He was awarded the New York State Hockey Coach of the Year Award. Big congratulations to Coach Schelly. >> [applause] >> Coach Schelly's team not
038only won the state championship, but also one of his players, Sean Tyrell, won the New York State Player of the Year. So, really, I guess for hockey fans, you could call it a hat trick. Uh, Coach of the Year, Player of the Year, state champions, um, just incredible work done by the team. Um, and as a reminder, Sunday, May 17th, will be our fourth annual I can't believe it's the fourth one One Suffern Day and Color Run. The event starts at 10:00 a.m. at Suffern Middle School and showcases the many exciting things in our district, whether it's athletics, arts, music, and high school clubs. And we heard a wide variety of our students this evening in the top 10% really value the wide assortment of activities that we have here for students at Suffern High
039School. So, this is our opportunity to showcase that for our younger, uh, children and their families. And there will, of course, also be outside organizations and businesses there, food trucks, as well as the color run. The event is free and open to our entire community. And then, finally, um, this weekend, the Cherry Laners are putting on their Newsies Jr. presentation. The board may You several weeks ago, we had representatives from Cherry Lane come and just do a great job performing a little sneak peek for us. So, their productions are going to take place Friday evening and during the day on Saturday. You can go to our website to get information about getting tickets for that. And then as Robbie indicated before, the following weekend are some of our middle school productions as well. So, this
040is a very busy time of year as indicated by our two student board members who either are not here or had to give their report and run. Our students are involved in all sorts of activities. I'm not going to conclude my superintendent's report quite yet, but I am going to ask Dr. Balbuena if she can come up to the podium and give her presentation on the status of our multilingual learning program here in the district. >> [applause] >> Dr. Balbuena and her team have really taken this program to incredible heights over the last 5 years. I had the pleasure of joining the Suffern Central School District right along with Dr. Balbuena and I've seen what she brought in as as a new observer to the work that we were doing here at Suffern Central and
041she has truly seen very clear roadway and a pathway to enhancing language learning for all Suffern Central students. And what I really respect and admire about Dr. Balbuena is that she recognizes that a multi-language learning program is not only important for our students who may come in with a greater proficiency in another language. But it's really powerful for our English speaking students and their families. It's offered tremendous value and is now garnering more and more attention from around the region. So, without further ado, I'm going to turn this over to Dr. Balbuena. Thank you for being here this evening. >> [applause] >> Can you hear me now? Yes. Thank you so much for that introduction. I am very honored to present and be able to represent this program and the work that we've done here
042at Suffern Central. So, tonight I'm going to talk to you a little bit about our demographics. I will tell you a little bit about our journey. I do have a few minutes, so I'm going to try to squeeze 5 years in 15 minutes. And then a little bit of our highlights and our next steps. So, currently there are 3,803 students. You know, this is a moving number, but when I did this presentation, that was the number of students at Suffern Central. 27% of those students are English language learners, currently 1,031. Within the last 5 years like Dr. Gundersen shared, we arrived and we had a welcoming of almost double of our English language learners. And what we had to do was think, okay, we have to be very strategic. How are we going to make
043sure that we create programs, that we're innovative, and that we create the best model that's out there at Suffern Central. As we began Oh, I need this clicker to work. Thank you. As we began this journey, I'm going to start sharing some programs, but before I start sharing the programs, I want you to know what these models mean and what I mean by the programs when I share them in the journey. So, programs are guided by New York State regulations. There are specific program models. They all have their own do's and don'ts. They all have their own regulations and audience that they are meant to address, right? And to support. The first model is called transitional bilingual education program. That model, the purpose of the model is to gain English proficiency, but it does not
044have any um commitment to that home language. So, the second model is a one-way dual language program. What that model does is that students it's intended for English language learners. Students will learn English while maintaining and strengthening their home language. So, you already see how each model is building on the other one, right? As research, as society gets to learn more about what the research was saying, what um experiences from other programs, each program became stronger. The third model is a two-way dual language model. And as you see my little target symbol up there and the number one Suffern, that's the model that we wanted to bring and open up at Suffern Central because it truly represents an inclusive model and what we truly stand for here at Suffern. It's an opportunity where all students
045are welcomed and I actually voted twice, I just realized, because it's a true core of students that are native English speakers have an opportunity to become bilingual. Not only students that are native English speakers, but students of third languages. So, right now we have Haitian Creole, we have Ukrainian, we have German, and then that I have recently applied, we have Urdu and one more language with I So, the languages keep growing, right? So, this is an opportunity for multilingualism. It's an inclusive environment and everyone is welcomed. So, with those three program models in mind, now I'm going to share where our students are. So, for our English language learners, we wanted to make sure that our district was in full compliance and really meeting part 154 regulations. And we quickly did that, right Mr. Dr.
046Gundersen? In like 2 years, we were able to go from We're very proud to say that we were able to have K to 12 one-way dual language programs within 3 years. We were in compliance and meeting all the part 154 regulations. If you notice here, where are they now? 45% of all our English language learners are involved in the dual language program. 53% are in the ENL track and that means they're not involved in the program and that's also you'll see a little bit more information about that. It's the amount of sections we could offer. The TBE, while we There's going to be some information where I show you that we phased out a little bit, we still maintain that program because what we want to make sure that we do is that our students
047at the high school level that they do not miss the opportunity to be in AP classes and honors classes and college level classes. So, right now as we've been in this journey, those classes are not offered in Spanish, but the state gives us the permission, right, to call them as transitional bilingual ed programs, but these programs are only offered at the high school level only for that opportunity. So, if this child is in a dual language program, that means that 50% of their day is in English and 50% of the day is in Spanish. Okay? Who are the students that are are in our two-way program? So, we just started this program 2 years ago. I say 2 years ago, but this is our second year. So, it's right now in kindergarten and first grade.
048This is the the demographics of the program and if you noticed, this is a combination of Sloatsburg and RP Connor, both K to 2 schools. All kindergarten students, we have a 50/50, right? So, 50% of the students that are involved in that program are native English and 50% of the students are English language learners, native Spanish. In first grade, we actually have 29 native English and 28 English language learners in the first grade. So, we're very proud of that number, but one point that I want to reiterate is that right now both in both schools, in both grades, we have a wait list. Because as parents [clears throat] are finding out and as they learn more about the success of the program, they want to sign up the students. So, we're very proud of that.
049I also wanted to take a few minutes to also talk about the responsiveness. A lot of this work happens collaboratively with principals, with Hillburn staff, with our teachers, with our coaches. I'm going to talk a bit a little bit about everyone in a few minutes. But we are very responsive to what our community is asking for. This year at RP Connor, we actually started with two one-ways. But because we had seven native English, right? We're very true to the percentage. But we had seven native English families that said we don't care that that's a one-way model. We need you to turn it into a two-way for our students. And then Kelly, who's here tonight, we looked at each other and we said, "Fine. Our one-way just became a two-way." And we have seven all seven
050students with 13 English language learners. So, that is the only class we It's a little off balance, but at the core, we make sure that we keep to this ratio. So, our journey. I'm going to tell you a little bit about our journey. So, as I said, we started 2021 and the goal was to meet compliance. We had a transitional bilingual ed program in two of our classes and we started with a bilingual ed committee. We wanted to research, we wanted to make sure how are we going to launch? A lot of the presentation that I offered to families before they joined the program comes from the information that we actually developed from the committee. What were the principles that we were going to launch our program? What were the non-negotiables? What were we going
051to focus on? What were we going to do each year? 2022-2023, we launched our first one-way program. We were very strategic and intentional. We started in kindergarten, sixth, and ninth grade because we wanted to show to the community that we were committed to this program and it wasn't going away. Then we began the phase out of the elementary TBE. So we wanted to make sure that that program now turned into one-way. A year later we continued the expansion. We landed at K to 12 and we completely phased out the elementary version of the TBE program. Last year we started our first two-way dual language program. We were really happy. We started that at kindergarten in Sloatsburg and then immediately in one year, as you could tell, in both RP Connor and Sloatsburg we have K
052and first grade two-way dual language program. With the promise that next year our both schools K to 2 will have a full K to 2 two-way dual language program. And again, that's in two in in the three years. So that means the commitment to the program continued and every kindergarten that's coming in and we were able to keep our commitment that the program continues. So we're really proud of that. So I want to share a little bit about what were the practices that supported us as we launched this program. At the core, of course, is you all here tonight, the Board of Ed support, our superintendent who in 2024, if you notice, we launched our first program, but what was happening in 2024? The restructuring, right? So when you go to your superintendent and you
053say, "Hey, how about we start this two-way dual language program in the middle of you're also restructuring a whole bunch of schools?" And he says yes, then you know we have some commitment, right? So here we are today. Of course with our ASI support, our building leadership support. Again, we reiterated this is a district K to 12 vision and of course moving forward always with intentionality and research. This is a quick just visual. I can't speak much about it tonight, but we made sure that we based our decisions on national research um and and the next slide I'll talk a little bit about the professional learning that we engaged. We also partnered community and family engagement was very important. Two points, very important points is that our family resource coordinators are key in just sharing
054information, informing our families, but family orientations are key because no one applies to the program without attending an orientation and knowing, having the the the knowledge to say, "This is something that I want for my child." One of the best practices that we have to ensure that the dual language program is successful is the commitment that we have to learning and professional growth. Again, you're going to hear the word research so many times because that's what we do. We read all types of research. We're constantly trying to figure out what the data is saying. We are constantly trying to learn from others and as I'll tell you in a minute, others are trying to learn from us as well. So we have top-notch training for our teachers. We partnered with the Center for Applied Linguistics.
055Currently we're working with the Center for Biliteracy. We also ensure that we have instructional learning walks. So as a team, district staff, principals, our instructional coaches, we get together, we ensure that these practices do not live in just one class or one building. They're consistent throughout the buildings. They're consistent practices and they happen the same in every classroom. So at uh at Let me show you just tell you a little bit about the pictures. So up here, this group went to Nyack Center with our presenters who again they're here. And what we did was we presented because on year one we decided to say, "Why not also learn about stations and how to have data-driven [clears throat] small group instruction?" And our teachers jumped on that journey and they learned and they tried and year
056two we're presenting on a conference with others learning about all the work that we've done. Um the picture below, again, this is the work, right? This is the work of instructional coaches sitting down with the teachers, developing those stations. What are we going to name them? It has to be consistent, right? What what does it look like in each classroom? And the last picture there to the right, we had the main board room full, right? It was full of visitors that came from throughout the Hudson Valley. It was actually 12 school districts, neighboring districts, that came to see our program and actually learn from us and of course give us feedback cuz we opened up our our arms and said, "Tell us what you see and tell us where we could grow as well." But
057we had so much positive feedback and great um feedback that our teachers received. So at the at the core of all of this, we want to foster a culture of risk-taking and vulnerability. Let's just try it, right? You can let's just try it and that's the that's the the culture that we've created with our teachers. So what's next? We're going to continue to strengthen our knowledge about what is biliteracy. It's really important that our community understands that there's a difference between the science of reading for monolingual learners and the science of reading for multilingual learners. And actually New York State just released these briefs and this is the visual that you see there. We immediately, our coaches, we went to the training and joined and trained our literacy specialists, our ENL teachers, our dual language
058teachers. And this is the journey that we will continue next year around what is biliteracy and what does cross-cultural linguistic connections look like. One of the core things that we want to do is make sure that that learning that I just shared that other districts are also learning from us and that we're learning from them, that we don't just have it live in the dual language world, that we also expand it into every classroom because best practices work for all students. So the concept of stations and the concept of MTSS and small group instruction, that's something that we will be now collaborating with a wider audience, right? With a wider team, with a larger team. So our future learning and focus again, those innovative practices, we're going to expand that stations concept that's centered on
059small group instruction and and expand it across all classrooms. We're going to continue to collaborate and this is all work again that I can't I would be remiss if I don't mention that this was collaborative work with our instructional coaches, with our dual language teachers, with our principals, and our team on really how do we leverage our colleagues' strengths? So we have literacy specialists, we have ENL teachers, we have FLES teachers. What role do they play in the science of reading for multilingual learners? And at the core, of course, is always what does the evidence say? What is We're going to gather our evidence, gather our data and of course if, you know, once I present more information I'll be able to present data, but what we have a lot of is a lot of
060testimonials, okay? And we have a surprise parent that just showed up and said, "I want to talk about the program." On my way here I had text messages, I had emails from community members who were saying, "Oh, I heard you're presenting. I want to share my story." And that's that's the that for me is even stronger than any data or number that that we could gather. So we're really proud of that and it actually makes me very emotional that there are so many people that this have impacted their family, their lives. Um I want to make sure that I take some time to thank all our dual language teachers. As I shared with them recently, they are truly the petals that make the beautiful flowers because without the work that they are doing, without the
061work that they have in front of the kids, and there's no way you can move in that trajectory without teachers that you know you're pushing them. Right? If if if we are able to move the work that we just moved in this short amount of time, it's been because we are leaning on each other and really pushing our teachers who move and do everything that they could do with a smile. I also want to make sure that I thank my team here, the two instructional coaches. >> [applause] >> And of course, I think this is the fourth time that I say it, the building principals and our leadership staff, our ASI, and of course our superintendent and you as the board to just really supporting this and really seeing multilingualism as an asset and a
062value for our inclusive community here at Suffern. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much. Dr. Bell Bueno, thank you for for the overview of the program. You're right, I remember when we first started here, I think it was one of the first few days that you and I were were green here at Suffern Central and you shared with me concerns about the district not being in compliance and you are absolutely correct in in very in very quick order, you made sure that we implemented a plan where we would be in compliance and not only were we now in compliance for a few years, but we're thriving as well. And so one one added tidbit that that I just wanted to highlight for the board's edification and the public is that um on April
06330th we are going to be welcoming a distinguished visitor, Alyssa Alvarez. She is the associate commissioner from the New York State Education Department. She's responsible for all of bilingual education in the state and she has seen that Suffern Central is on the map. I heard a lot about the professional learning that's been taking place here and she's going to be visiting a couple of our schools and certainly meeting with you and your team. So I want to thank you for making sure that um you know, that that we're being recognized, that your team is being recognized for the good work that they're doing for all of our students. Thank you so much and thank you for your team. >> [applause] >> If you give me 30 seconds, I'm going to go to the podium because
064Dr. Castellane and I are going to team up to to give the next aspect and presentation of the superintendent comments, which is our budget. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening everyone. This is a different vantage point. This is kind of exciting to be to be up here. We are going to now going to give I'm going to give a brief overview of where we are with regards to our budget workshop and the work that we've been doing admittedly Dr. Castellane and his team along with principals, department chairs have been really working on all the details of the budget development, but I really wanted to frame out the work that we are doing here as a district to ensure that continuing to thrive as a district while being mindful of the very challenging economic situation that
065our communities are in right now and also recognizing that the burden if you will of funding for public education is shifting more and more to the local tax base as opposed what's happened previously, which has been a greater federal and state support for public education. Starting off here on the presentation with some always some beautiful photos, right? Because our work is grounded in those smiling faces, those curious minds, students who are looking to eventually be able to say that they are leaving Suffern Central School District and they are ready for what comes next in the world. And so those photos are always a great reminder and the board knows that whenever I share a a weekly correspondence, I always try to focus on a couple of great photos that reminds us of this is why
066we do this work. And I'm probably going to have a tough time with the clicker as well. So if you can advance to the next slide, that'd be great. The community will remember that about 8 months ago, we finalized our blueprint, our two-year blueprint that will continues continue to have us focusing on what our mission and our vision is for our district. And very briefly, this budget focuses on the work that we've committed to our community. And our mission is to create a student-centered culture that encourages students to become the very best versions of themselves while also contributing to their community. And I think it was evident this evening when we recognized our 10%ers that that is the work that we are doing. And I would argue also that the other 90% of our graduating
067seniors can also identify with this. And of course to do this, we have to make sure that we are leaders in creating a safe, welcoming, supportive, and academically rigorous environment where students achieve personal excellence and inspire one another. Drew, can you advance to the next slide? So the budget again, as I mentioned, connects to that blueprint and the three major priority areas that our district established that goes into all sorts of detail if you go into the website and you look at the blueprint, grounds our work in providing rigorous teaching and learning experiences. We have already started some of that work this year. There are plans for next year and there are ongoing plans that we will never come to completion on because we are always looking to iterate to get better and better in
068this work. We recognize that learning for students needs to take place beyond the classrooms and I keep coming back because it's the voice of our students this evening that kept reminding me of some of their best experiences in school didn't always take place in the classrooms. Took place outside. The more we can create students in that connection to what comes next, the better off our students will be. And then of course, this is something that the board can always resonate with, right? Is operational excellence. How can we get leaner? How can we get more efficient? How can we do more with less for our students and our community? So we are balancing what the community can provide and what our students need. Couple months ago, Dr. Castellane came to the Board of Education and presented
069two scenarios to the board recognizing that because there is less federal and state funding for school districts right now, more of that burden falls upon schools. And so when we were looking at the needs of our school district versus what we are able to afford, Dr. Castellane did express to the Board of Education that there was a gap. We were short with regards to what we could afford for next year based on all the requests and the needs that we had as a school district. So we had to pair that that budget down by I think several hundred thousands of dollars in order to get to what we are legally able to ask our taxpayers. But there were two scenarios that we were able to present to our to our Board of Education and to
070our tax I'm sorry, our taxpayers in the district. The first one was a scenario where the state would allow us to roll out a levy that would increase taxes by 4.05% to our residents. By doing so, it would support the needs of our district. It closed that funding gap that we had talked about. Certainly wouldn't pose a higher overall tax burden compared to our other choice, but the key piece was that it would allow our district to fund our capital reserve accounts by $700,000 and that's to fix roofs, windows, boilers, improve classroom space, do something with with a field here and there. $700,000 would help fund those types of projects. But the Board of Education and Mount Sinai Minds and engagement with our community members will will recall that we've been talking about the need
071to improve our capital infrastructure, our classroom spaces, our athletic fields, our boilers, our roofs, our safety and security infrastructure. We need to make some significant improvements in this district. And so several months ago, the Board of Education met with our architects who really framed out what a needs assessment was for our district. And we are expecting to go out to our constituents this fall with a capital with a capital project that will fund those major components of what we need, infrastructure, safety and security, improving instructional spaces, and improving athletic and co-curricular spaces for our students. So the public can expect to see that being rolled out later this spring and into the early months of the fall. So because we are doing or planning to do that in the fall, the Board of Education decided
072that also asking our taxpayers to fund our capital reserve with an additional $700,000 really wasn't necessary. And so as a result, the Board of Education chose to reduce the tax levy that we are going to be asking our residents to approve and lowering it to a number of a 3.48% tax increase. That would support the needs of the district the same as the higher tax levy would and it would result in a slightly lower overall tax burden that Dr. Castellane will get into in a little bit. But it does not support that capital reserve account. We are hoping and hopeful that our community will support our bond referendum in the fall that will address very strategically the needs of the district. Drew, can you advance to the next slide? So to make it clear, we
073are That's great. You can go right there. We are moving forward with the three four 3.48% tax levy increase and that's what Dr. Castellane is going to focus his conversation on in a few minutes. But to provide you with some overall enhancements of what this proposed budget allows for with regards to our district is reintroducing our wood tech program here at the high school. Something that has been missing and then also working on creating a career and technology pathway for our high school students. We've talked previously about more and more of our students really looking to go into more of a career pathway when it comes to technology, whether that's construction or some related field. And BOCES is really we have too many students who want to engage in the BOCES program. It is a
074cost prohibitive program for us when we have so many students who would like to engage in that program. We are going to be bringing that type of program here to Suffern Central. Our budget allows for that. We are going to be maintaining all AP courses and introducing advanced placement cybersecurity in conjunction with our cybersecurity academy at the high school. This budget allows for an infusion of instructional coaching positions and a STEM special for all students in grades 3 through 5 and the instructional coaching model for students and teachers in K through 5. Dr. Balbuena talked a little bit about her two very valued instructional coaches in the ENL and bilingual world. We recognize the impact that these two individuals have had on teaching and learning in that sphere of influence and now we're expanding it
075out to all teachers next year. So, our budget allows for that. Our budget also allows for an assistant principal district-wide in the K-5 arena, particularly for our two largest, most populous, populated elementary schools, namely Cherry Lane and R.P. Connor, which have a higher population significantly than Sloatsburg and Montebello, surely because of their building capacity and the communities that they serve. So, this individual will be supporting the principals, particularly of those two buildings, but will also have some roles in the other two elementary schools as well. That will allow the principals to focus even more on moving instruction forward in their classrooms. As Dr. Balbuena highlighted before, this budget will allow us to expand our dual language program, to get the two-way dual language program not only to kindergarten and first grade, but next year to
076grade two. With the plan that the following year would be grade three, and so on and so forth. And then finally, this budget allows for broadening our athletic offerings to include something that we're really excited about. This was the first year that we rolled out unified bowling. And unified sports is a program where special education students and regular education students compete together on a team and compete interscholastically with other districts. We had the bowling the unified bowling team was phenomenal this year. It was a great experience for all of our students. Next year, it supports unified basketball, and then also a dedicated coach and program to girls wrestling, which is the fastest growing sport out there right now. So, we are going to be able to really give our girls an official women's wrestling team.
077And then if you can go to the next slide, Shahrukh. Some of the proposed efficiencies that we are going to be sharing with you this evening is we're going to be expanding our focus on residency. Our director of safety and school security is also responsible for checking on residency concerns. Folks that we believe may be sending are sending their children to school in Suffern Central, but may not legally be considered residents or residing in the district. So, we have been um we have been engaging with a third-party provider to highlight families that we believe are of concern, and we hire this organization to investigate those families, and it has resulted in over a dozen families having to remove their children from the Suffern Central schools. To add to that emphasis on ensuring that it's tax-paying
078citizens who send their students here, we are also going to be having all of our incoming ninth graders next year re-register. So, in other words, those families will all have to produce documentation to verify that they truly reside in the Suffern Central School District. Um some additional efficiencies here are going to be a net reduction in the professional staff in the district by three positions. Those of you that remember the restructuring, um we had talked about that the restructuring would have resulted in an excess number of teachers, and so we are continuing to see savings with regards to staffing positions. So, we will have a net decrease of three professional staff positions for next year. Um Dr. Castellane is going to talk about some modifications to the transportation contract, an incredibly expensive endeavor for the
079school district that we believe we are going to be able to to modify a little bit more to produce some efficiencies for us. Um Our technology our chief technology officer um and Dr. MacCahill, our assistant superintendent for instruction, have been working to reduce our instructional software costs, to make sure there are not redundancies, to take some of the software programs that aren't being widely utilized in the district, and seeing if there are other mechanisms that we can use to reduce those costs. And then this upcoming proposed budget also allows for an expects some additional rental revenues throughout the district. Typically, those are BOCES programs that rent space in our district. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Shahrukh, if you want to go to the next slide. I'm going to turn it over to
080Dr. Castellane. I wanted to provide that overview for the community and the board to get a sense of where we are and where we're going and what this budget provides for. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Castellane to talk about the details, something that he excels in, which is the numbers. Dr. Castellane, thank you. Thank you very much. So, again, this slide I was hoping to have a different slide for you with a vote from the New York State government, but unfortunately, they have not solidified their budget, which kind of leads us with the numbers that were presented several months ago. And one of the things I do want to just remind everyone is last year we had a similar situation take place. I know I talked about this before, but it's always
081a good reminder where last year we approved our budget and New York State, after they approved their budget, they took approximately $100,000 away from the Suffern Central School District, right? So, when they did that, I had to meet with uh my team over at central office, and then we had to decide how we were going to make those adjustments. So, that is a reality that does occur even after passing this budget, if we end up with a little bit of a different figure, we have to have those conversations. I do want to point out though, um and I'll get to it in the next slide, once we approve our budget, if the state does come and they do give us additional funds, we are not allowed to spend any more than what the voters approved.
082So, if they end up coming in and giving us $100,000 extra, we simply have to use that towards our fund balance. We're not allowed to put that into our budget. So, I do want to point that out just in case these numbers do come in afterwards. Um I think it's important for everyone on the board and the community to just kind of know those facts. Projected revenues and expenses. So, we walked we walked back after walked back to Hillburn and talked about where we would be able to kind of move some of those expenses. If you remember, our expenses were a little bit higher, and I know Dr. Gundersen talked a little bit about attrition and meeting with certain department heads and certain teams and just kind of seeing where could we decrease a couple
083of things that for next year in order to kind of get that number down. So, if you remember that number was was based you know a couple hundred thousand dollars higher. So, we were able to lower down. As you can see, we took out the transfer to capital, so I do leave that budget line in there because I hope depending on how how how our bond proposal goes, we might have to add that back in. So, I think it's just consistent from year to year to see how that grows. So, budget history. This is a slide that you saw previously. The one exception is I took out option one and I took out option two. So, we ended up going with the 3.48% for the tax levy. That shows what our approved budget versus our
084um versus what our tax base is. And Dr. Gundersen did a great job with talking about years past. And when we look at this, it's a good representation of how were we able to support the budget in those previous three years before having to look for a 2.9% increase and then a 3.48%. Well, that goes back to state and federal funding that was interjected. The federal governments knew that we that times in school districts were changing, we needed greater focus social emotional skills, we needed to add additional personnel to have uh to have smaller instruction in different areas. So, they infused a lot of money. They made foundation aid whole for New York. They they gave us additional COVID funds. So, that's really what kind of supported us. But then we look at the 25
085and 26 school year, and we say, well, why is this falling back on the taxpayers? It's really because the governments have decided, hey, we infused this before. At this point, we're not going to to do that. So, it's going coming back to the taxpayer. So, that's really kind of why you see the first three years all floating around 1.2, 1.1, and then you see last year at 2.94 and this year's recommendation at 3.48. I talked about the assessed value of your house and what that impact would be. It'd be about $7.30. And when I talked about this in a previous presentation, I discussed the pilots how how that how that will affect it, how tax search will affect it, how different exemptions will affect it. So, while we put these numbers out there and all
086the houses are assessed at different values, and just to kind of give you an idea, pulled up a map earlier today as I was walking someone else through through it, there was two houses right next to each other. One house was assessed at 1,300, the other house was assessed at I think it was like 32,500. Those are two houses where if you're driving down the street, you might not realize the difference in the assessed value. One might have several exemptions on it, one might not. And those are all factors outside of the school district's control, right? Those are all things that happen more at the county level, more at the local municipality level, and they might also not have as much control over it, but because we haven't had a true reassessment in the Suffern
087area, those assessment levels are low. And then we can talk about transportation. I discussed [clears throat] this last year where I asked the community to vote to vote on the budget that had a multi-year contract in it. So, after looking at the significant increase that we had last year and the significant increase this year, I think by adding an additional year on and having having it going out for another RFP for a 3-year contract, that would allow the district to really see where we would stand in that third year. It would allow us to prepare. It would allow us to make adjustments. Next year, we would allow us to have those conversations of what positions do we need to fill, what positions do we not need to fill earlier on in the year because we
088would each year because we'd be able to base those numbers as we kind of go through the year. Uh but the bigger piece is as New York State comes out with different waivers, we have this we have a mandate. Obviously, it's an unfunded mandate by New York State to to move towards EV buses. And when you're talking about a $430,000 purchase versus $146,000 purchase, it's going to change your contract. It's going to change your needs a great deal. So, by going out for another RFP, it will allow us to put certain language in not committing to anything, but putting certain language into an EV bus regarding an EV bus that would allow us to apply for these waivers down the road. Otherwise, we would have to do this before the end of this 3-year contract
089anyway. And it would also allow us to gain the actual cost. Our current provider has recently purchased a an EV bus for another district, and that's how I know that it's $430,000 because they are now able to base those the routes and um all the bus routes that we pay for, they're able to kind of break it down, figure it out, and give us a number there. So, I think by having those, it would allow the Board of Ed to make a decision whether hey, I think we would like to move a little bit more into this direction or maybe not. It would also allow the Board of Ed to decide whether they would like to advocate for EV buses or not. So, I think by doing the RFP, it will definitely allow for a
090little bit more data and information for us to make some uh better great decisions moving forward. Additionally, we would modify the age requirement on the bus. Currently, we have our our buses, we limit them to 10 years. I pulled the rest of the districts in the county. There's two other districts that do have an age requirement. One is at 10 years, one and they're moving to 15 years, and then the other one is at 15 years. And the rest of them are not specified. And when I through those discussions, it was really over New York State Department of Transportation has a great oversight when it comes to buses, especially buses that transport our kids. So, when they have to have their buses inspected twice a year, they have to meet a certain DOT rating. All
091these things go through a big process, and that that happens at the at the vendor side, and then we have our transportation office that requires all that information as well. So, we always know that we are going to have the best buses on the road. Um so, just a a couple pieces to point out in this year's budget, it's not a separate proposition that you need to vote for it for the RFP or for the um for a multi-year contract, but we built it into budget lines within within the uh budget. So, we'll have one, two, and three. Um we expect this bid to go out in about a month. Questions? Any board members with any questions? Billy, I want to ask you something. I came across a Excuse me. I came across a uh
092notification from the controller's office in Annapolis that said the school district's tax cap levy remains at 2%. And this was dated January of 20 January 14th of '26. Um yet we're going to 4. Excuse me, 3.48. Right. So, so so the controller is saying yes, I'm setting the tax cap at 2%. When you look at that, that's uh that 2% is simply where where they're starting it. So, he's saying 2%. However, every school district has different factors. So, the controller also has uh their website. We have to enter in uh our tax cap information into there. There's several factors. It's about an eight-step process. Uh so, along with that, we have to enter in the number of pilots that that we have to we have to have the allowable tax um tax growth factor also
093goes in there. So, there's other factors that go in there. There's a factor just for Rockland County. So, when they say that it's 2%, it's more of we're starting it at 2%, but we are not piercing our tax cap. There's a line item in there for capital for exclusions. So, if we were going out for for to if we were moving capital money from the our capital reserve, we'd be allowed to put that in for an exclusion, uh in which case it would raise that money. So, what they're saying is yes, we're setting it at 2%, but every school district has a different tax cap that they can go up to. So, we're still at 2%. No, so our tax >> Yes. Right. So, so the controller the controller has our tax cap once we
094fill it out is at 3.48%. So, if we were going >> we're And we're at the tax cap. We're here. We're not going to be over budget or >> If we want if we wanted to pierce the tax cap, we would need a supermajority, which is 60%. So, we would need 60% of the vote to pass. We do not need that for the 3.48. But if we went to if that number was 3.5, we we would be piercing the tax cap. So, every district in in New York has a different tax cap. I can tell you that our tax cap during those previous years where we had that money interjected, I know that at least one, possibly two of those years, the tax cap was only 1.17 or 1.11. I don't recall off the top
095of my head Was that COVID money too, Billy? Because we were receiving money, the controller was like, you we're giving we're funding you. You can you can only ask the taxpayers for this amount unless you intend to pierce the cap, in which case again, you would need the 60% majority vote. So, at this point, that's where you kind of see the shift between the first 3 years and the last 2 years. But Billy, all I would dollars is like $6 million from year to year to year, correct? Uh approximately. >> to 58 to 64 to 70 to 76. Correct. So, we can look at 82 next year? >> [laughter] >> Thanks, Billy. >> depends on how we build it, right? It depends on how we build it. >> [laughter] >> Only joking. I just wanted
096to ask to get a clarification. So, that [clears throat] column that says year to year, you're talking about the increase in the budget from the previous year, correct? >> Correct. >> So, our budget is increasing, but every year it's increasing by well, for the most part increasing by a lower percentage than it has in the past. Correct. Right. So, we're at 5. Right. So, it's actually a very good point. Uh so, yes, we have slowly been we've been closing that gap. So, Miss Donnelly, hopefully that gap will continue to get smaller. And uh when we look at the year to year, it does look like we're we're kind of shrinking that up a little bit. Any other board members with questions? Yes, please. >> Miss Ryan. Hi, Billy. For the general public's awareness, can you
097explain a little what the multi-year contract part of the transportation What does that mean? Because you in the note in the other slide Book roller one. >> Again. The the note that you have with regard to transportation, We'll get there. By voting for the overall budget, our community is endorsing a multi-year contract. Can you explain what that means when people see the budget line for transportation in this year? What does that mean? >> Yes. So, so in the in this year, there will be a a dollar amount There will be a dollar amount on what that looks like. So, in the in the other two budget lines, obviously, we don't have that number yet. I anticipate that number because we currently have a 3-year contract, those num- the year after would we could figure out.
098But it would be basically the approval of of knowing that next year, we will not be going out for an RFP. The number will be set after that. So, there won't be an actual number in the budget for the years, so there will be for 26 27, there won't be for 28 29, and 29 30. Right, I did that right? Did I do that right? Did I miss a year? Sorry, 26 Yeah, right. Um so so there won't actually be numbers in there, right? But there won't be numbers in in the columns for any of those other years because those those years uh we don't know. We don't know how many teachers we have and so forth. So, really it's just the community saying we understand that we're going out for a multi-year contract and
099we're going to be locked into a dollar amount once we approve once the Board of Education approves this contract with whether it's our same vendor or a new vendor. And and again for the public's awareness, your note says, "We anticipate having additional vendors respond to the RFP." In the past, that has not necessarily been the case. Can you explain? So, last year last year when we uh when we initially put this uh multi-year um put the multi-year contract out, we held a contractors meeting. And that contractor meeting brought several uh several other large vendors to the meeting to ask a lot of questions. While they might not have been ready to place a bid at that point, I do know other districts uh that these vendors are currently supplying are going out for RFPs as
100well. So, I am anticipating that they came to a contractors meeting, they asked a lot of thoughtful questions, and led me to believe that they might see me down the road. So, while I can't guarantee, this is simply just through my contractor meeting and having them come and sit down at the at the table for the last RFP process and the questions that they were asking and and I asked them some questions as well to make sure that they weren't simply there just to find out information whether they did have a fleet that was large enough. Okay, I believe Mr. Andert has a question. That was my question. Okay, great minds thinking alike either end of the table. Um any other board members with any questions? No? Okay, thank you so much, Dr. Castelli. Thank
101you, everyone. >> [applause] >> This concludes my superintendent's report. Okay, thank you so much. All right, we're going to move on to our second public participation section tonight. Uh this is on action items only. Action items are on our agenda tonight at 2.01 through 2.14. Is there anyone from the public who is here to speak specifically to an action item? Yes? If you if you are, please approach approach the lectern. The one we just had? Okay. Hello, Ms. Standish. How are you? >> [laughter] >> Okay, hi. I'm going to run right after this cuz I have to be somewhere. I'm already late. That's normal for me. >> [laughter] >> Okay. All right, so I just want to share. My daughter did the is in the dual language right now at RP Connor in kindergarten, and
102she loves it. So, I just wanted to share some feedback. Um she comes home and says, "Hola, Mommy, ¿cómo estás?" And like I don't know if she knows totally what she's saying yet, but she's getting there. So, it's really cute seeing that. She's always singing in Spanish. Um in the beginning I was worried about her struggling, and she gets so much attention that I think she actually gets even extra attention just because she's part of that program. >> [snorts] >> Um as the program keeps going, I think the biggest hurdle is parents being scared to put their kids in the program. But having seen it done already been done already 1 year at Sloatsburg and seeing um the program actually happen maybe like 30 years ago in my hometown, I saw the results. Um one
103of our family friends, their kids did the program very similar and one ended up in an Ivy League college and the other UC school system or UC college. So, they had turned out really great. So, seeing that happen made me a lot less scared. Um trying to make sure I'm not missing anything. So, for me, when I see the changes happening in the district, this is one of the things that makes me want to stay is watching her go through this whole program. It's keeping me here along with other things, but this is one of the big things that I'm very excited to stay here for. And that um my daughter loves her teachers. And she has Ms. Cardian and Ms. Ruiz, who's over there. And [snorts] um the other thing I just I love
104love love seeing is it can seem with 27% um English language learning that there's two groups operating independently throughout This is where you actually get to see them become one. They actually understand each other at a young age. The friendships are built then. So, that's all I want to say. I just want to share that. Thank you. I'm running. Got to go. Bye. Okay, thank you very much for that positive feedback, and thank you so much for the teachers and support for Ms. Bel Buena and for the dual language program tonight. Um is there anyone else who's here to speak on an action item or the dual language program or the budget? Okay, very good. All right. Uh in that case, uh before I request a motion for consent agenda, is there any action item
105that any board member would like to pull? Okay? No? All right, very good. Do I have a motion for consent agenda to approve action items 2.01 through 2.14? So moved. Mr. Shapiro, second? Second. Uh Mrs. Hodge? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, very well. Uh then we're going to move on to our third public participation section. This is on any district-related business. If anyone is here to speak on any district-related business, please approach the lectern. Please give us your name. Please keep your remarks to 3 minutes, and please do not mention anyone in the district by name whether they're staff, student, or teacher. Is there anyone here from the public who would like to speak on any district-related business? Okay, looks like not, so we're going to close
106that portion of the meeting and move on to board member comments. Are there any board members with any comments tonight? Uh Mr. Shapiro? Okay, Mr. Shapiro. >> [laughter] >> Some sometimes I I wonder if I'm reaching anyone. But I'll say it anyway. We're 4 weeks away from our day to vote. It's May 19th, the polls open at 6. They close at 9. We have to make sure that we get as many people out as possible. Um I keep on saying saying this. If each person who voted last year votes again this year, but brings someone else with them, we can double the amount of votes, which is still only about 4,500 votes, which is still way below in terms of percentage. Yet we'll probably beat out a lot of the larger cities in West Westchester
107County. But it it would be great if we can break four 4,000. So, let's not forget to vote. Um I'd like to to to congratulate the top 10% students um from Suffern High, but I'd like to congratulate their parents because they are the ones who really give the support at home. Um probably making sure that the home homework is done, though I think with a lot of these students, they would have done the home homework anyway. Uh but I want to say thank you to the parents. Um also like to say thank you to the teachers who a lot of these students men- mentioned um our our teachers at the high high school are great as well as at the middle school and at the elementary schools. Also like to congratulate the team. I believe
108the debate team were county champs. Um so, congratulations to them. And uh congratulations to the boys team cuz they ran off the field. I don't know how they were still pitching cuz it was getting kind of dark, but um it was a victory for Suffern, so that's always nice. And those are my comments for the evening. Well said. Thank you so much. Other board member comments? Mr. Donnelly. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um first of all, I'd like to congratulate one of our new appointees tonight, one of our new hirees, and that would be uh a young lady by the name of Maggie Redgate, a a former Mountie, and I think we're just going to be in great hands with her. I wish her a long career. Uh you're in a great district and thanks
109for hanging in there, Megs. All right? And I appreciate uh us hiring our own back. Uh secondly, I'd like to just mention that we had a heated well, spirited discussion in executive session tonight um reference to some discipline issues that have gone on. Um at this time I think I'm going to hold my comments. Dr. Gundersen has indicated that he'd like to uh do a little bit more investigative work. Uh which is I don't think unreasonable. Uh but I think they know how I feel. I know the board does. Um and we'll we'll continue this issue uh down the road. But thank you for your your time tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Donnely. Any other board members with any comments tonight? Yes, please. >> Yes, Mrs. Hatch. Heather, I think we caught you off
110guard last year. Looks like we might have got you off guard again this year. Um I don't know if anybody pays attention to the calendar. Thank goodness Marlo does. Um but this week is Administrative Professionals Day and just want to take this opportunity to Yeah, got you off guard. Um and I I know that I speak for the whole board when I say how much we appreciate the hard work that you put into not only every meeting, but the way this board operates entirely. Um you know, we show up and like everything's kind of here and ready and we sometimes probably take it for granted, but we want you to know that we know what's behind it and we know that you are going above and beyond and doing all the hard work so that
111we can operate so seamlessly. Um so we really do appreciate it. So Just a little something for you. We know you enjoy the beach, so you'll be beach ready this year. >> [applause] >> What is this? Go behind a screen? WHAT IS THIS? >> [screaming] [applause] >> BRING IT BACK. IS IT SUNSCREEN? THAT'S WHY YOU went behind the screen? There's some in there. There's some suns- there's some suns- sunscreen in there. What What if we What if we adjourn in a second and then we can get a photo with the whole board and Heather? Okay. All right. Good. Nobody run off. >> Thank you, Heather. >> [applause] >> Thank you so much, Heather. It's true. The The reason we really can function at all is because Ms. Campbell's on top of her game. Um any
112other board member comments? No? Okay. Well, um then I would like to say um congratulations also to the top 10% of the senior class um who were here earlier. Um some of whom we've known since they were little kindergarten babies and it's just such a pleasure to see their growth and achievement over the years and and see where they're headed next in life. Um and I also want to note as Dr. Gundersen said that 90% of the Suffern High School class is not in the top 10%. Uh but that doesn't mean that their stories and their achievements and their goals are any less important and significant. And they also make a enormous contribution to Suffern High School and to its success. Uh so congratulations to all the graduates. Um and uh let's see. Let's move
113on to Superintendent's closing comments. Except for the fact that I'd also like to thank Heather Campbell for everything that she does to keep a certain superintendent in order. Um I have no further comments except thank you, Ms. Campbell. Okay. >> [applause] >> Okay, our next meeting will be May 5th uh where we will be recognizing all of the 10-year candidates and approving them. Uh we will be right back here at Suffern High School in the cafeteria. So please come back if you would like and enjoy that event as well. And at this time I would ask for a motion to adjourn. Do I have a motion? Motion. Mr. Fraser, second. No? Anybody wants to stay? Okay. Mr. Donnely, all in favor signify by saying I. I. All right, very well. This meeting is adjourned and
114we will see everyone back here on May 5th.