001Okay, thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming tonight. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Suffren Central School District Board of Education for Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. Uh may the record reflect that all board members are present. Uh everyone, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Algiance 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. Next item is 1.04 student report. Good evening to Elijah. Hi. Oh, thank thank you. Um, sorry, one second while I pull up my thought. Okay. Um, hi. I hope everybody's had a great day. I haven't been here, I think, in two weeks because last week I was busy studying with my APs, which are thank thankfully over now.
002Um, but thank you. Um, yeah, hope. Yeah, hopefully guys. Hopefully, hopefully hopefully prayer is Oh, yeah. Well, to start us off that's going on like currently in the district. Uh today was the uh spring signing day for all um pe all uh students that are participating in sports in college next year uh including me. So yeah um today I was participated in that as well. So I think today there was 16 16 students that are uh playing collegiate sport that signed today just today not even including fall. So that's super cool and super um fun for everybody that's going on in the college. Um also um tonight is the first spring concert at 7:30 in uh the high school auditorium. Um and also this week is a spring is spring spirit week. Uh yesterday I
003believe was jersey day. Today was uh cartoon character day. Tomorrow is wear green day and then on Thursday it's suff pride day. And also going on today was the budget vote. Um, I actually voted for the first time today. So, that's so cool. Yeah, since since turning 18, I got to do that. So, that's so that's super cool. Um, I know a lot of people um especially kids in my grade got to vote and do that for the first time today since, you know, a lot of us missed it by a couple couple months for um the presidential election. I know. Um, also, uh, senior prom tickets are on sale through the end of the week. Uh prom will be uh June 20th at um Pearl River at the Pro River Hilton. Um Thursday, May
00429th is the Seph High School Evening of Excellence at 7 p.m. in the auditorium where students will be awarded with local scholarships. And also um I believe wait sorry I was to say oh yeah AP's ended last week. I know there was AP vom for uh two weeks uh from May 5th to May 16th. And I know there's a lot of kids um participating in APs this year. I know I heard there was a lot a lot more this year than last year. So that's really good that a lot of kids are challenging themselves to take APs this year. And yeah, that's all I have for you guys today. Thank you. Thank you, Tijah. Congratulations on signing and congratulations on voting. Good place to start. Okay. Our next item is approving the minutes of the
005regular meeting of May 6, 2025. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes? Yes. Good. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Mr. Shapiro second. Mrs. Hodgej. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Abstension from Mr. Kern. And 1.06 is superintendent's comments. Thank you very much. Good evening everyone and welcome to our board meeting. Uh this is a big day for suffering central. Uh the one time a year that we get to hear directly from our voters as to whether or not they are going to support uh the public schools uh financially for the following year. I know that uh the results of the election are on all of our minds and I want to take a moment really to thank everyone who is involved in
006the budget development process. Everyone from our teachers, administrators, um the board of education for really making the difficult decisions this year and coming up with a fiscally prudent budget for next year. Um we took a lot of time weighing our options and priorities and I want to give a special shout out to Dr. Castelane for leading the charge on the budget development. Good job. Great job. A lot of different factors and a lot of information that we didn't get particularly from the state until just about last week or the last week and a half. Um so great job on putting that together. I want to particularly thank all of our voters, those folks who come out year after year and vote in our budget election. School budget elections are typically the low have the lowest
007turnout of most elections. Um and typically suffering central voters come out and make their voices heard. So I want to thank those of you who have been coming out year after year. And to Elijah and all your fellow students who are voting perhaps for the first time, let's hope that no matter where you are in the future, you are always keeping in mind that school budget elections are incredibly important to vote in. So thank you very much for doing that. I want to thank uh the voters who are coming out as late as almost 900 p.m. tonight. That's when the polls close. Um it's really important that we get your voice and get your vote. Um and then finally, the folks that have been here since before 6:00 a.m. and are going to continue well
008past 900 p.m. and telling the votes are incredible election workers that work tremendously hard throughout the day with very few breaks. Uh and of course our election clerk, Robert Romanowski, and our assistant election clerk, Miss Heather Campbell, for all the work that uh they're doing to make sure that this is a um a solid election with uh correct information. And uh we look forward to revealing those results later on for those of you that are interested and who are maybe streaming or deciding to stay here for the full duration. We will be sharing election results, albeit unofficial election results later on this evening as we receive them. You can watch it here in the boardroom and it will be streamed live as well. With that, this concludes my superintendence report. All right, thank you very
009much. Okay, we're going to move on to item 1.07, which is public participation on action items only. Action items are on our agenda tonight at 2.01 through 2.10. Is there anyone here from the public who is here to speak on an action item? Okay, looks like not. So, we're going to close that portion of the meeting and move on to our action items. Uh, prior to requesting a consent agenda, is there any item that any board member would like to pull? 2.02. 2.02. Okay. Anything else? No. All right. Uh, do I have a motion uh for a consent agenda on action items 2.01 and 2.03 through 2.10? Is that Mr. Frasier? Thank you. And second. Second. Uh, Mr. Shapiro. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Anyone opposed. Any abstensions? Okay. And now, uh,
010with regard to 2.02, do I have a motion? Uh, Mr. Donnelly. Second. Mrs. Hodgej. And discussion. No. All right. Okay. Uh, in that case, uh, all in favor of approving 2.02, everyone say I. I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Abstain. Mr. Current abstainates. Okay. Very well. Now we are going to move on to board member comments. Any board members with any comments tonight? No. Okay. Okay. All right. Mr. Shakiro, I'm just going to repeat what Dr. Gunderson said is uh there's still time to vote. There's still about uh an hour and uh 15 minutes left. And if you were thinking about voting and were saying, "Well, I really don't have to vote." Yes, you do. Voting is a privilege. Voting is a right. Voting is something that the fact that we are able to vote that
011we should. So, um the more votes we get out, the stronger Southern Central seems and that's what we need to show uh the rest of the county and uh actually the entire area. A a few years ago, I went over the numbers. We actually had more votes in Suffin than certain cities. We beat out Nurell. We beat out Mount Vernon. and we beat out White Plains. And those are large cities with big school districts and yet we had more people coming out to vote than any of those three fairly large cities. So, uh, we really have the ability to do it. So, let's make sure that we not only do it this year, but every year. So, that's my pitch and I'm glad that I have the space to put this because um, it's kind
012of like a bill billboard that I have. So, and those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, yes, I would like to also uh reiterate Dr. Gunderson's comments. Um, thanking all of our election workers who have here been here for very long days. Um, for the community who supports public education and has come out to vote. Um, and to all the organizations that have put in a tremendous amount of time and energy to get the word out, like the SEA, the PTA, and everyone in our community who spread the word, maybe brought a friend or family member to the polls, and uh to all of our teachers who made sure that our high school students were registered and ready to go. So, thank you for that. Um, okay. So, we're going to
013close board member comments and move on to public participation. This is public participation on any district related business. Um, if you are here to speak, please keep your remarks to three minutes and uh please do not mention anyone in the district by name whether uh staff, student or teacher. Um, and please give us your name before you speak. Is there anyone who is here to speak from the public? Yes, ma'am. Please approach the podium and uh No, no, take your time. Take your time and Mr. Maton will get you all set up there. Okay, this is my neighbor. He'll save me if I tip. We walk together all the time, so he knows. Okay, I'm ready. Um, my name is Ann Nissen and I've lived in Slozburg for 32 years. My children attended Suffren Central
014Schools and I worked for the district years ago as part of the team that created the plan for the district's first family resource center. I then ran Slosburg's FRC before leaving to direct Rockland 21C, the nonprofit that offers TA and professional development to all the F FRC's in the county. Yeah. Okay. I'm retired now. My experiences led me to note some important things about the district's mission and vision statement that I believe are still relevant. To my eye, educating for personal excellence is too narrow. Yes, every student deserves to be educated so as to fulfill his or her potential. This is set forth not only in suff central statement but also in the second sentence of the declaration of independence. Scholars say that Thomas Jefferson's understanding of happiness echoed Aristotle's the unalienable right all Americans
015have to happiness has two parts per Aristotle and and Jefferson that everyone fulfill themselves and that they make quote virtuous decisions as we are all acted upon by what's around us and people congregate because we are biologically social creatures. Aristotle required everyone who is striving to be happy and fulfilled to do their part in building a strong community. As classicist Edith Hall puts it, you are more likely to be happy if those around you are happy and thus it is in your enlightened self-interest to be virtuous. I believe that every person, including every student, has a civic responsibility to make virtuous decisions for their community's sake. Perhaps next time the board reviews the mission and vision statement, you could consider adding a community focused goal. An expanded statement could build off the word civic as
016in educating for personal excellence and civic responsibility or start with the existing personal exc excellence phrase and end with civic engagement. Alternatively, it could hinge on the friendly aer word community as in educating for personal excellence in community responsibility or community engagement. Making one of these revisions could align the statement with portions of the strategic plan, specifically the social emotional learning and supports priority and the family and community engagement priority. Surely a discussion about this would be needy. Thank you for listening to my pitch for an enlarged statement. I hope I'm under three minutes. I've been practicing. Thank you. I would thank you all but I'd be over three minutes and I understand that's not good. Thank you very much and thank you for your preparation. Uh is there anyone else who is here to
017speak from the public? Okay, then we will close that portion of the meeting um and move on to superintendent's closing comments. Thank you very much, Miss Niss. I would just like to thank you for your comments. Um, thank you very much for coming out tonight and and sharing that very constructive thoughts about expanding our mission statement to include civic readiness and community involvement. It was uh we appreciate that. Thank you so much. Well, we're glad that you made it here and thank you so much for your service to the Suff Central School District, whether it was when you were employed here or clearly someone who is very much still interested in the well-being uh and future growth of our students. So, thank you so much. And thus concludes my superintendent comments except for as Mr.
018Shapiro said you have now an hour and 10 minutes to get out and vote. And if you haven't done so yet and you're able to, please do so. That's right. Countdown. And uh remember, if you're in line, stay in line. Uh okay. Uh just to let everyone know what's going to happen now um for the rest of the evening. Um very shortly we are going to adjourn to executive session and uh we will be doing that. Um and then uh we will be waiting for the polls to close and for the numbers to start coming in. Once we have um unofficial preliminary results um from everyone reporting, we are going to resume the public meeting back here. That's usually close to the 10:00 hour um give or take. and we will be announcing the unofficial
019results of the candidates and the budget vote. Uh you're welcome to stay for that. Um that uh I think will be up on the screen behind me um as the numbers come in. And uh so we'll be uh going back to the meeting later on tonight and announcing those results and then after that we will be adjourning uh formally the public meeting. Um so at this time uh do I have a motion to go into executive session for the purposes of number one reviewing with the superintendent of schools and assistant superintendent for human resources employment history of pedagogical employee 05205A and reviewing with the superintendent of schools and assistant superintendent for human resources employment history of pedagogical employee 052025 5B and reviewing the superintendent of schools individual contracts for the 2025 2026 year. Do I
020have a motion? Motion. Mr. Kern second. Second. Mr. Shapiro. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All right. Very well. Uh we are going to adjourn to executive session and we will see everyone back here later on tonight. Thank you.