001Okay, good evening everyone. Can everyone please take a seat? Okay, I'm going to try again. Okay. These are teachers. These are teachers, right? Okay, I'm going to try again. All right. Uh, can everyone please take a seat so we can get started? Okay, welcome to our May board of education meeting and I hope everyone enjoy Mother's Day. The weather was beautiful. Okay. And then uh to begin our meeting, can everyone please stand for the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. Please take a seat. Okay, to begin our meeting, I will have um Dr. Hell, our um coordinator of find the performing arts to introduce our talented
002students who just did a fabulous job at Lincoln Center last week. So, Dr. Hill, all yours. Thank you, Dr. Rogers, Miss Chang, and the board of education for the opportunity to honor our students tonight. It's been an extraordinary month for SASET music. Uh just recently, you may have heard the SAS High School Chamber Orchestra was named the National Grand Champions at the ASA National Orchestra Festival and our All Eastern Wind Ensemble earned accolades at the prestigious All Eastern Convention as well. So adding to this string of honors, one of our high school chamber groups was selected through a highly competitive process to perform at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, one of the most prestigious stages in the world for young musicians. This election was part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Cent's Young
003Musicians Concert, a program established in 1984 that offers exceptional middle and high school musicians the opportunity to refine their chamber music skills and to perform at Lincoln Center. Participants are chosen from a competitive pool of applicants in the New York's tri-state area and receive coaching and mentorship from Chamber Music Society artists to prepare for their performances. Tonight, we are proud to feature the CMS Young Artist String Quint Quartet from Sasa High School, who just made their own Lincoln Center debut this past Thursday for a wonderful audience. Please join me in welcoming this outstanding ensemble featuring Shaun Lim, Aiden Chantempson, Valerie Leang, and Carolyn Wong performing a movement of Devorjac's quartet number 21. Thank you so much. For one second, I thought I was in Lincoln Center. Bravo. Really, really well done. And best of luck
004to uh your future endeavors. Thank you again. Thank you. Okay. So, now give us a few moments to move to the stage and then we'll begin our meeting. Thank you. Okay. So, we will begin the meeting with the approval of minutes. Um 5 A and 5B can be taken together and they're the approval of minutes of the April 21st, 2025 special meeting and the April 23rd, 2025 monthly meeting. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Greco, second by Miss Levitton. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. And then uh we are going to have our final uh budget hearing. Uh so we'll have Dr. Rufall as our associate superintendent of business to give us the uh budget presentation. Okay. Okay. Um, tonight's presentation represents the state required budget hearing for the
005Siosid School District's 2526 budget. Tonight's budget hearing follows three um detailed presentations that began in February. The budget for the 2526 school year supports um enrollment of about 7,200 students across 10 schools and we're very pleased to be recognized by niche.com as the second best school district in New York State. At the start of our budget process, we uh since the start, we've been committed to the following budget priorities. We wanted to preserve all of our academic programs and services, including the extensive co-curricular clubs and athletics uh athletic offerings. We remain committed to our students social and emotional well-being and our budget for 2526 provides the needed support in these areas such as a social worker in every building and our continued partnership with Northwell Health. We're committed to maintaining and improving our facilities and
006the 2526 budget supports um several smallcale projects and we remain mindful of our important role in providing fiscal stability to the district. We are again presenting a budget for 2526 that preserves all of our program while coming in with a tax levy that is below the cap despite the considerable uh budget challenges for next year. Some of the challenges um we've been discussing for several months including escalating health insurance costs. We continue to manage uh inflation both in the supplies that we purchase as well as contracts that we need to renew that are tied to inflation. We've had a decade of enrollment growth and so we continue to um face the pressures of that in terms of our instructional resources as well as our facilities. and um 20056 presented challenges in terms of our escalations
007in transportation costs. This graph gives an indication of the growth that we have experienced over the last decade about 16% increase in enrollment. And this is a trend that we know is um is somewhat unique to SIASET and it's um it's also important to look at the pressures of the budget and the specific areas that they impact. And so this chart gives an indication of some of the items that we've been talking about. And if you look at the first two, the regular and special educational programs and related benefits which are also tied to um inflation account for about 60% of the increase in our budget. Others student services um account for another smaller proportion. And then you can see the contract transportation and buses accounting for about 2.5 million of the increase. Liability insurance,
008some inflationary costs there as well as um market forces that are outside of the uh district control um mainly a lot of settling of CVA cases that are happening um statewide and all other represents about 300,000 in increase for a total budget increase of about 10 million. Now, one of the ways that we're hoping to continue to manage expenses is with the purchase of um three buses. And this is a a strategic change for us. Um but I guess going through two RFPs um where we've seen considerable escalation in our transportation costs. um give us an indication that it's uh time to begin to explore moving in a direction of owning some buses to help manage these costs and exert a great great greater control. And we anticipate we're starting with three and we anticipate
009these will be used for a variety of purposes. Maybe a late bus route, an athletic route, field trips, and and perhaps some home to school. And this is coste effective. about 36% of it is covered um through state aid and that will be um over the next several years and we anticipate breaking even on the cost in the third year and given the life cycle of buses of over 10 years um we anticipate uh substantial savings in this area. So, we're pleased that despite the challenges and that we're able to bring in a budget with an increase of 3.53% with a calculated tax cap of 2.8% and a actual t proposed tax levy of 2.77%. We're about 67,000 under the tax cap. And if you look back over the last um 12-1 13 years since
010the institution of the tax cap, we have been under the tax cap by a cumulative amount of about 11.2 million. We are required to present the budget in a three-part format and the chart at the left shows the different components of the budget, the administrative, capital, and program. And to the right you can see the proportion that those components of the budget make up. And you can see that the program the instructional program accounts for over 3/4% of the budget. The admin section is the smallest and that includes building supervision and central services legal and things like that is under 10%. And the third component is our capital uh component which houses our custodial maintenance and then debt service and transfer to capital where we do our uh capital projects. Our sources of revenue for
011the 2526 budget are listed there next to the 2526. and state aid, even though we had a bit of an increase, still accounts for about 12.13% of our overall budget and the tax levy um being the largest component of about 79%. You can see that there's an increase in the amount of reserves um from the second line down, restricted reserves that we're applying to the budget to help offset um impact to the tax levy. The facilities work that we plan to do as part of the 2526 budget includes HBT tennis courts, the renovation of the existing courts and the addition of two new courts, staff renovations um to come into line with ADA compliance. We have a plan to upgrade the sound and lighting systems in the secondary school auditoriums. And we plan a variety
012of district-wide electrical, roofing, masonry, um, paving projects throughout the district. The budget also includes an allocation for professional development um for our teachers to explore the potential um of artificial intelligence to enhance um instructional design, differentiation of instruction and personalized learning. at the elementary level. You can see up there, it includes project-based learning experiences, the secondary um projects, there's advanced writing feedback tools, and I would encourage um those who were not able to see the presentation last month um to take a look at that um as well. Our budget continues to support a variety of programs at the elementary level. Um, we are incorporating an updated uh version of Go Math at K through five. We have new parent curriculum workshops and we're adding an additional 913 class to support more students that have intensive
013needs inside the district. And we also plan to implement a uh comprehensive new program in UPK to promote literacy readiness. In our middle schools, we have allocations to enhance grade level transition from the eighth grade to the high school. We have continuing STEM curriculum updates, including the adoption of a new LEGO program that aligns us with New York State computer science standards. And we have ongoing student workshops and teachers teacher professional development across content areas. At the high school we offer 31 AP classes and in 2526 we have new co offerings as list up there applied physics aquatics management Korean 5 and enhanced science research and orchestra programs. We also have um enhanced 6 through 12 information fluency to help our students develop uh judicious practices in their use of um current technology. Arts and
014music education. We continue to lead and have a lot of success in those areas. And I think the presentation we heard a few minutes ago is just clear indication of that. And our budget continues to support all of our arts and music education programs. Athletics, again, we continue to see great success, some of them listed up there, and the budget continues to support um all of the all of our teams and new equipment and purchases in that area. All of the budget detail is can be found on the web. different versions of the budget. We and all of the presentations that we gave throughout the last several months, the budget bulletin, the newsletters should have arrived in homes or will be arriving in homes. And the district budget notice, which is the document on the
015left, will be arriving in homes in the next several days. And the budget vote and election is next Tuesday, May 20th. Thank you. Okay, thank you Dr. Rufer for the uh presentation and then uh for now we are going to move on to the uh budget hearing audience to the public. Um audience had a chance to sign up before uh uh by 5:00 pm today and we are we for today uh we have uh Molina Lamper Good evening everyone. I'm a mother of the former student lens lampert and a homeowner and a community member and I'm also 55 plus. So I came here on behalf of community members like me and uh homeowners who struggling living in SAS due to raising taxes. I don't understand why we have to struggle here. We work very hard.
016We moved to SAS few years ago and Hello. And we spent many efforts. We spent many efforts to live in SAS. we uh to move to SAS to give education and uh and this year this year 2025 we have a big challenge a huge challenge surviving and this neighborhood we're not planning to move out we have no help. Um, my son is in a college. He cannot help us. Why we have to why we our community members 55 plus have to struggle here, have to suffer. Yes, I know. You do the best for students and uh we would like to support but not from our pocket. If you need to pay high cost due to inflation, transportation, maybe you should appeal to the senator, congressman asking for help. uh why we have to pay high
017cost. Some community members cannot move out to other our areas. They have circumstances. Their houses belong to their parents and they want to live. They want to live in Syaset. So what we should do? Next year taxes will raise again. Everyone is happy about raising taxes. Everyone is happy. We all want to support students but find the middle. Find the golden middle. Find some compromise. Maybe parents should pay the difference. The cost uh the cost of transportation between last year and this year. Maybe you should appeal to the government uh congressman or senator. There's something to think about. But we're not moving out. We're going to fight for our right living in SAS. That's it. Thank you for listening to me. And next we're going to have uh the president from the SAS Council of
018PTAs uh Jen Abraham to serve to come up to the podium. Okay. So um good evening everyone. My name is Jen Abraham. I am the Sioset Council of PTA PTA's president. We have 11 units in our school district and over the last two weeks after all of the budget information sessions. Each PTA unit took an instructed vote to support or not support the budget that was presented. In the past, the council president reported the unit's results at the board of ed meetings. However, over the last few years, council has reported the results of each unit's vote at the April council general meeting. We had wanted to come back to the board of ed meeting to report our results. All 11 PTA units have voted to support the 2025 2026 budget this year. These units include
019Berry Hill, Bis, Robins Lane, Southgrow Village, Walt Whitman, AP Willlets, Harry B. Thompson, Southwoods, Scioset High School, and SEPTA. Thank you for your time and have a good evening. Thank you. This closes the audience to public portion for the budget hearing. Um, I did not know about Selenio and I'd like Excuse me. I'm I'm sorry. Uh, but we do have a rule and this rule was was uh we started implementing this rule couple month. I'm sorry. I cannot make the exception. However, you can send the email to the board. It's all board memberschools.org or if you leave your name with a security, I can have someone to reach out to you. Okay, but that's the rule. I have to go by the rule. I'm sorry about that. But there are ways to uh communicate with
020the board members. You can send us emails. All right. So, I am going to move on with our meeting. Okay. And Miss Lamper, uh regarding your questions, uh we hear you and we really we understand how you feel. I've lived in the district for over 20 years and I really hear and I can have someone from the administration to reach out to you to discuss some details of your concerns if that would help. Okay. Um I'm sorry but each person so I am unable to give you extra time but uh Dr. Roger who will say some words. Yes, Miss Lambert, thank you again for your comments. We um had the opportunity to suggest to you that somebody from the district could call you. My understanding is that took place. wouldn't be right for me to
021disclose that conversation. But uh I would want to uh also share a detail that I omitted the last time we spoke, which was the board of education, the SCASA board of education in January of 2023 enacted a series of exemptions that apply to Cold War veterans, alternative veterans, volunteer firefighters, and ambulance workers um in an attempt to try to reach uh seniors and disabled people. Uh in the past the board has offered an exemption for seniors and disabled as well. So as the county has made additional exemptions available uh this board of education has adopted all of the exemptions that have been put in front of it. And if uh the opportunity exists to do that again in the future, we'll certainly let the board know about those opportunities. And um the other point that
022I would make uh uh just responding to your suggestion, a helpful suggestion about asking our legislators for assistance, I did uh write to all of the delegation in Albany that represents Sioset uh asking them as they were refining the governor's state aid proposal that they take into consideration districts like Sioset that have had extraordinary enrollment growth uh over the last several years. So we did make that plea to them. Our aid is up from last year, but uh in sort of an inflationary mode as opposed to uh dealing with some of these extraordinary cost increases that we've experienced, but I see this as the beginning of a longer term campaign to try and get the attention of our elected officials uh to make sure that they understand the challenges that we're facing here. So, thank
023you for your comments. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Uh we are going to move to uh agenda item 7A and that's the appointment appointment to uh uh tenure. Okay. All right. So and so just bear with me. Uh we have um Eron go. Wait, that's not that's not Wait, I'm going to say the name. Yeah, we have moved moved and seconded. Okay. Uh, can I have a motion, please? Mr. Bollo, seconded by Dr. Park. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. All right. I am going to read the names. Okay. Uh, Erin Gothwave, uh, Dr. Sari Mccune Christopher Meyers Scott Duber Jessica Tam Joanna Waters Courtney Edler Emily Amida Dr. Christina Baduchi, Allison Barrett, Lauren Beak, Kirstston Berwick, Megan Bilsy, Marissa Bachetti, Courtney Brown, Jessica Cashia, Amanda Casey, Steven Sa, Jennifer
024Connelly, Michelle Deenadero. Okay. James Deertie, Colleen Dowling, Jessica Ferrell, Emily, Emily Feight, Matthew Gelfer, Denise Glenn, Mary K. Gobel, Jennifer Graham, Lucia Guzman, Angela Yino, Donna Cam, Taylor Keel, Dr. Thomas Kelly, Sophie Kim, Guo, Tracy Lor, Elizabeth Mackey, Marissa Maltz, Alexandra Martinez, Courtney Mccclausski, Paul Mida, Eric Neely, Megan Molina, Thomas Mnau, Caitlyn Mali, Elizabeth Nazosi. Okay. Um, Nancy Padiso. Um, the next one's Katherine Rupal. Christina Sackle, Samantha Sears, Lauren Silverstein, Holly Simone Ram, Nina Sto, Donna Southernther, Alexa Tiner, Emily Vote, Daniel Wool, and Jennifer U. Somehow we meet Alexander. I don't know why they weren't. I don't know. Okay. Okay. And last two but not least I have Alexandra Auran and also Matthew Lorra. Okay. Okay. Congratulations. Okay. I just wanted to extend my heartfelt congratulations and warmest welcome as you officially join our SAS
025family as a tenure teacher. Today marks a significant today marks a significant milestone in your career and we are proud to recognize your dedication, talent and unwavering commitment to our students and learning community. We look forward to continue impact the impact you'll you'll make in the years ahead. Congratulations on this welldeserved achievement. I'd like to add my congratulations to Miss Changens and the boards and I'd want to make a couple of observations as you're now joining the team permanently. So first is uh for those who don't know maybe uh who are watching online it takes in most cases four years to earn tenure. What that means is that many of you were hired uh in the spring of 2021 to start work in the 2122 school year. A school year that was marked by all
026the challenges of co. It was an extraordinarily difficult time to teach in the first place. Even more difficult to be an early career teacher. just as hard to make the transition to a new employer from an existing employer. In short, you didn't have an easy four-year journey to get to this place. But you got here, and it shows something about your qualities of persistence and hard work and attitude that you were able to get through those challenges and arrive at this place. I'm fond of the phrase that friends are the family you've chosen for yourself. I have in my own life lots of family that I've chosen for myself. You are people that we have chosen to be part of as Miss Chang said this Saiaset family and we don't take that choice lightly and
027we didn't just choose you once but we chose you twice. We chose you once when we hired you and we chose you again tonight to be part of this family permanently. So it validates our initial choice but it also means that we feel certain this time around. So I congratulate you on that. But this is not an end. This is the end of the beginning. Now you have the rest of your careers with us to work. And all the work that you've done in these years to earn tenure, I hope that's the trajectory you'll stay on. I hope you never become complacent. I hope you never uh become satisfied. I hope that you keep striving to improve your own practice and to improve the way we work as an organization so that we do the
028best job possible serving the students and children of the this community. So those kids are heading to a future that will be somewhat uncertain. AI is changing the landscape for them. Lots of other things are changing around them. The best defense they have against an unknown future are the skills that you will give them. skills that are transferable across any of the challenges they might encounter. I was talking with Miss Merin just before she left, our orchestra teacher, who did such a marvelous job with these young people we heard from earlier, and she was making the point to me that they are a metaphor for all of the things that hard work can accomplish, all of the things that will happen when you have talent and hard work together, and what it means to work
029in a group and to work together in a group collaboratively and what can be accomplished that way. That's the role that you have. You'll collaborate with your colleagues and you'll accomplish something incredible for young people as you do it. In almost every interview that I conduct with uh someone in my office, I will ask a form of this question. And this will sound familiar to most of you. Uh from your mental highlight reel, pick out a scene with you and a child. And I ask that question because I know that teaching is hard work. What I want to find out is if for you it is also heart work. And so many times I hear stories of incredible and deep connections to young people how they've changed you just as you've changed them. That is
030more than anything exttrinsic in this work. That intrinsic motivation is what will keep you going through hard times like COVID or through whatever hard things come ahead. So never lose touch with and never lose sight of those things that intrinsically motivate you, those highlight reel moments with children, because as full as your highlight reel might be right now, it's a lot to get it's about to get a lot more full in the years to come. Congratulations and build an amazing highlight reel. Okay, I can't agree more with Dr. Rogers. Really, this is a it's a it's a milestone. It's a big moment for all the tenure teachers. Uh congratulations again. And so, as we move on to our uh meeting, uh if you want to uh make a graceful exit, now will be your perfect
031timing to do so. But you're more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. Okay. All right. So the uh next agenda I'm on the uh list will be 8A and we are going to have Miss Abramson to talk about the city citizens finance committee and the meeting took place on April 24th 2025. Hi. Now it's on. You got it. This is like a tough act to follow, guys. You had instruments, you had tenure. It's not awesome. Um, so for the finance committee meeting, we talked about a few different things. uh the insurance RFP that was talked at the meeting before. There was discussion of the possibility of interviewing respondents to the insurance RFP, but the response wasn't what the administration had hoped for. So, they're now analyzing that development and making a
032plan to see uh we are adequately insured for the fall. Uh in regard to the New York state budget, at the time of the meeting, we had discussed how the districts had budgeted the amounts of the assistance the state would give since they were about a month late. Uh to be conservative, they followed with the governor's January proposal. Uh regarding federal grants, there was a question about if federal programs were turned into vouchers. Um it was explained that the district gets about 2.5 million for IDEA and Title One grants as well as 1.1 million in food services. The idea funds are tied to individuals with disability and are least likely to be turned into vouchers. Title one funds support students in poverty and the belief is if they were turned into some kind of student-based
033program, those students would likely stay in Sioset as it may not cover the tuition of a private school. The last topic we talked about was transportation um and the strategic choice of planning to purchase busing um that will break even about three years as Dr. Rufa talked about. uh the district may consider purchasing again next year to achieve further savings and further discuss the advantages of having buses. So that concludes the meeting. Okay. Thank you. And uh Dr. Rubal, can we have the treasures report and appropriation adjustments, please? Thank you for conscious. As shown on the treasur's report, the cash on hand for the month end March 2025 was $74,61,39612. shows that bank balances for all cash accounts were reconciled to the book balances and were collateralized in accordance with the district's banking agreements and
034investment policy. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Rufol. So AB and AC can be taken together and they're the approval of treasures report and appropriations adjustments. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Greco, second by Miss. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. And uh next we are going to move on to uh Dr. Rogers superintendent report. Thank you. Continuing our series in uh presentations on the instructional program. I've asked Miss Gwe, congratulations on receiving tenure this evening, uh to lead her team in uh an explanation of some of the changes that have been occurring in the special education program, improvements that you've been leading with your team and uh the changes that we anticipate on the horizon as we continue to refine our practice for uh our learners with extra
035challenges. Thank you, Dr. Rogers, Dr. Curry, and the board of education uh for this opportunity to highlight the new um programming that you have supported, which in turn has allowed um and enhanced opportunities for diverse learners here in our district. Our goal as a district and a department continues to be creating a community where all students feel a sense of belonging and have access to educational programs and supports that meet their unique needs. Enhancing learning opportunities and programs builds our own capacity and expertise as well. Allowing for more students to be educated here in their home districts and participate in the same school community as their neighbors, siblings, and in turn promoting a deep sense of connection and identity. These aren't just additional programs and experiences that we're building here. It's a systemwide statement that
036students belong. We want to spend some time tonight sharing how enhancing our programs have led to increased opportunities for student success, peer connectedness, and community inclusivity. We've been able to focus on creating environments and programs to meet differing student needs, building awareness, understanding, and connections between students, staff, and creating partnerships to foster inclusive environments and community engagement. Despite the success of the many different programs that were already up and running within the district, we continued to see an upward trend of students requiring more supportive settings. It's helpful to understand the additions and enhancements that have been made by looking at our original program options and visualizing exactly how we have grown here. Integrating co-eing expansion at the elementary and high school levels began our growth in programming prior to the 22 23 school year. This
037ICT model brought extreme benefit to the district and to students and staff in many ways. And Dr. Rogers and the district thoughtfully rolled out opportunities for this expansion to happen and to create what it is today. A complete model at the middle school, a complete model at the high school leading toward advanced regions diploma options, and a model that's utilized based on student need at the elementary school level. Prior to the 22 23 school year, we also had special classes at the elementary school. And when you see numbers in a row, those are ratios of classes. The first number is number of students. Second number of number of teaching staff. Third number is the number of support staff that's associated with that class program. When you look at what we did have prior to 2022
038at the elementary level, we had special class options for students per grade level with a 1212 ratio, middle school class options with a 1511 ratio, and two different programs at the high school. one with a 15-1 ratio, which led toward a diploma option for students, and another class with a 1211 ratio for students who benefited from more functional and vocational focus on learning. Students whose educational, social, and behavioral needs did not fit the models of the 1212 program at the elementary level or the 1511 classes at the middle school level were typically educated in an outofd district setting. While these programs and schools and out of districts offer amazing opportunities, classes and instructional programming for students with more intensive needs, we also wanted to find opportunities and ways to explore to be able to build
039our own programs here within district. We wanted to be able to figure out as appropriate how and where could we find a space and b an opportunity to enhance the programming options for our students in the least restrictive environment. Last year alone we would have had upwards of 11 primary elementary age students that would have placed in out of district programming if we did not build capacity here within district. Looking at this timeline, you could see how and where we have built options for student participation and streamlined our own programming itself. In 2223 school year, we started looking outside of the classroom to enhance opportunities for students to participate in our school culture and extra extracurricular um opportunities. This was where the birth of challenger and unified sports began here in Sioset. That started with
040just basketball at both the middle school challenger level and high school unified level. The next school year, we looked and decided to find ways we could build additional programs. Here is where we started a 1212 class option at the middle school called RISE, reaching independence through supported education. We added additional administrative support at the CPSC level. We added and thank you for our social work social work increase hiring allowing us to have one social worker within each of our buildings here in district and intensified and added to our challenger and unified programs by adding challenger track and unified bowling. In addition to that, we started to see this extend outside of our school community. And we have some students here which will share their experience and their opportunity of their creation of their own adaptive
041softball clinic. The next school, this current school year, a 2425 school year, we also added another program at our elementary level. And this was an addition of a 913 class program at our village elementary school. Not only did we enhance the program options for students to be educated here within district, we also were able to extend the expertise of our staff and working with students with more intensive needs. That included additional support from behavior analysts, additional speech therapists and an increase in teaching staff that knows specifically how to work with students with varying and intensive needs. We also will hear a little bit later about the addition of challenger cheer which was not a district choice but a student um demand as well as additional opportunities where students extended outside of their school community not
042only continuing the adaptive softball clinic but also finding high school students creating a unity tennis program into the next school year. We are adding a second 913 class option, additional psych psychological support at HBT and exploring additional ways where we could potentially expand opportunities within Challenger. It should be noted that next year we would have had anywhere from six to eight kindergarten students placed in out of district programs if we were not able to build this program here. In addition to that, we are also talking about upwards of eight additional students K12 that would be returning back to district to be educated within our programs here in SAS. What I want to do now is introduce to you today um Miss Stephanie uh Purcell who is our administrator for CPSC and elementary special education to
043talk a little bit more about some of the expansion and how we've been able to identify opportunities of belonging for all students and staff. Good evening. While we explore the benefits of two specific programs today are 913 housed at Village Elementary and the RISE program at HB Thompson Middle School. There are more global benefits that have impacted uh been impacted by our programming across the district. These benefits include the collaboration of preschool special education with approved agencies and UPK programs which focuses on the student support and identifying trends in our student needs. An additional benefit is an increase in the crosscontracting opportunities from other districts providing potential revenue for the districts while saving on our outofd transportation and tuition. A third benefit includes professional development opportunities and staffing which builds enhanced instruction and growth for
044all students while increasing an interdisciplinary approach to learning. An a fourth benefit is providing flexibility in the approach to classroom placement which allows movement from the general education and special education continuum of service. The district-wide approach can be visualized through the continuum of service offered by the SIASET Central School District. This continuum was developed with the continued goal of building programs when possible to extend the ways we are able to support students within the district. By extending these layers of special class stu um options, there are expanded opportunities to integrate with peers and connect students to the community at large. Integrating students with diverse needs enhances all aspects of our school and community which provides advancement to build our capacity as professionals and further develop our approach to another district goal which is to utilize
045that interd disciplinary approach which we will continue to highlight this evening. While in many ways our student body and staff are familiar and comfortable growing alongside a variety of neurodeiverse learners, the continued development of our program deepens our connection to the community. One key area of support has been in our staff training and team meetings, which specifically incorporates the AAC or speech generating devices. Through hands-on work, teachers and support staff have become more confident in recognizing and responding to a range of communication styles. This training is not only increasing access for students who rely on AAC devices, but also creates a culture of respect and patience and communication differences. Our focus has been on more interdisciplinary approach in which all classrooms including elective and special area class teachers benefit from collaboration among general educators, related
046service providers and support staff. They are champions of inclusive practices. This year the district supported training for our special area teachers and elective teachers K to2 including art library music project beyond PE and world languages. In this two-part workshop series teachers worked with staff developers to understand how to meet the specific diverse needs in their environment while collaborating with colleagues and learning from one another. Additionally, our related service providers, including our speech therapists and occupational therapists and behavior specialists, regularly pushed in to for learning to the learning environment to provide real time support, allowing for skills to be taught in small group and individual sessions to be reinforced, applied in authentic, and meaningful contexts. This layered model ensures that instruction is accessible, responsive, and relevant to all the diverse needs of our students. The work
047that we are doing is made possible by the programming that you have supported which promotes access and belonging to all of our students. I now want to introduce the village elementary school principal Dr. Sari Mchuan. There you are. One of the most powerful aspects of our inclusive model is the way it fosters meaningful peer connections. Creating a culture of awareness and inclusion isn't just about access. It's about belonging. This means helping all students feel seen, valued, and connected. As we continue to support neurodeiverse learners, we also are nurturing the social emotional development of all students. Building empathy, flexibility, and understanding in our classroom strengthens the community as a whole. It's important to highlight that inclusion efforts span the entire district, ensuring all students take part in field trips, curriculum celebrations, global play day, and assemblies.
048True inclusion means understanding students varied needs, including sensory regulation. Supports such as movement breaks, noiseancelling headphones, flexible seating, and weighted items are part of everyday practice. For example, during a recent field trip to Souacle the Musical, some students took brief breaks with an adult. Also at our winter celebration, every student shared a holiday tradition, whether verbally or using speech gener generated devices before an audience of their peers and their families. Our growing programming has shifted the way we discuss engagement. This may look like teaching the school community how to support communication for a student utilizing an AAC or speech generating device or providing choice either verbally or pictorially when trying to play together. Communication isn't the only aspect of engagement that looks that may look different. Play is too. All grade level students play together
049during recess, center time, and fun Friday activities. It isn't unusual for our students to have questions about how to keep their counterparts included and engaged. It has been helpful to provide options and model play alongside their peers using cars, Legos, or even the playground. This work continues as students develop a better understanding of turn taking and perspective taking. There is also an educational piece happening simultaneously as the staff are teaching students that communication both verbal and non-verbal allows people to connect and understand one another. Our building team continues to foster these opportunities. Our students are eager to know more. While we've piloted some in-building connections you'll hear more about on the next slide, what is even more exciting is when students look to initiate play and engagement on their own. Recently, we had a cohort
050of second graders ask their teacher how they can interact and initiate play with our kindergarten special class students. A huge success that bloomed this year with our 913 students is the work done with their fourth grade book buddies. This opportunity has allowed for our fourth graders to connect with our neurodeiverse learners. Here are some reflections directly from the students as their voices really always tell it best. They've shared feelings of honor and warmth, saying things like, "It's been fun getting to know my buddy and learning what they like so I can help." And it makes me feel like we belong and we're connected to each other. Many students have highlighted how their experiences have deepened their empathy with one student reflecting by saying, "I like being their helper now, just like when I had my
051fifth grade buddy." The connections are not just academic. Students have described special moments of genuine bonding like when their buddy gave them a hug or when they collaborated on creating posters together. These experiences have created lasting memories and genuine friendships, such as one student mentioning, "When I met my buddy, I knew it was going to be a great year." This program extends beyond the classroom. It's about building a community where everyone feels valued. It's about fostering friendships, shared experiences, and a deeper sense of community. I will now turn it over to Mrs. Goldweight, who will share a few examples of what this looks like in practice at the secondary level. So, one thing we do really well in the world of special education is adapt. And you might have noticed there was a few other
052presenters that were supposed to be presenting with us this evening. You're going to pretend like I live in HBT, work in HBT. I'm an HBT member. My office is there. However, many of the things I'm going to speak to are directly from our HBT staff and learners. Um, so one of the first things, and let me just go back to my area, uh, is that the great work that's being done at the elementary school and continues in the middle school level. Students who are a part of the RISE program are first and for first and foremost a part of HBT. They participate in various field trips including the one to urban air that's highlighted in these pictures and engage in clubs and activities including serendipity cooking club and HBTV. Moreover, our students in RISE participate
053in their exploratory classes. Art, for example, provides an ideal opportunity for students in RISE to work sidebyside with their general education peers. This has allowed all of our students to shine and grow in the classroom and also during art competitions. Our occupational therapist, Miss Pantel, and our speech proi provider, Miss Cicada at HPT, shared the following regarding their corporation of expertise alongside the students in the RISE program. Our RISE program integrates occupational and speech therapy services by developing the functional, motor, and communication skills necessary for daily routines, prevocational experiences, and social connections. This is then reinforced through our social skills programs, our school store, our kids in the kitchen, and our coffee cart, which collaboratively fosters well-rounded life skills for greater autonomy. In the photos that are included here, you will see some of what
054our related service providers are referencing. In addition to our urban air photos, the other picture shows members of our HBT community gathered together for some exciting cooking opportunities during multicultural week. One of our world language teachers works directly with our students in the RISE program multiple times a week, engaging them in activities surrounding cultural competency. An added bonus is that some of these students have started to pick up Spanish along the way. To again build on the elementary school, HBT has incorporated an increased use and understanding of low tech, high-tech, and visual aids throughout the building to support student learning and community engagement. We do have a buddy program that fosters peer engagement strategies and bolsters connections between those students. In addition to the buddy program, another example of engagement strategies comes from our school
055store. Last year, our rise students designed and opened a school store at HPT. Since its inception, this has been an incredible opportunity for schoolwide engagement for all learners and our teachers. The store is staffed by our students alongside at varying times other support staff, related service providers, and teachers. This allows for the ongoing blending of functional academics and life skills in an intellectually and socially engaging atmosphere. And for those of you who may have some retail experience in your past, you know what it's like to meet a customer's demands. Everyone involved in the school store, from the patrons to the staff, work together to asssure that sales are running smoothly. with one of our retail associates recently sharing with us that she absolutely loves having her friends come to visit her at the school store.
056I would also like to mention our rise and shine which is a school coffee shop. Do not worry, we do not serve coffee to students, but it is something that our students and staff understand as a hub of Friday mornings at HBT. Our RISE participants, with the periodic support of some of our general education students, make sure that all of our staff is fueled and ready to go. One of our own baristas recently shared that she loves making coffee deliveries, while another one shared that he likes making his teachers happy. These opportunities highlight our interdisciplinary approach to learning with hands-on experiences and allows us to focus on the soft skills that our students will need for future collaboration and success. When we focus on this final pillar, it's really something that we want to make
057sure we focus on and it's our Challenger program. We currently run Challenger basketball cheer and track and field. This was our first year hosting Challenger Cheer, which ran as an integrated model. While I would love to take credit for this idea, it was not mine or any member of HBT. It was one of our students dreams to be a cheerleader. With both her advocacy and the support of our athletic department, our teachers and the students, this dream became a reality this year for her. Moreover, our challenger basketball games not only incorporated our cheer program this year and included our band and members of other various HBT clubs. These games were truly schoolwide and school-inclusive events. This is what Siosid is all about. It demonstrates our shared commitment to meeting the needs of all of our
058students. Please be on the lookout for future challenger opportunities, possibly soccer in the fall. The last part of our presentation is going to focus more on not what we do here in school, but how what we do in here in school has extended outside of our school boundaries. Two specific examples that illustrate how students have taken their own initiative to create more inclusive opportunities within the SIASIC community are unity tennis and adaptive softball. Louisie Paredo, Anna Steinberg and Jake Steinberg, Sioset High School students wanted to share their love of tennis with all students. So together with the support of Mr. Stuber, Coach Fiser, and the collaboration with SEPTA, they offered a multi-series session clinic working with students on learning how to play tennis. 14 of our Siosid students participated in this clinic. But Lou, Anna,
059and Jake do not want this to end here. Their end goal is to try and make unity tennis become a challenger sport in the future. The second example of student initiative inclusive sport opportunities come from HBT student Sahara Assal and Southwood student Sia Meta. Both who are here tonight and will be sharing with you their experience. These two eighth grade students both attended South Grove Elementary School together and have stayed friends throughout their softball and Girl Scouts connection. Last year they both decided to do their Girl Scouts silver award project together and this project was aimed to expose neurodeiverse students to sports like softball. I want to introduce CIA and Sarah to the podium to be able to share how their idea came to reality. Thank you Miss Goldweight. Hi everyone. I'm Sahara and I'm
060Sia. We realize that in our community there are not enough opportunities for neurodyiverse girls and boys to play sports in general, but specifically softball. We have not seen enough teams and programs for some students to participate in. We want to help all kids have the chance to learn basic softball skills and be part of a team environment. This has been such an important part of our lives and we wanted other students to get a chance to have a positive experience with other kids in sports. We have been playing softball together for four years and want to share the success that we felt with our Siosid Cyclones team. We started with an introduction with all of the participants meeting their bunny their buddies and an icebreaker to get everyone comfortable. Then we gathered in a circle
061to do stretches and warm-up. We had each of the buddies and participants run the bases and members of our team would give high fives and encouragement along the way. Then we started each of our three stations, throwing and catching, fielding, and hitting. We used whiffle balls, foam bats and balls, and TE's. We also brought some of our softball gloves for the participants to try on and use if they wanted to. After the stations, we gathered the parents and participants for an award ceremony. Each participant received a certificate from their buddy, and their buddy said one thing that stood out about them. Finally, we served pizza and refreshments to everyone and thanked them for coming and helping us have such a successful clinic. Overall, the clinic was a huge hit and we felt that we had
062such a positive impact. After the clinic, we created a Google form to receive feedback from the participants and their parents. One question that we asked was their thoughts on their overall clinic. One parent said, "Thank you for creating something wonderful for children who don't always feel successful with typical activities." Another parent said, "Everything was well organized. Everyone was welcoming, positive, and warm. We were so grateful to receive this feedback because this is this is exactly what we are striving to do." We originally started at this clinic as a project for our Girl Scout Silver Award, but it became so much more than that, and we felt like it was an easy decision to do another clinic this year. During the clinic, C and I had a great time connecting with each of the participants and
063sharing our love for softball with them. We loved seeing our teammates unite with the kids and get to know the participants over the stations and lunch. After hearing that positive feedback, we realized how much fun and inclusion it brought to the kids. We hope that we can start a pattern of many more opportunities for neurodeiverse children to be part of a team environment and experience sports in the life-changing way that me and CIA have. Thank you. So, not only am I filling in for people who are not here, it's extremely challenging to follow students to end a presentation, but I'm going to do my best. Um, this is exactly why we're here and this is exactly why we do what we do. Uh it speaks volumes for our inclusive, accepting and affirming community, especially the
064work that some of the students through Unity tennis and adaptive softball have highlighted for us. In the years that I have been here in Sioset, I have seen this district grow programming to meet the everchanging needs of our students all the way up to age 22. In the last three years alone, we have been able to extend an on-ramp to support diverse learners through an expanded capacity within our buildings. Our 913 program and RISE program as well as our studentled initiatives are part of what this shift looks like. We are proud of where we are today and we believe that we have more than just a strong foundation established. We will continue to open doors and build community with the support of everyone committed to ensuring that Siosid is a home for all learners. I
065want to thank you for your continued support and your guidance in allowing us to do this work. Thanks and open to questions. Thank you for for the presentation and of course the students and the team as well. Um this is just I'm very proud to be part of this community. Okay. Are there any questions for um Okay. All right. Mr. Rotolo and Miss Evansson. Thank you, Miss Gowith. I I can't thank you enough and um Dr. Mchuan. Um so um I was fortunate to meet both of you on your interviews and I remember meeting Aaron and she had me on child and family centric um when I heard her speak those words and I knew she cared deeply about our students. Um I was really fortunate that we were able the board was able to
066go to the 931 class and these were uh kindergarteners, first graders, um non-verbal um so the work that your group is doing is amazing. What I wanted to also say is just to point out the importance of keeping our children in the district. So everybody doesn't understand what happens is if your child is non-verbal and is in first or second grade and now you're putting them on a bus and they're going far away, that's going to be very difficult for that child. So the fact that we are able to keep the children in house is tremendous. Um the fact that we're able to integrate and make students feel like they belong is also lifechanging. It's not something nice. it's going to make a difference in someone's life. So, if you're a child and you're in
067a self-contained class, you don't have any other friends, you don't get to go to music, you don't get to play sports, you just stay in that class, which is very difficult. So, I cannot thank you all um enough for the work that you've done. It's a blessing. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Abinson. I also don't have a question. I just want to first congratulations, but also thank you just so much because that's the goal. The goal is community. The goal is, you know, to have children demanding for cheerleading so that they can be more inclusive. That's what we're trying to build here. So, just thank you and keep going and let us know what we can do to help. But thanks again. Thank you. Okay. Are there any more questions? Um, Mr. Astric. Uh, thank
068you, Miss Goldweight. So, um, our BCBAS, do you know what our FTEES are up to and, uh, where they cover across the district? So, we have three total BCBAs in the district currently. Um, one of them is specifically assigned right now to the high school in HBT and then the other two, one of them um, ser uh, supports four of our elementary schools and the other BCVA does three of our elementary schools and Southwoods Middle School. So that it's a little specific depending upon number of need within each of those buildings. So we have it equally dispersed amongst each of the three BCBAs. Just one more quick question. So, thank you. Um, I don't want to devolve into a statement, but I I do want to say that over the last few years, I've had
069the opportunity to see the way SEPTA has expanded both parent and faculty participation. I know that you were talking about the um professional development and that is starting to really show in terms of participation in SEPTA. Dr. Rogers, the question that I um had for you is as you think about the increased need that we're seeing across the district, how do we like what are the next 3 to 5 years look like in terms of the next set of development that we're going to be targeting uh as you think about the growing population. Thanks for the question. I think some of it is known and some of it's unknown. So, it's easier to talk about what's unknown because um in some ways I can describe why it's unknown. So, with the two 913 classes that
070we created at the elementary school were um well, we've created one and we're planning to create another next year, but we're proud of that because it allows us to educate these students here. But the reason why those classes make sense is because the students came to us with the right set of needs for that to be the right programming option for them. So, uh, we have a little bit of a glimpse of what the current UPK class looks like that's informing our design of next year's, uh, kindergarten 913 class, but it's hard to see what the third graders uh, threeyear-olds look like now because we don't really have a sense of who they are. So whether we continue this growth in 913 classes for our youngest learners will likely depend on who's in that class
071of three-year-olds in the school district. But I do think that this cohort the these now two grades of 913 classes at the very least will hopefully stay with us through the course of these children's 12 13 14 years with us. So serving them as they age into other programs is kind of a definite. So we have to think about what those programs will look like as these children become over older, eventually enter middle school. In terms of the longer arc of uh special education services here in the district, I'd say there's been two broad goals. Broad goal number one has been to try and find uh optimal service models. So, as Miss Goldweight said, uh, prior to 22, um, you know, one of the decisions we made was to expand the ICT program. When I
072arrived here 11 years ago, ICT only existed in the middle schools. So, we started to talk about how uh, students needs were being served in the elementary school and in the high school. And we decided that it made sense uh, to branch out in both directions from the middle school, start to create some ICT programs at the high school, and also start to create some ICT programs at the elementary school. and again driven by student need. So we have seen those programs both at elementary school and at high school grow. Um so I think part of what uh we need to do over the next two or three years is think about whether that model uh is the model that we're going to keep or whether there's as it's grown it's an opportunity to look
073at it and say is there a way that we should refine this or do it differently. So I think that's one of the things that I anticipate in the future. And then the the third point is maybe less in um special education but in adjacent student services. Uh we're finding um more a larger range of needs not just within our needs population but in u other students who are uh presenting with some needs that need additional support. So you asked question about uh behavior analysts, BCBAs. Uh again when I arrived here 11 years ago we didn't have any and so now 11 years later we have three and um find that they're fully subscribed in terms of their you of their uh roles. So I think there is an overall trajectory of seeing more need
074in the student population and I think that need um deepened after co and so some of it is calibrating the models to make sure we have the right models in place and some of it is just calibrating the number of resources that we have and that's driven by student need. Okay. Are there any more questions? Dr. Park. Thank you for the pres presentation and um your team truly is transforming this um special ed education for our students and I believe our students do feel empowered and the stigma of being labeled as a special as student I think is diminishing and that's just a wonderful thing to see and the what you said about inclusive teaching and everyone feeling valued and I just hope and pray that that translates to the whole school and every level.
075Um and just wonderful things you're doing. I have two questions and one comment. One thing about the comment first um when you say you're keeping our students with high um needs here in school and bringing back the kids who are out of school out of district to back to school. I think there is a huge benefit for the parents. As a parent, if my child is staying in in one of the 10 schools, it will make me feel so much safer, comforted, and that security that you are giving to the family, I think, is tremendous. And that benefit I think is something that you should um you know, write it in the one of the benefits. Um two questions. One is you said there is an increase in children with special ed um need. Do
076you think that the reason is because you're just better at recognizing the need or is there a true uh stu true increase in number of students who require that and do you see a reason why the students need more help? Is it the result of COVID? Is some other is just increased number of our students? Um so that's one question and second question is last month we heard a spectacular uh presentation on AI for our general ed um for our special ed students will integrating AI um to the to their curriculum will it be more complex will it be more resource intensive than general education and uh what unique challenges do you foresee be for our staff ed staff to integrate AI to their training. Um those two questions. Well, thank you to start and
077then um I'll take each question in a in a row. Um so if I knew the answer to your first question, I would be able to solve a lot of problems. Um so I don't have the exact answer. I think it's multivariable. Um I think we have many more students um that are kind of continuously coming here to Sioset and that's definitely adding some increased levels of support and need that we're seeing. Uh we are seeing some of our early learners uh identified on a um I think parents are a little bit more aware and so we're seeing a little bit of an increase in our CPSC referrals or requests to be able to look into areas of potential need. Um and I think that there were definitely quite a few years where students had
078some different aspects that even as adults we struggled navigating. COVID being one of them. Um but even prior to COVID there were some uh difficulties with lots of different types of new variables that are in that are interacting with our students worlds like social media and technology that are kind of changing the way a students brains are actually wired the younger that they are and b the way that they're able to interact successfully within schools. So I think that there's a lot of reasons why we might seeing an increased need or at least a more specific areas of needs that we can identify how to support students within district here. Um so I know it's not a total answer. I think there's a lot of factors that impact why we have see students who have
079different needs and I think also it's not necessarily that there's a new outpouring of students with needs. I think we also found an opportunity here. So we were able to find space. we were able to be able to find a cohort of students that we knew would be create a good commu a classroom community together. So looking proactively at those options have also really ne um allowed us to enhance what those programs look like here in district. So I think there's lots of pieces to answer your first question. Um the second one just remind me again quick. So I want to make sure I don't I miss any parts of it. AI. So uh it's so funny actually I don't know if any of the ICT teachers are here. We actually talked about ICT uh
080AI in our ICT department meeting this morning. Um um AI can be a little tricky because what we do in the world of special education is individualized learning and AI. We want to be really thoughtful about how much personal information we're plugging into a system to be able to then kind of help out. There is an AI pilot that is being worked on. Miss an is actually helping kind of spearhead that in the sense of how can we take information to create in interventions and instructional options for students. Um so to help teachers kind of come up with new ideas on on different types of interventions that are out there. So that is something that's happening now. And I think that's something too that even in the sense of some of the uh projects we
081saw at last uh month's board of ed meeting uh the the specialized decodable books that's for every learner not just some learners. So, we're able to kind of integrate how AI can benefit any learner by thinking about special education and general education students in that model. Um, I think when it comes to students, that's a that's something we're all going to be kind of working together toward next and how can we help students learn and understand how to use AI for their benefit and not necessarily uh for a shortcut. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rotolo. Also, are we identifying students earlier too through our UPK program? So, I do think that at it allows us to get a closer look at students and to be very honest, one of the real benefits of UPK is working
082collaboratively with Dr. Wjuk to be able to support the staff that are working with our students in UPK. So at times it might give us an earlier glimpse of looking at students and working collaboratively with staff to see if students are able to respond to intervention before we think about classification. Um that is definitely one piece that is giving us a little bit of a greater in-depth look. CP the world of preschool special education CPSC always had a look into multiple programs. Now that as a district we're kind of bringing them together under UPK it does allow for a more collaborative and more um thoughtful approach to looking at students and supporting them at that level. And I know too when I came to observe the 931 class, I had noticed that we were using
083um other tools like the tablets um and I know those, you know, maybe children that have hearing um issues or um a language barrier um or other physical disabilities. Can you expand a little bit more on some of those tools that help educate? And it actually can ask answer a little bit of u Mr. Ostrich's question in the sense of where are we going next with our programming? One of the things that we were able to do is utilize we have an assistant tech consultant uh that works within district here, Miss Lewis, working collaboratively with one of our speech and language teachers, Mashier at Barry Hill, who really have come together to want to become experts in the utilization and um even in evaluations for AAC devices. So finding opportunities where our own internal staff
084want to be able to be the ones where we're not seeking out services from out of district to be able to support in students district. we actually carved out opportunities and time for them to do the evaluations, for them to program the devices, and then to work and collaborate with our teachers in the moment. So, that's a part of things that we've been able to enhance and develop internally here by finding different staff members that are f uh taking initiative and wanting to grow and learn and develop and then share that learning with others. That's one opportunity that we've been able to build here in district through this programming. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. You could go home. Sia and Sahara, before you SIA and Sahara, I just wanted to first
085of all compliment you on the incredible work that you're doing and wish you the best of luck next Sunday uh with the next event. But I also want to tell you a little story. So the board is aware of this. You might not be. I have an older brother who has uh multiple disabilities. He's deaf, but he also has cerebral palsy. And that makes us a very when I was growing up in the we'll call it the late '7s, um it made us a very conspicuous family when we were out in public. And so I understand what it feels like to be uh a conspicuous person in that way. And a lot has changed since the 1970s, but I can't imagine how our lives would have been different if there were a couple of really
086cool eighth graders that decided to make us feel welcome in what was going on. I think that would have been a gamecher for us. So, I hope you realize that um you are a gamecher for a lot of people by what you're doing. And uh I know I'm not supposed to get emotional up here and I'm pretty good at keeping it all under control, but it uh it reminds me of what it was like to grow up in a a special family and I just think that what you're doing is extraordinary. So I admire you so much for it and I just want you to know from somebody who had part of this experience um that I know what you're doing is making a difference. I'm sure of it. Now you can watch us do
087the rest of our work or you can go get some sleep. So those are your choices. Okay. Thank you Dr. Rogers for sharing that um touch such a touching and personal stories and uh I wish the uh uh Sierra and Sarah the best of luck and just continue uh to keep up with the great great work. Thank you. And we have no legislative items, no discussion items and no unfinish business and we are going to to do our new business and 13A is the approval of staff changes. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Rotolo seconded by Miss Koshia. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 13B is the approval of stipens and hourly rates 2024 2025. Can I have a motion, please? Miss Falco, second by Miss um Levitan. Are there
088any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 13C is the appointment of interim director of pupil personnel services revised. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Rotolo, seconded by Miss Einson. Are there any questions? All in favor? opposed. Any abstensions? 13 14A is the first reading of revised policy 2300 and that is the board board of ad membership and the second reading of the stated policy will be during the u June 9th 2025 board meeting. The set policy will be available for inspection on district website. 14B is the approval of settlement agreement and general release. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Greco, second by Miss Falco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14 C is the approval of settlement, greetment, and general release. And can I have a motion, please,
089Mr. Tolo, seconded by Miss Koshia. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15A is the authorization of service contracts. Can I have a motion, please? Miss Levitton. Second by Miss Gre Mr. Greco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15B is the authorization for health services. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Rotolo, seconded by Miss Koshia. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15 C is the award of bids. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Greo, second by Miss Levitan. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15D is the approval of request for proposal award for property and casualty insurance services 2025 2026. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Rotolo, second by Miss Everson. Are there any questions? All in
090favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15E is the authorization to participate in cooperative CDW government LLC. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Greo, seconded by Miss Levit. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15F is the acceptance of donations regeneron science talent search 2025 school award. Can I have a motion please? M Dr. Park seconded by Miss Ason. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15G is the acceptance of donation tree. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Greco, seconded by Miss Levitan. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 15H is the disposal of broken surplus and or absolutely equipment, supplies, and books. Can I have a motion, please? Miss M Miss Koshia, seconded by Miss Abinson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions?
091Okay. Okay. And next we're moving to the audience to the public's and please just bear with me as I read the the new newly adopted procedures. The board of ad values community input and provides opportunities to offer that input via email or in person. Persons who wish to speak during audience to the public must register online to speak in advance of the meeting by 5:00 pm the day of the board meeting. A link to the pre-registration form will be ma made available on the homepage on the district website on week one week before the meeting. Persons wishing to address the board of ed in person doing audience to the public must conform to procedures adopted by the board. Speakers remarks must conform to the following rules. All speakers and observers are required to conduct themselves
092in a respectful and civil manner in accordance with the rules set by the board. Speakers must address the board only, not members of the audience or the audience as a whole. Speakers must limit their comments to issues concerning school district operations, school district affairs, or board policy. Because of rights protected by state and federal law, no speaker may speak about an individual student or staff member. Nor will the board or administration entertain questions in public regarding collective bargaining, negotiation, personnel matters, student matters, or legal matters. No speaker may speak about decisions involving specific personnel or specific students. If a speaker wishes to address the board concerning