Board of Education Meeting - February 9, 2026

001Good evening everyone. Okay, welcome to our February board of education meeting. And before we get started, I would like to ask everyone to uh please stand for the pledge. >> 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. Thank you. Please take a seat. And uh for tonight's meeting, we are going to uh begin our meeting uh with the presentation of the regeneron semi finalist lists. And we'll have our um lead research facilitator from the high school uh Miss um Heather Miller to introduce the students, please. Hi, good evening everyone. Oh, thank you so much for having us here tonight. Um, we wanted to thank the board and the administration and the community

002not only for inviting us here but also for your continued support of our research program. This year we submitted 34 projects to the Regeneron Science Talent Search Competition. And at an average of 90 pages per application, this represents over 3,000 pages and hundreds of hours of work by our students and staff. Tonight, you will hear from three of our students who are recognized as scholars in the science talent search. They were selected among the top 300 high school research students in the country in another year of a record-breaking number of STS applications. Each student will present a brief summary of their project accompanied by a slide that will also be pres presented. Um so without further ado further ado, our first student scholar tonight is Elaine Leu. [applause] Hello everyone. My name is Elaine Louu

003and my research focused on the effects of apology strategies on the spread and intensity of cancel culture incidents. I'm sorry. Such a phrase has been uttered since the earliest forms of human interaction. And in the digital age, one of its most common and pervasive forms is on social media. With the rise of cancel culture, which is the public condemnation of an individual for objectionable actions, there not only comes increased online apologies, but distinct strategies that can mitigate or amplify the negative consequences of cancel culture such as job losses or reputational damages. And so although pre-existing literature identifies specific apology strategies such as Benoy and Lazair's effective apology strategies as seen on this chart, there comes the there's limited research looking into the effects of choosing one specific apology strategy such as denial over another like

004corrective action. And therefore, my research sought to focus on whether a specific apology strategy impacts the spread or intensity of a cancel culture incident. And I ultimately hypothesized that strategy would impact both spread and intensity. And so using a linguistic analysis software called LIWC22, I classified 50 apology strategies online by their primary apology strategy. And then I measured spread using InStrak engagement metric growth and I measured intensity using mention litics sentiment and reputational analysis. And ultimately what my research found was that among apologies that utilized two strategies which were explanations or acknowledging the offense, there was a statistically significant lower average comments growth supporting my hypothesis that spread is impacted by the strategy utilized. And so these findings suggest by stating what the offense was through explanations or describing why the offense occurred without attempts

005at minimization or justification through acknowledging the offense. There could be more effective strategies in alleviating mental health, financial, and reputational consequences of taking accountability in the modern and future day. And therefore, my research provides valuable insight for anybody who may one day find themselves saying, "I'm sorry," under the spotlight. Thank you. Have a nice day. Okay, our second STS scholar is Grace Leu. [applause] Good evening everyone and thank you so much for coming. My name is Grace Louu. Today I would like to present my research on gender disparities in entrepreneurship. We lose $23 million in global GDP every minute due to gender disparities in entrepreneurship. In fact, in the United States, only 2% of venture capital is given to femaleled startups. The United Nations has identified promoting women entrepreneurs as a crucial means to lower

006poverty. Yet, why are there so still still so so few women entrepreneurs? My research uses a behavioral economics approach to measure and identify the root causes of these gaps. So, I started by developing a um novel mathematical decision theory model that essentially represents the gendered behavior of entrepreneurs when they face uncertainty. Based on this theoretical decision theory model, I identified the global entrepreneurship monitor as a key data set to proxy my theoretical parameters. And from there, I created a panel data set. Based on this panel data set, I used SATA, which is a statistical analysis software to run some econometrics and regressions. My results were that aversion towards uncertainty severely hinders women from becoming entrepreneurs. Um but confidence from personally knowing an entrepreneur can extremely benefit um women and encourage them be to become successful

007entrepreneurs which is really really interesting. And overall my results support my original theoretical model and they really serve to highlight the importance of policies to reduce systemic uncertainty for women entrepreneurs to overall cultivate a female friendly economic entrepreneurship ecosystem. So, my research fills the the gap by identifying and measuring um these gender gaps and providing these science-based recommendations um for future policies. Thank you so much. [applause] And our final scholar this year is Nquille Shaw. [applause] Good evening, Dr. Rogers, Dr. Curry, Miss Chang, and the board of education. Thank you for inviting us to share our research today. So, my project examines the impact of the federal sentencing guidelines on racial disparities in federal sentencing. And I focused on a core social and economic issue, which is racial disparities in sentencing. Well, what are racial

008disparities? I'd like to share a quick example. In 2008, two similar defendants stood before the same judge in a Florida courtroom. They were identical in nearly every sentencing factor. They committed the same crime. They had the same criminal history. They were the same age. Yet, they differed in that they had different races. One of them, a white defendant, received two years in federal prison, while the other, a black defendant, received 26 years. Now, that might sound like a coincidence or a fluke, but it's really not because there are thousands of other cases like this that reflect the deep rooted racial inequalities that have plagued the US justice system for decades. So, in the late 20th century, Congress sought to address these disparities, and they created the federal sentencing guidelines, which is the US government's main

009set of policies that judges are supposed to use while sentencing. The guidelines were intended to mitigate racial disparities. However, up until conducting my research, it hasn't been clear whether or not the guidelines are at all effective at reducing disparities. So, I decided to conduct this project, essentially evaluating the effectiveness of the guidelines. And I did this using the United States Sentencing Commission's interactive data analyzer. I collected around 26,000 federal drug trafficking cases and compared how judges applied the guidelines with the resulting disparity between black and white defendants. And what I found was was rather striking because in each year that I examined 2015 through 2024, there was no meaningful relationship between these variables. Even when judges apply the guidelines at consistently high rates, racial disparities persisted, indicating that the guidelines aren't effective at mitigating disparity.

010So my research points to a critical policy gap as the government's main policy for mitigating disparities does nothing of the sort. And I hope that my data will help policymakers figure out how they might be able to reform the guidelines or look beyond the federal sentencing guidelines and create new models of federal sentencing as many scholars actually criticize the guidelines and identify many flaws with them. So hopefully I hope my data and my project in at in whole will help create a more just and equitable sentencing system for all Americans. Thank you. >> [applause] >> I just want to thank you one more time for your time and for having us and also take this opportunity to invite everyone to our research symposium on June 4th so that you can see even more of our

011amazing research projects. Thank you. [applause] Thank you again for their presentation and congratulations to the three outstanding students, their families and the uh the high school research program. It's been just amazing seeing these kids flourish and we wish them the best of luck in the future. Thank you again. Okay. And uh we are going to uh continue with our meeting. Um okay. >> Oh yeah, sure. In order to create a graceful opportunity to for Nquille to join us up here on stage, I'll just uh comment that it has been uh a source of pride for me to watch the evolution of this program over the last 12 years. And I think as proud as we are of uh these three young people for the quality of their research and uh the national recognition that it's

012received, I'm really proud that we have now 34 students who put together competition quality research. Um that is a remarkable testament to the growth of the program and to the tremendous investment of time and energy that the faculty uh put into the students who are interested in pursuing research and a student who's capable of putting together a product that is worthy of being entered in this competition is a student that is wellprepared to pursue research if that's something that they want to do. So I think uh the fact that we're giving more and more students that opportunity year after year uh just means that uh our high school students have yet one more thing that they can pursue if this is what uh they hope to do uh with their lives. So uh with that

013Miss Chang, thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh we are beginning our budget season and today is going to be our first of many uh budget information presentation. So we are going to have Dr. Rufol our assistant superintendent for business services and who will be presenting uh this year's budget. Dr. Rule Oops. >> Good evening and welcome to our first budget presentation for the 26 27 um school year. Um tonight's presentation will be um followed by um three more presentations. The budget will be um adopted in April and we'll have the budget vote on May 19th. So tonight we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about the U budget climate, touch on state aid. The executive um uh state aid runs have come out. Um I'll show you a preliminary estimate of

014our tax cap and we'll go through the capital codes and the administrative codes. So um 26 27 um similar to the last couple of years will will have its challenges. Um some of the factors that um are delivering some pressure on the budget for 2627 um include health insurance premiums this year. Um and we've been talking about health insurance for a couple of years because we've had some um significant increases. So this year for 2026, health insurance premiums increased almost 9% eight and change um for individuals and families and actually higher for some Medicare rates. So that's going to be um a significant increase um for us and we're still working through those numbers. Um but um we'll we'll come back to that u next month when we go through. But that increase could be

015as high as uh $5 million up in the high fours. Um we have in inflationary increases. We've been talking um we've been talking about inflation for several years. Um and we have some of our contracts that are tied to inflation. We bid out for many of our products, many of our um paper and books and and um and we've been seeing escalations in those prices. And I you can look and see on both of those charts on the bottom chart um I got from the controllers's website and that's been tracking um CPI and inflationary increases over the last um five years. And so while schools have been held over the last five years to the 2% um for our initial growth factor um you can see that the cumulative effect in the last five years

016of actual inflations is more than double that over 22%. And so that's eroding our ability um to purchase um the same products um without those significant increases. And that chart to the right just shows how um the red on the chart on the upper uh right corner is the tax levy. And so the tax cap is there and then you have CPI which is the blue line getting further and further away. And that and that distance sort of represents the inflationary difference that that we're seeing and struggling under. Uh similar to the last few years, um we will continue to structure a budget and have goals um that are listed up there. Um we want to preserve our programs and services for students despite these inflationary pressures. Um but we're going to need to do

017that in an in an efficient way. And we're going to refine offerings to meet evolving interests of students. But as interests perhaps Wayne um in certain topics, we're going to need to modify those maybe sections or topics so that we can address areas of growth. We're going to continue to support the social and emotional well-being of our students. Over the last several years, we have hired social workers, um, psychologists, behavior analysts, and we have are strengthening the support around our students, and that's going to continue to be a focus for us. We are going to continue um with our capital work and preserve our infrastructure and our buildings, and we're going to do projects to that complement the capital bond work that we are um that we're engaged in now. And those smaller scale projects

018are done through the district's budget, not part of the bond project. And we're going to continue to provide um fiscal stability. And you know, over the last couple of years um particularly last year, we've leaned into our res in using our reserves. Um and that has helped protect our program from some adverse um financial um situations in in health care and in pensions that we've been experiencing. And um and it's likely we're going to continue um to have to continue to do that. And fiscal stability is not only important um in preserving our program and keeping the district strong. Um it's important to the external um players too. The OSC Office of State Controller does a annual now uh fiscal stress test that we've done um well under. Um that's a concern. the um the

019market for our borrowings, our TANS and our that we do each year. They look at our financial statements and we want to present um a strong continue to present a strong strong fiscal health so that we get the best rates on our when we go out to borrow. are going to be borrowing for our um $140 million bonds and we want to maintain the fiscal health that um that we have. The other factor as it's been for the last I guess this is the 17th year 15 16th or 17th year of the tax cap um and right now we're looking at a tax cap a calculated tax cap of 2.37% and over the years we've been able to accumulate um more than 11 million under the cap the last couple of years it's been very

020difficult um you can see on that chart when you know we didn't have the inflation factor there was a big distance between our actual um tax levy and the cap and that's been more difficult um to manage in these later years. So this is right off of the controllers's website. Um I'm required to submit the tax cap on March 1st. Um the actual tax cap is final after the board adopts the budget in April, but we're required to submit March 1st and then the controller often releases those numbers even though they are preliminary. And for us this year especially, they'll be preliminary because the debt service number, which is how much borrowing we're going to do and project interest payments um into next year, is part of the tax cap. And as our projects get

021approved by the state, that number will fluctuate. So that 2.37 is where we are today. As projects get approved, that may um go up. Some good news um on the state aid uh front. So our state aid went up about um 10% approximately $3.6 million. So that's very good news. um mainly in foundation aid which went up about $2 million. We also had a bump up in um transportation aid and building aid as some of the projects um uh from phase 2. More of that aid is is coming in. So um while that's very good news, uh state aid accounts uh for approximately 13% of the district's budget. So I'm very very happy to have it. um it represents still a very small proportion of our overall uh revenue. Other good news on the um

022state front is uh UPK funding um has also um increased um in terms of um there's no cap on the number of students for 2627. This is in the executive budget and the allocation for students has increased from 5,400 to 10,000 and the executive budget propo uh proposes that by um 20089 uh that all four year olds are are enrolled. So, I'm going to move on to the two sections of the budget that we're going to uh review tonight. And the first is the capital section. And the state requires um the format of the budget be broken out into capital, admin, and program. And the codes that are in um each of those is is a is sort of dictated by the state. So, there isn't a lot of flexibility. But I wanted to make

023the point that the capital section of the budget excludes the capital work that we are doing that is part of the bond. This is um this is these are smaller scale projects um that are done as part of the district's budget versus the capital work. So to the right you can see the codes and the areas that make up the um capital plan. That's our custodial and maintenance, our security, and then our debt service on our borrowings and then the transfer to capital are those small projects that we do as part of the district budget. There are several mechanisms just to go over one more time because it is a little bit confusing how districts are able to fund capital um capital projects. Some of them are small. They're part of the maintenance budget. Well,

024you'll see them in a moment. Um some of them are a little bit larger and they are called transfer to capital and those receive um building aid and those go up to the state for approval. Maintenance budget projects don't go to the state for approval. We can also use our capital reserve and that's another mechanism for funding projects or a bond issue which as you know phase three we're in that. So just before I talk about the capital codes, just a refresher on the format. We show the 2627 proposed budget and we're still early in the process. So these numbers are all still draft. We have the 2526 adopted, then the dollar percentage change. And then it's also important to look at your actual expenditures, how much you've been spending. So we present three years

025of actual expenditures and then the FTEES or the staff that we have and there's um not there's no projected change in the um bottomline staff in the capital in the capital area. So the capital codes are projected to increase by approximately 2.5 million or about 8%. Um the increase is driven primarily by an estimate for new debt service um for the bands as well as a higher allocation for both security and then utilities. The estimate for debt service for the first borrowing is um is dependent on projects approval. We can only borrow money for those projects that have been approved by the state. So that will continue to be updated. So the first um and I'm just going to go through where there's some material v variances. I'm not going to go through every code.

026So custodial operations and that contains all of the custodial staff for our 10 buildings, costs for um staff overtime um cleaning district-wide costs for utilities and the supplies and equipment um that are purchased. So the increase of 481 or 4% is primarily the result of um increases in utilities. If you look up about midway down of the third column, you can see those account for about 133 for electricity,000 increase and 185 for natural gas. And they represent um an escalation um in rates and as well as a smaller amount to account for new spaces um due to construction and then the demands on the facility for constructions uh construction. the we always take a look we we talk to our vendors and we also take a look at the US um EI EIA short-term energy

027forecast to get a sense of where um where things are going for next year and they have some forecasts that natural gas prices could increase by 33% in 2027 due to supply demand imbalances and I don't have that much of an increase in here but we do anticipate um that expenditure ES could um could go up substantially. Um I'm forecasting about an 18%. I think we're going to be under we're running about 18% over um for this year. Contractual salary adjustments um and then also contribute to the increase as well as a higher allocation for overtime in anticipation of in-house um capital projects. you know, each time we're going to do a capital project that's um part of the budget, we decide, well, what's the best way to do it? What's the most economical? Do

028we use in-house staff? Maybe we have to pay overtime. And then we compare that to um going out to a contractor. And so, where it makes sense, we do in-house projects. And where it makes sense, we contract. And then down at the bottom you can see the different contractual services that are included um as part of the um custodial operations code. The next code maintenance we have a significant our largest part of that code besides salary is is contractual services and those are listed on the uh left hand side all the different services that the district contracts for to keep the buildings running. And that's our to the right is our preliminary equipment list um for next year. Replacement. These are all replacement vehicles, replacement um office furniture, sort of the standard things that um

029that we do each year. Oh, you'll also see there's a decrease in um in non-instructional part-time. Uh, and that's not really in salaries. That's not really a reduction of staff. We had that number higher because we were using part-time staff to cover some for some vacancies. They're now fully uh staffed. So, we're anticipating a decline in that going forward. Um, code 1631 contains all expenses for district-wide security. It's in-house staff, uh, full-time, part-time, as well as contracted, uh, staff through our outside firm. So, security expenses driven mainly by, if you look up at the third row, um, you can see that's pretty much responsible for the increase. Um, the bottom line increase is about 318 and about 280 of that is a result of, um, part-time salaries. And if you look at you and some

030of that increase for next year is really an adjustment to actual spending. If you look at 2425, you can see that actual expenditures were a million48 which is um higher than we had um projected for 45 and then higher even than I've got for 56. So, um, looking at, you know, a potential variance in, um, 56 and some of that I'll cover with the contracted services. It's just a a mix of the line items. So, and and you can see that, you know, over over time, uh, we have been expanding the security presence in in school buildings. We've been adding to, um, to security, and this reflects a continuation of that trend. Okay, I talked about transfer to capital being one of the ways that the um using that line, the state allows districts to

031complete capital work. So, you can see there's no change to um to the allocation for next year. It's just a different mix of projects. We have the high school auxiliary gym renovation, classroom renovations, uh a staff renovation um for ADA compliance. We've do doing um we've done a couple of them as transfer to capital projects. We have some HVAC system upgrades including um the BIS fan wall. If you look to the photo to the right, that's a sample of a fan wall. And that's an a project um the fan wall is a more um energy efficient way rather than um one big sort of fan with a belt. They're actually quieter, more energy efficient, less maintenance. Um, so that's an upgrade um both in terms of um maintenance and um uh utility use. We also

032have an allocation for district-wide site work, paving, roofing, flooring. These are the um typical projects that we do over the summer a little bit um each year to keep up with um with the keep the conditions of of the buildings. And then we also have a playground replacement at um at Barry Hill also included in there. And we did several um playgrounds as part of the bond and wasn't anticipated that Berry Hill would need one, but um in subsequent meetings the um the way the construction is going to work, we're going to need to um to relocate it and break it down. And so there has to be um a replacement done there. tax anticipation notes um and debt service. So tax anticipation notes are used by the district. They're short-term not uh notes as

033a way of meeting um cash flow needs. And we work on the amount of the that we borrow with our fiscal adviserss and bond counsel. And that number up there just um reflects a a change um that is needed both in the um amount and also reflecting that um we get shifts in uh shifts in the premium that uh people who purchase our tans will pay. So the premiums kind of think of it as points. So the premium gets recorded as a revenue and the expense gets recorded here. Down at the bottom you can see the there's an increase in debt service and I have an allocation of $2 million for debt service for the interest payment on the ban that I that I anticipate that we will need. that number will change um a

034as we talk with both our construction manager, our fiscal advisor, and as um projects become due. So, it you don't see a $2 million change, you see a 1.6 because there was a roll off of about $400,000 from a an old bond that um that rolled off. The last section of the budget that we're going to talk about tonight is the administrative section and that increased and you can see to the right all of the different um components. it it's um board of ed um all of the different offices um business office chief uh school administrator office and then all of the services fiscal advisors um legal services auditing insurance and then the allocation of boseies as well and so all of those expenses um are about 9.6% 6% of the total budget. And for

035next year, um, all of the codes that comprise the administrative section increase by about 1.1 million or 5.3% compared to the current year. Staffing is projected to remain the same and the increase is primarily the result of expenses for liability insurance, um, legal and two technology infrastructure, um, projects that I'll talk about in a minute. Um contractual salary adjustments also contribute to the increase as well as some inflationary adjustments and things like um public information and um central printing and mailing where you have your copying machines and paper increases. So those are um pretty much due um to those kind types of um costs. But the more substantial variances are are found um in a couple of these codes. So we'll start with um legal. So legal costs are projected to rise by about 103,000

036or 24%. Um this increase um reflects the elevated expenditures that um we saw in the 2425. If you um look up at the top, how much was spent in 2425 that we're seeing continue some of them into 2526 primarily due to um additional legal work um related to litigation disputes and administrative proceedings. Um we have um legal expenses related to special education cases. We're more aggressively pursuing um residency cases. So there's legal costs involved in those. We've also engaged our attorneys and consultants um related to the Propel um project. Insurance um we've seen some increases to insurance over the last couple of years. Um we we had a meeting with our representatives from NICER and liability insurance is projected to increase about 300,000 or 15%. So essentially it's driven by uh statewide uh increases um

037due to higher payouts for weather rated uh weather related events and uh CVA cases. Um for Sioset specifically, we're looking at a 20% increase over this year's costs and that reflects the results of the required ree evaluation of our property values. So when you are required every five or six years to have your property um re-evaluated. So, if you think about the escalation in prices um for replacement costs that insurance companies look at to value to make sure you have enough insurance, they our property values increased. We've done a lot of purchasing of technology. We've put um additions on buildings and uh and so all of those costs um raised our values and so our insurance increased as a result of that. It is not uncommon at all particularly um in a uh inflationary environment

038to have those kinds of increases um when you do a re-evaluation. Central data processing um you can see that um there's about a $380,000 increase. Central data processing is where we have technology in two different codes in the budget. One is the administrative side and that includes more of the infrastructure and then next month you'll see the programmatic side which is instructional computing. So um there's two projects here that I suspect will be done through um Boseies. One is an -ate project and that gets bid out but Boseies bids on that. Um the first project is um a network switches project and that um will be about um and these are first year. We're anticipating these will be multi-year. You know when we do both these projects um we tend to break them out over

039several years from three to five years to lessen the budget impact. Um and so and we also for the switches project this is an -ate project. So we'll get -ate funding um in the next year. You'll see that on the revenue side and then we'll get Bosey's aid. The phone system is a move to a more costefficient teambased phone system because we already use teams. There's not the licensing cost. it'll just be the phone cost and that we will receive um Bosey's aid on. So those are the really the two reasons for the increase in that code. This is the curriculum development and supervision codes. These codes include expenditures for all the coordinators of curriculum as well as the school level principles, assistant principles. And you may recall that in the previous year we shifted

040um several central administrative um positions to the secondary schools to provide more direct supervision to support um curriculum and teaching and greater instructional continuity in the schools. And these both of these codes brought together increased about 177,000 or 1.7% So those are sort of the highlights or the significant variances in those two sections of the budget. We are still um working through the biggest piece of the budget which is the um programmatic um side of the budget and that will be presented next month as well as benefits. So that's where we'll have a tighter number on the health insurance and some pension costs. I'll go through other revenue um numbers, our local revenue numbers. We'll talk about reserves and then any updates because this is still very preliminary updates to the admin and the capital.

041I'll also go circle back um with you on those. And then any updates to the tax cap based on project funding and new numbers about uh regarding debt service. >> Thank you Dr. Rufol for the uh presentation. Um it's a lot of information and um at this point are there any questions um for uh Dr. Rufo from the board? Um okay, Mr. Ginsburg, please. >> Thank you, Dr. Rufer. That was uh great. Um I we're going to probably get something next month more on this, but with the health insurance, you mentioned something close to five million. What kind of percent increase is that from last year? >> It's it's 10%. So, I had 10% in this year and I my first run had 10. I might have been 10 five. I was looking at, you

042know, what the numbers would look like. Um, you know, I would love to put 12 just because I'm nervous, but I don't know that I can. Um, when I speak to other colleagues, most of us are are in other districts sort of struggling with the same um same question. you know, some are most are putting 10. Um, some are going a little bit higher if they can. Others are going lower because they can't can't make their budget if they do that. So, right now it's 10ish 10 and change. >> Uh, Dr. Park, thank you Dr. Rufo. Um, question about Bosey's aid. can't imagine us not increasing in Bose's usage and state aid is decreasing actually is there um and this Bosey's aid is based on 2024 to 2025 is it usage I I just can't

043imagine us using less of both and the is back We did um at the end of um the 2425 school year when we were looking at um the 2526 budget and trying to close that gap. We wound up doing a couple of projects at the end of last year um that pushed up some of our Bosey's aid for this year because as you said the way that Bosey's works you get the aid in the subsequent year. So Boseies for 2627 um looks at what our budget is for um 20 526 for this year but they're not you know what we're doing now with um with our director of IT is we're going through looking at what's we want for next year and what we may possibly be able to purchase this year and Boseis doesn't

044really know what what those projects may be as we as we finalize the budget. So is it possible um that that Bosey's aid number goes up because we decide to do some more projects? Yes, that is possible. >> Okay, Mr. Greco. >> Thank you, Dr. Rufo. The the tax caps you submit the 237 or some whatever we're at at 31. >> We then if we have uh projects getting approved up till when? Is this through the 511 hearing? It's it um the number becomes final the day after you adopt the budget and I submit the property tax report card. >> So we could have approval changes. Yes. >> I'm sorry. So we could have approvals right up in through that day. Okay. >> Yes. >> Um I noticed you talked about the network switch up

045upgrade and the phone upgrade and you budgeted about 300,000 increase. You you mentioned it may take a couple of years. Is this is this a third of what looks to be a million-dollar project or >> a fifth? Yes, it's these are I assumed for these estimates at this time first year of a five-year project. >> Okay. And then >> and I'm sorry, may I just and I know that in the first year just the way the numbers work, they typically it's not an even five years. The first one is is is heavier. the so there'll obviously be some or or should be some uh bans uh going forward and I'm wondering I didn't see the fiscal advisors and bond council getting sort of a large increase in cost is that because they're just a flat

046retention um and if you use them more they don't necessarily charge us more because I've thought of our fiscal advisors as being you know something based on a percentage um then I'm just wondering why I didn't see the increase in here. >> I thought that we were um some of the increase will be this year because for the borrowing for the bands I had factored it into this year um and thinking that would carry us all the way through next year. So I believe I will go we'll go back and and check but that that was factored in this year. But yes, you're right. There certain there is an increase. >> Okay. All right. Are there any more questions? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Ruf again for the presentation. >> Thank you. And again, the uh

047the next uh budget meeting will be the at the March 9th meeting and also again at the April 20th and May 11. Uh so we have three more meetings and we welcome the public to uh uh come and view the meeting uh either in person or virtually. Okay. And u moving right along. 6A and 6B can be taken together. They're the approval of minutes of the January 12th, 2026 board meeting and January 28th, 2026 special meeting. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Ro second by Mr. Greco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? And uh Dr. Rufol, can we have the treasures report and appropriation adjustments, please? As shown in the treasures report, the cash on hand for the month end December 2025 was 127,451,324 shows that all bank balances for

048all cash accounts were reconciled to the book balances and were collateralized in accordance with the district's banking agreements and investment policies. Please. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Rufol. Uh 7A and 7B can be taken together. They're the approval of the chargers report and appropriation adjustments. Can I have a motion, please? M uh Miss Kosia, seconded by Miss Falov. Are there any questions for Dr. Rufol? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? And Mr. Greckle will provide an update on the January 21st citizens finance committee meeting. >> Um sure. So, we met on Wednesday, January 21st. Um, Dr. Rogers and Dr. Rufo gave us an update on capital projects, status of bids, just general progress. Uh, we also spoke, I mean, it's a little bit super because we had a sort of a budget preview and we

049obviously had the budget meeting today, so there's not much to share there than what we already heard tonight. and we talk generally about the Woodbury School which I know we're going to talk about in a little bit so probably not much to share about that as well. So that's uh there's the update. We're meeting again on uh March 11th I believe. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Gecko. Okay. And then uh we are going to have Dr. Rogers to provide us with uh his superintendence report. So um I'm really pleased to introduce this next topic for the board. When I arrived in Sioset 12 years ago, um Sioset already enjoyed a really strong reputation for its fine and performing arts programs. And I thought initially my job was um not to mess it up because

050it was so good. Uh but what I've learned in the 12 years that I've been here is that it is always changing and it is always exploring and it is always getting better. And so um my job was not to make sure that it stayed the same, but rather to give it the space and room to grow and continue to flourish. And uh it's done that kind of remarkably. So, one of the things that uh happened when I first got here was that there was a long wall in my office and I didn't have any uh personal art of my own to fill it up. And so, I thought to myself, you know, what could I do with all this space? And the idea occurred to me that I uh could recognize a student artist

051of the month and then uh I would see some new student art and it would change every month and that would keep it interesting and it would also connect me a little bit to some of our art students. And um now you know 12 years in 10 months a year I've seen over a hundred student artists work on our walls and um we never seem to run out of remarkable artists and I never get tired of seeing the work that they do. So um obviously the that work is a product of their talent and their hard work but it's also a product of the incredible instruction uh that they get in the visual arts here in Sioset. And that instruction is really thoughtfully layered from our youngest students to uh our most mature artists. And

052you'll get a little bit of a flavor of the thinking behind how we prepare our students uh to succeed in art. Uh whether or not they want to become artists themselves. Al everyone has art in them. I'm misquing Pablo Picasso there somehow. But um without any further ado, uh Dr. Hail, our director of fine and performing arts, will introduce tonight's topic. [applause] Good evening, Miss Chang, Dr. Rogers, and the board of education. Thank you for this opportunity to present to you alongside four of our incredible visual art educators in Seaset about the important work being done in the Seaset Art Studios. We stand at the precipice of tremendous change mostly due to the development of AI and what that means for the arts in particular. Tonight we will learn more about two pillars of the

053visual arts experience process and authenticity and how these two ideas shape the way we approach art education in SIASET. We are very familiar with the impact that AI has had in terms of our students writing essays, doing math problems and even coding. In a similar way, AI is able to create images and graphic design from a simple prompt. While AI generated images are interesting, as educators, we realize that this newfound ability is only part of the story. What's more interesting is what these changes mean for our students. Displayed here is an excerpt of the Seaset School District mission statement. This is a mission statement that evokes imagination, vision, and an acknowledgement that we are preparing our students to thrive in a world that is yet to be. The fundamental question we have to ask as

054educators is 20 years from now when AI is doing much of our work and we look back at the time our children are spending in the schools. What skills, competencies, what habits will truly matter? I submit to you tonight that the skills our students are learning in the visual arts will be seen as invaluable to our students as they navigate an AIdriven world. Tonight we are going to open the doors and take a look inside our Sioset art studios. We are going to learn how the work done in our art classrooms ensures our students develop habits of mind, develop their voice, go deep into sustained investigations, and in a truly authentic way examine the human experience. In Sioset, students not only have the opportunity to express themselves through the visual arts, but also to build

055habits of mind. Here to discuss how these habits are established in the early years, we have Miss Mariana Beachch from Walt Whitman Elementary School. >> Hi, thank you. [clears throat] All right. The studio habits of mine are the building blocks of our elementary art education. At the primary level, we are establishing a foundation in the arts. The work these students do has a stronger focus on materials and how they work, establishing routines and gaining experience in as many areas of the arts as possible. As we grow into the upper grades, our mission shifts. The focus is understanding the authentic selves as artists. I'm sorry, their authentic selves as artists. Students are discovering what their style is and what their preferences might be. At this higher level, our students are focusing more on process and the

056experimental exploration needed to execute their creative ideas. Each of the six habits of mind help students focus on process. While creating, they are also working through problem solving and critical thinking. They will face a variety of obstacles and it is through those obstacles that students develop the perseverance they need. We are training our students to think. It is not an easy thing for young artists to master. These studio habits will help with that. So what does an artist teaching artistic behavior classroom look like? A typical class would consist of a mini lesson of about 10 minutes or so and lead to independent work. Each mini lesson would consist of a focus on an artist, a style, a technique, or a material, and would reference the principles and elements of art. When students are set to

057work independently, they are not required to create based on the lesson just taught. They have the option to bank their knowledge for a later piece, work on their own unique idea, or continue their work from previous class. In any given class, you might see a wide variety of work being created. There may be painting, drawing, collage, or sculpture all going on at the same time. Mixed media artwork is a very typical thing in the classroom teaching artistic behaviors. Part of the problem solving process encourages students to create and explore all of the options in the classroom, especially that they have at their I'm sorry, explore all the options of the classroom that they might have at their disposal. Sorry. By providing our students with an arsenal of choices, we are allowing for more agency on

058their part. The work created becomes more authentic to who they become as artists. As students discover their authenticity and make their creative choices, we encourage a takeaway from each many lessons. Perhaps something caught their attention or inspired them. And rather than create based on the lesson and its content, students may pull bits and pieces from what they were just taught and incorporate that takeaway in their own way, in their own work. In preparing our students for their future art experiences in middle school and high school, we have also what we call skilluer days. These days, students partake in structured lessons that focus on specific skills that they should and need to know for their artistic futures. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Beach. As our students as our students continue to grow, so too do

059their ideas. as they enter middle school. We recognize that students grow in their own personal awareness as well as global and social awareness. In other words, in the middle years, students truly begin to develop their voice. Here to provide some examples of the ways that we elevate student voice through the arts is Miss Amanda Oor. >> Thank you, Dr. Hail. Good evening, everyone. Middle school is a pivotal developmental stage where students transition from concrete to abstract thinking and begin to fiercely question their identity and place in the world. In the art classroom, this transition offers a unique opportunity. By anchoring the curriculum in the affforementioned habits of mind, educators can move students beyond the simple craft and into a space [clears throat] where art becomes a tool for advocacy, empathy, and community building. Students have

060agency over their artistic creations and in turn discover how their artistic process gives them voice. The culmination of growth is when the artwork leaves the classroom. Students realize their voice has power when it interacts with the real world. Each year I do a project called My Cause My Cleats, drawing upon inspiration from the NFL's annual campaign to raise awareness for different charities. The artistic process. Unlike standard assignments where the subject is dictated, this project utilized student directed subject matter. Students had full agency to select a cause that resonated personally leading to a higher engagement and emotional investment in the artwork. They implemented the elements and principles by utilizing specific color psychologies associated with their causes. The human connection, the my cause prompt acted as a lens revealing the diverse backgrounds of the student body. The

061project spanned heritage and nationality, health and wellness, faith and religion, the arts, athletics, and civic interests. Students experienced empathy through art by learning about their peers passions, family histories, and hidden struggles. The art became a vehicle for a cross-cultural dialogue, advocacy, outreach, and real world impact. Students learn professional communication through the structural mechanics of a formal business letter expressing their voice to a community member. This activity is a bridge to the real world. This step removed the academic vacuum. The work wasn't created just for a grade. It was created for an audience. It validated both the charity's mission and the students voice simultaneously. Receiving a physical letter, email, or social media acknowledgement from an organization validates the students work. It transforms them from students into advocates. When a student holds a letter from a charity

062they admire, they realize their voice has power. It stops being a project and starts becoming a contribution to the community. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Oor. So far, we've heard about developing habits of mind, developing a voice. Now, we take a look at how these two ideas converge as our AP students engage in deep learning and exploration on topics that are truly meaningful to them. Something that we call the sustained investigation. Here to describe this process is Miss Tiffany Holy, one of our AP studio and design teachers at SASIT High School. Thank you, Dr. Hail. So, over the course of the last few years, our AP Studio art curriculum has undergone a serious change. We've moved from a more productbased portfolio where the College Board was really looking for polished, complete 24piece portfolios of student

063body work. Now the college board is transitioning to really wanting to understand the students creative process. So their portfolio now consists of process pieces meant to complement completed artistic endeavors. All students complete a sustained investigation which is a 15piece art portfolio that accompany with an accompanying paragraph that explains an individualized exploration of a student's idea. And like I said before, in addition to polished pieces, there is that little insight into students creative thinking, into their brains to see why they're making the creative decisions that they are. We're really looking for active reflection through analyzing their creative processes to move past just using materials they're successful with and really making intentional choices about how material and exploration and experimentation can elevate their ideas. Um, this is best illustrated through an example up here from a student

064named Molly. She was really passionate about the environment. So, she chose a sustained investigation where she explored climate change and humanity's role in it through photography. So, up on the board on the left hand side is a process piece from her portfolio and on the right is the accompanying finished artwork. On the left, you can see that her creative process started with finding inspiration online where she saw that tree branches had a really similar structure to human lungs. So, after finding these images online, she decided that she wanted to construct a pair of human lungs out of tree branches. So, she went into our many courtyards at the high school, forged for some twigs, and then constructed a pair of lungs that you can see on the bottom left. She then had to decide, how

065can I best capture this image? More than just taking a picture of my display, she decided to use a photographic process called sunprinting, where a light sensitive material coats the surface. She laid out her tree branch lung structure on top of this light sensitive surface and then actually had to expose it to the sun in order to make her photograph. So, not only is she using literal tree branches to build her lung structure, but she's using the sun to make her photograph about the environment. And then the rest of her imagery shows the developing process. And then her final image is on the right hand side with a little bit of light photoshopping to create a sense of emphasis on the lungs she created on the t-shirt. So overall, this analysis of student creative process,

066having them go back, reflect, and articulate why they're making these creative choices helps to make their work more insightful and more impactful. Thank you, Miss Holtry. Finally, finally, one of the true masterpieces in our Sasset High School curriculum. Here, our students learn that a work of art is not only a snapshot in time, but a result of deep connections that span both geography and history. Here to discuss some of the ways that AP art history ensures that our students are not just prepared to enter the world when they graduate, but have the potential to live a fully examined life is Mr. Damon Tamolino. Thank you, Dr. Hail, and good evening all. Uh tonight we're going to discuss the AP art history class and some of the important skills that our students can gain from this

067course. APA history is a survey of art through the ages and covers everything from paleolithic cave paintings to our very own Chrysler building in Midtown Manhattan. When introducing this class to new students, I mentioned that it is somewhat of a crash course in anthropology. Who who were we? Where are we? And where are we going as a species? All the skills developed since elementary school are applied and enhanced through the art of observation and analyzing which very often leads to decoding the art and architecture that we look at in this course. Students be able to identify and compare two images shown to them. There are two ways to identify a work of art. Period differences and regional differences. In a period comparison, students will describe the similarities and differences between pieces that were created in

068a different time period. The one commonality is that the subjects are all eating at a dinner table. Although there are two dinners taking place, the last supper is stacked with ecclesiastic content and is loaded with rules of placement, composition, and linear perspective. The Van Go painting, the potato eaters, deals with the poor family, rationing food to avoid hunger. As for a regional comparison, students can compare pieces that occurred in different regions in a parallel universe of two cultures that didn't cross paths. The piece on the right is a Mochica vessel utilitarian in purpose fired earth and wear earth and wear perhaps a status symbol youthful strong and noble. The piece on the left is a Roman petition, a marble sculpture where his older appearance and the fact that he is a land owner provides his

069status and eligibility to be a member of the Senate. As an architectural example, the students will be able to identify both of these buildings. Here we see the Haya Sophia on the right in Constantinople, modernday Estanbul, the largest dome basilica in its time. This is the Byzantines answer to the Roman pantheon. As seen on the left, the students will understand the architectonic innovations that helped the Byzantine people achieve a larger dome. What were the building blocks that were explored to create a more aluminum, structurally sound building? Since architecture requires math, physics, and uh art as well to solve a problem, this can be looked at as crosscutting. The merger of math, physics, and art history. The students will observe the penitative and squinch diagram and understand that the dome resting on an octagon technique is

070a more effective way to redistribute the weight of a massive structure of a dome. In addition, the students will notice the difference of light illumination in both facilities. On the left, we have the Pantheon interior, dimly lit with one Oculus. On the right, the higher Sophia interior well illumined lights throughout the whole bottom octagonal first floor. Picasso once said, "Painting is not made for decorating apartments. It's a mere communication between the artist and the viewer." This course gives students a chance to have their own conversation with the artwork. Thank you, Mr. Tomolino. In addition to the work that takes place in the classroom, an essential part of the SIASET art education is giving our students the opportunity to experience this work live and in person. Here you see some of the partnerships and experiences we

071provide our students throughout the year. And not only do we go to museums to see work, but we encourage our students to submit their work to galleries where they're featured throughout New York City and Long Island. Here is a list of places our students have exhibited so far this year. Last but not least, over the past few years, we have renovated our Syasa art gallery to be a true learning laboratory where we not only celebrate our student work, but bring in local artists like sculptor John Dairo or worldrenowned animators like Leno Dalvo. So, in closing, we've heard tonight how our Sioset art students are not only creating beautiful artwork, but are engaged in deep learning centered around process and authenticity. We are not only creating artists but infusing our students with the kind of deep

072knowledge and habits of mind that will enable them to thrive in both the future we imagine but also the future that they will envision. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you Dr. Hail and all the um the uh instructors in the district for the uh presentation. Uh personally I am very impressed with the uh the in-depth um curriculum we have in SAS and also the create creativity that the uh the district brings to the students and I I would say that our students are very very fortunate to be able to take these classes and with the resources available in the district. So thank you again. >> Okay. And now uh do we have any questions for uh the presenters? Can Mr. Grele please? >> Thank you so much. That was that was [clears throat] fantastic. And

073and Dr. Rogers, I should correct you. I think you started with everyone has art in them. And immediately Dr. Park and I looked at each other and said, "Not the two of us." But then then again, we didn't go to school here. So, um I'm I'm wondering I mean I could ask this question of almost anyone uh in any field of study, right? The effect that AI is having uh on the program generally. Uh are we seeing the effects yet? Uh are we taking advantage of it? just very generally if you could speak to that Dr. H. [clears throat] >> So the challenge that AI presents is similar to what we see in uh other humanities classes like in English and social studies where um you know there is a there is an option where

074people can use the technology to produce a work. Um, what we tried to focus on tonight is the way that the the way that we teach art and the way that we evaluate art is really focused on the process and and I think the AP portfolio has changed in the last few years to really reflect that. So, it's no longer about just give us an image and give us your work. Now, it's about we want to know how did you arrive at this work? What's the inspiration that made you uh go into this investigation and you know to do a process journal along the way? Um, we see this even when you uh when you look at at things you could buy online, right? Uh, you know, if somebody is able to tell their story

075to kind of show you the be behind the scenes about how they create an object, then they'll put it on Etsy and they'll sell it at a at a at a very very good price. Um, you know, similarly, you know, there's a there's a matter of authenticity that when you look at I always use this example. Um, even if I could write a piece of music as as well as Beethoven could do it, would it matter? Right. Um, I think a lot of people would say not so much. And because the reason why is because Beethoven was a product of his time and place in history. Um, and just like all of these pieces of artwork are really a snapshot of a moment in time. So those two aspects, process and authenticity, uh are really

076what inform our work, but also it ensures that um you know that we're not teaching students just to go to the prompt and to go to AI to create an image, but really what we want to see is their story, their process, and their work. >> Okay. All right. Thank you again. I'll just um close by saying this conversation between process and product and I believe we use the term polished at some point um is really impactful not just in the sphere of arts but in all of the work that we do and we've done a lot of reflection uh over how we celebrate the product uh but the learning happens in the process and in the end the product will be a combin combination of the skill, talent, work uh that a student invests,

077but it'll also be a conversation with the teaching that comes along the way. What we provide is the teaching. We provide the process. So students get to decide how far they'll let that process take them. And I think I've found myself energized by this conversation of going back and revisiting the process not just in art but in uh uh other subjects because uh every student uh is an artist. Some are better than others. Um but every student with some instruction in the process can become a better artist than they are now. And I think there's satisfaction in uh seeing yourself do something that you might have surprised yourself. So, I sat in M. Or's uh class probably a couple years ago at this point and quite frankly startled myself with what I was able to

078produce that actually looked halfway decent. Uh but it wasn't because I think of myself as a good artist, but because I had some really good instruction. So, uh this conversation about valuing process over product, I think, is going to permeate a lot of uh what we do as a district over the course of the next several years. It ties in nicely with the conversation you board have been having around uh algorithmic work and heristic work. And I think those two things kind of tie together and hang well. And you know, my reflection uh as a leader of an organization is to try and make sure that I get the balance right between celebrating uh the student artist of the month who has a very polished product and celebrating the um student who got a lot

079out of the process even if their product isn't all that polished and valuing both equally. So uh this has been you know for me an a very exciting way to engage in thinking about a broader uh question for us. So I just want to thank our tremendous arts educators and also provide you with a graceful exit if you wish not to stay for the rest of the meeting. >> Thank you all. So, also as part of my superintendent's report, um I know you're going to have a discussion in a few moments about uh a potential partnership that uh we first started talking about in November of 2023. Um at that time, we were really focused on the work that the district schools needed. Uh and so we uh put the potential partnership on the back

080burner for a while, but uh we're revisiting it now. We've been in some conversations with the Siosa Public Library about possibly entering into collaboration with them to repurpose the Woodbury School uh as a satellite library for um their main library which is on uh South Oyster Bay Road uh right by 495. So um we um I shared this with you at the last uh board meeting. Uh there was interest on the part of both the uh public library board and uh on the part of this board. So we've explored with our architects and engineers uh what the next logical step would be and uh they said that the you know because of the age of the building it's literally uh just turned 100 last month. Um they need to do some more in-depth investigation in

081order to refine uh their estimates of what it would cost to bring it up to modern standards and also to uh see what it would cost to uh convert it to not classroom use but to use as a library facility. So, um, they speculated that, uh, the cost would be no more, certainly no more than $50,000. They think it might be less. Uh, but, uh, the next thing to do would be what's called a feasibility study. And that feasibility study would allow them to devote the time and uh, resources that are necessary uh, to do a deep dive into the building and then come back with um, some pretty firm numbers. uh we have very broad estimates from them right now, but those estimates aren't uh really supported by doing the kind of in-depth work

082that would take a lot more time uh and money to do. So, if um you know, I'm prepared to answer some uh fairly superficial questions about the building and what some of our preliminary estimates look like. Uh but uh just wanted to set the table for your discussion uh in terms of whether you want to move forward with the next step in this process. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Um, would you be able to uh give an estimate of how long this physibility uh study would take? >> Um, I don't have an exact number off the top of my head, but I was uh getting the impression from our conversation with the architects that this would be a matter of months, not a matter of six months, say. So, a month or two. >> Thank you.

083And do we have any questions for Dr. chargers. Before we move on to uh discussing this topic, okay, Mr. Abramson, no. >> I just want to confirm $50,000 and it says, excuse me, the library would agree to share one half, but do you have any indication they would not share it? I I do not I uh did speak with the library director and they're enthusiastic about this project and uh recognized that uh a partnership to move forward would require both partners to participate. So I certainly don't want to speak on their behalf, but uh nothing in that conversation made me think uh that they wouldn't want to be uh good partners with us. >> Mr. Ginsburg. >> So, um, with the feasibility study, does that include because this is something that I'm worried about and

084some other people are worried about in the area. Would it like parking situations and traffic? Is that like something that goes into that or is that something totally separate because that's definitely a concern for a lot of people? >> Uh, I don't think that that's included in uh the feasibility study at this point. It would be a preliminary analysis of what the building is capable of doing. Uh we there are traffic engineers who work for H2M and so if we wanted to further explore what the traffic would be then there would be a subsequent study that would need to be done. >> Okay, Mr. Grele, >> Dr. Dr. Rogers, it may actually be worth if you could give us a little bit more of the meat of what would be in the facil feasibility study.

085Um, so we are all sort of on the same page. >> Sure. So in a feasibility study, uh, the first step is what's called a discovery phase. And, um, this is where we'd meet with the architects and talk about the kinds of ways that the building might be programmed, what sorts of spaces it would need. Um, I'm certainly not expert at uh libraries, but I'm imagining that uh libraries have spaces where people collaborate, where students might meet with tutors after school, where um some, you know, obviously libraries have collections of books, stacks, what proportion of the building would be used for meeting space, for community uh room, for example, uh for students to collaborate with one another on homework. uh what portion of the building would be used for collections and stacks and periodicals and

086things like that. So um to make decisions about how to allocate the space within the building, they'd first need to know, you know, what are the proportions of things that you'd want to do with it. Uh the second is uh identifying a program scope. So um what are the kinds of u things that one could envision being done there. So, uh, there is one large open space in that building. Um, we sort of short-handedly call it the gym. Uh, but it's about half the size of a a regulation volleyball court, but that a size space that occurs to me is could be used as a community room or a meeting space. Um, might be a place where there could be um an exercise class or some sort of a poetry reading. um you know so

087again kind of refining what that program scope would look like. Uh then you get into more of the nuts and bolts of architecture. They would do schematic design uh which would probably result in a handful of layout options uh for the partners to look at and uh discuss and maybe choose between then once you've refined which layout you think is most appropriate for how the building would be used. Uh then they'll do um the really hard work of going through a code review uh to see what needs to be brought up to code uh where there are places where the building's uh design or style uh creates a code limitation that can't be overcome with some sort of rehabilitation or anything can be overcome just the question is how much the cost is so I

088think what what happens is they will make recommendations about the things that just aren't cost effective to try and overcome and what limitations that might present. And then lastly, they'll give us an opinion of probable cost. So, we do have from our construction managers um a very high level sort of estimate of what it would cost. We know that the building's heating system is no longer functional. Uh we know it doesn't have an air conditioning system. We know that uh the plumbing would all have to be replaced. The electrical is also uh well out of date and would have to be replaced completely. So we have estimates for what those building systems would cost, but then there's just renovation. Uh there's been water infiltration in the building. So the extent to which uh the building

089would have to have new materials versus uh fixing the materials that are there, we'd just have to go into a lot more detail. But um instead of getting a range where um you we're given a number by our um uh construction managers, I think it was three years ago, 2 and a half years ago, and they were estimating somewhere in the 12 13 million range, but they said, you know, plus or minus two. Uh so, you know, we you would imagine having worked with you all this time would want a more precise number than that. So, uh, this would get them to a place where they'd have a number that they would be that they would feel we could rely on safely. >> Mr. Rotolo, >> um, Dr. Rogers. So, does that feasib feasibility study

090also include um the outside of the building, um any open spaces, the parking lot, and any um add-on to the building that it would need to satisfy the library, any other services possibly offered to the community? >> Yeah, I think that would all come out in uh the program description. So if uh there was to be some sort of outdoor space there, then that would be part of the program description early on in the study and then that would be included in what they would review. Um certainly they'll take a look at the site and see, you know, that it is a site with a lot of grade. So there are parts of the site that are just, I think, going to be very hard to use without um retaining walls and things like that.

091So there will be some limitations uh just because of the grade of the site and they'll you know respond to us and say you know this is this is the part of the site that is usable without major investment. This is the part of the site that you would have to do uh tremendous investment in sort of earth moving or retaining walls or things to get at. So they'll and again you know all of these things retaining walls are just cost but they may say the cost is not worth it for what you get based on you know how much it would cost to add just this much square footage you're going to spend that much money just not cost-effective way to proceed. And uh you'll recall from your conversation three years ago when we

092were putting together the bond proposition, we came up with the idea of perhaps using it as uh space for the business office uh or one or two classrooms and we concluded that it just wasn't a cost-effective way uh to add space to the district. So this I think will be the same process. You'll have a range of things that could be done with it and then uh it'll be that range will be narrowed by what is a cost-effective way to do it. Thank you, >> Miss Abramson. >> Sorry. Um, just one more thing. If we if we go forward with a feasibility study and we find out that this is not financially feasible for anybody to library us, even as partners, is there a plan B that we that exists for because it has a

093lot of damage to it. I don't want to just see it crumble. Is there like a plan B that's in the >> I would love to tell you I have a great plan B. Um but that wouldn't be truthful. So we have been maintaining the the building and trying to minimize the water infiltration um stabilize the structure. Uh the the building because of its age has um a lot of remediation work that needs to take place, lead and asbestous in the building. Um it would it does need all new systems and so it's very hard to condition the space. In other words, uh to avoid wild swings of temperature and it's those wild swings of temperature that um are difficult for uh the masonry to kind of hold up through. So, um, we did ask,

094uh, the construction managers what their estimate would be to return the building to just green space. In other words, demolish the building. And because you'd have to remediate the demolished pile, you're still going to spend fairly substantial uh, amount of money. They were estimating somewhere between$1 and $2 million uh, just to restore it to green space. So, um, we can continue to try to maintain the building. Uh, but I don't think I could say that without putting a fairly substantial investment in it that we can prevent it from deteriorating further. uh we can slow its rate of deterioration, but until we condition the space and um repoint the mortar uh on the bricks and replace the roof u because the roof at this point is not really salvageable in its existing form. It's a slate

095roof which on the one hand it's made of stone. Uh but on the other hand once the stone crumbles there's just no going back. So, um, there are fairly substantial areas of the roof that have crumbled now and just cannot be replaced in its existing form as slate. So, we're trying to keep it watertight, but the slate roof does not lend itself to temporary repairs in a way that an asphalt roof or a tar roof uh would allow us. So, um, all to say, I don't really have a great plan B for you. Um, if this ends up being not the avenue that you want to pursue and you direct me to find you a plan B, we'll we'll work with them and try to identify some ideas for what could be done instead. >>

096All right. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Okay. And uh, so we have no legislative items and then we're going to do the discussion discussion items. And the first item on the agenda is the visibility study of the Woodbury School. So we've had um, Dr. Rogers already gave us an brief overview what this entails and then uh the board also had asked a lot of questions. Um at this point you know in order to move forward with this project the the first step would be to conduct such study and um I don't know if the board has any other concerns that you want to bring up um at this point no um did you want to ask anything? Okay, Mr. Greco. >> Okay. All right. Um, so if the board doesn't uh the board doesn't have any

097questions on this uh physibility study, um I would like to uh uh provide a uh resolution to authorize for Uber School physibility study. Can I have a motion please? Uh Miss Kosha, seconded by Mr. Ginsburg. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstension? All right. Thank you so much. And Dr. Rogers, please let the SAS library know that um the board is interested in uh conducting such study and um we look forward to uh getting the results too. Thank you. And the um about this. Okay, please. Mr. Greco, >> I didn't want to jump in line when I was trying to ask a question, but it's not really a question anyway. So, the resolution talks about a maximum of $50,000 to be shared. I'm assuming these guys do a lot of work for

098us. Um, we will do our best to keep the cost down and not give them a a contract that says this is a flat fee of $50,000. Right. This is the idea is that this is no more than 50 that we're agreeing to today. >> Yes. And the the reason for doing this in a way that is different from how we've done our other construction projects is uh [snorts] because of the nature of the partnership between two entities as opposed to the single school district. So as you all know when we were in the pre-bond approval phase with them they did a lot of work to design uh highle sketches etc of the projects that we were going to propose so that the public would have some sense of what the cost was going to

099be and what uh the public could expect we were going to build on their behalf. Uh then the architects recover the cost that they've invested upfront when they actually design the project should the project pass. So, u it works differently for libraries and so uh because this is a partnership with a library, they have to structure it in a way that makes sense for uh how they work with libraries. Um so we're slightly different entities under the law and we would go through a different approval pro process still the state education department but again it works a little bit differently for a library. So um this is paralleling the library process. Uh but in our conversations with them, they uh were under the impression that it would be substantially less than $50,000. But they also

100were nervous because they don't know what happens when they start opening up the walls and look inside. And what they didn't want was to give us an aggressive quote and then turn around and come back and say, you know, we we guessed too low and then you have to do another vote again. So, uh, everyone understands that we're going to try to do this as economically as possible. And if something occurs in the first couple of weeks of the investigation that makes it obvious there's no point in pursuing it further, we'll stop work at that point and come back and report to you before spending more money on something that, you know, may have some real issues before we pursued it. >> Okay. Thank you. And uh we will have uh the next um so

101this closes the discussion item for the first uh for the feasibility study. And the next item on the uh discussion um will be uh to have Mr. Ginsburg uh to provide us with an update on the NAS NASO Bosey's budget review. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Chang. Um so I had the opportunity to attend two separate NASA BOSIES budget meetings and it was my first experience with the process and I found it both informative and valuable. It was helpful to see not only the financial details but also the scope of services that Boseies offers and the role it plays for supporting its component districts across Nassau County. So the total NASA Bosey's budget for 2627 is approximately $65 million. Now it's important to note that the Boseies operates on a flexible model for its

102overall budget. So basically what that means is if the people if the component districts want more services the budget will increase. If they want less services the budget will decrease. Um, so that 65 million could change dramatically depending on if you know people use it or not. Uh, there are over 20 different budgets uh that make up this overall amount. And as a school district though, we only get to vote on one of them, which is the administrative operations budget. And that budget totals 28.6 million. So I'm going to focus on that budget particularly right now. uh this budget the uh administration administrative operations budget increased by around 2.7% from last year which is around the same as what it did the prior year. Uh the component district share which is the portion that the

103districts pay um is increasing by approximately 2.85% a little higher than 2.7%. So most of the around 86% of this budget is salaries, fringe benefits and retirey health costs. Um and additional cost measures as Dr. Rufa mentioned is affecting all of us is affecting them as well with the higher insurance costs, the increased security and cyber security needs and inflation. Uh the district charges are based on the arwada which is the resident weighted average daily attendance and for this budget the administration administrative cost equates to around $1316 per student which represents an increase of around 3.6% from last year which is um which uh because the overall student enrollment across the county declined actually this percent arada increase is higher than that 2.85% 85%. So it um so basically it affects the component districts a

104little bit more. Um but basically that's it. So we're going to be voting on this budget in late April ourselves. But that's basically the highlights of it. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Ginsburg. This was very helpful to understand uh those two meetings and then thanks for representing SAS as well. And uh so the board will be voting on uh Bose's budget uh at the April meeting. Um so um okay, thank you. All right. So this closes our discussion items and we have no unfinished business and uh we are going to move to our new business and 12A is the approval of staff changes. Can I have a motion please? Um Miss Mr. Greal seconded by Mr. Abramson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 12 is the approval of stipens and

105hourly rates 2025 2026 Miss Valov second by Mr. Ginsburg. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 12C is the appointment of interim director of pupils personnel services revised. Can I have a motion please? Dr. Park second by Mr. Greco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 12D is the med medical exam of school district employee. Can I have a motion please? Miss Kosha. Seconded by Miss Falco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 12E is the medical exam of school district employee. Can I have a motion, please? Dr. Par, second by Miss Abramson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? And 13A is the approval of of notice of public hearing, budget vote, and election of SAS Central School District. Can I have

106a motion, please? Miss Falov, seconded by Mr. Ginsburg. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 13B is the approval of new and or revised policies. Policy 1815 1815, pesticides and pest management. Policy 8140, unsafe school transfer choice. Policy 8220, buildings and grounds maintenance inspection. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. um Greco, seconded by Dr. Park. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 13 C and 13 D can be taken together. They're the approval of the committee on preschool special education and the committee on special special education recommendations. Can I have a motion, please? Miss Kosha, seconded by Miss Falov, are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14A is the authorization to participate in New York Island cooperative bid. Can I have a motion, please? Dr.

107Park, second by Mr. Greco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14B is the authorization of service contracts. Can I have a motion, please? Miss Velov, seconded by Miss Koshia. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14C is the approval of special education and or nursing contracts. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Rotolo, second by Mr. Greco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14D is the award bids for guidance alter alterations of SAS high school contracts HS-P2 plumbing works to Hir and Cope LLC can have a motion please miss Levitain seconded by Mr. Ginsburg. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14E is the award of bids for gym additions at SASET High School. Contract HS-G1 general construction work to VRD

108contracting inc. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Roto, second by Miss Abramson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14F is the award of bids for gym additions at SASIA high school contract HSP1 plumbing work to WHM plumbing and heating contractors inc. Can I have a motion please? Miss Koshia seconded by Miss Falov. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14G is the award of bids for gym additions at SASET high school contract HSM1 HVAC work to Intricate Tech Solutions Limited. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Rotolo, seconded by Miss Abramson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14H is the award of bids for gym additions at SAS High School contract HS1 electrical work to real electric Corp. Can I have a motion,

109please? Miss Felov, second by Mr. Ginsburg. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14 I is the award of bids for vest edition at HBT Thompson. HBT Middle School contract HBT G1 general construction work to web construction corp. Can I have a motion please? Mr. Rotolo seconded by Miss Abramson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14J is the bids for vest wheel addition at HB Thompson Middle School contract HBT-1-HVAC work to Eastern Industrial Services of New York, Inc. Can I have a motion, please? Miss Koshia seconded by Mr. Ginsburg. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14K is the award of bids for vest edition at HB Thompson Middle School contract HBT E1 electrical work to Royal Electric Corp. Can I have a motion, please?

110Mr. Rotolo, second by Miss Abramson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14 L is the authorization to participate in Rockling County bid for purchase of electrical supplies. Can I have a motion please? Miss Kosha, seconded by Miss Falco. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14M is the authorization to enter into agreement to effectuate protective action options. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Ro seconded by Dr. Park. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14N is the authorization for piggybacking city of New Rochelle FA FAB tax. Can I have a motion, please? Miss Kosha, seconded by Mr. Ginsburg. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 140 is the approval of student chart club charters 2025 2026. Can I have a motion,

111please? Dr. Par, second by Mr. Greckle. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14P is the acceptance of donation board games. Can I have a motion, please? Miss Felov, seconded by Miss Koshia. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? 14Q is the is the disposal of broken surplus and or obsolete equipment, supplies, and books. Can I have a motion, please? Mr. Rotolo, second by Miss Abramson. Are there any questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? And we have no uh no audience to the public. So uh this is going to conclude our February uh board of education meeting. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Miss Kosha, seconded by Miss Levitton. Thank you so much. And then we will uh have our next board meeting on March

1129th. And um enjoy the have a safe and wonderful break next week and we'll see you back in March. Thank you.