001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> All right, good evening everyone. Welcome to our Wednesday, May 6th, 2026 Board of Education meeting. At this time, Dr. Scanlon will lead us in the pledge. Please rise. Thank you so much. Mr. Manzo, any changes to our meeting agenda? >> No changes. >> Okay. Thank you so much. So, that brings us now to unfortunately our student representative report. Katie does not seem to be here this evening. Um Katie, we miss you and hopefully we will catch up on all the good news from the high school next time. So, we will turn it over to Ms. Ruffly for an update on our board policies. >> Good evening everybody. Um we just wanted to give you a brief update on one of our um, board committees, which is our policy committee, cuz we
002really haven't spoken about that um, in a while. Um, so one of the main charges given to any school board is to create and maintain the policies for the district. Um, in order to do this, we have created a policy committee and that consists of three board members, uh, Dr. Scanlon, our district clerk, and our legal um, representative. So, um, most of us um, are new on on this committee and we've given ourselves a charge to review all the policies and then try putting them into a three-year cycle. Um, previously some of our policies haven't been reviewed in over 15-20 years and we want to maintain um, more of a three-year cycle so we look at everything. Um, this year so far we've completed review of the 4000s, 5000s, and 6000s series along with other
003policies that were needed to be updated from the state or the education department. We meet approximately once a month and we put forward reviewed policies for a first read, which you usually will see on the agenda um, for the rest of the board to read and comment if necessary and then the next board meeting we put it in for a second read and that's when we get it approved. So, it's a lot of work but it's a labor of love. >> And we thank thank you very much for all of your work on that and Mr. Maniu as well, we appreciate it. All right, we turn it over to Mr. Carlson for our public hearing on the budget. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, so I'll go over the uh, budget tonight. It's um, uh, our
004budget hearing, which is something uh, we have to call it that between it has to be between 7 and 14 days prior to the budget vote. Um, and it's really just to go over the final numbers that are in the budget. It's not really for um, budget planning or um, not a whole lot of budget discussion. We'll we'll um, go over the final numbers and some of the changes uh, in our budget um, and where they come from. So, just to recap a little bit, the tax cap, as everybody knows or most people know now, it's not a 2% tax cap. It's still sometimes referred to that way. And that's based There are a number of variables that go into determining the cap itself. And the cap varies from district to district and year to
005year. One of the variables is called growth factor and that's the rate of inflation as measured by the increase in the consumer price index or CPI. And that's That number is limited to 2%. And that's where the term 2% tax cap comes from. But it's only one of the variables. By the way, that inflation rate for this year, and it's determined by the New York State Comptroller, and it's the same for all districts in the state each year. And that inflation rate that we're dealing with this year is 2.63%, but because of the cap, that's the number that's limited to 2%. There's also a variable that's called the tax base growth factor and that's to account for any new construction in the district. And usually that number, if anything, is one or two tenths of
006a percent. This year for us, it's one more than that, just tenths of a percent. It's 1.19%. So, it's It's unusually high number for us this year, which increases the the cap. And that number is determined by the New York State Office of Real Property Services. And that number also varies from district to district and from year to year. Another variable in determining the tax cap is capital projects. So, there's a direct relationship between the cap and capital projects. So, an increase in capital projects increases the cap. A decrease in capital projects decreases the cap. Same works for building aid, which is a reflection of capital projects or or bond payments. Uh but has the has the inverse effect. So, an increase in building aid decreases the cap and vice versa on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
007Uh so, we're increasing our capital projects from 1 and 1/2 million dollars in this year's budget to 3 million dollars in next year's budget. Now, that's a couple of reasons why. So, if you remember back in the 2020 21 school year, uh we had built our capital projects budget annual budget up to 6.6 million dollars. And then in 2021, the budget failed. So, one of the rules of a contingency budget is no capital projects. So, that line automatically went to zero. So, we've been building that that line back up. Um and a year ago, we had had 3 million dollars in that in that line in our budget. Um well, yeah, in last year's budget, 20 20 the 23-24 budget, uh and then when we would do work in 24-25 budget, I'm sorry. And then
008a year ago and in building the 25-26 budget, that number was reduced. That was a discussion we had here. Uh and there were a couple of reasons to lower that number, not because we didn't need the work. It was one to keep the tax cap get the tax cap a little lower a year ago. And also, we had the bond referendum coming up. So, we thought, well, we have the bond referendum coming up. So, let's lower capital projects now and hopefully the bond referendum turns out positively, which unfortunately it did not. So, uh we still need to do the work in the buildings. So, this would put the capital projects back to where it was a year ago. And uh so, when you add all of that together, it makes our cap for next year
0094.54%. So, the budget that we're putting forward uh complies with that and that means it needs a simple majority in order to pass. Simple majority meaning of the people who come out to vote and it require would require 50% plus one yes votes in order for it to pass. 50% plus one because a tie vote would not pass. So our state aid we're slated to get a bit of an increase in our state aid. Unfortunately, the state budget is not completed yet. It's the deadline is April 1st and uh well, still not done and it really and it seems to be nowhere in sight. So we don't know when the state budget will be done. Uh so we're going with the governor's budget proposal numbers. And in the governor's executive budget proposal, every school district
010would get an increase of minimum increase of 1% to their foundation aid. So when I say state aid, state aid is an umbrella term and it's made up of a number of a number of categories. I mentioned building aid earlier, that was one of the categories. Um is excess cost aid for special ed students. The biggest category is called foundation aid and [clears throat] that's the one that the governor is saying every district in her proposal would get a minimum of 1% increase. So that comes that number for us comes out to a little under $300,000. In addition to that, the governor is putting in her putting her proposal that aid for pre-kindergarten would increase. So right now, and the number hasn't changed in over 20 years, for a full day pre-kindergarten student, we can
011get up up to $5,400 per student. Now we have a half day program, so we we get $2,700 per student. In the governor's budget proposal, she is saying that number for a full full day pre-K student will go up to $10,000 and so in our case with a half day program, it will go up to 5,000. So, that's that's an increase as well. So, when you add that increase to the foundation aid increase, it comes out to about $550,000, which is okay. I mean, we'll take it. It's going up. Uh but on a $244 million budget, it's it's not it's not a whole lot. And our uh state aid is just not keeping pace with pace with either inflation. Um uh it's just not. Uh but what are you going to do? Uh so, we
012do hope that when the state budget is completed, that number will go up some. It usually does from the governor's budget proposal. Not always. Last year, it didn't, for example. Uh but we're we're hopeful it will. Um uh and and one of the reasons we're kind of optimistic that it will, uh the biggest reason is because the entire state Senate, state Assembly, and the governor are all up for re-election this year. So, usually that that helps get a little more state aid with the final budget. But we don't know. So, we put the budget together using the governor's uh executive budget proposal uh dollar figures. So, our major increases in next year's budget, the single biggest increase is health insurance. Our rates are going up 12% next year. So, that cost alone is more than
013$4.5 million increase. Um I already mentioned the capital projects going up 1.5 million to what they were last year. Uh >> [clears throat] >> our you usually our biggest increase is contractual salaries. Uh but because of some changes at well, some retirements, uh which I'll talk about in a in a in just a minute. Uh we have some retirements, and of some of the retirements, uh we have automatic savings um on retirements. Um and then so, a lot of those positions don't even have to be replaced. So, that's further savings on top of that. And then we made some other uh reductions in our in our budget, which I'll talk about. Uh other benefits, ERS and TRS are the two retirement systems that our our employees belong to. We pay in a um uh percentage
014of salaries into the retirement system and and that uh it's called the employer contribution rate. That those rates vary from year to year. Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down. Uh that's the actually ERS is going up, TRS is going down uh next year. They kind of wash out. Uh FICA is social security, workers compensation, Medicare costs. Separation pay is one what we pay uh for uh retirement incentives. We have a number of retirements this year, as I mentioned, which I'll talk more about in just a second. And unemployment insurance. Um I only mention unemployment insurance. It's not a big number in our budget. Um however, uh this past year New York State increased the um maximum weekly benefit from $405 to $800. I think [snorts] it's six stuck in Nebraska, 816. I mean,
015I think it is something like that. Uh more than doubled overnight. So, it was a it's a big increase. It's not a big dollar amount in our budget, but I I mention it because it's such a large increase from one year to the next within that code. Uh so, the budget reductions um the 21 teacher retirements, there's a pretty significant difference between a retiring teacher salary and a uh replacement a new teacher salary. So, uh right off the bat, that's a pretty pretty big savings. Um so, we miss the people, the whole brain drain, all of that, absolutely. Uh but, I'm talking about the numbers. So, it saves money. Um teachers have to let us know by the end of by February 1st if they're retiring in order to get the uh retirement incentive. Uh
016so, we know that number by the end of January. So, that's the first and we say, "Okay, 21 teacher retirements. If we even if we replace every one of them, that would have saved that million 820." And then uh what actually starts in the fall is Dr. Scanlon, Dr. Dabrowski, Dr. Biscari, as well as all of our uh uh district-wide administrators, as well as our building principals start meeting to go over staffing needs for the following year. And actually that's still going on. Uh but of the 21 teacher retirements, uh there are 18 teaching positions that we don't have to replace next year. So, that's further savings on top of the retirements. So, um some are at the elementary level, some at the secondary level, and it's based on on enrollment and and uh course
017requests and and various staffing needs. Uh this year there was a mandate directly from uh the superintendent to all administrators in the district to reduce any discretionary budget codes, meaning equipment, supplies, materials, uh any any codes that there's discretion over uh decreased by 25%. So, that was a significant savings. Um it's not the kind of thing we could do every year. Um and it doesn't doesn't mean we can further reduce those codes again next year. It also doesn't mean they go back to where they were next year. Uh but it's just it's just what we have to do between uh inflation. We all We've all seen inflation, how it's just out of control. Our health insurance costs are are have gone up so much. On the health insurance side, um it's really the medical costs
018always go up, but the pharmaceuticals is really what's driving the increase. And I like my a lot of you have heard me say before, there's there's a reason why, and I'm not trying to be funny about it, there's a reason why every other commercial you see on TV is for a pharmaceutical, uh a prescription med, because they know people will watch see the commercial and say, "Oh, I need that." And they'll go to the doctor, they'll get a prescription, and that costs are are astronomical. So, that's what's pharmaceutical is really what's driving the increase in our health insurance costs. We're doing a couple of things to try to mitigate that. One is every time we do a new employee contract for any of our bargaining units, there's an increase employee share towards health insurance. They're
019paying more, the district pays a little less, so that will help save money over over time. And on the health insurance side, we're part of a self-insured consortium. So So for example, the the Board of Education has appointed me to the Board of Trustees for our health plan and along with the other trustees on our health plan, we're working doing working on different things to try to lower costs. So United Healthcare administers our plan, so we're not looking to save United Healthcare money. We don't care about them, they make plenty of money. But if it save since it's a self-insured consortium, if change if we can make changes that save the health insurance plan money, it saves Three Village money. So we're working on some things with that. Um We also have some administrative reconfiguration
020in this year's uh uh budget and for that I'll turn it over to Dr. Scanlon. >> Yes, so we are we're switching out from chairs to directors in many of our academic areas. We're also eliminating two central office administrative positions, the executive director of personnel and the assistant director of technology. So in the past four years, we've been hearing a lot about the other declining enrollment in the district and you know the the idea that we've gone down significantly. And the overall enrollment in the district has gone down by a half a percent in the past four years. So we're basically leveling off in the 5,400 student range. However, we've reduced because of attrition with the the population about 5% of our teaching staff. With these changes, it's almost 20% of our administrative team has
021been reduced as well. So, we're cognizant of the costs for the taxpayers in the community. We're also hoping that these positions, the the chairs, the switch to directors is not a massive cost savings. The larger part of the savings is with the central office positions. But, the hope is that these positions will make us more efficient in having one director overseeing a department K through 12 as well as multiple administrators in several buildings. And that continuing with the standards it goes consistently through the entire district as opposed to secondary versus elementary and providing supports in the elementary level, which are the foundations for all the programs and all the students going forward. So, it's a significant savings there. Um and also just to point out with the state aid piece for a second, um one
022of the things we were talking about with the the pre-K aid, um 2028-2029 is going to be a very important school year. The governor's proposal is that we will go to a full-day pre-K program across the board for anyone in the district who would want it. That's different than now where it's a lottery system and you apply for that. Um many school districts have that. This would allow it just like kindergarten works. Any student wants to go, goes that and goes into the program. By our current estimates of the uh students that have put in for parents parents have put their students in for this current year, we have 277 uh requests. So, we're using that number to project out for 2028-2029. If that's the case, we're probably going to need to increase the number
023of uh pre-K sections by 10 across the district. That means 10 more teachers and 10 more aides. However, if you remember back to Dr. DeBruiski and Mr. Wells' presentation earlier in the year, in the next 10 years, 370 of our current 530 teachers are first eligible to retire. So, we're going to have a large changeover in the teaching staff in the district. Every 30 years it's going to be the cycle. Next year is another 20 first eligible, 19 past eligibility. But, the year after that it's another 40, and another 40 after that, and another 50 3 years out from now. So, that's going to be massive uh brain drain as well. Loss of very experienced staff. And new teachers would be hired on. Um our current senior class is at 477, I think, as of
024today. And the uh com- incoming kindergarten class is 333. So, they're gone are the days in Three Village where we had six or 700 in a grade level. Those are over. Um families 10, 20 years ago were averaging anywhere from three to five children. Now it's 1.3 children. So, we're not seeing that number. Plus we have a large number of houses in the community, over 300, that are being rented to college students. We are college town. We have one of the flagship schools of the state in our community, which is a wonderful thing to have. But the lack of enough dorm space for those students, they go out to the community and and take up housing space that normally, years ago, would have had families living in them and sending children to us. So, we're
025cognizant with keeping cognizant of this as we're looking forward. And the enrollment is this still continuing to level off. >> [clears throat] >> Uh we do get students that transfer in from other districts and other states and other countries. Our ENL population has increased by 400% in the past 10 years. So, ma- major changes uh have come our way. So, those are just some of the the things that we're looking at that right now. But with that pre-K um change, um there's a change in the aid that the governor's proposing. Uh right now, the aid that we receive, the full-day aid would be $5,400. Since we have a half-day program, it's $2,700. Our proposal is for that to go up to $10,000, which the half-day aid would be $5,000. That increase will help a lot
026as we're looking at the expense of this program. Um if you look at the state aid runs, so you don't have to go by my word, full transparency, go on the state aid website, you can see for yourself. The district right next to us on the list has is getting $12,500 per per student for pre-K. There are some districts on Long Island that are getting as high as $26,000 for pre-K aid because it's based on wealth ratio. Since Three Village is considered a high wealth district, we're at the the bottom of the which is the 10,000. So, that's the maximum we could get if we had a full day program. So, that's the major difference. So, if you say, "Well, why does that district get It's all based on formulas, mostly to deal with poverty
027levels in those areas. Our poverty level has gone from 4% to 18% in the past 10 years, which is a significant significant increase, but there are districts that have poverty levels that are at 70, 80, 85% in this in Long Island. So, they obviously would get more money with those formulas from the state. So, we can turn over to Mr. Carlson for capital projects. >> Uh so, the >> [clears throat] >> capital projects that we're including in the budget for next year, these are right off of our bond project scope list. The as you know, we've talked about, especially when we were talking about the bond, the cupolas on our buildings are are in badly need of repair. The three worst are Setauket, Murphy, and Nassakeag. So, those would be included in this. The pool
028at Ward Melville High School desperately needs some work as well. The mini gym floor at Nassakeag was damaged by the flood that washed out Harbor Road in August of 2024. So, we want to repair that. And then if there's money left over, we put district-wide bathrooms. And we have to list a project in order to get building aid on it. So, we always throw in something just in case there's money left over, we could still do some work and get the building aid on it. Our goal is not necessarily to spend all the money, but it's so if we can get the projects done for cheaper, great. And then if there is money left over and we need some bathrooms, we can do them and still get the building aid. So the building aid um
029is uh for all of these projects, the building aid is the portion of the project that the state reimburses us for. And due to a quirk in the um building aid formula, so some of the state state aid uh formulas work against us, um this one actually there's a quirk in the in the formula that works for us. And our aid ratio of 66% is unusually high for a district with the with the wealth that uh that is here. Uh but it works to our benefit, so that's great. And uh we do get So whatever any of these capital projects, the state reimburses us 66% of the cost. They pay it to us over 15 years, but we do get the 66%. >> [clears throat] >> So to summarize, the budget to budget increase is
0302.87% and the tax levy is 4.4 4.54% and again that complies with the tax cap. So if the budget doesn't pass, the options are same as uh other years. We could put the same budget up for a second vote. We can revise the budget and put that up for a vote. Either way, if there is a second vote, it would be on the third Tuesday of June or go straight and not have a second vote at all and go straight to contingency. Uh but if there's not a budget passed by the voters, whether it's just one vote or two votes, if there's not a budget passed by the voters, then we go to contingency. And what that means is no increase to the tax levy at all. And that means from this proposed budget that
031we have, we would we would have to cut another uh 8.1 million dollars from that budget. Mentioned earlier, under a contingency budget, capital projects are not allowed, so the first three million dollars would be that. So but it would still leave 5.1 million dollars in more budget reductions. Now, what gets cut if we get to that point, I can't say. And I say not because it's a secret and we don't want to tell anyone. It's because we would have to have the first a lot of discussions with our directors and building principals and then with the Board of Education. And the reason we don't do that ahead of time is because we as school officials are not allowed to advocate for passage of the budget. We can't make a statement such as um if the
032budget fails, your child's education may be adversely impacted. We can't say something like that. We can't say if the budget fails, property values will go down. Those are subjective statements. They may be true, they may not be true. Might happen, might not happen. But so we can't say those kind of things. We can say factual information. If the budget fails twice, we have to cut 8.1 million dollars from this proposed budget. That's a fact. That's what have to be done. And the Commissioner of Education over the years, not just the current Commissioner, but various Commissioners over the years have admonished school districts for making statements such as you know, if the budget fails, kindergarten is not mandated, so kindergarten might be out or sports might be out or after school clubs or whatever. So, that's
033why we try to not try. We have to stay away from from having those discussions of well, if we have to cut million 5.1 plus 3 million of capital projects plus another 5.1 million, what are the things that will be cut? Because the Commissioner could look at that as kind of like us coercing parents putting fear into them to vote for the budget. So, that's why we don't have those discussions ahead of time. So, but we would have to make those cuts um if and when we get to that point. For this year, there is a special proposition on the ballot. So, this is not it's not a new law. There's a new, I'm going to say, interpretation of an existing law, uh section of New York [clears throat] State Education Law, that deals with
034the the section of law deals with libraries and museums. And so, what I think happened, I don't exactly know for sure, but what I think happened is somewhere, somebody in the state, somewhere in New York State, was reading this law and said, "You know, I think that would apply the the the section of law where where it talks about tax levies for public libraries, said, "You know, I think that could apply to a museum as well." So, they pursued that. Um I don't know where in the state it was, but sometime in the last couple of years, and whoever makes the decision, whether it be the Commissioner of Education, I don't really know who, said, "Yeah, you know what? You're right." So, what it's what's happening now is it's that is making its rounds to
035all the around the state to museums around the state. And we're seeing in a number of places these propositions go up. Now, the Long Island Museum came to a school board and said, "Hey, we'd like to put a ballot proposition on on the school budget uh vote ballot uh that would generate an additional tax levy for the museum." Now, the board did not say, "Sure, that's a great idea. Let's do that." Um but so, what the museum did, and it's the it's within their rights, they put a petition together, they got a required number of signatures, I don't remember the exact number they had to get, but it was like 300 something signatures. Uh they got the required number of signatures. And so, it's on the ballot now. This is not one that's saying I'm
036for it or against it. It's not not for me going either way. Uh it's up to it to to the voters. So, but the board could not say either the board could not say no, we're we're not interested in that. So, it's on the ballot. So, if that passes, it would generate an additional $500,000 tax levy for museum. Now, in the town of Brookhaven, there is the way it's it's being handled so far, whether this continues I don't know, but so far there's not there would not be a separate line item on your tax bill. It would be added to the school tax levy. We would get the we would collect the money from the town and then give it to the museum. It's nothing we don't get a piece of it. They don't get
037a piece of our money. That's just the mechanics of it. So, this is up for you as voters to vote on either you're for it or you're against it. That's up to you. But all we say, you know, I said we can't talk about why you should vote yes or why you should vote no. What we can say is please vote and please try to get all your family, friends, neighbors, whoever can vote, please come out and vote. And all we ask is that you vote what you think is best for you and your family and your kids. If you think you and your family and your kids are better off if the budget passes, vote yes. If you think you and your family and your kids are better off if the budget fails, vote
038no. But make it your your choice your vote. So, the vote is Tuesday, May 19th, 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Ward Melville High School in the gym on the north side of the building. There is early voting available. If anybody wants to avail themselves of that, you can find information on the district website or contact our district clerk for information on how to do that. So, that concludes the presentation. I'll sit down and be glad to answer any questions anyone may have. >> Thank you so much. We'll open it up to questions. Mr. Rizzo. >> I want to thank you for wonderful presentation and for all the work that you do for this district. We wouldn't have what we have if it weren't for you. But I do have one concern, okay? I'm looking
039at the budget. I'm listening to a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls recently from parents in the community. And my question is we did away with elementary school security guards. Correct? >> No, not all of them. >> I wouldn't Not all of them. I'm saying we >> [laughter] >> No, no, no. I'm saying we eliminated five elementary security guards, correct? >> right. So what what we did this past year was we we had had when we started the pre-K program um what my eight or nine years ago, I forget what year it started. Um what we did is we put a security guard for the pre-K wing. Um they would be there for when the kids came in, uh the the you know, change of shift, you know, those kids go home, afternoon
040kids come in, uh and then dismissal at the end of the day. And for most of the day they would just be in the in the pre-K wing. Um if a parent chose for whatever reason to pick up their child during the middle of the day, they would go to that pre-K entrance and the security guard was there. So what we found was, well, maybe we don't need a security guard just for pre-K. So um so that's why that position was taken out. Um and we used the existing security that was still in the building to handle arrival and dismissal for pre-K. And so that's how we've been handling it. >> And so my question is how much would it cost to bring back the five elementary workers security in order to they can do
041that but at the same time be around the building. >> For sure. Well, to to do that it's it costs approximately $50,000 for each security guard that's there the full school day every school day. So, it would be approximately a quarter million dollars to do that. So, if if we were to do that what what our recommendation would be is exactly what you said Mr. Visco. Instead of doing it the way we were where they just they're pre-K and that's that. They they just another security guard for the building. So, we could certainly we could certainly do that. By the way, if if you recall there was a question a couple of meetings ago from one of the board members about there's an increase to the line does a budget code for security and um
042like the the question was what what is that for? And and the answer was really it's it's it wasn't for a specific purpose like this. It was well, there's always more requests for security. So, we wanted to increase that budget code. So, we did put some more money in that budget code. So, this could be something that it it >> I think it's worth discussion. >> [snorts] >> Thank you so much. Um and we can continue to discuss that at at future meetings. >> So, from the point of view of the administration we would highly recommend bringing those security guards back. Just for the sheer fact of what we contended with just recently but even more so we have very large properties and we want to make the buildings as safe as possible. So, having
043the additional personnel to do that and reminder that our security is vast majority of our security guards are either current or former law enforcement or former military. So, that has been a huge help having Mr. Blum as the head of our program. He's been working with with for a long time has really put us at a whole another level in comparison to many other schools. And many of the other security features that we have, such as the Zero Eyes program, which is AI weapons detection systems, and many other systems that we'd like to discuss, but it would compromise our security posture. Uh when you stick your license into that card reader, we can pull up anything about the individual that would lead us to be concerned for an entry into a building. So, sadly, we
044have a lot of things we're known for, wonderful schools, great athletic programs, great academic programs, um fantastic students, um but we also have some changing times. We have the largest number of single parent households in our district's history, and the largest number of single parent households where it's the father, not the mother, who's the parent main parent in the household. In addition to that, we have the largest number of orders of protection ever in our history we've we've had. So, any additional stance on security would be fully supported by the administration here in the district. >> Hi, I'm in very much support of that as well. Um so, maybe by the next meeting, if you can figure out how we can get that into the budget and what we need to look to do that.
045>> Uh sure. Actually, that would probably be I mean, we we could figure absolutely figure that out. As I as I mentioned, we did we did increase the security budget code for next year without without something specific in mind. Um so, that that this is something that um that could be used for. Um I'll work work with Mr. Blaum and Mr. Tucci, who do they do all the scheduling for our guards, and so, we'll we'll be able to figure out how to do that. That's that's not a problem. Sue? >> I'm very much in favor. Anything that makes our schools safer for our students, we should do. Period. That's it. >> So, one way we might be able to do it, just to give a sense, if the state actually passes a budget sometime in
046the next uh few weeks, uh that potential increase that the governor proposed, perhaps some of that extra funding could help offset some of the costs for this as we look forward to that. So, um they've just done their eighth extension of their budget. Um it was supposed to be in on April 1st. So, perhaps uh you know, a little push on there to get that to us so that we can consider this as well as we're we still have a number of students on the pre-K waiting list that we'd like to take off to be able to open up additional sections to accommodate those parents. Uh one other piece uh that we're doing for uh safety and security, uh it was a recommendation from the school uh closure repurpose committee was to move all the
047SAC programs into the buildings. Mount is currently in the building. Uh the portables that are outside were supposed to be here for 10 years. They've been here for over 30. And it's by the good graces and abilities of the maintenance department here keeping those up. But, I'd much rather have all of our students in a brick-and-mortar building than in those portables outside. And then the same Unfortunately, the same process it takes to build a building is the same process we have to do to take down a structure. And those are since they're they're even though they're portables, it's going to take time to take those down. But, get get all the programs in. We're also going to be starting SAC at 7:00 a.m. throughout the district next year because we have a lot of parents
048in the community who need to get to work earlier. Not that every parent needs this, but those that do, make it an accommodation so those parents could get their children into school and be able to get to work and be able to get them uh get get to work and get home to to them later on in the afternoon. So, those are some of the things that uh we've already built into this budget for next year. So, listening to a lot of the needs of the community and hearing some of those things as we've gone around to do the presentations. We still have a few more presentations to do. Uh one more this week at Jefferson Ferry, three more next week, and then one with SEPTA virtually the week after the day before the vote.
049So, if you haven't seen any of those presentations, it sounds similar to this, but we add a few more uh points that are specific about the tax cap and the history of the tax cap in there and you're welcome to ask questions at each of our respective buildings. >> Thank you and for the record I too would be very much in favor of looking into bringing those guards back but just to put a finer point on the finances of it that doesn't change the budget the proposed budget that's up there that's the one you're voting on it's up to us to work within that dollar figure that's already been determined to see if we can make this work. Any other questions or comments for Mr. Carlson? >> So just to clarify though so extra security
050shifts at the elementary school some of that could come from the the budget that was proposed in that line already it's not like we're looking for $250,000 to take out of codes to to be able to fund that? >> That that is correct. Um it might not that that increase may not pay for the whole thing but but it would be able to pay for most of it some of it might be through other scheduling potentially. Um and then the well oh what's going well this will be on for June 3rd board meeting but I was just working with our bond council we have one of our existing bonds that is at the point So when somebody refinances a mortgage to get a lower interest rate all right so with with our bonds there's a
051certain number of years that they they're not callable for right so once they're callable then we could we have a chance to refinance called actually refunding but it's like the like refinancing a mortgage so so we do have one of our bonds where we'll be able to do a refunding of it meaning refinance at a lower interest rate the going rates it would save approximate of course it would goes out to bid but it would save the estimate is about $45,000 a year. Um So, so that and that would start this coming up year. So, we'll have I was going to put that in a in a memo to the board. Uh so, we'll have a resolution on the June 3rd board meeting that would authorize us to proceed on that. Uh worst case is
052we don't save much money. That's the worst case. It can can't cost more money. Uh so, if we go out to bid on that and we don't get lower rates, we don't get lower rates. But, if we do, it'll that's that's a potential uh approximately maybe 45 That's the estimate right now. It's about a $45,000 savings. So, um per year for the next And that that bond has 4 years left on it. So, it doesn't extend the term of the bond. Uh just the lower interest rate. So, it'll be $45,000 for the next for the remaining 4 years of of the life of that bond. So, that could go towards that as well. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Just to confirm, so we do have a line of increase that 200,000. That's for That's the
053whole amount can be used for this, right? >> Well, there's also there's also increase of salaries, that kind of thing. >> Okay, so wouldn't be the full amount. It's part of that amount. >> It would right, but right. So, the the the just increase of salaries with your existing staff would would not go up $200,000. Um it would go up some. Um >> Depends. >> But, we're in negotiations with that unit. So, I >> Okay. Another separate >> But, but a chunk of that increase could go towards this. Yes. >> Just want to confirm. Another separate question. We do have a line increase on insurance contract service. That's increased 22% from 1.6 million to 2 million. So, is this common or is because some sudden change of this year? >> Uh well, uh that's that's
054our property and liability uh insurance. Um that's mostly due to lawsuits. Um, that's that's our our liability insurance. And that's just costs are going up. Yeah. That's That's That's That's our our uh, premium increase. >> Okay, good. Thank you. Okay, all good questions. Any Anyone else for the budget? Okay. Then I think, um, this would be a good time since we were just talking about security to, uh, >> further our efforts >> Um, I'm sorry. May May I just interrupt something? I just want to Not necessarily lawsuits against us. Lawsuits in general against school districts around the state. Uh, because we're we're our insurance is through what's called the New York State Insurance Reciprocal New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal. So, it's not It's not we're getting sued a lot, so our insurance is going up.
055I The way I said that I I kind of I didn't want anyone to think, "Why are we getting sued so much?" Um, uh, our society is more litigious >> Yeah. >> Nothing against the attorneys. >> So, basically insurance >> [laughter] >> We love you, Chris. Uh, but, you know, society is more litigious. So, with >> the insurance service increased their premium because, uh, they had to pay all the >> Yes, and also property damages, uh, because of storms and because that that's included in that insurance policy, too. Um, >> Okay, good to know. >> our our our buildings. It's like our homeowners insurance for our buildings. >> All right, thank you. So, we did want to have an open conversation with the community and and we know our families are concerned about what's been
056going on at Mount, so we thought Dr. Scanlon could sort of bring us up to speed. >> Yes, so, um, this has been a very trying week with everything that's happened over at Mount, and we're very concerned for the safety of everyone there. So, this, uh, situation spurred from an incident that occurred at Stony Brook University during the charity sports night. Um and then um the university police were involved. It's two separate police agencies. University police and the Suffolk County Police are not in the same agency. They're two separate agencies. Um communication was occurring between them and our Suffolk County Police force. A lot of that communication we had planned on sending out communications on Friday. Had to hold because they were still working on the investigation. That investigation pursued into Saturday. And then Sunday
057the message most folks in the community know that my messages come out around 5:00. Um if I'm sending you a message at a later hour or earlier hour, something has happened. And you know, those emails that come from us with the ambulances when people say, "Why do I get a call on an ambulance every time it's at a school?" Because years ago when we didn't do that, we would get about two or 300 phone calls, "What is the ambulance at my child's school?" and what's the urgency and a lot of the phones would ring around the district. So we try to be as communicative as possible. But Sunday afternoon, there was something that was shared on Facebook that was not shared with the Suffolk County Police Department in their investigation nor with the school district
058that we had a vet and that took a while. And unfortunately, uh we we had to call the police here to uh North Country. I was here all Sunday night and we had to do the message out. And the police were involved in an ongoing investigation with this. But we've increased the the security presence at Mount and several other schools. We've been working with the Suffolk County Police to have a police presence on the campuses. Um they've been around. Um but going forward just for peace of mind particularly at Mount with some of the concerns there. Um Ms. Hydrick, who's the principal there, has provided a list of activities uh both on campus and off campus that we'll be sending our security team to to just ensure at these different locations that there are eyes
059on what's going on. Um in addition to all those other things I just mentioned that are present in all the buildings throughout the district, I would love to tell you what the discipline of any student would be, but that's not permissible under education law. I I disclose what would happen with any student in the district for any purpose. Um but we do have in our code of conduct a lot of discipline um with situations that we followed to to the T and to the very T and nth degree with a lot of these things. Um we don't take any of this lightly um and ultimately we want to make sure that the buildings are safe. So um I think we're in a very good position, but I understand where people are still concerned and maybe
060concerned for what the future would bring too and there's going to be further discussions by the board about what that may look like as we move forward. >> And and I think an important follow-up to that conversation is is engaging you, the community. Um I think we each try to build a culture with our children of if something happens to you, if something's wrong, if someone said something mean to you, if you overheard something that was scary and confusing, that if they bring that to us, we're going to do the right thing with that, right? We're going to carry that forward to somebody who can actually take action on that. Facebook will not fix that. Facebook's not going to save your kid. Um but if you talk to a principal in your building, if you
061talk to your teacher, talk to the social worker, talk to the guidance counselor, talk to anybody, bring that to the attention of somebody within our schools to help you come to resolution for your child. I I hope I'm not over speaking for Dr. Scanlon, but I think he would rather hear about every little thing than hear about something on Facebook, right? Because then we can't help make it better. So I just would encourage you to to take the time to talk to your kids and and be that bridge for them that if something is going on, if something's happening, that you will be that bridge to connect them to us and let us let the professionals in our buildings do their jobs and help your kids whatever's going on, right? We want them to know
062that. >> [snorts] >> And just add to what Sue was saying, uh we do have a uh safe schools hotline. So I know a lot of people are very leery about calling their administrators or the superintendent or their principals. They're all lovely, so you should call them whenever you need to. Um But, the safe school hotline is anonymous. So, you can call up at any time you hear anything, call up call up and leave a message and say something's wrong or you heard something or you heard this or you saw this on your child's social media. We would rather investigate 100 things that aren't true than to find something on Facebook that might have been true and could have prevented what happened on Friday. Because if we knew some of the things that happened, it
063might we may be having a totally different story here. But, we did not know, so Um but so there is a safe safe schools hotline. We're looking to put that more on the website so everybody could find it on their individual pages. Um so, we'll be changing that so it'll be very easy to find. But, definitely if you see something, say something. Reach out to any of your administrators, any of your central office, any of the board. Um we're all here and we're all reachable. >> We were very lucky after the fact that someone actually heard something in another school and and sent us information using the safe schools hotline 2 days after the incident occurred and provided us with some information that we were able to investigate and provide to the police as well.
064So, whoever whoever did that, we thank you even though it was anonymous. So, we don't know who you were, but thank you very much. >> Indeed. Thank you. Thank you. All right, any other conversation regarding this? Okay, thank you so much. We will turn now to our public comment period. We're going to bring you up to that microphone over there, please. Steven, I'm sorry if I screw up your name, Lau Chan? >> How's it going? Good evening. My name is Steven Lau Chan. I'm a district member here for I've lived in the district for the last 8 years. I have three daughters. They all attend Seton Elementary. One in the fourth grade, one in the first grade, and one in the pre-K program. So, like you guys brought up before about the security guard, that
065was one of the things I was going to talk about. And I'm glad that everyone here agreed that they would like to get that security guard back at the preschools cuz my daughter goes all day. Like I said, I have three girls. A little background on me, I know I have 2 and 1/2 minutes. I spent the last 22 years of my life public service. I was a United States Marine, got out of the Marines, became a cop, been a cop for the last 18 years. I work on the Long Island Gang Narcotics Task Force. So, I deal with the violence and everything every day. So, what happened last Friday, I was at the event. And, you know, I personally, with having my daughters here in the school in Setauket Elementary, I don't, you know,
066we've had this conversation and I've been to one of these meetings before where we've, you know, voted or talked about the armed security. And I just think it's it's it's we're all as a group, adults, parents, whatever we are, but we're waiting for something to happen. We're We're sitting back and we're waiting for something to happen. And the problem is is that when it does happen, what it's too It's too late. And I've seen it. I've seen this for the last 18 years while I do my job. I've seen this in the military. You know, as a cop, as an off-duty officer, I always have my gun. Not because I I'm scared of No. The saying is, I'd rather have it and never need it than need it and not have it. The one day
067this happens in our district and we don't have armed guards in the parking lot. I'm not saying they should be in the school, but I'm saying we should have It's a deterrent. Crime needs to be deterred. So, when you have shootings in the Bronx on one corner, what does the police commissioner do? They put more cops on the corner, just like we're putting more Suffolk County police officers that are getting 200 and something thousand dollars a year to go sit at Mount when they could be going handling crime. Like we need to have the discussion in the budget with Mr. Jeffrey of how to implement a security system. Listen, scanning your ID is great and all, getting a history on people, that's fine. But if that person wants to do something, they're going to do
068it. You know, like like Dr. Scanlon said, our properties are large. A lot of these events that happen nationwide, they start from the outside and they end up inside. If you have someone in that parking lot to intervene and stop the threat, it's going to deter crime from happening. It's going to deter people from threatening people with shootings, with I'm going to kidnap you, whatever the case may be. But it's something that should needs to be discussed discussed outside of the the the emails that we get for a hey, let's do a survey. What's the next step? What is the next step for protecting my three daughters that are all young, they're going to be in this this district for a while, and everyone else's kids? Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you so much.
069We appreciate you taking the time to come and speak with us. All right, we're going to go to our consent agenda now. Do I see a motion? >> So moved. >> And a second? All right, we'll begin with Mr. Romano. >> Here are the minutes from the April 15th and April 29th business meetings and from the April 21st meeting for the BOCES vote. >> Thank you. And is E also yours? >> Yes, those are the appointment of board of registry for the election workers for the Suffolk County Board of Elections that will be working the budget vote and election on the 19th. >> Okay. Any questions about that? All right. F, recommendations of the Committee on Special Education Subcommittee and 504 Accommodation Plan meetings as stated. And G, recommendations of the Committee on Preschool Special
070Education meetings as stated. And beginning with H, we turn it over to Dr. Dobroski. >> Yes, H is the approval of the 2026-2027 non-aligned salary schedule uh that you received uh this weekend and we reviewed in executive session. Uh I, personnel items instructional. Uh we have six instructional resignations, one instructional leave of absence. Um six administrative appointments, one instructional or professional appointment for a nurse, two instructional substitute appointments, several hourly and daily extra assignments for the 25-26 school year, as well as um teacher TA and administrative tenure appointments. >> Okay, thank you. Before you continue, I just want to make a motion to pull A4. Do I see a second on that? >> Second. >> All in favor? All right, we'll consider that afterwards. So, please continue. >> Sure. J personnel items non-instructional. We have
071three non-instructional substitute appointments and several summer ESY appointments. >> Okay, thank you. So, considering all of the motions inside of our consent agenda, all in favor? Okay, and now we'll return back to A4. Those in favor? Any opposed? No abstentions. Okay, so that motion does not carry. And that being said, do I see a motion to adjourn? >> Ms. Rosa, just one I apologize before you do that. Um I just wanted to announce the even though we're we're we voted on tenure tonight, as you know, we're going to have our tenure celebration on June 3rd, but I would like to recognize and congratulate several people. So, in the area of teaching assistant tenure appointments, we have Delphine Cirillo. We have Melissa Dufrensky. We have Britney Dunn. Hannah Lorenzen, Elizabeth Palomara, and Lisa Rimmer. For our
072teacher tenure appointments, we have Ariana Aston. Brian Buckhout. Kate Coppola. Caitlin DeBella. Kelly Dillon. Gabrielle Golden. Samantha Montazem. Jenna O'Leary. And Alex Pamatico. And Darcelina Villa Sharma. And then for our administrative tenure appointments, we have several things going on. So, first the tenure appointments of um Christina Cowan, who's our director of social studies, Sarah Kirsch, our principal at Arrowhead, [snorts] Dawn Nachtigall, um our assistant principal at Murphy, Diana Rinaldi, our executive director of curriculum and instruction. We also have the appointments of and the tenure of the following directors, which is Vin Cerriola, who's our new director of English language arts K-12 and literacy 7-12, Jackie Cordina, our director of K-12 math, uh Chris Tafe, our assistant director of PPS, Maureen Cooney, our director of science, Maureen Razz, our associate director of PPS, and Stacy Russo,
073our director of world languages and ENL. So, I'd like to recognize and congratulate all of them. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Yes, a hearty congratulations on that. All right, we will uh see a motion now to adjourn. >> So moved. >> And a second. >> Second. >> All in favor. All right, have a great night, everybody.