001Good evening everyone. Welcome to our Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 board of education meeting. At this time, I would ask you to please rise as Katie leads us in the pledge. Thanks, Katie. Thank you so much. All right. Um, Miss Dmano, any changes to our meeting agenda? >> We have three changes. Um, items 6A and 6B are changing uh on the agenda. Uh, 6A will be the technology committee updates. 6B will be with the retirements presentation and we have an addition of 9B appeal of suspension. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Well, then we'll get right into it and we will begin uh with Dr. Biscari for what is now 6A. >> Okay. So, they changed the order. Um it's not an order of importance, but um I just wanted to I just wanted to be fair to
002everybody. I'm sorry. Um, this time I'd like to introduce uh Dedra Ruben, our executive director of technology to give you an update on our technology committee and our district technology plan. Thank you, Dr. Biscari. Thank you to the board of education for having me here today. My name is Dear Ruben. I am the executive director of technology and data protection officer for the three village central school district. Uh before we jump into the technology plan today and the technology plan is really meant to be an aspirational document, a way for us to align ourselves around a common set of objectives, I wanted to take a moment to thank the boots on the ground and those are our network team and our technical staff. Um every day these individuals wake up at the crack of the
003dawn. They're the last people to go to bed. They swing through the boardroom at 7:00 at night to address an emergency. They are always available. They are responsive. They are kind. Uh I could not be more grateful to this team and how hard they work. So I just wanted to take an opportunity while I had you all here to acknowledge how much I appreciate them. So let's get into it. Oh, >> thank you. [laughter] Nick on behalf of the network team. Uh so what is a technology plan? There are really two functions of the technology plan. So first and foremost, it really is a strategic document. It outlines how we're going to acquire, implement, and manage all of the technology assets that we have in order to achieve our goals. The other thing that the
004technology plan does for us though is it gives us a moment of pause. It's an opportunity for us to take stock of our value systems and really figure out how we're going to align how we use our technology to get to the heart of what's important here in our school buildings and that is of course teaching and learning. So we had some fabulous conversations with the technology committee. Uh they were deep, they were philosophical, they were thoughtful. Um it was a wonderful group of people. So while I'm thanking everyone today, just a moment to um thank this group of people who spans all department cross sectors. We had representatives from M all different levels, different unique positions that bring something special to the district and can share about uh meaningful technology integration. So thank you
005to the technology committee for all of your hard work. We began with our vision statement. Uh this was brand new. It's a new one that we developed this year. Uh really taking stock again of that value system of what is important to us. It's against my constitution to read from my slides, but I am going to do some of that today. I am sorry. I think our vision is very beautiful. Our district envisions a learning environment where technology is used purposefully and selectively to deepen understanding, amplify critical thinking, and support authentic learning. Students and educators will leverage dig digital tools including emerging emerging technologies and AI not as ends in themselves but as strategic supports that enhance collaboration, efficiency and the creation of meaningful work. Through transparent communication and intentional practice, we will ensure our
006community understands that technology serves to strengthen instructional excellence, preserve the central role of the teacher, and maximize time and focus on high impact learning and student success. There were some common themes that came out of the committee as we attempted to develop this vision statement. first and foremost was appropriateness. Many of the technology committee members are parents. Many of them are even parents in this community. And like all of you, like me as a parent, we've been bombarded with all of the latest research. We've oscillated back and forth between technology is wonderful, we're all in, and technology is bad and we're going to demonize it. Collectively, the committee felt that both of those approaches really didn't fit the bill. That we had to take a common sense approach that was going to put teaching and
007learning at the forefront. That we were always going to align our objectives with student outcomes. I've said it a million times, but it bears repeating. We do not use technology for the sake of using technology. We're going to use it in order to bring transformational experiences to our students while at the same time really being enriched in our fundamentals which are making a strong return. So our first goal students will selectively and purposefully balance technology the curriculum and their individual schema to develop to construct deep understandings. This developmental approach prioritizes the intentional use of digital tools as a means to support critical thinking, collaboration, and the creation of authentic products. Many of the members of the technology committee were primary teachers and they wanted to hear from our leadership a commitment that our students are
008not going to be sitting on Chromebooks for 6 hours a day. That is absolutely developmentally inappropriate and it is not the best use of these tools. Our second goal, we want to advance the technology proficiency and comfort of all staff by focusing on operational efficiency. Educators will leverage digital tools and AI to streamline administrative workflows and professional organization, reclaiming time for high impact instruction and student support. The first portion of this goal is very important. The technology committee felt strongly that all members of the school community needed to be involved in efficiency. In the past, we reflected on how our goals only touched the educational staff, our administration, our teachers, and our TAs. We want to bring everyone along for the ride. We've implemented many systems and processes over the last few years that touch
009all of our employees, and we want to make sure that they have the same fluency and comfort. on the educational realm. Talking about our teachers and TAs, we recognize that we put more and more and more on our plates. We want to share the tricks of the trade. We want to work smarter, not harder. We want to take the administrative tasks that teachers and educational professionals have to perform. And we want to optimize them. Why? We want time back. And we want that time for teaching. Our third goal to establish a transparent communication framework that showcases student construction of knowledge and clarifies the district's philosophy of purposeful technology use. This goal ensures that parents in the community understand that technology is a selective professional tool used to enhance, not to replace, strong instructional practices and
010proven foundations of learning. You've probably realized that I've said the word selective many times today and that is because we want to be picky. We want to alleviate the fear that parents have, the fear that they're getting from the news stories that are being published every day. The Economist just published a news article uh what was it called? I made a note of it. failing the screen test that was only published two days ago which talked about how the gamification of education is impacting our short short attention spans. We don't want that to happen to our students. So we are going to be selective. We're going to be purposeful and we're going to communicate with our parents and our families so that they understand how the technology is being used. They are a partner in
011everything we do with our students and we want them to feel connected and comfortable with what's taking place inside the classroom. The last item that I have presented here uh for you just to take a look at today is the beginnings of an artificial intelligence framework for our district. This is adopted from um the South Carolina State Education Department, something that they put out recently here in New York. The two guiding uh documents that we have on AI integration are really the president's executive order that he issued last April as well as the computer science and digital fluency standards. Some other states are rolling out frameworks with which they implement AI. We are looking for one to model our own integration off of that really is a common sense approach. So for example, AI awareness
012in grades preK through 5. [snorts] This does not mean that our smallest learners are going to be on chat GPT or Gemini. What this means is that for their health and safety, they are going to be taught how to recognize AI. This is getting into so many critical elements of critical thinking. Critical twice. Whoops. Um, bias, news literacy, digital literacy. How do our students tell the difference between what is real and what is fake? I saw a video the other day of Mr. Rogers and Mr. T having a conversation with one another. I can guarantee those two people were never in the same place at the same time, but I'm not sure that a six-year-old knows that. And when they are exposed to it, I want them to approach that with with a deep critical
013lens. When we're looking at grades 6 through 8, that's when we can start to look maybe possibly this is still in development at the integration of appropriate tools but with teacher oversight. And then finally, when we get to grades 9 through 12, uh having our students really work with prototypes. We had a Regeneron scholar a couple of years ago who was using AI on breast cancer images in order to um help with breast cancer evaluation. We know that our students are already doing this at the highest levels. We'd like to broaden that to our 9-2 population. So, what happens next? The technology plan is not due to the state until the end of the year, but we are hoping to get some community input. So, after this presentation today, we will share this presentation and
014some more granular details with the community. And we will leave open this email address techpl3villagecsd.org. org for the next 30 days. The email goes right to me, so feel free to say hi. Um, this will give us some additional feedback from our stakeholders that we will take back to the technology committee. We may make some final tweaks at that point depending on what we receive here. Then we'll deliver that plan back to you before we submit before I ask Dr. Scanland to certify it and we submit it by the year end of the year. So technology plan Let's plan. Let's do it. >> Thank you so much. That was great. I will open it up to any questions or comments from the board. [clears throat] >> So, I have uh three questions. Um >> Sure.
015>> Uh first of all, thank you very much for putting this together and thank the technology committee. This actually it echoed a lot with the way I see things as well as a parent. I think um children are getting a lot of screen time uh even outside of school, right? We have no control over that. And it's I think you'd be hardressed to find a parent who says, >> you know, my kids would benefit from more screen time, right? It's usually usually the other way around, right? So at at school, we have a measure of control of this. Um so in terms of this idea of of making uh technology and AI selectful and purposeful um is there any planned tracking or specific guidance about the the amount of time that students are using electronic
016devices during the school that you mentioned like 6 hours is too much 1 hour 2 hours at different levels might be appropriate but I'm not >> you know as a parent I don't know what goes on inside the schools there used some you know I don't know if we are we planning to to track things um specifically and have targets and and >> so at this time do we have any plans to track physical time minutes hours? I would say no. The guidance that we have received um from state education is that we are supposed to and I actually made a note of this here that the guidance around technology use is around appropriateness but also impact. So this to me and technology feeds up through curriculum and instruction means we need to follow the
017guidance of our curriculum committees as they're working to develop the documents that we use day in and day out for instruction. We have to measure at that level whether or not the integration of technology is actually going to make a meaningful difference and that will determine whether or not it is used for a lesson or not used for a lesson. So, has it come down to minutes and time? No. Um, that guidance has not specifically been rolled out for us and it is something that I think would be difficult to determine at our level. >> Partly the the when we look at the technology and its uses, one of the things that we we're seeing the dying of books in many ways and I still love books and use them a lot personally, but this
018generation has grown up with not using them as much. And to give you an example, one of the vendors that we partnered with uh several years ago, and it was back when Inger was still on the board at that time, we uh we wound up saving the district $450,000, replacing the book with the electronic version. And what we're also experiencing is some of the books are only being offered electronically. They're not even being offered in in a in a hard copy form. The companies have gotten wise that it's cheaper to do it that way than to start printing the books. particularly in areas like social studies, by the time we got the books, the books are already two years outdated. So because by the printing process and the approval process and the editing process, they're
019they're two years old. So we supplemented a lot of materials particularly in social studies over the course of years with electronic resources. So I've been in classrooms as is Dr. as is Dr. Dusky um all the administrators here doing observations. I can tell you for a fact that our teachers are not using this every second of the of a period of the day whether it's elementary or secondary. There is a purposeful and uh and timely use of the resources when appropriate. It's not using technology for the sake of using technology. It's using it with a purpose. But the the idea of on the other end it is saving us money. There are some books that are never going to be electronic. They're you know those are particular like our AP texts which are college texts
020in many ways. They're not they're just starting to go online now. A lot of those resources. So, we're we're going to see more and more of that. A lot of common domain books and and um M Ruben Struck and her responsibilities also oversees the libraries. >> I am a librarian so I love the books, Kevin. >> Love the books. Yes. [laughter] We don't want to see the dying of that too, but um you know, it's there's a there's a world that they're growing up in that we're trying to protect them at the same time while educating them at the same time. So I think we've got to be conscious that the biggest model for this just as you pointed out well in school we have some control there isn't a lot of control outside of
021the school. So when they go home, if they're on their devices, you know, this is, you know, we talk about the plan. There's got to be a home component of the plan. Like what what are you doing at home to limit their use of resources? And as I jokingly said at the last meeting, if the kids are putting the parents to bed and there's no bedtime and then what are they doing when they're home and some of the tracking that we do have, which we can see with the Chromebooks, is that yes, they're on their they're on their Chromebooks at 2:00 in the morning or they're they're looking at things and we get alerts when there's bad things going on with that, which is always fun getting a 2 o'clock in the morning call on
022GoG Guardian. Um, but it happens. It happens that way and sometimes we avoid crises in those situations and sometimes it's they're looking up something inappropriate at two o'clock in the morning. >> If I may add on to that, there is one very powerful exemplar. There is one place that all of the research shows that technology integration makes a meaningful difference and that's for students with disabilities. So when I look at that research, I know that that's because it was selective and purposeful. So if we can take our general ed education integration and really model it off of what we're doing with our students with disabilities that I think would be a formula that we could follow in order to have real impact in instruction. >> Okay. Thank you. Um the the other two deal with
023AI, right? So >> Sure. >> Um AI it's it's a new technology, right? And it's it's it's still evolving, right? It's different, you know, it was different two years ago than what it is now. And I'm sure in two years it's going to change again too. Um and so when I heard about um I don't know is it Cal State or there's some places where they like they want a massive overhaul of everything they do to to have AI components in it. I'm thinking this is this is going to change, right? It's it's going to be it it's it's going to be very different. It's clearly there's going to be an impact, right? There might there's going to be cases where having AI embedded as part of the lesson is going to improve student outcomes.
024They're going to learn more. There's going to be cases where they're going to learn it either way. The way we've been doing it now is fine. and the way you know with AI they're learning about the same and you know there's there's places like a lot of people are concerned with critical thinking especially where in certain places it might actually be to the detriment of our students. >> Um so so the the question is um we really need to think of how we're going to evaluate the effectiveness of these technologies as well too. It's not just we're going to deploy it because we have it. Of course that that's not the intent but it's like what works and what doesn't, right? In which places does it work? maybe pilot studies. I'm not not sure how
025that's done, but do we have um how are we thinking about evaluating the effectiveness and gathering evidence before we make any like systemwide changes? >> Sure. Um so my answer to that is really twofold. The first is something I repeated earlier which is that I'm always going to do this work through the curriculum committees. >> Um I am a teacher first networking systems. I thank the individuals who work in that department because that's not my native language. My native language is pedigogy. Uh staff development. Those are the places that I really that I really live. So this involves working with teachers in order to develop those structures and those systems and find those tools. Um, every tool that we purchase inside of Three Village, now this is a little bit more structural. Once annually, typically,
026we open up a request process for teachers to submit recommendations to us of tools that they would like us to consider purchase. We get all those recommendations and then we evaluate those tools. We talk to the department chairs. We speak with the other teachers in the department who would want to use said tool. There's a thorough vetting process. We look at costs. We look at other sorts of impacts. We look at what the intended outcome is, whether or not we already have tools that are designed to address that intended outcome before we make a decision. Then conversely on the other side of that nearer to budget season every year we run a thorough utilization of every one of our tools and we say okay you know we in expected or intended this tool to be
027used by XYZ we see that it hasn't been used with fidelity we don't need it any longer etc. Um but all of the tools that we procure that has to be led from a curricular purpose. Uh it would be irresponsible of me to come to the table and say this is a tool that I want to use without knowing that my colleagues and my partners in education really truly believed that it was going to make a meaningful difference for kids. And then the only other measure of effectiveness is our student achievement. whether or not an item actually has a meaningful impact on results. Those are the items that Laura Pimeintel presents to us when we look at the school report card. Um, so if I had to pick my metrics, those are the ones that
028I would work with. Some of them are financial. Uh, most of them are curricular because that is, you know, our ultimate aim. >> Yeah. And if I can add to that too, I think, um, our focus is on curriculum, right? So uh we're not we're not we're not pushing out products >> uh to students in the use of AI. I think for right now it is um its use for uh the professionals in their efficiency. I think that's that's been um one of the focus focuses. The other one is um it's really an awareness for teachers, right, to know that kids may use AI particularly in the secondary schools. And then uh tailoring assignments to be um [laughter] AI >> AI proofish, right? I don't think that they're they're totally um aligned to that, but
029I think it it's that awareness the we do have things that have AI embedded in them, right? So for instance, which actually I think helps deepen understanding and critical thinking. So if you look at our Bloomberg lab that we're looking to implement next year, uh there is AI built into into the the the terminals that is going to take um reputable sources for business and pull in articles. So the thinking still has to be done by the students, right? So they might say um that when we had the demonstration in Manhattan um the person who was in charge of AI for the Bloomberg Lab showed us a graph of um of a stock and with a sharp drop and a and a sharp incline. And if you just hovered um the mouse over those areas,
030it would pull in all of uh reputable sources, research uh for business magazines um and you know reputable uh sources and the students still had to identify like what was the commonality in all of these sources in determining like what had this impact on this stock. So I think instead of um in this particular case not spending the time on the research aspect of it, pulling these things in, focusing on the critical thinking aspect of it is real really where we are as a school district. Um but I would say that again that there's nothing that replaces a teacher in the classroom and I think that our teachers do a wonderful job at um really balancing that. I mean, I've seen critical thinking lessons and the observations that we've done this year that have just
031blown me away to the point where uh they are curriculum based, they are standardsbased. Um with a touch of technology being their Google classroom or where things are housed or how they're going to respond to things. Um but the teachers are the creative ones that are working. I saw a social studies lesson where um a a teacher had her students um come up with a reconstruction plan after the Civil War like on their own rather than reading the different plans that were put out at the time. Like what a creative way of doing that. And then to talk about uh if there was I think leaving the class it was a conversation about um is there a perfect reconstruction plan? and the kids had to then go out uh on their own and res respond
032to whether it was too idealistic or not and to give examples. So I think that there's I think our teachers do a tremendous job under uh Miss Ruben Strung's leadership and and the edtech coaches to just do the perfect balance. Um, I don't you don't walk around classrooms and and see, you know, first graders playing Pac-Man or anything uh around the district. There it's meaningful usage and I think that that our teachers and our administration are leading the charge in that regard. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And so the the curriculum is actually a good example because I think we do a lot of the we do like pilot studies with new curriculum, right? I think that that that type of approach getting it from the the the curriculum committee is is is the way
033to do it. So thank you. This this has been very reassuring though actually. So, so I do appreciate uh the work. I think you already I I said I had three. So, the third one is whether it's teacher driven or top down. I think you answered this, right? It's >> the the teachers will be the ones putting the requests in for the technology. >> And I also want to clarify that I would describe our stance right now, our posture, if I could steal Jack's word, uh as we're building staff capacity around AI. So, our students do not have open access to chat bots. The other day in a senior leadership meeting, I was giving a tutorial on how to use Notebook LM and someone in the room said, "Can our students access this?" And I
034said, "No." And that led to a very deep philosophical conversation about where we are in that timeline. Are even if we wanted to, would we be ready to open up a tool of that magnitude to our kids right now? No, I don't think so. We may evaluate that, I'm sorry, as time goes by, but we're definitely in a staff capacity. The only caution I would put out is that a lot of the tool well as a parent like let's say I can block chat GPT at home right Google has an AI built in as well too right it's like not not Gemini like the Google search has an you know like every product's getting a little bit of AI here and there so we have to be careful a little bit right >> I would
035like to thank Nick Bonavalenta who has figured out through Google admin console how to block every available use of Gemini across all platforms for our students that is something that we chase down every time Google adds it in a new feature. So, it is off in search. It is off in Docs. It's not off for staff in those areas, but for the students, it is definitely off. And we need our staff to know, our staff are still apprehensive in the same way that you are. I'm getting a result from artificial intelligence. And what if it's garbage? Well, you have the education, the experience, and the training to look at that and determine whether or not it's worthwhile and to change it. So our staff are working through that process now before they allow our students
036to do the same thing evaluate an output according to the knowledge that they've gained so far. >> Can I ask the other side of the question? Sure. Why do we not want kids to use Node LM and not using Gemini? >> These are good questions because there is also value in failure, right? There is value in putting something into I um a few years ago I had an opportunity to observe Mrs. Verra's class. She's now our fourth grade steam teacher and her students were learning about photosynthesis. They were doing it in all of the traditional ways. They had done plantings and they had grafted those plantings. They had done drawings. They'd read about it in textbooks. They'd watch they'd watched videos. They'd read articles online. And then she opened up chat GPT at the front
037of the class. And the students asked ChatGpt to explain photosynthesis in a Taylor Swift song. Very clever, very cute. And what did the students determine when they evaluated the output? They found the error. Chat GPT had missed a step. Would they had known that if they hadn't gone through all of the other learning experiences? No, they wouldn't have. And what I was most struck by was they left with the impression of wait a minute, I have to I have to think critically when I'm using this tool. Um I want to make sure that our education professionals are really prepared to be the individuals who are guiding this. I have a lot of our teachers are nearly there. Some of them are not. We want to bring everybody along for the ride. make sure that everyone
038is comfortable as we open up these tools. Do I think that they are going to open up for our students? Yes, probably at our highest levels at our 9 through 12. Um, I'd like to use our common sense AI framework that we took a look at before, maybe modify it in a way that is really three village specific and come up with something that's palatable to everyone. There is an approach here that satisfies both ends of that spectrum. We just have to build it first and I think that's the moment we're at now. >> Yeah, fully agree. By the way, Gemini has a benefit to I use both all the time. So, Gemini have the links. So, I always go check the link and see whether it tells the truth or not. So, >> anyway,
039>> Dr. Lee's point's well taken. you know, when you did the presentation with the senior leadership, >> we're all thinking about efficiencies within our running the district that we can use technology for in those areas, which I'm from a budgetary standpoint could be cost effective for us to do. But I but I also want to thank Mr. Ruben and your leadership with the department. We're very lucky to have you. I just want to point out the reference of you said Taylor Swift and Dr. Miscara said Pac-Man. I'm not sure any kid knows what Pac-Man is these days. So, just putting the references together. [laughter] So, we are dating ourselves in age and and experience. >> Sorry. Next time I'll reference Tay. >> There you go. [laughter] That'll work. That'll work. U but thank you very
040much for all the hard work in your department. >> Thank you. [applause] It's a lot of fun. I enjoy doing this job very much. So, thank you again. All right. Next up at the microphone, we will bring Dr. Dresky for our retirements presentation. Thank you. Beautiful. Thank you. [snorts] All right. Good evening everyone. Maybe not as riveting as this data presentation, but uh nevertheless, we're going to try to make it fun. Uh first I just want to thank Matt Wells for his leadership in with this project helping to synthesize data and Laura Pimeintel for her as the data queen helping us get certain information that we needed in a timely manner as well as the HR staff for uh their unwavering assistance. So um I'm Gary Dreski. This is Matt Wells. Um thank you to
041the board for allowing us to present tonight. Um this evening's presentation is about retirement data. Um, you know, we tried to follow the trend that Dr. Biscari did uh with a video and follow around people to see if they wanted to be interviewed. Um, surprised nobody wanted to be interviewed with HR. They kind of ran in the other direction. So, uh, we're not as exciting. Um, all right. So, we're going to dive right in. Um, you know, we often think about data as looking at information in a rearview mirror. Um, it shows us where we've been, but it also can show us where we're going. Today we're going to look at um how we use data really to manage the present but also help shape our future. We have as Dr. Scan has talked about
042we have a lot of retirements coming up. So I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about this. But before we talk about where we're going, let's talk about where we are. The good news is staff retention. Um our data shows a 95% um stability rate. Um, the New York State average, as you could see above, is not not really close to us in terms of personnel. So, what are we doing right? Um, I think a lot of it has to do with our leadership. A lot of it has to do with all of you up there. A lot of has to do with mentoring and just our relationships with people. I think that's that's really the most important thing. And this this data really kind of shows that. Um, it's an exceptionally
043high number, right? We have a lot of dedicated and experienced staff and that's important to know because when you think about how many people we have the potential to lose in the future, we're going to be losing a lot of that a and and that will be difficult to deal with. So you see you see the stable foundation locked in. Um now we're going to look at the data that shows us something that we think may be a little bit predictable. Um so let's talk about what the future transition looks like. um from from our HR seat. Um this is scary. Um the data helps us look at really where we're going to be. Um but I want to I want you to take a look at this a minute. I want you to want
044you to see how many people in the next 10 years of the 603 teachers and administrators are eligible and not eligible in those 10 years. This is the part that keeps us up at night. Um this is the count of teachers and administrators by year. um that we're going to lose. Um you notice a wave. Uh there are people, by the way, that we have continued to hire that will surpass 2057. We did not add that to the chart. Uh that'll be like tier eight by that time, but we'll we'll we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Um but first and foremost, what do I want you to know? What do we want you to notice? Look at that number 14. So just because somebody is first eligible to retire doesn't mean that
045they want to, right? So everything everything is pretty much based upon individual circumstance. So as much as we try to predict based upon the data, some of that is a little bit more difficult to do. But look at this shift. I think this shift really puts things into perspective in terms of what we're going to lose. Uh what you know what we see here um is no small change. This is a monumental change for this school district. >> [snorts] >> um when you move forward and and kind of look at that curve for the next 10 years, that is that's the lion share of our people. This is this is that 60% number. Um so when we start looking at potential retirees and you see we're going to lose uh the majority of veterans in
046our school building, what do we know? We know that it affects culture. We know that it affects leadership, historical knowledge, traditions that our buildings are steeped with. Right? So this is another important piece other than just kind of fighting the personnel. But if you see the if you see the times um the numbers rather between 2029 and 2034, it's pretty obvious of the large chunk that we have. As we go further into this presentation, we're going to talk about u what positions they are because that's important. A perfect example that you're going to see later is how the district is going to be impacted. For example, with our science department, we have a lot of science teachers who are first eligible or pastel eligible to retire. Um, if they all retired at the same time,
047it's going to be very it's going to be very difficult to kind of fill that void. So, um, we're going to we're going to talk about these are these are critical numbers and the timing of when we do everything is extremely important. Um, but we need to be flexible in terms of how we move forward with this plan. Um, so we know the what and the when a little bit, right? Um, so we're going to dig a little bit deeper to talk about what it looks like just in our some of our larger um some of our larger or harder to fill areas. >> Thank you, Dr. Droski. Thank you, Ward. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and uh share our um our data with you. So we really want to also we're
048looking at the same pile of data uh from and examining it from several different angles um which is I think is something we really have to do. So one one thing we looked at uh besides the numbers by year is where this retirement eligibility is concentrated. So as you'll see here um this is each department listed by percentage of eligible retirees by 2036. So you'll see health tops that which immediately might draw your attention but in another sense rest assured it's eight of nine staff members in that department. Um slightly more concerning is the 106 elementary teachers we could lose um within the next 10 years. um followed by Dean which is again noteworthy but three or four of these folks could retire and right on down the line and interestingly enough uh ENL at
049the bottom is representative there's two uh folks that would be eligible to retire in the next 10 years and I think that that's representative of the fact that a lot of our ENL staff has been recently hired right so that that sort of makes sense um so that's one view and this is really that again that same data but now shown uh in order of the size of the department. Okay. So, you can see elementary is our largest uh department where we're going to have some vacancies to fill. Um special ed follows that which again is very concerning because that is of course is our most vulnerable population. So, we want to make sure that we have some stability in that department. Um and then like Dr. that alluded to that we'll get into a
050little deeper. Uh science is definitely a concern. Um and then administration if you look on the right uh interestingly also enough family and computer science our fax department has six staff members in it but none of them would be eligible to retire in the last in the next 10 years which again is indicative of the fact that we've done a lot of hiring in that area recently. So that's again similar data to the pre prior slide. Again, the green represents who would be eligible in the next 10 years and gray is not eligible. So again, back to the elementary teachers. Um with 106 out of the 136 elementary teachers being avail uh eligible to retire in the next 10 years, um that's something that's going to require a great deal of effort. um not only
051on the recruitment end, but as we bring these folks on with the PD that they're going to receive and uh being able to provide a sense of continuity for our youngest learners is something that's going to be really important as we look forward. Um so that elementary is um something that is of concern. Uh next, again, special ed like I spoke about earlier, 48 of the 82 would be eligible to retire. Um so that's almost 60% also in that department and again it is special education. I think that's something that we really are going to have to uh focus on. Um next a much smaller department but I think a great example um is technology. Uh there are only eight teachers in the department but five of them are eligible to retire in the next
05210 years. and technology is an incredibly hard position to fill um at least with the caliber of teacher I think that we're looking for in three village. So again h knowing this going into the next 10 years is something that's going going to be very helpful I believe. Similarly I think we all know math teachers are not easy to find. Um again ones that meet our standards but 19 out of the out of the 30 will be eligible to retire in the next 10 years. Science teachers uh again as as Dr. Drosky alluded to um we could lose 20 of 35 in the next 10 years. And the larger concern and the more urgent concern is that the fact that and this is why we're looking at the data from several different angles. If you
053see in back on one of those uh initial slides in 2027 we only have 21 retirees which is actually a low uh for us over the next probably 15 years. The problem with 2027, which is next June, is that seven of those 21 are are science teachers. So, that's something that requires a lot of attention. Um, to get a little bit more specific, these are the folks that we could be losing. These are their certifications. So, uh, you'll see a plus one and a, uh, two plus ones with an asterisk. Those are two of our science teachers that are currently past eligibility at past eligibility for [snorts] retirement. So they could leave us at any moment, but we would lose two biochem uh certified teachers. We'll lose a chem and physics teacher. We'll lose a
054bio teacher, a biochem, and earth. We have somebody with all three that is eligible, an earth teacher, and a physics teacher. So um these are things that we are really going to need to uh focus on with our recruitment efforts, which we'll get into in a little bit. Um, and that is just something that I think will help us be prepared for this possibility if these folks should choose to retire. And if you go back to the slide that Dr. Drosky showed, with only 14 pastel eligible teachers in the district for several years, I I think we could assume that most teachers are going to take the retirement option when it becomes available to them. So, Dr. Nebrask want to briefly show you the specifics for the next 10 years. Um you ultimately see what
055we have to do here moving forward. Um as you know if we get what we're looking at for next year this is not one process. Um so for a technology teacher oh this is this current year. So for example the technology teacher part which is more difficult to find. Uh we started the process post haste. Uh we finished the process and once we have our retiree approved tonight we have a replacement. These folks are very difficult to get where where these colleges and universities had um in triple digits of people of of students graduating. The numbers just aren't there anymore. So the sooner the better in terms of when we start. So let's look at the rest of this. You'll see 2027 while Matt said, you know, yes, next June there may be there may
056be only 21 retirements. This doesn't include the I think now 12 or so people that are left who are first eligible to retire. These are these are several interview processes that we have to do and we have to get started fairly quickly to be ready for next year. So this is why this this is why this data is extremely important. Um same thing with 2028 24 is not necessarily low. Um but we're talking we're talking about a large number of interview process. Just keep in mind when we do this we're pulling building administration out. We're pulling teacher reps out. Um I'll talk a little bit later about what this process looks like. When they do when we do that we put subs in the classrooms. Um so everything has a domino effect. Numbers start ramping
057up in 2029 2030 2031 as you could as you could see um 2029 the number is 35 2030 the number is 37 2031 the number is 40. We just keep ramping up and if you just look at the number of individual areas it is there will be fair there would be a fairly large number of processes going on sometimes at the same time um just to make sure that our needs are met. 2032 number is still fairly high at 34. 33 we go back up to 40 again with with um a lot more um folks first eligible to retire. 20 34 is 40 and you could see we kind of dip back down again at 2035. So um the numbers are what the numbers are, but I think it's good to have this information ahead
058of time to help us predict and plan for the future. And I think we've been successful in that area. so far. So really, so what's the plan? Um how does the district district take this data data and you know uh respond in a proactive way? Um first step is building a strong talent pipeline which I believe we do. Uh we work closely with um the constituencies of of the different unions to create these to to create these interview processes and make sure that we have several layers. But within these layers and we do we do um put out a wide net uh we do it you know all over the internet um in the paper trades um and call the schools directly in in some cases in the hard to find in the hard to
059find areas just to make sure that we can get what we need. But when you look at when you look at the process that each one of these takes u we've gone to our own job fairs um we've created our own job fairs. So, uh, we've been fairly successful with that. Um, early bird does catch the worm here. We do, you know, to get the to get the best candidate, we believe starting early is better. Um, but like we just did in the area of technology and business, uh, we did it early and that kind of helps us through the process. But you're going to see here that, you know, once we start all these processes with these numbers and even the number as large as 40, you know, there is still a process. We
060still bring everybody together. Uh we still screen hundreds and hundreds of resumes. Um we get leadership together. We get union leadership together. We get um administrative leadership together. Several rounds of interviews, demo lessons, final review, and then we present to you. Um and obviously that makes sure that we have the best possible candidates moving forward. And as you can see, this is going to be this is going to be a more and more difficult task as we move forward as the numbers continue to get larger and larger. So it's a proactive data-driven plan. Um this is not this is not unique to three village. Um every district is dealing with this. Um it is entirely predictable I believe based upon some of this data and uh we're going to meet these demands with success. So
061are there any questions? >> Thank you so much. That's quite a forecast. >> Thank you. >> My pleasure. Thank you. So before you step away the you know when the board had asked about five-year planning you know Dr. Droski Mr. Wells went out 10 years but to just give a projection [clears throat] this is information that will be very valuable to the long-term planning committee for you as board members the community in general as we're looking forward to this district. Um I do want to commend Dr. Drosski and Mr. s and all of the uh teaching committees and administrator committees and the work that all those committees have done because three village doesn't just say like some districts that we hire the cheapest person, we hire the most qualified person. So, as we've experienced some
062of this brain drain as we've been calling it of some of our more experienced staff, we've hired some people that have come from other districts. Those districts aren't very happy with us for taking some of their people, but that's they want to live. They want to work here and not there. That's their choice. Um, and that's helped offset some of that brain drain concept. But we find the best qualified candidates, not the ones that are the cheapest. And that does have a budgetary impact because we could go that direction and hire only, you know, fresh uh teachers right out of college at that age and and start at zero and move their way up. Um, but we don't do that. We we we do hire that way on some positions because there some positions that
063are few and far between to find some candidates. Um Dr. Dusky's also taken some road trips uh to the colleges to do recruiting upstate New York in some of the areas. But just to his point in one of the colleges that produces a lot of our tech teachers 10 or 15 years ago was producing over a hundred of those and they're producing now 10 or 12 of those and not everyone is going into the educational world from fields like that. They're going into other areas where they're making a lot more money than they are they would as a teacher um regardless of whatever district it might be in. So, uh, commend you and all the hard work, Mr. Wells, Dr. Rusky, um, leading all those because it is tremendously difficult trying to keep track of
064it. It was actually Gary's idea to start early with some of these processes to get us going. So, we did catch some of the better candidates before other people could strike because we knew that these openings were occurring. Um, and that's been very successful for us as we move forward. But, this is a long-term vision of this as we go forward. Um, so we have to be very cautious and very very thoughtful as we move into this process. So great work as always. >> Good plan. >> Thank you all. Thank you. >> Thank you both. All right, we will turn it over now for a student representative report. Katie, >> good evening everyone. I'm excited to share some updates about what's been going on at Welville. Today, War Melville had the opportunity to welcome students
065and staff from Gelinus and Murphy for the War Melville orientation. Our middle school students enjoyed musical performances by Warville students and had the chance to meet administrators and guidance counselors while becoming familiar with the building and its programs. It was a wonderful introduction to the high school experience. This week, we are also very excited as the Warm Novel Theater Department will present their production of The Little Mermaid. The company has been working very hard these past few months and they're excited to share what they've been preparing with performances on February 5th, 6th, and 7th and we are very proud of the students and staffed involved and encourage the community to attend. Looking ahead, the three village career carnival will take place on February 10th, providing students with valuable exposure to a wide range of career
066pathways and post-secary opportunities. This is a great way to network with businesses in our community and from past experience, I know this event always gives amazing advice for students who are interested in a specific workforce or those who are just looking for a possible pathway. We are also excited to celebrate several academic achievements. The science bowl team has qualified for the national competition for the fourth consecutive year and the warn science Olympia team has qualified for the state competition continuing a strong tradition tradition of excellence in STEM. On February on February 10th, our 9th grade students will participate in a multiffaith forum as part of their global history curriculum. This two-pier event in the library aligns with the New York State social studies framework and will help students deepen their understanding of Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
067Hinduism, and Schisism. Representatives from each faith will discuss historical development and core beliefs supporting students comparative and analytical learning. On Friday, February 13th, Ward Melville will observe PSI Love You Day, a day focused on mental health awareness, suicide prevention, and anti-bullying. Led by the high school counseling center, students are encouraged to spread kindness and promote a sense of belonging throughout the school community. Everyone is encouraged to wear purple to show support. Greeting committees will be present at student entrances with activities taking place in the commons throughout the day. Finally, the course scheduling process is in full swing and students and families are are reminded to submit course requests in Infinite Campus by the end of the day on Sunday, February 8th. Or mobile is looking forward to the rest of third quarter. And thank you.
068[laughter] [applause] >> Great job, Katie. Can you believe you're not requesting classes for next year? [laughter] >> She is a bar. >> Yes, she is. Absolutely. Thank you so much. All right, we're going to move on now to item 7A, some updates on security. Dr. Scanland. >> Yes. So, as board requested, we did some pricing for some uh the metal detectors just for the equipment. Just to give a sense of what where we're looking at this a fairly cheap version of this would be about $5,000. Um estimates would put us put us that way. We need about 40 of these machines uh districtwide to use. Now, again, so you can do the math. That's about $200,000 cost right there. And that's not manning them. that's just buying the equipment for those. Um, we've also uh
069looked at some pricing for outside security based upon the idea of the issue with the um civil service piece uh with the testing and qualifications for our staff. So, we did get some pricing from uh one of our local districts that has already put this into place. Uh that number from last year's survey, we had less respondents to the survey uh this time through. We had 43 districts respond last year. We had only 19 respond this year with a number of districts with armed security guards both whether in or out or both uh in or out in and out uh went from three to seven in the county. So we are seeing a rise in in those numbers cost in that area right now just where nine guards was between a 450 and 550 range.
070But we're going to start to price out some of these things and see what that would look like with some of the companies. There are several in the uh area that um that were off of that and this way the board have a clearer picture of what potential costs moving forward. >> Okay. Any questions about any of those? Okay. Thank you so much. Uh do we see any public comments this evening? Nope. Okay. >> No public comments. >> Thank you. Okay. So, that brings us to 9A. Our um committee to close or repurpose a school. So, the board has received all of the applications from the community. We thank everybody for for applying. It was a great group. Um and we really appreciate it. Uh just so you know, there'll be two meetings, one on
071February 11th, one on February 23rd. Both will be at 7 p.m. here at North Country. You'll need to choose a bit of a notetaker um because it's all going to happen very quickly with just two meetings. Final written report with recommendations will be due by March 2nd. That'll give the board a couple of days to do our homework at home and then we will vote on um whether or not to close or repurpose a school at our March 4th board of education meeting. So, in absolutely no particular order and with apologies because I will botch your name, here are the people who have been selected for the committee. Danielle McKe, Jennifer Why, Ian Farber, Wei Hong, Jung, Nicole Simonello, Adam Dell, Danielle Xandeitz, Michelle Bigurt, Lisa Rickmmers, Michael Ernst, Michael Erlick, Patrick Justiniano, Barbara Consonin,
072and Chris Cash. Did we forget somebody? Danielle Zen Xanderitz. Yeah, we said that one. Yep. So, that is 14 in total. uh you'll be receiving some correspondence from the district with further instructions. But again, thank you everybody who applied. And we have our added item right now, which is the appeal of a suspension. We'll turn that over to Dr. Dreski. >> Yes. 9B is a suspension appeal. Um as discussed in executive session. >> Okay. So, all of those in favor of overturning that suspension? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Thank you so much. And that brings us now to our consent agenda. Do I see a motion? >> So moved >> and a second. All right. We begin with B, Miss Germano. >> Those are the minutes from January 20th. >> Thank you so much. And
073with C and D, Dr. Biscari. >> Thank you. So, uh, we're going to start presenting our dual enrollment agreements to the board for their approval as per um as per our attorney suggestion. Uh so this would be our first one with Suffach Community College uh and their Beacon program for dual enrollment for our students that are going to be getting college credit including our automotive 3 class which now we can send that up to New York State to complete our CTE application. Uh D is the appointment of a revision to the committees on special education. >> Could I just interject for one sec Dr. Viscari? Uh we also have a student uh from the uh C that is actually going to complete her associates degree. First one that we've had many years. >> Awesome. That's
074great. >> Love that. Fantastic. Thank you. All right. E. Recommendations of the committee on special education subcommittee and 504 accommodation plan meetings as dated. >> F. The recommendations of the committee on preschool special education meetings as dated. And beginning with G, we turn it over to Dr. Yes, thank you. Um G is a is a resolution recalling just one additional uh teaching assistant as things become vacant. Um another gentleman needed to be recalled. Um H personal items instructional. >> I'm going to make a motion if I could that in within H we remove A4 for separate consideration. Second. >> All in favor of removing that one. Okay. Please continue. >> Certainly. Um so H uh personal items instructional uh we have 16 instructional retirements that we'll discuss um at the end. three instructional resignations, one
075instructional leave of absence, five instructional appointments, uh, seven instructional sub appointments, an appointment of a volunteer coach, several co-curricular appointments for W Millville High School Musical Production, um, and one annual extra assignment, as well as several hourly assignments for the 2526 school year. I personal items non-instructional. We have one non-instructional resignation, one non-instructional leave of absence, one non-instructional appointment for a custodial worker, one non-instructional salary adjustment, and two non-instructional substitute appointments. All right. So, we will consider all of those included in our consent agenda. All in favor, >> except for the one we pulled out. Correct. And now we'll circle back to item. We'll make this item 13 A4. Uh that is a a an extension. Are you in favor of an extension? Do we have any who are in favor? Any opposed? No. Any
076abstensions? Okay. So, that is denied. And you wanted to talk about the retirements, >> please. Um so, at this point now, um you will be voting on 16 retirements. Um, if my math is right, it looks like a total of 462 years of experience here in Three Village. Just absolutely staggering. And I just want to recognize and congratulate the following people for just the outstanding the work that they did here in Three Village. Um, first is uh, Felen Agarenza, uh, elementary teacher at Mount. Jeffrey Bryant, physical education teacher at Mount. Peter Campbell, technology teacher at Murphy. Allison Cooper, paraprofessional at NASAG. Christine Curtis Dylan, math teacher at Ward Millville. Cara Gorski, elementary teacher at Mosaki. April Hatcher, library media specialist at Ward Millville. Patrick Hobbs, elementary teacher at Mount. James Lner, elementary teacher at Mount.
077Anita Manf Freddy, elementary teacher at Msaki. Dawn McN, elementary teacher at Mount. Andrew Pelosi, social studies teacher at Murphy. Janine Sabat, one of our IT teacher trainers districtwide. Megan Stringer Stringer, social studies teacher at Ward Melville. Daniel Walsh, elementary teacher at Arrowhead, and Robin Weinstein, elementary teacher at Murphy. Congratulations to all. [applause] >> Thank you so much. And congratulations again. All right, that work being done. Do I see a motion to adjurnn? So move. A second. All in favor? No opposed? No. Have a great night, everybody. Thank you.