Board of Education 01/07/26

001Yep, you're at it. >> Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, January 7th, 2026 board of education meeting. At this time, we would call on Katie to please lead us in the pledge. Thank you, Katie. Miss DMATO, any changes to the meeting agenda? No changes. Okay. Thank you so much. So, Dr. Scanland, I hear you have something for uh student recognition. >> Yes, we are very proud of one of our students, Tina Shing, who was selected for the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Only one of 300 students throughout the country selected for this great honor. We will be formally recognized her at a future board meeting with a certificate and pictures and such. So >> fantastic. Thank you so much. All right, Katie, we will turn it over to you for your report, but first may

002I ask, are you ready to announce to the world what's happening next year? >> Let's hear it. >> Hi everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break and I'm excited to share a few highlights of what's been going on over the past couple weeks. Before we went off to break, we hosted our annual volleyball tournament that consists of a staff for students game and an A day versus Bday students game. For the staff for students game, the students took the victory and the physed class games. Our eighth eighth period bday teams ended up winning the schoolwide tournament. It was lots of fun and a great way for everyone to come together and show some school spirit. Looking ahead at the high school midterms, our high school midterms are coming up. While this can

003be a stressful time, Wel provides students with an abundance of extra help sessions throughout the next few weeks, which is a really helpful tool. Along with that, many students are preparing for regions and final exams, and regent review sessions are already underway to help support everyone. In addition, the Warm Mobile High School student government has been very busy. We are currently underway with our raffles for a cause fund fundraiser, which is helping raise money for team Bella. It's been a really inspiring to see students come together and to support such an important cause. Last night, we had the incoming 9th grade orientation and elective fair. It was a great evening overall and current eighth graders and their parents had the opportunity to learn about everything War Melville has to offer next year and the turnout

004and energy was really positive. Also, I'm excited to share that it was just announced today that Dr. Scanland just mentioned before that Tina Zing has been named the Reed Generon Science Talent Search Top Scholar and we are excited to honor her in the future board meeting. And finally, there's been a lot of excitement among seniors as college acceptance letters are starting to come in. Many seniors are getting their acceptances to colleges. And personally, I recently committed to Barnard College of Columbia University. Thank you. And overall, it's been a busy and exciting time for students, and we're looking forward to finishing the quarter strong. Thank you. Great job and congratulations. They are lucky to be getting you in their direction, so you'll do great. All right, we will move on now to 6B, our transitions presentation.

005I turn it over to Dr. Miscari. >> Yeah, thank you. At this time, I'd like to call up our secondary principles, Miss Keen, Mr. Halonia, and Mr. Jansen are going to try to outdo our presentation that we did um the la last board meeting uh and give us a nice uh update from their perspective about uh from from the students and from their perspective about um the reconfiguration. >> We hope it's quality not time. Let's talk about that first. And I also want to know how the faculty fared with you in the volleyball game, Mr. >> The first facing I ever lost in my career. Ah, >> you'd have been like the like I don't understand. Just stand at the line. You'd have been >> and my apologies. I left off Mr. G is here

006from the academy as well. So, thank you Mr. G. >> There we go. >> So, good evening everyone and thank you for having us tonight. We are uh here to present on the three village transition uh the secondary transition a new chapter for our schools. Um we have had the pleasure of uh really invigorating our year and starting into a year that has brought such a great energy to our buildings. I think we all can attest to the idea of the newness of the staff and the students and the excitement that's there. Um, it's a it's a different feel, I think, in all of our buildings. Um, but at the same time, what's really cool is it's it's it's all a lot of new and excitement, but it's got all of this experience behind it,

007which is even cooler. So, like when you're a new teacher and you're a new person and you've just started your career, you don't know anything about anything. These are people that don't know anything about being at the middle school, but they have experience behind them. So, it's really working really nicely and they're working very hard to make that happen. So, we have a lot of different things. We're going to talk a little bit about the middle schools right now. Uh, and what some of the things that we're seeing. Um, first would be our sixth grade teams. >> Yeah, I think you know with regards to the the teams and just having that opportunity for common planning time for our teachers to really uh come together and, you know, talk period one with uh their teams

008and making sure no student gets lost. I think that was one of the the main focuses and uh they're doing a great job working with our PPS staff to making sure that they are supported in in in every way possible. Um, you know, just looking at at the middle school as a whole, it's interesting because, you know, I think it's it's a new, you know, redefined um culture, identity, if you will, of the middle school cuz as a junior high in the past, you know, it was a great building with regards to more of a a transitional building and really kind of prepping them, you know, for Ward Mobile, but am I am a Welbo? Am I not? I'm not sure. Now, as a middle school, we have this like defined identity. We know our

009goal. We know what we are. We we're a home base. We know that we're getting them ready uh for Ward Melville. Um you know, our theme at Murphy here is unlocking your potential. Our theme at Gelinus is >> making your mark on the middle. >> And again, like having this these um defined ideas and these defined goals, I think, you know, really helps the students, the staff kind of just find their home and really, you know, im embrace the middle school model. And we're seeing a lot of that with regards to our, you know, new, younger, faster sixth graders. um you know running all around the building our um and and it was such an interesting opportunity having both the sixth and seventh grade coming up together. It was such this like uh you know

010crucible moment like this this moment where we had such a change and that's where the cell phones came in. We all of a sudden it was like there's no cell phones and there aren't any cell phones and it's been great to see their faces to see them engaging with each other to see them collaborating collaborating with teachers. So I think it's it's been great, >> right? And I think I I mean I think back to my own teaching career and the year that I taught I've taught at Gelenas my whole career and then one year Mr. Vizo was like you're coming to Murphy, you got to come to Murphy and I taught at Murphy and I felt like I could in reinvent myself. I had a whole different persona at Murphy because nobody knew me

011at Murphy and I could try new things. And so I think we're seeing a lot of the trying of new things which is really a lot of fun. Um the the common planning time and the teams has been really worked nicely. We really kept it very tightly wound where they're the teachers are off first period together. They all have their duties third period together. So, they're all learning what the middle school model looks like, but they can keep everything in sync and keep everything together. And I think because they have each other, it's really been something that they're excited about and really have been able to work through. Um, but Mr. Jansen said, "We have all these these new new kids that don't know what this looks like and how to how to work this

012and the sixth grade teams. We've kept them they're in um sections of our building. So, we have the gold team on one side, the green team on the other. So, they still have access to other things around the building, but their academic home is in one place, which has provided them a home base where their lockers are right outside of that place. And it's given them the opportunity. We're seeing a lot more kids using their lockers. We're seeing a lot more kids navigating those their, you know, figuring out how to use binders and and lots of notebooks and things for their classes where I think having that closeness of all of those things gives them a familiarity to be comfortable with that. Um, one of the big things that we have this year is obviously

013the change in the cell phone policy. And Mike and I really lucked out with this because two of our grades have never seen a cell phone in a building because they came from the elementary and one of the grades had some restrictions placed on them last year to begin with. So we are really seeing a lot of success. We typically do not see cell phones out in the building, you know, in during the school day >> at all. And I mean obviously we have the data test, but we have the eye test. They're all just talking to each other, engaging, you know what I mean? Even at lunch, you same thing. Like it's been phenomenal. Um really, you know, just a wonderful opportunity. >> Yeah, I do think, you know, one of the things that

014we will be working on is is how to navigate those cell phones because the problems that we do see that come from the cell phones are coming from their use of social media and things outside of school and they're not even doing it here, but it becomes an issue that we deal with at school. And I think, you know, we can't be complacent in not looking at those things because we still have a lot to teach them with how to how to navigate those things because it's all a lot of freedom that they're getting all at once. >> I just want to also emphasize, I don't know, just how much fun the building is. Like it's a fun place and it's supposed to be. You know what I mean? Like just having, you know, the

015sixth, the seventh, and eighth grade together. They're all meshing well. we worried about, you know, maybe the eighth graders being too mature or no, the the eighth graders feel at home, you know what I mean? And they're the oldest in the building now. They they all of a sudden they're the oldest in the building. They're the most mature. And now, you know, they're helping out the the sixth graders and the seventh graders. And, you know, just having that fun atmosphere allows for the students to be, you know, find out who they are within themselves, where they are within the um their grade level, and where they are within the building. I think it's important to have that kind of mesh together. >> Just interrupt one second. Now, both of you had dances at the beginning

016of the year, right? >> Yes. Oh, yeah. >> Yes. >> What was the attendance like last year, and what was the attendance like this year? >> I mean, if we saw 100 kids at the dance in the past, seventh and eighth grade. This year, we did our Halloween dance, we had over 300 kids, and our bigger problem was we we have to look at our chaperoning budgets and things like that because we don't have like enough eyes on the on the place, >> right? >> Um, >> but it's been really a positive thing. Like we were doing a ice skating night this week. We had to cap our tickets and it was like the first 75 that sold. That's what we can accommodate because we sold out within a day. >> Yep. >> They're they

017want to come to those things. We're going to look at this Gelina's volleyball tournament that we've done a 100 years ago. That's going to be coming back. It kind of with co >> came to a lull and kids weren't really interested or didn't really know what it was about. We're going to bring that back and I have no doubt that we're going to have a bigger problem will be to turn how do we turn kids away or or or control the amount of kids we have in one place at the same time. >> Right. And you with regards to our sixth graders, obviously seventh and eighth graders, they do have um sport opportunities uh after school, but now our clubs have taken off. We have more clubs than we've had before. We have more adviserss,

018which is great. Our our sixth grade teachers are getting right in there. Hey, what can I do? What running club can I do? What you know what I mean? a backyard game club can I do because the the sixth graders want to they they want to go somewhere after school and and we're seeing that and it's it's being utilized and and and it's been great >> and they're and they're doing things like they've never tried before like we have a great outdoors club and Luke Luke Furland's teaching them like you know they have cameras set up they're watching the wildlife on the property they're doing all sorts of really cool things that I think gives them an experience and they want to come they they're coming to the clubs after school >> which has been

019really great >> no absolutely Um, so obviously then that leads into, you know, our high school and, you know, the the uh the trickle up effect that it it's had on us. So I know Mr. Halone, you want to speak to that? >> Sure. >> So I think one of the big things that, you know, when we were here a year ago and talking about what this transition is going to look like, uh, one of the things that we talked about for those ninth graders coming up to the high school was was an increase in their opportunity, uh, and an increase in their opportunity to participate in all the wonderful things that we know that Ward Melville has to offer. Um so you know in putting this together kind of took a little look at

020some of the data uh you know to see you know what that might look like. So in the 2425 school year um you know there were 15 electives both at at Murphy and at Gelinus. You know I'm not going to sit here and and read them all to you but these were the the nth grade electives. Um you know they came up to the high school and joined our much larger list of electives. Uh and then looking at our enrollment this year we have nth graders enrolled in 44 different electives at the high school. Um so you know just an explosion of opportunity for them. Um you know some of these classes have one or two nth graders in them and and some of them are full of nth graders and you can see a

021few that are you know reserved only for the nth grade. So they're you know full of just nth graders. Um but really creating those opportunities. Um and great to see the students really reaching out and exploring some of these things. uh when we talk about you know pathways and and different uh you know areas of interest having an opportunity to explore these things now for four years kind of cohesively it'll be really interesting to see how this cohort and the cohorts after them come through and and where they go and and kind of you know the path that they they take because they're really the first ones who are kind of trailblazing this uh another great thing that we have seen with the nth graders in the building and to kind of talk about that

022culture and the feel. So, not only do we have all these new ninth and tth grade students, but then we have, you know, 40 some odd teachers who are new to Ward Melville, um, who are coming from Murphy and Gelinus. And to watch not the nth and tth graders, but the 11th and 12th graders bump into those teachers in the hallway in in the first weeks of of school um, and see a teacher that, you know, they loved and adored when they were at Chelinus or when they were at Murphy, and they haven't seen him in three and four years. And now it's a, you know, an 18-year-old, you know, man with a beard and a and a goatee who's bumping into his teacher from uh, you know, from Murphy Galenas. Some really great >>

023or being their principal. >> Yeah, true. >> Could also be the case. Um, but yeah, so so seeing those moments and seeing those really, you know, positive interactions and and seeing some of those, you know, those reunifications uh has been a great uh a great thing for the culture of the building. Um, the other thing that we've really seen is our upper classmen really welcoming our our underassmen. We had our orientation last night as Katie mentioned and we had uh three different students speak. We had a couple of nth graders, you know, obviously new to the building and a 10th grader new to the building and and all three of them highlighted the fact that, hey, I was in your shoes last year and I was nervous about coming up here and yeah, it's a

024little hard to find your way that first week, but it's hard for everybody and you'll you'll get past that. But all three of them and working independently of one another, uh, all said the same thing about the upper classmen. Ask them questions. You know, they're a great resource. They're going to give you good information. Um, so it's been great to see that happening and and to hear that that's actually been their experience, right? Something we anticipated, but but nice to know what we anticipated actually happened. Um, so another thing that we were able to do, again, kind of goes handinhand with all those different electives that we have. Um so with more opportunities for classes what we're seeing is you know a reduction in students sitting in study halls. So if you look just here

025on the on the lefth hand side there 24 25 um we had you know in Julina and Murphy students in study halls. We were able to cut that in half in the high school this year as far as uh the 9th graders who who have study halls in their schedules. Um so so really again taking advantage and and there are certain students who want study halls, right? So they're not necessarily uh you know an evil thing but um a lot of students who are saying hey we want to take classes instead right some want the break and want the time to study and do their homework and and get you know some uh some work done during the school day but lots of others are taking advantage of the classes which I think was a

026big reason why we felt like this was the right time to bring bring the ninth grade up you know to Ward Melville. Um and then the other thing and and and Mike and Karen kind of talked about this as well is those co-curricular the afterchool opportunities. Um, you know, I think we know, um, from not having these things and these opportunities necessarily during COVID and seeing what school looks like without all of this great stuff, this is what makes school memorable for students, this is where they build their strongest connections, some of their greatest memories, um, and and you know, really where they come into their own as as young men and women. And so looking at the club offerings, you know, as far as last year, um, looking at the clubs that Murphy and

027Jelenus were able to run and the number of students that were enrolled in those clubs in those buildings, um, you know, we've got 44 different clubs that are open to 9th graders with 745. It's not 745 nth graders. There's not that many of them. Um, but what it is is, you know, 9th graders are are in that many different clubs. We have 745 enrollments. Um, so students are in not just one club, they're in, you know, two clubs or three clubs. Um so really again all around the building we are seeing you know those those new students um welcomed embraced and and taking advantage of everything uh that the high school has to offer. So it's it's really been a nice transition and you know the big thing for for my perspective was are we

028going to fit them? Do we have enough classroom spaces? And once the answer was yes to that um you know I knew that our staff would embrace them and that the students would would bring them along and that uh that it would uh run well. So with that I'm going to kick it over to Mr. G. It's ironic that uh the academy is going last because we're really the most unchanged of the schools. We were 912 to start with. So this is a little anticlimactic to be the end here. But the reality of the matter is while we were already already 9 to 12, this did simplify a lot for us just uh in terms of the shared staff are almost all split with the high school now as opposed to a handful coming from

029Gelenas, a handful coming from Murphy and a handful from the high school. our shared staff is almost exclusively from Ward Melville now. And um just the other part of it is that just the referral part is a lot cleaner. Everyone's coming from the same building. The the line of communication is just moving a little bit more smoothly with that. And then I anticipate it'll also make it simpler in the spring when we'll be meeting with folks at the two middle schools to talk about next year's 9th grade. That will also be just a little bit more streamlined. And since you were talking a lot about the electives, we are it's just a little bit easier to do some of the electives now that maybe would have just been like ninth grade electives. For example, we're

030offering international foods for the first time next semester, which is kind of a big deal for us and it's going to be a hit here, I'm sure. Okay. So, so bottom line is we are having a good time. It is really working well. Um and we're I think the biggest takeaway for all of us is the the energy and the feel of the buildings are really been really wonderful. So um not to be outdone by Dr. Bascari, we have created our own video. Um you know first we were like what are we going to put in it? He took all the answers but we found our way. So I have a video here which I think if I >> go under that one. >> Yeah. Click on the underscore. Hello allow. >> Yeah, let's just

031try. >> Okay, we'll try that. Turn right on the right. >> Learning about like new subjects or meeting new people that I didn't talk to last year. >> Right. It was probably going to like fax and tech because it's really cool to like make food and also sell. >> Um like I learned more study materials for my test and to not procrastinate and push more projects aside. >> I made a bunch of new friends. >> One thing I learned about myself coming to join us is that you can do so much more than you thought you could. Um, I learned to be more open to other people and to work with other people. >> I'm smarter and more organized than I thought. I can open a locker. I did not think I was able to

032open a locker. >> I learned that you have to like utilize your locker and uh like work diligently so you get all your work done. Um, I feel like everyone like upper classman like help you to like your classes and like everyone's like really helpful like if you don't know where you're going. >> Probably how nice like the staff were and like the teachers were understanding if you're late or not. >> Like your teacher support definitely helps you and like your counselors. One thing that made me feel welcome at Chelenas was all the teachers and like just everybody here because everybody's really nice and I was really nervous and I thought it would be like really hard but the since everybody was nice like it made it a lot easier since I helped me. >>

033Getting from class to class has been easier than I expected when I came to join us. Um, finding my way around the school I thought was going to be really hard, but after like the first day I kind of got the hang of it. The transfers, the transfers I always thought like I get shoved around, get shoved in a locker or something like that when I'm not looking or get knocked over downstairs, but it's been so so easy that I could bar like probably do it with my eyes closed. >> Well, what can I do with that broken arm, right? >> Definitely not. I can't remember. >> Um I think what was pretty difficult was finding my classes cuz you know it's a lot bigger than like your middle schools, but after a little bit

034staff will help you uh older kids will help you find your classes and it all just works out in the end. It's been really fun and easier than I thought to just kind of navigate the halls. I thought it would take a lot more practice, but I think I got it pretty quickly. like balance all my homework and after school activities. >> The work's definitely harder. It's high school. It's different than middle school. >> How to study. >> One thing that was diff more definitely more difficult than at the middle school level was the amount of homework and the workload. So, still just kind of getting used to that. >> Like the homework management and like like organizing my work. Um, I'm getting involved outside the classroom by joining clubs. >> Um, I'm in jazz

035band, concert band, trying out for wind ensemble, marching band, new computer science club, do robotics. >> Great. So, how are those things helping you? >> Uh, they like they made me meet new people and like become friends with people who I wouldn't have necessarily met because of my classes. classes. >> Um, I'm in fishing club and I played football. Right now I'm doing winter track and I'm going to play lacrosse in the spring. >> What do you like about being on the course? >> Uh, it opens up new friendships, relationships with coaches. >> I do science Olympiad and Orchestra. >> Um, student government and I do um the great outdoors club. Um, if I were to give tips to incoming sixth graders, I would say be organized, use your locker, be involved in the community

036such as clubs and sports, and use time. Be time managed. So, make time for studying for tests, make time for free time, make time for sports is to try to make a friend in every class because it's really important. I would say use your locker and be more organized. Um, I joined both of the band clubs, jazz band and ensemble, and those really helped me to really have a little bit more fun here because after school, 2 days a week, I could go and rehearse and be part of a band and it was really fun. >> Um, writing. I prefer presentations over writing because presentations allow you to be more in front and I like presenting to a class. >> Definitely a group >> work along >> groups with my friends. >> Okay. >> I

037like B days more because on Bday days I have orchestra and chorus and steam. Beatings because I have gym and it's a fun activity that I like to do in school. >> I like beers more because I like sports and I have German videos and projects. I'll pick a project because I really like presenting a project. Projects probably tacos because it's very spicy sometimes and I like that. the popcorn chicken because it tastes really good and I also like it with the fluffy rice. It's probably going to be all heroes, but if it's a snack then do Doritos, >> Key Club, >> uh, ecology, >> probably the Red Cross club because I like helping out. >> It's stage crew, you know. We work on like all the background stuff. We like the clay. It's very

038fun. Very cute. I like morning classes more than afternoon classes cuz in the morning I've had my breakfast and I'm looking forward to lunch. >> Afternoon. >> Why? >> Um it's closer to cheer. >> Whoa. We had to bring in the closer Leah. So, we had a lot of fun interviewing kids and really getting the sense of what their experience has been like. And what's really interesting is a lot of the same sentiment came up. I think overall I I don't think we got one kid that was like, I don't like it here. They all had such a great positive experience and they're really making it their own. And what was even cooler if you listen to all the clubs and things that they're involved in, we all interviewed kids at random. I went into

039a fax class. I'm like, who wants to be famous? and they all want to be on the video. Um, they all had different answers. The fishing club, lacrosse, like you know, theater, they they all had something different to offer. I never found myself like going, "Oh, I can't use that kid cuz I already heard somebody say this." They were all doing they all had their own individual experiences, which I think is what we really want for the middle school and high school experience for them. They get to do so much and it gets to be their own, which has really been very cool. So, thank you very much for your for your time. >> So, you know, I want to just start with a little history here for a second. So, the idea of making

040this change wasn't something new in this district. The district attempted three times in the course of its history to make this change from a junior high school model to a middle school model. And over the course of those years, we simply couldn't because the population was too large. We couldn't fit the ninth grade at the high school. was there wasn't enough space. Um, but all these reflections by the students and the faculty and the staff and your there's an expression that goes attitude reflects leadership. All of you principles and Dr. Bisceriary and Dr. Deruski and Mr. Carlson, your leadership with trying to get this off the ground and all the all the administrators and teachers and faculty and staff, you helped get this to where it is. So, we truly appreciate all the efforts by

041all of your parts. When I started as superintendent, it was this was the charge that was given to me to affect a change in this capacity. There was a desire by the board at that point to make this move and it was a herculan effort by no by all means and it took all of your hard work over the years and the support of parents. It wasn't easy and a lot of naysayers in the community that said it couldn't or shouldn't happen. Um, and right now we're halfway through the year and it's going wonderfully and I anticipate that the rest of the year and the yes rest of the year is well beyond my tenure here as superintendent are going to be fabulous for this district. So, thank you all. >> Yes, and I'll just

042echo my thanks to everybody involved. I'm I'm really proud of you. You did a fantastic job and the kids are so happy and the families are so happy and this is this is the good stuff. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. We will move on now to uh item 7A, discussion of our bond. Mr. Carlson, >> uh thank you. Uh so, we've been discussing uh a bond referendum for quite a while now. Uh the referendum itself, the vote, uh is uh coming up in less than two weeks, two weeks from yesterday, uh on January 20th at uh Ward Mobile High School and in gymnasium 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Just like a regular budget vote, the times. Um we did a uh we presented at the civic association meeting at the Emma Clark Library

043Monday evening. There was probably 75 people or so there. Um uh it was a good crowd. Not that they were all there to hear us, but but they heard us. They were there while they were there. They stayed and listened to us. Um and then we had a forum uh yesterday morning here in this room. And then we'll have another forum uh next Tuesday evening uh Tuesday, January 13th, 7 p.m. in this room uh to to uh go over the the bond again as we've done before. Uh as well as answer any questions. uh yesterday's forum and probably our presentation was 30 minutes maybe or so and then it was another I don't know 45 minutes of questions. Uh so we'll be glad to take questions as many questions as people have. It's uh it's

044a lot of money and everyone deserves to know um uh why why and and what the money is being spent on. Uh, one one thing that I'm I'm trying to get the message across to people is, and in fact, when I've when I've been speaking about it, I say, let's for a second, let's just say we agree the work needs to get done. It's roofs, it's um uh uh heating systems, it's it's things like that, paving and sidewalks and uh parking lots. If you if you agree the work needs to get done, well then clearly a bond is the best way to pay for it. Absolutely. And I'd be more than happy to explain that to anybody why that is. Now, if someone says, "I don't want to do a lot of work." Well, that's

045a different story and then we can talk about that piece. Um, but the the the presentations have been going well. Um uh a lot of the um by the end of the presentation, I'll say that like at the forum yesterday, uh some people as they left said, "Well, you know what? Okay, it's I they came in with a different attitude than they left with, I should say, they left with a different uh feeling towards the bond uh than they came in with." So, um more in a in a positive way. So, uh we met with the bond committee for for over a year. We told all the buildings uh the committee which was made up of community members, parents in the district as well as some uh employee representatives um voted unanimously to go out

046with a with a referendum. So, um we're we're excited about it. We think it's it's really good thing for the district. Um and it's it's it will be very if it passes, it will be very beneficial to the to the school district for a long time. So, I'd be glad to take any questions anyone has now. >> Hi, I just have uh one. Um I've gotten the question a few times and it was also brought up at one of the forum meetings that um I don't think people really understand what the maintenance line is in the budget. Um because I've been um asked why hasn't some of this work been fixed every year? Why do we let it go this way? Uh what are we doing with the maintenance line? Um, so maybe if we

047can get some clarification on basically what that is in the budget and what's really used for sure and the difference between doing a bond and capital projects rather than just putting it into the budget for the line. >> Sure. So, uh, just like at home, uh, sometimes in our house, our homes, things break. Uh, toilet might get clogged. Uh, toilet might break. Uh, a sink might need uh, repair. We might need to replace a pipe on the sink. The trap uh under the kitchen sink gets a little rusty, need to replace it. Um that's more maintenance kind of thing. Um uh maybe maybe uh you have a a leak in your roof and you can repair it. Okay, that's that's a maintenance kind of thing. And that that happens here all the time. Our buildings,

048let's face it, they take a beating. There's over uh 5,000 students every day uh in and out of the buildings. All the staff members um they take a beating. Uh things break. Um sometimes sinks get broken. Sometimes toilets get clogged. Sometimes it's because people flush god knows what down the toilets. And um and that's our maintenance crew. They have to fix all of that kind of stuff. Um, we have our our what we we call our maintenance and operations department is made up of kind of three areas. You have the custodians which do the the cleaning. They go in uh their there are custodians in each of our buildings during the day. Um if there's a spill, if there's a whatever, they're there during the day. Uh and then after school, they go in and

049they clean all the classrooms. They empty the trash cans, all of that kind of stuff. That's the custodial staff. We have the uh grounds crew. uh they maintain all of the grounds, they cut the grass, they make sure the fields are ready for um uh any athletic events, all of that kind of thing. We have uh districtwide about uh 300 acres of property that they have to maintain. Uh our buildings all added together is about 1.4 million square feet. Um, and then we have the third leg of the M uh umbrella is the maintenance uh department. And by department is I think I think we have nine maintenance uh mechanics. Um, and they're running around all day fixing stuff. Things break. They just do. And uh sometimes it's uh we we have alarms in our

050buildings and an alarm might go off and in the winter time at 4 in the morning the heat's not going on at NASA. Well, we can't wait till kids arrive for school and say, "Oh, look, the heat's not working." Um, somebody's got to be there. And if it could be at 3:00 in the morning that Jack Jack Blam gets these alarms as well as Jason Griff, I don't think Jason's here, but our director of facilities, they get the alarms. Um, uh, and and it has to get fixed. Somebody has to get there and fix it. Um, when it's when it when it snows, right, that's that's an all hands- on deck. It's not just maintenance, but grounds and custodians also. Um, it's a lot of a lot of most of the time when it snows,

051we still open schools. Sometimes we close schools, sometimes we do a delayed opening, but either way, all the parking lots have to be cleared out, the sidewalks have to be cleared out. Uh, it's a lot of work. They all come in and do that. So, that's that's our maintenance and operations. But, as far as just building maintenance, um, it's they they're there to fix things as they break. Um, it doesn't mean like uh a valve in a in a boiler room. They could do a valve in a boiler room. It takes some time. Uh, but they're all getting old, so they all need repair. They can't do all of them at once. That's a much bigger project. Again, just like at home, eventually you have to replace your roof. It doesn't mean you neglected your

052roof. It just got old. Eventually you have to replace your oil burner. Um, you might have to redo your driveway eventually. Just like the street, all of our streets, you know, they it's one thing our driveway, we have a couple of cars pull in, park during the day. Uh, streets take a beating. How many thousands of cars driving on the street, they need to be repaved so often. So, it's those kind of things, the capital projects, the big projects. Um, that's what's in the bond as opposed to general maintenance fixing things. So, but the older I mean just along those lines though, the older our building systems get, just like at home, the more frequently they break down and the more repairs are needed on a daily basis. So, um, in the 2014 bond, for

053example, we replaced all of our unit ventilators in all of our classrooms. So, prior to that, the old ones were breaking down a lot and that was a lot of work just to just to keep them going on a daily basis. So, we replaced them all with a 2014 bond. Um, so it's that doesn't mean a motor never burns out on them. That happens. And our maintenance crew, they go in and they they'll they'll change the motor. Um, but much less repairs because they're not old. I mean, they're they're now more than 10 years old, so they're starting to age. Um, but just like with this bond, when if all this work gets done, well, then our maintenance crew can they're they're not just running around chasing problems constantly as they are now. So, it

054will will help uh building efficiency as well. >> So, sure. >> Yeah. Mr. Mr. Carlson, can you also talk a little bit as a corlary if the bond were not to pass and we don't have this capital money available to us what the effect of that might be on maintenance costs? >> So on the on so the so the impact on the budget would be uh well we need to uh can increase the amount in our budget for maintenance uh because things will if if they they just as they get older they will break more frequently. they need to be repaired more frequently. Um and and so we'll need to continue to increase our maintenance budget. Maintenance projects in the budget are not excluded from the tax cap. So if we needed to add I'm

055just making up a number. If we needed to add $300,000 to our uh maintenance and operations area of the budget for building repairs, uh that's $300,000 that can't be spent on something else because of the tax cap. Uh the capital projects, different story, whether it's capital project in the capital projects line of the budget or uh through a bond uh referendum, uh that is an exclusion from the tax cap. doesn't take the place of something else in the budget as far as fitting within the tax cap. And the reason for that is when the state legislature originally passed the law with the tax cap back in 2012, they at least had the the good sense to say, well, let's make any any of the capital projects or debt service debt service payments meaning bond payments

056uh excluded from the tax cap so schools wouldn't have to choose between taking care of their buildings and educational programs. So, at least that's in place. So uh but if the bond fails that will that will definitely have a budgetary impact though. >> Anybody else? Dr. Kerman don't >> microphone. >> No. So don't don't forget though that we also get back 66 66% of the money from the state for for the bond issue. We don't get that back from for them on our regular budget. Our bank is spent. Great point. We get 66% back. >> Right. Great point. Uh building aid uh is a po a piece of state aid. The state aid is umbrella term made up of different categories of aid. One of them is building aid. We get back on capital projects

057which include any of the bond projects. Building aid, every district's aid ratio, meaning what portion of that we get back in building a varies from district to district. and uh through a quirk in the state aid formulas that this quirk works in our favor. Our uh building aid ratio is unusually high for a district with the wealth we have. We get 66% back. So think about that at home. If every time you were going to do a project at home, whether it be you're going to redo your kitchen or you're going to put in a swimming pool or you're going to get new windows or whatever, somebody else was paying twothirds of the cost. I think we'd all do a lot more work in our houses. Um, and that's a so that's a great deal

058we we get uh on maintenance projects when something breaks and we have to fix it. We we get no weight on that. So good good point Dr. And by the way, so for example, so with that with that since we talking about building aid, um, so that 66%, so that goes back to 1966, coincidentally, um, when Three Village Central School District came into existence and it was ba and and the the state aid formulas are theoretically based on the wealth of a school district. The wealthier the district, the less state aid and vice versa. Same with the building aid ratio. The higher the wealth, the lower the aid ratio and vice versa. However, here's the quirk in the formula. So, uh, what we get, everybody gets is you, they recalculate that age ratio every year

059based on the wealth of a school district. There's a way the state determines wealth of a school district. Um and um we get either that ratio or what we got last year, whichever is higher. And as so back in 1966, this was a much more rural, less affluent area. And the wealth at the time generated a 66% aid ratio. Over the year, over the last 60 years, the district has gotten a lot more affluent. So that aid ratio keeps going down, but every year we get or what we got last year. So we still get the 66%. Even though if they got rid of that or what we got last year piece, our rate would drop down to about 33%. Um for for uh comparison purposes, Port Jefferson gets about 22% building aid. So that's

060why I say it is a quirk in the building a in the formula that works to our our in our favor. And so that third that 66% aid that's also on the interest that we use for the bond as well. >> That is correct. So the one if you were to say downside to doing a bond right as far as paying for it is well when you borrow money you pay interest right. So but two things with the interest uh one is we are a taxing authority meaning uh and that by the way is an exclusion from the tax cap. So the board can just levy the tax to raise the money to make the payments. What that means is there's no risk to whoever the lender is, the investment banks or whoever lends borrow

061buys the bonds. Uh so because there's no risk, we get a very low interest rate and on that interest as Dr. Bach pointed out the state is still paying 66% of the interest as well. So, it it really is a great deal for us and and uh so this is a a good way to take advantage of that, too. Now, I have no reason to believe I don't want to make it sound like that 66%'s going away. Um I have no reason to believe that it will. However, two years ago when the governor released her budget proposal for the for the year, um not with building aid, but a different piece of state aid that has a similar kind of what they call hold harmless or save harmless provision. Um she proposed getting rid of

062that which would if you we all remember it would have reduced our uh state aid that year by more than $8 million. Um now that didn't come into that that didn't make it into the final state budget that year. Thank God. So good for that. But that might have opened the door now to that thinking of maybe we need to do away with these or what you got last year whichever is higher. So I don't know that that will happen but um whatever the aid ratio is in place when the community gives the approval of it that's in place for the life of the bond. So if on so on January 20th if the community approves its bond even if a year or two or five or 10 years from now that aid ratio changes

063we would still be locked in at the 66%. >> Anybody else? >> Yes. >> So uh in a couple of the forums we've mentioned this as well. Um this is a wonderful district and we've been very blessed to have students in this district for almost 60 years now. Um, and I want to thank a gentleman that met me at my great niece's birthday party a few months ago who said to me, uh, stopped me in in the hall and I always get nervous when says, "Are you Dr. Scamlin?" I'm like, "Uhoh, yeah." And he said, "Are you the superintendent?" I'm like, "Yes, I am." And he goes, "I heard about this bond." He goes, "Someone built these schools for my kids to go to them, and I want to help keep them going." So, whoever

064that gentleman was, I, you know, I didn't get your name, but thank you. Because that's exactly the message we want to deliver. We want to see this district go beyond just 60 years. Some of the dishes I've worked in have been around for over a hundred years, and we would like to see that continue. They're beautiful buildings. They're very aesthetically pleasing, but they are expensive to maintain. The oldest building is from 1952. The newest building is from 1972. And yes, we put additions on, and yes, we've made changes over the years. The last bond we floated was 12 years ago. And again, going back to Jeff's point, if you think about your own home, in the course of 12 years, how much have you done to keep up your home? The same thing is true

065for these schools that we have with 5,400 students running through the schools over the past 12 years and with the amount of staff and some of these buildings are used year round. It's not as if during the summer we all shut down and nobody's there. Even in the weekends even over the break there were people in the buildings there were events going on. There are sports that go on fields are used. So, um, to one of the board members suggestion, uh, Miss Nash, our public relations specialist, we're going to post up the entire, uh, rolodex of pictures tomorrow for the entire school community to see. It's already on the website for you to see. We're going to send it out and blast it out to everybody so you can scroll through every one of the

066pictures of every pipe, every seam, the stadium, why we need to talk about that, what the fields look like, every area. So you can see firsthand what the committee saw as they were going through the buildings because they are beautiful and they are aesthetically pleasing. Um but from a distance they look great. When you get up close and try to go into some of these areas, not so great. And I would be cautious with what we would be sending people into and students into um in the near future if we didn't do something to affect these changes. Um and to go further with uh Mr. to ask this question. If we didn't do the bond, we would have to start increasing the capital budget as well, which again is exempt from the tax cap, but

067it will uh it will have to be put in. And right now, we only have $1.5 million in that capital improvement budget. It in order to cover $123 million worth of improvements, we're talking probably going into the $10 to12 million range every year for the next 10 years to get the repairs done on these buildings. And that means in the meantime in those 10 years what's going to happen next and right now some of the places are in really bad shape and it's to no one's neglect or we didn't do anything right. Everything's been done appropriately here. It's just age. Exactly. And you know I'm getting older and things are breaking. Uh but everything you know everything has its time and we we unfortunately are at a position where it's time we need to fix

068these. And the difference is when these buildings were built there wasn't some of the materials that exist today. the composite materials that don't decay and rust and fall apart like they did back then. They assumed everything was going to be fine. We had copper sheathing on most of these koopas. They thought that would last forever. Half the copper sheathing has been blown away on most of the Koopas. They're gone. The wood those coupas are made out of wood. They're gone. The pipes have rusted through. So, you know, it it's and parking lots are not going to stand forever. So, we need, you know, this isn't the Roman Empire. You can go to Italy and still see remnants of the Roman Empire that after 2,000 years are still in place, we're not the Roman Empire. So,

069despite what some people might think, so we need to make sure we can maintain these buildings and they're beautiful. Don't try to get a cell phone signal in any of them because they're built so nice and rugged, but um they do need to be maintained. And that's that's the unfortunate circumstance. And literally the the laughable thing is the 2014 bond had more work in it than this bond that we're proposing. But look at how much more expensive it is to do less work. After COVID, the prices for everything soared. >> Y >> and you know, we want to make sure that these schools are around for a long long time for the future generations of of students that are going to be coming through there and the residents here. And it's not just the students

070that use some of the facilities. We had someone make a comment the other night about the tennis courts. Yeah, the tennis team uses the tennis courts, but I pass by these buildings every afternoon and every evening and every weekend and I see a lot of residents on the tennis courts or using our track or, you know, playing games on the fields or walking their children. Uh, that's, you know, the community is using the schools. Uh, we have sports clubs that come in all all the time, whether it's three village baseball or soccer or football, they're using a lot of the facilities. the pool, you know, it's been there for a long We're very blessed to have a pool and how many years we've won championships for our swimming teams and things of that nature. Uh,

071but the pool's old. Uh, you know, if you think about a 66-y old pool, you know, think about how long that's been most likely those pools have been caved in and and paved over at this point in time. We've kept that going. So, it it's just a matter of we need to do some work on these things. And I I I believe me, I completely understand the economic times we live in. The inflation rate is increasing faster than the 2% tax cap is bringing money in. So, we're all feeling that effect. Food prices are high. Everyone's feeling effect. But if we don't do something drastic with these schools, we may be forced, you know, we have a topic on here about repurposing and closing. The repurposing and closing may be because we have to close

072it because we can't maintain it to keep it open for children. That would be a travesty in this community. >> Thank you. And I will just say I think you and Mr. Carlson have been very uh genuine in your offer to anybody. Call me. You have a question, you don't understand something, call me. And I know I know you mean that and and that's all it is. Just do a little homework. Look at what's on the website. Look at what we're going to push out to you. And if you have questions, call and uh they will be happy to answer them for you. So, thank you. All right, we'll move on to 7B. We have an update on uh the possibility of arming security. Dr. Dresky. >> Yes. Um, so I want to take a

073moment just to review and update um, armed security um, as we share your frustrations with the obstacles presented in front of us um, with civil service. But before I do that, I just want to backtrack just as a reminder for everybody. Um, it wasn't always like this. We started out with guards. Um, the prerequisite for it still is a civil service position. The prerequisite for a guard um is high school high school equivalency or and um and an 8 8 hour course. Um civil service as I mentioned earlier has recently taken the position that this is now a competitive title and as a result of the responsibility has uh recrafted a title called school security guard uh which is a competitive title but the prerequisites are much different now. Now there is a minimum of

0747 years as a law enforcement officer which will uh eventually allow the use of firearms. So um since Dr. Scan started in his role as superintendent, the directive here was really to hire only former and current law enforcement and military. And we've done that for the past several years. In fact, you could probably count on one hand or so how many folks we still have left that that don't have that background. Um, so that being said, we started that we started that process to to bring the most appropriate people forward that we we feel is appropriate and you know just just getting back to the process. So some of the people have kind of are now gone who were the original guards if you will and because of what's going on in the world, civil

075service said, "All right, we're now we're now going to do something different. if you require if you will require a weapon, we're going to create a title that um um that that covers that for you. So, what ended up happening was um they came out with a test uh about a year ago uh whereby believe there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 people who took the test. Uh my colleagues across the island tell me they've hired about 17 of those folks off off of that list. civil service has told me that in order for us to even get started with this process, um what we can do is we can create a duty statement. Um that duty statement will have the number of positions that the district requires, but but those people uh still

076need in order to be qu in order to work in three village. Those people need still need to take the test. The other provision, the other part of this um issue for us is not only they have to take the test, but they have to be reachable and that's reachable by a score. So this civil civil service test is scored and then we are allowed to call people in based upon score obviously higher score going towards the lower score. Uh when I first reached out to civil service u they anticipated the test not coming out for about another 2 to 3 years. Um, I'm cautiously cautiously optimistic about the possibility of moving forward and petitioning civil service to say, "Listen, we have a significant number of folks that work for three village that would like

077to take this test, probably exceeding what you have left on this list. So, we're going to respectfully uh request that you provide the exam again." So, I'm hoping with that type of pressure, they they can see obviously how serious we are about it and then move forward from there. But until we until we, you know, make that decision that that's what we want to do, we're still in a little bit of a holding pattern. But in in speaking to them and in speaking to uh my colleagues across the island, uh many of those people who are on the test um have been hired by multiple districts. And again, it doesn't mean that we all when we hire them, it also doesn't mean that we have to keep them forever. Um what it does mean is

078though that we have to hire them. We have to give them a legitimate shot. I know our goal is to have our people, our people know our kids, our people know our buildings, and I I know that's of paramount importance. So, um I still believe there's a way to do that. I don't believe I don't believe that the 2 to threeyear uh waiting period is feasible considering the amount of people that we may want to hire and I believe we will have some success moving forward with civil service. >> Thank you so much. Any questions about that? ju I just want to get a clear understanding of this. So at some point there had been conversations of possibly arming our guards, right? That was one of the options that were being looked at. As it

079stands today, that would not be possible till they took this test, scored high on the test, >> canvased, canvased, and then reachable. Yes. >> Okay. >> Correct. Bless you. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> All right, moving on to 7C. Um, as you have heard, uh, we we are having conversations about possibly repurposing or closing a school. And what we have talked anecdotally about is perhaps forming a committee, um, like some of the other committees that we've used to include parents and staff and and board members um, to look into the best possible uh, uses. And um so we would open up the conversation about how we would like to compose that committee. We'll have to think of some great acronym for it. I thought of one. I'm like, "No, that

080sounds like beer cores." Yeah, that's bad. Close or repurpose school. No, bad. Okay, we'll come up with another one. So, what is every >> good people to come? >> There you go. >> Um what are what are we thinking? How would we like to compose this committee? >> Anybody? U honestly I think we just need to compose it like we have the last couple of committees. I mean obviously we need community members and we need app parents and we need um staff um at that meeting. I I would really just go with what we've done prior. I mean it's worked out well with the uh property analysis committee. We'll see how it works out with the long-term planning committee. Um but I would try to keep it consistent to what we're normally doing. >> Yep.

081I I would agree. I think we've sort of whittleled it down to a pretty good science. Um, do we have any sense of how long we would want this to last, how frequently people we would need to meet so they have a sense of whether they can make that commitment? >> Well, I think in some ways it depends on the urgency of whe whether or not this appears to be, you know, something eminent that we need to accomplish. Um, one of the things I just want to be cautious about with this, this should not be um, devoid of our discussions about what we've been talking about with this building, North Country, and and and its possibilities because we have a administration up in this building here that if we sold this building um to for

082educational purpose to another school or something of that nature, um, we need to send the folks here someplace else. And the most important group out of that is the academy. You know, we need to find a location for that. Um, we do have spaces in our elementary schools, particularly Mount Nassic currently. But I think as we talk about the the charge to this committee, I think it would be good to look at all the buildings and and include all the things we've been discussing so far, the age, the space, the size, uh, locations, entrances. Um, you know, we looked into a couple of uh years ago the Boseies potentially renting part of one of our buildings. Not a lot of money coming in from that. A sale of this building um depending on what we

083could get for it, you know, might bring a lot of money into the district. Not and we don't we shouldn't be using all that money to offset a particular budget year because it's only a oneshot deal and then it's over. We need to think about long-term planning and that's where the long-term planning committee comes in about reserves and how we should place things in those different categories. So, I think there's a lot of things we need to look at. Enrollments um and you know, there's always a possibility and you know, it's we've seen it happen too that the population could rebound at some point in time. I don't think it's likely that it's going to ever go up to 10,000 students ever again, but you know, it might increase by a couple of thousand students.

084We are seeing a lot of new families moving into the community, younger families buying homes, um don't have school age children yet, but the average family registering now is much different than it was 10 years ago, even 20 years ago. Most families are coming in with 1 point something number of children, not uh three, four, five children uh in in a family. So, and the families that do have large number of children are usually within the poverty levels within the community that we're seeing coming that are ever increasing. our poverty level went from 4% to 17% in 10 years and that's a significant change for a district like us. So we need to be prepared for that. So if we we see any the changes none of the secondary buildings could accommodate the space for

085the academy to be moved into it right now. So that that would be out of the question. So it would have to be a consideration elementary and there might be concerns in some parents of having secondary students in with elementary students. There might be some concerns with the principles that I would be down the hallway too that they really don't want me there, but that's a whole other story. Uh, but you know, we have to think about all these possibilities as we move forward. >> I agree and I think if we're able to do this in a timely manner, having those committee members be part of the conversation about this building is really is really important. So, uh, are we in agreement? Whoops, Mr. Glass. >> Yeah. So there's a lot of history in terms

086of knowledge of the buildings and the properties with the property committee that had already worked on this problem for a number of months, right? Could we possibly look at if they were willing to serve, if the members would be willing to serve, perhaps add specialists from transportation, from education, and all the other business areas that will get impacted and have that group reconvene rather than pick new members. I don't know. >> Absolutely. We can certainly solicit some of the members from the prior committees to be part of that or or some new folks as well. Um the other thing we have to remember too, there's a lot of us in the room that know the history of the district, but there's a lot of new members of the community. We saw some of them at

087the civics association meeting the other night that weren't aware of that. You at one time this district had seven elementary schools. >> Um and the Hawkins Road property was designed that was supposed to be an eighth elementary school. They just ran out of money. There was supposed to be two high schools in this district. Again, they ran out of money. Um, we talked a little about the history of uh why Ward Melville wound up in the furthest eastern part of the district of anything and it was it was laughable. A person that graduated at the time was a high school student when the district was first formed gave me the story about the um apparently he Satake Elementary School was used as the high school for the first few years of the history of the

088district. And uh the students were hanging out in front of a place where he went to frequent to eat and were smoking and and kissing in the parking lot and he decided that's it. I'm buying the farm and moving the high school off so it's as far away from my house as possible. So, I don't know if there's really truth to that or not, but we'll we'll find out from the historical societies, but he donated the land. But it's uh it's very unusual that the high school for a district is in the furthest eastern section of the district. You walk across the street and you're in Kamswag. Uh most of them are centrally located. Um so, you know, we know that where Mount was was supposed to be the second high school, the 50 acres

089over there. So a lot of that history needs to be understood as well. Why things are the way they are and the covenants that exist on properties and why we can't sell some of them and what we have to do in order to do some of those things and what we have to do to keep us moving forward. So all you know I welcome that group from the PAC was wonderful. There was a lot they got a lot of work done in a very short period of time and perhaps that may be the goal too is a limited amount of time to this would get us through to the at least around the budget time. So we have a a plan in place as Mr. Carlson is formulating the budget for the the board. So

090we have this in place even if we want to even attempt to sell this bu building it may take time it could it could take months before that could really be affected in any way. So do we have a general consensus to create an application process similar to the last >> before that can I quickly ask so based on what Dr. Scan and just to introduce this seems overlapping a lot with the long-term planning. So is there a reason that we want to have a separate committee for this closure or >> I think this is more of a shorter shortterm go well not a short-term goal but a shortterm goal long-term planning we were hoping they could do that fiveyear and out and this is something if we if the opportunity is there we would

091we would need to jump on it fairly expeditiously. >> I see. Okay. >> Any other thoughts or questions? So, are we all comfortable with some an application similar to what we've used the last couple of times, similar composition? >> Okay, no problem. >> Thank you so much. >> All right, that brings us to our public comment period. We do see one. If you could come to the microphone over there, please. Shashana, >> you do. They're all yours. >> Oh, good. Good. I have things to say. >> Do you want to start the clock? Okay. Um, I'm here to talk about armed security and um, so it seems like that is not something that's going to happen immediately and I would urge you not because you can't get people on a civil service test. Don't do

092it because it's a bad idea. It's a bad idea because all of the evidence and all of the data explicitly spells that out. And if we're talking about what kids and communities need, Dr. Scanlin, you referenced that the poverty rate is rising in this community. I work for an organization that focuses on evidence and data based practices. We lobby the state legislature for things that kids need in lowincome communities. I can assure you guns do not appear in any of that. We talk about wraparound services. We talk about counseling. We talk about staffing. We talk about social services. And schools are being put in a position where you have to do a lot of those things. Now you are serving beyond the hours of the school day. And I completely understand why this is being

093driven this way. I understand the fear. I've been in a classroom. I've been through lockdown drills as an educator. I get it. But fear is a terrible, terrible way to make policy decisions. You need to go with facts and data. And the bulk of you on this on this board, you're educated people. You're researchers. You know the data. You need to go with the data. You need to go with best practices. A year ago, a little over a year ago, we presented that data to you. Over se several hundred people signed onto that petition. People have showed up repeatedly saying the same thing. So, make this decision not because you know the civil service test isn't available. Make this decision because guns in schools do not keep kids safer. Period. All of the data says

094that. And I'm sorry you're in this position. I truly am. The federal government has failed here. They have failed to do the work. They're too busy trying to buy Greenland. And I'm sorry about that. But we are fortunate to be in New York State because we have some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Just today, our governor was with gun safety advocates talking about additional measures. So New York is a relatively sta safe safe state, a lot safer than a lot of other states in the country where gun deaths happen. So I'm going to leave you with a closing thought. What do you do? You hire more teachers, you hire more social workers, and you use something like parent university. That is a platform where you can educate about safe storage because the

095reason we have this incident here was a law enforcement officer did not lock up their gun. Safe storage saves lives. You have a platform to educate this community that way. So, I urge you to use that platform and I urge you to operate on facts, not fear. Do the right thing. 3 seconds left. Peace out. >> Thank you very much. All right, that brings us down to our policy first reads. We turn it over to Mr. Misti. Uh the policy committee has met to continue its review of the policy manual. Uh during uh last round we reviewed policy 5710 school safety and educational climate uh policy 5550 student privacy under under the protection of pupil rights amendment 5420 student health services 5605 student voter registration and 5500 student records. Uh these policies have been reviewed

096by the policy committee and reviewed by councel and I'm available to answer any questions. Okay. Do we see any questions? >> Thank you so much. All right. Moving on to our consent agenda. Do I see a motion? >> So move >> and a second. And we begin with Mr. Mono. >> Those are the minutes from the December 10th meeting. >> Thank you. And C as well. >> Okay. The appointment for the board of registry and election workers. Those are for the uh SE county board of election workers that will be working for the bond vote. Any questions about that? All right. Thank you, Mr. Carlson. >> Uh, I have two items. Item uh D is an addendum to a contract with an outside ser service provider uh for special educational services. This is to add

097a particular type of evaluation to the contract. And the next item is approval of health and welfare services contracts with two districts, East Icelip and Middle Country. Uh this is for students who um uh three village resident students who attend private schools located within those school districts. >> Thank you. Any questions? All right. For F, Dr. Biscari. >> Uh this is just an update to the uh state provided list of impartial hearing officers. >> Thank you. And G, recommendations of the committee on special education subcommittee and 504 accommodation plan meetings as dated. H recommendations of the committee on preschool special education meetings as dated and for the balance we turn it over to Dr. Dresky. >> Thank you. Um so I is I really represents as a result of the elimination of an administrative position

098which was the director of school and community services. Several of the responsibilities needed to be reallocated. Um some of those responsibilities went to our director of personnel. So now we would like to uh change that title from director to executive director of personnel. Um J denial of appeal. So uh as you recall there was an appeal regarding um a suspension of the employee is identified in confidential A. Um J represents the denial of that appeal. Um K the memorandum of agreement that changes the title from director of curriculum instruction to executive director of curriculum instruction. Um same as above with regard to the reduction of the director of school and community services, additional responsibilities are going to that individual and as a result we are changing the title. Um L is um a recall of

099an excessed teaching assistant. M personnel items instructional. Uh we are starting to get the retirements that are rolling in. So we have three instructional retirements. We have three instructional leaves of absence, two instructional appointments. um a half a dozen instructional substitute appointments as well as appointments of coaches um co-curricular sponsors and several annual and hourly extra assignments for 2526. Um and non-instructional we have three non-instructional resignations, one non-instructional leave of absence. Um we have three non-instructional stipens, five non-instructional substitute appointments, um 18 non-instructional hourly assignments. That's the clerical for the bond vote. um and the appointment of one non-instructional volunteer. >> Okay, thank you so much. All in favor of the items in our consent agenda. >> Any opposed? Any extensions? Okay, thank you so much. >> So, Sue, can I before you go on,

100may I recognize and congratulate the folks who uh put in for their retirement? Um so, first uh Terresa Fox, one of our special ed teachers at War Meville High School. Uh second, Christina Gully, a teaching assistant at Gelinus. And third, Stacy Higgins, Elementary at Missaki. So, congratulations to them. >> Congratulations. All right. Do I see a motion to adjurnn? So move. >> A second. Second. >> All in favor? >> All right. Thank you everybody. Have a great night. Happy