001Good evening everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for our Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025 board of education meeting. At this time, I would ask you to please rise while Katie leads us in the pledge. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Again, my thanks, Miss Tmano. Any changes to the meeting agenda? >> No changes. >> Thank you so much. All right, so that takes us to item five, which is uh student and staff recognition. We turn it over to Dr. Scandlin. Yes. So, tonight we're honoring our board of education. Um, we've this is board recognition month. So, we have some representatives from some of our schools here to recognize our board members.
002So, the first two schools up are Arrowhead and Mount [applause] be able to see. >> Okay, wait one second. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having us. A special thanks to Karen Ruffley who has been Arrowheads board leazison for a lucky three years. We're here today with Bel McKay who is a fifth grader in Debbie Kurlic's room. Debbie Kurlic and Danny Walsh are our fifth and fourth grade student government representatives. And we're also so lucky tonight to have Dr. Kersh with us who is about to get the world's best job. Ready? Go. Hello, my name is Freel McKay and I am a fifth grade student and student council at our member at ourhead. Tonight I have the honor of recognizing our head's board of education liaison Karen Ruffley. This is a three
003repeat for us at Arrowhead. We are fortunate to represent Miss Ruffley for the third year in a row. I interviewed her last week and here are some highlights of our conversation. First, Miss Ruffley let me know about her responsibilities as a board member. She participates in community relations, including PTA meetings and being a liaison at schools. She also listens to concerns of staff, students, and community members. In addition, she studies all the programs activities for students to make sure everyone's needs are met. Then of course there's is the annual magic of a budget. Wow. And I thought cleaning my room was a lot. Miss Ruffley stated she has learned a lot in her three years of the on the board. First how important it is to work together to help meet the wide variety of
004needs and concerns. Also, she was impressed as she learned the many different programs, clubs, and sports available to our students. Lastly, she thought it was remarkable the advanced level of classes students take at the high school. As they say, all work and no play. But Miss Ruffley knows how to have fun, too. In her free time, she reads a lot. Also, she does research to develop her knowledge to help her be a better at her position. Now, that's dedication. Side note, she's gotten much better at Jeopardy. But the big fun event for Miss Ruff for the Roughly is going on a cruise. Every year they take a cruise to the Caribbean. The sun, the sand, the waves, relaxing. Miss Ruffley, I hope you're not doing research then. You deserve a break. Being a board of
005ed member was the next step for Miss Ruffley. She has been leading and organizing events in our districts since her days as a parent at our head. She was the PTA president there and then stayed involved with the PTA at the high school. This made me curious. Most kids learn to be a sports figure or a singer when they grow up. So did Miss So when Miss Ruffley was little, did she dream of being on the board of education member? I asked her and she said no. She wanted to be a lawyer. Close enough in my book. In closing, Miss Ruffley is clearly a dedicated, hard worker to our school and our district. In her three years, she has helped make the village a better place. Thank you, Miss Ruffley and our head. We will
006see you again next year. [applause] Good evening. Twice. Um on behalf of the entire Mount community, I would like to thank all the members of the board of education for their time and dedication to the three village school district. Your support means so much to the our students and our staff. Tonight, Mount would like to recognize our board of education liaison, Miss Ruffley. Joining me this evening is our assistant principal, Miss Drinkwater, and our student council adviser, Miss Laro, behind me. And at this time, I am proud to introduce our student representative, fifth grader Jackson Lamperados, who will share a few words about Miss Ruffley. Hi everyone, my name is Jackson Lumperos and I am a student council member at Mount Elementary School. I am here to tell you about someone really important who helps
007make our schools awesome, Mrs. Ruffley. I got to ask her some questions and then Mrs. Lara's first graders asked some fun questions, too. Let me start with the ones I asked. Mrs. roughly has many responsibilities as a school liaison for Arrowhead and Mount School. She said she goes to all the PTA meetings. That means she listens to parents, teachers, principles, and even the whole community. Then she takes what she hears to the board of education where big decisions are made. So she basically is like a super listen listener and messenger for our schools. Mrs. Roughly faces many challenges being a board event member. She told me the hardest part is trying to make everyone happy. That sounds really tough because everyone wants different things. Imagine trying to choose one game for recess when everyone wants
008a different one. Yikes. Mrs. Roughly has a beautiful family. She is married and has two daughters. Sophia is in college and Zoe is a senior in 12th grade. They also have a dog named Sammy who's a Labradoodle and weighs 90 lb. But here's the funny part. He's still a lap dog. Can you imagine a giant dog trying to sit on your lap? I asked Mrs. is roughly which traditions she celebrated with her family. They love Halloween. They go trick-or-treating every year and visit Benner's farm. For Christmas, they have a huge dinner at the country house and spend Christmas Eve with over 30 family members. That's a lot of holiday hugs. I was also curious to see which places Mrs. Ruffley would like to visit. She wants to take a cruise to Italy and Spain. I
009bet she eat lots of pizza and see beautiful castles. Now, Miss Zaro's first graders got really curious. I asked and asked some fun questions, too. Here's what Mrs. Ruffley shared. Her favorite TV shows are like FBI and the Chicago series, Chicago PD, and Chicago Fire. She even watches K-pop Demon Hunters with her daughter. [laughter] That sounds like a cool mix of action and music. Her favorite food is banana. I mean, her favorite food is pizza. Who doesn't love pizza? Favorite fruit is banana. And her favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate. Yum. To wrap it all up, Mrs. Ruffley worked hard to make sure every student in Three Village gets to learn and grow. She wants all of us to reach our full potential. Thanks for listening and big thanks to Mrs. Ruffy for helping make
010our schools amazing. [applause] Can we do a picture of all you guys? Perfect. You can come right in the middle. Thank you. Okay, move this way. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Our next school is Milwaukee. [applause] Good evening everyone. We would like to start out on behalf of Misaki. I would like to thank the board of education for all of your support. Your hard work and dedication is very much appreciated. With me this evening, I have our assistant principal, Mrs. Meiselle, and one of our fifth grade teachers, Mrs. Kristen Han, who also happens to be one of our student council adviserss, and two very special students here today. I have Liam Laer and Sophia Pelina, two fifth grade students who are also members of our student government, and they are here to honor our board
011liaison, Dr. Kerman. Okay, step up to the microphone. >> Good evening. >> Is it on? >> It's on. >> Good evening. Our names are Liam Lea and Sophia Pelina. >> We are proud to be representing Minisaki Elementary School tonight. >> We are so grateful to our entire Three Village Board of Education and administration for working so hard. Thank you for helping our school district and helping us be able to learn. We also want to take a few moments to thank our very own Minasaki board liaison, Dr. Jeffrey Common and recognize some of his wonderful accomplishments. >> Dr. Kerman and his wife Marilyn have been living in Satake for over 40 years. He has practiced dentistry for over 50 years. He practiced in Miller Place in New York City. Dr. Common has two sons, a wife,
012and a grandson. A fun a few fun facts about Dr. Common's family are that both his sons went to NASAG. His youngest s failed the driver's test three times. [laughter] >> Doctor Dr. Kerman has a bachelor of arts from Tulain University and a doctorate of dental medicine from the University of Pittsburgh. He served two years as a captain in the United States Army. He said it was a privilege serving our country. It was also educational working with people from all over the country. Thank you for your service, Dr. Kerman. >> Dr. Kerman was elected again to the board of education in 2012 and has been serving our community with style and grace ever since. We really loved it when you came into our class recently and took the time to answer our question questions. You
013are such a dedicated member of our board of education and you work so hard on behalf of all of us. So from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you and we hope you enjoy these gifts. [applause] Our next school is NASA cake. [applause] over there. Okay, smart. >> On behalf of you. >> All right. Okay. So, um, on behalf of myself, Miss Castellane, and the entire NASA community, we would like to thank the board of education for all that they do for our schools and our community. It is our privilege to be here this evening to recognize our board of education liaison, Mr. Doss. I would now like to introduce Miss Slavven, one of our amazing fourth grade teachers. Uh, she's been a valued member of our NASA community for six years teaching fourth
014grade, and she and her class collaborated to develop interview questions for Mr. us. So, here's Miss Leven and she will introduce our two student representatives. >> Hello everyone. Good evening. We have Reagan here and Brendan. And Brendan, you're going to start. Okay. So, you can uh you can start. >> This year, our class is very lucky to be able to interview the board of education member, Mr. Doss. Mr. Doss is new to our board. He and he told us that being a part of a being a new member is like being a part of a new class. It takes a little getting used to and is a new learning experience. Mr. Doss's favorite thing about being a part of the Three Village Board of Education is learning new things about our school every day. When
015we asked Mr. Doss what would he like to improve in our community, he said providing more opportunities for our students to learn through clubs, music, sports, and art. Besides being a board member, Mr. Doss is an engineer manager at a company. We also asked him what his very first job was and he said making burgers and scooping ice cream at a burger joint. [laughter] >> Mr. Doss has a six-year-old son who is currently a student at War M High School. His son is actually a student at NASA just like us. Mr. Doss was able to name all of his son's teachers to us from kindergarten to 6th grade. We have some of them too. Mr. D's wife is an administrator at Stony Brook University. Mr. Dos grew up in New Delhi, India and did his
016undergraduate studies in the US. We asked him we asked Mr. Dos what he like to do as a kid. He said he didn't like to study but [laughter] he says he liked to play with his friends after school the best but only after he completed his homework. We found out we found out an amazing fact about Mr. Doss. He is a certified pilot for private planes. He also enjoys watching and playing cricket. Mr. Doss enjoys traveling especially to Spain, Boston, California, and any place in the United States that has fort fortresses or castles. Our final question for Mr. Doss was, "What do you love most about the three village community?" He said, "The people." We agree, Mr. Dos. Thank you for visiting NASA Cake. [applause] Come here. >> Yeah, you go right here. >> Thank
017you. Thank you. Our [applause] next school is a talk. [applause] Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. On behalf of Satake Elementary School, I would like to thank all of the members of the board of education for their dedication and commitment to our school district. We appreciate all you do for us. With me tonight, I have my amazing assistant principal, Mrs. Nicole Farley. I have two fabulous fifth grade teachers, Mrs. Flaze and Mr. Dordo and our fifth grade student council representatives, Helen Tyer and Willis Smith. They will share tonight all they learned about our board liaison, Mrs. Rosenwag, uh when they interviewed her. >> Good evening. Good evening everyone. We are excited to Good evening everyone. We are excited to introduce our board of educ education liaison, Mrs. is Rosenswig. I'm Willis Smith, a fifth grader
018at Satakeet Elementary. And I'm Helen Taur, also a fifth grader at Satucket Elementary. Mrs. Rosenwig first became involved in our schools as a very active parent when our children first attended Satucket Elementary. Even after they graduated, she wanted to stay connected and continue making a difference, which inspired her to join school board. She's the proud mom of four children has and had has had an exciting career working at News12 and Walk FM radio. She may have even worked with Miss Farley there. Mrs. Rosenswig has also lived in Arizona and New Mexico, which sounds like an amazing adventure. When she's not busy helping our district, she loves to snorkel, swim, garden, and walk walk her dogs and spend time with her family. One of the things Miss Rosenbag loves about the Three Village school district is
019how everyone feels like family. She describes a great school place as as a place of joyful learning, community, and untethered growth. The best part of being a school board member, she says, is getting to interact with the students and see how our education system is working. We are so thankful for Mrs. Rosenek's dedication to our schools and community. Thank you for all you do to make Three Village such a special place. [applause] All >> [applause] >> right, let's take a picture. Yes, sit in the middle somewhere. In the middle somewhere. Perfect. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> Our next school is Jelenus. [applause] No one here or here. This one. Good evening everybody. Um on behalf of Principal Keen, myself and the entire Gelinus community, we want to thank you for all that
020you do to support not just Gelinus, but also the entire Three Village community. It means so much to us. Um I'm excited to introduce Haley Pollus. She is our student government president at Gelinus, an eighth grade student who brings such a positive energy to everything that we do in the building. And she's going to be speaking tonight on behalf of our board of ed liaison, Dr. Lee. Good evening board members. I am Haley Pace. I'm the president of Gelina Student Government and had the pleasure of interviewing our board member Dr. Lee. Dr. Lee was raised in China, a historic city that was the home of the legendary terracotta warriors and army of statues built for China's first emperor. Dr. Lee was surrounding by set surrounded by centuries of innovation and discovery from an early age.
021Maybe that's sparked a lifelong curiosity about how things work. Or maybe it was just the challenge of trying to design something cooler than a school science project held together by tape and hope. That curiosity eventually brought Dr. Lee to the United States in 2000 to study electrical engineering at Columbia University where she earned a PhD and launched a career designing micro electronic chips from from cell phones to nutrino detectors, X-ray imagers, and even quantum computing. Dr. Lee has spent years turning tiny circuits into big breakthroughs and even snagged a patent inspired by a research project from two decades ago. Talk about long-term thinking. After working with Brook Haven National Lab, Ferma Lab, and now Zebra Technologies, Dr. Lee continues to push boundaries in technology, proving that creativity, science, and persistence make a pretty powerful combination.
022When not designed in the future, Dr. Lee loves traveling, reading, playing bad mitten, and skiing. Though reading on skis is not recommended. Whether it's whether it's exploring Caribbean islands from a cruise ship or conquering the slopes of Killington, every adventure is a chance to learn, reflect, and make lasting memories with her family. A self-proclaimed former fan of coffee ice cream and rice cakes. Dr. Lee recently learned the art of balance thanks to a newfound appreciation appreciation for roasted chestnuts. Who says tech can't teach us self-control? Inspired by the kindness and dedication of past board members, Dr. Lee joined the Three Village Board of Education with the hope of giving back to a community that cares so deeply for its students. Her advice to Julian's middle schoolers, try everything. Dive into academics, sports, and opportunities because
023every skill you pick up now will help you later. Who knows, you might even run your own startup one day, just like someone we know. Thank you, Dr. Lee, and the members of the board of education for your service to Three Village. Julianus appreciates you all very much. [applause] I have to admit I polish my answers with GPT yours is so way. [laughter] >> Thank you this way. Yep. Go that way. Perfect. Our [applause] next school is Murphy. [applause] Good evening everyone. Uh happy unity day. Um thank you. Thank you for all that you do, Board of Education. I mean, this is a daily job and it's not lost on the Mercy the Murphy family how much you guys do on a daily basis. So, thank you for everything. Um, we're here to honor Mr.
024Vincent Vizo. He's on vacation this week, but we thought it was very important to honor him. Um, I have Ranada Trujillo Aira here, an eighth grader at Murphy to talk about Mr. Vizo. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Ranata. Oh, >> gotcha. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Ranatada Trillo Agira and I'm a student at Murphy Junior High School. Mr. Vizo has been a Three Village resident since 1988. He [clears throat] and his wife Elsa have been married for 47 years and have two sons who attended Mount Elementary, Murphy Junior High School and Ward Melville. Yeah, and Ward Mville High School. His son Vincent is an orthopedic physician assistant and his son Derek is an engineer. Mr. Vizo is blessed to have three beautiful granddaughters who call him Pup. Mr. Vizo began his
025career as a Spanish teacher at Queen of Rosary Academy. He came to Jelenus Junior High School in 1985 where he taught Spanish and theater arts. He was appointed chairman of world languages, assistant principal of Murphy Junior High School and then principal of Murphy Junior High School. Mr. Vizo retired after 34 years of employment in Three Village. In addition to his work in the district, Mr. Vizo has also worked as a professor of Spanish at Suffach County Community College. Mr. Vizo holds a bachelor of arts in Spanish from St. Joseph's College, Master of Education in Spanish from St. Jo from St. John's University, and the New York State School Administrator/Sup Supervisor Certificate from New York University. Mr. Vizo even received the outstanding regional administrator award presented by the Empire State Supervisor and Administrators Association. Mr. Mr.
026Vizo previously served as the president of the three village administrators association and vice president of the council of administrators and supervisors. Mr. Vizo is honored to serve on the board of education and dedicated to advocating for educational success and well-being of all children in three village community. Thank you [applause] a picture too. Our next two schools are Ward Melville High School and the Three Village Academy. [applause] Good evening everyone. My name is Jim G. I'm the principal here at the Three Village Academy. And uh we uh we at the academy will talk more broadly about the folks at on the school board and leave it to the ward meal folks to talk more spec specifically about Dr. Back. Um but Dr. Back, we're are looking forward to your visiting us up at the academy as
027well. Um just a couple things I want to share with all of you. Last month it came out that the three build school district came out 18th in a ranking in all the 16th excuse me 16th in the rank all the school districts [laughter] all the school districts in uh New York State. Um certainly we're a district that is known for uh um high academic achievement, great uh championship sports teams, uh with high levels of participation in all those sports teams and fantastic uh arts and music programs and the school board deserves a lot of credit in all those successes as stewards of the of these schools. And to me, that's not even the most impressive part. In my experience, uh, both working in special ed in this district and now working at the academy,
028is that in a a district as big as this, one would expect that students would fall through the cracks with some regularity because of various obstacles, whether it be disabilities, uh, language barriers, um, family or personal turmoil. And my experience has been that that does not happen here. And that is because the leadership of this district consistently says what's right for the child and that's what you use to make your decisions. I watch all your meetings in either here or on YouTube. I'm watching all of them and I always appreciate that you're making decisions very very carefully with the students in heart at at always and that's why the three village academy exists. So I want to introduce you to one of our seniors of whom I'm very proud. This is Justin Barton. [applause] >>
029Hello. Uh, I'm Justin Barton. I am in 12th grade and I go to the Three Village Academy. It may it may not be it may not seem efficient to have a small school with a very with very small classes or a school to stress about social connection and well-being over high level academics. However, for students of the Three Village Academy, that's just what we need. a smaller school with flexible and supportive approach to meeting our academic needs. Thank you for providing that for and for continuing to support our school. On behalf of the three village academy and students, we are very appreciative of the board of education for their ongoing and unwavering support of the mission of the mission of the three village academy. With your support, we encourage responsible independent thinking rec recognize diversity
030and respect the in individual needs for of the students. We understand that each of our board members have volunteered their time, energy, and insight in what we can in what we can be thankless in what we can be a thankless endeavor. We are especially grateful for the board's time, diligence, commitment, and genuine care for the students of this district. Dr. Beck and his fellow board of education and trustees have consistently prioritize students social and emotional well-being. Thank you for caring for what matters to most. [applause] >> [applause] >> Uh so obviously [clears throat] I have no chance of saying any better than it's already been said, [laughter] especially by those elementary school students. Uh but just from everybody at Ward Mull, we want to thank all of our board of education members. Uh we know
031your job is not easy. We know that you have to listen to a wide variety of of interests and opinions, take all that information together, and make decisions that are best for our students, for our staff, and for our school community. So, we appreciate that uh that you do that uh so regularly and you give so much of your time and yourselves in order to do what's best for our community. I don't need to introduce her, but Katie Erso is going to come on up and she's going to talk specifically about Dr. Beck. Thank you. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Katie Erso and W Melville is super honored to recognize Dr. Stanley Back, the board of ed liaison for Word Mobile. Dr. Back's belief in the value of education is something that is at
032core of who he is. He comes from a long line of educators. His grandfather was a teacher in the family's native Poland and both of his parents were teachers here. His grandfather's commitment to education was so strong he secretly continued teaching students throughout the German occupation of Poland during World War II. A lifelong learner himself, Dr. Back moved to the three village community so his young children could benefit from the wonderful community and highquality education. Dr. Back holds a bachelor's degree from RPI and a master's as well as a PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne. His studies in computer science and work as a professor at Stony Brook University keep him on the cutting edge for the safety's implications of the real world applications and the use of autonomous systems. All of this
033is impressive enough, but even more impressive is that Dr. Bach has been able to achieve all of this even though he's been he began kindergarten without speaking a word of English. The power of education has permeated his life and is the reason that he devotes so much time to our board of education. While he is not hard at work with his own students, his research or the board, Dr. Bach enjoys spending time with his family. Warren Melville and the entire school community are grateful to have such a devoted liaison representing us on the board. Thank you [applause] guys. Just come up this way a little bit. in the middle right here. Perfect. Good. Now, look at me. Okay, great. [applause] So, I also have the pleasure tonight of honoring our exeicio board member, uh, Miss
034Katie Erso. Uh, [snorts] so tonight we're honoring service. Uh, and that's a word that describes a huge part of Katie's life. Katie is a senior at Ward Melville. In addition to her work on the board, she serves as the president of our student government. Katie is also a lifelong girl scout and currently holds the rank of ambassador while she works towards her gold award. She also serves as a second lieutenant officer for the Satake Junior Fire Department. She's a member of the American Legion, the Key Club, the World Language Honor Society, and the National Honor Society. She's also an accomplished dancer and has served as the principal dancer for the Saskaya Ballet. [snorts] She has earned the presidential volunteer service award every year since sixth grade. With all of this service to our community, it
035is amazing she even has time to be here. Kat Katie proudly serves on our board of education. She works hard behind the scenes to gather the necessary information for her bi-weekly updates. Katie's thoughtful contributions provide the board with valuable insight into the Ward Mobile student experience. We are grateful for her leadership, dedication, and service to the Three Village community. Katie, thank you so much. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> So on behalf of the central administration who gets to work the closest with the board of education, we're very grateful for all your volunteer service. Uh there's no raise for this job. Sorry, doesn't come with that. Um but we are we truly do know all the hard work and commitment all of you have to this district and all the children, the parents, the faculty, staff
036and students of this district and we re truly appreciate that. >> Thank you so much and thank you to everybody for coming tonight and celebrating us. We do appreciate it. It's it's a labor of love. We really appreciate being appreciated. So thank you. >> All right. So >> well before we move on, one final uh recognition to this month is also National Principles Month. So would all our principles please stand in the room. [applause] >> Thank you. >> I also can attest to the fact that all of our principles work very hard every day for their schools and for the entire district. Several of them are also residents of our district who also send their kids here. So that kind of shows you the dedication that we have in this district. Um but I also
037am very proud to have them in that leadership role running the ships of our district getting them through the hard times and the good times. So very much appreciate all appreciation to all of you for all your hard work and there will be something coming for all of you just [laughter] >> Thank you. All right, Katie, we're going to keep the mic hot for you. Let's have our student representative report sorry dismiss. >> Oh yeah, you guys don't have to stay. Like you totally don't have to stay. [laughter] >> I'm not going to hurt our feelings. Go home. >> [snorts] >> So Katie, just give them a minute. All right, Katie, it's all yours. Good evening, everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful couple of weeks since we last met and that everyone who
038celebrated DeWali this past Monday had a joyful celebration. I'm excited to share some recent and upcoming events happening at Warmville High School. To start, last week in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the National Spanish Honor Society decorated the auditorium hallway with colorful displays highlighting Hispanic culture history throughout the halls of War Mobile, which always fosters a sense of community within our school. Also, during these past weeks, Welville students recently gained life-saving skills through our annual stop thebleleed training. District personnel provided hands-on lessons teaching wound care, bleeding control, and tourniquet application. Students at W Melville are always grateful for this initiative as students are able to leave with a practical emergency response knowledge knowledge that could one day help save lives. Today at W Melville, we celebrated unity day, a nationwide initiative promoting kindness, inclusion, and
039anti-bullying awareness. At W Melville, students and staff showcased their support by wearing orange, the color symbolizing safety and inclusion. Our PBIS committee led chalk the walk event where our students decorated our sidewalks with positive messages of kindness and encouragement. In the commons, we hosted interactive activities to spread awareness about bullying prevention as well. I'm also excited to report that Welville is getting ready to host our annual community event, Trick-or- Treat Street, which will take place on October 30th. [snorts] Families and children from across the community are invited to come into the school and enjoy themed rooms decorated by our clubs and organizations. Each club creates a unique experience from spooky mazes to fun games and activities for the kids to enjoy. It's one of our favorite traditions that brings the Warren mobile community together in
040a fun and safe way. Lastly, since tonight is the board of ed rega recognition night, I would just like to thank the board of education for all of you do and it definitely does not go unrecognized. And we're looking forward to to an exciting couple of weeks. Thank you. [applause] Great job as always, Katie. Thank you so much. All right, that's going to take us to item 6B on our agenda now, which is a presentation from the Long Island Museum. If you all would come up to that podium over there and introduce yourselves. Good evening. I'm Joshua Ruff. I'm a co-executive director at the Long Island Museum and I'm joined by my fellow co-executive director Sarah Bruie uh and my colleagues in the audience, Lisa Unander, director of education and Lori Curiali, our director of
041finance. Um we want to thank the board of education, superintendent Scandlin and district leadership for their time and for the invitation to come speak here this evening. and we want to thank the members of the community that are here with us as well um as we discuss these important topics that are important to all of us. Uh we know that many of of you here tonight have been to the Long Island Museum. You've enjoyed us over the years. You've been familiar with our programming and exhibitions, as well as the many ways that we currently partner with the school district, including school tours, workshops, and professional development for the three village teachers, student internships for students in the district. Or you might be familiar with us as the location for the much anticipated second grade field
042trip to our one room schoolhouse from 1877. Each year, we welcome all of the second graders from the district to this popular and engaging program. For 86 years now, the Long Island Museum, LIM, has provided cultural and educational experiences for people of diverse ages, backgrounds, and abilities by featuring compelling exhibitions and programs that are designed to engage the community and enhance the museum's position as a cultural destination right here in the Three Villages. LIM is the only Smithsonian affiliate on Long Island and just one of 216 affiliates nationwide that have that status and we've been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1973 for excellence in exhibitions, programs, and care of our collections. What we like to say is that you don't need to hop on a train to access a world-class museum right
043here in your own backyard. And a quick glance at our exhibition calendar just this next year, just coming up a few months from now, shows a range of what we offer. Opening in February, we have video games, the Great Connector. We have an exhibition on the Revolutionary War on Long Island, a major exhibit for us as we celebrate America 250 next year. Later in the summer, we'll have exhibitions about Long Island during the 1970s and also an exhibition about Native American art and history, which we're working on directly with representatives from the island's indigenous communities. In addition, all year round we host family programs, concerts, lectures, documentary films, and activities for people of all ages. I think the key here is that we'd like our community and neighborhood in the three village schools to be
044able to take full advantage of all of these offerings and experiences. And we're going to explain more about about that right now. And Sarah will come up and take us the rest of the way. >> Thank you, Josh, and thank you all. This is a what a wonderful night to be a part of. Thank you for having us here. Um, the students are incredible and you all are incredible and we appreciate you taking the time tonight. Uh, we're here tonight as a follow-up to our August meeting with the board to further discuss the inclusion of a Long Island Museum funding proposition on the May 19th, 2026 Three Village School District budget ballot, which if passed would provide the museum with a $500,000 annual tax levy. As you're aware, New York State education law provides a
045mechanism by which museums chartered through the state education department like ours can collect revenue from households located within the same school district as the museum through the levying of a tax. The same law is what allows school districts and libraries to collect their tax revenue. Please note that although these propositions appear on the ballot along with the school budget vote, propositions such as this are separate from school taxes. Over the past 86 years, the museum has weathered many different economic climates and remains a strong and vital part of our community. This is possible in part because we have worked to cultivate diverse fundraising initiatives, relying on a variety of funding streams, including memberships, grants, corporate support, and special events such as our winter gala. All of which help to support our exhibitions and programming. We've
046also secured funding from New York State and individuals to further develop our physical campus. Public funding via this initiative would provide the museum with additional resources that would help us keep up with the growing services we provide to the community. This initiative is designed to help ensure that our community continues to have access to the museum's vital programs and services regardless of background or income. Supporting the museum is more than sustaining a cultural institution. It's an investment in education, equity, and the future of our shared community. The museum is eager to work with the Three Village School District to find ways that we can further serve the residents of our community together. Upon approval of the annual tax levy, we would explore benefits such as a free annual three village residence pass, priority field trip
047scheduling and pricing for district classes. In some instances, we'll also be able to provide class trips at no additional cost to schools. a three village community openhouse event featuring special programming. Student art shows and performances at the museum. A big takeaway from the meeting [clears throat] we had in August with you all was that district leadership was um very interested in the possibility of hosting annual student art shows as well as the possibility of theater and music performances at the museum which they felt would be a huge benefit to the schools and the students. And we agree. We look forward to continuing the discussion to see how we can partner with the district to bring these to the community. We can also provide exclusive access to the museum's beautiful 9acre campus for photooots, discounted facility
048rental pricing, and enhanced home property values. The museum contributes to the vibrancy and livability of the community. In addition, a free built-in museum membership for residents coupled with a robust calendar of local cultural offerings has proven to be a strong incentive for today's home buyers. It's something that you can enjoy while you live in the district and that can help you sell your home should you so choose. Thank you for your time this evening. We'd be happy to answer any questions you guys might have and we of course would like to extend an open invitation to everybody to come visit us. U many of you might already be planning to visit on Sunday for our annual Halloween family fun event. Um but please also visit our website long island museum.org to learn more and to
049plan your visit. >> [applause] >> Thank you both so much. We're not going to circle back with any questions tonight, but we'll be in touch should we have any. Thank you again. >> Thank you again. [applause] >> All right, that brings us now to our stock market lab presentation. Dr. Biscari. >> Yes, it's my pleasure to invite uh Miss Ruben Strunk up to the podium. uh she has been the brainchild of this and uh we're almost at fruition with a very unique uh and worthwhile opportunity for our students. How do I switch the view? Sorry. No, no, you're good. I know it's in your setup. I don't want to mess you up. Thanks. Good evening everybody. Um my name is Dearra Rubenrunk. I am the executive director of technology and it is very difficult for
050me to contain my enthusiasm about something when I am so passionate about it. So I will try to keep my smiling to a minimum this evening because what I'm about to share with you really is the result of two years worth of work across many different departments and collaborating with so many other administrators, teachers, finance professionals to bring a real authentic experience to our kids. So [clears throat] the finance lab is going to serve as the cornerstone for preparing our students for success beyond the classroom. Our goal here is really to develop financial literacy and data analysis that reflects the realities of the world in which we live in today. We're going to be expanding the breadth of our business courses and ensuring that students have the same analytical tools that are used in universities
051and global financial firms. Ultimately, this lab is going to end up bridging the gap between classroom learning and the world at large for our kids. We are seeing unmistakable trends in student interest that make this the right time for us to add the finance lab to our repertoire. Preliminary data from School Links, which is the college and career readiness platform used by our guidance department, highlights a strong and growing student focus on business and technology pathways. This is an unmet met need that we would love to be able to support. Among the top five career goals and career clusters, the leading areas include entrepreneurship and business, management, and administration, showing that our students want to think like innovators. When we look at the most popular intended college majors, the pattern is just at just as
052clear. Number one, business, administration, and management. Number three, computer science. And number five, finance. These insights confirm what we're already hearing in classrooms, which is that our students want authentic hands-on learning experiences which connect them to real world business. The finance lab is going to answer that call and align our student interests with district goals for career and college readiness. So, at the center of this initiative is a very important piece of technology and that is the Bloomberg terminal. This is the global standard for finance professionals. A Bloomberg terminal is an advanced computer system that provides real time financial data, market analytics, news and trading tools that are used by analysts, investors, and institutions around the world. For our students, what does that mean? It means that they are going to have hands-on access to
053the same technology that drives decision-making on Wall Street and in Fortune 500 companies. They're going to monitor live stock prices, compare company performance, analyze economic trends, and even simulate trading environments, all within a secure educational platform. If they decide to trade on their own time, I do not take responsibility for that. Don't gamble your college fund. So, this isn't just about finance. It's about data literacy and critical thinking. Students are going to learn to interpret information, recognize patterns, and collect uh excuse me, connect global events to their local impacts. In addition, students will be able to earn a Bloomberg market concepts certification. This is an industry recognized credential and uh that will strengthen their college applications and open some doors to business and economic careers for them. Many of our industry partners are already requiring
054that uh their employees maintain this credential. The space is just as exciting as the curriculum. Um the finance lab is going to be located within the library of our flagship Ward Melville High School. It will feature 14 student terminals and one teacher station arranged in a collaborative university style layout. There will be large digital displays and ticker tape that will make it easy for students to review data together and conduct interactive lessons. What makes this space even more special is the authentic furniture. I am so I am so proud to share that we were able to secure a special donation from JP Morgan Chase Global Real Estate directly from their Manhattan trading floor. They will be donating the tables, the chairs, and the monitor arms. This is a real industry level space. I also want
055to take a moment to highlight our incredibly talented maintenance and operations team led by director of facilities Jason Greky. It is also his birthday this evening, so I like to honor him on multiple levels. Um, our maintenance and operations department is really special. Their craftsmanship, their attention to detail and their pride in their work are going to ensure that this space is not only functional and beautiful, but it's by three village for three village. So, I want to take some opportunities to talk to you about the curriculum integration. I'm going to invite up some friends from the vis business department. Uh Eileen Litman is going to join us. And I'd also like to point out that Alyssa Chesny and Skyler Fantasy are here today in the audience. I recently had the pleasure of visiting the
056Bloomberg headquarters with them and it was truly a remarkable experience for us together. >> Thank you, Deja. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for having us tonight. Um on behalf of the business department, we'd like to thank administration as well as the board of education for your great support in this endeavor. Um, we are super excited to be one of the very few high schools on Long Island to be implementing something so phenomenal. Um, the Bloomberg Lab integration goes across course offerings as you can see. Um, it's an incredible resource for all students across the board. Um, of significance significant importance, it strengthens the career and financial management course. That course is a requirement for all of our CTE programs. Currently, we have a marketing and a early childhood um early childhood education program within
057the high school. And Dr. Raldi just recently put in two applications for two more CTE programs, one for pre-engineering and another for cyber security. So having four CTE programs only means more kids are going to be taking this course and this course will be part of that Bloomberg lab because of the finance portion within it. Um also the accounting, business management and marketing classes for obvious reasons will benefit from that lab as well. Uh the core lab is for the Wall Street Finance class and we're going to be doing a curriculum revision to incorporate the the new pieces of the Bloomberg um curriculum and content into it. So that'll happen over the summer before we return next year. Um as well as our AP business finance class that will be coming on board next year.
058This is history. business has never had an AP um course offered ever. So, and and not only was it never offered before, next year is the first year, it's the onset and we are right there at the forefront introducing it to our students. So, we're we're ahead of the curve. um the AP business finance class, just to give you a little background about that, a very short um description in case you're not familiar with what that that would cover. Um it's a a business and personal finance class introducing students to the knowledge and skills they'll need to grow their careers, manage money, get a head start towards uh the most popular college major in the United States. And it's developed in partnership with college faculty and industry leaders. Um it's a year-long course. uh and
059it offers students the opportunity to earn college credit and also an employer endorsed credential. So, you know, two really strong powerhouses, a Bloomberg lab and an AP business class coming into the business department for next year. We are extremely excited and as Deandra said, the smiles just you know keep growing and growing. Um, our students are extremely excited too because we've already mentioned both of these uh opportunities for them. The seniors aren't so happy. [laughter] They're saying now you're bringing it on. But, you know, for for obvious reasons, I can understand why they would be disappointed. The virtual enterprise course that we have in the department, we haven't ran that in quite a few years. Um the department is growing and um this year we brought on Skyler and she's our newest addition and she's
060doing a wonderful job and we're happy to have her. Um and we expect the department to continue to grow for all of these reasons with the the lab, the AP business course and just in general we we as of right now we can't satisfy all of the um enrollment demand for a department. So hopefully we will see that grow as well and I think it's inevitable with what we have going on here. The Bloomberg market concept certification as Deodra said that is industry recognized. So another piece of ammunition that our students are leaving the high school with to support them in their endeavors in in finance and business. Um overall it bridges the business, math, economics and computer science uh through analytics and um you know once again adding all of these things at once
061in particular the lab and the AP business course um we expect our classes to be exploding. [laughter] So, thank you very much for um once again your support and your dedication to business and the department is extremely excited and we welcome this with open arms. Thank you. [applause] So, I know Miss Litman mentioned that the business department is going to take on curriculum writing over the uh in the spring and into the summer. So, just an idea of our timeline for implementation. So, the planning and approval stages, that's going on right now. We're already working our way um through all of the intimate details of how the lab is going to be set up. We're going to start doing uh curriculum and training in the spring and into the summer. And then in the summer
062of this year, our amazing facilities team is going to get into the library and really transform that space for us. We anticipate having a grand opening in September of 2026. One of the most critical conversations that we can have around any new initiative is how we are planning to fund it. Um so I want to spend some time paying particular detail to this slide. Um in three village our technology department employs a zerobased budgeting process every year. What does that mean? Well we simply don't carry over the numbers from the previous year. Instead we have to start from zero. Every software license, subscription, and system is reviewed line by line and married up to changes in district priorities, instructional goals, staffing, and program needs. These are items that are consistently in flux, and we need
063to reanalyze them every single year. This approach ensures that every dollar we spend is purposefully aligned to district goals. It keeps our technology ecosystem lean, current, and cost-effective, which allows us to build transformative projects like a Bloomberg lab. Construction, as I mentioned, is going to be completed inhouse. The furniture donation is clearly going to offset some of the fees that we would anticipate. [snorts] But one of the most exciting collaborations that we have coming up is with the National Art Honor Society. they have become begun brainstorming mural ideas for inside of the lab. So I just love the idea that our art students who may not be so focused on business are really going to get an opportunity uh to interface with this lab and see it as a part of their own. Um this
064will give the space a real vibrant studentdriven identity for three village by three village. Um, so in closing, the finance lab for us, it really represents more than just a new space. It's going to be a transformation in how we teach students financial literacy and how we prepare them for the world that they're going to inherit. Our students are going to gain the skills and confidence to interpret data, make informed decisions, and think like analysts. Most importantly, we are fulfilling a need that our students are clamoring for. So, thank you for your continued support as we move forward with this exciting initiative for both Ward Melville and the future of business education here in Three Village. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you both very much. That was terrific and yes, very exciting. Hard not to
065smile. Any questions from the board? >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Oh, wait. Wait a second. No. next. >> No, you're not. >> So, we want to thank you, M. Ruben Shrunk, for your work with this and thank Dr. Scari and Dr. Analdi for your support as well and all the business teachers. There was a time in three three village where we had eight business teachers at W Melville High School and a chairperson for the department and that number went down significantly. Miss Miss Chzn and I were hired together back in 1996. Uh, and uh we we from going along a long time, she's aged much better than I have uh with all the stuff going on. She was the last one left 14 years ago when I came back here
066to three village and we've built the department back up with all the additional staff we have and we really appreciate that. This department is ever expanding. 40% of our students at W Melville High School wind up going off for business as a major at college. So, this is an opportunity to give them the chance to see what the future of the industry might be like and perhaps before they leave high school and go spend $400,000 of their parents' money, figure out if really they want to do that major or not. So, this is a great opportunity for all of our students. We thank all of you for your hard work. >> Yep. >> It's been a lot of fun. We've enjoyed it. >> Just add one sentence. I'm so excited we're pro we're launching this
067program. I mean, stock market is not about gambling. is knowledge of mass and how you understand economy and the growing of business. I really love our student having this opportunity. Thank you. >> And Dr. Lee is going to help me with my portfolio at the end of the night. [laughter] >> She's who I would invest with too. >> There you go. >> Well, thank you again. >> Thank you. >> All right. We're going to move on now to 6D on our agenda. Uh as you saw, Mr. Vizo, who is the chair of our facilities committee, is unable to be here this evening, but Dr. Kerman who sits on that committee will give us a brief report of the last meeting. >> Well, the last meeting we did have a uh report about um uh the
068facilities committee. Our facilities has been doing very very well. We've been fixing everything up and doing everything well and making and keep making sure that our buildings are safe for the students and staff and everybody else. Uh number one, uh we just passed our fire inspection and everything was wonderful with the fire inspection. that's all passed and we'll be working on um other things like the NASA cake parking lot and the uh Arrowhead parking lot and those things and most importantly though we are presenting a we'll be talking about presenting a bond issue at our next election and the bond will take care of a lot of the uh issues that will um build our buildings back again to where they are because our buildings are getting older and we need we need to keep
069them safe and built and we're doing that and everything is doing very very well. Jason's doing great and uh and we're doing very very well. So that's the facilities committee report. Everything is doing going well. >> Thank you so much. Well, if ever there was a softball toss there it was. Mr. Carlson is going to talk to us now about the bond. >> [clears throat] >> Uh so uh at the last meeting I went over uh in some detail about our plans for the bond days and why we're we're doing it, why we're looking at it. Uh so um to there was a question from uh from the board um about well the the uh bond that we were uh recommending and and we worked with the bond committee for about a year um and
070the recommendation from the bond committee uh which was unanimous was to go the entire amount which came out to it's it's about $123 million. That was a recommendation from the bond committee and that would be our recommendation. Um, that's a it's a lot of money, of course. Uh, and there was a question uh from from the board about, well, what would it look like if it were under $100 million? So, I'll I'll talk about that tonight and then uh take any questions. So, so the kind of projects that we're looking at doing in this bond are it's um not exactly uh a lot of fun stuff. There's no additions to buildings. It's it's mostly uh major repair type work. As Dr. Kerman mentioned, our buildings are getting older. Uh they're expensive to maintain. If you
071know anything about school construction and things like prevailing wage laws and Wix laws for for uh public works uh construction projects, they cost very much. Uh it's just something we have to deal with and it's just the way it is. Uh so these are the kind of projects that we're looking at doing. Uh, as I mentioned, the total is about $123 million. That includes the cost of construction, the architect's fees, engineering fees. We have construction manager. Uh, now I say construction manager. So, we have a director of facilities. We have, of course, uh, Mr. Blau knows a lot about this kind of uh, work too. I'm around to oversee, but with this amount of work, um, unfortunately the way it works with, you know, it goes out to bid, right? So, we we have we
072go with the lowest it's called lowest responsible bidder. Uh but unfortunately, we have to keep our eye on every single contractor because uh you know, they they're going to try to make money. Uh we can't just like at at home where we might say, "Oh, I have to put a roof in my house." And and you and I are friends and you say, "Oh, I have the best roofer ever. Here's who you should use." And I said, "Oh, okay." And I can call them and I can call someone else and I can go back and say, "Well, they you said 20,000 for my roof. I got someone else who said they could do it for 18. Will you do it for 18?" And you say, "Yeah, I'll do it for 18." We're not allowed to
073do that. That might make sense for all of us to do at home. We're not allowed to do that. That's against the law. I go to jail. I'm not doing that. Um, so we're we're just not allowed. So goes out to bid. It's a sealed bid. We open the bids. It's it's public. Anybody can attend. uh and whoever the low bidder is, as long as they're, as I mentioned, the word is lowest responsible bidder, they have to be able to do the work. Um, uh, then they get the project. So, what we have to do is we have to keep an eye on them. So, we have to pay a construction manager. Uh, also I mentioned the Wix law. with the Wix law is we have to do separate contracts for general construction, plumbing, um,
074uh, electrical, uh, heating, ventilation, air conditioning. They all have to be separate contracts. We would, for the most part, we would never do that at home. You would hire a contractor. They would do all of the work. If they need to sub out, if they call an electrician or call in a plumber, that's on them. Uh, we're not allowed to do that. we have to do separate contracts and it's up to us to keep an eye on all of them and make sure they're coordinated. So that's why we use a construction management. So uh and so that's that's included in the fee. Uh there are a lot of environmental testing, those sort of things. Uh and then unforeseen conditions cuz just like at home we might be working on something and it turns out there's
075whatever I don't know digging and oh there's a wire there. Oh no, that's going to cost more. Those kind of things happen. So that all has to be included in in our estimates. Uh and because this work would take several years to complete. Uh starting with the state approval process of projects, how long that takes, we have to put an inflation factor in. We don't know how much prices will go up by the time we're actually going out to bid on these projects. So that's all included in that $123 million. So, when we do a bond, I talked about this last time, uh, we can do all of the work within a short period of time and pay it off over a number of years, just like at home, you might take out a home
076equity loan to to do major work on your house. Uh, but here's why that's a uh an extra benefit to us. When we do uh capital projects, whether it's through a bond or through the budget, we get building aid on that six. In our case, every school district's aid ratio it's called, is a little different. uh and our aid ratio is 66%. Meaning for all of the construction projects that we do, the state reimbures us 66% of the cost. So think about that. If you if somebody on doing work at your house, somebody else was paying twothirds of the cost, you'd probably do a lot more work on on your house, right? So that's a great deal for us. Uh so that the state will pay uh 66% of the cost, but they pay that
07766% over 15 years. If we lay all the money out at once, they'll pass the 66% but over 15 years. If we do a bond and pay the bond off over those 15 years, we get the building aid over those same 15 years. So, that works out nicely. Um, and I say 15 years, there are some types of projects where uh building aid is paid out over 20 years or 30 years, but the type of work that we're that would be like new construction kind of thing. We're not talking about that kind of work. So the work that we're talking about doing on our buildings uh repairs, renovations, refurbishments are uh 15 years the aid is uh paid to us. So by doing it as a bond, it matches up when we're paying the money
078out to the same year we're getting the two/irds back from the from the um state department. Now you might say, well, but when you borrow money, you pay interest. That's true, but we get that 66% on the interest as well. So the annual cost for a $123 million bond, the annual debt service, meaning bond payments, principal and interest that we would be paying in once it's takes a couple of years to phase in, which I'll talk about in a second, uh would be, and I used a 3 and a half% interest rate, which is about what it would be now. Uh 10,660,000 would be the amount that we put in the budget. However, in those same years, we'll be getting back a little more than $7 million in building aid in the form of state
079aid. So, that makes the local share, meaning what the three village taxpayers would have to pay uh towards that 3,624,000 uh per year for the for the 15 years. That's an average cost per household for the average uh average home in Three Village of $275 per year. Now, if it were under 100 million and and we put together a list of projects that would get it down to about $98 million, the annual debt service would be just under 8.5 million uh with annual building aid of 5.6 million, leaving the local share a little under $2.9 million a year and the average cost per household is $219. So, the difference between those is $56 uh a year, which $4.67 a month. There's the difference between those. So the phase in of the debt service, right? Debt
080service meaning the bond payments of a $123 million bond. So the first year, let's say the bond passes, first year, meaning next school year, we would add about $1.5 million in debt service. We'll get about $500,000 in building aid that first year. There's always a bit of a lag when the building aid starts as to when the debt service starts. Uh which would give a net tax levy increase next year of about a million dollars. Now keep in mind just like in a capital project uh debt service payments are exclusions from the tax cap. That doesn't mean we don't have to pay for it, but what that means is it doesn't take the place of something else in the budget. We talk about that all the time. If we want to add something to the
081budget, something because of the tax cap, something else has to come out. Not when we're talking capital projects or debt service. That actually increases the cap dollar for dollar. Uh so then the second year, the debt service would go up to about 4 and 3/4 million. Building aid would go up to about 2.5 million, meaning the net levy increase in the second year of about 1 and a4 million. Same the third year. And then the fourth year it's finally full fully phased in the all of the debt service, all of the building aid. And we would see that net last year, the fourth year, the net levy increase of the 124,000. From that point to the uh when we get to the end of the bond, it there's no no change in the in the
082annual uh debt service, building aid, or levy for for this bond. And that 98 million, same first couple years, the same thing. uh it just it just we get to the total a little sooner. If you look at the bottom right, the net levy increase in the fourth year actually goes down a little bit because there, as I mentioned, there's a little bit of a lag between when the building aid start the debt service payment start and the building aid starts. So, so when the building aid finally catches up, uh it it lowers that net levy increase. Uh yeah, it lowers the net tax levy a little bit in that fourth year and then it would continue on which so I know this is kind of hard to read on here but uh if you
083this is just taking our current current now I'll post this we'll post this on the website so anybody can look uh but this takes our current uh bonds that we have outstanding right now we have about as of June 30th of 2025 it was about $53 million in outstanding bonds bonds uh and this is the debt service of those existing bonds. Now you see um we have a big chunk of bonds being paid off in the year uh 2030 uh then again in 2032 and then the remainder of it in 2034. That's what we have in place right now. Now, if we [clears throat] were to add the $123 million bond to this, you could see, or I know you probably can't see, but I'll post this on the on the our website so every
084anybody can look more. Uh, but now I've added the current debt service to the the debt service for the 123 million dollar bond. The middle column is net tax levy. Add those together. And then the column on the right is the change in the tax levy yeartoear. So you see for the first few years there's an increase in the tax levy as this new bond phases in but then in the year 2030 we see the tax levy go way down because that's our 2007 bond being finished paid off. So the levy for that would go down. So uh and then we have the same thing for the $98 million bond and we still have that same reduction in 2030. Um and so the so the the difference between those two um now this might be
085a little easier to read. This is this is taking the same information just the net tax levy for the two the $123 million and the 98 million. Uh you see the difference between those two. Now the now the difference is because on under the one we we're doing $25 million uh more construction. This is the change in the tax levy compared those the two amounts the 123 million and the 98 million. Um so until that that's for the life of the uh the bond the 15-ear life of it. Uh so to get under 100 million what would we do? These are the kind of reductions that we would put in place uh at the element and and all of these. We're not saying we don't need to do these projects. We're saying we need to
086do all of them. However, the question was, what would we recommend come out to get it under $100 million? So, these are projects that we would still want to do, need to do, plan on doing, uh, but could would have we these would be the best ones to pick to wait another couple of years. Now, our plan would be once we've especially come 2030 when we see that uh one bond being paid off, add that money into capital projects and even along the way each year increase capital projects in the budget a little bit each year. We only have $1.5 million in capital projects in our budget right now. So, we would like to uh add add to that. We used to have 6.6 6 million a year in capital projects and then in 2021
087when the budget failed that goes down to zero. So now we're trying to build it back up. Uh because our buildings are getting older. We need that money in the budget. We've had in the last two years we've had $4 million worth of emergency building repairs uh at Sata and NASA. Um so we we need the money in the budget. So if we were going to do a budget under $und00 million, these are the kind of things that we would recommend coming out of the budget. In some cases, just reducing the elementary schools with the ceiling replacements, we just wouldn't do as much. Uh they can wait another couple of years if needed. Julius and Murphy, bathroom renovations, science room renovations, tennis courts. We're not saying they're not important, don't need to be done, but
088if if something needed to wait another couple of years, that could be it. Uh Ward Melville bathroom renovations, the pavement and sidewalks at Ward Melville could use to be done, but if we're going to pick a school that gets delayed on that, that would be it. Julian, we don't have anything for paving and sidewalks because we did that just before CO. Um but the rest of the schools, the paving, the parking lots are are in bad shape. And security, we're not taking everything out, just reducing the amount that we have in there. uh if we were to go under $100 million, as I mentioned, the recommendation from us is to go with the full $123 million um amount. So, the decision for the board to make, do we do the 123 million or reduce it
089to under hundred million uh and then do you want to do one proposition or two? So the way that would work could work number of ways but one one way it could work is first proposition is the $98 million and then as a separate proposition the other $25 million and generally the way those are worded it would say proposition two can only pass if proposition one also passes. So you can't say, "Well, I'm okay with the 25 million, but not not the 98 million." Only if the first 98 million passed, then the other 25 million pass. That's one another way to do it. Um there um there was also some discussion uh we had had going back to last year about having a separate proposition where we would have some of the air conditioning uh
090um improvements that are being included in this bond as a separate proposition along with the artificial turf for the football field at Ward Mobile High School included in a separate proposition. But then uh this past year during the budget time the New York state passed a law um uh uh saying that any uh student occupied space once it reaches 88 degrees cannot cannot be occupied uh student uh used by students. So the air conditioning isn't so much a luxury anymore. It's more of a necessity. So our recommendation is not to go have that as a separate proposition. But if that's something that the board uh would want to consider with something like the artificial turf football field, certainly that's that's up to the board's uh you know it's it's up to you to do that
091if you would want to. Uh and then the final scope um is is would you go with our recommendation for as I said the the full amount or reduced amount? If we are with the reduced amount, would you be okay with the the um the reductions that we said? And then the date of the referendum itself. Uh we're recommending menmending uh Tuesday, January 20th. Uh seems like it would be a good day. Um it's far enough away from the holidays. Uh G still gives us all the time we need for the legal notices uh and all of that. And uh we would know the results in time for preparing next year's budget either passes or it doesn't pass. Uh it would be very helpful to know that uh going into the budget season. Uh so
092what we would be asking uh of you if you're ready to not to vote tonight uh but if you're ready to make a a decision one way the other we can have that on for the November 5th board meeting for the official vote to call for the bond referendum. So that's all I had for for this and but of course I'll be glad to take any questions. >> Great. So we open up for questions. No questions. >> Got the best part. Oh. >> Oh, got pictures. All right. So, um, right. Is there a slideshow on this? Where's the slideshow? Where am I looking at? Where's the slideshow? Nick was hiding. Okay, thanks. All right, [snorts] so uh there was a uh request for some pictures. Now, uh, Denise and Jason have already been going around
093taking pictures of these things to put together, um, uh, to put on our website and to show, uh, everybody that the kind of work we're looking at. So, so this isn't the the the finished product of the slideshow that we'll do, but there was a request to see some pictures tonight. So, so we put this together. Uh, one of the things that's in in in our uh, scope of projects is Koopa repairs. And you can see when you look at them, when you look at them from a distance, they might say, "Oh, that looks nice." Then you get up close uh and um you know, you can see they're they're just not in great shape. So, uh Mr. Kostas, one of our uh technology teachers who's a he's a ACE drone pilot, uh he took
094these uh pictures. So, uh he was on our bond committee also. So, I'll just I'll just go through the pictures. I mean, you see some of our coupoopas, the kind of condition they're in, and they're just they're so high up, our crew can't get up there to to do this. So, uh, what we would do in in in uh refurbishing these, we would use um some sort of like a synthetic uh material that that will last long after we're all gone. It'll still be in in good shape. Um, so, so I'll just I'll just breeze through these. See the these are some of the the areas in the koopas. Um, you see the birds left their mark up there. Uh, just get through these. So, now we get into the the boiler rooms. We could
095see I know sitting there watching you might be I don't even know what I'm looking at, but you can see like here some of the old valves and piping. We replace them. Uh, our guys can replace them, but they can't replace all of them at once. Uh, it takes time and they're expensive to replace. Uh, so we were, but they're getting older and older. On the left side, that's one of our original electrical panels, original to the building. Um, and you know, again, just like at home, the stuff doesn't last forever. some more of the valves and and piping in our heating systems. They start to rust and and we can only do so much. Eventually, they just have to be replaced and and a lot of them have been replaced, but there's there's there's
096a number of them more that that are in need of replacing. [snorts] So, I'll just keep zipping through these. Oh, that was in our pool uh pool machinery room as well as this uh pool room at the high school. Um, you can see a lot of these, they're just just getting old. I mean, some of our our walkways. Um, like at at I think this is at the either Julen or Murphy. I forget which. I think this at Murphy, but anyway. Um, you see the slate. Slate looks nice, but then it starts to break apart. Um, what we did like for for instance at Mount Mount was like this a few years ago, and then we replace that all with a stamped concrete, and it it still looks great. uh some of our parking lots.
097This was a trenching that PSCG did and it it you know you see some of the this actually this is NASA egg. This is this this parking lot is being redone. Uh it will be the work will be done next summer. That's in in the current year's capital projects, but that's that's probably the worst one we have. If you've ever driven in that entrance. Um so there's a Murphy. Uh so it's a lot of a lot of parking lots, sidewalks need repair. Uh then we get up onto some of the roofs. There's some work here. Some student bathrooms. So uh when I said, you know, some of the reductions that we would make if we go under $und00 million would be we would reduce the number of bathrooms uh to be done. Not that we
098don't need to do them, but if we needed to put some projects on hold for a couple of years, uh some of those could be. Uh but as you can see they need now the masonry uh it's a lot of masonry repointing. You can see some of the gutters gutters and sophets and [snorts] fascia all need to be redone. If you want to see nice go to Gelenus we did when we did the paving sidewalks gutters sophets fascia all at Gelenus uh and it came out beautiful and then co hit and then the budget failed and Murphy was going to be next and then we just we weren't able to do it because the budget failed. Uh so here's the tennis courts at Ward Mobile High School. We you see the patching the repairing and
099it just they're just getting old and are going to need to be replaced. That's t old tennis courts. [clears throat] The uh uh grandstands um there's the press box at Ward Millville and the grandstands too are just not in great shape and they're not big enough for what we need either. I don't know if it's because the football team is so much better now than it used to be, but we get big crowds. Um, so, um, that's all in a press box and it just gets it's kind of rickety in there and that needs to be replaced. This is the the bleachers in the pool area at Ward Melville. These would all be redone. Um in the in the 2007 bond we put in a de pool dehumidification system at the high school in the
100pool area which still works well. This is um here this is at Minnesota. This is Lake Mini uh at Missaki uh gets flooding a lot. [snorts] Um so we want to Oh, that was Yeah. Oh, you can see some of the sandbags. Um so a lot of the the drainage type work. This is that NASA keg on the right side. That's the loading dock. This is where when we had the flooding uh year and a half ago when Harbor Road got um washed out that same night we had we had so much flooding and that just funneled all in there and it now we have watertight doors there now. Um but that was oh that was awful. So our plan in this bond just fill that whole loading dock and we don't need it as
101a loading dock anymore. It acts as a funnel right into the building. So, uh, we would fill that whole whole thing in. Uh, you see some of the fencing masonry. Oh, and that's it. Fencing. >> Just to mention, you know, that that was one of the three once in a century storms that we had. >> Yeah. >> So, that hit us with the uh over 10 inches of water um going into that area. So, and that building was scheduled to not be up and ready for 3 months. And it was from the hard work from our team here that got it back up within a matter of four weeks. So we were very lucky. They were still doing work while students were coming in but with some of the heating systems. But as far as
102all the buildings we have, all the electrical panels in NASA keg are all new. So when we hear of people that say we'll close that school based on what? Because that's the that building is in better shape than most of the other ones. The Kooplas are beautiful. They we like it keeps the colonial style of our buildings, but they were all built out of wood and something with the northeast 60-y old wood doesn't seem to last, especially when it's just painted. So, we have a lot of work to do up there. The high school Koopa is literally about 75 ft off the ground, Jason. So, we can't even get a lift up that high to do it. It has to be scaffold. Um, and I wouldn't send any of our folks up there in its
103present condition. So, we we really need to be careful what what we're expecting our folks to be able to do and what we have to look through more experienced and trained contractors that have uh can do this work. >> Yep. >> Okay. And that's the end of the picture show. >> All right. So, now I open it up to questions. >> Just quick question. So, Jeff, you mentioned that we had two emergency um repair of the elementary school ceiling. So if we reduce those ceiling repairment planned um above the 100 billion would we end up with any of those costy emergency repairs? >> Well that's ceiling so like ceiling tiles so that that generally wouldn't result in an emergency. Um not roof roof roofing we didn't touch in the reductions to get under $100 million.
104The ceiling replacement is like the ceiling tile replacement. Um, we would keep all of the roofing work still in the bond. >> Okay, good to know. Thank you. >> If we don't repair the roof though, the ceiling tiles are still going to leak. >> So, we're going to keep replacing them one after another, bad, good after bad perpetually. So, and that's what we've been doing right now. And every one of the buildings has leaks. >> Jeeoff, so when we asked you to take a look at the reduction, you identified a number of things at each of the schools to reduce it. In your estimate, do you think these will last like they'll they'll last 5 six years? And the reason I asked that is the way you've currently laid out the debt servicing, that's when
105we get the first reason will drop because you know the retirement of a previous bond. >> Are these things going to hold that long? Because if they don't and any of these come up between now and 5 years, we're going to be taking that as a capital, you know, out of that year's budget to get fixed. >> That that would be correct. Yeah. and and I can't say, "Oh, sure, no problem." Uh because we didn't know we were going to have the Nata cake flooding until we had it and we didn't know the target roof was going to fall until it happened. Um so um by by including these and doing the full amount what at least that would do for us e and either way our recommendation is to continue increasing our annual capital
106projects budget uh line within the budget. So if something were to come up as an emergency, there's capital money for it. It's not well now we have to pull money out of reserves to do that. There's there's money set aside. Um uh ultimately it would be great to set up a capital reserve where where we've done all the projects that we need to and we keep some money in the annual budget whether whether it be 2 million, 4 million, 6 million that we're not even spending. We're putting away into a capital reserve. That's for down the road should an emergency happen. the money is there for we're always going to need some repairs. So, uh these are the projects that we would say have the best chance of not turning into an emergency between now
107and when we can do them. Um that doesn't mean it it can't happen, but but those would be the if if we were going to um do the smaller bond, these these are the ones we would recommend come out to do that. But but as I mentioned, our recommendation as was the bond committee's recommendation was to do all the pro keep them all within the in the in the bond to go up for the full full amount. So >> Mr. Carlson and Mr. Vizo sent a question before he left. He was asking under the security line on the bond, could you if there turned out to be an interest in metal detectors, could that go on a bond? >> That's not really an item that's good for a bond. bonds are good are are for
108um uh con construction con you know something that's going to last not just the 15 years that we pay the bond off but longer than that um think about in your house if you were you were going to do well again you know uh compared to doing okay I'm taking out a home equity loan I'm going to do uh I'm going to replace my roof I'm going to do my windows I'm going to replace this I'm going to replace that and I'm gonna buy a new TV. And maybe you don't want to buy the TV out of the home equity loan money that you're going to be paying off over the next 15 years because you're probably going to go through five TVs in that 15 years. So, um, so my recommendation would be not
109to include pieces of equipment, whether it be a metal detector or new Chromebooks in in a bond because we'll be paying that off over 15 years. >> Anyone else? Sure. Yeah. In the previous iteration of this, you had the fields and the air conditioning uh the conversion to turf um and the air conditioning as a separate option. >> Correct. >> The air conditioning is now being included in this entire package. >> Correct. >> Is the field still being held as a separate option? Are you choosing to include it? Well, our recommendation is um if if the the items that that we're listing as the potential reductions to get under $und00 million, the reason I didn't put the uh artificial turf field into that list is because the the list of potential reductions are still projects
110we're we're planning on doing just maybe a couple of years down the road. So, if our intention is to to replace the grass football field with an artificial turf football field, we should do it at the time we're doing all the other work there because included in the bond is redoing the track, um redoing the track and field events, the grand stands, both home and visitor side, the press box. While we're doing all of that, if we're going to do the turf field anyway, we should do it all at the same time. Now, if the if the either the board would decide now, we don't want to do an artificial turf football field, keep it grass, well, that's a different story. Or if we had that as a separate proposition either with something else or
111by itself, either one, uh, and left it up to the voters to decide if they want the artificial turf football field. And if if that were to not pass, if then the thinking is, okay, well, we're just going to keep the grass football field, then then then that's that's fine. uh we would still do all the other work but as I said I our recommendation is if the intent is to do the artificial turf football field at some point either through this bond or through capital projects in the next whatever four or five years uh to do it all at the same time that that's why that was not on the list of reductions uh and as I mentioned with the air conditioning pieces originally we were thinking take the air condition so we have
112we have three three of the elementary school cafeterias, uh all of the uh elementary school gymnasiums and the two middle school uh gymnasiums that do not have air conditioning. That's in the Bond. Uh our original thought going back to last year was take that that could be a separate proposition along with the football field. Uh but as I mentioned because of the new state regulation with uh not being able to use a uh uh student space if it's 88 degrees uh there there are days and I mean you see how warm it's been even lately in late October uh in September sometimes even in October and in May and June where it might get to 88 degrees in in one of the gyms or cafetiers and we can't use them. So, so it's and we
113have air conditioning in every one of our classrooms. Uh when we first did the air conditioning in the uh gymnasium at Ward Mobile High School, um the the the main driver of doing that was because we have the the um the prom there every year. Um and you have, you know, especially the classes back then. I mean, we had, you know, close to 700 uh kids in a graduating class at Ward Mobile back then. you have all of those uh people in the gym on a hot night late in June, it gets hot. So, we would have we brought in portable air conditioning for the one night and it cost about $15,000 for the one night. And we do that each year. So, when we ran the numbers, it was cheaper to include the air
114air conditioning the gym in the 2014 bond and what the amount that it increased the bond by to do that, which I don't remember the number off the top of my head now. uh minus the 66% building aid. It was cheaper to do that and paid it off over 15 years than the one night of air conditioning. And now we it's air conditioned all the time and it works out great. Uh whether it be basketball games, bad mitten, volleyball, whatever it's just regular school days in there, it works out great. So So um and that's before the heat regulation. So now with that our our thinking is that should be part of the bond that the air conditioning spaces. So um >> that's that's fair and maybe somebody will educate me later but you know
115in terms of the necessity of converting this to a tur field I I suspect a long debate's gone on in it. So, >> and and and you know the the so one of the main um benefits if you want to say to having a artificial turf field is it can be used a lot. Uh with a grass field, you know, you play a football game on it. We we can't use it every day. You just you can't use a grass field every day. It tears up the field. Um so that that's that's the main benefit. It can be used all the time. There's certainly there are there are um um you know there's downsides to it, right? I mean uh more than half of the NFL teams play in grass now. The NFL players association
116is recommending that all football fields NFL fields be grass. So there's there's there's that. Um so >> that's the reason I'm asking because you know I'm not highly educated on it but looking at it, you know, on the surface most of the research seems to indicate that there significantly more injuries. there's more breathing issues on on turf fields. So, um >> yeah, we've had discussions on that and we should have another one because I'm in agreement with you. I don't think we should have turf fields at all. Um the research is there to not have them. Um but I think we all need to have a discussion on that. Um if we want to add that in or not. Um but yeah, sorry for cutting you off. >> No, no, no. I I I'm again
117I don't have the history on this so I'm bringing it up and >> yeah I think we never really discussed it in depth. It just kept being brought up every now and then every time we were talking about the bond but we should talk about it. Yes. >> Well unfortunately now is [clears throat] the time. So we don't have access to the data right but if we're trying to move this forward toward a vote at the next meeting we you know now would be the time to talk about the turf if if anybody wants to chime in on that. >> Yeah. Well, you know, first off, thank you, Jeff, and thank you to your team because you guys did a fantastic job. And, you know, as board members, we get to do walkthroughs of all
118the schools at the beginning of the school year every year. And for the last three years, we've been seeing all of these projects that have been on the bond that need to be done and the work needs to be done. Every single thing that's on the list needs to be done um to make our schools safe for our kids and to last for the next 50 years. Um you know, the issue comes down to money. Do we think it's going to pass at $123 million? Um, you know, my view is I think everything needs to be done. I would break it into two propositions. I would do your first 98 and then do the rest as a second proposition. So, if both So, if the voters want to pay for the 123, that's great. We
119have it all together and that would be fantastic. Um, I personally do not believe the turf field should be in there. Everything else I believe is fine. All right. Anyone else want to weigh in on the turf fields? Otherwise, it's going to sit for now because there's only two people who are who are voicing um interest and I do am dubious on it, but >> I am not an expert and I am not the athletic director who feels like this would add there. The costbenefit analysis made sense in his mind to include this in. Um, but Jeeoff, just to put a finer point on dollars and cents to homeowners, the difference between the 123 and the 98 to a homeowner's carrying cost is about >> the difference is about for the for the average uh
120home in Three Village, the difference is $56 a year. >> All right. Any other questions? Okay. Do we want to determine now get a straw poll amongst us if we want to go with one proposition or two? If we want to go just with the larger amount, if we want to go just with the lower amount, I open it up. >> I'll second Karen. I think having tool that our community can have a choice would be great because I I do heard a lot of comments about bathroom issues from students. >> Dr. Kman, >> I would only go with the one issue because number one, the rates of interest may go up again. It may even cost us more money. So I am in favor of one one one issue and the turf field we
121can discuss but the rest of it definitely should be done one issue. >> Dr. Back. >> So on the on the turf field when we propose the bond is that committing us that we must do the turf field within the amount or can a choice still be made after the fact? I I would I would recommend if if it goes to vote and Turfield is included and it passes and then later say nah we changed our mind that would be problematic because there might be some people vote so well that was the reason I voted for it and now you're changing your mind. So um >> okay that's that's fair. Um yeah I think that the two proposition I' I'd prefer that one give the voters some some choice. Um >> I'd probably want to
122break it up um into two propositions. One carrying the initial outlay and the postponed items, the ones you identified for the reduction >> and the turf field to be held in that second proposition. >> And can I just say one thing? If when I said if we're planning on doing the turf field anyway, it should be done at the same time. That doesn't mean it could not be done the other way around. >> So just want to make sure that that's clear. So if if if the board felt more comfortable and okay, let's go out with the the 98 million as proposition one, the 23 million, but then minus the turf field, it's proposition two. Can always then later revisit doing the turf field through capital projects. That can be done. Don't want to make
123it seem like well no no no never mind it can't be done. >> No listen if the turf field needs to be done then this is the cheapest way to do it rather than do it through a capital project separately. So if we are going to include the turf field let's just include it in the bond and get it done with. But I'd like to hold it as an option rather than make it part of the general bond because >> I agree with you Ammy. I think if we stick the turf field out of one and put it into bond into two I'm I'm fine with that. I think that's a good idea. >> Just if I may comment for a moment. So the the one commitment here from this board and perhaps future boards
124is our current capital budget is 1.5 million. It was 3 million in the proposition we brought to the board last year and it was knocked down by a million and a half to get the uh the tax increase to be below 3%. Th this is not this is not something that we can can no longer afford not to commit to. >> We must keep increasing that. Now the board has done wonderful things this board by looking at contracts in particular with different units and cost reductions to save money overall. The tax cap in of itself it's 14 units in place. Right now we're starting to see the ill effects of it where the money that districts have and there's a claim that oh districts are sitting on huge amounts of reserves. That is not the
125case for this district. In the past couple of years, we've taken $4 million, those two major issues that we had at Satan and NASA in order to pay for the damage in those things. Yes, we'll get some of that money back, but for a district this size to have a capital improvement budget of only a million half dollars is very, very shortsighted, especially with nine school buildings still in operation. And who's to say whether or not there will always be in operation? But right now, we own them and we need to maintain them. And even if we want to rent one of them, there would be an expectation that we would still have to maintain them. So those costs are only going up. So that we must make sure that there is some level of
126commitment. Understandably, with whatever is going on with the budget to look at what we're doing, the PAC's recommendations last year, we've already started doing things with the RFP with the um the real estate broker. Uh, we are looking to sell the property down on Nichols Road where the administration building sits and lease the land down on Hawkins where the Hawkins Road Elementary School was supposed to be built that was never constructed. Those are long-term plans that will assist us particularly in our reserves that we need to build up overall and the capital piece is one of those areas that I think we need to stress at this point in time. >> Yeah, Dr. Scalan, I totally agree with you. Um, you know, the bond is kind of separate from our capital funds, but there's always
127going to be an emergency and we need to make sure that we're prepared to pay for that emergency. Now, if we had $40 million in our reserves, maybe that might be a discussion. We do not. So, we need to make sure that we are well funded throughout the budget to do that and we still need to be building up that that uh line item. Absolutely. >> All right. Unfortunately, we don't get to hear from Mr. Vizo tonight, but I will just chime in with my feeling. I think these are complicated times and things are very unpredictable and we have seen that these emergencies do come up and sadly they're coming up fairly regularly. So my gut would be to do the whole thing and I hope the community will support that. However, I do think
128um the community is going to be a little offput by that number. So I I it probably does make sense to break it up into two propositions contingent one upon the other. Um and I would be okay if the turf field moved down to proposition two. All right. Right. Any other thoughts or questions on this? Okay. So, we will vote at our next meeting. All right. That's going to bring us now to uh hearing how the NISBA resolutions, which we discussed, the New York State School Boards Association resolutions. Uh Dr. Lee handled that for us. So, what was the end result of their votes? Okay. So, last Thursday around 300 school district voted on the resolution. Out of the three um uh bylaw amendment, those were not recommended by NISBA. So all three was voted
129down and then out of the 24 uh 23 recommended resolutions one was voted down. This is resolution number eight that NISBA since it was voted down so NISBA will not advocate for reducing the number of fire lockdown drills from four to two. This was only one voted down from the recommended list. Out of the 11 um not recommended list the two actually passed. One is resolution uh to resolution number 24 which um that they will advocate for the for state aid to for reorganization aid to a broader range. And then uh the last resolution number 34 was also was also passed. This is on recess time then we'll be happy. So the NISBA will advocate for mandatory implementation of daily access for all students in students that serve exclusively elementary grade levels. >> Thank you
130and thank you for all the time that you put into that. I know I don't know how you fit into your busy schedule, but we really appreciate it. So thank you very much. >> All right. Uh we'll move on to 7C now. Our former budget advisory committee soon to be something else. Dr. Scandan. >> Yes. So, we're uh we're good using all different acronyms. So, the BAC is turning into the LTPC. We're going to do a rap song about that at some point in time. Uh so, long-term planning committee. So, the we had some discussion and exec about the ideas of what what this would look like, but we wanted to bring it out to the public about the board has already established yearly goals. So, to say that we need to create a separate
131charge for a long-term planning committee is counterintuitive to what you're already doing. So that would be the recommendation is to use the board goals year-to-year as the planning piece for moving forward as we uh as we proceed with this and to then also look at doing the meetings on a quarterly basis. The interest that we wanted to see from the board is what would you like to see the solicitation to the community to look like? We normally put out an application process and if there's any special considerations you'd want us to put into that. And we'd like to try to do this sooner than later so that we begin getting at least one of the meetings perhaps off the ground before the end of this calendar year and then start the the new year fresh
132in January with another meeting early on. >> All right, we open it up to recommendations for who who should sit on this committee. I will say that I thought that the um property analysis committee worked really well because everybody had some sort of professional expertise, although it was very different. So they they kind of brought different viewpoints to the conversation, but it was really really helpful. So you know, you can look at our board goals on the wall and kind of see where we're at. So obviously people in education would be super helpful. People who are in professional planning for a living would be super helpful. Um what else? >> People who involved in long-term planning like in budgets, finance, I think that background is necessary. Um but also al also tied to education because
133to do that it's not quite a business right we follow accounting rules and things like that but this is this is there's no way really to grow revenue um so it has to be looked at with education in mind >> Dr. Lee >> um I was thinking that um so Mr. Kson had spent a lot of time answering question in the past few years. So I wonder if we can have members who had served with in the committee that may help us because they already learn a lot of information that can probably give us more constructive uh devices. Okay, anybody else? Okay, thank you so much. All right, that's going to move us on to 7D. This is our continuing conversation about the possibility of arming some of our security. Um can let the community
134know we are still working, the administration is still working on negotiating with the appropriate units as to what that might look like should that happen. Um and we open it up to continued questions and I will as you heard Mr. Vizo was asking about metal detectors. I think a lot of the community has also been asking about metal detectors. Why is or isn't that a viable option both financially and practically speaking? So, I think at perhaps a future meeting, a deeper dive into that, why why does it work in some places and it might not work here? Um, how much would it really cost? And are we really talking about just one entry per building? What what would that really look like for our own edification and for the community? I think that would be
135an important part of the conversation. And I open it up to everyone else. Do we do we have an idea like um we had reduced some of our security as part of our budget process at the beginning of the year um as we're evaluating costs. Is there an increase in staffing intended with that you know to restore that or increase that perhaps even um to provide better care. So when you're looking at depending on how we structure this, if we are if it's an armed guard in addition to the current guards, absolutely there would be an increase because you're adding at least one new person in each building, nine new positions. And then for the duration of how long throughout the day, you know, whether it's a regular school day, you you go to Ward
136Melville right now and there's still probably students there. Um so some of our buildings are still hopping. You know, the two middle schools will probably have students at them as well. So it depends on the duration of the day that we're looking at. So that will also increase cost. The the idea of the metal detectors, there's a there's a practicality to that and then there's a philosophical piece to that too. So if you've never worked in a building, a school building with metal detectors, if we're talking about a cultural shift, whereas an armed guard is not visible because the there would be a concealed weapon, no one will really know who the guard is there. Although that there there is an armed guard there, you definitely will know that there's a metal detector there. And
137as Mr. Blam has explained multiple times some of our buildings been, you know, being conducive to doing that. How many detectors would we need? We'd also need additional staff to man those stations in order to get the population in. Right now, you're talking at War Melville High School about 1,700 students attempting to come into the building at the same time, plus about over 200 faculty and staff coming in. So, that's almost 2,000 people arriving. Now certainly not all the seniors come in in first period but the majority of the students are coming in at that time. They have to funnel through typically one entrance. Uh we could expand it to two but that is going to increase cost. So we'll be happy to price all this out so the board has an a general idea
138of it. Um but from the philosophical standpoint of yes I can see where people would want oh metal detectors will be safer things will get recognized. But as Jack has mentioned, if you're putting the metal detectors in and you're not putting anything in there to stop whoever's there, what is going to happen? So if someone's coming in with a weapon, what if that weapon is drawn as they're coming up? So there's some things that worry all of us on a daily basis, and I pray that we never have to deal with these circumstances. But if we're talking about a changing of the dynamic of the culture of this community, that will certainly have it'll definitely look like a police state at that point in time. So I I understood but I I do think a
139holistic conversation about them is appropriate. So it's the money, it's the philosophy, it's the practicality, um it's all of the above so that we we can make our most intelligent decision. I think that would be helpful. >> I would also say I would like to circle back to where this conversation began which was talking about outside only because that is the direction so many districts have taken not to have guards in the building but to have a guarded presence outside of the building. And we this has been a progressive process, right? We've moved away from that. And I just think it's probably worth going back and and revisiting that again for all the same things. How much would that cost? What does it mean? What does it do to our culture? All of the implications,
140>> right? I I think for those three scenarios, outside only um the current plan that we've been talking about and um metal detectors, we just need to see the full picture of the full financial costs like true financial costs of what it's going to be and what it's going to look like. Um, so we can just make an educated decision and the public can see what these different options look like and why we are coming to whatever decision we end up coming with. So sorry for the extra work again. >> Sorry. [laughter] >> That's okay. >> Anybody else? >> All right. So >> quick one. So just echo the financial cost. Um this is uh I heard from other district who actually implemented saying that the training cost is is very large. So the resident
141actually voted for that was surprised at a very high cost of training. >> But we already gave you the cost for the plan that we were putting forward to start with. But if you just have outside guards, that's an additional cost. So not our current schools, elementary schools and middle schools don't have exclusive outside guards only. The only school that has that is the high school. So there's definitely going to be increasing costs and therefore the number of personnel you're training, it's going to increase the amount for training overall for everyone that's going to be involved. >> Understood. But just to state the obvious, this is anything but a financial decision. Right. >> Right. And I will say I think that our district does a f a fantastic job in training what the staff that
142we have now. So I kind of think that maybe they aren't at the same level of training that we are doing currently. So, I don't think it's going to be adding that much of an extra cost to train our staff because they do a pretty good job. Well, now >> what I would agree plus the factor that we also hire law enforcement that that's a big difference. Some of these districts that you're referring to, they are not hiring current or retired law enforcement. So, it's a different type of training that would have to be in place for some of those individuals. >> Okay. Anybody else? All right. So, we'll move on now to our public comment period. We do have one and then we have some emails that were sent in. Uh could we ask
143Jean Brunson to come up to that microphone, please? [clears throat] Thank you. Um I'm Gene Brunson. I have children at Arrowhead and W Melville. I appreciate that our board works very hard and must make a lot of difficult decisions. I'm here tonight to talk about what should be an easy one, rejecting the proposal to arm our security guards. I'm here because I don't understand why we're even still discussing this. The available research shows that arming school security makes injuries more likely, not less. It increases the odds of an accident, of authorized weapons falling into the wrong hands, or a person harmed because they're wrongly perceived as a threat due to a disability or miscommunication. And should there actually be a crime involving a weapon, we'd be potentially adding friendly fire to an already chaotic and
144dangerous situation. Ironically, while making our children less safe, such a step would give the false impression that they are more safe. It is my understanding based on previous comments by this board and district personnel uh that Mr. Blum and our three village security team as well as our safety plan implementation are so highly regarded that they have been held up as an exemplar for other districts to study. I can also tell you that every security guard who has worked with me or my children in three village has been friendly, welcoming, and supportive. And they go out of their way to try to get to know each and every one of our kids. That is the kind of approach that helps prevent school violence. We have, of course, as a district, taken reasonable precautions like security
145cameras, hardening the entrances with security vestibules, and implementing sensible protocols for visitors. We could have a legitimate discussion about whether any further measures are required. For example, I don't personally think our schools need metal detectors, but that is more of a costbenefit question as they aren't likely to make our kids any less safe. There is hard evidence, however, which I and others have shared with this board multiple times before demonstrating that putting guns in our schools does make schools less safe. Why are we even remotely considering an option that would have the opposite of its intended effect? Two words, safety theater. It's the appearance of safety at the cost of actual safety and it could wind up costing lives. As an alum and lifelong resident of this district, I've always felt that data, evidence, and
146science were valued here, and I very much feel that with this board, the way you speak about finding the right data before making your decisions. I I very much appreciate that. If you follow the available science and you care about true safety, as I believe you do, you have only one choice. Don't sacrifice safety and pretend you've made our kids safer. Say no to safety theater. Say no to armed security and instead continue to place our confidence in our highly trained, highly skilled security professionals. Thank you. >> Thank you. And now we have eight correspondents I will read until we run out of time. This is from Stephanie Wernern. As you continue to debate the latest three village talking point, armed security, it is paramount for all those involved to truly consider the repercussions that
147supersede a change of this magnitude. Adding guns to any environment where children are the main inhabitants generates a legitimate risk to their safety. Consideration must be given to the multitude of research and real life occurrences which have proven that armed security has never thwarted a violent act on a school campus. They have in fact added to the chaos and carnage in sensing the perpetrators to cause more harm. There have been several physical altercations, mostly on the secondary campuses of Three Village, where response times by school security has been questionable at best. Perhaps improvements can be made in these situations where the only arms involved are those attached to the fists that are being swung before we contemplate adding loaded weapons to the mix. Guns have no place in or around our schools, no matter what
148law enforcement training the individuals may have. If niche.com can name us the number two district in the country, the county, sorry, and school safety is one of the benchmarks, then I dare to speculate that our current system is more than capable of protecting those in our schools and on our campuses. Shaky trigger responses to non-existent threats are not acceptable in any situation, particularly one of this magnitude. Keep the guns away from our schools. The next is from Melissa Caposio. I'm writing to respectfully urge you to act in accordance with the clear will of our community regarding the implementation of armed security personnel in our schools. Both the parent and staff polls conducted by the district show that a majority of respondents support this measure. In [snorts] addition, the district's head of security, the professional we
149employ who is most qualified to assess safety risks, has formally recommended moving forward with implementation. These facts together demonstrate strong alignment between the community, the staff, and district leadership. As representatives elected to serve the best interest of the students, families, and employees in our district, I ask that you honor this consensus by supporting the recommendation. I understand there are vocal groups who oppose this measure. However, [snorts] their voices, while heard, should not outweigh the clear majority of parents, teachers, and safety experts who have spoken through data and professional assessment. [snorts] The role of the board is to reflect the values and priorities of the broader community, not to yield to pressure from who speaks the loudest. Our community has expressed what it believes is best for the safety of our children and staff. I encourage
150you to demonstrate leadership by following the evidence, the expert guidance, and the democratic will of those you represent. Uh, this is from Andrew Brunson. I am aware that the district is considering the implementation of armed guards on school grounds. I write to express my strong opposition to this course of action. As a parent in the district with two children in the schools, I value [snorts] their safety and the safety of their classmates and teachers above all else. It has been proven time and time again that bringing weapons into any environment reduces the safety of all involved. There's simply no evidence that armed security provides any benefits at all. I hope the board will consider the weight of the overwhelming scientific evidence when making decisions that could negatively impact the safety of all of the district
151staff and students. Um the next is from Jennifer Casy. I'm writing to urge you not to adopt a policy of arming the three village security staff as a solution for school safety. First, there is no persuasive empirical evidence that arming school staff deters school shootings or makes school safer. Second, introducing more firearms into a school environment creates additional pathways for harm. Having guns on campus makes us a target for people with mental disease who are seeking out suicide by officer. Third, there is a misbelief that everyone will know how to successfully and safely fire a gun once armed and given some training. Fourth, arming staff can complicate and slow law enforcement response. For these reasons, I respectfully recommend to the board, number one, reject policies to arm and train security personnel. Number two, invest in
152secure, non-weaponized physical and procedural protections, parenthetically, entry control, visitor screening, clear emergency communications, and parenthesis. and in community programs that reduce firearm access to children. Parenthetically, safe storage outreach. I appreciate the board's desire to protect our children. That shared goal is why I urge you to use these policies that reduce risk rather rather than policies that introduce new measurable dangers without reliable evidence. Next is Maria Fulkerson. As a parent of four children in this district, I'm deeply concerned about the idea of allowing firearms in our schools. Whether in the hands of teachers, administrators, or security staff, [snorts] I know that everyone involved shares the same goal, keeping our children safe. But adding guns to the school environment would do the opposite. The risks are simply too great. Research supports this concern. A 2019 report from
153the Gfords Law Center to prevent gun violence found that armed security in schools does not reliably prevent shootings and can in some cases make dangerous situations worse. Likewise, a 2021 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that schools with armed staff or resource officers were no less likely to prevent shootings or reduce casualties when violence did occur. Beyond the data, the presence of firearms would create fear and anxiety among students and staff, undermining the sense of safety and trust that school should provide. Many parents, including myself, have children who already struggle with anxiety. For those students, knowing there are guns in their school could make it extremely difficult or even impossible for them to feel safe enough to attend. There are far better ways to keep our schools secure. investing in mental health support,
154improving communication and emergency systems, and building stronger relationships between students, staff, and law enforcement. Because of this, I will not be able to support or vote for any school budget that includes funding for firearms or policies allowing them in our schools. Thank you for listening and for your ongoing commitment to keeping our schools safe for every child. Next is from Lucille Huda. I'm writing she was a grandmother, a lifelong member of this community and someone who has always believed in supporting our schools. I have voted yes on every three village school budget for decades, even after my own child graduated and even now living on a fixed income in retirement. I've [snorts] always done so because I believe in our teachers, our students, and in what our school represents. But I want to say this
155very plainly. If this district ever adopts a policy that allows armed guards or anyone else to carry guns on our school campuses, I will no longer be able to support those budgets. The idea of introducing guns into the same buildings where my grandchildren learn and play is deeply upsetting to me. Our schools should be safe havens, places where children feel protected and loved, not places where firearms are part of the daily environment. I understand and share the concern for safety. Every parent and grandparent does. But adding guns will not make our children safer. It will only increase the chances of a tragic mistake, an accident, or a moment of fear turning into something irreversible. I trust our educators and administrators. They work miracles every day with patience, compassion, and professionalism. But asking them or anyone
156to carry weapons in our schools is not the answer. Three villages always stood for community care and common sense. I urge the board to hold true to those values. Please do not allow a firearms to become part of our schools. Um, this is from Jackie Gazdigian. I'm a parent of a kindergartener at Masaki. My son's experience with the district has been fantastic. His pre-K and kindergarten teachers are excellent and it's clear why students are thriving in the district. I do however have grave concerns about adding firearms to our children's educational environment. My previous comments on this issue focused on the ineffectiveness of arming guards, the increased cost of the district, the fact that funds should be redirected toward increasing counseling services, the risk of harm to children, the potential stigma and decrease in ratings and
157property values, and the lack of training for existing security guards. This evening, I'd like to focus on the lack of transparency from the board on what proposals the board is actually considering. I recognize that for security reasons, it may not be possible to reveal specific details of the board's plans, but I believe the parent community needs more information. I would ask the board to answer the following questions. Number one, is the board planning to give firearms to every existing security guard in all levels, elementary, middle, and high school? Number two, will the district be providing firearms or allowing security guards to bring their own weapons? Three, will the district require training and who will pay for that training? Who will conduct that training and what will the training consist of? Four, will the district be
158hiring new security personnel or arming existing personnel? Five, has the board considered alternatives that other schools across the country have considered, such as having one designated security person have access to a firearm that they keep in a secure location? Could this security person maintain their post in a vehicle outside the school? or B only allowing a single armed security person at the high school but not for the middle or elementary schools. C concealing any firearm so that it is not visible to students as they enter the school or are escorted by security guards. D concealing any firearm on school grounds in a safe as opposed to allowing guards to keep firearms on their person. To be clear, I am strongly against the board bringing any firearms into our schools. But when considering any proposal to
159arm guards, I believe the board must choose the option that poses the least amount of risk or harm to our children's physical safety and to our children's educational environment. One of my biggest concerns, which is shared by many parents, is that the board will inadvertently create an environment of fear. For example, my 5-year-old recently missed the bus, so my husband drove him to school. He was pleasantly greeted by the security guard at the main entrance where his identity was confirmed. Then, a security guard walked my son into the school and to the nurse so that he could get a note for class. >> [snorts] >> The thought of that same exchange happening with a security guard with a gun on their hip is horrifying. No parent wants to hand over their child to a person
160with a gun, whether they work for the district or not. And the last is from Andrea Pauly. I thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion on the matter of arming the security guards in our school. While survey results from the community show that many of those who responded are in favor of armed guards, I would like to request that the board vote against that option. There is a difference between feeling safe and actually being safe. And unfortunately, the research on the benefit of resource officers and armed guards is inconclusive with some of the more recent studies arguing that there's no real evidence that arming security makes school safer. [snorts] In fact, a University of Albany and Rand study found that while armed guards did reduce some school violence such as fights, threats, and
161physical attacks, they didn't prevent gun violence. That study along with one from the University of Wisconsin Madison and another from the University of Florida also found that armed resource officers meant an increase in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests, especially among black students and students with disabilities. This runs the risk of increased policing rather than increased protection. And I do think is this is what we want to avoid, a change in our school culture. Even if the district chose to arm current guards whom students already know, the learning environment would change with the presence and knowledge of the presence of firearms. Having had a front row seat at board meetings for years, I watched the board and administration take on the issue of student, faculty, and staff safety. You have been proactive, comprehensive, and often ahead of
162the curve. So, it makes sense and is responsible to consider all options, even this. But the measures that the district has been putting in place over the last 16 years are not nothing. from the development of a robust security plan, target hardening, safety drills, a focus on mental health, and building a team of mental health professionals. In addition to the recent installation of AI weapons detection software, Three Village has been taking the right steps. We all want our students, faculty, and staff to be safe. And though there may be different opinions about how to ensure this, I do appreciate the board and the administration giving stakeholders a voice. And so I'll add mine to those who have already spoken and say that I want the board to vote against arming the district security guards. And
163that concludes our public comment. So we will move on now to item 10. Typically Mr. Mistki, our attorney, would be here for this, but in his absence we will turn it over to Miss Ruffley, our policy chair. Hi. Um right now on [clears throat] first read, we have six policies. Um so if everybody can take a look at them. um let me know if there's any questions. You can email the policy uh committee and we could take a look at that. So right now that's um six for the first read. Then on um item number 11, we have our policies that we looked at at our last meeting. So we have five policies for second read that we need to vote on. Right. >> Okay. So do we see a motion to approve those? >>
164I apologize. Do we see a motion to approve the five that are up for second read this evening? >> So move. >> A second. All in favor? All right. in those pass. Thank you so much. We'll move on to our consent agenda. Do I see a motion and a second? Thank you. We will begin with B. Miss Dano. [snorts] >> We are the minutes from the last board meeting. Thank you so much. And starting with C, Mr. Carlson. >> Uh item C is acceptance of donations. We have one donation. It's uh $1,000 in Stop and Shop gift cards uh from the Three Village uh dads. They also uh donated a the uh term that Sarah Kersh who coordinates our uh food pantries was a lot of food. So um so many thanks to them plus
165the $1,000 in Stop and Shop gift cards. Uh next item is surplus equipment. We have some um old lacrosse helmets that are no longer usable. Uh the item uh next item is a special ed education tuition contract with the Clearary School for the Deaf. Uh the next item is a contract with All About Kids for OTPT um uh speech and ABA services. And item uh G is the Boseies uh Eastern SuffK Boseies uh contract. Uh this is uh something kind of new we're uh doing. Uh not Boseies. Um somebody at the state education department decided, you know, um in order to get transportation aid on Bosey's transportation, the board needs to approve the contract. So somebody just decided that so schools all over the state now have to have uh do this uh annually. So
166So uh we did it in June for last year's that was the first year of it. And and then each year now uh as we get the initial contract for the year, we'll bring this on. This is this is the uh our initial contract for Bosei services for this year. Uh it's to make sure that we satisfy your requirements to get the transportation aid on the transportation services we get from Boseies. >> All right. Any questions about any of those? >> Okay, we'll move on to H. Dr. Biscari. Uh yes, this is just the bian bianial review of our um shared decision-making plan that's required by New York State. >> Thank you. Any questions? Okay. I recommendations of the committee on special education subcommittee and 504 accommodation plan meetings as dated and J recommendations of
167the committee on preschool special education meetings as dated. And beginning with K, Dr. Dreski. >> Yes. K is a resolution uh recalling two of our excess. Um L is a resolution we're calling two of our excess special ed aids. Um M instructional. Uh we have several instructional appointments tonight including uh well we have start with three instructional resignations for teacher subs, four instructional appointments uh two TAs and two uh teachers. Um we have six instructional substitute assignments including a sub nurse subteers and subteing assistants as well as several hourly and annual um extra assignments of the 2526 school year and and non-instructional. We have one non-instructional retirement uh two non-instructional resignations, three non-instructional appointments and four non-instructional sub appointments for food service workers. >> Okay, thank you so much. That concludes our consent agenda. All
168in favor? No opposed? No abstensions. So, they carry. Thank you. And that would bring us to our adjournment. All was a motion. A second. All in favor? All right. Thank you everybody. Have a great night.