Board of Education Meeting 9/17/25

001Good evening everyone and welcome to our board of education meeting. It is September 17th, 2025. If you would please join us and rise for the pledge of allegiance led by Katie Erso. And if you would, we'd like to ask you to join us in observing a moment of silence in recognition of 911 in memory of those lost and to honor all of those who served. Thank you. All right, Mr. Jmano, any changes to our meeting agenda? >> No changes. >> Thank you so much. So, I will turn it over to Dr. Biscari for item 5A. Uh, >> at this time, I'd like to call up um Mr. Shuckman uh to introduce uh one of our phenomenal students um that are here for recognition tonight. Sorry, Mr. Helonia. Quite right, a little change of plan. So,

002it's actually my int my pleasure to introduce Mr. Shookman who is introducing and speaking about Jason Yen, one of our high school students who was formerly with Mr. Shukmanelus who did a fantastic job over the summer at the uh US Earth Science, excuse me, at the International Earth Science Olympiad. So please welcome Mr. Shman. Thank you. [Applause] Let's move this for one second. Um thank you Mr. Loney. Um good evening members of the board of education. Um you probably heard that but my name is Pete Hookman. I'm the science chairperson at Gelinus Paul J. Jelenus Middle School. >> Who are you? >> Hey I think that's the fourth time. I'm honored to be here tonight to recognize the remarkable accomplishments of one of our students, Jason Yin, and his representation of our nation this past

003August at the International Earth Science Olympiad in Jining, China. Now, I first met Jason through the science olympiad team at Jelenus Junior High School. He later became a student of mine. Uh, from the start, it was clear he had both a passion for science and the ability to excel academically. Um, if you've served on this district's board of education over the past few years, this is probably not the first time you've seen Jason come before you for an award, in fact, and he's been honored many times. Now, in his final year at Chelenus, Jason reached out to me to pursue the Earth Science Olympiad program. I'll be honest with you, I didn't know what it was, and Jason, thank you for informing me about the program, the offerings of it. Um, he took their qualifying

004exam and scored well enough to be accepted in their summer program in Oklahoma. There we explored earth science in both the classroom and the field studying rockout crops, examining soil, uncovering sediment, and even visiting a bison preserve, which sounds cool. Um, at the end of the program, Jason excelled on their closing examination, an examination which is used to select students who would represent the United States at their international at the international level the following summer and represent as he did. Just over uh just a few weeks ago, Jason competed in the in China against students from over 30 nations, earning a gold medal in a rigorous individual exam as well as a gold medal in a group project focused on, I believe, hydraology, an incredible achievement on this world stage. Uh when I spoke to

005Jason, he's at W Melville now and no longer at Julius my classroom, so it got a little trickier to do that. He shared that while in the while the competition was demanding, it was also an unforgettable experience. returning to China after many years was very meaningful to him as was the food a little bit better than what we he was used to here in in our school at times. Uh most of all the opportunity to meet students from over 30 nations who share his passion for earth science. He described how rewarding it was to build friendships with peers from across the globe who are just as inspired as he is in the sciences. Beyond academics, Jason embodies the qualities we strive to instill in our students. resilience, teamwork, and a drive to push the boundaries

006of knowledge. He's a role model to his peers and a reminder of what can be achieved through hard work and determination. On behalf of the faculty, the administration, the entire school community, congratulations, Jason. We are incredibly proud of your success and the inspiration you provide to us. And to the board of education, thank you for taking the time to honor Jason tonight. It means so much to our students and communic community when you know their hard work is recognized at this level. So, thank you. Thank you, Jason. [Applause] Congratulations. We're going to go from We're going to take a picture. All right. Oh, get in. You didn't get in picture. That's fine. Go ahead. [Music] [Applause] Congratulations again, Jason. And yes, you can go home. >> All right, that will bring us now to our

007student representative report, Miss Katie Erso. >> Thank you. Good evening, board of members, board of education members, faculty, families, and families at Three Village. I'm pleased to share some of what's been happening at our school lately. This week, our school's club started bringing more opportunities for students to get involved. Our sports programs are doing very well with strong participation, and we've had excellent turnout at all of our home games with many wins that have made the season more exciting. Last Thursday, the high school hosted open house and parents came to live a day in the life of of a student, seeing firsthand what we experience every day. Currently, clubs are hard at work preparing for upcoming events. Our pep rally and homecoming are just around the corner, and there's a lot of energy around those.

008On the academic side, I'm proud to report that 18 of our students have been commended with merit scholarships. Even more exciting, five of our one level students have been named semi- finalists for these scholarships. We look forward to honoring them in future board meetings for their hard work and achievements. We also recently had important grade level meetings where we discussed student regulation, shared critically critical safety information and went over general updates that matter took to both students and staff. On September 11th, history classes took the time to remember the events of 9/11 through a heartfelt documentary, helping us reflect and learn from our past together. Another highlight was the recent visit from Rich Cine, who worked with SPNN covering the New York Jets. He came into the sports English elective class and gave students firsthand

009insight into what it's like to professionally cover a team, which was really which was really an inspiring experience for those students. Finally, this morning I had the opportunity to attend a hybrid event hosted by the New York State Education Department in Boseies in collaboration with the New York State Welcome to Student School Board Members Association. Commissioner Betty Rosa spoke as did Jay Warona and during the meeting they discussed how to understand diverse viewpoints and how to authentically represent students perspectives by working as a team. There was discussion on how to deal with different situ situations and issues in school followed by a brief Q&A session from the students ultimately giving me a great learning experience. That's my report for this week's meeting and thank you for your time. Great job. Thank you Katie and I'm

010I'm glad you had a good experience at the conference. That's great. All right, we're going to turn it over now to Mr. Carlson for our bond presentation. Thank you. So, uh, we've been, uh, discussing a, uh, bond referendum for the past, I guess about a year and a half now. Um, and, uh, oh, hold on one second. Okay. Um, so, uh, I want to start with just making sure everybody's on the same page with what do we mean when we say what what is a bond referendum? So, a bond a referendum is a vote, right? So, so a bond referendum is when we put up for a vote to the community. Um, whether to do um uh it's it's a lot of projects all at once. If we're doing uh smaller, some projects we do

011through our annual budget, uh if we're doing a lot of projects all at once, um the bond is a a good way to pay for it, which I'll get into in in a few minutes. Uh but the referendum itself is the vote, and the community votes on one whether to do the projects, gives us authorization to do the projects, and also to borrow the money uh to pay for those projects in which we would pay back over a period of years. I put on here 15 years. Doesn't always have to be 15 years. For the type of projects that we would be doing, we would do payback of 15 years because that's when we'd get the building aid back over 15 years, which I'll explain in a in a in a minute. Um, and uh

012well, I'll talk about why this is a good way to pay for it. Um and and the the the when we say issue a bond, issuing a bond means us borrowing money. Just like taking out a home equity loan, you borrow the money, you pay for the work, and then you pay the money back over time. Same same idea. So when we talk capital projects, that's defined by state education department and finance law. Um it's got to be at least $10,000 to begin with. Uh but then there's also uh requirements as far as uh when we get building aid on it. Things like it's not just uh we call up um a contractor and say, "Oh, we want to do such and such." And they come in do the work. There's got to be uh

013voter authorization for it. First, the board has to approve it. Then it goes to vote. Sometimes if it's through the annual budget, it's part of the budget process. the community. When the community votes on the budget, they're also if they vote yes on the budget, they're authorizing that those any capital projects that are included. Or if it's a bond referendum, when they vote on the if the bond referendum passes, uh not only the financing of it, but also the authorization of the projects has to get drawn up by an architect. Uh the plans get submitted to the state education department, the office of facilities planning. uh takes forever for them to approve, but once they approve it uh and the commissioner signs off on the project, then we can go out to bid uh do

014the work and uh it's a it's a lengthy convoluted process, but by doing all of that, we get building aid. And building aid is the the percentage of the project that the state reimbures us for. Every district's aid, what's known as building aid ratio, varies district to district. um and it's theoretically based on the wealth of the district. The higher the wealth, the lower the ratio and vice versa. However, this is one of the kind of quirk quirks in in the uh state aid formulas that work to our benefit. uh going back to the uh when Three Village School District first came into existence in 1966, the wealth of the area at the time generated a building a ratio for us of 60 66%. So what's happened over the years as the area has gotten

015more affluent our if if each year each year the state calcul recalculates that that rate but we always get the higher of whatever the current they call it the current aid ratio or what we got last year. So over the years, even though that the the uh three village area has gotten more affluent and our our age ratio would have gone down down down down and down, we always get or last year whatever is higher. So we still get the 66%. Uh if they were to do away with the piece of or last year, whichever is higher, the aid ratio would be down to probably four 40 might even be down into the 30s now uh percent. So anyway, so it's a good deal for us. It works. That's a I said it's a quirk

016in the state aid uh rules that works to our benefit. So we like to take advantage of that whenever we can. Um you know think about at home if you were going to every time you did a project at home somebody else was paying twothirds of the cost we'd probably all do a lot more work around our house. So uh we we like to take advantage of that. Now a routine maintenance project that's not eligible for building aid. Uh I'm going to get into a little later the tax cap. I know I've talked about that many times over the years, how capital projects are not don't count towards the tax cap, but routine maintenance does. I'll explain that then in a few minutes. So, this is just, you know, we we need to take care

017of the buildings. They're getting old. All our youngest building is 53 years old. Our oldest is 73 years old. Um, just like our homes, they always need work. uh when we do work on buildings um it's a lot more expensive than if we were say a corporation. There's a a number of rules in place. Uh not there's not a a debate on on whether we like the rules, don't like the rules, whatever it the costs are very high, right? Um uh we have prevailing wage laws. When when a contractor uh does work for a school district, they have to pay whether they're a union uh shop or not, they have to pay union wages. So the same contractor that might work might be working today at some corporation off of Belme Road, uh paying workers

018whatever, make up a number, $30 an hour. Tomorrow they're doing work for us, they might have to pay those same employees $60 an hour. Uh so like it or not, that's the way it is in New York. and uh and it it it drives our cost up. So So it's expensive to take care of our buildings. Um and what we've always done of the history of the district is a combination of capital projects in the budget and then periodically do a bond referendum to do a lot of work all at once when we have a a number of things that need to be done. The last bond that we did was in 2014. Uh the majority of that bond uh was window replacement and uh we put in the unit ventilators in each classroom, the

019unit events uh that that did uh not just uh heating and fresh air but uh cooling as well. So we were uh one of the first if not the if not the first district in the whole New York state that had air conditioning in in every single classroom. So that's not so much a luxury anymore. uh which I'll talk about too in a in a in a minute. Um and not that we knew it was coming, but it also proved key to us being able to open schools during COVID because of those new unvents we had put in. So anyway, so that that's worked well for us over over time is periodically do a bond referendum uh but also do annual uh capital projects. And if we only did it through annual capital projects in

020the budget, that's okay, but it's not necessarily the best way to pay for it, which I'll talk about. So, uh, the steps to a capital project, I mean, this is a, as I said, it's a it's a long convoluted process, but, uh, that that 66% building aid makes it makes it worth it. So starting with our architect or engineer, you know, sometimes he employs an engineer to survey our buildings, uh, determine what he thinks is our needs. Uh, he meets with us. Jason Greky is our facilities director here. Uh, they'll meet with us. We start identifying the different type of projects that we need. Then we start talking about, well, okay, how much is that going to cost? Um, our architect is very good at uh, doing cost estimating. He does that for a lot

021of school districts. um he knows how the contractors are going to uh develop their cost estimates when they put bids in. Uh then um we'll present findings to the board. We'll also meet with our our building administrators to talk about the the kind of uh projects in in the buildings we're looking at and then we'll what's the best way to pay for it. Sometimes as I said it might be through the through the annual budget. Uh sometimes it might be you know what we need a lot of work done now let's do it as a bond and that's a good way to pay for it. Uh then it goes to a public vote whether it's a separate referendum for a bond as we're talking about uh doing now or during the uh annual budget process.

022Once there's voter approval on it then the architect can draw up all the plans and specifications. He can't do that ahead of time. used to we used to he used to be able to draw up the plans and specs ahead of time, submit them to the state head department, get the approval, we'd go out to bid and then when the budget passed, start work. Can't do that anymore. Now he can't even draw up the final plans and specs until there's voter approval. So it it just winds up taking a long time. Uh so once it goes to the state ed department again like I said it takes it takes forever and uh they they will literally sit on a shelf for 6 to9 months waiting their turn in line to get approved. Uh but finally

023eventually we get the approval and then we can do the work. So so far we had met with the bond committee for for over a year. We toured the buildings. uh we showed a lot of showed firsthand uh a lot of the the kind of work that we're looking uh to to get done. Uh we a number of meetings with them. The recommendation by the way from the bond committee was to unanimously voted to go forward with the bond uh referendum process. Uh we have a list of projects that's it's it's about $120 million. Um and uh well it was around $125 at the time. I think we could we could we were able to whittle that down a little bit. Um and the recommendation from the the community bond committee was go forward with

024that. Unanimously they voted. Uh so we've met with the architect. He's helped us develop those that scope. Uh and of course the course estimates. Uh and so what we're doing now is between uh Mr. Grevsky and myself and Dr. Scandlin uh working with our architect uh to okay let's let's finalize this now the work that needs to get done this doesn't need to get done right now uh sure we'd love to do everything but you know it it the cost can't get way too out of control. Uh so let's let's identify the projects that really need to get done and the latest update on what the costs might be and we're working on that now. We will have uh for the next meeting our recommendation of the the full uh scope of projects and the

025type of projects we're talking about paving, sidewalks, roofing, our couplers are not in in good shape. Uh various upgrades to security uh athletic facilities. Um we have a lot of work especially at Wood Mobile High School. We want uh to do um bathroom renovations all around the district, science room upgrades, um air conditioning in large spaces. This is our um uh all of the uh gymnasiums except for the high school. High school is already uh air conditioned and that's really worked out well. And the and the air conditioning at the high school went in that was included in the 2014 bond. And that and the main driver of doing that at the time was we have the prom at the high school and uh every year we would rent an air we'd pay a company

026they would bring in these giant portable air conditioners for the one night it cost about $15,000 to air condition the gym for the one night of the prom. So, we did the numbers and it turns out that including air conditioning for the uh wood level gym in that bond, the amount that we'd be paying in our debt service payment to pay off that bond minus the building aid that we get actually comes out to less than $15,000 here. So, that was a no-brainer. Uh, but not just for the prom, it's worked out great. Um, and there is a new heat condition regulation, which I'll I'll talk about, too. Um, so it's the um uh the gyms at all of the schools except for the high school which has it already and the uh cafeterias at

027um the elementary schools not uh Satoka in Minnesota already have uh the other three elementary school uh cafeterias they get very hot June September especially uh hasn't been too bad this week tomorrow will be kind of hot uh but to include those spaces uh various heating and plumbing doing upgrades. This was kind of what started us on this whole process. We have a lot of um valves, things like that that they're not, you know, they're not exciting things to talk about. We're going to replace, but necessary, and they're very expensive to do one at a time, especially if it's because it starts to fail and we need to uh um replace it. So, they're old. We want to replace all of them. Uh ceilings all around all around the district. Some are in great shape.

028is that one's fine. Uh some are not. Uh various auditorium upgrades. Some of the seating is old and and needs um needs some refurbishment. And uh some of uh uh pool uh the pool machinery room at W Melville uh that needs some work as well. Uh so the total cost for the projects were uh identified is right around 120 million. As I said, for the next meeting, we'll have our final uh list. Uh now that includes not just the cost of construction architect fee, construction manager, there's uh environmental testing. Um there's unforeseen conditions. We need an allowance in there for that. You know, sometimes we start working like uhoh, we found something that that nobody knew was there and it's going to court. Just same kind of thing that could happen at home. Uh so

029there's includes allowances for those kind of things. And you know, we we have to we have to put in enough, you know, to to to pay for the work. Uh but if we don't need, turns out we don't need that much. We don't need that much. That's great. Doesn't mean we have to pay it. Um and uh as I said, there's a we we do have an inflation factor built in. Uh the the work that we're talking about would take several years to to complete. If this if we do have the referendum in either December or January, which we'll talk about in a second, um if it's if it's voted on uh approved by the voters, uh we could probably get some of the work done next summer. uh some of the work we can

030get state approval uh on a quicker if it doesn't need an engineering if it's just an architectural review uh that can get that can get approved faster by the state head department compared to if it also needs uh engineering review that takes a little longer. So, we could probably get some work done uh during the most most of the work is done during the summer, but it's not just summer. During the 26 27 school year, but the majority of it would be the 2728 school year, 28-29 school year, including the summer of 29. Might drag out a little bit into the 2930 year, but that should pretty much wrap up the the construction on this. Um so so considering that it would be couple two maybe one two three years from now that we're doing

031the work we need to build in some sort of inflation factor. So uh two ways to pay right annual budget through a bond. So what's the difference? Well, through the annual budget, uh, if we were to do all of this kind of work, first of all, we'd have to start increasing the amount each year in our capital projects budget in the in the annual four capital projects in the annual budget. This year we have one a.5 million. So, if each year we increase that by whatever 1 2 million per year, uh, it will take a while to get up to the 1012 million a year range. And at that um it would it would take a long time probably 20 years to get the same amount of work done if we just did it that

032way. Also in the meantime because some of this work might not get done if we did it that way 5 10 15 years down the road. We have a lot of repair lot more repairs that need to be done. we'd have to increase our repair line in the budget uh substantially uh because that that's what happens that the our our building systems they start getting older they need more repair. Um so so the the capital projects themselves whether through bond or through the we just do it through the budget it's excluded from the tax cap. What does that mean? It does not take it actually increases the cap on a dollar for-dollar basis whatever we put in for that. So what that means is it doesn't take away from other programs. It's if we were

033to want to add something else non- capital project related if we want to add such and such to the budget something else has to come out. We have a tax cap. If something goes in something else has to come out to make room for it. Not capital projects. Uh that was from the uh original legislation uh establishing the tax app back in 2012. Uh was because the state at least didn't want school districts to have to choose between taking care of the buildings and educational programs. That was that's why it was done that way. So that's fine that it doesn't take the place of educational programs within the budget. Um, however, uh, we don't get we get that building aid, that's 66%. But we get it over a 15-year period. Uh, there are some types

034of projects where the aid can get paid out over 20 years or even 30 years, but that's not the kind of projects that's like if you build a new building or put a new wing on. We're not doing that. Um, so it the aid would come back over 15-ear period. And that goes back to well now you don't want a history lesson but in the late '9s what what we used to get is you do the project one year pay for it in the budget you would get the entire building aid amount in the following year. Late 90s the state legislature passed a a a change to building aid that cost them tremendous amount of money much more than they thought it was going to cost. So then what they did is it was in

035I think it was 2002 uh they said oh we need to change how we pay building aid out and now and starting then they said well we're going to pay you your aid as if you did it as a bond and they call it assumed amortization. So so even if we lay all the money out right now for a project we'll get the aid but over 15 years. So, um, it it takes a it would take a long long time, probably 20 years or or more to get the same amount of work done if we try doing it just through the through the annual budget. And then the aid is another 15 years out on that doing it as a bond. All right. So, there's there's some benefits to doing it as a bond. Uh,

036and when I say benefits, I don't necessarily even mean for the district. I mean for the taxpayer. Uh, so one is we can do all of the work. not over 15 years. We could do it all in a threeyear plus or minus uh time frame. Uh so it saves on the the on those urgent repairs that we otherwise might have needed. Now keep in mind the last couple of years when we talk emergency repairs. Uh two years ago the uh roof over the auditorium at Satuit caved in all right $2.1 million it cost. uh last year, not so much uh it was a flooding, but the flooding that NASA cake, right? Cost $1.7 million. Uh those kind of things happened. Um now the forget the flooding part because that was something a little different. Uh

037that wouldn't have otherwise that wouldn't have been prevented by something like this, but the roof had target uh certainly could have. Um, so, so it prevents it, it prevents us from having to add so much to the budget for for repairs. Um, and that 66%. Now, I have I don't want to make it sound like the 66% building a is going to change. I have no idea. It's been in place for a long time. Um, I can go into where there was there were two periods throughout our history where we actually got more. Uh, but that's if anyone's interested in that, talk to me afterwards. Um uh so I don't want to I don't want to make it sound like we we need to lock the 66% in now because it's going to change. I

038have no idea if it will change. Now keep in mind something though. Uh last a year year and a half ago a little over a year January of 24 when the governor put out her uh budget proposal for the for the year January of 24 put it out for the 2425 school year. If you remember, her proposal was to do away what's what's called the hold harmless on the foundation 8 piece. What if you remember back to where RA was going to be cut by $8 million that year? Uh was because of a change in in the way the state looked at that kind of thing. Said, "Forget that. We'll make sure you got what you got last year. Forget that. We're doing it now." That didn't go through. That was changed in the final

039state budget. But maybe something like building a will that change? I don't know. I have no idea. But if it goes by when the voters approve the projects. So if this referendum is approved by the voters and the age ratio at the time is 66%, we'll get the 66% for the life of the bond. Um now what it does is it spreads the cost out over those same 15 years. We'll get the aid in over that 15 years. And this way it matches our payments to that same time. By ma by it matching our payments, it also means it matches the taxpayers's uh uh tax payment uh to the same 15 years in which the building aid is coming back. Now what that means too is let's say let's say somebody doesn't have kids in

040school now, right? Kids are grown. They say I might not even be living here 15 years from now. Well, even more reason why a bond is good for you. Uh because then you're only paying for it for the time that you live here. You get all the benefit of the work being done. You vote on it now. The work gets done over the next couple of years and you will only pay for those years in which you live here. If you were to move out, you stop paying. You got all the benefit, but you'd stop paying. Uh the person who comes then comes in and buys your house, they pick up paying from that point on. When we do a capital project, we lay all the money out this year. So if you live here

041now, you lay all your share of all the money for the project out now. The building a is going to come in over the next 15 years. If you move away, you don't get the benefit of those years after you moved away. Now, if you're here the whole time, great. Then then that's that's fine. Uh now, another thing with a bond is there is of course when you borrow money, there's interest cost, right? Uh so so that's if you were to say a downside to a bond borrowing money is there's a there's an interest cost. However um we're a taxing authority so there's no risk for the banks that loan us money. Uh so but but because of that we pay very low interest rates. Uh but even what whatever we do pay in interest

042we get the billing on aid on that as well. So whatever interest we're paying the state is reimbursing us for 2/3 of 66% of that. So with with a total amount of 120 million I just use 120 million even just to to illustrate this. Uh it would mean one once fully phased in and implemented an annual debt service meaning bond payments towards that of principal and interest of uh 10 point approximately 10.4 million. I'm using three and a half% interest rate for this. Uh now of that 10.4 million we would get 6,864,000 reimburse each of those years in building aid from the state for for that. Now we wouldn't get the billing aid otherwise unless for this. So that means the local share that means the impact on the tax levy is that 3.5 million.

043That translates to uh about $260 $268 per household for the average household in three village. Um, just so you know, for for each 10 million, there's 120 million. For each 10 million, that comes out to $22.33 per per household. So, over on the right side of the screen, the decrease in debt service. I had gone over this with the the budget advisory committee last year, and then we talked about this at a a previous board meeting. This is just going back a few years, the decrease in our annual debt service, what we've had. And you could see uh we're in the middle of each year some older bonds getting paid off and then uh coming in 2030, we have a big bond being paid off. That's 2000 from 2007. And then 2032, our 2014 bond

044is paid off. Uh so I'll I'll go over that now here. So, so what this is, this is um the way we would phase this bond in. We would phase it into the budget and then how it would get phased into the into the tax levby. So, first year 26 27. I'm we we we wouldn't of course the the projects take several years. So, we wouldn't borrow all the money uh right away and then have to start paying interest on it. Uh first of all, we can't. Uh there's a uh one of Dr. Scandlin's uh favorite subjects, arbitrage. Um uh we can't borrow the money all at once and then wait several years to spend it. We're not allowed to do that. Um so we would borrow some and I'm I'm estimating about in that

045first year 26 27 about $1.5 million in debt service. That's on the budget side. We would get some building aid. Now building aid doesn't kick in immediately. the the first year or two of a bond and the last year or two of a bond, the the debt service payments and the uh going money going out and the building aid coming in don't mesh up exactly. All right. So, there's a little bit of a lag before the building aid really gets going. So, that's why in this case in year one, even with a $1.5 million in debt service, we might only get about a half a million dollars in building aid. That's only a 33%. It's because there's a bit of a lag. Um, so that would mean in year one a net levy increase of

046a million dollars. All right, that's outside the tax cap. So it's not like we have to find, well, what are we going to cut to do that? Now, it doesn't mean it increases the tax levy by that, but it doesn't it doesn't take away from something else that's in the budget. That would be year one. Year two, I'm saying if we do more now, we start getting a lot of projects done. the debt service piece. Now we had to borrow some you know like think about at home right so as more work is being done we have to borrow more money now we pay now we start paying uh that money back including interest our debt service I'm estimating about 4 uh.75 million in year total 4.75 million in year two now we're going to

047start getting more building aid now it's up to around 2.5 million then that year the net levy increase goes up another 1 and a4 million. Same for year three. Now, and then year four, we finally get the rest of that 10.4 million. Now, it's all in the budget, the total 10.4 million. We're getting all the building aid, that's 6.8 million. And if you add up the those on the uh column on the right, those um first four numbers, the net levy increase a million, the 1.25 million, 1.25 million, and 36,000. that equals going back to the slide before uh that local share of 3,536,000. So that's how that would get phased in over a few years. Now just forformational purposes, what happens after that? Well, the following year we have we're paying off our 2007

048bond. Actually, we're paying off the 2007 bond during the 2930 school year. So in the year our debt service for that goes down by $4.6 million. So that's on the budget side it goes down. Now why is building aid not even decreasing be for that? Because now when the 2007 bond was done uh it was paid off most of it was in a couple of pieces but most of it had a 20-year term on the bond. As I said, aid comes in over 15 years. Why was that? Well, I I can't really say because that was decided before I was here. So, but um there was a a bond referendum we had in January of 2007 that failed. Um it was it decreased a little bit and then it was put up for a vote

049in October of 07. I started here in July of '07. So it was too late to make any kind of change like that to say, hey, let's let's instead of paying it off over 20 years, we should really make it 15 years to match the billion aid. Um, so anyway, I was brand new and I wasn't able to convince anyone of that. So anyway, so so if you remember back to budget time earlier this year in the spring, the reason our tax cap was so high was because our building aid decreased so much. That was the end of the billing aid late from that 2007 bond. So we already absorbed that. That's why in in the year 2030 there is no decrease to building a we're already seeing that. So that's going to mean in

0502030 unless something else were to be done like capital projects or something there would be a decrease in not just the budget but in the tax levy of $4.6 million. Uh so that helps to mitigate some of this new new debt. actually more than mitigates that. Uh and then just two years later, we'll pay off the 2014 bond. So that's uh $4.3 million reduction in debt service. Uh that one it's a 15 it was 15-year term of the bond. So the same year the bond u ends, the building aid ends also. So that's why in that year there's a reduction in building a but still there will be a net uh uh decrease in the tax levy that year of about $1.5 million. So so this is all compared to what we have now. So

051there would be an increase for this new bond an increase net increase in the tax levy of $3.5 million but we're saving more than that over the next couple of years. That doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything. It just means old bonds are being paid off. And this could takes the place of some of that. Now I mentioned the tax cap. So so as I said the the the state recognized that they can't put capital projects as part of the tax cap because then what schools would do is they would say well we we don't have the money. We need to keep the educational programs in place. We we simply can't spend money in taking care of the buildings. And that would have been a disaster. Uh so that's why that's why capital projects including

052the debt service on a bond is excluded from from the cap calculation or it's it's it's really added to the tax cap. Um so um so when we when we do the the work through the bond so we get the 66% right of all the construction cost also on the interest as well. Uh and it's it's outside the tax cap so it doesn't have to take the place of something else in the budget. Um, and if we were to say, well, instead of doing the bond, let's just try to fund this over the next 10, 15, 20 years through the annual budget, that's okay. But keep in mind, while capital projects are excluded from the cap, the maintenance is not. So, we'd have to increase our maintenance budget pretty substantially uh over the next couple

053of years to address those immediate concerns. um the fix things as they break. Uh and that's not uh that's not excluded from the cap. So that that's something that we would have to make room for in the budget by cutting presumably something else. So what what what what decisions to make now? Well, we had the the um we had previously discussed having two propositions for the bond. One I'm going to start with proposition two. Proposition two would have been all of those air conditioning pieces and included in the in the various athletic facility upgrades uh is a artificial turf field for uh football field. Those things would have been we had discussed having those as a separate proposition. That would have been proposition two. Everything else would have been proposition one. And the way that

054gets that gets worded on the ballot is proposition two can't pass unless proposition one also passes. So they can both pass uh one can pass but not two but two can't pass without one. So uh however uh as I mentioned the new law regarding heat conditions in schools says among some other things a space cannot be occupied if it's 88° period. So uh we have as I said gyms at all schools except for Ward Melville and uh most of the cafeterias at the elementary schools they get very hot June back in June. I mean there was there was a period of you know we it was very hot hot temperatures and I asked uh Mr. Grevky can you go out to a couple of schools and just see what the temperatures are are in the

055gyms right now and they were over 90 degrees. So, um, it was later in the school year and they weren't using the gym at the time anyway, but and the law wasn't in place then. It didn't start till September 1st, but if that would have happened now, we can't occupy those spaces. So, maybe air conditioning isn't the luxury it used to be. So, one one thing for the board to, you know, think about and and and decide on is do we want to just keep the air conditioning in in the in the uh with everything else? How how not have separate that as a separate proposition? And then if that's the case, if that's going to be part of everything else, do we want $118 million worth of work or whatever and a million dollars

056for artificial turf football field as a separate proposition or do we want to make it all one? So those are kind of things to decide. We could talk about a little now if you want. you could just you don't have to decide right the second but those are kind of things to uh think about and and eventually uh make a decision on or come to a consensus on make a decision and uh as I said at the next board meeting we will bring the the full list of the the final scope of all the projects and um that's all we had for tonight of course I'll be glad to take any questions >> thank you so much that was very informative and I will open it up if we have any questions this time knowing

057we will continue the conversation at our next meeting. >> Could I Jeff before you sit down? Sorry. Could you go back to the uh estimated debt service slide for a second? >> Back back further. The one with the uh that one. So, so I saw this done on some uh infomercials on TV. So, the $268 estimated average per household turns out to be $22.50 50 cents a month or.74 cents a day. I hear that all the time when I see puppies being injured and children in other countries that need food. So, you know, I'm always give to those type of things. So, just just saying it's 74 cents per day to get all this work done on average for the entire day. >> That that is necessary. And sadly, if we don't fix some of

058these things, when we we're going to be doing some uh social media uh um things with this, if the board approves the bonding going forward to show the actual conditions in some of the locations um that we are pretty in pretty much in bad shape. You know, parking lots that we just mentioned this evening, u potholes, things like that. Parking lots have not been done since the buildings were built. Uh the drainage has not been handled. curbs. Um it's not glamorous as you mentioned, but in we've taken the board into the basements and into the attics, shown the valves in all the areas that are rusting through. Um if the heat goes out, we have to evacuate the building and where are we going to put them? So, we have a lot of concerns with

059these things as we mitigate them going forward. Um and we inspect the buildings as a team every year, twice a year to go in. It isn't getting better. The our teams are doing the best they can with what they have. Um, but some of these things we we had to take out a building offline last year to replace the valve for a couple of days and thank goodness it was over a weekend. Um, otherwise if we didn't have it up and running on Monday, we would have had to evacuate the entire building. So, as homes get older, so do the schools. As you mentioned, our oldest schools date back to 19 early 1950s. Um, so we're we're in a bad way in a lot of ways with the with what we have as conditions. know

060this hopefully we'll >> and our our recommendation if we go forward with the uh referendum for either so Tuesdays are good days for votes it's it's what people are used to a Tuesday uh election days are on Tuesday or budget votes are on Tuesday uh so we could do Tuesday December 9th um I think anything later than that in December is too close to the holidays uh or we could do any of the Tuesdays in January um and I our our recommendation would be to have it no later than um Tuesday um around January 27th uh or one of the Tuesdays before that. Uh that gives us time enough one one way the other pass doesn't pass uh in doing our budget planning um because if it if it doesn't pass then then we can

061revisit. We could we will be meeting with the budget advisory committee at that point. Talk with them. We talk with the board. Do we put it up for a revote? Modify it somehow, maybe scale it down, put that up for a revote, but at least having the vote by January, uh, tells us uh because if it fails, then we have to make sure we add some money in next year's budget for for maintenance. Um, uh, if it passes, well, then then we don't have to worry about that piece. We still, of course, there's always maintenance needs to be done, but but we don't have to worry about that piece. So, um, so that that would be our recommendation. doesn't have to be December 9th. Uh could be in January, but it but either one of

062those then then it gives us time uh with in in preparing our budget knowing one way or the other. >> You lead me very easily into a sort of sideways question but related. Um the BAC, it's probably a good time for us to to start thinking about firing that up. Um would it be possible to ask the administration to sort of get get some early findings, find our lists from last year, see who served their two years, who's left, and uh maybe at the next meeting we can start to talk about um what we want with the BAC this year. I think we've had a few good years under our belt. Maybe it's a nice, you know, time to reflect a little on what's worked, what's not, and uh and put that committee together. That

063would work. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Yeah. We were thinking having a first meeting of the BAC sometime in probably November. November. >> Have a couple of meetings uh before before uh the end of December. >> Okay. >> At least get the first couple of meetings in >> Ammy. >> Uh yeah, just on the just to on the slide. So, you're saying for the next 15 years, we're increasing everything else being equal, we're increasing the taxes by $268 on average per household. Correct. >> For this bond, yes, there is other debt that ends which will lower it. >> Yeah. So, that was exactly what >> I just put that on there kind of forformational. But this this bond itself, that's what it would cost. >> But I think it's I think it's an important consideration, right,

064for the for our residents as they look at this. Yes, we're increasing it by 268 for the next 15 years, but there's actually net reductions from the payoff of the other bonds as the debt service goes down. >> Correct. >> I think it would be certainly useful for me to see as a table uh for let's say the next 10 years. Okay, we're increasing by 268, but as each of those other debts go go off or the bonds get paid off, what are the net reductions on a per household basis? because then >> a resident can actually see and say, "Okay, yes, I'm going to pay $268 more for the next 5 years perhaps, but then after that, that additional payment actually goes down because other other things are going off." Um, thank you. Appreciate

065that. >> So, uh, we have Denise Nash here, our public relations specialist, and we've we've started talking about this because, um, it's one thing for me to talk for 45 minutes and explain it to somebody. Um, unfortunately the the most of the people here that that just heard that already knew it. Um, so so to get the word out to people in a in a in a in a easy to understand format without me boring them for 45 minutes, uh, Denise started working on that. So >> thank you so much. >> Oh, Dr. Lee, >> one more question quickly. So the debt service is based on the interest today, right? So, it's possible interest rate will be lowered in the next few years. >> It could be. I use three and a as I said,

066I use three and a half%. Um, they probably wouldn't be much lower than that. If they came in lower, great. That that would be great. Um, as I said, we we do pay low rates. So, that's that's not a you know, if if we see mortgage rates up at 8 n%. you know, it it we would still pay if if it if this was a year ago, uh year and a half ago, I I in fact, if you look at this that same slide I did last year, it was a little bit higher because uh interest rates were higher last year. >> So, um that's why I lowered it now. Interest rates have come come down. Um, I I for our purposes of doing this, I probably would stick with that interest rate. >> When

067it comes time to issue the bond, uh, of course, it goes out to bid. Like, we don't just call up a bank and say, "Hey, we want to borrow money. What are you going to charge us?" Well, we kind of do, but we call a number of banks and we say, "Here's we're we're borrowing this much money." uh and it's a sealed bid and and and say tell give us your your best interest price uh interest cost um on such and such a date at such and such a time ball gets opened up low bid gets the gets the >> I see okay so it doesn't change as much as mortgage rate >> no and so what we do too so there there there are provisions in in uh these type of bonds for uh

068refinance and they call it advanced refunding um but it's the Same idea as refinancing a mortgage. So if let's say at the time we issue the bond rates are high and we're paying 4%. Let's just say uh few years later the b uh interest rates go down uh and we can save money by refinancing it. We do that and we we've done that a number of times in the past. uh when when interest rates got real low, we refinanced all all of the outstanding bonds we had to get a lower interest rate without extending the term of the bond. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> To compliment Mr. Carlson and the board of education as well, the work that has been done in the past few years. Remember, we were on a financial risk list at

069one point in time. We are no longer on that. So, when we go to borrow money, that that rating helps us in what rates we will be able to achieve from some of these banks. Thank you. All right. So, we're going to move on to item 7A, uh, armed security. We'll start with Dr. Scanland. >> Yes. So, as per board direction at the last, uh, meetings that we had, we started having conversations on the financial implications with a couple of the units that the uh, armed guards would be coming from. One would be the administrative unit since uh, we have administrators that oversee the security of the district and the other is with the security unit in district itself. So we've conducted those meetings. We've been working on negotiations through our attorneys with them as

070well. Um and put into some place and some u parameters around what we our expectations based upon board direction. So as you previously indicated, we are not looking to hire an outside company. Um we would use our own guards. There's advantage of this from our standpoint of our guards know our students, know our families, know our buildings um to bring an outside company and would present in our our sense an undue risk uh for those things not being part of this uh if there would be any consideration with that. Um we're not going to disclose the number of guards we would be considering to arm. That would be a safety factor that we would not want to disclose to anyone. Um but we would we would say that there would be an armed guard at

071each one of the schools um in the district. We would also put in some safety protocols including things like the training that would be necessary. So even if the board would decide at the this meeting or the coming meetings about whether they would pursue this or not, we are still several months away for that to be accomplished because there still be would be training and qualifications for the guards to be able to be armed. Plus, we would also want to be able to um if we were doing arming the guards, we would purchase the weapons, the ammunition, and the lock boxes that we would want to do as well as having some safety protocols about what they would be involved with. We would not want the guards involved in a situation where there would be,

072let's say, a fight in in a school. They would not be interceding in that. They would be concealed. So, no one would really know who would be armed. There be no disclosure of who the individuals would be. Um, we are also setting up parameters that we would only use in our current security system. The guards who have former law enforcement background or former military background where their assignment was to use weapons. Uh, we do not want to have other assignments of people from the military, not everyone in the military. Uh, while everyone may qualify on a weapon may not be trained on a weapon for the permanency of their stay in the military. So, those would be some of the restrictions. Uh, in addition, we do hire new people on each year. U there is

073a six-month probationary process with civil service. No new uh guards hired would be allowed to be armed until at the end of the probationary period and we are negotiating the piece about the discretion of whether or not these individuals who would be armed would be on on the administration's end. In addition to that, we would also be looking to do psychological testing at uh at different areas, whether it be random or if there was a concern. And if there was a concern, the individual would not be allowed to be armed anywhere at any time. So those and there's already some parameters already within the security contract about things like drug testing and things of that nature. So just alleviate some of the concerns that way that would be present. So, we are still working the

074numbers um for everything um and working negotiations and we are open to any questions the board may have. >> Well, first we want to thank the administration um for your work. You've been very attuned to to the board's questions, to our lines of inquiry, to our thoughts, to our concerns. It's been a very um candid and rigorous conversation. We we appreciate the the respectful tone that everybody has taken and all the hard work that's been put in. So, we're making headway and um there any comments or questions for tonight? Otherwise, we will continue at the next meeting. >> I just have one question. Uh I believe you answered it, but um so if the board goes with this, when approximately would you anticipate? >> The earliest we anticipate would if we the board were to

075approve it, let's say at the next board meeting would probably be around December or January at the earliest. >> Anybody else? Okay, thank you so much. Uh, next on our agenda are the New York State School Boards Association's proposed bylaws, amendments, and resolution for this academic year. Um, we're not going to go over them tonight just to to point out to the community. Um, the board is all in receipt of these. The administration's in the receipt of these. We're beginning a conversation at the next board meeting. We'll kind of go over each of them. Um the ones that NISSBA recommends, we tend to generally agree with, but if there's any that the board feels strongly against, we'll call those out and discuss them. And additionally, there are some in the back that NISBA saying, "No,

076we're not going to put these forth. We do not encourage these for this year." Sometimes there we disagree and we think there's one in there that's worthy of being pulled out and we can pull that out, assuming four of us agree. And then our representative, who's Dr. Lee, when she goes to the convention, she can bring that back up to the floor. So that'll all be happening at our next meeting. So, if everybody can just hold on to your work and we'll we'll continue that at the next meeting. Okay. For item 7C, we turn it over to Mr. Carlson. So, we had discussed uh at a previous uh board meeting the um uh volunteer firefighter and ambulance worker uh property tax exemption. Uh we first reviewed this with the uh board's order committee back in

077the spring. Uh the recommendation was to to was to make the change which I'll talk about in a second. Um and then we discuss it with the board. Um so before doing that we we have a an official hearing where we talk about the the intention to do that and uh then the board can uh we give 30 days notice and then this is the starting today would be 30 days at the October 22nd board meeting. we the board can vote on on making the change and it uh as long as it's done by February it would be in place for next school year. So what the change is so it's is not a new exemption. So there has been um since um around 2004 um a uh property tax exemption a school tax exemption

078for um volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers. So the way it works with most exemptions is the state authorizes it and then each taxing authority has to adopt it or not. Uh and so uh three village like pretty much every other school district uh when that first was authorized by New York State uh adopted that property tax exemption. So what it does is it says after five years of volunteer service as a volunteer firefighter or ambulance worker uh there is a a property property tax exemption. So um the new law said uh the new not the law the new uh authorization by the state is to say each tax and authority can lower that 5-year requirement to two years. So that's that's what we're talking about now. So, um, as I said, it doesn't change the

079amount of the exemption. Um, and while like when we were talking about the senior citizen exemption, uh, last year, I can't say how much how many more people it will be. I don't know. There would be no no way for me to know that. But I can say with with uh, confidence it would be very few uh, um, that would now get the exemption who otherwise weren't. Here's why. Uh, for the most part, now it's not a rule, but for the most part, volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers tend to start at a younger age and they're still living with their parents. That's when they start. By the t for the most part, by the time they become homeowners, they've had more than five years anyway. So, this only applies if they're a homeowner. So for

080the Oh, by the way, it and it only applies to in our case, it would only apply to volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers for the that volunteer for the target or Stonyie Brook fire department. It's got to be within the jurisdiction of the school district, the fire district that they volunteer for. So membership rules vary among fire departments. Uh but but a lot of them if not most or all of them allow for if you live in a neighboring fire district to volunteer. So I don't honestly I don't know if either Satet or Stonyiebrook allows that but it could be that if you live in Center Reach for example you in the middle country school district sat might take you as a volunteer. It wouldn't apply to that person. Um or let me say it

081the other way around. They could live in three village and volunt I said it backwards. Maybe they volunteer for Center Fire Department. It would not apply to them. They have to volunteer for Satocit or Stonybrook. Um, so and as I said, it it's it's it would be not many. Uh, again, I I I don't I I can't say exactly how many. Uh, but it's it's also people who would get the exemption eventually anyway. Now, they would get it after two years instead of five. But like I said, most most of them, we have 106 people right now who get that exemption. Um, most of them by the time they became homeowners already had the five years. So, so anyway, so that was our when we discussed it with the board's audit committee, the recommendation was

082yes, let's go forward with that, change that requirement, lower it from 5 years to two years. We discuss it with the board. So now this is just the kind of our our notification to everyone that that the board's intention is to at on October 22nd vote to do that and it would be in in in place for the 2627 school year. >> Any questions? >> Okay. Thank you so much. I'm just going to circle back uh to the previous item, item 7B, really quick. Miss Roughly caught me. Thank you for always being there to catch my mistakes. I appreciate it. Um, I did want to ask for your consideration before the next meeting when we're discussing the NISBA resolutions. Um, to save money, uh, we decided not to go to the convention this year. Um,

083and I don't want to throw you in the headlights there, but Mr. Mono, any sense of what that would have cost if the board attended? >> Uh, it was over $5,000. I can give you the exact amount the next time you at the next board meeting. >> Okay. So we collectively when we saw the budget numbers last year said you know we get so much out of the experience of being there. It's a great learning opportunity but we're going to forego it. However um there are some options for us to attend virtually. So just between now and then if you can look at the program between now and our next meeting see if you think there are enough programs there that it would be worth maybe some maybe all of us attending. I'm not really

084sure for the administration as well and we can talk about that at the next meeting. Okay. Now we move on to the regionalization plan. I will let Dr. Scandan introduce this and then we'll get started. >> So the state caused quite a hubbhub uh last year with uh the term regionalization because immediately people assume that they want districts to combine. So just a little bit of history for a moment. So when people I get this all the time um you should be a union free school district. You wouldn't have any unions in the district. That's not what union free means. Union free means the district in its original charter from the state of New York never combined with any other districts. We are essential school districts. So back in the 50s and 60s when the

085state incentivized the comb combining of districts and back then there were 1400 school districts in the state of New York. There now 770 school districts in the state of New York. Districts like three village and uh combined the three school districts. And I always do a test with people. What were the three school districts? And I you'd be surprised how many people say Oldfield school district. There was never an Oldfield school district. There was never a Poquat school district. It was Stonybrook, Isat, and Satake school districts. Those are the three that combined to form three village. We always get the grammar people out there say it should be three villages, not three village, but that's a whole another story. Um there are several other central school districts around the Smithtowns a central school district as

086well. So, um, the state when it came out with this piece on regionalization was thinking many people thinking, oh, they're trying to get us to combine. That was not the overall intent. That's how it was viewed. What they are trying to do is a sense is trying to get school districts to work with one another to see what type of services they could work in cooperation with. Um, however, I will say some some of the I've been at the planning meetings for this and I've been a part of a lot of the discussions. Some of the things in this district we already do. We already uh for combined services in non-academic areas like bids, collective bids that Mr. Carlson does with the business office. Uh we share different resources through all different areas in human

087resources and educational services uh with other districts. We take students in from other districts on a tuition basis. Uh our non-resident tuition rate for every school district in the state of New York is set by the state. We don't determine what our tuition rate is. The state tells us what it is. For a secondary student this year, it's over $22,000. For a general education student, for a special education student, it's over $102,000. So, when a student comes to us on a cross contract from another district, that's what that district pays us to have the student attend here. So, um what the U Bose local Boseies has sent out is the regional uh regionalization plan and they've asked that we review this with the board of education. There's items in the part one section on regional

088activity planning and uh innovations continuous improvements and then there's a part two to this plan. So at this point we would like to agree that agree with that with the board see what the board would agree to. The one caveat to this and I know the board has indicated through our attorneys to please draw up a statement about this when we submit this. We are required to respond. So we do have to send something back to Boseis. Boseies has to have this up to the state by October 1st. Um, so we have to respond to something with this and it could be you say no to everything. That's perfectly fine. Uh, but whatever you agree to do, you you can designate in the response form, but I would strongly urge us to make sure that

089we put a piece in there that is budget contingent because this should not cost the taxpayers in this community any more money to help support programs and other districts than we already do. So, it would put it I don't want it to be an unfair burden for the people here who are already overt taxed in many ways. Um, but we want to make sure that we're not creating another piece to that. >> Understood. And Mr. Mistki is working on that. So, um, the administration threw it to us and we all kind of looked at it and said, "That doesn't really feel right. That kind of feels like the board's overreaching to get so down into the weeds on this stuff. So, what we decided we're going to do is we're going to go through each

090one of these, but we're going to turn back to Dr. Scandan. If he as representing a conversations with the administration feels this is worthy of our saying we commit to doing this if it's budgetarily feasible then we will call a vote on those. If he does not recommend it, we're just going to put it down as an automatic no. And I apologize in advance because there's a lot of these. So we'll get started. Item 1.1 launch a regional network of school districts come together with a structure of inquiry focused on instructional improvement and equity. Dr. Scanland, >> we're in favor of that. >> You're in favor of that. Okay, we need four yeses on that. All in favor of that one. One, two, three. Okay, so that's a yes. >> 1.2. Implement interdist learning visits

091to observe successful programs and share feedback using normed protocols. >> We already do this, so we pay for that as well. >> Okay, so do we have four yeses for that? One, two, three, four. Okay, good. Thank you. And again, these resolutions are all subject to budgetary funding being available. Correct. So, >> correct. >> 1.3. Develop a regional repository of best practices for instructional strategies, grading protocols, and research-based innovations. >> Nope. >> That's a no. 1.4. Establish instructional rounds for continuous improvement with standardized observation protocols to build a shared language of practice. >> No. 1.5 pilot equity informed program design reviews using equity checklists and subgroup impact assessments to embed inclusivity in planning and implementation. >> Nope. >> Okay. 1.6 Establish and expand regional academic competitions and enrichment programs such as math olympiads, STEM clubs,

092and mock trial events. >> We already did this, >> so that's a yes. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. All in favor? Okay, got it. 1.7 form multid-district student clubs and affinity based activities including robotics, debate, DECA, GSA and cultural groups. >> No. >> 1.8 organize regional student recognition and enrichment forums including seals of civic readiness and biiteracy events. >> Will we be in favor? >> Okay. Do we have votes to say yes to that one? Okay. 1.9 pilot shared virtual and specialized course offerings to expand access to advanced and low enrollment courses. >> No, our courses were barely able to get our own students into I'm not seeing how we could get anyone else into >> 1.10 coordinate crossd district career awareness and experiential learning opportunities such as middle school career trips and early exposure

093to career pathways. >> We're in >> Okay, all in favor of that one. Okay, got four. 1.11. Establish regional aspiring teacher and leader cohorts to build equitable recruitment pipelines and leadership capacity. >> We do that already. >> So yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor? Okay. 1.12 develop a future educators pipeline initiative to support high school future teachermies and student employment in education. We >> be in favor there. >> Okay. All in favor? Uh, one, two, we've got four. Okay. 1.13. Coordinate regional guidance and civil service education campaign to increase awareness of careers in education and non-instructional roles. >> We already do this as well. Dr. Dr. Dreski is heavily involved with this. >> Okay. All in favor of that one. Okay. 1.14. Establish an indistrict leadership identification and mentorship model to grow leadership

094candidates internally. >> Yes. Yes. >> All in favor. >> Okay. 1.15. Create an equity focused metrics dashboard to monitor progress, representation, and outcomes of educator pipeline programs. >> No. >> Okay. Okay. Where's the short list of this one? >> Page 13. >> 13. 2.1. Create a regional continuous improvement center. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor of that one. Two, three, four. Okay. 2.2. to institutionalized regional intervisitation such as professional learning opportunities. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor? Four. Okay. 2.3. Build a shared regional data and innovation platform. >> Yes. All in favor? One, two, three, four. Thank you. 2.4. Legislative funding for instructional rounds as a regional resource. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor four. Good. Thank you. 2.5 Adopt an equity accreditation model for school programs. >> No. 2.6. Sustained regional

095enrichment infrastructure and funding models. >> No. >> Okay. 2.7 Regional Club and Activity Consortium. >> No. >> 2.8. Develop and implement a regional scheduling and facility sharing system. >> No. 2.9 Accredited Regional Virtual Learning Network. >> No. >> 2.10 Regional Career Pathway Continuum. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor of 2.10. 1 2 3 4. Got it. Okay. >> 2.11 Regional UPK. >> No. And I would just want to explain why. Okay. >> Uh we we barely get enough funding for our prek program now. Now we're going to be combined with other districts to figure out what everyone's going to get. Until they explain this further, I'm not willing to put us out there to get if we're going to get we should get as much as we can for our our district first. >>

096There 2.12 formalize a regional leadership academy. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor? Thank you. 2.13 expand the future educators pipeline with regional funding. >> Yes. >> Okay. All in favor, >> especially the funding. >> Exactly. 2.14 Launch a SuffKwide educational career awareness campaign. >> Agreed. >> Okay. All in favor? Thank you. >> 2.15 Create a regional mentorship and credentiing platform. >> No. No. >> I'd like to get it back here first before anywhere. >> No. >> 2.16. Develop a regional educator workforce equity index. >> No. Okay, that's everything. >> Thank you very much. >> That was easy. >> Yeah, that was piece of piece of cake. Okay, that takes us to our public comment period. So, we have one person if you would join us up at that microphone up there, Jared Parker. >>

097Good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come up and speak. Um I'm a young father of five soon to be six kids. Um been in Stockett since 2016. I have three kids at Stockett Elementary and one at Gelenus right now. My wife came home the other day after picking up one of my children from Stockett Elementary to tell me about some security protocols that have changed. And I think we all can agree security and the safety of our children should be number one on everyone's list. I called Mrs. Prada shortly thereafter that to get verification that we did in fact lose one full-time security guard. I understand budgets cuts and changes and all sorts of things happen. What I don't understand is why there was no communication from the board on this

098matter. >> Take questions. >> Thank you. You know what? If you want to hang, if you can enjoy the rest of the meeting, we'd love to talk to you afterwards. Thank you. And we do have one to be read aloud from Michael Ernst. Research published in JAMAMA in 2021 examined nearly 40 years of school shootings and found that the presence of an armed guard was not associated with fewer injuries. In fact, schools with armed guards experience nearly three times as many deaths compared to those without. Just as importantly, whenever firearms are present, there is room for error. and even highly trained officers can make wrong splits second decision. Introducing more guns into schools increases the chance of tragic mistakes without evidence that it prevents violence. Beyond the risk of increased fatalities, the presence of armed

099guards can change the climate of a school. Research shows that schools with armed personnel often see more punitive outcomes, such as higher rates of arrests and suspensions for non-violent behavior, particularly among minority students. The regular presence of firearms in schools can also create fear and anxiety for students and may normalize weapons in an environment that should be dedicated to learning, growth, and trust. For these reasons, I urge the board to consider investing in preventive measures such as counseling, mental health resources, and student support systems rather than introducing armed guards, which evidence suggests may do more harm than good. Thank you. All right, that takes us now to our policy first reads. We turn it over to our attorney, Mr. Mistaki. >> So, the policy committee has continued meeting uh to review the 4,000 series of

100the policy manual. Uh the policy committee has reviewed and is on for first reading tonight uh policies, diploma and credential options for students with disabilities, teaching about controversial issues, uh assemblies and animals in schools. These policies have been reviewed by the policy committee um and I've gotten uh guidance from legal counsel and I'm available to answer any questions that the board has. >> Okay. Do we have any questions about these particular policies? >> Okay. Thank you so much. And now we're going to move on to our consent agenda. Do I see a motion to consider these matters? >> So move second. >> Second. >> Okay. We start with B. Miss Dano. Uh there are the minutes from the September 3rd board meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. C Mr. Mistki, >> uh this is the memorandum

101of agreement with Suffach County for the uh stop ar the bus stop stop arm program. >> Okay. Any questions about that? >> Okay. Uh beginning with D, Mr. Carlson. >> Item D is the establishment of the uh tax levy. Uh and the uh recommendation is to set the tax levy at the same dollar amount that we projected during our budget time. Uh which represents a 2.7% increase in the tax levy and complies with the tax gap. Uh we don't know uh we're still waiting for assessed values for uh Smith. We have Brook Haven. We're still waiting for Smithtown. Uh and we're also waiting for equalization rate from Brook Haven. We have it from Smithtown. So, we can't we can't um uh determine the tax rates yet. We don't set the tax rates anyway. The towns

102do that, but uh we set the tax levy. So, that's that item. Uh the next item is contract uh with outside service provider uh for special education services. This in accordance with uh students IEPs. Uh the next item uh F is uh two contracts for uh tutoring services uh also for uh children with special educational needs in accordance with their IEPs. Item G is uh authorization of use of reserves. Uh this is same as what we did last year. Uh we would prefer as much money in unassigned fund balance as opposed to restricted accounts. So this moves some money uh to off uh from retirement reserve and workers compensation reserve into the unassigned fund balance. Um as we've done in the last couple of years uh our reserves um uh decreased again this year for

103several reasons uh including the uh flooding at uh NASCAG and the midyear um health insurance increase. Uh we're hoping that over the next year or two we turn that around and start rebuilding our reserves. One of the ways we're doing that and I I've mentioned it a couple of times and I want to continue to mention it whenever I I any chance I get um is one of the our uh budget line items is uh separation pay which is uh what we use when when somebody retires and they get they get um paid for whether it be unused sick days or unused vacation days. Um we know that there are a lot of retire we've already seen an increase in the number of retirements each year and we know there's a lot coming. So uh

104each year we're increasing the amount in that budget code and that's that's uh what that's doing is two things for us. uh when we get to the point and and you know we we keep talking about all these retirements coming whether it be two 3 four 5 years from now when we start having numbers of maybe 30 40 50 teachers retire and I say teachers because that's who we have most of uh retiring each year it's a lot of money to pay out so we want to build that budget code up so we don't have to dip into reserves to pay that out when they retire um so we have the money within the budget to pay for for it cuz remember when somebody retires especially a teacher retires even when we replace them it's

105a significant cost savings. So so that's going to create some real real u you know there's the loss of the experience and and all of that. Yes. From a financial sense though uh it's going to create some significant financial opportunities for the district when we start seeing that. Even more so if we have the money in the budget to pay that out. Now, the the other benefit to doing that is in in the years where we have more in that budget code than than we need to spend out, that's money to start replenishing reserves. So, it it has a um um double advantage to doing that. So, I I I know I've said it before, but I want I want to keep saying it and we'll get to the budget advisory committee. I want to

106keep saying that because if someone says, "Why is that code going up so much?" Well, that's why. And that's how we're that's that's the key to how we're going to be able to start replenishing our reserves. So uh anyway, so this is to move uh some money um into unassigned fund balance as a reser uh compared to restricted accounts. Gives us more flexibility. Hope we have no more emergencies this year, but uh if we do, it's it's better that the money is there. And that's all I have. >> Okay. Thank you. Any questions about any of those items for Mr. Carlson? All right. And I apologize. I went a little too fast. There was the question about the bus stop arm. >> Yeah. Uh could you just explain uh just at a high level what

107this memo is? >> Which one? >> For uh 12c >> Oh, that was Oh. Oh, Chris. Uh that's Okay. Do you want to take that, Chris? You want me to talk about? >> Sure. >> So, okay. Oh, so the bus stop arm that was uh something that uh New York State authorized several years ago. Uh, as we all know, if you pass a stop school bus, uh, with the with the the the stop arm extended, the red lights flashing, it's I think it's a $250 fine, uh, on first occasion. So, uh, what the state did, I don't know if it's state level account. I I guess it's each county does it individually, but they've contracted with a company, I think it's based in Canada, to actually install the cameras. They do all the work. They

108collect the money. They share the money with the county and they give a little bit to us. Our recommendation to do this is not from the hey, we're going to get 50 I think it's $53,000. We got uh just over $30,000 last year for it. It's not we're not looking at it as hey this is a great way for us to get some money. It's safety of kids. >> Thank you. >> And and the uh um the the memorandum of agreement with the county uh was reviewed by Christmas. I think that's why Chris had uh addressed it earlier. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> There there was a lot of back and forth between Chris's office and the county to to iron out the the details on it. >> And just a side note about

109that, you know, we have a a very young legislative committee um here on our board, but uh we're sort of being taken under the wing by the middle country legislative committee. And that stop arm movement was started by parents and families and their legislative committee. And it started with one conversation with a mom at a bus stop saying these people keep driving right through the stop sign and that they went to their school district and the school district supported them through their legislative committee and students got involved and made it happen. So advocacy works. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. >> We will turn it over to Dr. Biscari beginning with H. Uh yes, H is a curriculum writing project edition uh which are some revisions to adjust uh the freshman and sophomore seminar which was

110formerly the sophomore seminar but this year we needed for freshman and sophomores. Um I is an affiliate an affiliation agreement with Hofra renewal for clinical placements. Um J is a memorandum of understanding with Hofra for their student teachers and observers for this school year. and K is a memorandum of agreement with Sunni pot stam for their student teachers and observers. >> Thank you. Any questions about those? Okay. L recommendations of the committee on special education subcommittee and 504 accommodation plan meetings as dated and M recommendations of the committee on preschool special education meetings as dated. And beginning with N, we turn it over to Dr. Dreski. >> Yes, thank you. NP um as we discuss in exec session about uh one of our administrators that may be uh unavoidably out for a period of time

111um as a result we're asking for the approval of the employees identified in NP um that we talked about also in exact session um to be approved for acting principal and act acting building principal and acting assistant principal to replace some people. uh Q personnel items instructional. Uh we have 10 instructional resignations and one instructional appointment. Uh we have several instructional uh several instructional substitute appointments as well as coaching, volunteering, and athlet athletic supervision assignments. We have several appointments for co-curricular sponsors for the 2526 school year, annual extra assignments, and several hourly extra assignments. Um our personnel items non-instructional, we have one non-instructional resignation. We have seven non-in We have one non-instructional retirement. I apologize. Seven non-instructional resignations which includes monitor special ed aids, food service workers, a special education aid and sack workers. Uh

112three non-instructional leaves of absence, three non-instructional appointments. Um five non-instructional stipens including sea assignments and EMT reertifications and three non-instructional sub appointments for three substitute monitors and special ed aids. Thank you so much. Any questions about any of those? All right. All in favor of all of the items in our consent agenda? Any oppose? No abstensions. That carries. Thank you so much. And that being said, do I see a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. Second.