001Good evening and welcome to our Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 board of education organizational meeting. Welcome. If you would please rise for the pledge of allegiance led by Dr. Scan. Thank you, Mr. Monto. Any changes to the meeting agenda? Yes, we have four changes. Number 4, E, student recognition, 8B, board goals. 8 C, contract concessions, and 8 D, clarification on reserves. Thank you. And in addition to that, for those of you who've been following board business, um we were left in a position where we had a vacancy unexpectedly and have spent some time thinking about what we wanted to do with that. Our three options by law were to either leave it vacant um to spend the money on a special election or the board has the ability to appoint somebody. um we all felt inclined
002toward appointing somebody but we felt strongly that for the community's sake it would be nice to appoint somebody that the community has actually already elected. So we turned to some of our wonderful pastboard members and uh I am happy to say that Mr. Vizo while he got one foot out the door was lassoed back in the door. So I'm going to read the resolution and then we will vote on it. Whereas effective May 19th of 2025 Mr. David McKinnon resigned his seat on the board of education resulting in a vacant seat on the board of ed education and whereas education law section 1709 authorizes the board to fill such vacancy by appointment. Now therefore be it resolved the board of education hereby appoints Vincent Vizo to the afor vacant seat and authorizes the oath of
003office to be administered to set individual effective immediately and said board members shall serve until the next regular school district election which is May 19th of 2026. Do I see a motion to approve this resolution? A second. Second. All in favor? No opposed? No abstensions. You're back. So [Applause] from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Come on up to Inger and we'll get you sworn in. Do you Vincent Vizo solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and Constitution of the State of New York and faithfully discharge the duties of trustee for the board of education according to the best of your ability? I will. Congratulations. Thank you. And you have to sign [Applause] right here. Okay. Where am I signing? Mhm. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Just like the
004godfather that's on 400 times a day. Just when you thought they you were gone, they pulled you right back in. Congratulations, Mr. Vizo. Come on back to your seat and you can reflip up your name plate. He is back in office. I even got candy. Yes. And you even I even brought you candy already. You're welcome. All right. While we are administering oaths, uh M. Dmano, I turn it over to you to continue with that. Okay. At this time, uh we need to have a nomination election for the president of the board of education uh for the 2526 uh school district by school year. Okay. I'd like to nominate Sue. Second. Thank you. All right. All in favor to keep me as president. Sorry. All in favor of keeping me as president. Any opposed? No
005abstensions. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Come on down. Come on down. Come on down. Turn it around this way. Okay. Can you raise your right hand? Okay. Do you, Susan E. Megros rose and swag solemnly swear that you would support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and faithfully discharge your duties of president for the board of education according to the best of your ability. I do. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] Wait, that's my Oh, you Thank you so much. Thank you. And moving on to vice president. I would like to nominate that Karen roughly continue in that position. Do I see a second? All in favor? No opposed? No abstensions. Congratulations. Please raise your right hand. Do you Karen Ruffle solemnly swear that you would
006support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and faithfully discharge the duties of Vice President for the Board of Education according to the best of your ability? I do. Congratulations. Thank you. right here. Congratulations again. And that brings us then to the nomination of the district clerk prom for the 202526 school year. Do we see a motion for somebody? I'd like to nominate Amy. Okay. Second. Second. All in favor? Now we'll pose. No extensions. Congratulations on me. [Applause] Okay, please raise your right hand. Do you Amativa Das so only swear that you would support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and faithfully discharge the duties of district clerk prom for the board of education according to the best
007of your ability? I do. Okay. Just sign right there. [Applause] Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. And though we're not going to make you sign the big book, now we get to recognize somebody else. So we turn it over to Dr. Scandlin for student recognition. Yes, it's nice that we have a recognition in the summer. There there are kids still around in the district in the summer. So this is July 1. So we still have some honores to go through this year. So this is a very special recognition uh and it goes to uh Sri Haran Shankar Narayan. Got it. All right. See, it took me a while to get it. I got it. So, in recognition of your outstanding achievement of being selected to participate in the prestigious summer program at John's Hopkins
008University to pursue advanced studies in electrical engineering and you're in seventh grade. Wow. Very, very impressive. Congratulations. [Applause] You want to do it? [Music] We're going to go up in front of the table. Congratulations. Ready? [Applause] So, no student wants to be in a board meeting on the first real summer day. So, you you qualify for ice cream now from your dad. So, you can go out and get that. But if you really want to be nice, you can bring back ice cream for all of us at the end. Congratulations again. And he was serious. You don't have to say. All right. We're going to move on to section five on our agenda now. The first is our appointment of our district clerk for the 202526 uh school year. What we're going to do is
009we're going to move items 5A through G together, but we'll just describe what each one of these is quickly. So again, that's for Mr. Mono to continue. B is the school district appointees for 2526. C the appointment of the district treasurer. D the appointment of the deputy district treasurer. E the appointment of the data protection officer. F the appointment of the DASA coordinator and G is the appointment of the title N officer. So do I see a motion to approve those? Second. All in favor? No opposed. No abstensions. So those items 5A through G carry. Thank you very much. Moving on to other appointments. Again, oh yes, I do have to give your oath. Hold on. Hold on. All right. Please raise your right hand. Do you, Inger Jano, solemnly swear that you will support
010the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and faithfully discharge the duties of district clerk according to the best of your ability? I do. Congratulations. Thank you so much. And you have to sign it here. I sign here. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Sorry. Money. All right. So, moving through these, same thing. We'll vote on 6 A through 6H, but I will describe them briefly. A is the appointment of our board of registration. That's Miss Germano. B, the appointment of the claims auditor. Mr. Carlson, would you like to discuss B through D? Certainly. Uh, district claims order auditor is Serenian Associates uh independent CPA firm. They've been doing our uh claims audit for a number of years. Uh they review uh every uh single cash dispersement we
011make. Uh next item is uh claims administrator for workers compensation. We're self-insured for workers compensation. Compensation uh saves us money instead of going through state insurance fund. Um and we uh use right risk management uh as the administrator for that. Uh we yeah m Dr. Scandal Dud. So appointment of the district representative for the SUFFK school employees health plan for this year is Mr. Carlson. Perfect. And actually, I'm just going to circle back. Mr. Mon, was there anything on A that you wanted to describe? Uh, A is just the board of registration for the Suffach County Board of Election Workers when we do um our uh uh voter registration. Okay, perfect. All right, then we'll continue with E, Mr. Carlson. E is the appointment of security management consultant. That's the uh Corporation Island Compliance Corporation,
012which is Mr. Blam's uh company to be our uh security uh oversee our security and be our chief emergency officer. Item F is the appointment of state aid specialists. Uh this is for school aid specialists. Uh they do uh uh consulting on all of our uh state aid uh filing as well especially um the uh filing of the stack forms for uh special education students. Um they maximize uh how much uh state aid we can get on all of those. Um the next item is the appointment of our internal auditor and that is the uh CPA firm of Nor Rocky Smith. This is uh if you remember at the last board meeting we appointed the external auditor. Uh tonight is the uh claims auditor was a couple items ago and this is the internal auditor.
013All independent uh CPA firms. Thank you. And H Dr. Scanland. Sure. Appointment of the section 504 compliance officer is Dr. Mscar. Okay. Any questions about any of those? Okay. So, do I see a motion to approve uh 6 A through H? Second. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? No abstensions. Okay. So, those carry. Thank you very much. Moving on to section seven designations. Uh beginning with a Miss Germano. Okay. For this year, the board has assigned uh liaison assignments are Arrowhead Elementary School for Karen Roughly Mosuli is uh Dr. Jeffrey Kerman. Mount Elementary is Karen Ruffley. Nessa Keg Elementary is Amativa Das. Satka Elementary is Susan Rosenwag. Julianis Middle School is Dr. Sherie Lee. Uh Murphy Middle School is Vincent Vizo. A Ward Melville High School and the Ward Melville High School and the Academy
014is Dr. Stanley Back. uh the PTA council and SEPTA it will be on a rotational basis and the um subcommittee assignments are audit the chair person is Dr. Jeffrey Kerman trustee one is Vincent Vizo trustee 2 is Amativas facilities committee chairperson is Vincent Vizo trustee one is Jeff Kerman trustee two is Amativas policy committee and the chairperson is Karen Ruffley trustee one is Susan Rosenwag trustee two is Dr. Bach legislative committee uh chairperson is Susan Rosenwag trustee one is Karen Ruffley and trustee two is Dr. Sherley thank you so much and for B and continuing Mr. Carlson. B is designation of banks. Uh, uh, JP Morgan, Chase Bank, Flushing Bank, and Webster Bank. That's, uh, no change. Designation of official newspapers is Long uh, Newsuesday, uh, Long Island Business News and the Village Times Herald.
015Uh, no change on that. authorized signatures on checks. Uh the treasurer and in the absence the um the deputy district treasurer uh and um any uh checks over $15,000 are co-signed by the superintendent or uh our assistant superintendent for educational uh uh for educational services. Sorry. Uh no change in in those. Um well that that's it for me for now. I think that's it for you. Perfect. Thank you. And for 7E, Miss Germano, that's for the time and dates of the uh board of education meetings for the 2526. It's currently the executive sessions at 5:00 and the um open session is at 7:00 p.m. Okay. So, we're here at North Country. Perfect. We're going to approve that tonight. But just to be noted for the future, for anyone who's keeping track, we are probably going
016to revisit that next month and push them back to where they used to be, which was 5:30 and 7:30. All right. Any questions on any of those? Okay. Okay. So, do I see a motion to approve 7 A through E? So, move. Second. Second. All in favor? No opposed? No abstensions. Thank you so much. All right. That brings us to items for board discussion. If we could uh hear about the district safety plan from Mr. Jack Lamb, please. So before you before you is the safety plan for the next school year. There's a couple of additions and changes. One change was the remote learning procedure which was changed slightly which you can read and also the uh heat emergency protocols which we actually remarkably tested right before the end of school and we actually reached
017a couple of the uh thresholds. So those two have been added in the appendix. The rest of the plan is pretty much the same as it's been. Um, it'll, if you approve that plan today, it'll go out for public view more than the required 30-day period. And at the August meeting, should we get any changes, I have an email address that directs the any comments from the community or the public directly to me. We'll look at those, review those, and if it's clear, you will accept the plan at the August meeting. And just a point of clarification, if the community reads it and has questions or suggestions, how would they get those to you? via a special email address. Okay. And that's up on the website or it will be up on the website. Yep.
018It's still up there. Yep. Okay. Perfect. So, do we see a motion to approve the district-wide safety plan? So, move. A second. Second. All in favor? No. Opposed? No abstensions. Okay. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Quite welcome. Okay. And some of our added items now. Um, board goals. So what we did as a starting point is we took the board goals which are up on the wall somewhere uh from this year and reviewed them and um adapted them as we as we see fit. So this is just a discussion the first discussion and then we will approve these later in the summer. So I open it up to the fellow trustees for your comments or thoughts. Hi. Um, under student achievement and engagement, we completed the implementation of the transition between 9th and
019um, sixth grade. So, I think we could take that off of our goals, which we're very appreciative of. Thank you to all our administration right there. Um, the piloting the new math programs we completed, so we could take that off as well. Um, the rest looks good to me. Um I would like to add something in um further furthering looking into various CTE programs. I know Dr. Pascari is uh working on that now. And also um looking to investigate maybe adding an uh program with the school to pursue associate degrees. Um, and then under safety and security, uh, the I think we could take off the anti-bullying committee because we did that last year. So, that was completed, but I would like to add in the superintendent task force that we just created. Um, under
020budget development, I'd like to add a bullet in on um, our real estate and how we're looking at the properties that we own, if we want to sell or not. And that's all I have. Okay. Who else? So this year due to budget contingency, we removed some of the programs. So I would like to see if there's a chance we can bring them back. So where where would you want to put that under student achievement engagement uh to to add? Yeah, I think so. Discontinued programs. Okay. Anybody else? Okay, I'll do my changes real quick if you want to think. Um, I actually thought rather than yanking the the um transitions of the ninth and sixth, I thought we could just see oversee a smooth transition for the ninth and sixth grades to the high
021school, but not a big deal. Um, uh, and same with the cell phones. I changed the got rid of evaluate and changed to implement the new cell phone procedures as per New York state law. agreed with you the superintendent's task force should be under safety and security and also under safety and security should be continued the exploration of the introduction of armed security um budget development I also had the property analysis committee and then under community engagement um and we'd have to massage the language a little but I had something to the effect of explore ways to educate the community about the resources available to students for example mental health supports um the opportunities for anonymous reporting how to use a DASA things like that. Anybody else? Okay, that was pretty good for a first
022go round. Thank you. All right, so that brings us to uh our added item C. I just wanted to circle back. We talked a lot through the budget process about um things that had to go away and I felt like we maybe we didn't give enough attention to the people who were very willingly made concessions uh contract concessions. So, we wanted to talk a little bit about that. Certainly. So, uh there's been a lot of uh rumors and conjecture on social media in the district about what was done and what was not done. So, again, once again, the several of our units, especially our bigger units, uh the teachers union took a freeze, a 0% increase for next year, as did the administrative unit, which we're very appreciative of. Um administrative unit extended the contract
023out one year. Um and this was to prevent the the whole scale large number of cuts that we would have had to make in that unit. Almost 20% of the unit would have been removed. Um the same was true for the teachers unit. Um they actually the concessions they made helped preserve the uh some of the positions that we were looking at the cut in in the in the schools as well as what we had had to do with the um the cuts for the uh start time. So very appreciative of that. At the same time, I also want to acknowledge the the cabinet members. Uh Mr. Carlson's position as an interim that some folks have been saying, why can't we hire another in another person? Um his position actually saved us this year about
024$170,000 and going forward for next year. It's about the same if not more as every year it increases. And to Dr. Viscari and Dr. Dusky and Mr. Wells who's in the audience here, um they took zeros as well. So, we're all very appreciative of their support to try to get us through this rough time. So I am proud to work with all of them and it should be noted that Dr. Scanland as superintendent also took a zero this year. We appreciate every single one of you truly. So thank you. Thank youidential secretary and the confidential secretaries did as well. Yes. Yep. And anger. Yep. So everybody everybody rolled up their sleeves and did their part and we just really appreciate it. So thank you. Okay. And also circling back to one more budget note. Uh
025we just wanted to offer a little bit of clarification to the community about the reserves and the use of the reserves. So we'll turn that over to Mr. Carlson. Uh, sure. At, uh, last board meeting, uh, the board approved use use of reserves for, uh, was two separate items. Uh, one was the, um, uh, repairs and cleanup for uh, from the flooding at NESG last August. Uh, the total cost of that was about $1.75 million. Um, it was unbelievable flooding we had. Um and uh we did not have $1.7 million budgeted for building repairs to NASCAG. So that money came from reserves to pay for that. Now, we're hopeful, pretty hope, pretty confident, too, that we will get a substantial amount of that, I don't know exactly what substantial means, uh reimbursement of that money
026from FEMA. Uh we've been working with FEMA. Jason Grevky, our facilities director, and uh Katherryn Klein, our uh director of business services, have been working for months with FEMA. Um uh FEMA themselves are are confident that we will get a a sizable chunk. Again, I don't know exactly what that means, but more than half uh of that back. Um and that it shouldn't take too long. What that means, again, I don't know exactly, but but they're pretty confident it won't take that long. Um now our of course our recommendation would be whenever that money comes in it goes right back into reserves to at least replenish some of what we took out. Uh the other piece that we did and that's a that was a a one-time expense. Um and that is something that when
027we say talk about rainy day well that was a rainy day. We had over 13 inches of rain that day. Uh or no I think it was over 10 inches. whatever it was, we all see Harbor Road still still out of commission from that. That was the same storm. So, talk about a rainy day fund. As I said, that was that was quite the rainy day. And that's that's the kind of thing we have reserves in for in the first place. Uh an emergency like that. Um the other piece that we use reser and we did the same thing the previous year with Satarit when we had the roof in the auditorium start to come down. Uh the other piece uh that we used uh reserves for was the midyear health insurance increase that we
028had this year. We've never had that before. Uh and it cost about $800,000. Um so when when we talk about using reserves, um it's it's I similar to like if you were doing your your home budget, right? So if you do your home budget and say, "Okay, here's how much for this month. Here's how much my my take-home pay is. And then here's my expenses. here's my mortgage and my utilities and my car insurance and food and whatever. And you say, "Oh, well, my expenses are more than my take-home pay." Well, really, probably most of us would just say, "Well, we have to cut back on expenses somehow." Now, if you just said, "Well, that's okay. We'll just pull money out of savings." Well, that's fine for this month, but what about next month? And
029if it's an ongoing thing and every month now you have to take money out of savings just to balance your budget for the month, well eventually savings are going to run out and then you're going to be still have the same expenses. Um so it's the same with us. So if we use and uh pull money out of reserves for operational expenses, the problem with that is that's fine for the the first time, but at some point that money needs to get into the budget if it's if it's a an ongoing recurring expense such as health insurance. So we had the the in mid-year increase in health insurance. So the midyear the increase was January 1. So if we're and that was about $800,000 if it for a full year that would be $1.6 million.
030Well, so so we we didn't have enough in the in the 2425 budget to to pay that. Hence the use of reserves for the 2526 budget when we said our health insurance is go going up by more than $5 million. That was the first 1.6 million of it. uh now that what we had $800,000 from January 25 through June 30th of 25 that $800,000 now we go to the new school year we have that for a full year. So that's before we even started budgeting that was already a $1.6 million increase to health insurance for for the the new year that starts today. Um before there's even uh health insurance increase for the new year. That was that was that first $1.6 $6 million. On top of that, health insurance, we had the midyear increase
031and then another increase that effective as of today and that increased it by another approximately it was a little more than uh 3 $8 million. Hence the uh little over $5 million total when you when you add it all together. Uh so uh not ideal. We'd never want to dip into reserves, but that as I said, like like with the NASA cake thing, that's why they're there for an emergency. Um, and the bottom line is we we we the only other choice we would have had was would have been to cut something in the middle of the year uh to make up that uh that money. So that's why the the board approved using the reserves for that. that that money now is in the budget for the new year along with the the new
032year's health insurance increase that starts today. Does that clear it up? I mean, there's I think it does. It was more there were some community questions. So, hopefully that cleared it up. So, thank you. I appreciate it. All right. So, we move on now to our public comment period, but I do not think we have Well, actually, I just wanted to say something. Um, I just wanted to congratulate our class of 2025 that just graduated. Um, and I also wanted to give out a few thank yous because we had a very busy week at the high school. Prom was fantastic. Graduation was fantastic. A lot of our admins here, um, Serola, it it was wonderful. So, I think I've only heard positive things. Our facilities group was great. Security, thank you very much. Um, I
033just think this last week was great. The kids enjoyed it. We've only heard positive things from the parents. Um, and I know it was a lot of work and a lot of hours, so we thank you. 100%. [Applause] And I also just also wanted to thank uh the advisers for the prom committee and all of the parents that went out there and helped put up all the decorations. It was unbelievable to share. It was unbelievable. I brought my brother and sister-in-law here who were a little I don't know skeptical and they're like, "Oh, why is your district so cheap? You do it at your school." And they were like, they just couldn't believe it. They were just blown away. So, thank you for everything. It was really fantastic. All right. Um, so now to public
034comment. Do we see any public comments? No public comments. Okay. All right. Moving on then to our policy. First reads, Mr. Germano. Okay. Uh, policy 5695, personal electronic devices. Um, that's the policy that you received in executive session. Uh, it's required by um state education department now to have the governor actually the governor uh put that forward. Um, did you have any questions or Dr. Scallinger? Do you want to add anything? Sure. So, just to clarify once again, uh we must have this approved this evening because the regulation has to go into effect for August 1st for notification to families and students in the district. So, since we don't have another board meeting before August 1st, tonight's the night. Um part of this is there's a bell-to-bell ban of all internet assisted devices with the
035exception of those issued by the school district. So, the Chromebooks are fine for the students to use. Um there was some questions about well would faculty and staff and administration be doing the same thing. One of the issues that we have with that is we are we have a system where we have multiffactor authentication for the teachers administrators. They have to use a secondary device outside of the school device in order to get into some of our systems. So we can't have them losing their cell phones. It doesn't have to be that they're out the whole time, but in order to get into Google Classroom or if the campus or anything else that we use, we have to have that MFA for them. There is an exception for students with 504s or IEPs for health
036reasons. Uh, and then we'll deal with that on a case- by case basis. There also was the issue that we had to specify for storage. So, at the secondary level, we're just going to use the lockers. Uh, we have enough to go around for the students to do that. That the device has to be turned off and kept in in the locker. Um, as long as we don't have it going off throughout the entire day, we should be fine. Uh, we're not going to be checking lockers. We got enough to do without doing that. We are not buying any uh storage bags or anything else. That is been it's at a huge expense. Um, and it's also a headache to try to get it all in and then get it back out. Elementary, there is
037actually no change from our existing policy. The cell phones are been banned already from the bus stop all the way through to the when they return home. uh the secondary though they will be allowed to use it before and after school. So that means for after school activities, extra help, sports, um all permissible at that time or even before school and then also just for clarification because I know this will start to set some folks off about how do we get in touch with our child. Notification from the parents to the school is through the main offices of the schools. Uh for students though if they have to call out the elementarymentaries it's through the main office and for the secondaries um it will be main office guidance office and the nurs's office. We will
038specify that once the policy is written in a superintendent's bulletin to all the staff administration and and faculty so they're aware about all the different areas that they can have to go through. Any questions? Just a clarification um placement of phones. If if some secondary students do not use their lockers they can use their backpacks. Absolutely right. So, it could be locker or as long as it's not out and as long as it's not being used, it's perfectly um and it's turned off, right? And all of the information about uh parents to call and kids calling home, you're going to be sending out multiple documentation. We actually have to. Yes. So, the first one will be in the an early letter. It's normally earlier than we do by August 1st. We'll repeat the same communication
039uh before we start school uh which is remember the Tuesday after Labor Day. and then all the back to school nights in all the schools were repeated again. Uh despite that, someone will say that they hadn't heard it. So I just let everyone know that we will that will always the case. So okay, any other questions? All right. So I'm going to go work backwards here for a second because of timing. Um we probably should wave first read on these. So do I see a motion to wave first read on just 10? We're going to go through the next two in a second. I wish I had to wave the first read first. So on just items 10, A, B, and C, do I see a motion to wave first read? So moved. Second. Second.
040All in favor of waving first read. Okay. So now we continue. So um barring no other questions on A, do I see a motion to approve A, which is 5695 personal electronic devices policy. Motion. Okay. Second. All in favor? No opposed? No abstensions. Okay. So that passes. Next we're going to go to the workplace violence prevention plan. Dr. Dusky. Yes. Uh, labor law 27 was amended uh as labor law 27b uh regarding workplace violence prevention policy and training. Um, as a result uh school districts are now uh mandated to develop and implement written workplace violent prevention policies. Uh what you see in front of you is a copy of that policy. U Matt Wells worked tirelessly. He he led um a group of folk cross-section of of employees in three village and they work together
041to to develop the the bare bones of this now. Okay. Any questions about that policy? Okay. Do I see a motion to approve the workplace violence prevention plan? So move. Second. All in favor? No opposed. No abstensions. Thank you so much. All right. And now item C which is 5300 our code of conduct. Dr. Scanland. So once again uh so the the personal electronic devices gets now embedded into the code of conduct. So we will have the delineation about consequences for the uh use of devices under the regulation. Again we are not permitted to suspend students for violations of this policy. So we could give detentions uh we can give other consequences but no suspensions are permissible under the policy. In addition to that, from the work from the task forces, we're we're working on
042definitions uh for the terms that we've indicated such as anti-semitism, Islamophobia, racism. Uh the Islamophobia task force met last week. The anti-semitism task force met a couple of weeks ago. Uh we submitted those to the attorneys. They're working on the legal definitions. We just received the anti-semitism definition back now. Now, um, interestingly enough, the one that we worked off of at the task force meeting for anti-semitism actually states in it that this is not a legal definition. So, when that gets to an attorney, what do they say? It doesn't pass. So, it has to be the legal definition. So, tomorrow evening in this room is the task force for uh racism. So, they'll be working on the same thing. And then the othering task force will be the week of the 14th. Um, so that's
043the changes in the code of cognit. Now the consequences for those areas within the task force have been moved up to the level of what we would consider for weapons possession, drug possession. So the expectation from an age appropriate and cognitive development appropriate level of discipline for those use of any of those terminologies in our district or any offenses in those areas. So thankfully we have not had any physical acts uh against any of these yet um or those at least nonreported. um those have to be uh reiterated once again. And to your point, Sue, about making sure that our students are aware of the multiple ways that they could report things, we're going to re-emphasize in those communications. uh when we talk about these things, not just about the cell phone policy, but these
044other topics, the safe schools hotline, the GGardian uh system that we also use and several of the other um cards that we have with all the different numbers for all the different areas, we'll be reissuing out to all students and parents and staff members in the district so they're aware of all the ways that things can be reported to the district or to the proper authorities. Thank you. And just a a housekeeping point, I apologize that you know if you go into board docs and you look at tonight's agenda, we were having some major technical communication issues with the code of conduct. So what's up there parts of the day were incorrect and that piece about the personal electronic devices was not exactly right. So our apologies. We know what it's supposed to say internally.
045That's what we're voting on tonight. The corrected, amended, and and uh fully implemented versions that keep us up to date with the law and with the needs of our school. So that's what we are voting on tonight. So do I see a motion to vote on 5300 the code of conduct? A second. All in favor? No opposed? No abstensions. Thank you. That is approved. Uh Miss Germano, item 11. Item 11. These uh policies were presented to you by our attorney uh Chris Maki at the June 18th uh board of education meeting. This is basically part of um the process that we have to go through a second read. Um, do did anybody have any changes or questions that they wanted to make? No. Okay. So, seeing no changes, uh, do I see a motion to
046approve the policies listed in item 11 A through N? So, move. A second. Second. All in favor? No opposed? No extensions. So, those carry. Thank you so much. Uh, we do not have any items for board action. So, that will bring us down to our consent agenda. Do I see a motion for the consent agenda? So second. All right, we begin with a Miss Dano. Those are the minutes from the June 18th board of education meeting. Uh the acceptance of policies are the um financial policies uh that we need to accept every uh organizational meeting. Statement asurances uh for the board members. We didn't have any conflicts reported. Uh authorization of destruction of cast ballots. That's from the 2024 budget vote and election. After one year, we're able to destroy those as long as we
047uh pass a resolution. The same thing with the unused ballots for e the MS Clark memorial library budget vote that is in our district. We actually oversee this has given us authority to um oversee the election and the renewal of the school board memberships for 2526. Those are Suffach count uh Nassau Suffach school board associations, NISBA and SCOPE. Okay. Any questions about those? All right, we'll continue. H, Dr. Scandan. Yes, this is the appointment of the superintendent's hearing officers. We have two individuals that are appointed again for this coming school year. Any questions about that? Okay, beginning with I, Mr. Carlson. Uh, thank you. I have I through W. Uh, so I is acceptance of donations. We have four donations. Uh, first is a check for $100 from the Northshore Jewish Jewish Center Seniors Social
048Club to the Ward Melville Honors Jazz Ensemble. Uh, we have a check for $350 from Jan and Thomas Kavazangian to the Ward Melville scholarship fund for the Laura Cava Zangian Scholarship. a check for $500 from the SUFFK Association of School Business Officials um for the scholarship fund to a uh to be awarded to a deserving uh graduating senior. Uh and three new picnic tables from the sixth grade committee at Arrowhead Elementary School uh in honor of the last sixth grade class to be graduating from there. Uh the next item is uh approval of budgetary transfer. Now, you might say it's J July 1st and we're already doing a budget transfer. Um, and not only that, it's for $120,000. Well, here's why. So, um, so part of included in our budget is the cost of Chromebooks
049uh with white glove service uh for the new school year. Um, uh, Dear Drew Rubin's drunk was able to get the price down from what was originally thought it was going to be. uh and it brings it uh down below the level that it would require to be paid for out of an equipment code. So, we're transferring the money from an equipment code into a supply code uh to pay for these. It wasn't through lack of, you know, foresight. It was actually uh Dear Drew was able to uh save us some money. Uh also, not being sure if this was going to happen this way, we budgeted the money in equipment because we can transfer from equipment to supplies but not the other way around. Uh so the next item is uh uh our uh
050contract with uh the MS Clark library for library services uh for the year. Uh the item after that is renewal of participation in the uh school breakfast and lunch programs and the free and reduced breakfast and lunch programs. Now, as we all know in the uh included in the state budget for this year was free lunch for all students. Um but they the state will pay what the federal government doesn't. So the the normal free lunch program is through the USDA where we get most of the money from the federal government for free and reduced price lunches. So, we still have to go through that process and we still have to apply to the USDA for all of the um students who are traditionally eligible for free lunch based on their guidelines. We still have
051to do that. Then the state will reimburse us the the difference in cost. So, uh, the good news for our, uh, students based on the on the on the kids who bought lunch, not the free lunch kids, the kids who had to, uh, buy lunch, uh, this past year, that would save them about $950,000 collectively for the whole year uh, that we'll now get from the state uh, instead of them. And we're also we're assuming that participation will go up because all uh, students are eligible for free lunch. This goes back to uh during COVID all kids got free lunch and participation was way up uh compared to um when when they don't all get free lunch. So um so this this uh should work out well. Um the next item is N is job
052titles requiring use of a district cell phone. Uh the only uh difference on this uh for this year is our public relations specialist. We added uh the uh establishment of petty cash funds. No change. Uh we only have four. There's the superintendent, the district clerk, uh our athletic director, uh Kevin Finney, and that one is much higher. And most of that has to do with the uh summer travel camp uh because a lot of times they need cash for certain uh uh certain trips that they do. And the other one is the academy uh principal, Mr. G. Uh the next item is participation in cooperative bids for cafeteria and food supplies. Uh we're a member of the Long Island School Nutrition Directors Association uh for co-op bids. Um us along with uh most school districts
053from Long Island, we we use the cooperative uh to do the bidding and uh we get good prices from them. Uh the next item is the authorization to sign stack forms and report stack forms. Stack is the system for tracking and accountability of children. This is uh where we basically apply for uh uh state aid money uh related to special education services. Uh and this authorizes Dr. Biscari as the uh uh signature on the uh stack forms. Uh the next item is renewal of Omni 403b services agreement. Omni 403b is the uh company that we use to administer our tax uh deferred annuity plan for our employees. uh all employees are eligible for it. It's at their discretion. They can they can put money in uh to this uh on a tax uh tax deferred
054basis and uh we've been using this company for a number of years and there's a myriad of rules and regulations IRS rules and regulations. Uh so that's why we use Omni for that. Uh next item is appointment of chief emergency officer and asbesus compliance officer. That's Mr. Blam. Next item is approval of extension of contracts with outside service providers for special ed uh tutoring services for the uh new school year. Item after that is a new contract for outside service provider for um special education services. This is for uh uh psychiatric evaluations. Uh that next item is a uh approval of an intermunicipal agreement with the town of Brook Haven. Uh this is uh they had requested to put a uh glass bottle recycling bin uh either here at North Country or Nichols Road. We
055said Nichols Road would be better. Um so there's in the one on the south uh side of the building in that parking lot, there's already a dumpster there. Uh and there's a spot next to that where they could put a bin right next to that. It won't doesn't cost us anything. Uh the next item is the approval of license agreement with the American Society of Composers, Authors and uh publishers. We pay the school district rate for uh this is for royalties for certain certain songs. Doesn't include the theater productions uh but for use of songs uh that are copyrighted. Uh the next item is a participation in a cooperative bid uh with uh the city of Tucson uh and we did not have to travel there to uh to to meet with them. Uh this
056is they had a contract with Leslie's pool supplies for uh pool supplies, chemicals, and equipment with good pricing. Does not cost us anything to uh it's called piggybacking on that contract. Uh and I think that was it for me. Perfect. All right. Any questions on any of those? I will just say I'm thrilled about the glass recycling. I think that's terrific because it just there's nothing between here and Smithtown. So, and that was Mr. Corn uh asked about that. Perfect. Okay. Um, moving on now, beginning with X, Dr. Biscari. Uh, yes, this is the annual authorization for teachers to participate at committee meetings outside of the contractual day. Uh, we started doing that a couple years back and it saved us money with substitutes and, you know, maintains uh, the instruction that's going on inside
057of our classrooms as well. uh Y is an additional curriculum writing project in addition to what was approved at the last meeting. Um we have to revamp um our guidance our elementary guidance curriculum now that sixth grade is moving up to um up to the middle schools. Um Z is the approval of district committees and task forces which we do annually. Um all the committees there aren't any additional committees um other than the ones that were approved for this past year. uh AA, BB and CC are all affiliation agreement updates from LIU Malloy and St. Bonaventure for the clinical placements of uh of their students in our school district. Um DD is the authorization to designate impartial hearing officers. So this is basically um this is basically allowing the board of ed president and in
058her absence the board of ed vice president um to appoint impartial hearing officers between meetings. Um and then E is the actual approval of the impartial hearing officers uh from the IHO rotational list that we receive from New York State Education Department. And finally, FF is the appointment of the committees on special education for the 2526 school year. Thank you. Any questions about any of those items? Okay. So, we continue beginning with GG, Dr. Drosski. Yes, GG. The approval of non-aligned positions and salary adjustments for 2425. Uh there were some adjustments made to the hourly rate for clerical subs and the summer wreck employees from uh the board approval on June 18th. So, we look to remediate that. HH is the authorization to assign employees to one-on-one supervision, chaperoning, supervision, and class coverage for all
059permanent employees. Uh, this allows us to just do a mass approval so that every time somebody uh completes one of these activities, they don't need individual board approval. Um, I the uh appointment of unemployment insurance services for 2526. Uh this is the uh appointment of the company uh UI industrial uh that helps support the district with unemployment claims. Um JJ, the appointment of the affordable care compliance consulting service. Uh this is the appointment of the company that ultimately supports the school district with mandated compliance and IRS compliance. KK appointment of school physicians and school medical inspector. Uh this is what we typically do every year. This our chief medical officer Dr. Susman will be returning. uh he makes recommendations for the folks to work with us at our sporting events and and other events. Uh
060this is a list of those folks that have been approved that uh you are scheduled to approve. Um LL approval of memorandum of agreement recalling excers as permanent subs. So as we've done in the past um the district uh kindly allowed us to call the few people back who are excessed and do not have a position for next year and allow them to be a permanent sub. uh you have allowed again uh us to do that for two employees and this will recall them in a permanent subcapacity uh mm resolution recalling excess teachers for 2526. So this is going to start as we've excessed a lot of teachers uh once we find out that there are leave of absences whether long or short term um our goal and law is to recall them. So, we
061will be recalling um three employees as a result of um the employees in the same tenure area being out on long-term absences. NN personnel items instructal. Uh we have 10 instructional resignations. Uh we have two administrative appointments. We have 11 instructional appointments, 22 instructional substitute appointments, several fall coaching and athletic supervision, annual extra assignments, summer work and summer program assignments, as well as uh 14 department chair appointments. OO non-instructional. Uh we have several non-instructional retirements, several non-instructional resignations, uh one non-instructional appointment, seven non-instructional substitute appointments, as well as several appointments to summer wreck and non-instructional appointments to the extended schoolyear program. Thank you so much. And any recognitions this evening? I would love to make a recognition. Yes. Um so the two the two administrative appointments that you have tonight, one is um Ashley Oer.
062Uh she is moving from our director of music to our director of fine arts as she has happily accepted the assignment of adding art to her supervision. And I would like to recognize and congratulate Alis Allison Herschef as she is our new AP at Warville High School. So Congratulations. All right. All in favor of all of the items included in our consent agenda. So move. Any opposed? No abstensions. Thank you so much. That is approved. That being said, do I see a motion to adjurnn? Second. All in favor? We are adjourned. Thank you everybody. of a G.