001Good evening and welcome to our Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 board of education meeting. At this time, we would like to ask Hazel to please lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. This is a wonderful, exciting, happy evening and we will get right to it. Dr. Dresky, take us away. Yes, ma'am. So, good evening everyone. Um tonight we're thrilled because we proudly celebrate a significant milestone, the earning of tenure by our dedicated administrators, teachers, and teaching assistants. This achievement reflects not only your unwavering commitment to excellent excellence, but also your alignment with our district's high standards and expectations. Tenure is simply
002is not simply a recognition of time served. Although I know by now you feel like it's time served. Um, it really is a testament to the impact you've made on our students, our colleagues, your colleagues, and the broader school community. As we look ahead, we're excited to see how you will continue to innovate and challenge future generations of learners. So, congratulations and thank you for all that you do to inspire and shape the minds of our students. So, first and foremost, congratulations. I would like to start off by calling up uh each building administrator one by one. So, first Jim G, if you could please come up. And I would like to congratulate and recognize Luke Mishko. Luke, could you please come up? And I think Luke, I'm going to embarrass you, but if you
003could remain up there with the whole group, we're going to take a nice group picture. So, I appreciate that. Um, next, Mrs. Redden. I believe I've seen you. Mrs. Redden, please come up. And Miss Horowitz. And I would like to start by recognizing and congratulating the following people from Arrowhead Elementary School. Kayla Cosgrove. Kayla, please come up. Donna Hunter, please come up. Jennifer Murphy, could you please come up? and Donna Randazzo, please come [Applause] up and I'm going to ask our folks to remain up in the front for a group picture. It'll be about another half hour, but we will get to that picture. I promise. Um, Dr. Pickford from Mosaki, are you here? you are. So I would like to recognize from recognize and congratulate Josephine Marangolo. Please come [Applause] up. Marilene, are you
004available to come up front? Marilyn Hydrickch. So, from Mount Elementary School, um I would like to recognize Lori Dryer, Mary Gar, Shelantry Reyes, Alicia [Applause] Robles, and Gina Scarpool. And Dr. Viscari, if you could help me with this next one. Congratulations to Marilyn Hydrickch. [Applause] Uh, Mr. Prada, are you available to come up? So I would like to recognize the following people from Satan Elementary School. Stephanie Peragalo. [Applause] Congratulations. Joanne Walters. [Applause] and Danielle [Applause] Wilkinson. Mr. Jansen, please come forward. Thank you. I would like to recognize and congratulate the following tenurees from Murphy Junior High School. First, Kathy Bazinka. [Applause] Hi Huff, please come up. And Sarah Tibil, please come up. Sarah, is that for you? Somebody misses you. Ready? Okay. Mr. Helonia. I'd like to congratulate and recognize the following folks from Ward
005Melville High School. Logan Aravvenian, please come up. Raymond Epoquin, please come up. Tina Marie Fricia, please come up. Dr. Rachel Laroo, please come up. Caitlyn Luisu, please come up. Frederick Sudama, please come up. Elise Werner, please come up. And Stacy Zidman, please come up. And last, but certainly not least, I would like to recognize and congratulate Dr. Brian Biscari. Congratulations. [Applause] There is no revote. So, if we can get folks together, if somebody can help us with one nice picture of the group, uh, we're going to do our best to try here. And then let's all file in No. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So ifile wait before you before you go away let's you got a few more pictures and we want on behalf of the district we want to congratulate all of you
006this is the second milestone your first was getting hired your second is getting tenure The third is your retirement. We just celebrated that last week. I'll probably be dead before some of you are retired. So, just let you know. Congratulations on that in case I'm not here. So, we're now going to have a nice reception for everyone down the hall in the training room. So, congratulations and thank you to all your family for coming as well. Their support is the reason why you're here. Thank you again. Well, welcome back and again congratulations to all those receiving tenure this evening. We're very proud of you. All right, that brings us to item 5A on our agenda. Miss German, any changes to the meeting agenda? We have one change, an addition of 10A, approval of representation and
007indemnification. Thank you. Okay. So, we move on to 6A. Satake Fire Department recognition. Dr. Scantland. Yes. So, we've been presented with a plaque from the members of the Satake Fire Department and the Satake Volunteer Firemen's Benevolence Association thanking the district for their generous support of the 911 memorial. We assisted uh them and helping reconstruct the memorial. This is indicative of municipal cooperation. one agency helping another agency, especially to do such a worthwhile cause as this. And this is stuff we do every day in this district. And we are grateful for the members of our fire department, the volunteers that risk their lives every day for all of us. And this will grace the the boardroom here. Very shortly, we'll put it up on the wall. And thank you to the fire department and all the
008volunteers in the community for all the fire departments in Stony Brook and SATA target for what they do for our community. Thank you. Indeed. Thank you. All right. Right. So, I'm going to throw one in here. Um, our wonderful student representative, Hazel Kohas, is winding down her time and her tenure here. She's been fantastic. And Hazel, we just want to tell you, you were a breath of fresh air. We could always count on you to to not only give us the scoop, give us the feel for life at W Melville, but you would weigh in with no prompting on conversations that were difficult and needed a student's perspective. and we really appreciate it. We know you are going to do amazing as you head up to the Woollies of Maine. Culp is very lucky to
009have you and we really hope you're going to come back and visit us. But we do have a couple of things for you. We have a certificate. We have a couple of gifts from the board and we have a scholarship uh from the district for $500. So, come on over. D on. Yeah. Come on over, Anger. Can you take a picture? We don't have or whatever. Someone with a cell phone. So, here is flowers. Here's a little gift from the board. Here's your check. Here's your certificate. You can look at prices, right? Can you hold that? Thank you so much. All right, Karen, come get in a picture. I think the whole board should Come on. Let's show everybody up. Let's go in front. Let's go in front. Do a picturebody. We're going to feel
010like you should be in perfect. Let's put you right in the middle here in front of the logo. I don't think we need a second. [Applause] Give you a report. you make it. Yes. So, now that we got you in full flush, whenever you're ready, we will turn it over to you for your report. Um, good evening everyone. So, as we kind of just discussed, I can't believe that I'm nearing the end of my high school reports here. Um, this year has gone by so so quickly. And like I've mentioned at some of the past meetings, this time of year brings so many exciting events and activities award Melville. For one, some classes have recently had some super amazing opportunities, such as the criminal justice classes who have just had the chance to visit the
011central ISELUP courthouse where they got to learn more about the behind the scenes of the court from court officers to clerks and county reporters. Students even got to observe an active trial in session. Um, this field trip is just one of some others from the class, including visiting a jail. And I know last year taking the class, I even got to visit the New York Police Academy. These are all such great opportunities. Um, and a part of taking the class, they're so great. So, to add, um, at the school, Miss Leiden's early childhood development class welcomed the prek students for a little patriots playgroup for the second year, um, where it was a safari themed event which welcomed incoming prek students for a fun and introductive in interactive introduction to their new school community and
012meet their new classmates before starting in the fall. Also the three village ENL which is English as a new language department celebrated culture unity at the annual dinner around the world. Families shared homemade dishes from their native countries which showc showcased a variety of international cuisine and traditions. Um this night not only brought together different cultures um pres represented in our school but families and friends together for an amazing night. At school last week, our English department held our annual poetry day. While this day is typically held outside in the front, the weather moved it indoors. But despite this location change, the day was the same as always. Such a fun end cap to the school year. I know everyone looks forward to it in the weeks prior. Um it was so exciting to sit
013in throughout the day and hear students, teachers, and faculty get up and read their favorite poems. um sitting in and listening to the words from all different authors, poem poets and listening to different themes and messages was such a nice way to spend the day. Last week also brought this year's plays in a day event which is hosted by our cineabar. Um this is a day where students can sign up to write, direct and pl practice plays all in just the one school day um which are then performed that night. I know so many people who got involved and loved this event and it was clear through the amazing plays that were written again in just one day um the talent of some of my classmates. For our athletes, Warren Mobile recently recognized and celebrated
01463 student athletes who are committed to continuing their athletic as well as academic careers in college. From staying close to home to going across the country, our athletes have put in so much work to get to where they are today and the celebration was welld deserved. And lastly, in some senior news, for the past week, the science hallway has been bustling with excitement as prom ticket sales occurred. A big thank you to the parents who sat and helped us through the process of getting our tickets, picking our tables, and even distributing letters to us from the elementary school students about safety at prom and in just this season of high school. And moreover, the end of year events are officially underway as many honor societies such as National Honor Society, English Honor Society, Math Tri,
015and World Language have recently held their induction ceremonies. And upcoming this week, we also have academic awards tomorrow and athletic award assemblies to really kickstart these senior events upcoming in the next week. Um, I know myself and my peers are all in very much excited anticipation of everything to come. Thank you. Thank you, Hazel. We appreciate it. We look forward to seeing you one more time at the next meeting where you will introduce us into the lucky person taking over for you next year. So, looking forward to it. All right. That takes us to 7B. Dr. Scamlin, an update. Yes. So, uh the property analysis committee or PAC has been working very, uh diligently on, uh their consensus agreement on what the recommendations will be. The property analysis committee, remember, was convened to review the
016different properties that the district owns and make recommendations to the board of education on potential either sale or rental or lease of some of these areas. Uh we'll be holding one more meeting uh to get the consensus with them on this Monday, June 9th. Um it'll probably a virtual meeting with everyone and we'll try to get some uh determination about what they would like to put forward as recommendations. So there are several properties they've looked at including the Nichols Road property, the Hawkins Road property, piece of land off of Gelinus. Um there so and poss possibly rental of either fully or partially of North Country as well. So a lot of good considerations that they're going through and deliberations and I thank all the members of the committee for their steadfast support. We will need
017to do some RFPs for a broker and an assessor of the properties and before any sales would be permissible at any point in time. So their meeting is next week and then we will get the report from them at our next board meeting at the June 8th. Perfect. 18th meeting. Perfect. Thank you so much. And we'll keep it with you for the superintendent task force on anti-semitism. Certainly. So the uh the governing committee of the uh superintendent task force on anti-semitism, racism, and hate speech had a a meeting a few weeks ago. It was a very long meeting uh cathartic in some ways about all the different things that are going on and people are experiencing. Uh we had to clarify some points that many of the members of the committee were not aware about
018with how discipline works in public schools. Um and what some of the things actions we have taken already. Um the consensus was that the committee need to split up and address some sub issues um not do all these at once. So the subgroups are broken down into anti-semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and othering. Those are the four subgroups. So next week on June 11th, the anti-semitism subgroup will be meeting uh on the on June 25th. Uh that'll be an email will be going to that uh subgroup shortly. They will have the meeting of the Islamophobia group. uh the racism group will probably go into July and also for the othering group will probably be July depending on how many people would be available for those meetings and those will all be held in this room. Thank you.
019And is it safe to say we would still take other people for those subcommittees? Yes, we had over 90 people from the community volunteer. Uh so we're going to reach out there 42 people on the governing group. They split off. We're going to reach out to the other members of the uh the other folks that volunteered to be on the uh the committee in general to see if they'd be interested in joining any of the subgroups. Perfect. Thank you so much. All right. Items for board discussion. Uh the armed guard survey. So, as you know, we did a survey of staff um and it was determined amongst the board after that that we thought it would be good to branch that out to families within the district. So, that survey is ready to roll. Um
020going out tomorrow, more than likely. Yes. Yes. And it'll it goes to uh parents and households of uh students within the in the district. Uh that means if it's a split household, if the parent lives out of district, they get a a version of it, too. It's going to be done through our infant campus system so we can track uh responses and not allow for more than one response. Perfect. So, look for that tomorrow and then it'll be due back by the 12th. The results will be tallied and we will have them for our next board meeting two weeks from tonight. And that brings us to our cell phone committee, Dr. Scandan. Yes. So, if you were not aware, the governor's proposal was adopted by the state legislature for a cell phone ban. And it's
021not just for cell phones themselves. It's also for any internet enabled devices including smartwatches and any other devices other than devices that are issued to uh the students within the district from the district itself. Now, um we have to convene a committee representing all the different constituencies within the district. That committee actually is meeting tomorrow in this room. uh to discuss um the potential versions of the policy that came from our attorneys and make any recommendations in some of the subcategories of how it is addressed, how the cell phones will be addressed. Right now, our current policy uh does not permit cell phones in elementary. This was changed for this year. The junior high schools limited the uh use of cell phones. The high school limited partially uh but now it's a complete ban. It's
022a bell-to-bell ban. That means from the start of the school day to the end of the school day. It does not mean before the start of uh classes in day and doesn't mean after school. They can use them at those times. Um uh some districts have been purchasing devices to store the the uh cell phones. When we have the committee meeting tomorrow, we will discuss those possibilities. Uh that would not be a recommendation coming from the administration due to the the costs associated with this. We've sort of had the test body of this with the junior high schools so far this year. It's been going very well with how students have reacted to this. It's certainly reduced the amount amount of instances of issues with cell phone use from the beginning of the year to
023now. Um so one major piece we cannot suspend students for violations of this policy. So once it's adopted and it must be adopted by August 1st. Um and it must be communicated to the entire community multiple times before the start of school and even after school starts. And then one year from August uh from September, sorry, September 1st of 2026, we have to have data produced to the state on the number of instances of issues with cell phones. So that's part of the requirement uh with this uh with this regulation now. So it's a so we'll be going through that. The cell phone committee will make a recommendation to the code of conduct committee meeting uh committee which will rec have to reconvene and that committee will make a recommendation to the board of education
024on a policy change um which again we must have put into place for August 1st. Thank you. Any questions about that? Okay. Thank you. Uh one other thing we want to circle back on um which we had mentioned at our last meeting that we do have a vacant board seat. Um as was presented to us by our legal council. We basically are left with three options at that point. We could do nothing and ride it out with six people um for the entire school year next year. We could appoint somebody or we could hold a special election. Special elections are very expensive. So there was zero appetite on the board for that. Um writing it out seems complicated. We are as you hear at every meeting going through a lot right now. A lot of
025very important decisions, significant decisions. The community deserves to have seven people sitting up here. So we felt that was important. So we are inclined at this point to look to um appoint somebody uh at our reorganizational meeting July 1st. It is our hope that we might be able to find a a somebody who has already served on the board and has that experience. So stay tuned and we will uh move forward with those plans July 1st. And that takes us now to our public comment period. Do we have no just the one? Okay. So we have one to be read aloud. Dear members of the board, I'm writing to continue to draw your attention to exploring possible enrichment possibilities for rising fourth graders who would have been otherwise enrolled in the now canceled fourth grade
026IG program next year. In thinking about these, I urge you to consider not only how many students you may influence, but also how deeply you might affect them. While seeing an hour of STEM a week certainly informs all the students of these fields, a more intensive or more extensive enrichment could be truly transformative for an individual student. If the school does not challenge an individual student sufficiently, the student may never learn the importance of hard work and the joy of success at the highest level they are individually capable of. I hope the board find ways for all students to develop the best they can. Sincerely, Samuel Guski and we thank you for that letter and we will did we have anything we wanted to comment on with that? Yes, I think we'll uh once we
027have the uh project course project approvals from Dr. RCA he may be able to comment a little further on developments with the STEM perfect courses for fourth grade that we're doing. Sounds great. Okay, so that brings us to section 10. We have our added item 10A. Mr. Mistki, that is the uh agreement uh to provide defense and identification uh as discussed in executive session. Okay. Do we see a motion to approve that? Second. Second. All in favor? No opposed? No abstension. So that is approved. Thank you. And that takes us now to our consent agenda. Do I see a motion? Second. All right. And we will begin with B. Miss Jano. Uh B through D are just the minutes from the past three meetings. April 30th, May 13th, May 20th, 2025. And then E is
028the approval of change day of the organizational meeting. We originally had it for July 8th. It's for education law. It's usually the first Tuesday of um July, so we're going to change it for um July 1st. Thank you. And beginning with F, Mr. Carlson. Uh thank you. Uh item uh F is a corrective action plan for our uh internal auditors um special education uh review. Uh as you know, we have three uh separate independent CPA firms that audit uh us uh on a continual basis. We have our external auditor. We have our internal claims audit which um audits our annual financial statements uh and makes the report to the board annually. We have the internal claims auditor which audits every single uh dispersement we make. And then we have the internal auditor uh three separate
029CPA firms. The internal auditor reviews different areas. Um, and sometimes on their own they'll pick an area, sometimes they'll ask us what what we think might be a good area for them to look at. Uh, so they had reviewed the special education department mainly in regard to um uh budgeting and and staffing and uh so they had uh a couple of recommendations. Uh one is uh in regard to the budgeting for uh psychological uh psychologists uh guidance and social workers and um as as we know in in recent years bless you there have been there's been an increase in the need for so in especially uh in the years 21 2021 22 22 23 and 23 24 each of those years we've had to add um staff in in those areas for various reasons. and
030in in each of those years staff that we hadn't previously budgeted for. Um so that was a a comment on theirs. Uh another was on the uh staffing in regard to uh onetoone staffing. So this is the corrective action plan that we sent to the state education department uh saying what we'll be um what we'll be doing with this report and changes we'll make. Uh the next item uh is G and H are transportation services. Uh G is our large buses. Uh there's two separate contract. Well, actually there's five separate contracts, but it's broken down into two areas. Large buses, which includes uh the school year is one. Uh athletics and field trips, that's on big buses. And then on mini buses, it's uh school year and summer uh broken down separately. So on transportation
031contracts, we are um permitted to extend contracts one year at a time. It cannot be above the annual increase in the uh consumer price index. Um and it's the one that the state education department uses for the year ended each May. Uh so we don't know what it will be for this coming up year. That actually number will come out next week sometime. But that is uh that's the most we highest uh increase we can put in a transportation contract is that CPI increase and it has to be agreed upon by both the bus company and by the district. Um and the 99.9% of the time it's in our interest to yes we would like to unless we're unhappy with the service we would be happy to extend at CPI uh because what what we
032we know is going to be happen if for no other reason than the electric vehicle mandate that's coming is there will come a time when the bus company says we can't we can't renew we can't extend at CPI and we'll have to do a request proposals at that time. Um we we're not looking forward to that. Not because we don't like doing an RFP, uh but because we know that's going to um cause a large increase. Um we saw during um uh COVID uh actually if you remember March, if it was a Friday, March 13th, 2020 is when uh the governor, that was our last day of school. We were closed the rest of the year. and a number of districts what they did is said is they said we're not going to pay to
033our bus company because you're not providing services to us so we're not going to pay. So, um, fortunately for us, we have, uh, uh, our Chris Mistki, uh, who had had Sage advice. Um, and when and what that would have caused and for the districts that did do that by saying, "We're not paying you because you're not providing transportation," it was a short-term savings. However, that meant breaking their contract. And so when it came time to start providing transportation again that September, they had to do new RFPs and they had to award new contracts. And there are districts all around us that saw 20 25 30% increases in transportation because of that because of that short-term savings. And uh Chris's, you know, I I you know, he's heard me say before, his his brilliance in
034doing this was to say, "Well, if we don't get transportation aid on what we're paying you because of this time, you'll have to pay us that money." And the and the bus company was happy to do that. And as it turned out, the state said, "We're not paying transportation aid on a portion of that time." And and we got that money back. So, it really worked out well for us. Um, so as long as we can keep going at that CPI, that's in in orange. So our recommendation tonight is to um to um extend the contract for a year at CPI. Again, I don't know what that number will be. It will be out next week. It's established by the uh state education department. So that's that's items G and H. Uh the next item
035I is donations. We have a number of donations. Um, first is uh a check for $2,000 from the Suffach County Chapter of the New York State School Facilities Association to the Ward Mobile Scholarship Fund. Uh, we have a $900 donation from Mr. John F to the Jodi F uh scholarship fund. Uh, $500 from the Three Village Bunny Bri Brigade uh to be used for seniors needing assistance with prom uh costs or yearbook purchases. a check for $7,750 from the Ward Mobile High School Fishing Club to the uh scholarship fund. A check for $200 from Miss uh Elizabeth Farice to the uh scholarship fund. A check for $500 from uh Miss Tammy White to the scholarship fund. a check for $6,000 from the Society for Science, Science, and Regeneron to the uh school district in recognition
036of our three scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search uh to be used to support excellence in science, math, and engineering education at W Melville and a donation of $10,000 from the SUFFK transportation uh service unrelated to their contract. Uh what they do every year is they give a $1,000 annual scholarship donation plus they give $1,000 for each of our uh athletic teams that um uh win a section 11 championship. So this represents the teams from LA spring of 2024 and the fall and winter of this school year. So that's uh $10,000 from them. That's the donations. And then my last item is uh surplus equipment. We have some um uh ovens from the uh Murphy family consumer science room and then a whole list of IT equipment uh from our technology department. Uh this
037is all end of life uh stuff and any useful parts uh have been uh stripped from that. Thank you. Any questions about any of those items? All right. Item K, Dr. Biscari. Uh yes. This is just a updated roster provided by New York State for impartial impartial hearing officers for this school year. Um L's going to be an approval of administrative interns. We have two uh that are going to begin over the summer. Um the affiliation agreement with Marrist is for uh their clinical placements as well as Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare. And O are the curriculum writing projects that were proposed and approved by our CDC. uh one of which is that fourth grade steam class. Um so what we're trying to do is uh make sure that it is enriching for
038all fourth graders. Um it is going to be an application uh and project based learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math. And we're looking to also include a uh individual um research project for each of our fourth graders also. So this will give them their first um formal uh research project that they'll do and it'll be varied by interest and and by ability. Uh but every fourth grader will have the opportunity to have an individual research project where they can present those to the classes as well. So we're looking to make it as enriching as possible. Um in some cases it just being in a different context for our students. It's enriching uh the fact that it's project based learning and kids are hands-on and they're doing um you know uh various
039science experiments and manipulation of things. Uh we saw students in the past in the STEM program really shine. Uh both our advanced learners and some and some who would uh otherwise have some struggles in a traditional classroom setting. uh it really shed a light on the fact that providing this alternative context for them uh with hands-on activities it was enriching. So we're we're looking to make it as enriching is as enriching as possible uh with the understanding that you know we'll make revisions uh you know after the year is up to see if if there are other things we could be providing. Thank you. I think that's great and I know the research project was a really cherished part of the idea program so I think that's fantastic. Any questions about any of those items?
040Okay, thank you so much. Um, that brings us to P, recommendations of the committee on special education subcommittee and 504 accommodation plan meetings as dated and Q, recommendations of the committee on preschool special education meetings as dated. And beginning with R, Dr. Dreski. Yes, our personal items instructional. Uh, we continue to uh receive instructional retirements. Uh, one director, one teacher, one teaching assistant. Uh we continue to receive instructional resignations. Uh we have two leaves of absence, one instructional appointment for a teacher, three instructional sub appointments for substitute teachers, as well as additional class assignments and several hourly and daily extra class assignments for 2425 and coming up in 2526. S personnel items non-instructional. Uh we have five non-instructional resignations. uh one leave of absence, one non-instructional appointment of food service worker, three non-instructional changes of
041status, four non-instructional substitute appointments, and we have summer um we have community swim and summer reading appointments, several appointments to the summer wreck program, and several non-instructional appointments for the extended school year program. T approval of the 2526 non-aligned salary schedule for the non-instructional employees. Uh these were the salaries and the positions that we discussed in executive session uh two weeks ago. Uh these include the part-time non-instructional employees such as the um subclerical subcustodial um lifeguards, summer employees such as summer reckoning in the extended school year. Um, U, V, W, X, and Y are all the contracts of agreement that were provided for you in our Friday memo of all the confidential secretaries who are associated with our assistant superintendent and human resources office. And Z is the contract of agreement for our district clerk.
042Thank you so much. Any questions? Yes, please. I would like to formally thank all the confidential clericals and our district clerk for their support of the district by taking a 0% increase for next year as well. It was shows your commitment to the district and truly the understanding we could not do our jobs without any of you and that includes anger here as our district clerk. Yes, thank you very much. It is a tremendous contribution. We do appreciate it. All right. All in favor of the items in our consent agenda. Any opposed? No abstensions. Okay. Were you you're opposed? No, you're in support. Okay. Okay. Sorry, I was a little quick there. All right. That being said, do I see a motion to adjurnn? Second. Second. All in favor? No opposed? No abstensions. Thank you
043everybody. Enjoy the evening.